Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Savage Collectors An interesting read, Blue Tiger by Harry R. Caldwell

This book was originally published in 1924 with an introduction by Roy Chapman Andrews. Harry Caldwell was a China missionary in the early 1900's who killed numerous tigers with Savage 1899s chambered in 303 Savage and 22-HP. Savage used pictures of Caldwell in many of their pre-WW2 print ads.

There is a picture in this book from 1919 of Caldwell holding what appears to be an 1899 250-3000 Savage alongside a huge sheep that he apparently took with in. But he doesn't discuss any specific Savage rifle and only the 303 and 22HP cartridges.

I think I found the text of the Blue Tiger online a number of years ago in Google Books or some such. Was amazing to read.

That sounds like a good read..,tonight! Thanks for sharing Jeff

I'm dragging my butt from moving snow for two days; at home-so I could to get to work, at the shop-so we could get back to working, and now at job sites-so we can actually get some work done...

Here it is! Celebrate the free internet!

Personally I would pick the 250-3000 for big cats..., like Papa did.




(disclaimer: no animals were harmed in the retouching of this photograph)

All any man needs to get through life is a .22 HiPower. Get thee one and go forth and slay stuff.

So endeth the lesson for today. Amen.

(You're welcome.)

It'll illegal to shoot elk, moose, black bear with anything smaller than a 243 inch diameter bullet here in Wyoming. Once I get my 6mm284 custom 110 dialed in I can use it on those larger critters. So far the smallest bullet I've killed an elk with was a 257 Weatherby loaded with a 100 grain Nosler partition.
Did Hemingway ever use a 99? In his hunting stories he always used double rifles or bolt guns. I'm assuming the 99 was photo shopped in. David

I killed a delicious spike bull elk in 1976 in the Blue Mountains with my grandfather's "coyote gun," a take-down 99 in .250-3000 with a Win 100 gr. Silvertip. One.

That said, it may have been the most classic case of greenhorn dumbass luck in the history of elk hunting. The tasty thing actually rolled downhill about 50 yards closer to my truck than it was when I shot it about 100 yards from the truck.

My Idaho elk hunting "friends" unanimously agreed that Californians should be banned from hunting elk in all states, and anyone who used less than a .270 should be horsewhipped. (But they ate the steaks anyway....). I fell back on my .30-40 Hiwall for the rest of my elk hunting.

Always hunt elk uphill from the truck! Archery hunting, had one run 400 yards straight at the truck once. Nicest elk in the mountains. I never did figure out how he knew where the truck was parked, but God Bless him just the same.

Californians should be banned from Wyoming period. My first season here a Californian opened fire on a herd of elk. Got one down after multiple shots. A few days later I found a dead elk calf in a little glacier depression. When I told some other locals about it they said some people in a California plated vehicle had been wondering around out there a day or two after all the shooting. In other words he was pretty sure he had hit the calf too.
I was driving into town the other day at 40mph in 4 wheel drive when a car blasted around me, you guessed it, California plates. This sort of crap happens all the time here. It's a downside to be living near the highway that goes to Jackson and Yellowstone. David

David, We have similar concerns with NYers from NYC coming up "to the country" for hunting season.., we have our own fair share of idiot drivers though, I've been waving to them as I lumber by where they're stuffed into snowbanks this week.

Hemingway never hunted or owned a 99 that I'm aware of. I have a copy of "Hemingway's guns" and there's no mention of it. I retouched this picture showing them together. I'm experimenting with my own contributions to fake news and internet 99 research.

Papa's mannlicher 250-3000, is in my possession, which pleases me to no end, but it has no connection with Hemingway or even to my own Papa... and it's been snowing here, so I've been doing other things than actually getting out to shoot...

David I'm about 40 miles from the California border, don't get me started.

We even hated them in the late 60's/early 70's when I was a student at the Univ. of Washington. There are actually a lot of good people there but they are greatly outnumbered by the others.
The snow is melting here and the highways are dry, thank God, but my driveway is impassable because of the mud. The snow is still about 2 feet deep in the flat areas.
The guys in New Hampshire don't like people from Massachusetts either. We need to put walls around those places. David

Harry Caldwell: