Rifles Used For Royal Bengal Tigers

Larry4831
Thank you so much for your kind words. It is an excellent film and relatively accurate about how Royal Bengal tigers were hunted during our time . I fell in love with Mr. Granger's .375 Holland and Holland magnum double barrel rifle in that film. It is tragic that he does not reunite with the heroine at the end of the film , however .

Stewart-Granger and his .577.jpg

good old boy from the good old times
 
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good old boy from the good old times
Foxi
You liked him too ? He was my childhood hero . But may l ask what happened to the stock of his double barrel rifle ? It appears to have been broken and then repaired with sheet brass .
It looks to be the magnificent .577 Nitro Express double barrel rifle which he uses in the beginning of King Solomon's Mines.
When l was a child , l always wanted to be a Shikari like him. I succeeded , but only as a fatter and uglier version and no elephants ( the largest beast l have ever shot , being Gaurs ).
 
Yes, he was also one of my heroes. Especially as a friend of Winnetou, the most famous (German) Apache chief there ever was. A fighter against injustice, saviour of widows and orphans ;)

Either the stock was repaired makeshift or extended to make it more handy.
It would also be interesting to know how an American/English actor came to the previous owner, a member of the count Potocki, one of the oldest families in Poland.
Maybe our member Witold knows something about this story.
But the safari world has always been small, then even more than today.
Greetings
pranke-des-tigers-die.jpg


"The paw of the tiger",that was the title in Germany.
Here with his Tiger double rifle - to stay with the beautiful theme;)
 

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Regarding the 9.3 millimeter mauser cartridge , l am afraid l cannot say if it was a 9.3 × 62 , 9.3 × 64 or 9.3 × 74. I sadly never paid attention to that one crucial detail . I do know however that the munition weight was exactly 286 grains . Please forgive me .
I believe the 9.3 × 74 (or 9,3 x 74 R, a rimmed cartridge that evolved from the 9.3×72mmR black powder cartridge) would be used in a double rifle, and not a bolt action.
In Northern Europe the 9.3 × 62 is a favorite for Moose, in bolt action rifles.
9.3 × 64 Brennneke offers more power.
 
I believe the 9.3 × 74 (or 9,3 x 74 R, a rimmed cartridge that evolved from the 9.3×72mmR black powder cartridge) would be used in a double rifle, and not a bolt action.
In Northern Europe the 9.3 × 62 is a favorite for Moose, in bolt action rifles.
9.3 × 64 Brennneke offers more power.
Perttime
The 9.3 millimeter mauser calibre rifles brought by my clients were always bolt operation configuration . That leads me to believe that it was either the 9.3 ×62 or the 9.3 × 64 . Which ever it was , they had a bullet weight of 286 grains . Of that , l am certain.
 
Mr. Granger's .375 Holland and Holland

In real life he had different great rifles and doubels.
The best was his .577, witch I had the fortune to handle.

He was an great hunter and - as written bevore - an "big hero" in Germany, decades ago.
 
37179186pm.jpg


I had looked in my archive.
He had shoot (one? some?) tigers in India.
Here is an "promotion picture" (Disclaimer: Not real, I have the copyright)
 

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His second famous film in Germany.
In that years, it was an hit.

He was an bis star. He was several times ins Germany, he get prices, the woman want to meet him, pp. ...
...now - in our times - nobody of the young people even knows his name....
 

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His second famous film in Germany.
In that years, it was an hit.

He was an bis star. He was several times ins Germany, he get prices, the woman want to meet him, pp. ...
...now - in our times - nobody of the young people even knows his name....
Bull Hunter
Would you happen to know the maker for the double barrel rifle in this film “ Harry Black and the Tiger “?
 
Sorry, Sir, I dont know it.

Some of his others guns (mostly WR), yes, but not this.
I must look in my archive...
 
Mr. Rahman , l always have been meaning to ask you a small question , but during our private interviews l somehow always end up forgetting it :( . So , I'll just ask here while l remember it :D
In many of your articles , you advise us to only use Doubles which don't have auto safeties . But could you explain the reasoning behind this ?
BTW , I'm a magazine man and know practically nothing about Doubles :(
 
In many of your articles , you advise us to only use Doubles which don't have auto safeties . But could you explain the reasoning behind this ?
(I use copy - paste, because for some reson, last two days the "qoute" function is not working on my pc)

@Hoss Delgado
Hoss, I beleive mr Rahman will agree:

This is because if you reload in the heat of the moment, trying to stop the charge, you may forget under stress to switch the safety back to firing status when DG is already on you. It has happened before.

And then it could be costly.
 
Perttime and Mark Hunter are most accurate in their descriptions.
The problem is not so much evident if you can kill your quarry with the first two shots ( which any ethical Shikari always should aspire to do ) . However , if Lord forbid , you find yourself needing to give two extra shots to a wounded and angry Gaur , Royal Bengal tiger or ( the worst of the worst ) a leopard , then the automatic safety mechanism will work against you . It will reactivate every time you open and close the breech of the double barrel rifle to reload . This will cause many shooters to fumble with the safety while a dangerous beast is closing the distance between itself and you .
An example of this , can be read in my account " an exciting leopard Shikar from the back of an elephant ". The automatic safety mechanism of my client's double barrel rifle almost caused a blood bath ( of the human sort ) .
By fore-saking the automatic safety mechanism , the shooter is buying himself a vital two or three seconds to shoot the beast during a charge , or to stop it from escaping .
 
The main problem, I think, is that hardly anyone practices with these heavy weapons during the year ?
When lifting the rifle , or shotgun the thumb automatically goes forward and you unlock.
In practice not a few PHs were injured by their guests.
I do not know any experienced African PH (well, so many are it now also not, but a scarce dozen it will probably be of those I know) the not nearly by a guest was shot, because one forgot in the excitement to safe the weapon again to secure and the shot accidentally went off.
One PH said recently, that more PHs were shot or severely injured by their guests, than clients by buffaloes.
With this in mind, I leave my automatic backup in.
All the African PHs that guided me, had guests, that the gun went off behind your back (and survived it) and the bullets whistled around your ears.
The automatic safety is no wonder and forgetting the safety at all can also happen like this, but it helps to improve the survival rate of the PHs a little.

IMG_0001.jpg


For the dackel (automatic safety :) ) and gaur friends among you.
India, end of the 19th century about



Map of Old British India
@KR, there were tigers all over the country in your days ?

IMG_7060.JPG
 
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The main problem, I think, is that hardly anyone practices with these heavy weapons during the year ?
When lifting the rifle , or shotgun the thumb automatically goes forward and you unlock.
In practice not a few PHs were injured by their guests.
I do not know any experienced African PH (well, so many are it now also not, but a scarce dozen it will probably be of those I know) the not nearly by a guest was shot, because one forgot in the excitement to safe the weapon again to secure and the shot accidentally went off.
One PH said recently, that more PHs were shot or severely injured by their guests, than clients by buffaloes.
With this in mind, I leave my automatic backup in.
All the African PHs that guided me, had guests, that the gun went off behind your back (and survived it) and the bullets whistled around your ears.
The automatic safety is no wonder and forgetting the safety at all can also happen like this, but it helps to improve the survival rate of the PHs a little.

View attachment 313766

For the dackel (automatic safety :) ) and gaur friends among you.
India, end of the 19th century about



Map of Old British India
@KR, there were tigers all over the country in your days ?

View attachment 313771
Foxi
Your explanation is very sound . You described it in better words than l .
It must be remembered that many gentlemen are excellent and discliplined shooters at the practice range. However , when you put them against a large angry animal , panic overtakes most people and they lose their senses. For instance ,
very recently in Bangladesh , l was shooting some troublesome boars in the tea gardens which came in through the Maulvibazaar forests . I was using my Beretta 12 bore over under loaded with a Federal SG 12 pellet cartridge in the lower barrel ( half choke ) . Some of my students were with me ( enthusiastic young men with their shot-guns ) were also shooting them. One young man was using a 12 bore pump operation shot-gun . Normally , he is a calm shooter , but when a boar charged at him , the poor boy pumped all the cartridges out of his shot-gun without pulling the trigger . Fortunately , another student with an American double barrel side by side shot-gun ( zero choke in both barrels ) managed to stop and kill the boar with two SG cartridges ( 76 millimeter fifteen pellet variety ) before it reached him.
I related this story to my niece's boy friend ( An American ) , who said that the American terminology for this is called " buck fever " .

On a less dangerous note , a younger friend of mine long ago inherited a William Cashmore 12 bore shot-gun with outside hammers ( 67 millimeter chambers ) , which he uses to shoot jungle fowl . Unfortunately , he occasionally has a habit of pointing the gun at birds and pulling the triggers , only to realize that he forgot to pull the hammers back .

Foxi , l will teach you one formula ( which all of us professional Shikaris used to know in the old days to track Royal Bengal tigers ) . This was taught to me by our Garo trackers , who were blessed by Divine Providence to track down large animals ( they were very good , probably the best in the world , l dare say ) .
The formula is this : Where ever the Sambhar deer will go , the Royal Bengal tiger will go . This is because the natural food of the Royal Bengal tiger is the Sambhar deer . Leopard will also eat Chital deer and boars . But Royal Bengal tigers will live predominantly on Sambhar deer.
 
Buck fever, in Europe known as Schoss fiber.

It is when hit with Adrenalin a hunter misses a shot, at deer or other game in a calm and controlled situation.
I always envy young hunters having it. It gives a meaning and charm and passion to the story.
I envy them, because I dont know how is it like.
I have adrenalin rush, only after the hunt is over, and not always, or not much. Ever since my first hunt.

In this case, I beleive it is typical issue of stress control, or lack of it.
 
Buck fever, in Europe known as Schoss fiber.

It is when hit with Adrenalin a hunter misses a shot, at deer or other game in a calm and controlled situation.
I always envy young hunters having it. It gives a meaning and charm and passion to the story.
I envy them, because I dont know how is it like.
I have adrenalin rush, only after the hunt is over, and not always, or not much. Ever since my first hunt.

In this case, I beleive it is typical issue of stress control, or lack of it.
Mark Hunteri can relate. The very first time in my life that l had shot a leopard , l fired both barrels at it accidentally out of excitement . He has very dead , but l was hammered back by the recoil force .
 

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