The sport of Pig Sticking
Pig Sticking, the sport of Indian princes and British Army officiers, has always intrigued me. Rasch has written a series of posts about the sport . …
Pigsticking. It was a blood-sport of the Raj — blood sport at its bloodiest; a one-to-one contest, if that is the word, between the hunter and his quarry. The hunter was an able-bodied man riding a trained horse and carrying a nine-foot-long spear: he hunted a pig, terrified, squealing, running for life, and, rarely, turning around to make a blind charge at its pursuer.
The sahibs who ruled India took to pigsticking like ducks to water, and in no time at all, transformed it into a ‘sport’; meaning that they framed rules for competition. There were pigsticking ‘meets’ at which teams competed. Sows with piglets were not to be chased. There were ‘umpires’ to ensure that the rules were observed. Why, there was even a ‘Lords’ and ‘Wimbledon’ of pigsticking! The annual Kadir Cup Meet at Meerut.
The sport is too bloody for me, but I don’t begrudge anyone participating in it.
I founded TFB in 2007 and over 10 years worked tirelessly, with the help of my team, to build it up into the largest gun blog online. I retired as Editor in Chief in 2017. During my decade at TFB I was fortunate to work with the most amazing talented writers and genuinely good people!
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An excerpt from
Jeff Cooper's Commentaries Volume Eight
page 69 of 75
“Modern hunting with ancient weapons is a pretty fascinating subject. We have the black−powder people, the archers, the cross−bowmen, the lancers, and the list goes on. Theodore Roosevelt once opined that the only proper way to kill a pig is with a spear, though he did not specify whether afoot or ahorse. There is an astonishing painting of the Emperor Max I hunting chamois with a lance. I find this challenge quite unbelievable, but apparently it was not unheard of in Medieval Europe.
...If I ever become fully operational again, I might like to try the pig on horseback with a lance, but that is about as far as I feel like going. You more sporting guys can take the matter from there.
And on page 75
...Ronin Colman recently showed us a rare book by Sir Robert Baden−Powell, he of the baggy shorts and Smokey Bear hat who invented the Boy Scouts. It turns out that Sir Robert at one time was the preeminent pig sticker of the Punjab, and his book Pig Sticking tells us all about the game.
Under no circumstances does one shoot a pig, a beast which a gentleman must take with cold steel. "Any member who shoots a pig will be expelled from the club." Well, I have never claimed to be a gentleman, but I am duly chastised and I will henceforth not shoot pigs − except under very special circumstances.
WEST TEXAS IS COMPLETELY OVERRUN WITH WILD HOGS. THEY ARE DEVASTATING CROPS AND RANCH LANDS. WE KILL EVERY ONE WE CAN AND CANT BEGIN TO MAKE A DENT IN THEIR POPULATIONS.THEY ARE CARRIERS OF BRUCELOSIS AND TICKS WITH LYME DISEASE. THE ONLY WAY TO MAKE ANY HEADWAY IN CONTROLLING THEIR NUMBER IS WITH HELICOPTER SHOOTS AND EVEN THEN THEY ARE BACK IN JUST A FEW MONTHS.