Of course, the Holland was also used on elephant, occasionally with some assistance:
…looking over the heads of my companions, I at once made out the elephant…. The leader was the biggest, and at it I fired when it was sixty yards away, and nearly broadside on, but heading slightly toward me. The recoil of the heavy rifle made me rock, as I stood unsteadily on my perch, and I failed to hit the brain. But the bullet, only missing the brain by an inch or two, brought the elephant to its knees; as it rose I floored it with the second barrel…. Reloading, I fired twice at the next animal. It stumbled and nearly fell, but at the same moment the first one rose again, and I fired both barrels into its head, bringing it once more to the ground. Once again it rose – an elephant’s brain is not an easy mark to hit under such conditions – but as it moved slowly off I snatched the little Springfield Rifle and this time shot true, sending the bullet into the brain.
During the expedition, TR personally killed 13 rhinos, his son Kermit taking another seven. Eleven elephant – eight of them by TR’s hand – fell to his double rifle. Many more animals were killed with this and the other guns in his battery, either for the Museums or as food for the hunting party. The Holland did yeoman service in the taking of thousands of animals over the year-long trip.
Upon Rosevelt’s return to America, the Smithsonian Institution received almost 800 examples of various African animals, large and small. One of them, a white rhinoceros TR killed at a place called Kilimakiu, is the only one on display today, in the Hall of Mammals. A sign placed next to it identifies its donor. A comparison of the original photo taken at the time of the kill, and the horns of the animal on display, confirms that they are the same beast.
A hundred years have passed since Roosevelt made his grand safari. The world has changed greatly in the century since: two world wars – the first of which claimed Kermit’s life – have been fought as well as several smaller ones and innumerable regional conflicts. The world of 1909 with its political and economic issues, its imperialist conquests, its good and bad, all of it, has vanished into the mists of the past. Yet the H&H double still is here, a tangible link to that world and its mighty figures.
This rifle symbolizes in its substance not just a hunt, but the twilight period of the only sort of world in which such a hunt could be made. It is emblematic of the exploitation of Africa and its resources, but as well, of the embryonic environmental conscience of western societies, embodied in the rationale for the hunt itself and the words of its commander. TR’s safari may be considered in some sense the watershed event in the development of modern-day conservation and preservation ethic. The rifle’s true value is therefore as a historical artifact joining today’s hunter/ conservationists with those who came before them, by virtue of its one-time ownership by a major player in the history of America and the world. It is the best-known and best-documented firearm ever made, beyond any conceivable monetary valuation; a unique example of the pinnacle of the gunmaker’s craft, a symbol of a lost era, and a tribute to a man whose legacy lives on still in our game laws.
Resources & References
Roosevelt, Theodore. 1910. African Game Trails. Syndicate Publishing Company, New York.
Taylor, John. 1948. African Rifles & Cartridges, Special Edition for the Firearms Classic Library (1995).
Wieland, Terry. 2006. Dangerous Game Rifles. Country Sports Press (Camden, ME) ISBN 0-89272-691-1.
The Innovative Winchester Model 59
This close-up view of the right side of the receiver shows the carrier lock button located below the ejection port. The button in the anterior bow of the trigger guard is the cross bolt safety.
BY BERNARD H. DIGIACOBBE, M.D.
PHOTOS BY ROSEMARIE V. DVORCHAK
Supposedly, if you build a better mouse trap the world will beat a path to your door. However, this was not the case with the Winchester model 59 autoloading shotgun. While it was certainly a better mouse trap, the shooting public ignored it. Sales were so poor, in fact, that Winchester stopped production in 1965 after selling only 82,085 of them. As so often happens, shortly after production ceased the gun enjoyed near-cult status, especially among upland game hunters.
Then as now, if a shotgun barrel becomes obstructed with mud or snow, it is likely to burst when the gun is fired. Sometimes this causes the muzzle to split. Other times it causes the barrel to split all too close to the shooter’s hand or face. Increasing the thickness of the walls of the barrel would make the barrel stronger. Unfortunately, the extra weight would ruin the gun’s balance. To try and solve this dilemma, the Winchester engineers experimented with aluminum alloy and titanium barrels. While these metals allowed for stronger barrels, they could fragment, resulting in an even more dangerous situation. After more than five years of research and development, the engineers settled on a then new material, fiberglass. This material had recently demonstrated its strength and durability in boats and car bodies. Each barrel had a full 500 miles of glass fiber wound circumferentially around a 0.020-inch steel liner. The glass fiber was then bonded under heat and pressure in a polyester matrix. To achieve a conventional appearance, the outer surface of the barrel was wrapped with color impregnated fiberglass cloth. This outer layer was then machined to a smooth finish. The finished barrel, although shiner and slightly larger in diameter, closely resembled a conventional shotgun barrel.
In addition to serving as a mandrel for winding the glass fiber, the steel liner also later protected the fiberglass from the intense heat of the burning powder and the abrasion of the shotgun pellets. Remember, this was before shells were loaded with plastic shot cups, which is today the norm. As an added bonus the steel liner also contained the interrupted threads for attaching the barrel to the receiver!
This photo demonstrates the spatial relationship of the floating chamber to the barrel and the receiver.
In fiberglass boats and car bodies, the glass fibers are randomly arranged. This results in the fiberglass being of equal strength and – unfortunately – equal weakness in all directions. However, on the Win-Lite barrel (as Winchester called it) the strength was maximized circumferentially where it was needed the most. This resulted in a barrel with almost twice the hoop strength of a conventional steel barrel but with only about half the weight! As an added bonus, in the unlikely event of catastrophic failure, the circumferentially wound glass fibers restricted fragmentation. Factory testing revealed that when the barrels were deliberately blown up, they would split lengthwise without fragmenting. This gradually released the contained pressure.
The fiberglass also offered some more practical advantages. Like fiberglass boats and car bodies, these barrels were dent resistant. The impregnated color also made the scratches less visible. Unfortunately, the chamber area could turn yellow in color with sustained usage. Reportedly, the muzzles could start to unravel if subjected to continual abuse. But then again the muzzle of any abused shotgun can be a sorry sight. At this point one has to wonder: was the Win Lite barrel the inspiration for today’s high-tech carbon fiber Rifle barrels?
While the model 59 was available only in 12 gauge, different barrel