Tigers.

[Herne]

My lad Piers has been out in India in the Jim Corbett National Park (Man Eaters of Kumaon), working there. After loads of adventures, and going up to the Vallley of Flowers in the Himalayas, he begged a ride on an elephant, and got to see a real wild tiger - for about 5 seconds.

Now he has spent a week touring northen India, on the back of a small motorcycle. Went to Ranthumbore national park, (and the Taj Mahal and Jaipur and Agora) and saw 4, at a distance of 2 yards!!!

Imagine, real live tigers, a tigress and 3 cubs at a few yards. Now that is really really something. In the wild.

Now he's off to Oz

[Herne]

Sorry - nothing to do with whitetail. But a wild tiger at a few yards. Must be awesome

BTW, some of the views in the Himalayas are just something. I've seen the Rockies, up Cascade and looked over to Assiniboine, but these are something else. When you are mega thousand feet up in the Vallley of Flowers, and these big mountains go up for another 15,000 feet above you and you get snow in August. Just breathtaking.

Pity I smoked so much and shot my lungs for that sort of altitude walking, or I'd go tomorrow.

[Just a Hunter]

In my youth I can remember a local farmer saying something was killing his pigs in a most horrible manner. Game Wardens were said to be called out, but there was no clear answer to what was causing these deaths. This went on for a while off and on until a Tiger was killed by a semi-truck not far from where the farmer lived.

Nobody laid claim to having lost a tiger from a circus, rehab center or private collection. It has been a total mystery to where it came from, but the farmer never lost another pig afterwards.

[postoak]

Herne, I'll be in India from March 1st thru March 23rd (or so). I specifically scheduled a trip to Jim Corbett park and Naintal, even tho one is less likely to see a tiger there than at Ranthumbore. I just wanted to be able to picture the place better the next time I read Corbett's books.

[Herne]

That'll be good. The train from Delhi to Ramnagar costs $3 for a 150 mile trip, and then you can get a bus on to Nainital for a few cents. Piers ahs been to almost all hte places in the book. From hte e-mails I used the front cover of hte book ot work out where he was.

Must go to the Valley of Flowers, especially in the spring. Acres of meconopsis growing - just spectacular with the great Himalayas up behind it.. Google it- there are lots of pix.

I love Corbetts books. Hunting man eating lions in grassland is interesting (Tsavo) Hunting tigers (which have eaten 500 people and completely lost their fear of man) in a jungle where you can only see 25 yards must be one of the most attention getting things you can do!!!!!

[postoak]

Yes, remember the time he had a terrible abcess in his head (this was before antibiotics) from a ruptured ear drum, and he didn't much care whether he lived or died he was in such discomfort? So, he decided to go after the maneater he was sent to shoot AT NIGHT by moonlight? He closed on it, but then bent over at the waist to run quietly and his abcess burst and he climbed up in a tree and semi-passed out, and came to at dawn. Great stuff.

[Rembrandt]

Trophy rooms like this always amazed me....the adventure of hunting Tigers unfortunately has passed. Aren't they endangered and now protected?

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v405/Rembrandt51/trophyroom2.jpg

[Alan R McDaniel Jr]

I often wonder how my attitudes toward hunting would have been shaped had I approached hunting from a trophy standpoint. I know that if I had spent the same amount of money traveling the world, or at least the country, taking a representative of each game specie rather than putting all of my efforts and money into hunting White tailed deer in a very narrow scope, South Texas.

I wouldn't have a trophy room like the one pictured but I think I could have managed at least one trophy per year even with a full time job, kids and a wife. As it is, I have not had one single animal mounted in my life. There were a few bucks that I probably should have had done and a couple of fish as well. I don't know that I have missed anything by not having it done but I certainly wonder sometimes.

I hunted for the joy of hunting and for the pleasure of eating the results of the hunt. I hunted predators for a reason and the reason was their destructive nature toward other endeavors.

Those trophies are sure nice to look at though.

Alan

[Wismon]

Wow, Rembrant, whose tropy room is that?!

I grew up reading Tintin comic books and in "Cigars of the Pharoah" Tintin went tiger hunting with the Maharajah of Gopal...sort of, at least. So, probably because of that since childhood it's been a dream of mine to hunt tigers. Not likely in this lifetime...

Alan, I'ld like to have a room full of trophies but I console myself by thinking of all the dust I collect as it is. I did get an 8-pt buck mounted and got a bear skin rug made, but I released a 9 lb 2 oz bass. (Long story.)

[Altjaeger]

I think 4 tigers at 6 foot would would drive my pucker factor to new levels.

[GF.]

Probably have to use a corkscrew on anything that didn't make it out on its own right then & there.......:rolleyes:




:eek::eek::eek:

Really, really something, indeed. And how much better to live to tell the tale!


Hey, JAH - where was that? I think there was a report similar to that in New jersey not so long ago.

But the incredibly unlikely hypothetical question is this - if you're here in the US and up in your treestand waiting for a deer when a tiger wanders by, do you shoot it (and risk pissing him off! :eek:)?

And then what do you do? I've got a funny feeling that you'd not be allowed to keep hide or skull under any circumstances, but man, would that be somethin' to tell the grandkids about!

[Herne]

A lot of our Regimental drummers use tigerskins for aprons. Maybe they get them from zoos?

Back to Corbett. If I remember aright, he shot may of these man eaters with a 7x57. I assume it was a 275 Rigby having seen a pic of the gun. It certainly wasn't a big calibre.

I'm looking forward to seeing these pix from P. - we can determine the pucker factor from the degree of camera shake. I think he was in one of these open 4x4 things and they wandered past..

[Twanger]

I envy Piers Herne. What a wonderful experience!

[Herne]

Well he wanted to go round the world and do the natural history bit as well.

So he worked like a slave (and did quite well at) a cheese factory for 2 years and saved £10,000 out of an adequate butn to excessive wage. And off he's gone and is really making something of it. So all credit.

If he spends the lot, it will be well spent, and when he comes back sometime unspecified late next year, I think he's going to go to University and read biology.

[ADK Jakes]

Yup...black bears are enough of a pucker factor for me. That puts me in the same category as the guy who determined that frog legs were edible, than so be it!!!

[postoak]

If memory serves, Corbett used the .275 H&H, not the .275 Rigby or 7x57.

He used it, when given the choice for longer range shooting of tigers. For the close-in work he preferred a .450/400 double.

Ballistics of classic cartridges (http://www.lone-star-armory.com/library/Ballistics-Classic-Cartridges.pdf)

[Herne]

Could easily be. I don't know. Only the 7mm bit stuck.

[postoak]

All 3 of those are less powerful than the .280 Remington, so your point is made that killing a tiger with what is essentially a whitetail deer cartridge is not a problem.