Quentin Grogan
Grogan came out to British East Africa in 1905 and started hunting in The Lado Enclave in 1907. He was the brother of the famous Col. Ewart S Grogan
who walked from the Cape to Cairo between 1898 – 1899. Grogan was very interested in trying out calibers against elephant some suitable and others
more controversial like the .256 Mannlicher and the .280 Ross. He also tried the. 450 NE but finally settled on a .318 Westley Richards and a .577 WR
both of which he used until the end of his days as an Ivory Hunter. He shot between 250 and 300 elephant.
Commander Longden
In 1909 Longden went to The Lado Enclave, right from the start he got excellent trophies his best was an enormous elephant with tusks of 141 and 139 pounds
which he shot in 1911. He once wounded an elephant which charged him and was unable to stop it with the 450 NE he was using. The elephant caught him and
began to batter him, and his gun bearer managed to kill it with a brain shot from the .318 Westley Richards. He was in a critical state and so carried across the
Nile to the post of Wadelai where he died. He shot between 60 – 70 elephant.
D. D. Lyell
Dennis D. Lyell in his book The African Elephant and its Hunters 1924 writes ‘if I was going back to hunt in Africa I would buy a couple of .318 Mauser Action
Magazine Rifles, for I believe this is a perfect size as an all round rifle and notwithstanding the critics who have not always had practical experience as a backing
to their opinions, I am no believer in heavy rifles which are usually somewhere in the rear when most wanted’.
James H. Sutherland
In a chapter in his book The Adventures Of An Elephant Hunter Sutherland gives a brief summary of the rifles he used. At the start of his activities in Mozambique
in 1898 he used .303 Military Rifle, later a Mauser 10.75 mm, .450, .500 NE....He bought a .577 NE and .318 Magazine Rifle from Westley Richards.
Once Sutherland began to use .577 and .318 he never felt the need for any other rifles. Sutherland shot between 1,300 and 1,600 elephants.
C. H. Stigand
.256 Mannlicher and .318 WR magazine rifle for his elephant and other DG hunting.
J.A. Hunter (1887-1963)
known as the first "White Hunter" arrived in Kenya from his native Scotland in 1908.Joined the Safari outfitters Leslie & Tarlton and thereafter spent his entire life as a
Professional Hunter in East Africa. He used several rifles including .416 Rigby, 500 Nitro Express and 505 Gibbs. held several world records for Big Game at various
times, and lead a group that killed 1000 rhinos in a single year in Kenya.
Col. John Henry Patterson, (man-eaters of Tsavo)
.303cal Lee Enfield sporter and .450/400 SxS
Jim Corbett (man-eaters of Kumaon)
.275 bore Rigby mauser and .450/400 SxS
All that is great, but we forget an important issue for all hunters in Africa 100+ years ago. The availability and the cost of ammo dictated what they could use. Nitro Express rounds used in doubles have always been pricey. Most of these guys that were ivory hunters were not wealthy landed aristocrats. If they had been, they would have stay in England and lived on their estates, meaning they had to watch their money. Next, the distribution and availability of ammo in various calibers was spotty. Ordering and restocking was slow. Orders went to England by boat, and the order retruned by boat.
Point is they often used what was available. After the Boer War and WWI, 7 x 57 Mauser (AKA .275 Rigby) as well as .303 both with FMJ were readily available. These guys used them, had success, and marched on. Rifles were cheap, as was the ammo.
