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Safari Express rifle pic thread

BlueTrain

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I can handle a map and compass just fine. It's the electronic stuff that is over my head. But somehow things like mountain climbing and other sports seem almost artificial, like something George Plimpton would have done, although he never did things like that. For a real adventure, one could simply join the armed forces (George Plimpton did and was a tanker). For pure adventure, the Coast Guard probably offers the best chance. Of course, in the armed forces, you're doing whatever you're ordered to do and that might take the edge off the adventure part. Besides, you might get killed. So I guess your best bet is to go deer hunting during bow season.

The funny thing is, people have been saying for at least the last hundred years that everything has been conquered, everything has been discovered, everything has been done. All the excitement has gone out of life. Maybe nobody told Sasha Siemel that.
 

Renault

One Too Many
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I had supper one evening with Mr. Plimpton. At a banquet. About 1978 or 79. I hadnt a clue who he was so we didn't speak much. Other than pleasantries.

I think he appreciated it.
 

SurfGent

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I've been fairly confident in wilderness terrain. Of course I grew up with my Dad taking me camping. Even being in the ocean at a very young age I think instilled situational confidence and ecological awareness. The skills of not confusing the signaling nature gives you when you are in her grasp can sometimes go a very long way.
 

SurfGent

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article-0-1F49457E00000578-644_634x828.jpg
 

Renault

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Here's the rest of the story: http://www.sashasiemel.com/.

This man is probably best described as an "adventurer" above anything else, in the mold of Burnham. The photos on that website show him armed with everything from a spear to a double-rifle to a rifle with a bayonet, which to his mind was probably a perfectly logical combination. Adventurers are usually not modest people and apparently he eventually began writing stories for magazines like Argosy and even appearing in movies with the likes of Frank Buck. He was born in Latvia (not Lithuania) and spoke all the languages in the places he lived. He died somewhere just outside of Philadelphia.

I wonder if there are people doing things like that today? It seems ironic how you hear people saying that the world is more dangerous than it's ever been, yet nobody goes off and has adventures like those people, except for mountain climbing, hang gliding and white water canoeing, none of which seem the same. Lindberg flew the Atlantic in what he must have believed to be the best and most technologically advanced airplane he could obtain but today, people think it's an achievement to fly a solar powered airplane.

In photo gallery on that site. First photo top left. He is holding what appears to be a "Trapper" model 1892 Winchester., 16" bbl. Probably .44 WCF. I doubt it is an Spanish "El Tigre" copy because a vast amount of short barrel or what many refered to as "baby" models ended up down south!

Cool Photo!!!
 

BlueTrain

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When Winchester introduced their Trapper models something like 30 years ago, I thought they were something new. But I happened to see a very old one in a collection, so they were in fact produced a long time ago. I don't remember, however, which model it was that I saw but very likely an 1892. I thought it was even more interesting that he had a rifle with a fixed bayonet in a photo.

He apparently made a name for himself and appeared, as I think I mentioned, in a few movies, one of which was with Frank Buck before WWII entitled, I think, Jungle Menace. It's on YouTube but I haven't watched it. Clyde Beatty was also in a few movies as himself.
 

Renault

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Blue Train,
When Winchester reintroduced the trapper it was the Model 94. Available in several calibers. 30-30 and 45 colt come to mind.

My old Compadre I was raised with, has a "baby 73" that letters correct from the Cody museum. It has a 14" barrel and I believe dates from 1884 or 86. I don't remember now.

I do know the carbine came out of Mexico in either the early30's or late 20's wired to the runnIng board of an "A" Model Ford! :)

Lots of those short barrel carbines went south to mining companies as guard guns.

Interesting story about this one is his grand dad had it and would shoot at folks coming down the county road with it!!! This was in the 30's! ( remember Second Hand Lions???). So his uncle broke the firing pin in it so he wouldn't hurt anyone, or get thrown in jail! LOL!
 

Renault

One Too Many
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Wilbarger creek bottom
Ok! Not quite a "Safari express" rifle but I found a pic of that 73 Trapper I happens to have.
This is my old compadre. We've known each other since we was in 8th grade. He don't mind me posting his pic. He ranches in northern Blanco County Tx.
 

RJR

Messages
10,620
Location
Iowa
Ok! Not quite a "Safari express" rifle but I found a pic of that 73 Trapper I happens to have.
This is my old compadre. We've known each other since we was in 8th grade. He don't mind me posting his pic. He ranches in northern Blanco County Tx.
Nice piece,appears to be in good condition.
 

Tiki Tom

My Mail is Forwarded Here
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Oahu, North Polynesia
Fun thread.

I just finished writing a novel (purely for my amusement) in which the plot revolves around a cache of three-hundred Krag–Jørgensen 1892 rifles that are discovered in a secret subterranean cellar. The story-line takes place in modern times, i.e., today. The rifles are brand new (plus 120 years!) and still in their original wooden crates. They are in pretty good condition, all things considered. If cleaned up and ready to fire, these bolt-action Krags are capable of laying down 20 to 30 rounds a minute with an effective range of 3,000 feet. The story is a murder-mystery in which, it turns out, a nefarious spy agency is behind a plot to provide the batch of 300 rifles to a rebel group in the developing world. These rifles were chosen because they had long since completely dropped off the radar screen and they provide "plausible deniability" to the spooks. Suffice to say, the spies are sweeping up any undocumented weapons that they can find, from any source. The spymaster is cynically not expecting the rebels to win, he is just trying to stir up a little trouble in that particular banana republic for his own political reasons. My question is: how far-fetched is this plot? Rebels armed with obsolete weapons is fairly routine, although I admit that these are pushing the envelope. For other reasons in the book, involving actual historical events, the weapons must be this particular model/year of rifle. Just for context, my potboiler also includes an attractive seaplane pilot, a linguistic anthropologist, a tramp freighter in the Pacific, plenty of slow-moving ceiling fans, and even the occasional fedora and panama hat. Much of the action takes place in a Tiki Bar that hasn't changed much since its opening in 1957. A photo of an actual Krag–Jørgensen 1892 can be seen below.

Krag 1892.jpg


The murder mystery was loads of fun to write. So I won't be overly upset to learn that this plot is even crazier and unrealistic than a story about finding a lost ark.
 
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BlueTrain

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And all rebels are excellent shots out to the maximum effective range of the rifles! Are the boxes marked "farm machinery?"

Throw in a little smuggling, a native chief that could go either way, a newly discovered source of oil or gold or meteorium (a proved defense against the atomic bomb), and a couple of pretty girls (one good, the other even better) and it should make for a good plot. Add a local trader who happens to be an American and an old army buddy of the head of the spy agency or local operative and it should work nicely.
 

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