GIRAFFE FEVER, TREATED WITH A 10.75X68 MAUSER REMEDY
All this warhorse needs to shine is good ammunition.
All this warhorse needs to shine is good ammunition.
DANIE GROBLER
In August 2020, during Covid-19 lockdown, I received a message on our .404 Jeffery WhatsApp group about a beautiful 10,75x68 Mauser custom rifle. It was up for sale and included an RCBS die set, along with a significant number of RWS and Stewart cases. An RCBS Berdan primer decapping tool and 150 old Kynoch cartridges also formed part of the package.
Built on a Swedish Mauser action made by Husqvarna, and fitted with an original octagonal Mauser barrel, the rifle also sported a truly beautiful Claro walnut (Juglans hindsii) stock. Before WWII, Husqvarna built many sporters using surplus Mauser 98 actions, as well as commercial Fabrique Nationale (FN) actions. To make a long story short, I bought the rifle.
SOME BACKGROUND ON THE 10,75
The 10,75x68 Mauser is the smaller brother of the .404 Jeffery (or 10,75x73 in the metric system) but the largest Mauser calibre designed by the Oberndorf factory. The former hosts a very different case, with a much smaller volume (95 grains of water) than that of the .404 Jeffery (113 grains of water).
The 10,75x68 Mauser was designed with this smaller case so that it could be accommodated in a standard-length Mauser action, compared to the .404, many of which were originally built on Magnum Mauser actions. However, both are of .423” calibre, allowing for a much wider range of modern bullet selection and availability.
The first 10,75x68 rifle was included in Jon Speed’s serial number list (Mauser, Original Oberndorf Sporting Rifles, Collector Grade Publications, 1997) in the year 1908. The serial number on the barrel and action of my rifle indicates manufacture during 1930/31. I recently noticed an interesting fact regarding the accuracy of the .423”-calibre rifles built by Mauser on page 90 of Speed’s book. Under the heading “Mauser Sporter Accuracy Tests”, the table of information showed that the .404 Jeffery and 10,75x68 Mauser rifles respectively achieved five-shot group sizes of 5,9 cm and 6,39 cm from 100 m with iron sights. These phenomenal results were derived from eleven 10,75 and five .404 rifles (see accompanying table on the left).
EARLY FAILURES AND RELOADING RECIPES
Original Mauser-built .404 Jeffery sporting rifles are very scarce and expensive today. In comparison, the 10,75x68 Mausers are more plentiful but less desirable due to various factors, as highlighted in an article by Johan van Wyk in the KOLSKOOT special edition of SA JAGTER/HUNTER recently. It was mainly seen as a poor performer in the hunting fields of old due to penetration failure of the old cartridges, loaded with very poor-quality German bullets. Therefore, John “Pondoro” Taylor was erroneously very vocal about the poor performance of this calibre in his hunting books.
A further detraction was the relatively early discontinuation of ammunition production by most major cartridge manufacturers. Obtaining cartridges and reloading components remains a rather tedious undertaking but is not impossible. Bertram still produces cases, while Claw and Woodleigh produce 347-350grain bullets that work very well in this calibre.
The fact that I got reloading components and the RCBS die set with the rifle made things much easier. All I had to do was get some reloading data for the 350-grain Claw bullets I recently purchased.
Things became more complicated from then on as I got the unexpected opportunity to hunt an aggressive old giraffe bull on a nearby Bushveld farm. Complications ensued when I decided on 400-grain Swift bullets rather than the 350-grain Claws. It gave me slightly more comfort to get closer to the performance of the .404 Jeffery I am used »
» to. I also intended to do the hunt with open sights.
I trimmed the Bertram cases to a length of 67,82 mm, resulting in a water volume of 95,2 grains. With only Norma 202 propellant available, I scrutinised Pierre van der Walt’s two publications on big-bore rifles as well as an article in the June 2008 edition of the Big Bore Journal .Intheend,Ihadtoget QuickLOAD data from a friend to confirm my selected loads. The result was a load of 56,5 grains of Norma 202 propellant, providing a muzzle velocity of 2 040 fps with the 400-grain Swift A-Frame bullets (see accompanying table on next page).
This load produced a mild 3 700 ft-lbs of energy with a cartridge length of 84 mm, which fed very smoothly in my rifle.
GIRAFFE FEVER
By this time, giraffe fever had taken a firm hold of us! We also
ec ded that my unting com
panion would back me up with my .404 Jeffery, as a wounded giraffe can easily crash through a game fence. Therefore, we needed to make sure that the animal was down in the shortest space of time. The mountainous terrain and dense vegetation after a good rainy season complicated matters even further.
On the first day of the hunt, I woke up with a serious headache. I immediately recognised the pain and realised I was having another bout of tick-bite fever. Nonetheless, my giraffe fever easily overpowered the tiny tick impediment.
However, the old “stink” bull was far wilier and quickly knew that something was amiss when we approached him on foot. During the first stalk, we managed to get within about 60 yards before spooking him. The thick vegetation at the foot of the hill where he had stood did not present a shot opportunity. We immediately realised that our approach should be much more careful than we had anticipated. The bull was definitely not going to stand and admire the ill-omened attention we were paying him, as we had initially expected. Giraffes are usually very inquisitive, but this one was clearly not born in a zoo!
A game of cat and mouse commenced from this moment on, despite the “blessed” tickbite fever that had me lying flat on my back in a dirt road once or twice during our approach. We bumped the bull several more times over the next few weeks. His standard reaction was to move uphill into very rocky terrain with dense vegetation, where we would have no chance of recovering any meat.
Eventually, we gave up; the bull was much too clever for us. We actually lost track of the giraffe and could not locate him within the large game-fenced area for several days. By now, I had at least recovered from the tick-induced fever, although the giraffe fever persisted!
On an unexpectedly cold morning in mid-April, we decided to look for kudu bulls on the unfenced part of the farm. Wikus, an old friend of mine, had since joined Brendan and me. While glassing the low-lying slopes of the hills outside the fenced area, I happened to spot the old giraffe bull halfway up a hill.
However, we continued our search for kudu for about two more hours before returning to this area. Our sudden return to giraffe hunting was mostly due to the low growling from two leopard at close quarters while Brendan and Wikus were stalking an impala ram. Back at the initial giraffe sighting location, we saw that the bull was slowly moving down the mountainside towards the flat-lying area beneath us.
We could not ignore this opportunity, and therefore returned to the game-fenced area. After a long and careful stalk, we managed to get into position in line with the direction we expected the bull to come from. By doing this, we hoped that he would move into the flat-lying area between the foot of the mountain and the game fence a few hundred metres away. A »
» light drifting wind became a concern, but there was little we could do about it. At least we managed to get into position within some dense vegetation.
We tried to position ourselves for any eventuality regarding the bull’s anticipated route, but in the end, he still surprised us. The dark-coloured “stink” bull appeared silently behind some large trees about 60 yards away when I first saw him. He was much closer to the foot of the hill than we had expected.
TAKING THE SHOT
We were all somewhat out of position. Carrying the .404 Jeffery, Brendan had to move around to get into a better shooting position. The bull immediately noticed the movement and stopped behind two large trees. He stood still for about five minutes, staring in our direction, before slowly starting up the mountain again. I motioned to
Brendan to leave the rest of us behind and quickly try and get into position for a shot with the more powerful .404 before the bull continued up the mountain.
The open-sighted .404 was loaded with a 400-grain Barnes TSX bullet and a 400-grain RWS full metal jacket (FMJ) “solid”. Brendan managed to get into position about 40 yards away from us when I heard the first shot. I expected the bull to move towards us, but once again, he did not follow the script. He turned in his tracks and moved down the slope, away from Wikus and me. I started running towards him when Brendan took the second shot with the FMJ bullet.
The giraffe continued down the slope and came into view between several large trees. At this moment, I nearly broke my ankle as I stepped on a hidden rock in the long grass. Fortunately, I managed to recover just in time to get a shot at the giraffe’s shoulder. I worked the bolt quickly and managed a second shot, at which the bull stumbled and went down. I ran up to the animal and gave it a final shot between the shoulder blades. It was probably unnecessary, but we were extremely glad the bull was down before reaching the game fence. At the end of the hunt, we all sat quietly next to the old guy, honouring the large tear that formed on his cheek.
Brendan’s first shot at about 80 yards was a low, full-frontal shot grazing the bottom of the heart. His second shot was sideon, with the FMJ smashing through both lungs just above the heart, slowing the bull down immediately. This allowed me enough time to recover from my stumbling. My first shot with the 400-grain Swift, also from about 80 yards, went straight through the heart by a stroke of luck during the ensuing chaos. My second shot, quartering-away as the bull started disappearing from view, also went through the chest cavity, damaging the lungs. We recovered Brendan’s Barnes TSX and my Swift bullet that ended up underneath the thick skin on the opposite side.
As expected, the penetration of the 400-grain Swift A-Frame bullet from the 10,75x68 was most impressive and should put Pondoro Taylor’s concerns to rest immediately.
The quality of modern gunpowder and bullet construction brings the performance of the 10,75x68 Mauser much closer to its revered .404 Jeffery brother. Many old hunters of yesteryear swore by it, and I would gladly add my name to that long list of believers. My only comment on the excellent performance of the Barnes TSX bullet from the .404 Jeffery is: “Barnes, Barnes, Barnes!” Need I say more?