Batswana & Firearms (2)

Amongst the technological pioneers in the region was George Nicholson who is known to have experimented at the beginning of the decade with conical shot from America, it being reported by a fellow traveller through eastern Botswana that he had brought down a Blue Wildebeest at over 300 yards with ‘an American rifle 22 bore, with iron points’.

In 1842 the American gun maker Edwin Wesson, had incorporated ballistics advance made by his fellow countryman, Alvin Clark to produce a conical shot rifle that is credited with marking the beginning of the end for smooth bores and ball shot. In the decade that followed commercial production of advanced ballistic designs happened on both sides of the Atlantic.