Sir Samuel Baker
Sir Samuel Baker
Baker and his lovely bride.
Long before Elmer ever thought about strapping on a big-bore sixgun, there was Sir Samuel Baker. An aristocratic explorer of English descent, he was born in 1821, well into the Victorian era. Baker was educated and trained as a railroad engineer. While in his mid-20s, his work brought him to Ceylon, now known as Sri Lanka, to expand the railroad.
A large island southeast of the southern tip of India, Ceylon offered Baker opportunity to hunt dangerous beasts for excitement, namely elephant and buffalo, during his eight years there.
Baker was a large, powerful man with a sense for adventure. His stature was necessary to enable him to accurately handle the guns he so favored to hunt with. Baker’s guns were not described by caliber, but rather ounces, as to the weight of the projectiles they fired.
Baker is responsible for the ultimate big bore superlative — “Bullet diameter and weight are constant, velocity is the ever-diminishing variable.” These words leave no room for confusion for whence Baker stood.
Maximum Big Bores
Modern riflemen would shirk from Baker’s choice of rifles simply from their sheer massiveness in both weight and power. Describing his rifles, he stated, “My battery consists of one 4-oz. rifle (single barrel) weighing 21 lbs., and four double-barrel rifles, each weighing 15 lbs.” Four ounces being the weight of the projectile, pushed by 16 drams of black powder, which equates to over 436 grains of powder.
Baker had a penchant for shooting guns capable of large charges of black powder and propelling heavy projectiles at moderate velocities. Sounds like a familiar recipe for success, eh?
A bearded beast of a man, Sir Samuel Baker was
certainly not politically correct by today’s standards.
Baby Cakes
One of Baker’s favorite rifles he referred to as “Baby,” a 2-bore muzzleloader though locals called it “child of a cannon.” Two-bore rifles fire either spherical balls in muzzleloaders or slugs of hardened lead in modern metallic cartridges. Additionally, solid bronze projectiles have been used. The nominal bore is 1.326″ (33.7 mm), and projectiles generally weigh 8 oz. Yes, a half-pound of lead! Imagine the recoil and thump provided on both ends of the exiting ball.
The velocity was relatively low, around a mere 1,500 feet per second at the muzzle but developed approximately 17,500 ft/lb. muzzle energy. Can you imagine shooting a ½-lb. lead projectile at 1,500 FPS? Talk about a real man!
Baby weighed a few ounces over 20 lbs. Baker states, “I had an extraordinary rifle that carried a half-pound percussion shell … it only weighed 20 lbs., thus with a charge often of drachms of powder … the recoil was so terrific that I spun around like a weathercock in a hurricane. I really dreaded my own rifle … I seldom fired it, but it is a curious fact that I never shot afire with that rifle without bagging.
This rifle was made by Holland & Holland of Bond Street, and I could highly recommend it for the Goliath of Gath, but not for the men of A.D. 1866.
After killing his quarry, Baker performed autopsies, studying wound channel and bullet behavior. He concluded round balls were more deadly in stopping charges of dangerous game, stating conical projectiles make too neat a wound and are apt to glance after striking a bone.
Sir Samuel was also a pioneer in experimenting with rifling rates of twist, having rifles built to his specifications. He determined large diameter balls propelled with heavy charges of black powder required slower twist rates with deep grooves. This was later called Forsyth rifling. Through experimentation, he surmised fast twist rates combined with shallow grooves would promote the ball to “trip over the rifling” — meaning the ball rips across rather than engaging the lands, adversely affecting accuracy.
Drawing portrayal of Baker’s buffalo hunt using pocket change for the last shot.
Keep The Change?
One of Baker’s most popular stories involves shooting a buffalo after a long stalk, shooting at it numerous times until he discovered he was out of projectiles.
Baker states, “I took a quick but steady aim at his chest, at the point of connection with the throat. The smoke of the barrel passed to one side — there he stood — he had not flinched.” A stream of blood indicated he had hit within an inch of his point of aim.
Baker then shot him with the left-hand barrel, aiming at the same hole. The second shot increased the flow of blood but only adds luster in the buffalo’s eye.
At this point, Baker had not a single ball remaining. Baker adds, “I dared not turn to retreat, as I knew he would immediately charge … I began to think buffalo-shooting was somewhat dangerous. With another short grunt, the bull again advanced a couple of paces. He seemed aware of my helplessness, being the picture of rage and fury, pawing the water and stamping violently with his forefeet.”
Baker suddenly had a thought flash through his mind. He poured a double charge of powder down the right-hand barrel and tore off a piece of his shirt. He took all the money from his pouch, three shillings in sixpenny pieces, and two anna pieces, all coins. He quickly made them into a “rouleau” with the piece of rag, ramming them down the barrel. The bull again springs forward, now seven paces from him. Baker responds, “I awaited his onset with comparative carelessness, still keeping my eyes opposed to his gaze.”
With horns lowered, their points on either side of him, the muzzle of the gun barely touched the buffalo’s forehead when Baker pulled the trigger and three shillings’ worth of small change rattled into his hard head! “Down he went, rolling over from the suddenly checked momentum of his charge!”
Hit The Books
Baker wrote several books of his exploits. If you enjoy reading about the Victorian days of hunting with large black powder rifles, dogs and large knives, investigate Sir Samuel Baker. You won’t be disappointed.
