Man-eaters of Kumaon

[Doc_Glock]

We are reading Man-eaters of Kumaon right now and I have to say Jim Corbett is very interesting cat.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Man-Eaters_of_Kumaon

My 12 yo and I are loving the book and there are lots of hunting vignettes that I think the hunters out there will really like.

I sometimes think that the folks of prior generation were just a lot tougher than us. His accounts of hiking everywhere, sleeping anywhere and the general discomforts of life are incredible. Plus he freaking finished off a bear with an axe!

The fact that his actual double rifle used frequently in the book and throughout his life is found in YouTube and still in fireable condition I find kind of astonishing. Modern Marvel. Also owned by Elmer Keith after Corbett. I looked it up just to see what a 450/400 looks like since he speaks so fondly of it, and voila, YouTube has a link to the actual rifle




Firearms are quite durable and can go through many generations with minimal care.

I am surprised how small and handy the 450/400 appears despite the large round. It must be punishing to shoot.

[zacii]

Read that book a few years ago.

Very entertaining.

Man had some serious courage.


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[Borderland]

Another good one if you enjoy that tilt.

https://www.amazon.com/Death-Long-Gr...s%2C188&sr=8-1

I've been a hunter most of my life. I shot my first deer at 15. Sad that it's mostly a morality issue these days.

[Cecil Burch]

The nice thing is that in India, he is still somewhat remembered. Years ago, right after college I was working a job with a couple of immigrants from India and in passing one day asked them both if they had ever heard of Corbett. They both said yes, and that there is a major preserve named after him, and they had a general idea of what he did. So that was cool to know.

[TDA]

Very cool video, it's really commendable that whoever paid $300k for the rifle was up for the production. My kids are new shooters, and I'm grateful to have kind of bite sized pieces to introduce them to the kind of stories I grew up reading. I'm not sure they're ready to segue from NRA small bore to African hunting cartridges, but I guess if they are .405 Winchester isn't so much more expensive than anything else these days...

[trailrunner]

Even though I've never hunted, I read some of Captstick's books back in the early 1990s.

And although not about hunting, I also listened to an audio version of this book back when I was going through my hunting book phase:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stranger_in_the_Forest

[LHS]

.450/400 is my ideal double rifle cartridge. Enough oomph to do whatever needs doing, but a lot more shootable than the bigger bores

[LHS]

Also Corbett was one of the luckiest sons of bitches to ever walk the earth. A man goes up against that many man-eating cats, and lives? Dude lived a charmed life.

[Jim Watson]

.450-400 was a major medium in the double and single era, never completely outmoded by .375 Holland's.

[Doc_Glock]

Also Corbett was one of the luckiest sons of bitches to ever walk the earth. A man goes up against that many man-eating cats, and lives? Dude lived a charmed life.

He clearly had a sixth sense about jungle life that can only come from growing up there I imagine. I love how honest he is about failed shots and mis steps as well.