Harry Selby's sidearm of choice

[Mike Leonard]

Interesting article in the new American Rifleman, world renowned African Professional Hunter Harry Selby who carried a Colt Woodsman 22 on his hip for years. Harry loved the slick little semi-auto and used it to pot small game, and also to finish off wounded game animals at times.

I personally have had a love affair with this model and have carried one for years while on the trap line or following my hounds in rugged country after cougar.

Although not ideal at times the best tool is the one you have at hand and can use well and I recall once when I had to dispatch a very angry and wounded black bear that had been shot by another hunter in a non-vital place. I would have much preferred a big bore handgun or better yet a rifle the ever present Woodsman was up to the task and dropped the bruin as he savaged hounds on the ground in front of me. a tiny .22 pill at the base of the head and spine ended the ordeal. As the old saying goes ( better than a sharp stick).

My wife used the same gun to kill with one shot I may add a large mountain lion bayed by the hounds last season. And yes rimfires were legal where we were hunting. She was amazed at how lethal a high speed 22 hollowpoint can be. She shoots very well and thus another old saying ; put the pill where the pain is certainly works.

 

[CAustin]

I hunted for years with a retired USFW officer who passed away last year at the age of 85. He told me that as a youngster during WW2 and for a time after the war he helped to feed his family by hunting. Meat was going to the war effort and so the ability to take to the woods and provide meat for the table was a skill much appreciated. All he had was a 22 single shot rifle! My friend killed many deer, hogs, coons, rabbits, and turkey with just the 22. Because of his experience with the 22 He shot animals In The head when ever he could and even as an adult he only used a 6.5 Sweed to deer hunt. All the deer I ever helped him with were shot through the head. Never waste meat he said!

 

[TallGrassHunter]

Same sidearm Hemingway carried, although other than himself I think he mostly shot fish with it.

 

[cpr0312]

Thanks for sharing, Ill have to try to check out the article

 

[Bullthrower338]

Same sidearm Hemingway carried, although other than himself I think he mostly shot fish with it.

I believe Hemingway used one of his favorite shotguns at his home in Ketchum, ID. His wife claimed he was cleaning it. Investigators called it "quite deliberate". But a fine author he was!

 

[Mike Leonard]

Rather difficult to shoot yourself while cleaning a side by side double so I believe it was quite deliberate. For years people claimed that Papa Hemingway did himself in with a 12 gauge Boss shotgun. But a local welder in Ketchum actually cut the gun up into pieced after the funeral and he still had a few parts of it and on inspection it was found to be a W. & C Scott long barreled 12 gauge that Hemingway use to use at live pigeon shoots in Cuba.

 

[TallGrassHunter]

I believe Hemingway used one of his favorite shotguns at his home in Ketchum, ID. His wife claimed he was cleaning it. Investigators called it "quite deliberate". But a fine author he was!

You are correct, a Boss that was then cut to pieces and buried on Mary's orders. Hem shot his own legs while fishing on the Pilar.

Just read Mike's account, so there is some question. I always read Boss and just repeated it.

 

[The Bongo]

Deer are often poached using a moderated .22LR and .22LR subsonics.

I use the CCI segmenting subs on small game and foxes, you just hear the hammer spring and a load 'thwunk.' I am sure by their performance on fox that they would work on a muntjac or chinese water deer. The new 42gr Winchester hollow nose subs are pretty impressive too.

Never underestimate the worlds favourite round!

 

[TallGrassHunter]

The .22 is also a favorite of the Mossad.

 

[Royal27]

My grandfather had a Woodsman that my father still has. It was the first pistol I ever shot. My father has given me and the son in laws all of the his firearms, except this one. Not sure why he's hung onto it when not the others, but he has.

Well, and he also refuses to give me my Benjamin .177 air rifle back, but that's his squirrel rifle now, so I understand.

 

[Ray B]

I see on the news that the kid that killed the five people in the Burlington, WA USA department store used a Ruger 10/22. It wasn't noted how many times he shot any of the victims.

 

[Mike Leonard]

When Ernest Hemingway took his own life on July 2, 1961, it was reported in Life magazine that he had done so with a “double-barreled shotgun.” Further reports specified the gun was a Boss that he had purchased from Abercrombie & Fitch, and for years this has been widely accepted as fact. But a fascinating new book, Hemingway’s Guns, by Silvio Calabi, Steve Helsley, and Roger Sanger (Shooting Sportsman Books), makes the case that Hemingway never owned a Boss, and that the suicide gun was actually made by W. & C. Scott & Son. It was Hemingway’s pigeon gun, a long-barreled side-by-side that traveled with him from shooting competitions in Cuba to duck hunts in Italy to a safari in East Africa. By all accounts it was a favorite.

Not long after that tragic day in Ketchum, Idaho, the gun was given to a local welder to be destroyed. “The stock was smashed and the steel parts cut up with a torch,” the authors write. “The mangled remnants were then buried in a field.” Roger Sanger visited the welding shop, which is still in business and being run by the grandson of the original proprietor. Amazingly, the welder still had a few pieces of the gun in a matchbox, and Sanger’s immediate reaction to the evidence was, “This is no Boss.” After showing pictures to a number of experts and collectors, he confirmed that it was most likely Hemingway’s beloved W. & C. Scott that had been the suicide

 

[TallGrassHunter]

Hello Mike, wanted to give this a pause so as not to interfere with any ongoing discussion. I would have to say I'm more inclined to rely on the first hand account of the day rather than a 50 year delayed speculation whose catalyst is publicity to promote one's publishing. I would think that a correction of account would have been issued by those in attendance with firsthand knowledge. I further suspect the "grandson" would not have been among those in attendance nor would probably know id Mary sent one or all of Hem's shotguns for destruction, but I would rely on the acting police authority to provide an accurate description of the weapon. Certainly he would have been capable of reading a name off a barrel. Just my 2 cents but one would be hard pressed to count the amount of "authors" that attempt to make themselves known off of Hemingway. As Hem said:

"That is what we are supposed to do when we are at our best - make it all up - but make it up so truly that later it will happen that way.

 

[Mike Leonard]

TallGrassHunter,

Very well said and thank you.

As Ernst retorted in the Green Hills writing or living for that matter without an active and passionate imagination produced little but slop as he put it.

Maisha marefu!