Hemingway's guns

[Stepmac]

Originally Posted by Grantham Forester

...Hemingway both used booze and women to excess, but Hemingway was not a known smoker, Ruark was a two-pack a day Lucky Strike man, and he died from cancer. His friend and PH from Africa was Harry Selby.

God, I loved smoking Luckies. Of course I've quit, hasn't everyone? They don't even make Lucky Strikes anymore, another reason to quit smoking.

[Grantham Forester]

It was not a .470 H&H express. England banned the std .450 Nitro express shell, for fear of the "natives" using it in the older Martini-Henry rifles. W.W. Jeffrey developed the .450 Number 2- that had all the cordite based powder capacity of the std. .450 express, but could NOT be used in those early pre-Enfield army rifles. Phillip Percival had a matched pair of those .450 Nitro Express Number 2- made to order by Joseph Lang & Son in London, in 1927. As both "Green Hills of Africa" and "The Short, Happy Life----" were written circa 1933-1934, Percival would have had those "stoppers" with him. How Hemingway put a George Gibbs Mauser square bridge custom rifle in .505 Gibbs in the hands of his fictional character, PWH Robert Wilson, is unknown to me.

One of Ruark's best known works is "Use Enough Gun" and that big bore Gibbs would certainly quality.

[Stepmac]

Originally Posted by Grantham Forester

It was not a .470 H&H express. England banned the std .450 Nitro express shell, for fear of the "natives" using it in the older Martini-Henry rifles. W.W. Jeffrey developed the .450 Number 2- that had all the cordite based powder capacity of the std. .450 express, but could NOT be used in those early pre-Enfield army rifles. Phillip Percival had a matched pair of those .450 Nitro Express Number 2- made to order by Joseph Lang & Son in London, in 1927. As both "Green Hills of Africa" and "The Short, Happy Life----" were written circa 1933-1934, Percival would have had those "stoppers" with him. How Hemingway put a George Gibbs Mauser square bridge custom rifle in .505 Gibbs in the hands of his fictional character, PWH Robert Wilson, is unknown to me.

One of Ruark's best known works is "Use Enough Gun" and that big bore Gibbs would certainly quality.

Yes, and I read and re-read bits and pieces of Use Enough Gun often. It is a collection of Ruark's articles, the book being published after his death. I think by his heirs.

It is very possible that Hem and Ruark shared PTSD. Ruark, a sailor in the Navy Reserve in the North Sea for much of the War and we know about HEM's war experiences.