The Unrecorded Elephant
Successful Selous safari, but for…
A FRENCH CLIENT, Philippe Moritz, booked a safari with me to hunt a big elephant with a “beautiful pair of long tusks”. He knew n ot hing about record books or the magical hundred-p ou nder elephant.
Prior to his safari, I had met Philippe during a visit to Pari s.h e invited my wife and me to stay with him and offered to show us around the city. Philippe was a remarkable man. Durin II he’d been a pilot in the Royal Air Force and had flown one of the Pathfinders prior to the bombing mission to blow up the Mohne and Eder dams in Germany. Special ‘bouncing’ bombs had to be built to accomplish the task. This was the most spectacular bombing raid of the war, as recorded in Paul Brickhill’s book The Dam Busters and a movie of the same title.
Philippe was also a concert pianist and an Olympic swimmer.
Philippe and his wife, Jacqueline, did a 28-day safari in the Selous where I had booked one of the best elephant blocks on the Mbarangando River. He had previously hunted in West Africa and shot most species including elephant. He told me his largest tusks were fifty-pounders, so I mentioned the possibility of finding a hundred-pounder in the Selous. Philippe brought his Holland & Holland boltaction .375 takedown model and a .465 H&H double, both originals. During our stay in Paris, Philippe had shown us 16mm cine films of his previous safaris. He insisted that all his hunts be recorded on film. For
their Selous safari, Jacqueline brought a beautiful Bell & Howell 16mm cine camera.
On their first day, I had to persuade Philippe to shoot some camp meat. Initially, he was reluctant in case it frightened away the elephants. He was surprised to see how relaxed the Selous elephant were. Where he’d hunted in West Africa, the elephant were skittish and hid in dense thickets during the day, seldom being seen in the open. He said if you fired a shot, the elephant would leave the area and you would have to search for them over many miles. Presumably they had been very heavily hunted.
Philippe also queried why we did not go out before dawn to look for tracks. I explained that, where elephant are not disturbed, they usually drink during the hottest part of the day, hence we would check the waterholes between 11am and 3pm. I explained that the old bulls, which carried the largest ivory, did not associate with cow herds and usually drank at different watering places.
We spent the first few days checking the numerous waterholes to determine where the bulls were drinking. They often used seepage sites on hillsides or in dry riverbeds where they had dug for water. It became apparent that several bulls were drinking at the same place at different times. Usually the old bulls were accompanied by one or more young askari bulls.
We waited at these spots, and if the bulls’ tusks were too small or thin we’d pass them up and move on to the next waterhole. Many times Philippe wanted to shoot, but I explained that these were small-bodied bulls with very thin tusks. He became frustrated when I passed up bulls he thought were quite adequate.
Each time we saw bulls approaching, or found them already drinking, I first had to position Jacqueline with the camera where she could film Philippe shooting the elephant. I explained that if we decided to shoot, I would give her the thumbs-up sign to start filming.
Old bulls, which carried the largest ivory, did not associate with cow herds and usually drank at different watering places
AFTER HUNTING FOR about a week, we approached a waterhole to find three bulls drinking. One had long tusks weighing around seventy pounds; Philippe was delighted when I told him he should take this elephant. He had two elephant licences, so if we found a bigger one, he could shoot that too. By this time, I had taught my tracker, Kisengi, to guide Jacqueline into a position behind us so she could film the stalk. We waited for the elephant to finish drinking and move well out of the vicinity of the waterhole, and then we followed.
When we caught up with the bulls, they had stopped feeding and were standing in the shade of a big tree. The largest bull was nearest us, the other two being on the far side of the tree. The breeze was blowing strongly in our favour and we were able to approach using small bushes as cover. When we were about thirty paces from the elephant, I told Jacqueline to start filming our approach and any action which followed. Philippe and I then moved to within twenty paces of the elephant. Looking back I saw that Jacqueline was filming with Kisengi standing next to her.
As the elephant was standing broadside, I urged Philippe to take a side brain-shot as he had done on his previous elephants. We rose slowly from our crouched position behind a bush and Philippe took quick aim and fired. The elephant went down nose first and rolled over onto its side, so I knew Philippe had missed the brain. Just then the elephant began rising to its feet so I told Philippe to shoot again. His second shot brained it.
Immediately, the two younger bulls approached and tried to get the fallen bull up onto its feet. We backed off to a safe distance and began shouting at them and clapping our hands. Eventually they moved off.
Jacqueline approached smiling and said she had filmed all the action thanks to Kisengi, who had moved her position from time to time so that she always had a clear view of us and the elephant. The tusks were a beautiful, long, matched pair that weighed close to eighty pounds.
ABOUT A WEEK later, while looking for kudu, we passed a waterhole in the dry riverbed and I was somewhat surprised to see a lone elephant bull leaving the drinking spot. It was well past midday and most elephant had already departed the waterholes. A closer look revealed the bull to have large, matching tusks – longer and with more weight toward the tips than Philippe’s first bull. I estimated this could be a hundred-pounder and urged that Philippe use his second licence to bag it. We left the vehicle and followed the elephant along the riverbed. I wanted the bull to leave the river so that we could shoot him well away from any waterholes.
After we’d followed for about half a mile, Kisengi said the elephant was probably heading for a large game trail that crossed the riverbed, and would then leave the river to take the trail on our side. As the wind was favourable we decided move ahead and wait for him at the trail. As we passed the bull, I took Jacqueline closer so she could film him walking along the riverbed. I had my camera with me, so I also took a photo.
Hurriedly, I positioned Jacqueline with her camera and told Kisengi to keep moving her so she could film the elephant and Philippe in the same frame. Philippe and I then waited next to the trail about fifty yards from the river. The elephant appeared and headed towards the bank where we were waiting so I signalled for Jacqueline to start filming. Kisengi gave me the thumbs-up to indicate all was well.
The bull soon came up onto the bank about thirty yards away and made its way slowly along the trail towards us. Once again I checked the tusks. They were long and heavy, and almost perfectly matched. The working tusk was slightly worn at the tip.
We were positioned behind a large fallen tree about fifteen paces from the trail. Philippe slipped the safety off and held his double ready. As the bull passed us, Philippe fired and the elephant’s hind quarters collapsed, indicating a successful brain-shot. Jacqueline was still filming but soon came running up to say she had recorded all the action perfectly. She finished off by filming the handshakes and Philippe standing proudly next to his trophy. We returned to camp and Kisengi took the crew to remove the tusks. I was sitting in my tent, having left Philippe and Jacqueline having a drink in the mess tent. Suddenly I heard Philippe bellowing at Jacqueline who was sobbing and whimpering. I hurried over to find Philippe cursing Jacqueline who was sitting with her face in her hands. As I entered the tent Philippe turned to me and shouted, “She forgot to put film in the camera!”
I checked the tusks. They were long and heavy, and almost perfectly matched. The working tusk was slightly worn at the tip
APPARENTLY, THE PREVIOUS evening, Jacqueline had removed the fully exposed film from the camera and put it in its container. She then went to her tent to get a new film. Somehow she had been distracted and never returned to load the camera. In the morning, she had picked up the camera and put it in the hunting car, forgetting to load the new film.
Philippe was even more upset when I told him the largest tusk weighed just over 100lbs. “My beautiful unrecorded elephant,” was all he could say.
ALLIANT’S ORIGINS AS a gunpowder manufacturer can be traced back more than 125 years to the Dupont Company. Dupont’s divestiture in 1912 created the Hercules Power Company as an independent entity, and eventually resulted in Alliant, one of America’s well-known gunpowder manufacturers.
We recently tested a container of Reloder 10X (RE10X). The label on the plastic bottle states that the powder is manufactured in Sweden. RE10X is rated as slightly faster-burning than S335 and suited for light bullets in the .222 Rem, .223 Rem, .22-250 Rem and most bench rest calibres and small calibre varmint loads. It is also recommended for lighter bullets in the .308 Win, and provides reloading data for 125gr, 150gr and 165gr bullets. A reloading manual is available online and can be used while online or downloaded to your phone, tablet or computer.
As I use 155gr A-MAX bullets with 42gr S335 for 2 745fps in my .308 for testing scopes, I decided to develop a load to replicate this very accurate combination. Having used up most of my S335 anyway, my aim was to develop a load with RE10X to achieve the same velocity as my tried-andtested recipe by employing the same brass, primer, bullet and seating depth.
According to Alliant’s reloading manual, the suggested optimum load for the Speer 150gr SP is 39.5gr, for a muzzle velocity of 2 755fps, which is only 10fps off my ‘old’ S335 load. As I’m using a slightly heavier bullet and a 28-inch barrel, I dropped the start load by 0.5gr and loaded the first batch with 39gr RE10X. Colleague André Grobler fired the first 5-shot group; the cold bore printed slightly lower than the next three that were touching, and the last shot went 2cm wide. The combination’s average muzzle velocity was 2 754fps. The lighter load delivering the same velocity confirmed a faster burn-rate than S335 (39gr RE10X vs 42gr S335). Extreme spread (ES), which included the first cold bore shot, was 19fps. The ES recorded over 10 shots during another range session was only 11fps. For comparison, my S335 load (which delivers similar sized groups at 100m) showed an average ES of 39fps over 10 shots. For this exercise both these loads were done by hand and measured to the last granule.
Testing the same 10X combination during several range sessions, I consistently achieved 3-shot, one-hole groups at 100m under varying weather conditions. I also scored first-round hits on gongs out to 582m. I fired a 4-shot group measuring only .58MOA at 502m. I was lucky to get much the same muzzle velocity and accuracy with the first load I tried.
Alliant claims that their powders perform uniformly under varying temperatures, so I measured the velocity of these loads on a bitterly cold winter’s morning. After leaving the ammo and rifle outdoors for 40 minutes in temperatures varying from 0° and 3°C, I fired the first five shots at 3°C, which averaged 2 720fps. I then placed the rifle in the shade, and as the morning warmed up, fired a 5-shot string at 11°C which clocked 2 749fps, then another at 25°C clocking 2 754fps. Average velocities therefore altered by 1.55fps per 1°C between ambient temperatures ranging from 3° to 25°. However, this change is not linear, given that between 11° and 25° the velocity difference was only 0.36fps per 1°C. Over the spread of 22°C, the velocity difference was 34fps, but only 5fps between 11° and 25°. According to my ballistic app, at 500m the MRAD elevation settings at 3°, 11° and 25°C will change from 3.6 to 3.5 and finally to 3.4 respectively.
Alliant states that Re16 is one of their most stable temperature specific powders, and given the exemplary performance of RE10X, I plan to test Re16 to verify this claim.
With extruded powder, metering is sometimes a problem, but the 10X granules performed well in my Lyman #55 powder-measure, metering more consistently than Vihtavuori N540 and S335 over 30 loads. However, it really shined in the Frankford Arsenal Intellidropper automatic powder measure. I loaded 80 rounds by weighing each load on my own electronic scale (to the second decimal), and 78 of the loads showed less than 0.05gr variation. This is good news if you want the most consistent muzzle velocity without weighing each load by hand.
Overall, RE10X impressed; it’s a quality product with a consistent burn rate and is easy to use. RE10X, which retails for R670 (454g bottle) will now remain my go-to propellant for my .308. For stockists, contact Formalito on 012-664-7793.