...Video...Jeffery Double Rifle...owned by Jim Corbett...and Elmer Keith...

[ParadiseRoad]

[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x2rZabt_C_8&t=6s[/ame]

 

[vonn]

Thanks,have always been fascinated by those big game hunters adventures.

 

[Texas Star]

Error: Corbett was not HIRED to hunt man-eaters and he didn't earn his living that way.He DONATED his services and was an official with the Indian railway system. He was an Army officer in wartime.

Because they were lighter to carry, he often preferred a pair of .275 rifles. (7X57mm). The one in the video, in the sketch where the stock bears a gold oval plate, was a Westley Richards. The plaque notes that it was a gift of the government for killing a particularly nasty man-eater. His other .275 was a Rigby.

There is a remarkable story behind what he is doing in that sketch, but I haven't time to tell it now.

Corbett has been a personal hero since I was a kid. I feel that he should have been knighted.

 

[Ivan the Butcher]

Corbett's exploits are in the book "Man Eaters of India". In later years, he only went after Man Eaters that other professional hunters failed to kill (These PH's were often victims also).

While my dad was slowly dying, for weeks I would read him stories from this book. Corbett's descriptions left you feeling like you were in the jungle tracking a big cat and it was tracking you! But dad enjoyed the tails, as did recovering service men in both World Wars! (Now that dad has passed, I'll most likely never get my copy back!)

He didn't like the idea of India as an independent/commonwealth nation. So he move to Kenya, where he was killed by a Lion. A man gots to know his limitations!

Ivan

I found out about Jim Corbett's Rigby .275 going to auction about 6 month after the fact (about 15 years ago) It sold for the same price as any used Rigby .275 (about $5000) even my wife thought that was a bargain! (she thought it was a bargain, since I didn't buy it!) The first Tiger that rifle took; was an across the valley shot at 400 yards +/-; One shot, one dead man eater!

 

[Texas Star]

Corbett's exploits are in the book "Man Eaters of India". In later years, he only went after Man Eaters that other professional hunters failed to kill (These PH's were often victims also).

While my dad was slowly dying, for weeks I would read him stories from this book. Corbett's descriptions left you feeling like you were in the jungle tracking a big cat and it was tracking you! But dad enjoyed the tails, as did recovering service men in both World Wars! (Now that dad has passed, I'll most likely never get my copy back!)

He didn't like the idea of India as an independent/commonwealth nation. So he move to Kenya, where he was killed by a Lion. A man gots to know his limitations!

Ivan

I found out about Jim Corbett's Rigby .275 going to auction about 6 month after the fact (about 15 years ago) It sold for the same price as any used Rigby .275 (about $5000) even my wife thought that was a bargain! (she thought it was a bargain, since I didn't buy it!) The first Tiger that rifle took; was an across the valley shot at 400 yards +/-; One shot, one dead man eater!

Corbett and sister Maggie moved to Kenya, but as far as I know, he died of natural means, at the age of 80. (1875-1955).

Where did you read that he was killed by a lion?!

I'm sorry to learn of your father's lingering illness but am glad that your reading to him probably eased his passing.

 

[Onomea]

Wikipedia says Corbett died of a heart attack.

Also from Wikipedia, “Man-eaters of Kumaon was a great success in India, the United Kingdom and the United States, the first edition of the American Book-of-the-Month Club being 250,000 copies. It was later translated into 27 languages. Corbett's fourth book, Jungle Lore, is considered his autobiography.”

I have the Man-eaters book and should read it again. (It has a wonderful painting of a tiger on its dustjacket.)

 

[Texas Star]

Periodically, Oxford Univ. Press of India reprints the various Corbett books. Quality of spelling and overall QC are not always equal to originals, but the price is often less and you can read the books.

The most I ever paid for a book was for an original edition of, The Man-Eating Leopard of Rudraprayag. But it'll be handed down in my family and help to keep alive the legend of that remarkable naturalist and hunter.

Corbett Natl. Park in India is a tiger refuge.

 

[ParadiseRoad]

...here is an excellent documentary on Jim Corbett's 275 Rigby rifle...

[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1aYwkA_uBOE[/ame]

 

[Absalom]

....
He didn't like the idea of India as an independent/commonwealth nation. So he move to Kenya, where he was killed by a Lion. A man gots to know his limitations!

He died peacefully of a heart attack shortly after finishing his last book. He hadn’t hunted for some time, and was much more engaged in conservation.

Jim Corbett National Park in India, in the Naini Tal region where he had hunted man-eaters in the North, grew out of a preserve he had helped establish and was named after him in the 1950s.

 

[Ivan the Butcher]

I don't have any notation of the African Incident. But I read it on the internet, so it must be true!!

I am very glad to hear that the lion story isn't true and am joyfully corrected.

If there were such a thing as a time machine, I would love to spend a few hours talking with Corbett. My only question would be, What would you like to tell me about? There are not a lot of historical figures I would be willing to take their time or mine, but since he was already in the habit of sharing, I think I could impose.

Ivan

 

[gamboolman]

I would be interested in making a offer on that rifle...

Just saying.....

 

[S&W ucla]

I think that rifle is in this collection now. He likes to take them back to Africa and hunt with them!

[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hBI_0BFABQo[/ame]