Enfield-Rifles.com Homepage
Forum Home Forum Home > Enfields > Hunting with the .303 British cartridge.
  New Posts New Posts RSS Feed - Lions of Tsavo
  FAQ FAQ  Forum Search   Events   Register Register  Login Login

Lions of Tsavo

 Post Reply Post Reply
Author
Message
EnfieldHunter View Drop Down
Groupie
Groupie


Joined: April 13 2010
Location: Wisconsin
Status: Offline
Points: 64
Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote EnfieldHunter Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Topic: Lions of Tsavo
    Posted: April 21 2010 at 11:45am
I've found differing accounts of the killing of the Lions of Tsavo in differnt sources on the web.  I'm wondering if anyone knows the details on how these animals were killed.
 
Specifically, some accounts (see below) incate that Patterson shot the lions 5 or more times with his Enfield others incicate several times, but not quite five on both.  Does anyone know how many times the lions were shot?  Also, I'm guessing he was using army loads, possibly with FMJ ammo for these beasts to require so much "killing" to die.  What was the most likely ammo used and why did it take so many hits and overnight, for the lions to die?  That, or he had no idea or abilty to make vital hits.   Anyone shed some light on this?
 
Here's an example of an account:
 
Patterson writes in his account that he wounded the first lion with one bullet from a Martini-Enfield chambered in .303 caliber. This shot struck the lion in the hindquarters and it still escaped. Later, it returned at night and began stalking Patterson even as he attempted to hunt it. He shot it with a .303 Lee Enfield several times, tracked it the next morning, and found it dead. In all, he had shot it 5 times. The second lion was shot five times with a .303 Lee Enfield, and it still managed to get up and charge him in severely crippled condition, whereupon he shot it twice more with the Martini-Henry carbine, once in the chest, and once in the head, which killed it. He claimed it died gnawing on a fallen tree branch, still attempting to reach him
Back to Top
LE Owner View Drop Down
Senior Member
Senior Member


Joined: December 04 2009
Status: Offline
Points: 1047
Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote LE Owner Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: April 22 2010 at 5:18am
Theres a online readable copy of Patterson's book, and a free download PDF version of his book on google books.
I picked up a reprint of his lecture pamphlet at the Field Museum when I went there to see the stuffed lions after seein the Ghost and the Darkness.
 
I think the martini carbine he borrowed was a .450 rather than .303, his personal rifle was a bolt action .303 sporter, probably a Lee Speed.
The borrowed heavy rifle that failed to fire was a double barrel rather than the single shot shown in the film. He borrowed that rifle from a gentleman by the name Of Farquar and the filmakers used what looked to be a Farquarson single shot in error.
He had another barrel to fire but was so stunned by the misfire he quite forgot that at the moment.
 
He shot one lion twice with twelve bore slugs, which only penetrated the thick skin, and traveled a few inches under the skin along the spine.
 
The stuffed lions are a fraction of the size they were in life, the hides were very shrunken and degraded before the Field got them. In life these monsters were around nine feet long or more, one a bit larger than the other.
I've looked at one of the skulls closely, in its glass case inside the glassed in enclosure.
Where one bullet went under the left eye it struck the bone above the jaw that was as thick as a hammer handle and broke away a section.  One fang was broken by a hit, the fangs were the size of bannas. The skulls are huge, and give a better idea of the lion's size than the shrunken mounted hides.
The taxidermist was criticized for the size of the finished mountings, but they are very lifelike. He had to steam the hides to work them at all.
The hides were extremely thick and were networked with thick scar tissue from the thorn brush and fights with other lions. The tough scar tissue was like armor deflecting and slowing down bullets.
 
These beasts were far to large to hope to kill with one or even several .303 rounds, the braincase nearly bullet proof. The only hit from the .303 that even slowed one down was a hit on one paw as it charged and it only tumbled and quickly regained its feet.
 
I figure he used MkVI FMJ, but may have used any of a number of period milspec or sporting loads.
He did use the .303 to shoot holes in rails to string them together with chain for his railcar trap, that part of the film was just as Patterson described it.
 
I'll check my PDF for details and get back to you.
 
PS
Link to Internet Archive downloads of Maneaters of T'Savo
Back to Top
EnfieldHunter View Drop Down
Groupie
Groupie


Joined: April 13 2010
Location: Wisconsin
Status: Offline
Points: 64
Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote EnfieldHunter Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: April 22 2010 at 12:08pm
Thank you.
 
I read his account of the killing of both lions.
 
It sounds like it's a matter of both shot placement and penetration.  A lot of blind shooting in the dark and wounding the beasts and then following up in the morning.  The one hit by the .303 in the heart went down in a fairly short while. 
 
Does the Lee Speed necessarily have only a 5 round magazine?  He seemed to be running out of ammo fairly often.
 
I took a Russin Boar this spring and was glad to have more capacity.  I hit him twice in the vitals and then added some insurance shots as he was dead on his feet, but still trying to make cover.  Interstingly, I think that seeing me and haveing been spooked out of his bed added to his excitment.  I wonder if both Lions were running on adreneline as the both knew of the hunter's location and intentions.
 
Would Patterson have had access to a 10 round magazine?
 
Where can someone acquire a Lee Sport in this day and age?  Does anyone make repoductions out of BSA actions?
Back to Top
LE Owner View Drop Down
Senior Member
Senior Member


Joined: December 04 2009
Status: Offline
Points: 1047
Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote LE Owner Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: April 22 2010 at 4:27pm
I'm not sure what magazine options were available for the Lee Enfields in 1898, this was five years before the earliest SMLE came along.
There were magazines of six,eight, and twelve shot capacity tried out at various times before they settled on the ten shot mags.
 
The more trim five or six shot mags were usually prefered for sporting rifles because the lighter fore ends and lack of nosecap shifted the center of carry back putting the mag well at the natural carrying point, in full military trim the carry point is in front of the magazine so the deeper ten shot mag doesn't get in the way. Most early calvary Carbines also used a shallow six round mag for the same reason, the shorter barrel shifting the CG back to the magwell.
 
My cousin ran into a mob of huge wild boar on a hunt in Georgis (USA not Eastern Europe Georgia). He knew better than to think he could get them all or that the rest would scatter if he shot one, so he climbed a tree to wait them out.
He dropped his rifle when climbing the tree.
They tried to dig the tree up by its roots but lost interest after awhile. When he finally came down he found that a boar had rolled around on top of his rifle, a Winchester Golden spike, and bent it like a bow.
I used to hear of hunters killed by wild boar every so often, they can be very dangerous. With the recent appearance of Hogzillas, enormus due to stealing steriod and homone laced cattle feed, I'm not sure I want to meet some 800-1,000 lb monstrosity on a narrow trail.
Scattered fragments of human bone are often found in the Smokey Mountains, lost hikers eaten by boar as often as by bear. One fellow was reduced to a gnawed pelvis and a belt buckle.
 
PS
Around here if someone asks "wheres so and so" the standard snappy answer is "He went to s**t and the hogs ate him".
Back to Top
EnfieldHunter View Drop Down
Groupie
Groupie


Joined: April 13 2010
Location: Wisconsin
Status: Offline
Points: 64
Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote EnfieldHunter Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: April 25 2010 at 12:37pm
It's a little different when they are capable of "killing you back", not that I was concerned about getting eaten or even hurt.  After all, the boar was bringing "tusks to an Enfield fight" and I wasn't going to let him get close.  I was going to make him climb over a big old pile of smoking hot 303 brass before he got to sink his little tusks in to my pasty white legs.
 
If the others on the forum can kill moose and buffolo, my little piggy didn't stand a chance.  Similarly, those lions couldn't have been half to a third the weight of some of the moose and buffolos that are taken routinely with the 303.  I suspect Patterson's follow ups were partly about shot placement and partly about bullet construction.  Always seems to come back to those two factors.
 
Please don't think I'm making it sound like Patterson's problem was an easy one to solve.  I think he did very well all things considered.  It's just that this business of shooting lions in the pitch dark with iron sights makes shot placment a bit of an issue.
 
 
Back to Top
LE Owner View Drop Down
Senior Member
Senior Member


Joined: December 04 2009
Status: Offline
Points: 1047
Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote LE Owner Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: April 25 2010 at 3:25pm
Originally posted by EnfieldHunter EnfieldHunter wrote:

It's a little different when they are capable of "killing you back", not that I was concerned about getting eaten or even hurt.  After all, the boar was bringing "tusks to an Enfield fight" and I wasn't going to let him get close.  I was going to make him climb over a big old pile of smoking hot 303 brass before he got to sink his little tusks in to my pasty white legs.
 
 
 
When the bearer of those tusks can cover ground faster than many off road vehicles and make 30 foot leaps in less time than it takes to bring a rifle to the shoulder the advantage has too often shifted drastically in the Lion's favor.
Back to Top
EnfieldHunter View Drop Down
Groupie
Groupie


Joined: April 13 2010
Location: Wisconsin
Status: Offline
Points: 64
Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote EnfieldHunter Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: April 27 2010 at 1:08pm
I agree with you that when an animal is within striking range, whether a lion, a boar a moose or even a hacked off doe white tail deer, all the magazine capacity in the world isn't going to do you any good if they're on top of you before you can get a shot off.   I don't know enough about those lions (or lions in general) to speak to their speed or their bullet proof scar tissue, but their track record for quickly and quietly dragging off workers seems to support what you're saying.  
 
I was tring to be funn, but I do believe that when the game is dangerous, (or slightly dangerous as we seem to agree that  the boar isn't in a class with a lion), a 10 round magazine is still a vert nice thing to have and the shooter's attitude changes a bit from trying to make a one shot count, to trying to make every single shot count, but to also keep shooting until you're sure it's game over. 
Back to Top
LE Owner View Drop Down
Senior Member
Senior Member


Joined: December 04 2009
Status: Offline
Points: 1047
Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote LE Owner Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: April 27 2010 at 2:51pm
In this video
The hunters are pouring magnum rounds into the beast as fast as possible, yet even badly wounded it comes within a hairs breath of taking his targets face off.
Back to Top
EnfieldHunter View Drop Down
Groupie
Groupie


Joined: April 13 2010
Location: Wisconsin
Status: Offline
Points: 64
Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote EnfieldHunter Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: April 28 2010 at 11:47am
What about that Lee Speed?
 
Any one make a replica or replica stocks to go on military lee?
Back to Top
 Post Reply Post Reply
  Share Topic   

Forum Jump Forum Permissions View Drop Down

Forum Software by Web Wiz Forums® version 12.04
Copyright ©2001-2021 Web Wiz Ltd.