Howdah Pistol Ammuntion

[flatwater bill]

@Hunter-Habib I have seen the penetration of several 71 grain 32 ACP bullets, and am pleased you did not need to rely on it while hunting man-eating tigers. I once saw a couple of ornate Howdah pistols on display in a small museum, and I suspect they were 58+ caliber.....muzzleloaders of course......but at my last visit, all firearms had been removed from this display, replaced by a placard saying firearms displays were inappropriate, hence the removal......FW Bill

 

[Hunter-Habib]

@Hunter-Habib I have seen the penetration of several 71 grain 32 ACP bullets, and am pleased you did not need to rely on it while hunting man-eating tigers. I once saw a couple of ornate Howdah pistols on display in a small museum, and I suspect they were 58+ caliber.....muzzleloaders of course......but at my last visit, all firearms had been removed from this display, replaced by a placard saying firearms displays were inappropriate, hence the removal......FW Bill

Come now, Bill. I just ate a very nice 28 day Black Angus dry aged rare prime rib for dinner. Hearing about more of this sissy political correctness garbage again might make me vomit.

In all seriousness, I recently bought my .600 Nitro Express from the estate sale of a deceased member of nobility. His family has a pair of gold inlayed breech loading 16 gauge double barrel back action Jones Patent rotary under lever hammer Howdah pistols made by R.B Rodda & Co. (or rather made by someone in Belgium for R.B Rodda & Co.) in 1893. If you‘d like, I’ll take a picture from you the next time I go there to buy the original rifle case for my .600.

Here’s a muzzle loading percussion cap 14 gauge double barreled Howdah pistol made by James Purdey in 1859.

 

[flatwater bill]

Have absolutely no use for that pistol............but I want it!
Thanks for posting............................FW Bill

 

[VertigoBE]

Come now, Bill. I just ate a very nice 28 day Black Angus dry aged rare prime rib for dinner. Hearing about more of this sissy political correctness garbage again might make me vomit.

In all seriousness, I recently bought my .600 Nitro Express from the estate sale of a deceased member of nobility. His family has a pair of gold inlayed breech loading 16 gauge double barrel back action Jones Patent rotary under lever hammer Howdah pistols made by R.B Rodda & Co. (or rather made by someone in Belgium for R.B Rodda & Co.) in 1893. If you‘d like, I’ll take a picture from you the next time I go there to buy the original rifle case for my .600.

Here’s a muzzle loading percussion cap 14 gauge double barreled Howdah pistol made by James Purdey in 1859.

View attachment 486370

What a pistol!

I think it’s main function would be to scare the tiger away by just showing him those muzzles!

 

[270Guy]

Unfortunately not, Bill. As you can see, the pistol still has the price tag on it.

But I really wish I had something like this when I went after my three man eaters. When I went after my man eaters, I always had my .32 ACP Webley Model 1908 on my person. But It was more of a last ditch effort at self defense than anything else (and I’m damned lucky that I never had occasion to be forced to attempt to shoot a tiger with it).

These striped bastards are very difficult to kill. The first one survived seven hours after getting shot. The second one survived for four hours and the final one survived for three hours. For the first two, I used a Pakistani made 12 gauge (2 3/4”) fully choked single barrel shotgun (loaded with Eley Alphamax L.G shells). For the final one, I used my 7x57mm Mauser Churchill Gunmakers Model Deluxe (loaded with Winchester Super x 175Gr soft points).

Thankfully though you never had to use a 32 ACP on a Tiger,{for Self Defense/or Self Confidence it would have worked},know of two instances where Tigers were shot one with a 318 WR and the second with a 30-06 {220 Grn}.In the first the Tigress {a maneater} was Shot through the Heart in a Beat,the shooter was an Ace Rifle Shot,but a little inexperienced,he shot before she cleared him,she turned back,killed 2 Beaters,mauled one more badly,ran back about a mile before she expired.The second was a Male,again a Maneater,was hit very well at night from a Machan,didn't go down,next morning had to drive him out of with buffaloes,he mauled their Owner along with two buffs,had to be put down with a 416 Rigby. Think you should be thankful it never came down to you Webley,would have missed your articles.Best.

 

[270Guy]

What a pistol!

I think it’s main function would be to scare the tiger away by just showing him those muzzles!

They dont scare that easy.

 

[Hunter-Habib]

Thankfully though you never had to use a 32 ACP on a Tiger,{for Self Defense/or Self Confidence it would have worked},know of two instances where Tigers were shot one with a 318 WR and the second with a 30-06 {220 Grn}.In the first the Tigress {a maneater} was Shot through the Heart in a Beat,the shooter was an Ace Rifle Shot,but a little inexperienced,he shot before she cleared him,she turned back,killed 2 Beaters,mauled one more badly,ran back about a mile before she expired.The second was a Male,again a Maneater,was hit very well at night from a Machan,didn't go down,next morning had to drive him out of with buffaloes,he mauled their Owner along with two buffs,had to be put down with a 416 Rigby. Think you should be thankful it never came down to you Webley,would have missed your articles.Best.

270Guy,
the trick is to either:
1) Hit them with a caliber/bullet combination which will floor them on the spot
or
2) If your armaments are less than ideal, then to shoot them from a place where it becomes impossible (or at least really, really difficult) for the tiger to attempt to retaliate and then "Give it time to die".

In my experience, a Royal Bengal tiger doesn't immediately attack the hunter(s) after taking the shot. It retreats into dense cover and then attempts to ambush the hunting party when the party does a follow up. This was what we were taught in our "Problem Animal Control" module when I was studying "Principles of Forestry" in the University of Peshawar in 1969.

I shot those three man eating Royal Bengal tigers when I was the DFO of Sundarbans another lifetime ago.

I shot the first one at night from a security guard's hut in a fish farm. The tiger had killed five heads of cattle and had partially fed on all of them. So I ordered my forest guards to bury four cows and leave the fifth one untouched so that we knew exactly which carcass the tiger would be returning to. I had a forest guard with me, carrying a Mag-Lite six cell torchlight and a forest department issued .303 Lee Enfield (loaded with standard military surplus 174Gr FMJ). I had my 12 gauge Pakistani single barrel shotgun (loaded with an L.G), but also had my .32 ACP Webley pistol in my pocket and a 7x57mm Churchill Gun Makers Model Imperial rifle (which I had taken from the armory of the forest department's coupe office in that particular forest range but didn't have any confidence in because the rifling was badly worn and the weapon was in overall poor condition). Tiger came at 8PM. When the guard turned on the torchlight, we only saw the pair of glowing eyes (since you've shot Nilgai at night over torchlight, I'm sure you have a general idea that only the eyes can be seen). I used the eyes as a reference point and fired. Range couldn't be more than 20 yards. Upon getting the shot, the tiger vanished from sight. We could hear him growling as he kept circling the hut. Then, at 9:30PM it started to rain. And then, we got scared because we could no longer hear him. In the morning, my other men came from the forest department launch and we got out of the hut. We followed the blood trail and found the tiger dead, several miles away. He had was about to cross a canal, when he expired. Post mortem placed his time of death at 3AM. All eight L.G pellets hit him; most in the frontal chest region but two in the base of the throat (those Sialkot single barrel shotguns were extremely tightly choked… being able to put all eight pellets from an Eley Alphamax L.G shell into a 13“ circle at 20 yards consistently). The L.G pellets that hit him in the chest had flattened out like clay putty. They didn't penetrate the rock hard chest muscles. But the two L.G pellets which had hit the soft throat had managed to do the real damage.

I shot the second one, also at night. But this time, me and the forest guard were up on a macchan in a cattle farm. We were armed in the same arrangement as before. Tiger returned at 10PM to feed on the remains of a bullock he had previously killed and partially fed on. Forest guard turned in the torchlight and I fired at the place where the two glowing eyes were. Range couldn’t be more than 20 yards. Tiger vanished from our sight, but we kept hearing his growls of pain until 2AM (give or take). In the morning, we found the tiger dead, about a hundred yards from where the bullock’s remains were. All eight L.G pellets had struck him in the frontal region; again most in the chest where they had flattened out on the hardened muscles without being able to reach the vitals. Luckily one L.G pellet had severed the jugular vein and that’s what eventually caused the tiger to bleed to death.

The third one, I shot during a chance encounter while patrolling the canals of the forest range on the forest department speed boat (along with a half dozen of my men). By then, I had already purchased my Churchill Gunmakers Model Deluxe 7x57mm Mauser and resolved to use that against the man eater (loaded with Winchester Super X 175Gr soft points) due to seeing firsthand how dismal shotguns perform against the great cats on the two previous occasions. When we spotted the tiger at 2PM, he was stalking an unsuspecting angler. I got down from the speedboat and tried to close in for an accurate shot but the tiger spotted me. Out of desperation, I gave him a broadside shoulder shot with the rifle. Tiger made off into the dense mangroves and I returned to the speedboat. We returned to the forest department launch for lunch and to give the man eater “Time to die” (because we knew that it’s not wise to follow him up while he still had strength in him and we knew that he would eventually weaken due to the immense amount of foamy blood he had left behind; a clear sign that I had managed to at least hit a lung). An hour later, my men and I went ashore and took up the blood trail. We found him dead at 5:45PM. Postmortem placed his time of death roughly three hours after I shot him. That Winchester 7mm soft point bullet had broken the tiger’s scapula and penetrated into one lung (while also nicking the heart) but had not managed to do any damage to the other lung. Judging from the position of the tiger’s carcass when we found him, he had succumbed to the gunshot wound while lying in wait to ambush us.

Out of those three man eaters I shot, the largest measured 9 ft10” and the smallest measured 9ft7”. They averaged at about 308 Lb. If I had been armed with a .375 Holland & Holland Magnum and 300Gr Nosler Partition soft points, then I strongly doubt that any of the tigers would have lasted as long as they did after getting shot. In my opinion, the best weapon for hunting Royal Bengal tigers in the thick stuff is a .450/400 Nitro Express double rifle with automatic ejectors and a manual safety (loaded with 400Gr lead cored soft points at 2100fps). My predecessor, Yusuf Salauddin Ahmad (the first CCF of Pakistan) used such a rifle (made by W.J jeffery) to shoot all of his tigers between 1939 and 1948. In your country, Col. Kesri Singh (author of “One Man & A Thousand Tigers” and the gentleman whom I personally consider to be the greatest authority on hunting Royal Bengal tigers) used the exact same kind of rifle to take virtually all of his tigers. And they both recorded it’s immense ability to floor charging tigers.

In India, tiger hunters had two advantages. The first was the possibility of having beats conducted. The second was the ability to use live baits. Due to the Sundarbans being basically thousands of tiny islands with thousands of canals running between them, conducting a driven hunt of any form is impossible there. And the tigers there aren’t enticed by live baits. Rather, seeing a cow or a goat tied to a tree there tends to always make them suspicious. Also, it’s useless trying to ambush a tiger near a waterhole while he/she comes for a drink. Because in the Sundarbans, water is EVERYWHERE and the tiger can pretty much have a drink any damned place they please.

In the Sundarbans, the only surefire way of hunting a Royal Bengal tiger (barring the possibility of randomly spotting one at the riverbank by chance and shooting them from a passing boat/launch) is to find a temporarily abandoned “natural kill” of the tiger (which it abandoned between feedings) and wait to ambush the animal when he/she returns for the second feeding.

Your two accounts are most fascinating. The fellow using the .30-06 … I take it that he was either using 220Gr Kynoch soft points or 220Gr Winchester Silver Tips or 220Gr Remington Core Lokts ? Those were the only commercially manufactured 220Gr factory loads for the .30-06 Springfield back when hunting was legal in India. But only one question: Wasn‘t the minimum legally acceptable caliber for hunting tigers in India (back in those days) the .375 Holland & Holland Magnum ? I read that no license would be given to a hunter for shooting a Royal Bengal tiger unless they possessed a .375 caliber rifle.

Your assessment to VertigoBE is extremely spot on. Tigers don’t scare easily AT ALL.

 

[PerH]

As always in real life experience trump the book read and imagined ones . Hunter Habib and other has good irl experience.

.32 Acp is perhaps the smallest of the penetrators cartridges ,but it sure has been there when its needed .

 

[270Guy]

270Guy,
the trick is to either:
1) Hit them with a caliber/bullet combination which will floor them on the spot
or
2) If your armaments are less than ideal, then to shoot them from a place where it becomes impossible (or at least really, really difficult) for the tiger to attempt to retaliate and then "Give it time to die".

In my experience, a Royal Bengal tiger doesn't immediately attack the hunter(s) after taking the shot. It retreats into dense cover and then attempts to ambush the hunting party when the party does a follow up. This was what we were taught in our "Problem Animal Control" module when I was studying "Principles of Forestry" in the University of Peshawar in 1969.

I shot those three man eating Royal Bengal tigers when I was the DFO of Sundarbans another lifetime ago.

I shot the first one at night from a security guard's hut in a fish farm. The tiger had killed five heads of cattle and had partially fed on all of them. So I ordered my forest guards to bury four cows and leave the fifth one untouched so that we knew exactly which carcass the tiger would be returning to. I had a forest guard with me, carrying a Mag-Lite six cell torchlight and a forest department issued .303 Lee Enfield (loaded with standard military surplus 174Gr FMJ). I had my 12 gauge Pakistani single barrel shotgun (loaded with an L.G), but also had my .32 ACP Webley pistol in my pocket and a 7x57mm Churchill Gun Makers Model Imperial rifle (which I had taken from the armory of the forest department's coupe office in that particular forest range but didn't have any confidence in because the rifling was badly worn and the weapon was in overall poor condition). Tiger came at 8PM. When the guard turned on the torchlight, we only saw the pair of glowing eyes (since you've shot Nilgai at night over torchlight, I'm sure you have a general idea that only the eyes can be seen). I used the eyes as a reference point and fired. Range couldn't be more than 20 yards. Upon getting the shot, the tiger vanished from sight. We could hear him growling as he kept circling the hut. Then, at 9:30PM it started to rain. And then, we got scared because we could no longer hear him. In the morning, my other men came from the forest department launch and we got out of the hut. We followed the blood trail and found the tiger dead, several miles away. He had was about to cross a canal, when he expired. Post mortem placed his time of death at 3AM. All eight L.G pellets hit him; most in the frontal chest region but two in the base of the throat (those Sialkot single barrel shotguns were extremely tightly choked… being able to put all eight pellets from an Eley Alphamax L.G shell into a 13“ circle at 20 yards consistently). The L.G pellets that hit him in the chest had flattened out like clay putty. They didn't penetrate the rock hard chest muscles. But the two L.G pellets which had hit the soft throat had managed to do the real damage.

I shot the second one, also at night. But this time, me and the forest guard were up on a macchan in a cattle farm. We were armed in the same arrangement as before. Tiger returned at 10PM to feed on the remains of a bullock he had previously killed and partially fed on. Forest guard turned in the torchlight and I fired at the place where the two glowing eyes were. Range couldn’t be more than 20 yards. Tiger vanished from our sight, but we kept hearing his growls of pain until 2AM (give or take). In the morning, we found the tiger dead, about a hundred yards from where the bullock’s remains were. All eight L.G pellets had struck him in the frontal region; again most in the chest where they had flattened out on the hardened muscles without being able to reach the vitals. Luckily one L.G pellet had severed the jugular vein and that’s what eventually caused the tiger to bleed to death.
View attachment 486651

The third one, I shot during a chance encounter while patrolling the canals of the forest range on the forest department speed boat (along with a half dozen of my men). By then, I had already purchased my Churchill Gunmakers Model Deluxe 7x57mm Mauser and resolved to use that against the man eater (loaded with Winchester Super X 175Gr soft points) due to seeing firsthand how dismal shotguns perform against the great cats on the two previous occasions. When we spotted the tiger at 2PM, he was stalking an unsuspecting angler. I got down from the speedboat and tried to close in for an accurate shot but the tiger spotted me. Out of desperation, I gave him a broadside shoulder shot with the rifle. Tiger made off into the dense mangroves and I returned to the speedboat. We returned to the forest department launch for lunch and to give the man eater “Time to die” (because we knew that it’s not wise to follow him up while he still had strength in him and we knew that he would eventually weaken due to the immense amount of foamy blood he had left behind; a clear sign that I had managed to at least hit a lung). An hour later, my men and I went ashore and took up the blood trail. We found him dead at 5:45PM. Postmortem placed his time of death roughly three hours after I shot him. That Winchester 7mm soft point bullet had broken the tiger’s scapula and penetrated into one lung (while also nicking the heart) but had not managed to do any damage to the other lung. Judging from the position of the tiger’s carcass when we found him, he had succumbed to the gunshot wound while lying in wait to ambush us.
View attachment 486650

Out of those three man eaters I shot, the largest measured 9 ft10” and the smallest measured 9ft7”. They averaged at about 308 Lb. If I had been armed with a .375 Holland & Holland Magnum and 300Gr Nosler Partition soft points, then I strongly doubt that any of the tigers would have lasted as long as they did after getting shot. In my opinion, the best weapon for hunting Royal Bengal tigers in the thick stuff is a .450/400 Nitro Express double rifle with automatic ejectors and a manual safety (loaded with 400Gr lead cored soft points at 2100fps). My predecessor, Yusuf Salauddin Ahmad (the first CCF of Pakistan) used such a rifle (made by W.J jeffery) to shoot all of his tigers between 1939 and 1948. In your country, Col. Kesri Singh (author of “One Man & A Thousand Tigers” and the gentleman whom I personally consider to be the greatest authority on hunting Royal Bengal tigers) used the exact same kind of rifle to take virtually all of his tigers. And they both recorded it’s immense ability to floor charging tigers.

In India, tiger hunters had two advantages. The first was the possibility of having beats conducted. The second was the ability to use live baits. Due to the Sundarbans being basically thousands of tiny islands with thousands of canals running between them, conducting a driven hunt of any form is impossible there. And the tigers there aren’t enticed by live baits. Rather, seeing a cow or a goat tied to a tree there tends to always make them suspicious. Also, it’s useless trying to ambush a tiger near a waterhole while he/she comes for a drink. Because in the Sundarbans, water is EVERYWHERE and the tiger can pretty much have a drink any damned place they please.

In the Sundarbans, the only surefire way of hunting a Royal Bengal tiger (barring the possibility of randomly spotting one at the riverbank by chance and shooting them from a passing boat/launch) is to find a temporarily abandoned “natural kill” of the tiger (which it abandoned between feedings) and wait to ambush the animal when he/she returns for the second feeding.

Your two accounts are most fascinating. The fellow using the .30-06 … I take it that he was either using 220Gr Kynoch soft points or 220Gr Winchester Silver Tips or 220Gr Remington Core Lokts ? Those were the only commercially manufactured 220Gr factory loads for the .30-06 Springfield back when hunting was legal in India. But only one question: Wasn‘t the minimum legally acceptable caliber for hunting tigers in India (back in those days) the .375 Holland & Holland Magnum ? I read that no license would be given to a hunter for shooting a Royal Bengal tiger unless they possessed a .375 caliber rifle.
View attachment 486649
Your assessment to VertigoBE is extremely spot on. Tigers don’t scare easily AT ALL.

Hunter -Habib,will start with your last query,375 H&H was deemed the minimum Caliber for DG Hunting in the early or mid 60s,that time the main discussion on the Big Game shooting Clubs/people was Heavy Slow moving Bullets versus the High Velocity Light bullets.Both had their respective Fans who very ferociously pushed forward their own Ideas.Then came the Ballistic Charts and other Knockdown Data. It was observed by the Authorities that most of the Predators who turned Problem Animals were injured during the previous season by Hunters shooting High Velocity Rifles with very Light Bullets.A lot of them left unaccounted for, turned terror for the Locals and had to be put down.Now came in a fresh problem,people would get permits showing 375 H&H and trying to make a name for themselves would use the smaller caliber.Hunting outfits for Tips,Imported Cartridges,Scotch,$$$,would turn a Blind eye and let it be used,its on record,Hunters from other Countries {dont want to step on any Toes by mentioning nationalities} using 220 Swift,22 Hornet, Cross Bow,etc,etc for Tiger Shooting which really didnt end well.My Uncle {Dads Brother} used a 270 Win and a WR Explora 12 Ga for putting down 14 Tigers.It didnt end well for him too.Had gone to put down a Problem Tiger,we never found his remains.His Rifle had a spent shell in the Chamber,his Water Bottle and Flask we found.The place of the encounter was too Rocky and with too many cave systems to search for tracks or dragmarks.
My father was a firm believer of the saying"one cant be over gunned ever for animals that can decapacitate an Ox with one Blow from its Paw".He had a WR 577 {hated it,it killed on both ends},a 450-400 by Rigby, a 416 again a Rigby and a 404 Jeffery by Mauser,he also had a 12Ga 3" Auto for follow ups.He also had a 45 ACP ,a beautiful pistol,gifted to him by a very senior US Army officer,but he never took it with him when hunting.He said,"if it comes down to this I am Toast"
The Chap using the 30-06 was using some American Ammo,i really dont remember,used to work in one of the Embassy's here.before going to the Machan dad told him to take the 404,but the Chap wanted to tell his hunting Buddies that he has taken a Massive Male Tiger with a 30,he had a Conversion Chart which in theory proved that a 7.62 mm bullet weighing 220 Grns going at about 2500 FPS had a Knockdown power to take out a 1100 Lb animal.Dad just told him"Tiger dont read much,but they Bite Claw Maul very well".He didnt listen and next day after the chaos was over had to pay the Buffalo owner about Rupees 800 {a princely sum in those days} to put the matter to rest {the Tiger weighed 492 Lbs}.
Regarding Beats,these were very expensive affairs,50-100 Men,Local Shikaris,Stops etc,etc and of course some trigger happy idiot who wont follow the rules,Tiger turns around and mauls a couple of people,and they did it a lot.You might have seen the Rolls Royce Hunting Car,it had a Safe to carry cash.When the Locals get Mauled,Killed the only thing that calms thing down is cash,be it Cops,the pissed of couple of 100 Locals etc,etc.
Watering Holes and Salt Licks were the easiest,here in North- Western India Tigers have Territory's which were not very difficult to id.Putting a Bait really didnt work on Problem animal.Tiger are Highly Intelligent creatures.They know this is trouble and avoid that particular Beat.
Regarding the Tigers of Sundarbans,they all are Cuckoo,have never heard,seen so many Pisssed of Tigers in one place,dont know if its Lack of Fresh water,Territorial Markings,or never having to face the hunting pressures which their Indian Cousins had to deal with,that till date for them Humans are still a part of the Food chain.I had once gone to the Indian Side of the Sunderbans on 1st April to see all the Fishing and Honey Collectors go inside to get Prawns and Honey.Never seen so much Terror in the eyes of so many people at one place.The Field Director told me that about 100 odd wont return and they didnt.

 

[Hunter-Habib]

Very fascinating 270Guy. Your father seemed like an extremely level headed Shikari. I know exactly what you mean about visiting hunters in India sometimes using smaller-than-legal calibers for tiger hunting ”Off the record”. Mr. Fred Bear took one with a bow & arrow. Mr. Tom Bollack took one with a Savage Model 110 in .270 Winchester. They were both two fortunate instances of success. But (like you), I have a feeling that several of these “Dar Devils” didn’t have their hunts go the way they planned.

There are broadly eight reasons why a Sundarbans tiger becomes a man eater:

A Royal Bengal tiger may get injured by a hunter’s (back when hunting these creatures for sport was legal) or poacher’s bullet/arrow/trap and turn man eater. As per the ethics of hunting… while wounding any animal without finishing it off is largely considered to be immoral and irresponsible and unsportsmanlike, this actually produces extremely dangerous long- term consequences when the wounded animal in question happens to be a Royal Bengal tiger. This is because the wounds inflicted on these animals would leave them unable to hunt their ordinary quarry (Axis deer and wild boar). As a result, Royal Bengal Tigers turn to human beings (and their domesticated livestock) as their source of food as they view human beings as a far weaker quarry and thus easy to attack and kill for food.

The second reason why a Royal Bengal tiger becomes a man eater is when it gets old and reaches an advanced age in it’s life. The animal’s teeth will fall, it’s claws will break and it will lose it’s agility and it’s strength. It will no longer be able to hunt it’s natural quarry (Axis deer and wild boar) for food. As a result, elderly Royal Bengal Tigers turn to human beings (and their domesticated livestock) as their source of food because they view human beings as a far weaker quarry and thus easy to attack and kill for food. The second man eater which I shot, was quite an old animal indeed… with several broken teeth and fangs.

The third reason why a Royal Bengal tiger becomes a man eater may be if it gets stabbed in the paws or some other part of the body by porcupine quills. Porcupine quills cause severe pain, irritation, infection and disturbance to any creature who is stabbed by them. Initially, this may seem to be a very rare occurrence. However, it happens a great deal more frequently than one cares to think. When I shot my first man eater, we found a porcupine quill had been embedded in his right testicle and the genitals of the animal had become gangrenous. Pachabdi Gazi told me that out of the 56 man eating Royal Bengal tigers which he had killed with gun-traps between 1945 and 1970… no fewer than 13 of them were found to have been injured by porcupine quills in one part of their body or another.

A fourth reason may be if a Royal Bengal tiger somehow comes across a human corpse and takes a few bites from it out of morbid curiosity. In India (which shares a border with Bangladesh on the edge of the Sundarban mangrove forests), many poor Muslim & Hindus employees (of the lowest caste) working in factories or rubber plantations were simply not given a proper cremation if they died. Their corpses were often simply dumped into rivers (after having a live coal placed in their mouths, in the case of the lower caste Hindu workers). This would also happen during times of mass death, such as plagues or pandemics. The current of these rivers frequently cause the corpses to wash up on the river banks near forests. Curious Royal Bengal tigers bite off chunks of these corpses and then become man eaters. During the Bangladesh Indo-Pak war of 1971, thousands of human corpses would regularly get thrown into the Meghna and Jamuna rivers which found their way into the Sundarban mangrove forests. As a result; during the 1971 Indo-Pak War, man eating Royal Bengal tigers were rancid in the Khulna division of East Pakistan/Bangladesh. This prompted several of the paranoid soldiers stationed in Khulna (both East AND West Pakistani) to begin indiscriminately shooting every single Royal Bengal tiger which they would cross paths with. It was this indiscriminate slaughter during these nine months which caused the population of Royal Bengal tigers to drop near endangered levels in the Sundarbans.

A fifth reason why Royal Bengal tigers may become man eaters is if their mothers were man eaters and got the immature Royal Bengal tigers accustomed to the eating of human flesh, since they were cubs. This reason is actually the most difficult reason to pin point, since there are no blemishes on the Royal Bengal tiger's body which might act as a visual aid.

A sixth reason why a Royal Bengal tiger may turn into a man eater is if it's natural food (Axis deer or Bengal bush boar) is no longer available to it. This may either be caused by uncontrolled hunting or deforestation which causes the Bengal wild boar or Axis deer to move out of the area. This is why the game laws since 1951 have very strict stipulations on the bag limits of Axis stags taken annually.

A seventh reason why a Royal Bengal tiger may turn into a man eater, is if it suffered from cerebral damage caused by maggots entering into it’s brain. While having the postmortem conducted on the final man eater which I had shot with the 7x57mm Mauser, we discovered that several large maggots had eaten into his brain tissue.

Finally, a Royal Bengal tiger may become a man eater for no apparent reason whatsoever. What is clear however, is that once a Royal Bengal tiger has gotten the taste of human flesh, it will eschew all other forms of meat in favor of the flesh of man. They will often travel miles to find their quarry. Being the expert swimmers that they are, a man eating Royal Bengal tiger is also willing to swim for several miles in order to locate the nearest human settlement. Thus, a Royal Bengal tiger which has turned man eater must be put down, as quickly and efficiently as possible.

When I was posted in the Sundarbans as the DFO, we had an Austrian professor visit the Chand Pai forest range and stay for a quarter year. And he conducted several studies on the Royal Bengal tigers in the area. He chalked up their unusually high propensity to become man eaters, to the large amount of saltwater which is found all over the mangrove forests. His conclusion was that the unusually high concentrations of salt in their drinking water was causing pathologies in the dietary habits of the tigers.

The easiest way to determine whether a human victim was killed by a man eating Royal Bengal tiger or simply ran afoul of a Royal Bengal tiger which attacked them on instinct, is by examining the buttocks of the corpse. A man eating Royal Bengal tiger will always and without exception , consume the flesh from the victim's buttocks first (and also the breasts if the victim happens to be a female). A Royal Bengal tiger which instinctively kills a human being will only claw and bite their victim from the front side, but will not touch the buttocks. A Royal Bengal tiger will always require two meals to completely strip a human corpse of all of it’s flesh.

 

[270Guy]

Finally, a Royal Bengal tiger may become a man eater for no apparent reason whatsoever. What is clear however, is that once a Royal Bengal tiger has gotten the taste of human flesh, it will eschew all other forms of meat in favor of the flesh of man. They will often travel miles to find their quarry. Being the expert swimmers that they are, a man eating Royal Bengal tiger is also willing to swim for several miles in order to locate the nearest human settlement. Thus, a Royal Bengal tiger which has turned man eater must be put down, as quickly and efficiently as possible.

This i have heard,but i have evidence contrary to this,basically for whatever little time we were at Sundarbans and one incident remained in my mind was a Forest Guards patrol boat was out,there was a census going on,{How so ever useful was a mystery to me},they saw Pug marks on the banks,Boat goes to get an print of the Pug Mark,a Guard gets out,Tiger is in the Bushes,it attacks the Guard,the rest of the Party Fires in Air.Tiger goes off,they pick up the badly wounded/mauled Guard,try and get him help,but its too late.The entire Census is stopped.
My point being,i am sure you would have seen enough videos on You Tube and other channels of Tourists roaming around in National Parks here in India and Nepal & Tigers roaming around them and never attacking,barring one odd incident annually. { for that i blame these stupid tour operators who for Tips push animals to a place where they will react}The Sunderban Tiger is an abnormality,think they see people and its like a Dinner Gong for them. A Tiger entered a village on the outskirts of the Reserve,there was a couple of Goats and a Buff tied up right in his line of sight,he broke open a Shack and pulled out a Woman and walked off.
Regarding fondness of human flesh,there was a Tigress, we called her the Kalagarh Female {Buffer zone of Corbett National Park},goes on a Killing spree,kills 8 odd people from November to Jan,Permits are made,hunting parties looking for her,Day Night searches,and she vanishes,all quiet,she trailed her left rear leg which we attributed to some Injury. Everyone heaved a sigh of relief. March end again she is back,then again she vanished.During the Lockdown period of 2020,a pair of Tigers Killed and consumed 2 people right next to Plibhit Tiger Reserve and then all was quite.If fondness to Human Flesh was the reason,the places these incidents happened are dotted with Villages,people living out at small farm Houses,these would be subjected to attacks daily.But that never is the case.
Your Suderban Tigers are a different breed,they are Man Killers and are on the Top of the food chain there.This side Tigers are a little different,they have faced hunting pressures since the 19th century,they know humans are Bad New,so stay away,we have the odd abnormality here too,but by large Tigers stay away.
By large i have seen just 2 Cats who turned Problem animals due to Porcupine Quills in their Paws or chest,but generally all the ones i had seen were having Pellets or slugs fired from Muzzle Loaders or Shotguns in them,or some other injury caused by human interaction.The Champawat Tigress was also peppered on her face by some over zealous farmer in Nepal.
Am sure you will agree that Tiger are very Vindictive Animals and if pushed around they react which in general is never good news for the locals who have to go to the Forests for Wood,Fodder etc,etc.

 

[robtattoo]

View attachment 486370

Good lord! That thing's brand new. I swear, you send that thing back, you'd probably get a refund!

 

[Hunter-Habib]

This i have heard,but i have evidence contrary to this,basically for whatever little time we were at Sundarbans and one incident remained in my mind was a Forest Guards patrol boat was out,there was a census going on,{How so ever useful was a mystery to me},they saw Pug marks on the banks,Boat goes to get an print of the Pug Mark,a Guard gets out,Tiger is in the Bushes,it attacks the Guard,the rest of the Party Fires in Air.Tiger goes off,they pick up the badly wounded/mauled Guard,try and get him help,but its too late.The entire Census is stopped.
My point being,i am sure you would have seen enough videos on You Tube and other channels of Tourists roaming around in National Parks here in India and Nepal & Tigers roaming around them and never attacking,barring one odd incident annually. { for that i blame these stupid tour operators who for Tips push animals to a place where they will react}The Sunderban Tiger is an abnormality,think they see people and its like a Dinner Gong for them. A Tiger entered a village on the outskirts of the Reserve,there was a couple of Goats and a Buff tied up right in his line of sight,he broke open a Shack and pulled out a Woman and walked off.
Regarding fondness of human flesh,there was a Tigress, we called her the Kalagarh Female {Buffer zone of Corbett National Park},goes on a Killing spree,kills 8 odd people from November to Jan,Permits are made,hunting parties looking for her,Day Night searches,and she vanishes,all quiet,she trailed her left rear leg which we attributed to some Injury. Everyone heaved a sigh of relief. March end again she is back,then again she vanished.During the Lockdown period of 2020,a pair of Tigers Killed and consumed 2 people right next to Plibhit Tiger Reserve and then all was quite.If fondness to Human Flesh was the reason,the places these incidents happened are dotted with Villages,people living out at small farm Houses,these would be subjected to attacks daily.But that never is the case.
Your Suderban Tigers are a different breed,they are Man Killers and are on the Top of the food chain there.This side Tigers are a little different,they have faced hunting pressures since the 19th century,they know humans are Bad New,so stay away,we have the odd abnormality here too,but by large Tigers stay away.
By large i have seen just 2 Cats who turned Problem animals due to Porcupine Quills in their Paws or chest,but generally all the ones i had seen were having Pellets or slugs fired from Muzzle Loaders or Shotguns in them,or some other injury caused by human interaction.The Champawat Tigress was also peppered on her face by some over zealous farmer in Nepal.
Am sure you will agree that Tiger are very Vindictive Animals and if pushed around they react which in general is never good news for the locals who have to go to the Forests for Wood,Fodder etc,etc.

270Guy
I can’t tell a lie and profess to be an expert on Indian tigers, because my field of experience is limited only to the Royal Bengal tigers inhabiting the Sundarban mangrove forests. Since you’ve shared such an useful (and plausible) insight into the behavorial patterns of Indian tigers, I’ll readily take your word for it.

You’re reasonable to assume that all the Royal Bengal tigers in the Sundarbans are man eaters. But a few thoughts here. I served two terms as the Divisional Forest Officer of the Sundarbans and during this time … we had adapted a zero tolerance policy towards poachers, drug smugglers and pirates (pirates being the main scourge of the Sundarbans back in those days) who had become rancid in the area. I frequently accompanied my range officers and forest guards on anti poaching and anti pirate patrols through the various canals running through all of the forest ranges on our forest department launch or speedboat (I was very “hands on” back in those days, in order to make sure that there was no dereliction of duty on the part of my men). During these eight years, I made some very revealing observations about the Sundarban tigers.

I’ve sometimes seen tigers swim through the canals and go past the little dinghy boats of local fishermen or wood cutters, without so much as batting an eyelid at the humans (who would have made INCREDIBLY easy pickings for the creatures should they have chosen to feed on them).

Other times (twice to be precise), during anti poaching/anti pirate patrol on foot … Me and the men would sometimes spot a Royal Bengal tiger in the distance. He/she would also see us, but would make no attempt to run or to attack. Instead, they’d crouch into dense cover in an attempt to conceal themselves. We’d cautiously walk past the area with our rifles/shotguns in hand (knowing full well that the tiger is watching us from that particular direction) but that tiger would never attack. They’d rather cautiously slightly keep their heads raised out of the thickets and watch us go by. After being certain that we were far enough from them, the tiger would get up from it’s concealment and go it’s own way. As a matter of fact, it is the occasional (rather than the usual) Royal Bengal tiger which turns to feeding on human beings. Generally speaking; the average Royal Bengal tiger of the Sundarbans wants to have nothing to do with human beings & will go well out of his/her way to avoid people.

Of course, I’m no sentimental fool who views these creatures as the cute cuddly things portrayed in Disney films. On average, the deaths of 52 local residents in/around the Sundarbans may be attributed to Royal Bengal tigers. But I wouldn’t go so far as to say that all of the tigers in the Sundarbans are inherently man earers. I’d put the numbers at one out of every seven. Which is still a much higher propensity than the tigers in India (so your assessment may be on to something, after all).

You’re very right about the tigers of the Sundarbans not being subjected to the same pressures of their Indian cousins. Fortunately, this is what’s still allowed the species to survive in the Sundarbans through the test of time. This is particularly (but pleasantly) surprising considering that between 1948 and 1970, Royal Bengal tigers in the Sundarbans were classified as pests by the East Pakistani government. Imagine how crazy the laws were: You needed a written permit to hunt Axis deer there (and only up to two Adult stags per season) but no permission was required to kill tigers. Rather, huge cash rewards were doled out to anybody who could submit a Royal Bengal tiger hide to any of the local coupe offices of the Sundarban Department of Forests.

During my posting, I actually had a chance to look at the records of all of the Royal Bengal tigers which were killed between 1948 and 1970 (and had their skins submitted to local coupe offices in exchange for cash rewards). The number was rather low (relatively speaking). 66 Royal Bengal tiger hides were turned in during a period of 22 years. Out of those 66, 29 were declared to be man eaters. Of course, my numbers aren’t comprehensive, because they fail to account for the Royal Bengal tigers which were shot by foreign diplomats/West Pakistani military officers (who took the hides back with them, as trophies). But I doubt the total number would be above 100.

Again, I’d chalk this up to the extremely hostile terrain of the Sundarbans which makes it quite difficult to hunt tigers there. As I mentioned previously, tigers in this region were only hunted by two main methods:
1) Waiting to ambush them at a natural kill site, when they return (which is extremely difficult to do, as natural kill sites can’t easily be found). A variation of this technique was to set a gun-trap in the trail leading to the kill site, which would inadvertently get triggered by the tiger when it would walk along the trail to return to it’s partially finished meal.
or
2) The method used by visiting diplomats or visiting West Pakistani military officers on tour. Which was to tour all of creeks on a launch (for the wider creeks) or a speedboat (for the narrower creeks), until a tiger could be spotted resting near the river bank. A scoped rifle in a long range Magnum caliber would then be used to shoot the tiger from the safety of the launch or speedboat deck. Due to the vessel’s turbulence in the water, a lot of the times the tiger would be missed (or lightly wounded) and would make off into the interior. Few (if any) of the diplomats or military officers wanted to risk their hides by going ashore and following up the tiger on foot. Of course, this method would only work if you just wanted to bag any random Royal Bengal tiger. It wouldn’t be of any use if you were hunting one specific tiger (such as in the case of a problem animal).

A lot of people (even well researched academics) have a notion that Royal Bengal tigers can be easily seen in the Sundarbans. But this simply isn’t true. You will find thousands of pug marks of the tigers across all of the forest ranges and might spend a full week just trying to catch a glimpse of the actual animals themselves. But you won’t see them. But they will be watching your every step. Sometimes, they might be as close as 30 feet from you. But you won’t even get a sign of their presence. The Sundarbans tiger is one sneaky customer.

I have one very disturbing experience which leads me to the conclusion that a Sundarban Royal Bengal tiger which has once turned to human flesh will prefer it to all other meats. The final Royal Bengal tiger which I had shot (the one which I got with the 7x57mm) was initially captured alive in a cage trap and relocated to Rai Mangal island (where human population was non existent at the time of this incident). Roughly a year later (a little over 11 months to be precise), that same tiger had returned to the Buri Goalini forest range and was terrorizing the locals again. We recognized him due to an abnormality in his pug marks and were blown out of our minds that the animal would be so determined as to swim for several miles to return to his human hunting grounds (you couldn’t have summed it up better when you called these creatures “vindictive“). After that, the Ministry of Forests (with some persuasion from a Brigadier General) finally issued a “Kill Order” for the man eater. I had already retired from the post of DFO of the Sundarbans at that time and was pursuing my political career. The Brigadier General and his men kept trying to hunt the man eater down for a total of six weeks. For a few reasons, they didn’t succeed. Eventually, I got called in again because I previously hunted two man eaters successfully. I decided to try my hand. And well… you know the rest.

 

[Hunter-Habib]

Good lord! That thing's brand new. I swear, you send that thing back, you'd probably get a refund!

A man’s got to take care of his tools, no ?

 

[robtattoo]

A man’s got to take care of his tools, no ?

No kidding.

 

[270Guy]

A lot of people (even well researched academics) have a notion that Royal Bengal tigers can be easily seen in the Sundarbans. But this simply isn’t true. You will find thousands of pug marks of the tigers across all of the forest ranges and might spend a full week just trying to catch a glimpse of the actual animals themselves. But you won’t see them. But they will be watching your every step. Sometimes, they might be as close as 30 feet from you. But you won’t even get a sign of their presence. The Sundarbans tiger is one sneaky customer.

True that,they know you are around,but rarely reveal themselves. A group of photographers for National Geographic were shooting a series near Kanha Nation Park,they left out Trailcams around wildlife trails,they collected Photos of a couple of Tigers,showed it to the Villagers.The Villagers never believed that Tigers lived next to them. ,

 

[270Guy]

During my posting, I actually had a chance to look at the records of all of the Royal Bengal tigers which were killed between 1948 and 1970 (and had their skins submitted to local coupe offices in exchange for cash rewards). The number was rather low (relatively speaking). 66 Royal Bengal tiger hides were turned in during a period of 22 years. Out of those 66, 29 were declared to be man eaters. Of course, my numbers aren’t comprehensive, because they fail to account for the Royal Bengal tigers which were shot by foreign diplomats/West Pakistani military officers (who took the hides back with them, as trophies). But I doubt the total number would be above 100.

Hunting in Sunderbans wasnt easy ever,the terrain,the other Wildlife both venomous and dangerous,Tides,impossible to organize a Beat.Shooting from boats would have been a cause for creating problem animals.Even if we peg the number at 100 in 22 years thats not even 5 a Year,it really wasnt worth any Big Game Hunters time.
India Big Game Hunting was open during the same period.Our Embassy's all over had a special Desk for this.One could come to India,live like a King and be almost sure of taking home a Trophy.Special tents, seasoned Local Shikaris,everything organised.Sahib just comes with his Guns,if it had been me,i would have gone to India,Sunderbans not really.They would take more than 100 Tigers in any given Hunting Season here.If i am not mistaken,think Bangaladesh also banned Tiger shooting in 1974 or was it after that.
A lot of Generals and other GHQ Staffers from West Pakistan {as it was called then} would have made it to Bangladesh.

 

[Hunter-Habib]

Hunting in Sunderbans wasnt easy ever,the terrain,the other Wildlife both venomous and dangerous,Tides,impossible to organize a Beat.Shooting from boats would have been a cause for creating problem animals.Even if we peg the number at 100 in 22 years thats not even 5 a Year,it really wasnt worth any Big Game Hunters time.
India Big Game Hunting was open during the same period.Our Embassy's all over had a special Desk for this.One could come to India,live like a King and be almost sure of taking home a Trophy.Special tents, seasoned Local Shikaris,everything organised.Sahib just comes with his Guns,if it had been me,i would have gone to India,Sunderbans not really.They would take more than 100 Tigers in any given Hunting Season here.If i am not mistaken,think Bangaladesh also banned Tiger shooting in 1974 or was it after that.
A lot of Generals and other GHQ Staffers from West Pakistan {as it was called then} would have made it to Bangladesh.

Yes, you’re right.

After the Indo-Pak war in 1971, the new government passed the Wildlife Conservation Act in 1973. This act offered complete legal protection to Royal Bengal tigers and made it a criminally punishable offense to kill one. A Royal Bengal tiger could only be legally killed if it had become a man eater and the Ministry of Forests had issued a Death-Order for the animal in question. This would only be done if the Sundarban Department of Forests had proven to the Ministry of Forests that ALL NON LETHAL ATTEMPTS TO CONTEND WITH THE MAN EATER HAD CULMINATED IN UNSUCCESSFUL RESULTS (Firstly, attempts would be made to ward the animal away. If that didn’t work, then attempts would be made to capture the animal alive and relocate it).

Between 1973 and 2022, the Ministry of Forests has only issued Death-Orders for 4 man eating Royal Bengal tigers. 3 were shot by myself in 1981, 1988 and 1989. One was killed by the late Pachabdi Gazi via gun-trap in 1987. The man eater of Atharobeki (which I shot on the 29th of March,1989) was the last Royal Bengal tiger for which the Ministry of Forests had issued a Death-Order.

Of course, there are times when a man eating Royal Bengal tiger attacks locals and a resident gun owner/hunter (of legally huntable game animals such as deer or wild boar or birds or rabbits) manages to shoot and kill the man eater during a random encounter (without premeditation). In that case, sympathetic forest department officials sometimes choose not to pursue charges (if there was no evidence of premediation).

 

[Huvius]

Here’s a muzzle loading percussion cap 14 gauge double barreled Howdah pistol made by James Purdey in 1859.

View attachment 486370

That is a certainly a Pedersoli Howdah, not a Purdey!

 

[Hunter-Habib]

That is a certainly a Pedersoli Howdah, not a Purdey!

Sorry, the internet source I took the picture from mislabeled it.