Theodore Roosevelt, America’s Foremost Big Game Hunter, On What Would Become His Rifle of Choice in Africa

This is our first letter of Roosevelt on the details and accoutrements of hunting, which define much of his image

Theodore Roosevelt was, and remains, the nation’s most noted and passionate hunter. He loved the thrill of tracking and chasing game, the skill in marksmanship, the careful and deliberate recording of his observations about each hunt, the demanding preservation of specimens, and the pleasure of capturing in rich and vibrant language this ephemeral experience so that he could share it with the world.

To improve his ornithological study at age 12, he shot a number of winged specimens while on a family trip to Egypt. He hunted and developed his expertise as a natural scientist in the Adirondacks thereafter. One of the first impulses Roosevelt acted on when he moved west in 1884 was to shoot a buffalo, and over the next several years he added numerous other trophies—a bighorn sheep, and a 1,200-pound grizzly bear. He became a western ranchman by sheer force of will, developing passable skills as a rider and hunter, once even leading a posse to capture three armed thieves who had made off with his rowboat during a spring flood. His exuberant love of the chase was integral to his identity, and he honored it with his wardrobe, ordering a fine buckskin outfit made in the mode of his heroes Daniel Boone and Davy Crockett. This was the suit he posed in, complete with moccasins, rifle and sheath knife, to promote his popular 1885 book, Hunting Trips of a Ranchman. This book made him an acclaimed hunter, looked to as an authority.

His hunting was prodigious. He took pride in shooting large tallies of birds and other fauna and securing significant trophies, some of which, as a naturalist, he termed “specimens.” But to Roosevelt, the hunting of wild creatures and the taking of animal hides and horns was always about something greater—a primal reconnect with the natural, pre-civilized world and “the free, self-reliant, adventurous life, with its rugged and stalwart democracy.” Hunting was not merely recreation but a transformation, one with stages of apprenticeship, youthful testing and eventual self-mastery.

In 1887 he founded the Boone and Crockett Club, whose roster included elite sportsmen from New York’s financial industry. The purposes of the organization, to comprise hunter-naturalists, were to “promote manly sport with the rifle,” create an exchange of information about big game and where it could be found, spread the ideals of ethical hunting and an interest in natural science, and advocate for wildlife preservation and related legislation.

After leaving the presidency in 1909, Roosevelt cast further afield, embarking first on an epic 11-month, 2,500-mile safari through British East Africa and Anglo-Egyptian Sudan, and later conducting a harrowing expedition along Brazil’s uncharted River of Doubt. The African safari, commissioned as a scientific expedition by the Smithsonian Institution, involved trapping or shooting over 11,000 animals, including everything from insects to the largest of game—elephants, hippos, and white rhinos. Roosevelt and his colleagues also chronicled the wildlife and habitat of the region and collected specimens that formed the basis of the Smithsonian’s Natural History Museum collection.

Autograph letter signed, New York, February 3, 1889, to physician G.A. Scroggs in Beaver, PA, who was going hunting and looked to TR as an authority in ammunition. Scroggs’ father had been a general in the Civil War, perhaps explaining the younger Scroggs’ interest in the subject. “Your courteous letter and the pamphlet – for which accept my thanks – have both come to hand. I think you can find the bullets and calibre of which you speak very satisfactory. One of the best big game hunters I know uses a 45-70-420 sharp, the bullet much as you describe. I should very much like to know the results of your trip, and experiences.” The bullet mentioned was meant for use with the 45-70 rifles, which was developed in 1886. The postmarked envelope is still present. Roosevelt used a 45-70 rifle on his trip to Africa in 1909. It was known to be among his favorites.

This is our first letter of Roosevelt on the details and accoutrements of hunting, who define much of his image.