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I have read about the Corbett 275 Rigby on other occasions. I have all the original books Corbett wrote but can’t find reference to him receiving the Rigby as a gift. In Man-Eaters of Kumaon Chapter One, Corbett tells the story of the hunting and killing of the Champawat Man-Eater and concludes the chapter with the information that at a durbar held a few months after he killed the Champawat tigress, Sir John Hewitt presented the Talsildar of Champawat with a gun and the man who accompanied Corbett when looking for the girl, with a beautiful hunting knife, both weapons suitably engraved. He makes no mention of being presented with 275 Rigby himself?

All the other man-eater kills he relates to in the book were killed with his 450/400 double except for the Thak man-eater in the last chapter of the book where Corbett mentions arming himself “with an accurate .275 rifle, in addition to the 450/400 rifle”.

In his book The Temple Tiger (and more man-eaters of Kumaon) Corbett tells of walking into Mantons in Calcutta and purchasing a Westley Richards in .275 calibre, a new model to the market. He eventually got a chance of a shot at the Temple tigers head at a range of about five feet and gently pressed the trigger. Nothing happened although he distinctly remembered charging a clip of five rounds into the magazine and chambering a round. His thought was the bolt had not picked up a round from the magazine. Turned out on opening the action there was a loaded round in the chamber with the metallic noise on opening the bolt causing the tiger to disappear. Silly old Jim had not fired the new gun before the hunt and had not realised the Westley Richards had a double pull trigger. Jim only took up the first stage expecting the gun to fire.

Corbett mentions later in this book when relating the story of the Talla Des man-eater that he had armed himself with a light .275 rifle which was one he had used for over 20 years.
In his three books specifically on hunting man-eaters Jim does not mention a 275 Rigby or being presented with one, maybe he does somewhere in his other books, Jungle Lore, My India, etc. I haven’t scanned back through these.

Does Jim actually make reference to receiving the Rigby and whatever happened to the Westley Richards 275. Did he use the Rigby on man-eaters or was it the Westley Richards?

He was an interesting and tough character and very good story teller, you feel like you are there with him when reading his books.

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