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looking through a tiny window which slowly closed forever.

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Originally posted by reddy375:
Thanks all for your kind compliments. I just thought I would write this post as I know there are several double rifle afficinados on this site. Not everyone quite understands the madness .

Regarding Tiger hunting. Many people have this image that all Tigers were shot from elephant back. Thats not true at all and infact was probably a very small percentage of all Tigers shot in those days. Most states in India had Tiger hunting but not all states had tame elephants to hunt from and it was also not the tradition. The hunts from elephant back were mainly done up North in places like Cooch Behar which had high elephant grass from which the tigers were driven out using other elephants and the only way to see these tigers were from an elevated platform hence from howdahs on elephant back. In places like Hyderabad where my father and grandfather mostly hunted, Tigers were shot in beats (driven hunts using local villagers) and also from Machans at night over natural kills or village buffaloes used as bait. Not so much goats as it would not be big enough meal for a tiger, used more for panthers (leopards). In those days they would tie up several young buffaloes at suitable sites and once a kill was made they would build a machan in a tree and also sometimes from the ground and sit over the kill. My father also shot several tigers on foot while hunting in the jungles in places where tigers would lie up during the day, like big rock formations that had big caves, along water holes surrounded by thick bamboo thickets and rivers in the summer months etc.

On one occassion during the very hot summer months, while out hunting they were quietly approaching a waterhole when he saw a big tiger and shot it, it jumped behind a bank and dissapeared from view, when he quietly peeped over the bank, he saw it lying dead and in the small waterhole he saw a second tiger so shot that too. Two days later he shot a 3rd tiger so 3 tigers in 3 days! Sadly my father passed away when I was 16 so I didn't get to hear many of his stories. He lived about 9 months of the year in the jungles and remote districts teeming with big-game so got to hunt a lot! I feel blessed to have seen a sliver of what those days must have been like. Thinking back, it was like looking through a tiny window which slowly closed forever.

Arjun

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Originally posted by 458Win:
Should make a perfect Alaskan bear rifle