One of my fellow Alaskans went to Zimbabwe for an Elephant hunt and took his custom Marlin chambered for the 50 Alaskan.

Hunt report is detailed at:
http://forums.accuratereloading.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/6321043/m/560100986

Excellent story, thanks alyeska! Some projectile performances amaze me, like these. Now that was a meat packing job!

Good pictures. The guy writes well too! Interesting about the currency exchange rate there.

"Don't ask what he's doing with his hand." :)

Cheezywan

Lever gun hunts are getting to be a craze in South Africa. We've had several groups make it an annual safari. Mostly from Europe.

I've talked to Brian elsewhere , the 50AK is next on my list ..
Always wanted one of Harold Johnson's JKR .450's myself ..
Been looking for years , probably wont find it in this lifetime ..

Every so often, one of Harold Johnson's rifles show up here in AK for sale. If in good condition, they run about 2K or a touch more. From what I've seen there are nice rifles and highly sought after.

I've always been curious as to how many he may have built that weren't bespoken .. Or were for that matter ..

I know in an interview several years before he passed away he said that he only built one .50 and that was his personal rifle that he carried back to Alaska with him several times a year until his death in 1998 ?? I think it was '98 ..

Have a dear friend here who was in Alaska in the Air Force in the early 50's who met him several times while he was up there ..

He came up with the 50 AK while he was still in Cooper Landing. A bear didn't go down quite as fast as he thought it should from his 450, so he went to work on a 50.

I doubt he built more than 75-100 of the M71's in 450 and 50 AK. I don't know that for a fact, though. Just a wild guess.