The Royal Bengal Tiger Which Got A Shikaree Hanged

[SnowLeopard]

I have sent you the document , Mr. Mayo. I hope that it shall prove to be a worthwhile read.

Thank you again. Definitely love it.

One question though - what was the rationale behind higher license fees for native Indians? That seems to be counter productive for the general population.

Here in the United States, license fees for local state residents are significantly less than for “out of state” licenses. Licenses being limited, the thinking is to give local residents an advantage at obtaining one.

Love your accounts, by the way.

 

[Major Khan]

Thank you again. Definitely love it.

One question though - what was the rationale behind higher license fees for native Indians? That seems to be counter productive for the general population.

Here in the United States, license fees for local state residents are significantly less than for “out of state” licenses. Licenses being limited, the thinking is to give local residents an advantage at obtaining one.

Love your accounts, by the way.

I agree with you wholeheartedly , Mayo .
Unfortunately , l never created the laws . I just followed them , like a mindless " minion " .
The Nilgiri Wild Life Association wanted to encourage foreign shikarees to come to India for shikar by any means possible . Shikar used to be a MASSIVE source of revenue for India's economy back in those days and this was mostly generated by foreign clients . They really did not care much about the general population and cared more about foreign client hunters . As you so wisely noted , it actually WAS counter productive to the local shikarees . However , the Nilgiri Wild Life Association simply did not care.

 

[Ridgewalker]

Just a bit of history about the 220 Swift and master gunsmith P.O. Ackley. According to a book I read, he did research on ultra high velocity small bore cartridges for the US Gvt involving tests killing feral burros in Arizona I believe it was. This was in the late 1940s or early 1950s. The plan was for a number of shooters to kill and autopsy burros weighing up to 600 lbs (a huge burro IME!) Results were the little Swift bullet did a good job of killing them. It told me nothing about bullet placement that I can recall. As we all know bullet placement is the first requirement of a clean kill.
I am aware of stories of Texas deer poachers in the 1970s who cleanly killed the small Texas white tails with a single shot through the ear using a 22LR.
If the writer in your story had read about Ackley and his experiments, possibly he misconstrued he could do the same on a Royal Bengal tiger. Also in the 1960s debates between outdoor writers over high velocity vs slow big bullets raged! Examples: Elmer Keith and Jack OConnor, ie, Mr 338 vs Mr 270.

 

[ryan80]

I wish ! My poor simpleton of a friend stopped writing fresh articles on African Hunting Forums after that incident with the 2 bloody anti hunting " trolls " who insulted him on 1 of our threads 3 months ago ( even though the " trolls " were publicly exposed and humiliated ) . I am currently desperately trying to convince him to resume writing again . If those trolls ever attempt to insult him again , then I WILL PERSONALLY STEP IN and give them a piece of my mind .

I can assure you both that you will NOT be alone if any more fools attempt to insult you or our respected friend Kawshik. You both have many friends and appreciative readers on this forums that will be quite happy to step in as well!

 

[Opposite Pole]

I can assure you both that you will NOT be alone if any more fools attempt to insult you or our respected friend Kawshik. You both have many friends and appreciative readers on this forums that will be quite happy to step in as well!

Count me in on that one.

 

[G Skinner]

Very enjoyable read
Thanks Glen

 

[Major Khan]

Just a bit of history about the 220 Swift and master gunsmith P.O. Ackley. According to a book I read, he did research on ultra high velocity small bore cartridges for the US Gvt involving tests killing feral burros in Arizona I believe it was. This was in the late 1940s or early 1950s. The plan was for a number of shooters to kill and autopsy burros weighing up to 600 lbs (a huge burro IME!) Results were the little Swift bullet did a good job of killing them. It told me nothing about bullet placement that I can recall. As we all know bullet placement is the first requirement of a clean kill.
I am aware of stories of Texas deer poachers in the 1970s who cleanly killed the small Texas white tails with a single shot through the ear using a 22LR.
If the writer in your story had read about Ackley and his experiments, possibly he misconstrued he could do the same on a Royal Bengal tiger. Also in the 1960s debates between outdoor writers over high velocity vs slow big bullets raged! Examples: Elmer Keith and Jack OConnor, ie, Mr 338 vs Mr 270.

This is extremely fascinating , Ridge Walker. What you said makes a great deal of sense and matches with my own observations , because l clearly remember that the potency of high velocity Weatherby magnum calibres used to be a very hotly debated topic among many of our international clients during that time . I just did an internet search for " feral burro " . They appear to be a wild donkey of some sort . Now that you mention it ,
It is extremely plausable that the client really DID read the tests of Mr. Ackley and rationalized that he could use a .220 Swift calibre rifle on a 500 pound royal Bengal tiger. What a wrong conclusion to reach ! That .220 Swift calibre bullet to the royal Bengal tiger's head did little more than enrage the brute. The client lost his life out of retaliation . Rongon Daas got hung to death , and 3 innocent people got mauled to death , as a result of this " rationalization " .

 

[Major Khan]

I can assure you both that you will NOT be alone if any more fools attempt to insult you or our respected friend Kawshik. You both have many friends and appreciative readers on this forums that will be quite happy to step in as well!

Thank you so much for being so supportive , Ryan . It means a great deal to me , to have such appreciative friends , readers and fellow shikarees such as yourselves who are willing to stand up for their own kind.

 

[Timbo]

A wonderful story Major! Thank you! Keep them coming.

 

[Major Khan]

Very enjoyable read
Thanks Glen

Thank you so much for enjoying it , Glen.

 

[Major Khan]

A wonderful story Major! Thank you! Keep them coming.

Thank you so much for your appreciative words , Timbo. It means a great deal.

 

[Timbo]

Thank you so much for your appreciative words , Timbo. It means a great deal.

My dear Major, I've PM'd you some of father's experiences on shikar, and articles like this resonate with those - propelling this reader back to a time when he sat as a small, wide-eyed boy, on his father's knee listening to his stories!!

Thus were the seeds of ambition planted - which have lead to my own, happy, experiences!!

But through your writing, you have also allowed me to re-live some of my childhood memories. Thank you!

 

[CBH Australia]

I wish ! My poor simpleton of a friend stopped writing fresh articles on African Hunting Forums after that incident with the 2 bloody anti hunting " trolls " who insulted him on 1 of our threads 3 months ago ( even though the " trolls " were publicly exposed and humiliated ) . I am currently desperately trying to convince him to resume writing again . If those trolls ever attempt to insult him again , then I WILL PERSONALLY STEP IN and give them a piece of my mind .

Please dont give up on getting @Kawshik Rahman writing.
Ive been busy of late but enjoy his writing. I seemed to have missed any threads with Trolls

 

[Major Khan]

Please dont give up on getting @Kawshik Rahman writing.
Ive been busy of late but enjoy his writing. I seemed to have missed any threads with Trolls

Thank you so much for your support , CBH Australia. The “ Trolls” have all been banned now . I am determined to convince Kawshik to pick up the pen once more.

 

[Red Leg]

When Tobin and l returned to Nagpur , we learnt the grim news that Rongon Daas had been hung to death . Mr. Vidya C Shukla was extremely pleased with the fact that it was his men who had slain the brutish man eating royal Bengal tiger .
The public were extremely grateful to Mr. Shukla for sending his men to West Bengal to dispose of the man eater and save so many human lives.
And we were both extremely pleased to make Mr. Shukla proud . He was like a sovereign deity to all of us , who worked under him. Every night , l would always pray that Mr. Shukla's dream of becoming a political figure come true someday .
Unfortunately , you should always be extremely careful about what you wish for . Mr . Shukla did eventually become a part of Indira Gandhi's cabinet after 1970 . However , he then showed us all his real colours . He was that woman's biggest supporter when she passed that disgusting bill to ban all hunting in India with the " Wild Life Protection Act - 1972 ". He publicly painted all hunters to be evil , sadistic and wantonly destructive to India's wild life and eco system . He betrayed all of us who worked for him and left us to the wolves . I was in a hospital in Bangladesh ( which had just won the Liberation War , at that time . ) recovering from my facial injuries at the time , when l saw the news on television.
This was the man whom we had all looked up to . A man for whom l would readily lay down my life any day without any hesitation whatsoever . He turned on his own kind . He betrayed us , just to advance his own political career. In doing so , he sealed the fate of shikar in India for ever .

Before , l end this article , l will make a small note about Rongon Daas . Did he really push that American client to the ground to escape the royal Bengal tiger ? Or did he really shoot at it 4 times , in a failed attempt to protect his client ?
When we did a post mortem on the royal Bengal tiger , we did not find any .315 calibre soft point bullets inside the brute's body . The only bullets which we had recovered from the creature , was those of Tobin's .423 calibre Mauser and my " 12 Bore DBBL Made In Belgium " .
It is possible that Rongon might have missed all 4 shots ... but l suppose that we will never know the truth . What l do know , is that if Rongon really DID push the American client to the ground , then he deserved to get hung to death , because he basically murdered the client . If he really did shoot at the royal Bengal tiger and really did try his best to save his client , then he should not have been hung to death .
Amongst all of my living friends , l truly consider Kawshik to be my best friend and in the last 58 years , there has been very little , which Kawshik and l actually disagree on . 1 thing which we actually do disagree on ( respectfully ) is whether Rongon Daas really WAS guilty of the crime for which he was executed . That is the fundamental difference between Kawshik and l . My friend sees the best in human beings , while l see the worst .
And l greatly respect him for that.

I hope that this article has proven enjoyable , to all of our honorable forum members . I will write my next article on Friday , hopefully . And this story will probably involve a brute which is big , green and scaley .

Thank you again for another glimpse into a world sadly in the past. It is unfortunate it includes such an unfortunate conclusion for one of the high velocity fan club. The first wave of this sort of dangerous nonsense accorded early in the century with the introduction of the .22 Savage Hi-Power and especially the .250-3000 savage. The later was used by several international hunters with decidedly mixed results. The rifling twist was optimized for a 87 gr bullet which all too often tended to merely annoy things like leopards and lions. Someone probably used it on Tiger as well.

With this animal's head being the primary target for your shots, was it possible to tell what damage, if any, had been caused by client's rifle?

Again, a wonderful addition to Kawshik's commentary on this incident.

 

[Major Khan]

Thank you again for another glimpse into a world sadly in the past. It is unfortunate it includes such an unfortunate conclusion for one of the high velocity fan club. The first wave of this sort of dangerous nonsense accorded early in the century with the introduction of the .22 Savage Hi-Power and especially the .250-3000 savage. The later was used by several international hunters with decidedly mixed results. The rifling twist was optimized for a 87 gr bullet which all too often tended to merely annoy things like leopards and lions. Someone probably used it on Tiger as well.

With this animal's head being the primary target for your shots, was it possible to tell what damage, if any, had been caused by client's rifle?

Again, a wonderful addition to Kawshik's commentary on this incident.

Thank you so much for your appreciative comment , sir . I will try by best to answer you . We did not find any traces of the .220 Swift calibre bullet inside the royal Bengal tiger's head , because we shot it 6 times . My American professional shikaree partner , Tobin Stakkatz shot it 4 times with a .423 Mauser calibre weapon ( using 347 grain RWS solid metal covered bullets ) and l shot it twice with Eley Grand Prix Lethal Ball cartridges . The way a Lethal Ball bullet fragments inside a soft skinned animal , ( especially the head ) makes it extremely difficult to identify other foreign matter inside the animal's head .
However , this note may interest you :
When the police had gone to recover the mauled American client's corpse , they did find fragments of the .220 Swift soft nose bullet and a small amount of blood , which they rationalized was the royal Bengal tiger's blood. By all accounts ( even the conflicting accounts ) the .220 Swift calibre bullet did not penetrate into royal Bengal tiger's head at all.
Infact ,.after we killed that royal Bengal tiger ,many " animal rights " lunatics were claiming that the employees of Allwyn Cooper Limited had killed the wrong royal Bengal tiger. However , we argued that royal Bengal tigers are not herd animals and that the odds of 2 fully grown male royal Bengal tigers being within such a close proximity to each other is impossible ( unless you are hunting in Buxa Tiger Reserve ) . The man eater was targeting the belt of forested area between Darjeeling and Siliguri .
Finding human remains inside the animal's stomach helped to reinforce our theory. When a few weeks passed and locals began to realize that the man eater did not strike anymore , they realized that we were telling the truth.

In the 17 states of India where there were no minimum calibre legal restrictions , we often had many dare devil type clients come to slay royal Bengal tigers with all manners of armaments , which may boggle your mind .
I refer you to the 2 royal Bengal tigers taken by my clients , as pictured below .

The 1st royal Bengal tiger was taken by Mr. Tom Bolack ( our client and Governor of New Mexico ) by using a pre 64 Winchester Model 70 chambered in .270 Winchester. The ammunition used was a 130 grain Winchester Silvertip soft point cartridge . We did not have 140 or 150 grain bullets for the .270 Winchester , back in those days ( to the best of my knowledge ; l never saw our clients bring any . ) .

However , this does not even hold a candle to what the 2nd royal Bengal tiger got slain by .
The 2nd royal Bengal tiger was killed with a .243 Winchester calibre Savage Model 110 , using a 105 grain soft point bullet . This is the smallest rifle calibre , which l have ever seen a client use to successfully dispatch an unwounded male royal Bengal tiger .
Personally , l would never recommend going after a royal Bengal tiger with anything smaller than a .338 Winchester magnum calibre rifle , and 250 grain Winchester Silvertip soft point cartridges ( or any of your excellent modern equivalents. However , l will leave that to your excellent discretion . )

 

[CBH Australia]

Nice photos above.

 

[K981985]

Another excellent account of the days gone by. What I would give to have hunted India in its glory days.

 

[Major Khan]

Another excellent account of the days gone by. What I would give to have hunted India in its glory days.

It would have been my absolute pleasure to have guided a gentleman such as yourself .

 

[Bullhunter]

Thank you Major.

Question:
Did Rongon get a fair trial?
With an true judge on an fair court?
Or made the police the decision?