For Research & Preservation of Remington Model 8, 81, and FN 1900 History |
RSS Feed
August 29th, 2022 by admin
Big Enough for the Biggest Game:
The Remington Autoloading Rifle in Africa
By: Cameron Woodall
“The Story of an Outing”
Without a doubt, the best documented use of the Autoloading Rifle in Africa is by Barton Hepburn (1846-1922). Barton was a banker, politician, and avid outdoorsman. Although his hunting ambition started out pursuing chipmunks with a muzzle-loading shotgun in upstate New York, it culminated in his pursuit of the biggest game with a 35 caliber semi-automatic Remington in British East Africa. Unlike Teddy Roosevelt who kept firearm specifics to a minimum in his safari diaries, Barton Hepburn discusses his “35 automatic Remington” with great admiration in his book, “The Story of an Outing”. Basing his camp out of Fort Hall (about halfway between Nairobi and Mount Kenya), Hepburn hunted the game rich Tana River valley in early 1913. The majority of which was done via horseback, by locating and closing the distance to his quarry and then dismounting and getting in range by foot. Hepburn brought 3 rifles to Kenya but only 1 never left his side, his “.35 automatic Remington”. Although the Model 8 had been in production 7 years, it was about to make history facing some of the biggest, most dangerous game yet. Here is Hepburn in his own words…
Barton Hepburn (left) on safari in 1913 with his favorite gun, the Remington Autoloading Rifle in .35Rem
CROCODILE
“Responding to the Major’s signal (that a large crocodile was spotted on the bank), we galloped up, leaving the gun-bearers in the rear. I used a saddle scabbard, same as we do in the Rockies, and had my .35 automatic Remington always at hand. To capture the crock, I realized that I must paralyze him. I was six rods distant (approx. 33 yards), and from my shoulder to his level was a drop of eight to ten feet; he was facing me, and I shot to break his spine just back of his neck-joint, and succeeded. I then shot the remaining four cartridges into practically the same place” p.50
CAPE BUFFALO
“I climbed out of the last donga (dry creek bed) within seventy-five yards of the best bull. The grass was up to my shoulders and was waving above his back, yet he stood broadside, and I could distinctly make out his outlines…I took the .450 and missed him standing, with the first barrel, and then missed him, running, with the second barrel. I quickly changed to the Remington automatic and caught him, running, in the vitals, at one hundred and fifty yards, with the first shot, and broke his back with the second. P.57-58
Top buffalo killed with a .450 double rifle; bottom buffalo killed with a Remington Autoloading Rifle
RHINO
“The next day I shot a rhinoceros – broke his neck with the .35 Remington. His head was only fair, but peculiar in that it had two equally developed horns, eleven inches in height, instead of having one very short one and the leading horn sixteen to eighteen inches, which is about the best obtainable in the Tana Valley” p.58
ELAND
“Next day I shot an eland, through shoulder into vitals, with my Remington; the license permits only one, and a splendid specimen it was – horns twenty-six and twenty-seven inches; he weighted fully one thousand pounds. The eland is the largest of all antelope, is excellent food, and is beautiful in a grand way” p.58
LION
“After a while we saw three lions – two lions and a lioness – several hundred yards distant…we started in hot pursuit, but when we reached the donga, all but one had disappeared over the skyline. The temptation was great, and I could not help shooting three times with my Remington with point-blank sights, as there was no time for readjustments. It was all useless; I replenished my magazine…
…then commenced a mile long up-grade. I fully realized that the chance offered to make my trip a great success was squarely up to me, and that the next two minutes would determine…
…that tawny streak gliding through the grass was distinctly visible. I covered it with my gun and, swinging well to the fore end of it, fired. He went down in a heap and was up in an instant and faced me with a roar, head erect, mane bristling, and tail vibrant…I never took my eyes from the first lion nor my gun from my face, it being automatic. Towering up in all his majesty, his neck afforded a splendid mark, and I broke it with the second shot; the first had gone through his vitals and broken the opposite shoulder and would have been fatal, of course, after a little time. I turned to the other (lion), sixty to seventy yards distant, towering well above the grass directly facing me; with distended mane, swishing tail and fiercely growling, he made himself as warlike as possible. I had three cartridges in my magazine; I decided to give him a fatal shot in the breast with the first one, and if he charged depend upon the other two to break some of his on-coming bones. Only a single shot was needed; it entered the breast a trifle high, traversed the lumbar regions, and lodged in the backbone, back of the pelvis, almost to the tail. He fell and never moved” p.64-68
Two male lions killed with a Remington Autoloading Rifle within seconds of each other
Although Hepburn’s safari is shadowed by Roosevelt’s, they were no strangers. Both served in the political world, and both used the famed R.J. Cuninghame as their guide in Africa. In fact, upon Hepburn’s return from Africa, he received a letter from Roosevelt on November 16th, 1914, petitioning him, “some point or other I wish you would motor down here for lunch or dinner. I would like to talk over East Africa with you”. No doubt such a conversation would have been filled with hunting stories and the rifles that accompanied them. Hepburn certainly wasn’t the only hunter to bring a Model 8 to Africa, but most other stories are now untold or forgotten. In recent times, 95 years after Hepburn, Marc Davis from Texas brought a Model 8 in 35Rem to Namibia and downed this spectacular eland with a single 200gr bullet at 100 yards distance.
! 
