Spencer Dutton and his ravishing (and ravished) fiancé Alexandra look to be leaving Africa for Montana after Episode 4 of 1923. I shall miss the Africa storyline, and its magnificent landscapes, but, well… a man’s gotta do what a man’s gotta do, and Spencer is needed at the Yellowstone.
Nevertheless, dreams of Africa are always welcome (looking at YOU David Wrolson), and Rigby is serving up a dandy:
Meet the Rigby “Tsavo” – a new series of 12 limited edition .375 Big Game rifles, remembering two of the most feared man-eating lions of the 19th century, “The Ghost and the Darkness,” who were immortalised in Col. John Henry Patterson’s famous book ‘The Man-Eaters of Tsavo.’
Each rifle bears its unique series number in gold on the floor plate, along with detailed engraving of the infamous pair of maneless lions. Their names – “The Ghost” and “The Darkness” – are inscribed on the Tsavo’s EAW swing-off scope rings, and the identity of their eventual nemesis – J. H. Patterson – is set into the bolt handle, along with their reported number of their victims (135).
Stocked with specially selected grade eight Turkish walnut, the Tsavo’s looks and durability is further enhanced by Rigby’s London Best Oil finish and leather covered recoil pad. Each Tsavo is supplied with Rigby’s cleaning accessories in an exclusive leather case, styled to capture the intrepid spirit of the late Victorian era.
Rick+Schwertfeger says
They are two gorgeous people!
As one who – as you know – lusts after a Rigby Highland Stalker in .275, I went online to find out if Rigby’s are worth the prices. This was a chat box response that I loved:
“Only you can decide if they’re worth it because most people will never understand. Their value and pricing are determined by a select fan base.
As a kid, I read everything I could get my hands on about guns and hunting and was fortunate to work on the range of a popular gun shop in Texas. I wanted a Rigby for as long as I can remember reading about Africa and Jim Corbett. I now have 2 and my wife has one. For us, they are worth every penny. But then again, my Dad says I am the most “high falootin’ Redneck” he has ever seen. :LOL:”
JimC says
The title of “Most High-Falootin’ Redneck” is truly something to aspire to, ain’t it?
David Wrolson says
I don’t think anybody besides Sheridan with the street cred he has built up could have done “Hemingway” today like he did in 1923.
I haven’t written much about Namibia (2021) in an organized manner like I did with Zimbabwe (2013) but one fun story and definitely off the beaten track is the “Sour Milk” story. Sorry if I have told it before but it was very a very African moment
Because, we were with our (African) hunting guide we stopped and picked up “Sour Milk” for the workers at the farm where we were based.
We pulled in to the gravel parking lot and there were maybe 10 different vendors of sour milk. This milk was in 55 gallon garbage cans exposed to the sun, flies and dust. It sat like that for up to 5 to 10 days.
Apparently, that is what a lot of the natives like to mix with their porridge. I wish I had better pictures of that, but I have chuckled many times since thinking about a tour bus of tourists bound for Etosha Park pulling in there.
I loved Etosha Park, in a way I never expected to. Partially, the numbers were still down because of Covid-but it was like I was home. I felt some sort of ancestral memory deep down there that I did not feel in Zimbabwe. I can’t describe it, except to say that I felt something at a deep level there.
I had originally planned to go to a large wild area northwest of Etosha Park-but there has/had(?) been a major drought there so we were sent to a large farm east of Etosha Park-that worked pretty good
Most of the workers at the Namibia farm were engaged in charcoal cutting. That is a huge industry in Namibia and I think the large landholders do a good job with it-only trees of a certain size and getting rid of invasive species.
i think most of the workers were not allowed into the main farm compound (for security) and a couple of those guys looked pretty sullen when we drove by them-
The workers lived in little tin shacks that looked like chicken coops. We saw chickens picking at the gut piles from hunting and my wife was very relieved to learn that our eggs did not come from those chickensm but from a regular chicken coop in the compound.
My daughter (22) and youngest son (20) will be going with us this time. He was able to visit South Africa a couple of years ago on a school trip
JimC says
Outstanding.
David Wrolson says
Oh, and regarding the vast landscapes of Africa-if you remember your Ruark-(Something of Value) they are called MMBA. Miles and Miles of Bloody Africa.
Over Christmas vacation my daughter and I watched “The Flame Trees of Thika” so I have her well-trained on thinking MMBA.
Just hope we don’t have a lot of problems (like in Zimbabwe 2013) and we don’t become too familiar with excusing everything with TIA. This is Africa.
lane batot says
Great stories, pal–keep it up! “The Flame Trees Of Thika is a CLASSIC mini-series, but you MUST get and read her books, too!
David Wrolson says
Lane-you will love the dog story.
I had seen these little dogs around, but I didn’t think anything of it-just assumed they were regular dogs.
Until, I shot an impala when it was just about dark and we had to track it. The farm’s Hunter headed back to HQ and got one of the dogs and put it on the blood trail. It started barking immediately and followed the trail.
Apparently, they are very specialized (and expensive) German hunting dogs that are trained to follow the blood trail (barking all the time) and hold the animal in place when they get to it.
Sometime before we were there-it seemed that the farm’s hunter had been charged by a wounded wildebeest and the dog had saved him from injury or death.
Even when there were no hunters there with Covid-a certain number of animals had to be shot because they paid their workers with meat-2 or 4 kilograms each per week-I forget.
Jerry N says
Great stories compadres. Thanks for sharing!
David Wrolson says
Thank You-Jerry.
Not to toot my horn, but if you want more of me (LOL and are unaware of it)-I wrote a blog with a lot of photos and essays and photographic essays (at one point I started transferring it to book form and I still may) about my 2013 Zimbabwe trip.
I pride myself that it is not a generic hunting story.
Jim has it linked in the Muster (Links on the homepage)
It is called The Smoke of Africa and has the main weakness of a blog in that it is backwards with later posts at the top. I have a few random Namibia posts (2021) before you get to the Zimbabwe stuff.
http://thesmokeofafrica.blogspot.com/