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The engraved grip cap holds two extra strikers in case of emergency.

TR had much experience with dangerous animals in North America. Moreover he had the advice of professional ivory hunters who well understood the essential requirements for a weapon to be used on very large animals that not infrequently fight back; undoubtedly he took their counsel seriously. Although Terry Wieland’s Dangerous Game Rifles and John “Pondoro” Taylor’s African Rifles & Cartridges were published long after TR’s death, this rifle meets these authors’ criteria perfectly in all respects. Both are strongly of the opinion that a rifle for dangerous game should have neither ejectors or an automatic safety. Ejectors are complicated mechanisms prone to malfunction; and if the hunter is facing a charge and must hastily reload, the safety will be on from the moment he opens the breech. He is under the stress of mortal danger and an automatic safety may well get him killed. TR’s rifle has a non-automatic safety catch and extractors, not ejectors. (Correspondence implies that originally TR wanted a hammer gun – of which choice “Pondoro” would have heartily approved – but H&H had no hammer action on hand. To build one from scratch would have delayed the safari for a year or more.)