Here are a couple of hunting pictures and one of my dad. Try to guess the location and time.

For you pig hunters, take a look at that bad boy in the middle. That truck rack is about 7.5-8 ft above the ground.

[URL=http://www.hunting-pictures.com/members/ashaffer3/Dad1.jpg]

[URL=http://www.hunting-pictures.com/members/ashaffer3/Dad2.jpg]

[URL=http://www.hunting-pictures.com/members/ashaffer3/Dad3.jpg]

I'll try again.

Here are a couple of hunting pictures and one of my dad. Try to guess the location and time.

For you pig hunters, take a look at that bad boy in the middle. That truck rack is about 7.5-8 ft above the ground.

I'll take a wild guess, Argentina, 1949.

Jim

[ 03-14-2003, 20:20: Message edited by: 338Lapua ]

Same locale for all? Tough one. He looks somewhat older in the hog photo.

My "SWAG" is Swaziland, circa 1950's

[ 03-14-2003, 21:21: Message edited by: Nickudu ]

Tanganyika, 1963.

Is that a Thompson he is holding in the middle picture? IF so, I would guess north Africa during WWII.

I will also guess that your father was in the Quartermaster Corp.

Regards,

Terry

[ 03-15-2003, 00:13: Message edited by: T.Carr ]

Okay, I'll play. Iran about 1946
Rich Elliott

Close.

These were taken in WWII in Iran. My dad took the first two pictures, that's why I included a picture of him. He was a part of the Persian Gulf Command that delivered supplies through Iran and Iraq to Russia. They were a strange mix of Engineers, construction, transportation and quartermaster groups. The operation has an interesting history that has been documented in a couple of books. Many of the members were civilians who were recruited clandestinely and the entire group reported directly to Washington and did not report through normal army command channels.

The interesting thing is that he and a small group of other soldiers were on semi-permanent hunting detail for an extended period of time. Fresh meat was in constant short supply. He was stationed in Bandar Shahpur, Khorramshahr and Ahwaz in the soutwestern desert. In order to obtain fresh meat, members of their group who had hunting experience would travel with refrigerator trucks to hunting areas around Tehran, often near Hamadan and sometimes as far as Bandar Shah on the Caspian sea. Common targets were Russian boar and axis deer. One major problem was that they were armed with O3's, M1's and M1 carbines, but had only FMJ ammo. He said some of the larger boar would require 8-10 rounds to anchor and were often hunted in tunnels in head high brush, which made life interesting. They had more than one pair of pants ruined by tusks but in three years no one was seriously hurt. They often had to deal with bandits on their trips, since regional warlords still wielded a lot of power at that time. He was there from 1942 to 1945.

I guess if you have to go to war, you could be assigned to much worse duty than meat hunting. (The cats were killed at the request of the villagers; they played havoc with their goats and sheep).

Rich

Good guess. You were posting as I wrote the last entry. I think you win. Can't be faulted for not thinking of hunting during the war.

Art S.
It was the combination of the Russian Boars (or European if you prefer) and the Cheetah's that made me think of Iran. By the time WWII broke out cheetah's were pretty well extinct in India.
INtersting pict's.
Rich Elliott

Art,

That is very interesting. I am a big WWII history nut and never heard of the stuff your dad did. I'll have to do some research, what an interesting way to spend the war.

Regards,

Terry

I knew a unique character in Sheridan, Wyoming by the name of Andy Grotz. Among other things he operated a gun shop there ("A&H Shooter's Supply")

With a couple beers you could get Andy to tell World War II stories. He was in the U.S. Navy Construction Battalion ("Seabees")and assigned to the Pacific Theater. He spent considerable time on an island, New Guinea (I think!) where there was also Australian troops. Japanese troops occupied parts of that island through-out the war.

Andy became associated with some of the Aussie troops that had organized a "jap" hunting operation. For a fee, they'd take REMF personnel out on patrols for jap hunts. They had a price list for everything; flat rate for going out on the patrol, plus increasing amounts for letting the "client" do additional things. Like carry a gun, carrying a loaded gun, shooting a gun, photos with the "quarry", keeping of souvenoirs, etc. Andy acted as the booking agent and liasion with the American REMF personnel.

Art S. - That was fun! I knew the pigs didn't fit my "swag" and as soon as Terry mentioned North Africa I realized my cheetah thinking was wrong too, as there were still viable populations in those days, across North Africa, especially in Algeria to the west, and into the middle east. I remember now, reading of U.S. troops also being transferred from North Africa to Iraq, to protect the oilfields. Rich is right also, that cheetah was about extinct in India by the mid 1950's. Funny how the mind can fight itself in these decades of rapid change. We read, early on, about the territorial ranges of animals in prehistory or perhaps Biblical times but, at the same time, struggle to keep track of present day distributions on a per species basis. Good going, Rich!

Interesting pics! I had heard their were American personel in Asia supporting the Russians as well as the Chinese, but never knew much about the operations. Your right, hunting hogs is a much better way to spend a war than hunting more dangerous game.

quote:

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Originally posted by Tony:
I'm not sure what Grandpa's title was, but I do know that he was an Army Ranger, and that he carried a bolt action rifle with a scope (he didn't like the scope because it fogged up).[/QB]

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If he carried an '03 with a scope he was almost certainly a sniper. Most Ranger units had at least one sniper, who usually operated alongside the riflemen during offensive action, but was sometimes used as an observer, especially during defensive action. He was used to support the squad. "Saving Pvt. Ryan" gave a pretty accurate depiction of the Rangers use of snipers in their squads. This is in contrast to the Marine "Scout-Snipers" in the Pacific, which operated as independent teams, usually behind enemy lines.

[ 03-15-2003, 18:26: Message edited by: Lab ]

One interesting thing I didn't mentioned. One of their instructions was "no goats or sheep". Apparaently most of the troops there arrived after rather lengthy multiple voyages via New Zealand, Australia and India. Most of the troop ships they travelled on were British staffed with Indian cooks. I know my dad told me many times that they were on the Isle de France, a converted luxury liner, and they ate goat meat every day for over 90 days. Hence the not goat or sheep rule.

A very interesting thread.
Neat stories guys !

Art - I really didn't have a clue. But, that is one Big Cat Daddy of a Hawg! My biggest to date was 250# dressed out and the one in the picture is way bigger. Thanks for posting.

They hunted these for 2-3 years. I suspect they had essentially been unhunted until that time. He estimated that they took several in the 500+ class, based on eyball estimates.