I have never shot a tiger and never will - the bloody Indian government is driving them to extinction in the wild with its idiotic policies and the damned Chinese are paying huge amounts of money for the last tiger to be poached for its body parts. Soon, we shall have no more wild tigers in India or anywhere else.

But, I would like to concur with Gatsby here and say that from the stories of old timers who hunted in India's past, many of whom are fading away by the day as we speak, all kinds of rifles were used to hunt tigers. Westley Richards even built 250-3000 double rifles to hunt tigers off machans or elephants. There were 405 double rifles as well as Winchester leverguns and all kinds of guns that would not even be looked at today. I spoke to a friend today and learned about a mint 45-90 levergun in India in its original case, retailed by a name that's long been forgotten, P Orr and Sons of Madras and Rangoon, which was, most certainly used on tigers considering the family who own it. When I was a boy and beginning to get interested in guns, I would go to P Orr and Sons showroom to peek through the cabinets, tolerated with some amusement by the staff there. When they closed down, I was, perhaps, one of less than a dozen people who felt the loss though I was too young to have bought anything from them. They sell cheap wristwatches these days in that same showroom and the gunsmithing rooms have been leased to a sweatshop making cheap clothing for export to the US, Europe and Australia.

Sorry if this post is off tangent but the issue of tigers and of a dead gun owning and shooting tradition in the country of my birth makes my blood boil.

Good hunting, everyone.