Safari Express rifle pic thread

[SurfGent]

 

[SurfGent]

Finch Hatton was Isaak Dineson's lover for a long time so that rifle has literary and romantic/erotic connections as well as historic. I'll bet the current owner takes out and fondles it lovingly every now and again.

Actually yes. The gentleman that bought the rifle used it the following year on a cape buffalo hunt. Hear is a photo of the rifle and the animal

 

[Mr. Godfrey]

That is a mighty fine rifle. Thanks for uploading the pics.

 

[SurfGent]

That is a mighty fine rifle. Thanks for uploading the pics.

Thanks for enjoying them. It's nice to know others are nostalgic about this stuff 2

 

[SurfGent]

You know it's quite a fun peice of history reading about this time and place. These people had interesting lives and man what a time it must have been to be alive, hunting drinking ect.

 

[Mr. Godfrey]

I think your right about that, to have that sense of freedom and adventure, very exciting. But only if you had money eh? ;-)

 

[Oldsarge]

Well, not necessarily. A goodly number of African hunters of the day were British colonialists who spent most of their time growing coffee, some of their time hunting and an astounding amount of their time in riotous partying. The wisecrack of the time in London was "Are you married or do you live in Kenya?"

 

[SurfGent]

Oldsarge is right. Actually Bror Von Blixin who is also portrayed in the film by actor Klaus Maria Brandauer was a very interesting figure. Though coming from a wealthy family and upperclass genteel part of society , he was known to be something of a scoundrel chasing women around for there money and other sorts. He actually moved out in the African bush to escape his creditors. He actually caught a break by taking a wealthy man trying to impress his girlfriend on a safari and that started the whole hunting guide thing for him and Denys Finch Hatton, who would eventually take Prince Edward out hunting

 

[SurfGent]

 

[SurfGent]

 

[SurfGent]

On safari with his second wife

 

[SurfGent]

From left to right, Baron Bror von Blixen, Denys Finch Hatton and the Prince of Whales who he had the honor to guide during his Tanganyika safari in 1928.

 

[SurfGent]

According to Beryl Markham, "Bror was the toughest, most durable white hunter ever to snicker at the fanfare of safari or to shoot a charging buffalo between the eyes while debating whether his sundown drink would be gin or whiskey... The mould has been broken."

 

[BlueTrain]

And speaking of pig-sticking, there are a couple of YouTube videos of men, probably not gentlemen, attempting to kill a wild pig, presumably a boar, with a Cold Steel boar spear. In neither of the ones I viewed did the pig cooperate and fall over dead. And those animals were half the size, if that, of domestic hogs. Lean and mean, one might say. So pig sticking is not for the impatient sort of person.

There was a man, Lithuanian by birth, I think, who made it a hobby to hunt jaguars in South America using a spear. But he also carried a .357 revolver, too, you know, just in case. Don't remember his name but it sounded foreign.

 

[Oldsarge]

Pig sticking in the old British Army tradition was done from horseback. Were these chaps mounted?

 

[BlueTrain]

If you're referring to the man I mentioned, I don't think he hunted from horseback, although I have seen a photo of him standing next to his horse, wearing riding breeches with leather leggings, khaki shirt with rolled sleeves, a Montana peak hat and a large holstered revolver. He's also wearing a necktie. I must try to find his name again.

 

[BlueTrain]

Oh, by the way, technically pig sticking was done in India, both in the Indian Army and the British Army in India. Never read of it being done anywhere else. It was not something the infantry would have done, nor the other ranks.

 

[BlueTrain]

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.

 

[Renault]

Well I dunno who may still be up to some of these antics Blue Train, but I and several of my confederates certainly have the evenings drinking part down.

 

[Oldsarge]

I dunno. Squirrel suit flying seems pretty damned adventurous to me. The problem is that our technology has gotten so advanced that it's hard to find a way of swashbuckling out into the wild without a huge supply train, even if it's only electronic. I mean, how many people do you know who can actually navigate by map and landform? No GPS, not even a compass. I can. Anyone else?