A quote and testament

Griz44Mag said:

Most of us older folks have silver colored fillings, and yes, they contain toxic heavy metals.
I got mine as a young teen, and since I have only made it to my my upper 60's, I am waiting to see if it has poisoned me...
Shooting heavy loads has made me a better shooter. You learn to hang on to your sight picture and follow through.
But that's just me, I am a recoil junkie....

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Played hockey in my younger years. Teeth with silver filling were knocked out years ago.

That will teach you to quit eating pucks!
So which was more dangerous, the mercury laden fillings or the game of hockey?

Griz44Mag said:

Most of us older folks have silver colored fillings, and yes, they contain toxic heavy metals.
I got mine as a young teen, and since I have only made it to my my upper 60's, I am waiting to see if it has poisoned me...
Shooting heavy loads has made me a better shooter. You learn to hang on to your sight picture and follow through.
But that's just me, I am a recoil junkie....

Click to expand...

Oh course it's poisoned you, that's why you can't think straight, lol!

The Pacific Zephyr company builds their underhammer rifles in large calibers (well, small compared to the ones being talked about here) that use forsyth rifling (1:108 twist) in .62 and .72 calibers. They use 175-250 grains of blackpowder. This reportedly gives a velocity at 120 yards of over 1000 fps, with a drop of 2.7" for the 20 bore and 6.3" for the 12 bore.

Those big guns are pretty impressive, and more so the men who repeatedly shot them!

Actually have a reference book from the 1950s/60s that recommend using mercury at a quench when heat treating steel. Bet that little puff of smoke was good for what ails you.

Like Griz, I had 4 fillings made out of amalgam, the last installed by the U.S.Navy. They are long gone, I still have 17 teeth. The hardened bullets were used to achieve penetration without deformation, crucial when shooting large beasts like elephant. I understand the thinnest part of an elephant's skull, head on, is about 8 inches thick. I used to load shotshells with shot hardened with arsenic. My oldest sister Mignon died at about 2 years old from eating a piece of bread laced with arsenic placed by a neighbor for ants. She went out the back door and entered the screened in porch next door, where she found the bread. This was about 1934.

Was this the same 4 Bore that finally split in two at the wrist giving him that nasty scar on his face?

Edit

I remember reading of the incident while still in high school almost 50 years ago. Here is post accident photo with the 4 bore after the wrist had been repaired with wire wrap. Scar is visible too!

Hello Einsiedler, I don't know.

Iirc Sir Baker had a 2 bore named "baby" that he used sparingly as the recoil was said to spin him around like a top.

Einsiedler said:

Was this the same 4 Bore that finally split in two at the wrist giving him that nasty scar on his face?

Edit

I remember reading of the incident while still in high school almost 50 years ago. Here is post accident photo with the 4 bore after the wrist had been repaired with wire wrap. Scar is visible too!

Click to expand...

Could have been. He lost a couple guns due to some theft, and doesn't really go on much about which gun is which when he talks about shooting them, other than to indicate at one point that he has a preference for one of the two he has with him. But doesn't really indicate which one is which.
I'll have to go back and read the incident again where he gained his scar. I have this nagging voice in my head telling me that that gun broke at more than the wrist and was unrepairable.

I just love the old Safari books, Selous, WMD Bell, Roosevelt and others. Of course the modern Aagard, Capstick, even Boddington. All great reads.

Maybe, someday.........

I have Stuart Edward White's African series that is a good read, too.

I must admit, as much as I like the writing style of the old books on Africa, love the descriptions of the landscape and the animals, and am entertained by some of the descriptions of the people involved,,,,,,,,,,,,
the wanton waste and lack of what we now call hunter ethics makes me sick to my stomach sometimes.

Fredrick Courtney Selous bought two duck guns which he used fireing ball on Elephants For want of better . On one occasion his boy double charged one that gave a powerful blow both ends Wrist repairs where common with sheet iron and Elephant private parts used for strengthening & repairs . He regretted the battering these light guns gave him preffering his favourite 461 Falling block unmentionable in later life .' You can kill anything on earth with a 461' he wrote . I once picked one up from Christies and walked to the Tower Buildings to get the export permit right past the Palace . Non of todays paranoia. Carried express rounds & Dirk blades in a Gladstone bag in the overhead locker , seen Swords just wrapped in brown paper dealers carried pistols on the plane with them normaly in the cabin different world today . Rudyard