I'm currently reading a book by Robert Fornan, an early 20th century African hunter. He used a bolt and a double rifle. One carried by him the other by his bearer. We know Bell used a double and also a series of bolts actions. He used a 303, a 6.5, and his favourite the 7x57. It also seems he liked the 318. Corbett used a 7x57 and I believe a 450 double. It seems that everyone had a double and a bolt action rifle. Do we have any idea which were the most popular calibers, maybe the top three in each category? Let's break it down to two time periods, 1900 to WW I and WWII to WW II. Captdavid

Robert Foran was a small man who preferred medium calibres. If memory serve me he used a Mauser in .400/350 when he poached elephant in the Lado district..

William "Bill" Buckley, another ele poacher in Lado, called him a congenial idiot for using such a light round....true if you ask me, but Foran lived to tell the tale..

BTW, Buckley is thought to be the first of the british poachers venturing into the Lado...around 1902 and his favourite caliber was .577 NE.

Corbett used a 450/400. I am pretty sure a three inch case. Elemer Keith got ahold of the rifle, and Bill Jones bought it at auction. Do a search on here and you can see the rifle.

I believe the consensus is the 450/400 with both the 3 1/4 and 3 inch case were the most popular with a lot of these rifles going to India.

Gentlemen,
Most of Corbett's shooting was done with a 275 Rigby, he was even presented one by the then Governor of the United Provinces..I will try and dig up the relevant information...he also had a 450/400 3" Jefferies double which he used on occasion.. in fact in one of his accounts he states that he was so close to the tiger that he was afraid the animal would hear the sound of the safety catch and therefore he pressed the trigger hard and then pushed the safety catch off to discharge the rifle!

I grew up in India shooting a 450/400 3 1/4" Farquarson falling block Army & Navy rifle...incredibly accurate and even as a 17 year old I did not feel any recoil..in fact I felt the 12 bore shotgun kicked me much worse.

quote:

Originally posted by Esskay:
Gentlemen,
Most of Corbett's shooting was done with a 275 Rigby, he was even presented one by the then Governor of the United Provinces..I will try and dig up the relevant information...he also had a 450/400 3" Jefferies double which he used on occasion.. in fact in one of his accounts he states that he was so close to the tiger that he was afraid the animal would hear the sound of the safety catch and therefore he pressed the trigger hard and then pushed the safety catch off to discharge the rifle!

There was an episode of the NRA's under wild skis last year where Tony Manthis and the Rigby crew took that 275 rifle back to India and the site of Corbett's famous man eaters were killed. The villagers still revered his name. The rifle some how wound up at Oxford press nearly rendered unfireable by the local constabulary before Rigby's retransitioned to London. Rigby's then found and acquired the rifle. It was on display at DSC this year.

quote:

Originally posted by LHeym500:
Corbett used a 450/400. I am pretty sure a three inch case. Elemer Keith got ahold of the rifle, and Bill Jones bought it at auction. Do a search on here and you can see the rifle.

I believe the consensus is the 450/400 with both the 3 1/4 and 3 inch case were the most popular with a lot of these rifles going to India.

I once had a Army& Navy double rifle chambered for the 450-400 3 in, That was part of the large number of rifles outlawed in India most of which went to Australia but a few came to the USA. I tried every way I could think of to connect that rifle to Corbett, but couldn't.

The 450-400 3 in was one of Corbetts favorites for tigers.
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