WDM Bell, elephant and the 6.5X54

[getitdone1]

Here's a subject that will go right to the heart of "86er." (How fortunate we are to have him along.)

Years ago I had a book about the life of perhaps the greatest elephant hunter that ever lived. WDM Bell. Great book. I was amazed at the small bore guns he used to kill those 1500 or so elephants. The 6.5X54 with 160 gr bullet was one and the other was the 7X57 Mauser with 175 gr bullet. Both, long bullets and deep penetrators. Solids, I assume, but maybe just bullets with tough jackets.

Once you get into the subject of the 6.5X54 you'll soon be reading about the great Mannlicher-Shoenauer bolt-action rifle made in Austria. They say it's the smoothest working bolt-action ever made. It also is famous for it's very reliable spool magazine with contributes to it's smooth-working action.

I haven't checked current prices for one of these rifles but I'll bet they are sky-high!

Just wanted to mainly tell the guys here who have not read about this great hunter or this cartridge and gun--highly recommended.

Also looking for responses from people here who know a lot more about these subjects than I do. Welcome all responses, of course.

Don

[Ben_Rumson]

Read both of his books.. Great reading... For camp meat on one of his treks he used a semi auto M96 Mauser pistol with shoulder stock.. Can't recall the caliber.. I think the natives called it "Bom Bom"..I've been a fan of the 7x57 because of Bell...Love my Ruger M77 in the same cal....

[6pt-sika]

I have a pair of Mannlicher Schoenauer rifles at the moment !

Ones a Model 1908 in 8x56MS , this one has a mannlicher stock . The other is a Mannlicher Schoenauer MC half stock rifle in 308 WIN that was made about 1963 .

The 1908 rifle is iron sighted and I have yet to fire it even though it's been in my possesion for about 4 years now .
The 308 however we got last august I believe and that one was used to kill a deer in the 2010 season . I really like the double set trigger on that gun !

[MrMurphy]

Majority of C96's except WW1 production were in 7.63mm Mauser, very flat shooting round and light weight. The 7.62X25mm used in the Tokarev and various Russian SMGs is very similar.


Bell pulled off what he did cause he was an expert shot, and knew his elephant physiology.

[86er]

All accounts on WDM Bell's .284 (American) diameter rifle is that is was a .275 Rigby and was fired with 173 grain copper coated steel jacketed bullets. The 7X57 is a twin for the most part - if you look at Cartridges of the World you can see the slight differences in the two. My 275 will fire form 7X57 brass enough to see the difference. The 6.5 X 54 is a good cartridge too. As you know, it is .264 (American) aka 6.5 Mann-Scho. Bell's rifle was a Fraser lightweight. Most of the bullets were actually 159 grains (American) based on the Eurpoean count of 10.3 grams. I have a client known as "Johnny Yak" from NY that shoots a Mann-Scho that was his grandfathers. He took it to RSA with me and shot Gemsbok, Zebra, Impala and Eland. The Norma factory ammo was alleged to be 159 grain and 2200 fps. The shots were out to 200 yards and it performed adequately. The Zebra took 3 hits in the vitals and travelled 150 yards between the 1st and 2nd shot. At some point approximately 2/3 through the animal the expanded bullet could no longer penetrate straight and went off course. The same thing happened with the Eland, however it stood still after the 1st shot and the 2nd into the front of the shoulder put it down where a finisher was made. I've not seen a lot of other use with this cartridge. I was once pressed to compare the performance I observed from the 6.5 with another mainstream cartridge. With the lighter 139 gr bullet across the board I felt it compared equally to a 7X57, or a 7mm-08 and 260 Remington. With the 159 grain bullet I feel the 7mm-08 edged ahead but the 7X57 doesn't really gain anything on it. Of note, my uncle that is a retired PH used a 270 Winchester as his primary rifle for guiding and professional game collecting (except guiding DG). I recently found out he was shooting the 270 with 160 gr Speer bullets and 160 gr South African made solids at a velocity of 2800 fps from a Sako rifle. This may shed light on PH's propensity to use heavy for caliber bullets even in light rifles and to use them for a lot of their own shooting. However, in contrast the 270 thusly loaded is closer to a 7mm Rem Mag than the cartridges Bell was using.

[Cliff]

I have read his books and get a chuckle when he refers to the .303 british as a large bore. IIRC the only problem with the 6.5X54 he had was bad ammo, it came in sealed cans but was poorly manufactured, he could pull the bullets without effort. He was a crack shot with his guns and used his rifles to drop flying birds and such. I have seen one of his 7mm's, papered as his that was used in Scotland after he retired from hunting. True Rigby Classic, but this about 12 years back and price tag was around 15,000 bucks. Wooden carry case, with all sorts of stuff to service the rifle. I heard his actual elephant count was closer to 5,000. He was in his 20's when he left Africa because of all the problems going on and having to get permits and such. Quite a neat story. ATB

[Yodar]

There is a nice bio on Bell at www.chuckhawks.com. Look for the article entitled "W.D.M. Bell and His Elephants" by James Passmore.

[getitdone1]

Been trying to find-out exactly how many elephants Bell really shot. Ranges from about 1100 to 5000. Wikipedia article says 1500. I no longer have his books and wonder how many Bell said he killed? Seems like I recall he even used a .256 on elephant.

It seems his final choice of the 7mm was due mainly because of the reliability of it's ammo. I read after he retired from hunting he said the ideal elephant gun would be a 30 cal. shooting a 250 gr solid at about 2500 fps. Oughta penetrate for sure.

Also read Bell said he'd never let a soft point bullet touch the bore of his guns. Solids for all game? Sounds like it. I mentioned this preference by some experienced hunters in Africa before. From an old Jim Carmicael (sp?) article I once read. Recall Jim saying something like he had trouble with this choice but these hunters using solids only had tremendous hunting experience.

Bell had a saying that went something like: 100 grain bullet in the right spot is as good as 400.

Lovers of the 250 Savage are likely to agree with Bell. (An extremely efficient cartridge. That is, do a lot for it's size.)

Don

[AkRay]

Maybe Karamojo Bell was smart in another way with his light caliber rifles. I read where Frederick Selous, who used large caliber black powder guns that had tremendous recoil to hunt elephant, had regrets later in his career. He claimed that the recoil of the big guns affected his shooting, even with lighter calibers and that he would rather he hadn't used them so much. He even had a scar over his eye from shooting one of these that a gunbearer had overloaded when he panicked. The recoil broke the stock and the rifle bashed him in the head.

[bj94]

I haven't read any books by Bell but I seem to remember reading what Capstick wrote about him. The story goes that before he shot his first Elephant, someone told him exactly where to aim to hit the brain. After trying this and losing one or more, he managed to kill on and he cut the head in half to see where the brain really was. He studied the anatomy enough to know exactly where to aim to hit the brain.

As for soft points at that time, I've read lots of stories by Elmer Keith about failures of soft points against elk. In those days maybe manufacturers had not perfected the design of good soft point bullets.

[piller]

And it all seems to come back to something I have heard all my life. Know your gun, know your game, and shoot straight. WDM Bell apparently knew all three factors well.

[Canuck Bob]

In his Book, Hunter, by John Hunter he started his African hunting career with a 7X57 Mauser hunting lions in heavy cover with a pack of dogs. Lots of close encounters with angry lions. It is always the same, a cool rifleman goes home for supper when others don't regardless of the caliber.

[pdentrem]

Hunter is a good read! I have included a picture of the cover for those who wish to look for it.

[awp101]

Hunter is a good read! I have included a picture of the cover for those who wish to look for it.

No dog in the fight, but I did find it on Amazon a few minutes ago. Yes, I am an enabler...

[t.r.]

Please read Sam Fadala's book titled Great Shooters of the World. There is a very interesting chapter about Bell.

Another chapter covers Roy Chapman Andrews and there is a photo showing his 6.5mm Mannlicher.

TR

[Rusty]

Several years ago Barnes used to make a 250 grain .30 cal. bullet. I'm not sure if it's made any more. I seem to remember looking for it once and not being able to find it. One article I read on the bullet said you had to go to a 500 grain .45 cal bullet to find one with higher sectional density. I seems like it would penetrate like a knitting needle.

[Carlsen Highway]

Mr Walter Bell shot exactly 1,011 elephants in his time. About 50 of them were cows which he had to shoot because they being difficult or menacing his porters.
He shot about 600-700 buffalo as well, which he used to feed his people, or for the hides which were a good trade article, good for shoe leather and shields. He used a .22 highpower to shoot buffalo as well.

He started out with two .303 Lee Enfields, sporter versions by Fraser, who was a friend of his. He then went to a Mannlicher Schoenauer carbine in 6.5x54 with which he shot 150 elephants, but he gave it up because the rifle was too "delicate".
The best rifle he said he used for elephant hunting was a Mauser actioned rifle in 7x57mm - which is the same thing as the .275 Rigby (Rigby's name for the german cartridge) He said it was most reliable. He bought six of these rifles off Rigby over the years. I believe he used German made military solid ammo in the 7mm/.275 - 173 grain round nose bullets. The ammo was probably cheap. The bulk of his elephant were shot with these rifles.
He also used a double barrelled rifle in .318 Westley Richards, but had a lot of trouble with the english ammo for it, forever splitting cases. (The rifle is now in the hands of a modern collector who reports that the rifle has a headspace issue in one chamber - Bell wouldnt have known that.) This is the rifle he used once to shoot herons in the air flying over a lake, just using up the ammo - which spectators thought he was using a shotgun.
He also used an older model mannlicher in 6.5 (I forget the model) that was loaded with stripper clips, as his camp meat rifle loaded with soft point ammo.
He spent 16 years in Africa elephant hunting, and also shot lions and leopards and so forth.

He shot elephants with the .303, the 6.5x54 mannlicher, the 7x57, the .318 Westelry Richards, the .350 Rigby, the .416 Rigby and the .45/400. He shot most with the 7x57mm, because he like light rifles, the ammunition was reliable, and he didnt like recoil. By the end of his career, he had settled on the .318 Westely Ricahrds as his elephant rifle. He spent his last safari's prior to ww1 and after, using the .318 WR exclusively. Mostly in Mauser rifles, although the last gun he specifically had made for him by Rigby in 1938 intended for elephant, was a take down rifle on a Springfield action in .318. (This rifle was never used - he never made it back to Africa, as WW2 broke out.) He is famous for using the 7x57 on his elephants which is true, he shot 800 with the 7mm, but the .318 WR with a 250 grain solid was a better killer, and it is not hardly ever acknowledged that he settled on the .318 once ammunition became more reliable.
(As an example of how unreliable sporting ammuntion was in those day, he wrote that the most elephants he shot in a day was 19 (with the .318 WR) - and on that day he had 8 misfires out of 38 rounds.
Out of interest the .318 is a .330 bore cartridge that basically is a .30/06 with a .330 bullet. Bell considered that the 8x57 Mauser would do much the same job as well.)

During WW1 he was a fighter pilot and was awarded the MC twice. He ended up being a Captain and squadron leader. He fought in Africa, the Balkans and France. He was invalided out pior to the end of the war "due to his old african deseases" he said, meaning malaria. (However I have seen his discharge certificate, and it says nervous athsma. in other words he was invalided home because of PTSD / Shell shock.)
He went back to Africa with one of his friends from the RFC, shooting for ivory in West AFrica. Later he went on one of the first motor safaris with his American friends, the Forbes, and managaed to travel from East Africa to Egypt by vehicle, despite these countries having no roads.

He retired from elephant hunting (in 1923) and by that time the price of ivory had fallen, and many of the countries he used to shoot in had enacted game laws which prevented market hunting for ivory the way he had been. Plus he was now married - in 1919 he had married a aristocratic socialite wife and they lived on his estate called Corriemollie in Scotland. Throughout the 20's and 30's he hunted red stags up there and wrote about shooting them with a .220 Swift, (a scoped Winchester model 70) advocating the neck shot in a magazine article. He also spent his time racing sailing yachts across the atlantic. In later age, he used to hunt rabbits on his grounds.
He wrote an article for American Rifle article said that he would use the Winchester model 70 in .308 winchester if he could go back to africa.

He wrote that all his shooting in his younger days (ie in Africa) was done with open sights, v rear sight and front sight bead. In later years he went to using a peep sight on his deer rifles, and was an early advocate of the 'ghost ring' peep sights. By the middle thirties he was using a scope on his .275 Rigby and his .220 Swift for stalking red deer.

The Mannlicher Schoenauer is a wonderful rifle and I had a 'mannlicher' stocked version from the late fifteis in .270 caliber. It gave you the feeling of handling a fine double rifle, the fit and fnish was great. the rotary action is a bit of a marvel. I loved pushing the cartridge release button and have the mag spin all the cartridges up out of the top into my hand! And yes, you could literally tilt the barrel towards the ground and the action was so smooth it would slide closed and lock itself.

Sadly my rifle had a pitted owrn out barrel and would not shoot at all. I had to get rid of it to a collector who didnt care how it went since its virturally impossible to rebarrel the particular model that it was.
I would dearly love a full stocked 1903/1908 carbine in 6.5x54. One day I swear, I will have one.

[Rusty]

All sounds reasonable except Bell died in '51 and the .308 Winchester wasn't introduced till '52?

I think it is enough to say he likes light recoiling rounds that he could place with surgical precision.

[pdentrem]

It would not be a stretch that Winchester could of been in contact officially or unofficially with Bell during the process of designing the cartridge for his opinion? It can take a couple years to go from idea to preproduction and then official release. It has happened before where people had been using something before the rest of us even knew about it. Ruger's #1 was tested by an assortment of different people prior to final design and production for example.

[Carlsen Highway]

They sent out rifles for field tests and market analysis in 1951. Bell wouldnt have used one but probably read about it.
What it does indicate is that right up untill the end Mr Bell was aware of current developments on the shooting scene.
(Either that or the magazine writer tacked on a plug for Winchester's new cartridge being as how the interview was published posthumously!)

[Carlsen Highway]

Actually, he died in 1954 I have discovered. And the quote about going to back to Africa and using a Winchester 70 in .308 comes from his own article that he wrote about "Small Bores and Big Bores" which was published the same year. He liked the Winchester plainly and wrote favourably about it in another article about the .220 Swift and the neck shot on red deer.

[El Chivo]

Another chapter covers Roy Chapman Andrews and there is a photo showing his 6.5mm Mannlicher.

TR

When I was a kid, this guy wrote the definitive dinosaur book(s), I remember his name. Didn't know about hunting, but he was a paleontologist or writer.

[BAGTIC]

Been trying to find-out exactly how many elephants Bell really shot. Ranges from about 1100 to 5000. Wikipedia article says 1500. I no longer have his books and wonder how many Bell said he killed? Seems like I recall he even used a .256 on elephant.

Don

Bell's .256 was actually a .264 (6.5 mm). It was designated under the old system of naming after the bore diameter rather than the bullet diameter.

[allhands]

Having read tons of books since our return from Africa, by all the famous hunters, it is truly amazing that more of them weren't killed. As to the 7x57. I too took one to Africa and using 175 grain Hornady round nose soft points handloaded with 4064 and chrono'd at 2400 fps, they are Thors Hammer on game!!! We took impala, gemsbock and zebra from 90 yds to 136 yards and everything hit dropped DRT. I have now gone to all round nose bullets in all my rifles. I shot my deer this year at 55 yards with a 30-06 using 180 Hornady round nose and it dropped stone dead. John "pandoro" Taylor in his book,"African Rifles and CArtridges" Has some interesting takes on bullets, but his preference was always a bullet with parallel sides and,"little lead showing at the tip". That being said, he did his writing in the 30's and 40's so his choices were few.

86er....have you read the story of Walter Johnson, "The LAst Ivory Hunter" by Peter CApstick HAthaway? Johnson shot his first 25-30 lions, some of which were charging, with a Winchester 30-30!!!!!

[Charles]

There are people who become legends. They become legends by doing exceptional things, in exceptional ways, often with exceptional tools. I ain't one of them!

[Arminius]

Warning Post:

If you go for a Mannlicher, take care to get one without Cuts in the action for scope mounting ...

These are considered unsafe.

Soldering and glueing is ok, but no deep cuts!

Hermann