EXTRAORDINARY, HISTORIC DANIEL FRASIER MANNLICHER RIFLE WITH TAKE DOWN ACTION MADE FOR BRITISH BARONET & FRIEND OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT, SIR ALFRED PEASE, IN THE EARLY 1890’S

If you are in any way interested, go to the link below for the complete, 29-minute, uncut version of the “Shooting USA – Histories Guns” video interview that ran on The Outdoor Channel a few months ago.

Weight: 7 1/2 Lbs. Stock: 14 1/2” LOP. Superb 26” steel barrel with excellent bore and very precise open sights consisting of a single fixed 100 yd. rear sight with 3 folding leaves out to 400 yd., and a tiny spirit level like those found on the best long range target rifles of an earlier era. The ramp front sight has a very thin blade with a tiny round porcelain dot affixed to the rear, and a larger flip-up twilight bead. In addition, there is a Lyman folding, windage and elevation adjustable, peep sight located just behind the rear tang of the action that, when brought into play, brings the rear sight, front sight, and target all into near perfect focus at the same time! Now, for most of us old-timers who grew up using open sights, that over-simplified explanation will be superfluous, however, I have been around enough to realize there are lots of younger folks hunting out there who have never had to depend on anything other than scopes. Well, enough of that …. the point I want to make is that this little rifle has the best configuration of open sights I have had the pleasure of shooting in recent memory, perhaps ever, and, assuming proper lighting conditions, I would not hesitate to use it on certain types of game out to 200 yards. The silky smooth action is fitted with a “Fraser Patent” trigger group which incorporates an ingenious and mechanically rather simple intercepting safety sear which I have never before seen on a bolt action rifle. Barrel “take-down” is accomplished by removing the large knurled set screw in the left side of the action, then unscrewing the barrel from the action. The highly figured stock, with game log carved into the right side, records 36 species of game, 100 animals, harvested with this rifle between 1900 and 1909 in Southern Africa, Sudan Somali Land, and British East Africa Kenya Colony. “Kongoni”, is Swahili for Wildebeest/Coke’s Hartebeest … African species of grassland antelope … 17 taken, along with a number of Hippo, Lion, and Leopard! It is interesting to note that the African Atlas bear was thought to have finally become extinct in the late 19th century; According to Wikipedia, “the last one recorded to be killed by hunters was in 1870 in the Tetouan Mountains in northern Morocco”. There were apparently at least a few of the species left when Sir Alfred recorded on the butt of this rifle one taken by himself in 1901, possibly 1902.

This magnificent little rifle has been lovingly preserved for well over a century and has never been offered for public sale. Complete provenance provided by my dear friend, Guy Bignell of Griffin and Howe, accompanies the gun which comes complete in it’s original case with trade label, original elephant hide sling, and all original accessories including cartridge clips. At our behest, Mike Ehinger worked up the loads for the rifle. Please note the attached targets! In addition there are about 120 rounds of loaded ammo, a few rounds of new brass, and a rare first edition copy of, “Book Of The Lion”, by Sir Alfred E. Pease, Bart., which accompany the gun.

Sir Alfred E. Pease was a truly extraordinary gentleman whose life and hunting philosophy epitomized the era in which he lived in Africa in the late 19th and very early 20th century. His .256 Mannlicher was a constant companion to him. Sir Alfred Edward Pease was an English baronet, banker, industrialist, and liberal MP, an outdoorsman, hard rider, and avid foxhunter, born in 1857.. After a business setback, he abruptly cast aside his preordained aristocrat’s career and quit the grime and smog of urban England for the big sky and sweet open air of Africa.

After serving as magistrate at Barberton, in Transvaal, for a couple of years, Pease headed north, to explore Somaliland, the Sudan, and Morocco, as a zoologist and hunter. In 1906, he settled in Kenya, near Machakos, on a 6,000-acre swath of Athi Plains. On this territory, which covered some nine square miles, Pease created his personal paradise, Kitanga, with an ostrich farm as a sideline. During the golden age of big game, visitors came in by rail to shoot. They of course included Theodore Roosevelt and his son Kermit. The Roosevelts began their famous and historic 1909 safari by visiting Pease which was their first stop. It was an extended visit with Sir Alfred and Lady Pease, who gave the Roosevelts an introduction to lion hunting. Roosevelt and Pease, during that time, both developed a mutual admiration and friendship, so much so, that later, in his famous book, “African Game Trails”, Roosevelt devoted the first three chapters of his book to their stay with the Pease’s. Pease was a man of small stature, as was Roosevelt, but he was a unique and brave lion hunter choosing to use this little .256 cal. rifle to hunt a very dangerous quarry. Rather than using the traditional large bore rifle used by others, Sir Alfred’s manner of hunting lions and many other game species was unorthodox and brave, bordering on almost reckless and amazing. He would gallop across the plains, chasing his quarry, drop his reins, unstrap the Mannlicher from his back, and shoot his quarry on the run!! His brave and macho approach to hunting, certainly mirrored greatly with the same attributes that Roosevelt himself possessed and exhibited.

Roosevelt wrote to Pease while on safari:

“B.E.A., 16th of October, 1909,

Dear Sir Alfred, I am very much pleased that you are to write a book about lion hunting. Very, very few people have an experience which better justifies such a book. It is the king of all sports when carried on as you have carried it on, especially when you gallop the lion, and then kill him on foot as he charges or prepares to charge as a lion thus rounded up will generally do. I am peculiarly pleased to have you write the book, for it was under your guidance that I first tried lion hunting.

Sincerely yours,
Theodore Roosevelt”

Roosevelt and Pease became fast friends, and Pease dedicated his 1914 “Book of the Lion” to his newfound friend, Theodore Roosevelt.

“To the Honorable Colonel,
Theodore Roosevelt,
who, in his own person, has proved,
that the very best of sportsmen may render the very best of services to the Commonwealth of the world”.

Sir Alfred served in the Great War, and died at the age of 81 in 1939, before the Second World Conflict began. His many years at Kitanga saw the violent unfolding of dramatic hunts, in which the baronet discharged, his beloved .256 rifle. But there is no need to give into fantasy by saying, “oh, if only rifles could talk… What tales that .256 could tell,!” because these tales have already been told by Sir Alfred, who was a prolific author and publisher, with at least a dozen books to his name. These publications reveal that his philosophy as a nature lover and hunter was akin to the “fair chase”, ideals of his friend Theodore Roosevelt. The baronet wrote “in reflecting upon the constituents of field sports, I have come to conclusion that there are four principal ones, and that when all of these are present the sport is entitled to be termed true sport ..

1. Absolutely wild game the object of pursuit.
2. Nature’s field for action.
3. Physical exertion .
4. Exercise of skill

By this standard there is no true sport in attacking or pursuing any animal anywhere save when it is absolutely free in its natural haunts. The true sportsman delights in matching his own Endowments of instinct, endurance, sight, hearing, and observation, also his acquired knowledge and skills against the endowments and acquisition of his competitors.”

Pease acknowledged that fear played an important role in the hunt. He wrote, “The additional joy in approaching lions, buffalo, or any other dangerous animal is in proportion to your fear of them, or there would be little more pleasure in stopping a lion than rolling a jackal over. The fun in riding down a jackal is that you have to gallop at top speed on a line unknown, over ground, which may or may not be sprinkled with ant-heaps, holes and cracks, crossed by nullahs, and dongas, and that you have at the crisis, when shooting, to leave your reins and trust to your flying horse. It is the element of danger and your fear of it which adds to the enjoyment and excitement of the pursuit. And so, in fox-hunting, though a man may love the science of hunting and hound work, if he does not realize the chances he is taking when he rides straight in a screaming run, he knows not the full joys of defeated fears, of pride of horse, and of surviving performances he would not attempt save when the blood of horse and man is up. The man who knows not fear could not enjoy a run with hounds nor fight with a lion like the man who, though he knows fear, does not show it. He who has never been frightened by a lion must have missed half of the sport of lion hunting. Where there is no fear, there can be no courage!”

Overall, an historic, incredibly rare, deadly accurate, completely genuine, piece of African history, and rather poignant reminder of the glory days of African hunting that will never be again. The ideal gift for some very special and dedicated young hunter who desires to carry on the traditions of that bygone era.

STATUS: ANTIQUE

The stock of Pease’s rifle documents a detailed list of some of the species he harvested with this gun

Sir Alfred Pease

Noon at Ugami, Sir Alfred Pease bending over behind Mr. Roosevelt, From a photograph by Kermit Roosevelt