I've just watched a TV doco about a Vietnam Veteran in Connecticut who collected 15 Lions, 18 Bengal Tigers , and approx 8-10 Bears over a number of years. When his wife left him he committed suicide with a handgun after releasing all the animals, who ate part of him before law enforcement intervention.

The local Emergency Response Team from the Sheriff office went in and were given the order to shoot all the animals once it became apparent that they could not be contained. Four went into the property, a sniper with a .308, two more officers with AR-15's (.223) and a 4th officer with a small calibre weapon.

One of the AR-15 carrying officers stated that the Lions when shot, tended to go down and stay down without much resistance, however the Bengal Tigers were far more resilient, often bounding around and travelling up to forty metres before dieing.

I've shot a few feral house cats that seem to have the same incredible resistance to death, and I've assumed that carried over to all the cat family. Apparently not. It now explains to me why so many large calibre 'express' rifles were 'developed' for hunting in India in the late 1800's.

Whole lotta Tigers killed with the FMJ 5.56 in years past! A hole in the heart/lungs gets the job done in pretty short order regardless of the size of the hole. With the exception of rifles used for elephant, I sincerely wonder if the obsession over large calibre rifles is just an ego thing for us and nothing more. Would love to shoot a lion with my 9,3 but I am sure a .338 or -06 would do the job just as well.

I think the current raconteur of choice, one Craig Boddington recommended a .300 magnum for Lion prior to the release of his first Safari Book.

That was in Ohio not Connecticut. They even tried to use tranqualizer guns but animals to agitated and did not work. They even brought in Jack Hanna a wildlife expert, he agreed with the killing of the cats.

Mike