India Outdoors with Roy

handguns advice and India - Where are we ?

2010-01-27T18:01:00.000-08:00

Hand guns and pistols and even air soft guns is something that we are not allowed to own in India. In fact getting a firearms license is not an easy thing and generally all folks who get those licenses are either very well connected politically or they in fact bribe the license officials to get one.

I got interested in firearms when one of my friends wanted to go for his handgun license for his protection. I and him searched all over the internet to find some really good information about the firearms and I got to know a lot.

Well the fact is that part from Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SIG_P226) there are some really good and interesting sites. I was hoping to find and Indian site from where we can buy as well as get some good feedback on various handguns. But none so far in my search. We Indians are not comfortable buying over the internet so that was given that I would find an Indian handgun site. To possibility of getting cheated is always there in India!.

Now back to what I saying regarding hand guns and rifles. The most famous brand it seems is the Sig brand with their signature series. Sig Sauer which sells the SIG brand handguns in USA is the representative of the Schweizerische Industrie Gesellschaft (SIG) which is the Swiss/German manufacturing firm.

The various handguns that they have are the SIG P210, SIG P220 and SIG P238 Series.
In fact the SIG P 226 series is also adopted by the US Military. What does the Indian police have ? I am not sure . I know that they bought AK-47 but that was long ago and they fall in a very different category. They are not handguns.
SIG P220 is known as the best .45mm double action pistol.

For hunting the SIG has the SIG SHR 970 which is called the Swiss Hunting rifle.
If you want to know all about SIG parts and how to procure them at a lower price then go to discount Sig Sauer parts.

More on Binoculars

2009-05-10T06:19:00.000-07:00

As I site here waiting for my binoculars I did a lot of research and found out some things which I thought are worth mentioning.

Very important is the purpose of the binoculars. The purpose of binos will make some binoculars you are trying to buy as not good choices. I see that there are a lot of binoculars which are used for birding or hunting. Then a lot of people use the binoculars for astronomy as well as for the marine life purpose.

The main number or the measurement that we need to have is the “7x35” or the “10x50”. Magnification and the aperture diameter are the most important binocular measurement.

There are a lot of other things but the main thing that I have see will be there which is very much how we base our buy is the price. I searched first for less than 100 dollars and found out a few reviews which said that less than 100 dollars is not good. I then jacked up my budget by 100 more.

I learnt about the high end binos like Leica, Zeiss or the Swaroski. That said these binos I believe are for experts once you have had good experience outdoors and will gradually get to know the environment, the outside as well as start distinguishing various elements of nature.

Also, one of the most important aspects of purchasing a good quality binoculars for general outdoors sporting, birding, hunting, and other activities, concerns waterproofing. It is always a good idea to find a good pair of discount waterproof binoculars. You never know when you will get caught in the rain or accidentally drop them into a stream. Why spend good money on decent quality binoculars and ruin them, when you could have easily found a good pair of Discount Waterproof Binoculars to avoid this problem?

My first outdoor accessory – Binoculars

2009-05-09T06:48:00.000-07:00

As I said in my post earlier that it would be easier getting a binocular in US than in India as there are a lot of online options available to buy your binoculars from. After searching some local shops in the place around Delhi where I live I just gave up and decided to ask my close friend’s brother who lives in Ohis, US to get me binoculars.

It took some effort as it can be costly affair if you apply that conversion are of 50 rupees. That means binos for 200 dollars is about Rs.10,000 in India. That is one third of my salary gone for purchasing that. But as they say passion does not acre about money and hence I went online got a whole lot of information on Binoculars on the net and finally decided on which I have told my acquaintance to order.

He is visiting India in June and I will have to wait till June to feel that binoculars. I am already planning my next trip to the Ranthambor sanctuary.

In fact I found out about a good outdoors camping gear site which is very good and very informative.

As on that I must mention about some good sites that I found at least as far as the information is concerned and these sites are the
http://www.chuckhawks.com/

Consumer Search site is a best source to find out about various ratings.
http://www.consumersearch.com/binoculars

These three are what I liked and in no way mean that these are the best ones. There are a lot of others written by some well known binocular and birding experts which are by all means the best. Again for the sake of repetition I will mention that there I will be posting the links to some good outdoor bloggers, hunting bloggers and the birding experts. Also will try to find out something some good outdoor blogger writers in India.

I ordered the Nikon Monarch ATB 8x42. the approx price will be in the range of $200.The best thing to happen is that it will be finally something that is worth the money and I will be able to enjoy my outdoor trips.

Here are the specifications for that

Product Features

Ultra rugged, rubber-armored, roof prism design

Multicoated lenses for bright, clear images

Precision aligned optics for extended viewing

100% Waterproof/Fogproof

Extended eye relief and

central focus for viewing convenience

Technical Details

Focusing System: CF

Magnification: 8xObjective Diameter: 40 mm

Angular Field of View Real: 6.5

Angular Field of View Apparent: 52FOV at 1000 yards: 340 feet

Close Focus Distance: 8.2 feet

Exit Pupil: 5 mm

Relative Brightness: 25

Eye Relief: 19.5 mmSize: 6.5 (L) x 5.1 (W) inches

Weight: 26.3 ounces

If you need to have the definitions of what all of these means there are those websites which I mentioned.
Update: I found another website which is also good at articulating the basics in a simple manner and not too technical though funnily it says best hunting binoculars as its main site title.

Tiger hunting in India

2009-05-09T06:04:00.000-07:00

As I write I am reminded of my trip to Sunderbans to catch the sight of that rare tiger. A group of four college friends went on the trip. We engaged a local boat person to help us wade all around the Sunderbans Delta.

Tiger hunting is banned in India. That is not to say that tiger are not hunted but that is all illegal. Indian government has been doing a lot to make sure that the tiger population increases that it seems that the collusion of officials and the poachers make all the efforts very much bite the dust.
Since 9173 the Project Tiger has been around and there have been some increase in the population of tigers but nothing that
So guess how many tigers are there in India. The number is 1498 tigers in 27 Tiger reserves. These reserves were created to make sure that there were designated areas where the tigers could be safe.

In 2008 finally NCTA or the National Tiger Conservation Authority has been established to regulate all the efforts being done to save the tigers.
Some of the best destinations for outdoors in India are:

Sunderbans National Park – I did visit it when in college but would like to visit again based on the new found interest for outdoors and enhanced knowledge. It is A UNESCO heritage site as well as defined as the Biosphere reserve. Home to about 250 tigers. I could sight none during my first visit.
The whole reserve is densely populated with mangrove forests. The best place to stay is in a West Bengal Government guest house which has nice cottages on a small island within the Delta.
The name Bengal Tigers originated here in the state of West Bengal. The stripes and the color of the Bengal Tiger is wonderful. Look at that photograph below.

Bandhavgarh National Park.
This Park is located in Madhya Pradesh in the Umaria district.
Nagarhole National Park
Loacted near Mysore in Karnataka this place is part of the Nilgiri Biospshere Reserve.
Ranthambore National Park
Sawai Madhopur district has this Park which is about 130 kms from the pink city of Jaipur. The state is Rajasthan which is definitely one of the royal states of India. More on the subject of royalty and their tastes for killing the tigers later.

Update Mar 2010 - If you need to abreast of what is outdoors all about and what are some of the good outdoor activities then read these articles on recreation and nature. I am sure you will enjoy these.

Probably in the next post. This is also one of those 27 Tiger reserves in India.
Kanha National Park
This is in Madhya Pradesh and this is also a Tiger Reserve. If you know Rudyard Kipling and his famous “jungle book” then you should know that Jungle Book was inspired by the forests of the Kanha National park.
Some photographs of the Sunderbans delta to help you get an idea about how beautiful that place is.

Outdoors Bloggers summit - A good resource

2009-05-09T06:00:00.000-07:00

Here I go again writing on this blog as frequently as I can because I know that when my job will start demanding more time from me then I will not be able to write more often.

I will however strive to write as many posts as I can during this time frame of next two months. I have heard a lot of bloggers write to schedule but I know for myself that I just do not have that kind of patience and discipline to write every day. You will see no structure at all from me on this blog. I will post a few times during the day for some days and will be posting nothing on some days. This is me.. No discipline.

Again wandering away from the topic of this post, I stumbled upon this great blog written by Kristine which is an attempt to get all the outdoors bloggers to get together and share their passion and interest in the outdoor life. In fact I have been reading vigorously all those blogs which are listed out there.

Thanks Kristine and other founding members to create this wonderful place on the web. I know now for sure that there are so many others which are like me and have some passion for hunting, fishing, trails and outdoors in general.

Another thing which was great was the number of women who are listed out there. I will write about these as and when I do my series on the outdoor blogs that I have been reading. But this is in stark contrast to what we have in India.

I rarely see women venturing outside for outdoor adventures all by themselves. Hunting or fishing will be an absolute no. It stems from the conservative traditional past that we had for years when the women were not even allowed to venture outside of the house for working even. Things have changed a lot after independence but some things are not socially acceptable and having women hunting or fishing is one of them for sure.

Plus I believe the whole costs kind of put it out of reach for most middle class families. Again middle class families generally will have stricter social customs for females than the ultra rich and upper middle class families.

All about India outdoors hunting and fishing

2009-05-09T05:54:00.000-07:00

Welcome to my blog on the hunting and the fishing. The reason I started this blog is because of the fact that while searching on some information for fishing in India there was absolutely no resources available.

I must admit however that I am new to the fishing thing and was wondering what resources available to new outdoor enthusiast like me for fishing or hunting in India?

As far as I know from the limited knowledge that I have about hunting that it is absolutely not allowed in India. I may be wrong!! ! But I will find the relevant details and keep posting it here for everyone’s including my benefit.

Fishing is fine but then where is the good places to fish and what are the types of fishes available and which are the good places to buy the fishing equipment. These are all the questions that I would like to get an answer to.

Hopefully I will be able to get a lot of information in my journey for hunting and fishing. Apart from the fact that I know a lot of people who ask their Indian relatives and/or friends to get them the equipment when they come to India for a visit.Not a good way to get the equipment especially considering that it will be costly to get the equipment here because of the customs duty on such items

Update : If you need good information about outdoor lantern lights then this website is the best.

Last when I did some search on the internet I found very good informative blogs on everything outdoors including the sites on camping, hunting, fishing. I will be giving a shout out to all such blogs all over the blogosphere as these will then come in handy for my fellow Indians and other readers to get to know more about outdoors.

I have a wish which I am sure will take some time but I would definitely want to fly out to US one day and enjoy some great outdoors especially those hunting expeditions as well as those nice trails that they people have photographs have on their blogs.

Keep reading for more information on the Indian outdoors and also alongside some good outdoors blogs from all around the world. I am an Indian and I do love that good Indian masala recipes and found out tasty indian recipes on the net here.