I was perhaps 16 when I read Wilbur Smith's A Time to Die. Sean Courtney was cool but I was never going to be a professional hunter living in suburban Sydney. I thought old Capo was the man of the moment. Riccardo Monterro carried the short, ugly, double-barrelled rifle chambered for the powerful .577 Nitro Express. The ultimate banduki for hunting ndlovu.
Capo had that superstitious ritual of his, the changing of cartridges that he always performed at the beginning of a hunt. He’d opened the breech of his double and slide the fat brass cartridges out of the chambers, changing them for two others from the loops on his jacket. Quite inspiring for a wannabe dangerous game hunter.
And then, into my life came Baroness Karen von Blixen’s epic recount of her life in British East Africa, now Kenya. Her leading man, famous ivory hunter Denys Finch Hatton carried a Charles Lancaster .450 (3¼”) Nitro Express double rifle; another wonderful piece of African Big Game hunting history.
These wonderful rifles, built foremost with reliability in mind and tremendous power to kill the largest game that roamed the earth were designed for close quarters hunting and effectively equipped the hunter with two single shot rifles in one stock.
A double rifle is built for the hunter, and while admire marksmanship at extreme range as much as the next bloke, the true hunt starts from when we pick up spoor and we track and we track and we find warm dung and fresh evidence of feeding. When you can smell an animal and hear its movement through the bush, then one has truly hunted. Hunting is far more enjoyable than assassination at 500 yards.
In 2002, I traveled to London and visited all of the famous gun makers with my fiancée (now wife). It was beautiful. And it was clear that this was serious business and business I could not afford to get involved with. Bugger.
Having spent some time looking over the years it has become clear that an ordinary bloke with some commitment can put himself in a position of owing a Blaser, Sabatti, Chapius, Merkel, Kreighoff, Heym, Searcy, Verney Carron or perhaps even an Australian built Alex Beer & Co? I guess it’s a matter of priorities.
I was considering these priorities the other day having had a favourable response from the taxman recently. An ordinary bloke’s double was within reach without to much impact on the bottom line. Then I saw that Ruger had started chambering the No.1 in that old classic I talked about in my last post – the .450/400 3” Nitro Express. Tough decision. A double or a - single???
What it has come down to is hunting. I would love to enter the world of the nitro express now, but at this point, while my legs are strong and my family is willing, surely it makes more sense to live some of the old world experiences while I can, and while they let us? Bloody protectionists.
So I ordered the .450/400 3” Nitro Express. There will be the business of fitting a scope in QD mounts, procuring some brass from old Bruce and getting this thing to shoot straight. All good fun. The double will come in good time.
And I’m looking at opportunities to hunt ndlovu sooner rather than later.
As Damon McCartney, the doyen of doubles once wrote:
“If I die today I have had a life well spent,
for I have been to see the elephant,
and smelled the smoke of Africa.”
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