Austro-Hungarian Archduke is credited with being the most prolific hunter ever having killed over 300,000 animals in the 51 years of his life. At that rate, he would had to have killed roughly 1.5 animals every hour from the day he was born until th June 28th 1914 when he was killed by Serbian nationalists.

mmmmmmmmm.................... meat,

Did he kill each animal or did he use artillery???

300,000 in a lifetime could be one of the reasons species died out...

He would go by on a train and shoot everything he saw, then a train would go behind him and pick it all up.

Man, I thought I was a hunter!!! Although that seems like a ton of animals, and it is, you have to remember that even today, a guy like me who hunts every year, can rack up a pretty big number. If I were to have kept count from the time I was 8, until now (37) I bet I would have that many!! :-)

OK, maybe not that many, but a small game hunter who say, hunts doves during dove season, with a limit of nine birds per day, if he hunted for 2 weeks, that would be 126 birds. Take that and multiply it by 51 ( I hope I am around longer) and you have a big number in just one species. Not to say that you would limit out everyday, but just an example.

Then factor in all of the squirrels, ducks, geese, pheasants, rabbits, quail, and pigeons (we don't eat the pigeon, although you can) you have a pretty big number.

Then with big game animals that I hunt (deer, wild boar, turkey) and the number grows even bigger.

There is no way with modern bag limits and conservation efforts that a guy could reach such a number now without poaching, but still, an avid hunter could be in the low thousands fairly easily.

350,000 is a lot of meat!!

)

what is truely amazing is think about all the rounds of ammunition he expended. From a moving train, most likely he would not hit everything one shot even if it moved very slow, so figure he took 2 shots for everanimal. That would mean 600,000 rounds alone hunting. Add to that target practice that he must have had learning to shoot and kills that went un recorded, I would not be suprised if he shot 700,000 to 800,000 rounds of ammo in his life time which probably would have been enough to supply an entire infantry division for some time.

OK - 300,000 animals with a rifle, pistol or shotgun

- sure he didn't use one of Maxim's Machine Guns?

He probably used a shotgun for most stuff. Maybe a big 10- or 8-bore like the market hunters used. Heck, some of the old swivel guns they used to hunt ducks with in Wisconsin were like small artillery pieces -- kill dozens of ducks or geese with one mighty blast!

I've seen them in various museums in Britain - a bit like a Naval Swivel gun....

First of all, I have no problem with hunting. Where I live there is actually quite a bit - only a few miles from me there are Wild Boar and in the hills a lot of deer. Both of which I eat when I get the chance. However, 300,000 is just absolutely dumb - no way was that eating 'for the pot' unless he was feeding entire cities...Jim :-)