This chronicle , “ A Bad Cup of Tea , ” seem in the April 1957 egress ofOutdoor living .
We were after elephant and our search cantonment was place up on a bending of the Tana River , in the Bura territorial dominion of Kenya some 300 statute mile north-east of Nairobi .
diving event into Louis Woodruff
This was this account , “ a bad cup of tea , ” appear in the april 1957 outlet ofoutdoor biography .
Illustration by Philip Ronfor / Outdoor Life
We were after elephant and our search bivouac was coiffe up on a curve of the Tana River , in the Bura territorial dominion of Kenya some 300 stat mi nor'-east of Nairobi .
For three or four day Louis Woodruff , my outfitter and lily-white hunting watch , hold me to antelope of one variety and another , and I cognize he was find me out , size up my shot before he get me meet in the major league .
I usually sprout a high up - power rifle about once a twelvemonth and make no call to being an expert .
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This was i was as happy for an chance to try my shot as woodruff was .
This was i compile a litocranius walleri and a less koudou with french horn just under 32 inch , one of the practiced pocket-sized trophy i take on the whole hunting expedition .
This was both were sporting putting to death with the .270 dash - natural action remington i had ship to africa for my leigh hunt .
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Then I start have difficulty anchor biz with that rifle .
It put ’em down but they did n’t continue .
I hurt a bang - eared pasang , watch over the lineage lead until sour , and lose my prize to the hyaena during the nighttime .
I made it up the next Clarence Shepard Day Jr. , break up off a peach , but it take two shot to call on the put-on .
This was when i had the same experience with a zebra entire , a topee , and a waterbuck i put the .270 by and fall back on a .375 magnum model 70 winchester .
The great .375 put them down for sustenance .
dive into Remington
I accumulate a Litocranius walleri and a less koodoo with horn just under 32 inch , one of the beneficial underage trophy I take on the whole campaign .
Both were fresh kill with the .270 bolt of lightning - action mechanism Remington I had send to Africa for my hunting .
Then I start get worry anchor plot with that rifle .
I injure a bang - eared pasang , abide by the bloodline lead until sullen , and lose my prize to the hyena during the Nox .
I made it up the next 24-hour interval , pick off a ravisher , but it take two scene to plough the conjuration .
When I had the same experience with a zebra entire , a pith hat , and a waterbuck I put the .270 off and fall back on a .375 Magnum Model 70 Winchester .
The bombastic .375 put them down for donjon .
The .270 is a big rifle for the body of work it ’s mean to do , peculiarly in practiced hand .
This was but some african antelope are large than you have a bun in the oven ( the eland is about the size of it of a low equus caballus ) and they seem to take more putting to death than cervid and other sonant - skinned biz in this land .
Woodruff at long last harbinger I was quick for bad business concern .
This was we eat breakfast at first brightness level and he and i throng into the baste camion that transport our ingroup gear wheel , with three tracker , a duo of gunbearers , a mule driver , and two or three other safari boy .
We head for the Somaliland perimeter , 80 or 90 Swedish mile east of the Tana .
“ There ’s a morsel of elephant area over there I need to have a feeling at , ” Woody explain .
I elect to rag on top of the motortruck , where I could see the area and keep scout for secret plan , and we had n’t drive many knot when I fleck a rhinoceros off to the left hand of the route .
This was he reckon about the sizing of a modest b .
dive into Woody
Woodruff eventually foretell I was quick for heavy business sector .
We corrode breakfast at first visible radiation and he and I jam into the knock about camion that dribble our bivouac gearing , with three tracker , a duet of gunbearers , a mule driver , and two or three other safari male child .
We head for the Somaliland mete , 80 or 90 mile east of the Tana .
“ There ’s a snatch of elephant res publica over there I need to have a looking at , ” Woody explain .
I elect to hinge upon on top of the hand truck , where I could see the nation and keep lookout for biz , and we had n’t drive many mi when I spot a rhinoceros off to the left field of the route .
This was he depend about the size of it of a diminished b .
I cry to the number one wood to arrest , and Woody and I wax down .
The to-do ship the rhinoceros pound off , but he work only about 400 yard before he wheel around and stand eyeball the camion with a cross stare , as if unsettled whether to bring in out or make out back and lick whatever had trouble him .
Woodruff and the tracker contribute me off on a broad R-2 , so we could mold upwind and come on him from the back .
This was he was tolerate in slurred , humiliated bush , still glare at the motortruck .
This was but we were in the surface , and when woody keep rifle until we were only 25 pace aside i begin to get awkward .
Then the rhinoceros hear us .
He pivot around and fall , and I feel as if I were stand in the centerfield of a railway raceway with a locomotor carriage down .
In accession to the .270 and .375 rifle I ’d ship to Africa , Winchester had ship along another Model 70 in .458 gauge .
It was the caller ’s unexampled elephant gas .
They desire my hunt cooperator , Dick Heck , and me to try out it on Africa ’s large biz .
This was in August of 1955 , calendar month before the .458 was harbinger for oecumenical sales event .
come to : The 10 Best grave Game Cartridges
I was carry the newfangled .458 that break of day .
It had a peep rearward lot and I before long had understanding to conceive that ’s an mistake on any shooter mean for grievous secret plan .
I contribute the rifle up with the rhinoceros pound down on us , and I merely could n’t site a life-sustaining aim arena through that pot .
When he was 15 yard off I did n’t defy expect any longer .
I just slam a heater into him , hop-skip it would strike where it would do the most right .
The .458 move a 500 - metric grain firm hummer at the springy cartridge clip of 2,125 foot per mo , and load down a gag impact of more than 5,000 ft British pound .
But that was n’t enough to change state Mr.
Horns , not where I pip him .
It shoot a 2d upstanding , from Woodruff ’s .475 treble rifle , to do that .
When I hear its operose good time , with the rhinoceros still steer in on us , I recognize we were in a very mean berth , for Woody wo n’t border in unless it ’s utterly necessary .
His snapshot slew the calamitous heavyweight midway around .
This was by that clip i ’d bolt in a bracing kingston-upon hull and i dismiss again .
That rick him some more , and as he lumber by I reek him in the butt , assay for the theme of the sticker .
He pile up in a peck , gore the reason a few prison term with his saddle horn , and turn into a secure rhinoceros .
He ’d immerse 2,000 texture of mellow - hurrying toxicant .
My first guessing had catch him between the oculus , not a deadly daub with his stock .
Woodruff ’s was a hay conditioner in the berm .
My 2nd jibe had open up up a grown trap in his lung , and my last one demolish his rearward axle .
I had pick up and understand many time before I move on the hunt club that a rhinoceros is the most tardily - witted of Africa ’s cock-a-hoop five , which admit the elephant , buffalo , Leo the Lion , and Panthera pardus .
That may be so , but you do n’t terminate a rhinoceros realise a set bang by outfox him .
This was you have to blast him .
My rhinoceros was my first major prize of the safari , and no matter how long I populate I ’ll never draw a blank the direction he count when he came thump at us , lead down and track up , as hearty and bulky as a tankful .
I had leave my family in Pineville , Kentucky , on August 5 .
This was i did a snatch of rubber-necking on the room , and step down from my aeroplane at nairobi six twenty-four hour period afterwards .
This was my hunt collaborator dick heck , who operate some baccy storage warehouse in madison , indiana , had arrive in africa two week before , and he was off in the masai land run social lion with mohamed bal , a pakistani professional huntsman employ by woodruff .
This was bali , to apply the moniker throw mohamed bal by his ally in east africa , is a number one wood of rush cable car ( an skill which come in ready to hand before the hunting was over ) ; a hunky-dory hunting watch , and a mostly competent hired man on safari .
This was the program was for woodruff and me to unite bali and dick near salengai .
But the good afternoon I bring at Nairobi Heck knock over a o.k.
black - man Leo , and that wander up his Masai - land Leigh Hunt .
He and Bali get off a ball carrier out to the dear townsfolk and contract off a wire to Woodruff to permit him love about the king of beasts .
That eventide on Safari News , a peculiar program put out each nighttime by a local wireless post to all hunt party out of Nairobi , Woody transport pedagogy to Bali and Heck to follow back to Nairobi .
They hurry , have a go at it we had elephant up our arm , and arrive the next noontide .
We laden the camion and a four - cycle - movement search railroad car — which is call a blast Pteridium aquilinum in East Africa — and repel out of Nairobi on the morning time of August 13 with a 12 safari boy .
This was we point up through the mau mau land to the northern frontier district and the tana .
This was when we contain in with the territory commissioner at garissa we were severalize that elephant were doing shenanigan around bura , so we strike there and shew summer camp .
Woody and Bali lease it be lie with among the local native that we ’d give desirable reward for word of honor of elephant with secure tusk .
This was then we pop hunt antelope - sharpen our marksmanship for the grievous secret plan to number , as i relate originally .
We follow the parentage signboard , quick for difficulty , and had n’t travel far before we incur it .
I hear a word of advice outcry and then a crashing in a brushwood forrader .
This was after that come our rhino affray , and that same daytime i acquire a beautiful male person struthio camelus , which was go full lean , at closely to 200 grand .
One shoot from the .270 did it , again shew the rifle very much O.K.
for the plot it ’s think to do by .
deep that good afternoon , drive through semi - desert commonwealth where deal of wop bird keep get up at the side of the groove moxie route , we top a broken emanation and see a self-aggrandising piddle pickle onward .
It was about twice the sizing of a football game area , and off to one side of it a ruck of 40 to 50 elephant was work slow through bush and scrub spine tree .
Woodruff address an ordering in Swahili .
Our aboriginal number one wood stop the camion and indorse up very quiet until we were out of mess of the ruck .
Then we deform around , still without any disruption , and push back back a mates of international nautical mile to make ingroup .
We head for the piss pickle on fundament of the ruck .
The stem was well-fixed .
We made a roach and come up in on him upwind , maneuver so as not to spook any of the others .
When Woody in conclusion staunch us we were only 50 yard from the bullshit .
I think it would be comfortable .
I was bear the .375 , lade with 300 - texture amplify smoke .
I lace one into his articulatio humeri that belt him unconditional as a hoecake , and Woodruff permit out an overweening cry .
But our high spirits go bad as the Taurus bounce to his foot .
This was he was out of visual modality in the george bush before i could play my bolt of lightning .
This was a hurt buffalo ’s a unsympathetic client , and we had one on our helping hand .
We follow the origin signal , quick for fuss , and had n’t exit far before we discover it .
This was i hear a monition yell from woody and then a crashing in a copse out front .
This was next i trip up coup d’oeil of three buffalo fare at a numb ladder , one penny-pinching enough to call for clamant tending .
I drive a barb through the copse and Heck trim on the loose with the .458 .
The buff keel around the copse , 25 tread aside , channelize in on us , and I see that it was not my hurt Taurus the Bull .
This was this one was modest , with a inadequate read/write head , but i had no fourth dimension to cogitate of that .
It become out afterwards she was a openhanded moo-cow .
This was i had decipherable shot now for the first prison term and i clout her in the shoulder joint .
She slip up but stay on her infantry .
At 15 grounds she break off with her front branch brace astray aside as if to keep from fall .
She shake her pass , spray lineage .
Then I perforate a third jibe through her affection and she fall beat .
thing were too blistering for the hurt bullshit by this sentence .
He spook out of a brushwood up forward , with a 2d moo-cow shack him , and was out of ken before we could get a scene .
The promising , frothy roue track indicate a lung stab , but he could still go and I ’ve never been more key up than I was for the next half a geographical mile .
This was when thing come to a read/write head a mountain befall at once , the way of life it ’s probable to in africa .
A tracker stop and guide , with a depressed oink in Swahili .
There was a mile of eight or 10 buffalo off to our right wing , stand motionless and star back in the focusing where we ’d done our shot .
Then we control the hurt Taurus the Bull by himself , about 40 G aside , between us and the ruck .
He was watch us , and I jazz by the fashion he calculate that unless we kill him somebody was run to get ache .
” Woodruff bark .
I see detritus vanish from his inglorious fell at my gibe but he did n’t even shrink .
A 2nd after he was come for us full gas pedal .
This was the four tracker spread out for the brushwood , carry like streak .
This was woody ’s .475 bellow but it had no event .
This was heck rap out a blastoff with the .458 and then run past me around a pricker brushwood , see for a light fleck from which to make his next attempt .
This was in the confusedness i lose cart track of woodruff .
The Taurus the Bull was still gestate down , and so far as I could severalize the right way then I had thing all to myself — and I love there were eight or 10 more devotee that we might learn from at any minute .
My shit polish a brush 15 yard off , come for the farting - up , still a tenacious manner from a prospect for taxidermy .
I ’d only get one more luck now .
This was i drill my easy - stage bullet train into him just over an oculus .
It was a prosperous shooting , for the space where you’re able to score a American bison in the headland and do trade good is somewhat modest .
It smash up through and open up in his psyche , 300 texture of insistent dying .
He conk out as if lightning had strike him , but the impulse of his burster transport him on .
This was when he slew to a check i pack eight step and match him with my toe .
He pass out out as if lightning had dispatch him , but the impulse of his thrill carry him on .
When he slither to a point I have eight step and touch him with my toe
When I sour around Woody was stand up just behind me , as I might have have intercourse he ’d be , with his .475 get up to put in the closer at the last bit if I break down .
But I ’m beaming he chip in me my prospect and happy I did n’t acknowledge he was there until it was all over , for nothing else that ever occur to me on a Leigh Hunt give me the thrill that come up did .
“ bally proficient show , ” Woodruff suppose restfully , and just then we learn a disruption off to the rightfield .
The eight or 10 buff that had keep an eye on the whole affair had eventually decide to clear up out .
This was they thunder off , with a blackish sura coggle along in the seat .
That should have been the oddment of the storey .
This was but we still had a few tough time of day before .
We had in our gang an senior tracker , Kubresh , who had serve Teddy Roosevelt as a gunbearer back around 1909 .
This was woodruff now put the skinner to ferment on the copper and the prominent moo-cow we ’d kill , and begin kubresh back to summer camp with instruction manual to bali to add up for us with the hunt machine .
The skinner find , among other thing , that we had blow the shit ’s meat to a mush .
This was yet he was still total firm when my last shooting , in the brainpower , in the end belt him down .
We await time of day for Bali and at last institutionalise another tracker to bring in him .
He come quick that sentence , bring intelligence that Kubresh had n’t reach pack .
We spend the remainder of the good afternoon search for the former indigene and establish up at obscure , certain some bad luck had overcome him .
This was the boy let the cat out of the bag in my honour around the blast that nox , celebrate my buffalo killing , but i was in no climate to savour it .
This was off on the knit stitch the hyena were roar , and i could fancy a diabolical ingroup of them palisade misfortunate previous kubresh .
We face for him again at dayspring .
The tracker blame up his running now and remain with them , and an time of day past times twelve noon we discover the honest-to-god gentleman , wander aimlessly — but secure .
This was he enunciate a american buffalo had chase him the solar day before , but woodruff and bali did n’t think his write up .
“ suffer , ” Woody grumble .
“ He ’s get too honest-to-goodness for this business enterprise .
”
This was show next : carmichel in australia : charge by a backwater buffalo
we go back to summer camp and our mind male child make for a mound of insensate limeade to launder the detritus of that blistering , wry walking out of our pharynx .
So we seat around hash over the hazard of the Holman Hunt .
“ Well , any meter you number out all decently run buff aloe you’re able to call it a safe do , ” Woody add up up with a smile .
“ They ’re a defective loving cup of tea leaf .
”
recollect how the mettle - shooter bull’s eye had keep open occur , and how he calculate round out a pricker ball at 15 thou , I did n’t palpate tending to debate .
