Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Africa W.D.M. Karamojo Bell - Swedish Drill?

Headed out the door right now and will be at the Bozeman Gun Show all weekend.

I looked for the reference last night, and will do my best to find it when I get back.

If I remember correctly the idea is to use the fingers to manipulate the bolt while leaving the shooting hand in a position close to the grip. Takes some practice with the cock on closing Swede Mauser.

Get back on this Sunday evening.

His point was, if you are going to hunt carry your own dam rifle

Brilliant chap, eh?

I would suspect that in the areas where Bell did his hunting, the atmpsphere was drier than a Graham cracker fart so even corrosive priming had nearly 0% humidity to suck water from. Cleaning wouldn't be a daily necessity after even a lot of shooting under those conditions.

actually he did a fair amount of hunting in places like Liberia, the Belgian Congo and other parts of rainforest Africa as alot of very big ivory was held there up through the 1970's....but those forests are also where he quit using the 7x57 and went to the 318 cause the bullets didnt bend like the 6.5 and 7's occasionally did and started advising hunters less experienced than him to carry a heavy double.....

I kin spel butt kant tipe gud, 'specially on my smartass phone.

Smartass phone?

I have a smarts computer.


Its why my posts usually end up the way they do.


Its not me.


Really.


My computer went self-aware in 2010....

dry firing is easily accomplished during the evening news...

And he was right on both accounts. However if you're talking about double rifles, a prudent man would use a snap cap. On a Mauser action, snap away; you ain't gonna kill it.

As for bore cleaning, the only concern back then was drawing in of moisture. Many primers were mercuric back in his time, and would foul a bore in 24 hours. Absent a mercuric primer, there's very little in the way of worries.

Did we ever reach a consensus on the meaning of 'Swedish Drill'?

Good one, RevMike!

I can relate.

Swedish Drills were the earliest well-known form of 'calisthenics', i.e. basic, easy-to-do exercises, which just used the inertia of your body weight to get fit. They were originally developed by Swedish Landowners to increase the strength and effectiveness of agricultural workers, but were widely practised by the British Army during the 1st World War.

However, the variation that I think Bell is referring to, is when you use the inertia of your rifle as a weight to help strengthen your arms & shoulders, and hence improve your ease & stamina in handling your weapon.

This was still being done in the British military in the 1980s when I was a soldier (with the FN Browning rifle), and was normally called 'pokey drill'. The toughest exercises always involved holding the weapon at arms length with one or both arms, and then manipulating it (twisting/rotating etc.).

The huge advantage of Swedish drill is that you can do it any time, anywhere, including in the field.

So far as I can tell, Bell was the first man to use the term "Swedish drill" to describe what he was doing with his rifles.

As mentioned elsewhere, it was a popular term for calisthenics in the early part of the 20th Century.

https://simplycharlottemason.com/store/swedish-drill-teacher/

I think it just amused him to adopt the phrase.

Did he have a girlfriend of Nordic descent?