Old Tiger Hunting Photo

[kickdog23]

Hey, I'm trying to make a few bucks to buy a new gun, so I put this up on ebay. It's an old trophy photo of my great-grandfather's hunting group. Please check it out, and I'll look forward to your comments

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewI...ssPageName=WDVW

 

[James Vee]

If that's your great-grandfathers hunting group then why are you selling it? That's just selfish and stupid.

 

[BDB]

Beautiful photo. But for the few bucks you will get for it on ebay, I'd pull that sucker off and put it in nice place on my wall if I were you. $30 or so towards a new gun would not be worth losing the photo in my opinion.

 

[kickdog23]

I already have 3 of their tropy photos framed on my wall, which include my great-grandfather, grand-father and such in the photo. 2 of them are leopard hunts, and another tiger trophy photo. I wouldn't sell those for a gun itself. And in any case, my grandpa's sister still has the original negatives and regular photo prints so a reproduction of this shouldn't be a problem.

 

[Pete E]

kickdog23,

If the print is old or an "original" ie was made around the time the photo was taken, you would be a fool to sell it especially for $20 or so you'd get on Ebay...

Personally would get some copies made and sell those. Better yet, if your Great Aunt will let you, you could perhaps sell the rights to all the images as a set to a hunting magazine or picture library.

I would imagine that they could scan the negatives digitally and you could have them returned...Ask her if she has an diaries or original letters concerning the hunts as they would add more value to the collection.

regards,

Pete

 

[kickdog23]

Hey,

The print is not an original, i would never sell one of those. It is a reprint made about 10 years ago.

Pete, thats a great idea, next time im in india i'll get them scanned and send them to a hunting magazine / picture library, since having them accepted would be an honor I don't think I'd ask money for them. You guys would have to help me out on some good places to send them to. My grandfather and my uncle have journals that correspond to those hunts, so that would be nice. They've got many beautiful photos of hundreds of hunts, including gaur bulls (indian bison), sambhars, wild boars, spotted deers, sloth bears, leopards, great indian hornbills, pelicans, ferils, and of course, a few tigers. Although it's at my great-aunt's house its pretty much shared since it's my great-granpa's collection so access shouldnt be too big a problem (they'd just look at me wierd for being interested in this stuff). I'll even post a few on here. Now to figure out whens my next trip to India.

 

[Pete E]

kickdog23,

The days of sport hunting in India are long gone..The locals can hunt pigs and similar on a limited bases as "pest control" but thats about all...Thats of course if your relatives hunted in "India"...
By that I mean that modern India only came into existance post WW11, the old India of the British Empire days included the modern countries of India, Pakistan and Bangladesh plus possibly one or two other I can't remember right now..

Regards,

Pete

 

[kickdog23]

Pete,

Hunting in post-WWII was allowed in India from 47 to 1971, when the project tiger act was created. You could consider that period "India". They are all old photos from the 30's (in an area that is still in India) to 71. Now only shooting crows are allowed, gun licenses cost a heckload, and a family is only allowed a max of 3 guns, and prison sentences for killing animals can go up to life in prison.

I still frequent the area where my great-grandfather hunted, as its close-by the family farms, except only for hiking / photography / drinking.

 

[Pete E]

kickdog23,


Between WW1 and WW2 must have been a facinateing time to hunt in India. Some of my favourite books are by Corbett and Anderson, but I have many more by others from that era.

I would love to get hold of a pre indepenance atlas of the continent and plot some of the locations mentioned and see how they compare with today's boundries...

A poster on another forum who comes from that part of the world says that least one of the States is considering issuing leopard permits again because the are have problems with stock lifters and even the odd man eater! If i recall correctly it will be done as a pest control exercise for the locals rather than as "sport hunting..." I think Sheep and boar hunting is still available in Pakistan, but I don't know how safe it to travel over there given all the present problems.

Regards,

Pete

 

[kickdog23]

Pete,

Yeah it seems like an interesting time. I think everything but elephants were allowed to be hunted. A good way to get a sense of these hunting grounds would be to buy a book on Indian national forests, as most of these past hunting grounds were in or near a present national park. Many of these books are available on amazon, and I would recommend a terrific book 'a field guide to indian mammals' by vivek menon if you are interested. the hunting ground here borders on the present Kalakad-Mundanthurai National Park - quite literally a checkpost divides this ground and muthukuli, a sub-park of the Kalakad-Mundanthurai NP system. And its near the very southern tip of India - It's about an hour above kanyakumari (the beach at the tip of the 'V').

I personally love Jim Corbett (listed as 'my hero' on JHO) although I have not read any Kenneth Anderson books yet. What other authors of this kind would you recommend? I'd like to get a few more books to start reading on this again. Thanks.

 

[Pete E]

Kickdog23,

If you like Corbett you will also like Anderson...he was hunting just prior to WW2 and for several years after. What I like about both him and Corbett is they were not the sterio- typical Britisg upper class who's "hunt's" were huge affairs conducted off the backs of elephants, rather both men hunted the hard way, often on a relative shoe string.

Three other books of a similar sort are I quite likeare:

"The Tigers of Trengganu" by LtCol A Locke.. he was in Malaysia during "The Emergency" in the 1950's...some very interesting comparison between hunting there and India...

"Call of the Tiger" by MM Ismail ..He was a Lt Col in the 8th Gurkha Rifles, and again hunted in 1950's India after the British departed...

"Tryst With Tigers" by Sher Jung, another senior office in the Indian Army if I recall correctly...

If your interested in these sort of books, take a look in the "Shikar & Safari" section of Coch Y Bonddu Books at: http://www.anglebooks.com/

I get a lot of books from them...They will happily post abroad and work out the carraige at cost rather hype it up like some places do...Their prices are about average for the UK, but they do have a good range of hunting books...

regards,

Pete