he following experience of a sportsman in the Deccan is from the
Secunderabad paper of 14th June 1888:--

"Mr. Cuthbert Fraser had a most miraculous escape from a
tiger the other day at Amraoti. The lucky hero of this
adventure is a District Superintendent of Police in Berar.
He is well remembered in Secunderabad as Superintendent of
the Cantonment Police before Mr. Crawford. A son of Colonel
Hastings Fraser, one of the Frasers of Lovat, he has proved
his possession of that nerve and courage which rises to the
emergency of danger--on which qualities more than all else
the British Empire in India has been built, and on which,
after all is said, in the last resort, it must be still held
to rest. To quote the graphic account of a correspondent,
the escape was about as narrow as was ever had. Mr. Fraser
was told by his orderly that the tiger was lying dead with
his head on the root of a tree. The orderly having called
him up, he went to the spot. Mr. Fraser then sent the
orderly and another man with the second gun back, and knelt
down to look. Just then the tiger roared and came at him
from about eighteen feet off: he waited till the tiger was
within five feet of him and fired. As the tiger did not
drop, he fired his second shot hurriedly. The first shot had
hit exactly in the centre of the face but just an inch too
low. It knocked the tiger's right eye out and smashed all
the teeth of that side of the jaw. The second shot struck
the tiger in the chest, but too low. What happened then Mr.
Fraser does not exactly know, but he next found himself
lying in front of the tiger, one claw of the beast's right
foot being hooked into his left leg, in this way trying to
draw Mr. Fraser towards him; the other paw was on his right
leg. Mr. Fraser's chin and coat were covered with foam from
the beast's mouth. He tried hard to draw himself out of the
tiger's clutches. Fortunately the beast was not able to see
him, as Mr. Fraser was a little to one side on the animal's
blind side and the tiger's head was up. Suddenly seeing Mr.
Fraser's orderly bolting, he jumped up and went for the man,
and catching him he killed him on the spot. Mr. Fraser had
lost his hat, rifle, and all his cartridges, which had
tumbled out of his pocket. He jumped up, however, and ran to
the man who had his second gun, and to do so had to go
within eight paces of the spot where the tiger was crouching
over his orderly. He heard, in fact, the crunching of the
man's bones and saw the tiger biting the back of the head.
He now took the gun from his man. The latter said that he
had fired both barrels into the tiger--one when he was
crouching over Mr. Fraser, and the other when he was over
the prostrate body of the orderly. The man had fired well
and true, but just too far back, in his anxiety not to hit
the man he would save, instead of the tiger. When afterwards
asked if he was not afraid to hit the Sahib, 'I was very
much afraid indeed,' he replied, 'but dil mazbut karke
lagaya: I nerved myself for the occasion.' 'A good man and
true!' a high officer writes, 'who after firing never moved
an inch till Mr. Fraser came to him, although close to the
tiger all the while. He is one of the Gawilghur Rajputs--a
brave race, Ranjit Singh, a good name.' The man said he had
no more cartridges left and so they both got a little
farther from the tiger, as the orderly was evidently done
for. Afterwards they found one more cartridge for the gun
and tried to recover the body, but it was no use. The tiger
was lying close, most of the buffaloes had bolted and the
Kurkoos would not help. Mr. Fraser then sent six miles off
for an elephant. But the animal did not arrive till dark, so
Mr. Fraser went home in great grief about the poor orderly
and at having to leave the body. His own wound was bleeding
a great deal, it being a deep claw gash. Next day they got
the body and the tiger dead, lying close to each other.
Perhaps no narrower escape than Mr. Fraser's has ever been
heard of. To the excellent shot which knocked the beast's
eye out he undoubtedly owes his life. He says that he felt
that he had the tiger dead when he fired, but the Express
bullet unfortunately broke up. Probably, he thinks a 12-bore
would have reached the brain."

Assuming the tiger was dead, using bullets that break up -he certainly gave the tiger every chance !!!

I love those old stories. If I could, I would go back in time and see it all when it was still wild. Thanks for sharing this.