WDM Bell used (according to his own writing) four main calibers on African elephants:
a) 7x57mm Mauser ( Rifle was a John Rigby & Co. Model 1. Ammunition was DWM manufactured 173Gr military surplus round nosed steel jacketed FMJ solids.)- Approximately 800 out of his 1011 elephants fells to this caliber. But Bell didn’t actually prefer this caliber the most. He only used it because the ammunition was far more reliable than British sporting ammunition. He also cites it’s drawbacks when taking quartering away brain shots at elephants.
b) .303 British (Rifle was a sporterized military surplus Lee Enfield. Ammunition was British military surplus 215Gr round nosed cupronickel jacketed FMJ solids)- He killed an unspecified number of elephants with this caliber, but didn’t fancy the rifles too much as they were inaccurate.
c) 6.5x54 mm Rimless Mannlicher Schoenauer ( Rifle was an original Mannlicher Schoenauer Model 1903, which was stocked by Daniel Fraser. Ammunition was Austrian military surplus 168Gr round nosed cupronickel jacketed FMJ solids)- Bell killed EXACTLY one dozen elephants with this caliber. All on one day. But he gave it up after a round misfired and jammed in the breech of his rifle. The Austrian ammunition had loose necks. Also, the 168Gr FMJ solids which he recovered from those 12 elephant were all bent into long hook like shapes. So he stopped using it on elephants, henceforth.
d) .318 Westley Richards (Rifle was a Westley Richards take down model, which was interestingly enough built on a Springfield Model 1903 action. Ammunition was ICI Kynoch 250Gr round nosed cupronickel jacketed FMJ solids)- This was Bell’s favorite caliber of all time. But until 1912, he was unable to acquire any good consignments of reliable ammunition for this caliber. From 1912 onwards, he was able to source reliable .318 Westley Richards ammunition. From that moment onwards, he ditched his 7x57mm Mauser in favor of the .318 Westley Richards exclusively ( for his African safaris, anyway).
To conclude, the .318 Westley Richards was Bell’s preferred caliber for elephants. But the 7x57mm Mauser is the caliber with which he successfully downed the bulk of his elephants. If you study the pattern in his ammunition choices, then it becomes evident that Bell was always fond of using military surplus ammunition (at least, as long as militaries still preferred the old fashioned round nosed solid). Mainly because it was more affordable, widely accessible and available in bulk (it must be remembered that Safari Outdoor didn’t exist in Africa in the early 1900s!). At least, this was the case until 1912 … When he finally started getting access to reliable stocks of .318 Westley Richards ammunition. In his first book, he also specifically voiced a strong distrust towards British sporting ammunition. He found that barring .303 British military surplus ammunition, all other makes of British ammunition lacked 100% reliability.
Towards the end of his life, he speculated that if he were to return to Africa again… He would take a Winchester Model 70 in .308 Winchester. Along with a spare barrel in .318 Westley Richards. He would take along monolithic solids for the .308 Winchester barrel. And traditional steel jacketed jacketed 250Gr FMJ solids for the .318 Westley Richards barrel (Kynoch began to replace the cupronickel jackets of their FMJ solid bullets with steel jackets in 1950 at the suggestion of James Purdey & Co.). The tried and true .318 Westley Richards barrel would be his backup, in case the .308 Winchester was not performing satisfactorily. He preferred the .308 Winchester to the .30-06 Springfield, because of it’s shorter bolt throw.
@fourfive8 does anybody offer factory loaded solids for the .338-06 ? WDM Bell never struck me as a man who would be handloading.
