Back in 1982 I was tasked with an Ansett Freight Charter from Tulla to Adelaide where we were to pick up a Tiger and bring him back to Melbourne in a Setair DC3.
Before we left Tulla I was handed the said wooden box containing the pistol to which I enquired "what I am to do with this?" I was then told about the tiger to be transported back to Melbourne before being shipped on to the Amsterdam Zoo. Well when we got to Adelaide I found the poor old tiger was in a steel barred cage which in turn was inside a wooden cage, something like an early version of an overpack.
Tiger was in no condition to even stand as like all drugged cats, his eyes were only half open and his head was lolling about. So any thoughts of using the pistol, should he even get out, were firmly put away.
The biggest issue was getting the cage on board as the aircraft I had that night was the only one (was MWQ then and now is back to its original rego of MMA) in our fleet of three that had the galley at the rear and that required some substantial juggling to get the cage past the galley with both cargo doors open. I had never ever fired a gun let alone handled one apart from the 303's used for drill when we were cadets at High School so it all seemed a bit of a laugh at the time.