The Sundarbans Man Eater

[Shootist43]

Poton, that was another great story. I can only imagine the terror Raiz felt when he discovered the fact that he was facing a full grown Tiger and not a Clouded Leopard. Those old Winchester loads obviously caused a lot of consternation in your part of the world and still do if used on anything but small deer. Have you by chance asked Riaz what he currently reloads his 7 x 57 with?

 

[Ridgewalker]

All in all , I would consider that day to be a victory .

No kidding! Quite the victory!
Riaz you have a guardian angel on your shoulder! This is your most exciting story yet IMO! No way would I crawl into a tiny space with a cat of any size in it!

 

[Major Khan]

Poton, that was another great story. I can only imagine the terror Raiz felt when he discovered the fact that he was facing a full grown Tiger and not a Clouded Leopard. Those old Winchester loads obviously caused a lot of consternation in your part of the world and still do if used on anything but small deer. Have you by chance asked Riaz what he currently reloads his 7 x 57 with?

It is my utmost privilege that you have enjoyed Riaz's reminiscences so much , Shootist43 . I sent good , old Riaz a text message and he replied a few minutes ago .

TCB stands for Trading Corporation Bangladesh , Shootist43 . He typically imports 250 bullets at a time .

 

[Major Khan]

No kidding! Quite the victory!
Riaz you have a guardian angel on your shoulder! This is your most exciting story yet IMO! No way would I crawl into a tiny space with a cat of any size in it!

I still do not know ... How he must have felt , Ridge Walker !
Imagine crawling in to a hole ... looking for THIS .

And then ... coming face to face with THIS .

It is FLAT OUT TERRIFYING !

 

[cpr0312]

Wow, thanks for sharing!

 

[Shootist43]

Poton, please ask Riaz how many grains of Win 760 he uses. I wonder how it compares to the load I recently "gave" you.

 

[Major Khan]

Wow, thanks for sharing!

It is my utmost privilege that you have enjoyed Riaz's reminiscence , cpr0312 .

 

[gillettehunter]

That is indeed determination and a lot of courage. Different time and place. Ammo that isn't up to par. Today we don't have those obstacles. Thanks for sharing this story.
Bruce

 

[Major Khan]

Poton, please ask Riaz how many grains of Win 760 he uses. I wonder how it compares to the load I recently "gave" you.

Here is what he replied , Shootist43 .

 

[Art Lambart II]

What a great story, is a 7x57 a typical round used to hunt tigers? Lord knows I would prefer a 375 H&H or larger for a hunt like that.

 

[Major Khan]

What a great story, is a 7x57 a typical round used to hunt tigers? Lord knows I would prefer a 375 H&H or larger for a hunt like that.

Why thank you so much , Mr. Lambart .
During my 10 year career as a professional shikaree , I would actually advise my clients to bring nothing smaller than a .338 Winchester magnum calibre rifle ... if they wished to partake in a shikar for royal Bengal tigers .
As a matter of fact ... there was a legal regulation in 13 of the 30 states of India ( prior to the 1972 ban on hunting ) that foreign client shikarees could not legally use any calibre smaller than .375 Holland & Holland magnum for the shikar of royal Bengal tigers . I attach below ... a scan of a page of my copy of our " Professional Shikaree's Book Of Rules & Regulations For 1967 - 1968 " for your perusal .

That said , royal Bengal tigers have frequently been killed with smaller calibre weapons .
My dearly deceased friend , the late Sundarban Forest Ranger Pachabdi Gazi (the gentle man who is credited with killing the most man eating royal Bengal tigers in Bangladesh ) used his department issued .303 British calibre Lee Enfield bolt rifle and 215 grain Remington Core Lokt soft point cartridges to account for the bulk of his 61 man eating royal Bengal tigers .

My former client , the late Mr. Tom Bolack ( Who was the Governor Of New Mexico , at the time ) used a pre 64 Winchester Model 70 chambered in .270 Winchester and a single 130 grain Winchester Silver Tip soft point cartridge ( We did not have 140 or 150 grain bullets for the .270 Winchester calibre , back in those days ) to dispatch this royal Bengal tiger ( which would later end up winning Allwyn Cooper Limited's " Tiger Of The Year " award in 1963 )

The smallest calibre of rifle ever used by any of my clients to successfully dispatch a royal Bengal tiger ... was a .243 Winchester calibre Savage Model 110 bolt rifle , loaded with 105 grain Winchester brand soft point cartridges . He needed only a single shot to accomplish this feat .

Then , we have fellow forum member , my good friend @Kawshik Rahman ... who successfully dispatched this 499 pound royal Bengal tiger , with 2 Winchester Super X copper plated 12 pellet 2.75 inch SG cartridges fired from his Indian Ordinance Factories 12 Bore double barreled side by side shot gun .

Some more examples are :
> My child hood hero , the great Jim Corbett . He used a 7×57 mm Mauser calibre John Rigby & Co . Mauser 98 action bolt rifle and 175 grain ICI Kynoch soft point cartridges ... to devastating effect against at least 2 fully grown male royal Bengal tigers . He later also owned a 2nd 7×57 mm Mauser calibre Westley Richards Mauser 98 action bolt rifle ( which utilized a double set trigger ) ... but he never used that rifle to hunt any royal Bengal tigers .
>His Royal Excellence , The Maharaja Of Sirguja ... who used a Holland & Holland Mauser 98 action bolt rifle chambered in .240 Holland & Holland " Apex " and 100 grain ICI Kynoch soft point cartridges to singlehandedly dispatch 92 royal Bengal tigers .

 

[Newboomer]

Good Lord, what a shock to come face to face with such a cat. I guess the saving grace was they were in the hole where the tiger couldn't get to Riaz. That was an unsurpassed act of bravery to chase it down after that and face another charge. Please continue writing for Riaz and yourself, Major.

 

[Major Khan]

Good Lord, what a shock to come face to face with such a cat. I guess the saving grace was they were in the hole where the tiger couldn't get to Riaz. That was an unsurpassed act of bravery to chase it down after that and face another charge. Please continue writing for Riaz and yourself, Major.

Why thank you so much for enjoying Riaz's reminiscences , New Boomer !
Indeed , I shall be sharing some more reminiscences from Riaz's book ( Alongside writing about my own experiences , as well ) .
As a matter of fact ... Riaz promised to join African Hunting Forums himself , next week .

 

[Major Khan]

That is indeed determination and a lot of courage. Different time and place. Ammo that isn't up to par. Today we don't have those obstacles. Thanks for sharing this story.
Bruce

This is NOTHING , Bruce ! Wait until I share the article about Riaz being forced to contend with a wounded forest panther ... with the aid of a pack of Shikar dogs . That incident was an extremely hair raising 1 !

 

[Scrumbag]

Dear Major Khan, I understand there is something of a tendency for the Sundarban tigers to become man-eaters at a higher rate than tigers in other parts of the Indian Sub-Continent. Is this true? An old wives tale? Any thoughts?

I feel your colleague is a very brave man indeed!

 

[mark-hunter]

@Scrumbag

Wikipedia mentions (based on quoted sources) that in average tigers kill between 30 - 100 people per year in Sundarban forest. This is from wikipedia on Sundarban:

Several predators dwell in the labyrinth of channels, branches and roots that poke up into the air. This is the only mangrove ecoregion that harbours the Indo-Pacific region's largest terrestrial predator, the Bengal tiger. Unlike in other habitats, tigers live here and swim among the mangrove islands, where they hunt scarce prey such as the chital deer (Axis axis), Indian muntjacs (Muntiacus muntjak), wild boar (Sus scrofa), and rhesus macaque (Macaca mulatta). It is estimated that there are now 180 Bengal tigers[30] and about 30,000 spotted deer in the area. The tigers regularly attack and kill humans who venture into the forest, human deaths ranging from 30–100 per year.[40]


Following is explantaion from @Major Khan, which he posted on another thread:

There is also another reason .... as to why the royal Bengal tigers living in the Sundarbans are far more likely to turn man eater , than royal Bengal tigers living in other parts of God's Green Earth .
You see... a royal Bengal tiger ( or a panther) becoming a man eater , is quite similar to a contagious virus spreading from 1 person to another .
Throughout history , human corpses have been frequently dumped in to the rivers of the Indian sub continent. Aside from murderers and criminals dumping the corpses of their victims , there have also been countless other times when people have dumped human corpses in to rivers .
It is a widely known fact that followers of the Hindu faith in India cremate their dead and scatter the ashes in to the Buri Ganga river . However , there are certain times when they DO NOT carry out this practice to the letter . During events of mass death ( such as genocides, war time , epidemics or pandemics ) ... Hindus will not cremate the corpses of their deceased , but will rather simply place a live burning coal inside the mouth of a human corpse and then throw the corpse in to a water body with flowing current ( In other words ; a river or a steam ) . They will consider the corpse to be properly cremated . These corpses invariably wash on to the river banks of the Sundarban man grove forests . Curious royal Bengal tigers will approach the corpses , sniff them and then take a few bites off of the human corpse . Once they have tasted the flesh of man ... these brutes shall prefer human meat to any other meat in existence . They become like heroine addicts , looking for their next shot .
Man eating royal Bengal tigers are even known to swim for hours through shallow water bodies in order to reach human settlements ( The Indian vegan socialist cow urine drinking pieces of shit will still repeatedly defend these brutes with their retarded justifications , by claiming that " Humans trespassed in to their territory " . ) . For this reason , it is imperative that a royal Bengal tiger ( or a panther ) which turns man eater ... must be dispatched immediately and as soon as possible . To make matters worse , man eating male royal Bengal tigers can teach their mates to develop a palate for the flesh of man . Man eating Tigresses can ( and virtually always , DO ) also teach their cubs to become man eaters . Thus , the chain of carnage never stops .
During the 1947 Muslim - Hindu communal clashes during the Partition Of India & Pakistan ... thousands of Hindus and Muslims were brutally killed by each other . The vast majority of their corpses were dumped in to the Buri Ganga river ( or streams which were connected to the Buri Ganga river ) .
Again, during our Bangladesh Liberation War in 1971 .... our rivers ( Padma , Meghna and Jamuna ) were filled to the brim with human corpses , which invariably found their way on to the shores of the Sundarbans ( with the long term results being predictably inevitable ) . This is why the busiest years of Pachabdi Gazi's life and career... were the years after 1947 and 1971 . Because he had to constantly keep dealing with endless rampages in local towns and villages caused by man eating royal Bengal tigers . In 1 week of 1973 ... Pachabdi even had to dispatch 5 man eating royal Bengal tigers in less than 7 days .
We have a friend ( who is younger than us ) who is currently appointed by the Sundarban Forest Department to hunt down man eating royal Bengal tigers , whenever they menace the villages or towns in the Khulna Division of Bangladesh . As of 2020 , he has single handedly dispatched 7 man eating royal Bengal tigers ( in the Sundarbans) and 10 man eating forest panthers ( in the Maulvibazaar forests and Chittagong Hill Tracts ) over the last 22 years . On 1 occasion , he even submerged the lower half of his body in the water of a stream , in order to pursue a wounded man eating royal Bengal tiger which was attempting to swim away from him after he shot it.
He uses a personally owned 7 ×57 mm Mauser calibre bolt rifle for all of his hunting ( except wing shooting, for which he naturally uses a 12 Bore shot gun ) .

And the video which you saw is also extremely accurate . Forest Department Officers who are assigned to hunt down man eating royal Bengal tigers .... always protect the back of their necks with spikes on leather collars . This is because a man eating royal Bengal tiger ( or panther ) will always attempt to attack it's hapless victim from behind and will invariably attempt to crush the victim's spinal column with their strong jaws in order to immobilize them.

 

[Major Khan]

Dear Major Khan, I understand there is something of a tendency for the Sundarban tigers to become man-eaters at a higher rate than tigers in other parts of the Indian Sub-Continent. Is this true? An old wives tale? Any thoughts?

I feel your colleague is a very brave man indeed!

Why thank you so much , Scrumbag !
It is my utmost privilege that you have enjoyed Riaz's reminiscences so much .
I believe that @mark-hunter has hit the nail on the head with his explanation .
That is EXACTLY the way that it is .

 

[flatwater bill]

Thank you both very much for an exciting story, indeed. It highlights the differences between different loadings of the same cartridge. On the one hand we have Mr Riaz shooting several shots into a tiger's chest with 175 grain bullets yet no discernible result from the 7x57. Another article by Bruce Kinloch tells of shooting entirely thru the head of a bull elepant rogue (76 pounds to the side) with the little gun (173 grain solid of course) I have several times shot bull elk in the chest with the little 7mm............but after this article, I'll not try it again.................thanks for posting............FWB

 

[Major Khan]

Thank you both very much for an exciting story, indeed. It highlights the differences between different loadings of the same cartridge. On the one hand we have Mr Riaz shooting several shots into a tiger's chest with 175 grain bullets yet no discernible result from the 7x57. Another article by Bruce Kinloch tells of shooting entirely thru the head of a bull elepant rogue (76 pounds to the side) with the little gun (173 grain solid of course) I have several times shot bull elk in the chest with the little 7mm............but after this article, I'll not try it again.................thanks for posting............FWB

Now , now , Bill . Let us pin point the TRUE culprit ... behind the short comings of penetration from Riaz's gun shots .
The 7×57 mm Mauser calibre is an excellent 1 . However , the Winchester Super X 175 grain soft point cartridges utilized by Riaz on that shikar ... had an insufficient charge of propellant powder inside them . This is is what led to the lacklustre velocities ... at which those 7×57 mm Mauser calibre 175 grain soft point bullets were being propelled at the royal Bengal tiger .

Riaz currently hand loads his own 7 × 57 mm Mauser calibre cartridges with 175 grain Australian Woodleigh brand protected point soft point bullets and 44 grains of Win 760 propellant powder .
He even uses these hand loaded cartridges against Asian Sloth Bears ... with utter impunity .

By all means ... Keep using your 7×57 mm Mauser calibre rifle against elk . It is a truly magnificent calibre. Elk are roughly identical in size to our Bangladeshi sambhur deer ... and a properly loaded 7×57 mm Mauser calibre rifle , is more than adequate for them ( provided that shot placement is critical , of course ) .

By the way , thank you so much for your kind words . It is my utmost privilege that you have enjoyed Riaz's reminiscence so much .

 

[flatwater bill]

Poton.......you are exactly right, as usual..........The thought of crawling into any hole in the ground is terrifying.....especially if a cat is also in there...............I still have one 7X57, and had another rechambered to .280 Remington. This proved to be my favorite cartridge for many years........In the days before the current fantastic monometal bullets, it always performed well with the soft but tough 154 grain Hornady Spire Point.. Thanks for comments.............Bill