Hi ,Jaegers,i think we will like to know more about pig sticking and the hunters that practiced this extreme sport.
Alexander the great ,hunted with knife and spear from early age boars and at 14 killed a lion ,that killed the mother of PERITAS his dog.
SirBADEN-POWELL the boy scout movement founder .
col.RICHARD MEINERTZHAGEN a real warrior addict of pig sticking since his service in INDIA ,he hunted from horseback and with spears ,he continue his hunts in Africa hunting warthogs ,a very DG hunted with horses and cold steel.
JEFF COOPER said that boars can only be killed in a gently manner by cold steel .
Please Jaegers post the names of the famous hunters that practice this sport .Juan

Sorry, I don't know any. I do know that it was a practice after our civil war to hunt black bears in North East Louisiana, and in Mississippi in what is known as the Delta Area. The bears were taken with knives. Many men lost their lives or were terribly wounded in the course of these hunts. God knows how many dogs were lost during these hunts. One of these was General Wade Hampton of South Carolina. He took over the CSA Calvary after the lost of Gen. Jeb Stuart during our civil war. He was far more severely wounded on one of these hunts than he was ever wounded during 4 yrs. of war.

No offense to anyone and I should probably keep my mouth shut (too much vodak here in Russia tonight), but anyone crying about or bragging about getting hurt while hunting bear with a knife is just plain stupid in my book.

Edited after a bit of sobriety. ;-)

I think the ones that counted for the most hogs taken over time would have to be the British Lancers in India

well, historically the real ‘champion’ of pigsticking was the winner of the Kadir Cup...

I will do some search if I find a list of its winners ...


Now, for your amusement check this

http://www.pigsticking.com

So, what about founding "La Verdecita Pig Sticking Club" ?

quote:

Originally posted by us_dragunov:
No offense to anyone and I should probably keep my mouth shut (too much vodak here in Russia tonight), but anyone crying about or bragging about getting hurt while hunting bear with a knife is just plain stupid in my book. No wonder the South lost.

Dragunova, the rationality of hunting bear with a knife is something you cannot judge by mental process but only by what your heart and soul impels you to do.... and courage my friend is one of the best virtues humankind has !!

quote:

Originally posted by us_dragunov:
No offense to anyone and I should probably keep my mouth shut (too much vodak here in Russia tonight), but anyone crying about or bragging about getting hurt while hunting bear with a knife is just plain stupid in my book. No wonder the South lost.

I find this comment a little offensive, and I'm not even a real southerner. Think of the intestinal fortitude required to take on quary like a bear with a knife -- without liquid courage........

I edited my post, and now wish I did keep my mouth shut.

But guys don't confuse bravery with stupidity. I do rodeo bullriding from time to time...and getting on a 2000 pound pissed off bull isn't brave...it's stupid, but I do enjoy the adrenaline rush it gives me. Also I know and have seen true bravey many times...step into a combat zone and then I think you will understand why some things are brave and others just aren't that smart. Yes sometimes doing brave things goes hand in hand with doing things that aren't in your best interest, but doing them when they have no moral gain for anyone else or yourself just falls in line with things not too smart not bravery.

Does it take balls to hunt a bear with a knife....absolutely....is it smart... no....is it brave... no

None of my posts or comments were meant to offend anyone, but if they did... COWBOY UP!

I used to clear mines, so I need no lesson in stupidity -- I learned that one all on my own.......

I can accept that. There is a very fine line between bravery and stupidity.........VERY fine.

Do your Hunt in the way that you more enjoy it, but every time preserving the hunt ethics principies and avoid inecesary suffering on your game.If you die fighting with your game will be your choice.I was looking for try to finish a wounded Baboon with my PigStick Knife but the PH, didint let me, He said ; You will loose Guillermo, Better shoot it with the shotgun. He was right !!!.

I didn't mean to start a fuss (sorry it's taken me so long to post, been hunting in Ark), I couldn't respond to Juan's post directely and tried to get as close to it as possible.

I was simply commenting as to how the bears were hunted, did not mean to praise or condemn the practice. Certainly these bears were not in the same class as the great brown bears of Russia, which I recon would be suicide to hunt in the manner I described the La & Ms. practice of yesterday. Were the men killed or injured stupid hunting the local bears, I will not judge, because it was a different time, heck not long before this dueling was common in these parts as well. It's just a different era.

No fuss Larry...ALL IS GOOD! And I happen to agree a lot with you although...as I know stupidity all to well...I'm leaning that way....although they probably could have talked me into trying it...lolol

I hope the hunt was enjoyable and successful!

And BTW those Baboons can be MEAN and have BIG BIG teeth and are strong as anything. Glad you choose to see what was behind curtain #2 instead. ;-)

Isn't the Brown bear of Russia the same as the Grizzly of North America?
Shotgun

That's my understanding.

Khadir cup was only for the army so not all great sportsmen participated.
Secondly, a lot of royalty didnt compete in formal competition just like ripon, bedford, huntingdon, duleep singh and walsingham never tool part in shooting competitions.

Many indian royalty took active part in pig sticking and their prowess has been recorded by many british army officirs and royalty visitors and guests.

foremost amongst them was Maharana Bhupal Singhji Mewar who was a paraplegic but still a great rider and about 1000 wild boar fell to his lance.

Sir Pratap was a great rider, polo player and pig sticker. Maharaja of patiala was another great pig sticker.

there were many noblemen under the kings who were in the pig sticking teams and great riders themselves.

Measuring skill in pigsticking without head-to-head omparison is very dificult but the local Indian riders who were residents had (obviously) much greater bags than the British who might be posted there for a few years

I forgot this post ,but there are many pig stickers in spain too ,they use spears or knives but there is very popular in some parts of spain .Here in Argentina specially in LA PAMPA and RIO NEGRO province is a very popular sport with a tournament each year .

KADIR CUP.
In introducing the imperial sport of pig-sticking, The British Empire and Commonwealth Museum has amazing footage of the annual Raj sporting event, the Kadir Cup Meeting. The museum suggested that the earliest of the pig-sticking tent clubs seems to be the Poona club, founded early in the C19th. And as the century progressed, the event was held annually in Meerut near Delhi, taking place over three days and drawing increasingly large and excited crowds. Country Life magazine called pig-sticking a national obsession in the British Raj, the Wimbledon of its sport.

Each hunter on horseback carried a 6' spear which was grasped near the butt-end and used overhand, driven down at close quarters into the hog. Umpires supervised the hunt and the first rider to hold up a bloodied spear progressed to the next round in the competition.

The most famous winner (in 1883) of the Kadir Cup was Sir Robert Baden-Powell who wrote a book on the sport called Pig-Sticking or Hog-Hunting: A Complete Account for Sportsmen - And Others, published in 1924. Lord Baden-Powell was a lieutenant-general in the British Army in India and Africa, and was the founder of the Scout Movement in 1906. People took notice of his opinions.

One of his chapters was titled Pig-Sticking’s Value to the Indian Civil Service. Here the author suggested that the sport offered a model of the panacea that the Raj might need, for on the pig-sticking field it could be shown that the white man and the Indian can be mutually good friends and comrades where they have a sport in common. The Indians could learn about teamwork, authority, planning and responsibility. The Indians, in return, could share their knowledge of local geography and of local wildlife.

The British Empire and Commonwealth Museum noted that the sport was associated with the higher echelons of the military and colonial administration, and was seen as an ideal pastime to aid in the improvement of the colonial classes. In colonial India, in particular, young officers out of Britain had to get accustomed to the heat. Pig sticking discouraged young men from the "morally deleterious escape to higher altitudes" in the hot season, so that the long, hot nightmare season became instead the healthiest and happiest part of the year. And this sport took the young civilian out into his district, allowing him to enter into ‘friendship with his headmen, which cannot be got through official correspondence and chuprassies’.


The grand prize, Kadir Cup, with a wild boar on the cover

The 1934 footage from Colonial Film acknowledged that while the more serious literature showed how quickly a fun pastime could be invested with the utmost symbolic gravity, the purely hunterly writing about the sport was more straightforward about the other connected pleasures. The film provided a less varnished picture of the sport in its Imperial context, providing evidence of the luxuries the pig-sticking set expected to enjoy when at a hunt meet or just out for sport with a riding mate.

Pig sticking is very popular here in Texas. They hunt the hogs with dogs and then stick them with a knife. I know they have fully guided hunts at Cainy Creek Lodge.

I have an acquaintance that is semi-famous and a Pig & Bear sticker. He's not "famous" in the Hollywood sense but he is a professional actor and you've probably seen him.

His name is Marshall Teague and he was just in a movie called Last Ounce of Courage, he was the main character. He's also been in The Rock, Armageddon, and was "Jimmy" in Road House.

I"ve hunted with him a few times, he has killed a Bear with a Spear, from a tree stand over bait, and multiple hogs with a knife.
He's also former Navy Spec Ops, so he's pretty qualified with a knife. He's all around good guy too.

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0853549/

Anyone who comes out of the Navy Spec Ops community is more than qualified and tough as old leather. No offense to the other great operators out there but IMHO these are the best of the best. Go on a "boat ride" with these guys a couple times. You will have no doubt. As a voice echoes in my mind, "We're here, Get Out!"

There is a new sport in South East Alaska called Brown Bear Roulette.

My understanding is that it involves a spear. The sport spends an evening sitting on a bear trail, near a salmon stream, with spear in hand, waiting for the right bear to come along. One variation to increase the odds of success is that the "hunt" can involve some stinky bait.

It hasn't caught on yet, but the way you guys are talking bravery and courage, etc., I figured that perhaps I can be of assistance in arranging one of these ultimate spear hunts for you.

KB

Alexander “Sasha” Siemel was a very famous spear hunter though his main target was the Jaguar of which he is said to have killed over 300 in his lifetime in the Matto Grosso jungles of Brazil. I would imagine he used his skills on both White-lipped peccary (Tayassu pecari) and Collared peccary (Tajacu pecari) both species found in those parts though this is just speculation on my part.

Sticking pigs would be a whole lot differant then bears by far. I might try it with a pig hounds and a knife.

I would never try it with hounds a bear and a knife like they do with pigs.

Now a treed black bear would be do able with a spear.

I can think of several treed black bears. That with a good spear like a cold steel boar spear. I wouldn't had trouble sticking.

With the right bait set up for bears and a good spear that would be do able also.

Eduardo Trigo de Yarto was a famous spanish big game hunter and pig sticker on the 60s and 70s he even designed his onwn knife .

PDS,
And after spearing the bear, keeping out of its way when it fell to the ground!