Bill Ruger's Gorilla

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mec

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This was a stuffed gorilla used in advertising the Ruger .44 magnum "Deer stalker" carbine. There was a magazine article that went with it. At that time gorillas had not morphed into the harmless, fuzzy ( WOOOppps! offended a vegan and maybe a leftist or two) they are today but the magazine article went out of its way to assasinate the character of this particular anthropoid. They said that he was 80 years old and so mean and viscious that the other gorillas had thrown him out of the tribe. When shot throgh the chest with the .44 mag, he was allegedly stalking the hunter about to jump out from behind a tree and croak him.

I suspect that today that Gorilla is carefully hidden -possibly in a crate in the basement of Misquetonic University.
 
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FWIW, Mec - you didn't offend me at all. My :scrutiny: was posted because to me, your OP didn't make much sense.

And yeah, it is "Miskatonic".

That's all. No need to edit your post on my account. :D
 
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Something like this except with a gorilla instead of boar?

ruger-44-carbine.jpg
 
Fella's;

May take me a while to get the info, but I've got a good line to explore.

900F
 
I'm remembering it was not a stuffed gorrila.
Maybe it was stuffed later, but it wasn't stuffed for the add photo.

It was a real dead gorilla, hanging on a rope by it's arms in a real tree, in a real jungle, with the real hunter who killed it standing beside it.

I didn't think it was too PC when the add came out, and that was before PC!

Pretty sure I've got the add in an old G&A annual around here somewhere.

rc
 
I've found it! Can't copy it from this site but it's actually for sale here:

http://store.valueweb.com/servlet/vintagepaperads/-strse-14852/1963-Ruger-.44-Magnum/Detail

FRANK DELANO/RETURNING TWA TODAY AFTER 23 DAY SAFARI IN GABON/COMMISSIONED BY LOS ANGELES COUNTY MUSEUM TO COLLECT RARE LOWLAND GORILLA/HE CLAIMS IT WAS HIS TOUGHEST HUNG/AFTER WEEK TRACKING SUCCEEDED IN KILLING 450-500 LB. LONE GORILLA ESTIMATED 50-80 YRS. OLD. DELANO IS ONLY AMERICAN TO HAVE KILLED THIS TYPE ANIMAL. GORILLA VERY DANGEROUS AND INTELLIGENT/FAST AS LEOPARD/STRONG AS 14 MEN/WITH TERRIFYING CRY. TRAVELLED IN CANOE TO GORILLA COUNTRY WITH EXCELLENT TRACKERS. STALKED ANIMALS IN SWAMPS AND RAIN FOREST UP TO CHEST/USED RUGER .44 MAGNUM CARBINE
Click to expand...

etc etc.

Wow, that ad sure isn't PC! LOL But 1963 was a long time ago I suppose. As noted this animal was barely known and had never been hunted by an American before.

The poor beast appears to be cheering on a recent goal or touchdown.
 
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Weren't some of the problems with "the dark continent" from misbegotten and fatally-ending encounters with low-land gorillas, who were able to coax the white hunters into firing their one and only shot from the cap and ball smokepoles they were carrying before dismembering the humans?

This goes WAY back. No, I wasn't there. However, the dearth of survivors is part of why the stories of the "man-ape" were not always accepted as being true, or describing a real animal.

Not all [ETA:] gorillas are the same.

also adding--the above was written while the immediately-above post specifying lowland gorillas was being posted. I READ Leakey's magazine articles and articles written about him, before his daughter took over. They were hanging out with the much more mellow mountain gorillas.

Remember, King Kong was from only a few miles from the beach. Definitely a grumpy lowlander!
 
Yep! That's it all right.

Guess I can quit looking through old G&A annuals for it now!

Thanks CoRoMo!

rc
 
That's a good point re. the different gorilla groups. But given the VERY poor standards of taxonomy that prevailed back in the day, it's also possible the descriptions were of large and aggressive chimps. Gorillas put on a good show but AFAIK they've never exhibited anything akin to bloodlust and they don't orchestrate planned assaults. Chimps most certainly do, both in the wild and captivity.
 
You guys found it! Buried for a half century. I want to say rugr had one stuffed but maybe not, that is the picture I half-remembered.
 
No thanks to me! Thanks to Cosmoline because I only used his link to post the image here! I've heard so much about this picture/ad, for so many years, and I've done my own looking in the net, but have never found it, and I've never laid eyes on it until today.

Anyone know what year it was that this hunter took that beast?

p.s.
I have an old National Geographic issue from the fifties that has an ad, offering a 7-day Africa trip for a couple hundred dollars!
 
There was another picture showing a live gorilla with arms outspread. I don't believe it was an actual photo but a promo artistic rendering. It was in the early 60's and also promoted the .44 Ruger carbine. My wife says I'm probably wrong........
But that's my story and I'm sticking to it.
 
As I recall gunzine articles of the day, they had to pull the gas piston and let him use the Ruger as a straight pull bolt action to get it licensed in Africa. Can't have a Yank running around with an automatic weapon, you know.
 
63 sounds about right to me. The ruger carbine was one of the guns they announced a year or so before it actually came out. I don't know when the gorilla entered the equation.
 
Jim Watson said:
As I recall gunzine articles of the day, they had to pull the gas piston and let him use the Ruger as a straight pull bolt action to get it licensed in Africa. Can't have a Yank running around with an automatic weapon, you know.
Click to expand...
You are correct sir; in the 1963 Gun Digest there’s an article titled The Ruger Carbine in Africa by Pete Kuhlhoff that mentions the modification.
 
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What was the gorilla stuffed with? I think I would like a Bell's Seasoned corn bread stuffing with a thick giblets gravy. Nice article and pic!
 
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