Early African Hunting Guns

[Robby]

Wesporter, I'm totally sure my offering doesn't measure up to Mr. Kennedy' double but I made it and it shoots very accurately. Both barrels are .45, rifled, cherry stock.

If I can do it, I'm sure they're are others doing it to the quality of the old masters.
Robby

 

[billraby]

In my reference above to Wilds of Africa, I described the "precipice" showing an illustration of Cumming loading a flintlock. I should have used the correct term "frontispiece" - so much for the English grammar lesson. Now on to the subject at hand. In that same volume, Cumming talks about using a Westley Richards double rifle. He also talks about using "caps," so obviously said rifle was a percussion rifle, not a flinter, even though his five years hunting in Africa were from 1843-48. Frankly, in my being around guns for the last 60 years or so, double barrel muzzleloaders are pretty damn rare. Granted, Pedersoli is currently producing a model. There is also an antique Thomas Kennedy 14 guage for sale at present on Guns International for the princely sum of $4500. I wonder if any current muzzle loading gunsmiths are or could produce such a rifle?

This guy can build one for you. But I think it would take quite a lot more than $4500.
https://www.stolzergunsmithing.com/

 

[fleener]

The guy in KS that got kicked off this list, his name is escaping me currently, built a 4 bore double I think. I assume that the build has not been deleted from the archives from this list. He did a good job of documenting his build and posting it here.

Fleener

 

[fleener]

Here is my double rifle that will be delivered on Tuesday. It is only .53 cal.

I need to plan a hunt with it.

Fleener

 

[fleener]

Robby

I really like your engraving on your rifle. Very nice and thought out.

Fleener

 

[terry cislowski]

bore rifle 12g rifle have one for sale new 32'' full rifleing build two i use one
fires 760g pill

 

[brayhaven]

I read where these guns often were almost as damaging to the shooter. Dislocated shoulders and detached retina.

Reading this thread on these shoulder bangers reminds me of a gun Ruark talked about in (I believe)” “Use Enough Gun”. Been awhile but I think it was a 4 bore double (not ML) that had a bad sear on the left barrel, so you had to shoot that barrel first or the gun would double (ouch). He said the situations calling for that gun often didn’t allow careful consideration of which trigger to use first. It happened once and split the stock. IIRC, he disassembled the gun and slid the green leg skin off a small antelope over the wrist and let it dry. He used the gun with that repair for awhile after that. My shoulder hurts just reading about these guns.

 

[Pukka Bundook]

Fleener,

Yon is a Very bonny rifle!
Excellent lines! A real study. Thanks for the photos.

 

[BillinOregon]

One of the best discussions of black powder arms in Africa that I have seen is in Sir Samuel Baker's "Wild Beasts and Their Ways," which he wrote long after his earlier works, "The Rifle and the Hound in Ceylon," and "The Nile Tributaries of Abyssinia," all simply wonderful reads. Cumming's "A Hunters Life in South Africa" is a fine read, too, as is Selous' "A Hunter's Wanderings in Africa."

 

[Westporter]

Wesporter, I'm totally sure my offering doesn't measure up to Mr. Kennedy' double but I made it and it shoots very accurately. Both barrels are .45, rifled, cherry stock.
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If I can do it, I'm sure they're are others doing it to the quality of the old masters.
Robby

Your double flinter is exquisite and I believe exceeds the quality of the Kennedy.

 

[Robby]

Thank you Wesporter, I am humbled.
Robby

 

[brayhaven]

I understand cape guns were popular there for subsistence hunting.