9th Child-
Thanks. I believe that if you read Ruark's African novels, you'll find that he easily eclipses Hemingway. I think he hunted mainly quail in the Carolinas before his first safari about 1952-53. I have, "Horn of the Hunter", and it dates from that period. His then-wife Virginia went with him and seemed to enjoy it. His admiration for their white hunter Harry Selby made Selby famous, and he and Ruark became good friends. Selby and other Kenya whites opened the book on Mau-Mau to Ruark, and the details of their oathing ceremonies in, "Something of Value" are very authentic, although disgusting. His sources were police discoveries and the personal accounts of white hunters who took time off as police reservists and stalked Mau-Mau terrorists on their own grounds, often deep in the Aberdare forests around Mt. Kenya. This is a compelling book that will forever change the way you view African politicians. But it is also the story of the settlers in Kenya and their way of life and a wonderful study of wlld animals and how some were hunted then.
The sequels, "Uhuru!" and, "The Honey Badger" are also excellent and are well worth seeking out. Some libraries may still have copies, or Amazon and other Online sources sell them. The public has forgotten these bestsellers and prices are usually not high.
Ruark was also a Naval officer in WW II and esorted convoys across the Atlantic, braving horrible weather and U-boat packs to bring supplies to beleagured Britain. He spent time in London, and this led to his short story, "Sheila" in, "Playboy". I won't spoil it for you, in case you can find a copy of that issue and read it. But it's a danged good wartime romance that will leave you sad and informed.
BTW, he had some experience of divorce that led him to compare modern Americn women to the savage honey badger/ratel. He said that a furious honey badger is like an angry woman in that she/it aims straight for the male groin. He also authored a series of newspaper columns that were combined in a book, "Women."
He had great powers of observation and a droll sense of humor. I think you'll like him. He used basically a better version of Hemingway's style and was frankly a better writer, I believe.
Also of interest if you read, "Something of Value" (which is far better than the pretty good movie starring Rock Hudson) is, "Man-Hunt in Kenya", by Inspector Ian Henderson, GM. This describes Mau-Mau, in particular the intense hunt for a terrorist leader named Dedan Kimathi, who strangled and otherwise murdered a great many people. Henderson created gangs of pseudo terrorists who he turned from their Mau-Mau paths and led back into the forests after their own kind. He was awarded the coveted George Medal for his gallantry.
I think the odds of Hemingway having a .357 Colt are slim, although possible. The S&W pre-27 is far more likely. His .303 was almost surely a sporter based on the Lee-Enfield action. This is normally what people meant then when they say they hunted with a .303. BSA and even the famous London "Best" makers turned these out, some built on Lee-Metford and Lee-Enfield cavalry carbine actions. You can spot those, because they had the bolt handle flattened, probably to make them lie trimmer in a saddle scabbard. Others had conventional bolt handles, and some were supplied with five-shot magazines, although many would also still take the ten-round military magazine. The latter was a good thing to have if facing hostile natives or a pride of lions. John Alfred Jordan and many other early African hunters used these .303 sporters as light rifles. Many were sighted for the later (post-1907) MK VII load, with a higher velocity 174 grain bullet. Softnosed hunting ammo was available as well as surplus military "ball." These were very good for most game up to and (under ideal conditions) including large antelopes, and many lion and other dangerous animals were killed with .303's, although heavier rifles were preferred for really big game. It was often cheaper to buy a Lee sporter than a Mauser-actioned one, and that appealed to many settlers and occasional hunters. W.D.M. Bell used a .303 as well as a 6.5mm Mannlicher and a .318 Westley Riichards before settling largely on his famed .275 Rigby for hunting elephants! He also killed a lot of antelope for camp meat, and buffalo, etc. He did use heavy rifles, but found them not to be any real advantage and they were heavy and the ammo was very expensive.
One must realize that Bell was a superb marksman who studied the anatomy of his prey in great detail. He also hunted largely undisturbed elephant herds, very unlike modern conditions.
If Hemingway was your outdoor inspiration, there are many better authors for that role. This is especially true of authors on hunting in Africa and India. In recent times, I can recommend the books and videos by Peter Hathaway Capstick. Peter was as drolly humorous in person as he was in print. I once sent him a cartoon showing two hyenas outside a safari tent. A sign by the tent read, The Millers. One hyena said to the other, "It's Miller time!" Peter loved it and thanked me on one of those blue fold-up letters that came with a colorful South African stamp. I saved it in one of his books. In a review, I called him, "the principal chronicler of safari lore today", a comment quoted in the blurbs in the paperback edition of, "Death in the Silent Places." His untimely death came while under open heart surgery in Pretoria, not from a lion or snake in the bush. We are poorer for his loss.
If Hemingway let a wounded buffalo escape, that is not acceptable behavior for a hunter in Africa. Normally, if the client lacks the courage or the skill to follow up a wounded animal, his white hunter is obligated to get it. Wasn't his hunter Phillip Percival, who took out Theodore Roosevelt about 1909? BTW, for PC reasons, a white hunter is now known as a professional hunter. Tony Dyer (Maybe Brian Hearne ?) wrote a good book about the lives of several. Those guys and Jim Corbett and Dr. Roy C. Andrews were my boyhood heroes. I never gave a fig for football stars. Still don't. Once I've seen the cheerleader calendars, that's my football for the season... And I admire many military heroes, past and present.
You don't have to read everything that Hemingway wrote to begin reading Ruark. Hunt up his best books now. I think you'll be very glad that you did. Oh: Ruark mentions some of his rifles in books and he also had some like those that his characters owned. As for pistols, he got away from the Navy with his .45 auto and a typewriter. He was later billed for both, and paid. He must have really wanted to keep the .45! And in an article, he told of shooting a German in an Italian alley with a P-38 that he'd acquired somehow. I don't know why a Naval officer was fighting on the ground in Italy. Ruark ended the war in the Pacific. He began his literary career while in the Navy, telling of his experiences and of harrowing convoy duty when the sub packs were still very active. He had been in newspapers before the war. (Hemingway said that newspaper work would not hurt a young writer...as long as he got out of it soon enough! I agree. After publishing about 4,000 magazine and newspaper articles, I am now working on my first novel, and the styles of writing are quite different.
