Horned Death
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βJohn F. Burger, Afrikander and author of this book, would heartily endorse any theatrical effort to simulate the charge of an African bull buffaloβif no human life is to be risked. This notable professional hunter, who is here being introduced to the American public, has miraculously survived to live and tell of many last-ditch encounters with the powerful and crafty buffalo. Mr. Burgerβs experiences in the game fields of his native continent cover a period of forty years, and in that time more than one thousand of the massive brutes have fallen to his rifles. As he takes care to explain, only a small number of the animals in that record bag have actually charged; but in that temperate statement there rests proof of his usual success in placing a first, effective hitβthe shot that renders a charge improbable. Failure of that first shot, or the effect of factors beyond the hunterβs control, constitutes the explosive cap that can set this specimen of black dynamite into action. Once the buffaloβs charge is actually under way his only objective is to produce a dead hunter. The animal has accomplished his grim purpose in many instances. Too frequently the gored and trampled victim has been a veteran of the trails, not a novice hunter or a defenseless native. In some vitally unaccountable way the buffalo had gained advantages at a rate faster than was allowed the hunter. The man was then denied that last precious asset for survival, luck. Our author lives to tell of his close encounters with the horned death simply because luck never failed to tip the scales in his favor.β
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John Francois Burger (1882-1984) was born on the Great Karoo, Cape Province, South Africa, In 1905, his family moved to Southern Rhodesia. He joined famous hunters on safari, like Selous, Cooper and Von Rooyen. During World War I, he joined the Rhodesian forces, where he was assigned to supply meat for the troopsβthe βBurger buffalo campaign.β He was wounded and discharged in 1917. He then spent 15 years in the Congo (KATANGA) and a further 15 years in Tanganyika. There he was employed by various companies in the mining business, hunting to supply meat for the workers of the railroads before WWII.
After 32 years, he retired to Southern Rhodesia in 1947. He then retired again to Majorca, Spain before finally moving back to South Africa.
He died in 1984.
Ellis Christian Lenz (March 26, 1896 - July 2, 1994) was a U.S. Army veteran, as well as an avid shooter, adventurer and outdoorsman. Affected by the losses suffered due to weapons failure during his service in WWII, on his return home in 1945 he became the inventor of Clenzoil, an effective cleaner, lubricant and rust inhibitor of weapons and other types of equipment forced to function in hostile environments.
He died in 1994 at the age of 98.
