Indians For Guns

Here's an old hunting photo from Mizoram that I've come across.. Photo was taken in the early 1900

Lucky guy. Must have hit the vitals. That's a decent size beast to be shot with a 12 bore ("filled with a weird collection of shot").

Was the snap taken by a "gora saab"? An Army Officer or probably a planter.

A lot depends on the circumstances under which the shot was taken (at short range, verw few weapons are deadly as a shotgun).

shooter wrote:A lot depends on the circumstances under which the shot was taken (at short range, verw few weapons are deadly as a shotgun).

Here is a short note on the Tiger which I was reading recently.

"Panthera tigris tigris" is believed to have originated from islands around the Caspian sea and travelled through Siberia ,Manchuria,China,Thailand,Myanmar and finally to India.
The Royal Bengal Tiger actually came into India from the East (Assam and the sister states) via Myanmar ......unable to cross the mighty Himalaya.
In this marathon migration it inhabited many countries but no where else did it settle down and flourish so well as it did in India.
It adapted and acclimatized itself to varied geographical and climatic conditions of the sub continent from the mangroves swamps of the Sundarban to the evergreen and deciduous forests . From enduring the heat of the jungles of Central India to well above 13000 feet (above sea level) in the Himalaya.
With most of his habitat now lost. The animal probably fights his last battle for survival.

In the words of Corbett
"A tiger is a large hearted gentleman with boundless courage and when he is exterminated -As exterminated he will be, unless public opinion rallies to his support - India will be the poorer by having lost the finest of her fauna."

Most of the tiger hunts done by locals in Mizoram were either with black powder percussion or shotgun as in this case! By the time rifles and what nots came in, most of the tigers were gone. I have a 90 year old friend who used to be an avid hunter with more than a dozen black bears and 6 tigers all of which he shot with his single barrel percussion shotgun.

In my father's words a 12gauge shotgun is king of all guns(raja bandook) because it has the ammo for a tiny sparrow to a mighty elephant.

Prashant,

If you read the caption below the first photograph, it says ".........shot at ........ by a Lushai". The Lushais are a race from Nepal and many fill the ranks in the Gorkha regiments in our army. In fact there is a famous marching song in the army based on their tunes. I forget the tune but member Safarigent would know it for sure.

Kazim wrote:In my father's words a 12gauge shotgun is king of all guns(raja bandook) because it has the ammo for a tiny sparrow to a mighty elephant.

Ah! just curious, what kind of load would work for a humane kill of elephant at close range?

Multiple LGs shot at the brain Karamojo style?

Katana wrote:Prashant,

If you read the caption below the first photograph, it says ".........shot at ........ by a Lushai". The Lushais are a race from Nepal and many fill the ranks in the Gorkha regiments in our army. In fact there is a famous marching song in the army based on their tunes. I forget the tune but member Safarigent would know it for sure.

sorry katana.. I beg to differ! Lushais are from Mizoram and the song you refer to is the national anthem of the lushais "Kan zoram tlang nuam" roughly translated as "Our wonderful mizo mountains" As a lushai it amuses me whenever I hear the tune played by various military bands at rashpati bhavan during republic day parades.. and its the assam regiment and assam rifles and nowadays even the rashtrya rifles..

I stand corrected, I thought they were from Nepal.

Katana wrote:Multiple LGs shot at the brain Karamojo style?

I hope the shotgun is atleast a pump action one. At close range one must have guts to shoot an elephant with a shotgun.
Haha, disregard that. I just watched a video on youtube where... Well, watch it yourself
I wonder if the spears were poisoned though.

No offense. But we should avoid such posts that will encurage more people to hunt such a beautiful animal Tiger.

I have a 90 year old friend who used to be an avid hunter with more than a dozen black bears and 6 tigers all of which he shot with his single barrel percussion shotgun.

Jonah,
Please get your 90 year old friends stories recorded on a sound recorder (if digital sound recorder is not available do use a mobile phone) else in time they will all be history. I am in the process of getting a digital sound recorder to records stories & events of the past.

In the 60's a family member who was a tea planter in Assam was called in twice to take 'care' of problem tigers. He was not keen on shooting these cats but had to under the circumstance, he used a 12ga Greener paradox. He said with suitable loads the paradox was very effective and did not have to fire the 2nd shot.

maverick786us wrote:No offense. But we should avoid such posts that will encurage more people to hunt such a beautiful animal Tiger.

No offence maverick786us
But I fail to understand how "such posts" encourage more people to hunt such a beautiful animal.
On the contrary I felt compassion towards the animal on seeing this snap.
Isn't it interesting to know that an animal which actually entered India from Mizoram is now on the verge of extinction in the state. The last figure I read was 5 tigers in Mizoram.
A figure less than the number of tigers shot by jonahpach's 90 years old friend.
Time to save the Tiger.
It's Now.......Or Never.