Books on Hunting Africa...Suggestions Please...

[JasonW]

I agree with Trad Lad -- Double Helix is a great read, I just finished it.  Don Thomas definetly made me feel like I was along in the blind.

Another book I have heard great things about is "The Perfect Shot" more of a how to but still informative.

Trad Lad I will be heading to SA in July 2009, where are you going to be hunting?

[Trad Lad]

I'll be going to Melaroni. Going with friends who have been there before and I had planned to go in 07 but had to cancel because of job issues. This time no cancel, no delay, it has become a passion. Where will you be going? Many good places, seriously considered Alan Cilliers and Dries Vissar Safaris also. I booked through, Neil Sommers of Bowhunting Safari Consultants.
Pip

[JasonW]

Trad Lad:

I will be hunting at Tshepe.  I also booked with Neil.  I know what you mean about becomming a passion it's all I seem to think about.  I have dreamed of hunting Kudu since I was a boy....I can't believe in alittle over a year I'll be doing so.

Jason

[Trad Lad]

Why don't we keep a thread going to see how it goes? My e-mail address is tradlad45 @mchsi.com
I'm curious to know what equipment you will be using. I will be back before you go so I can give you some pointers perhaps. Is Tshepe on the internet somewhere that I can go to it?
Pip

[JasonW]

Trad Lad:

I thought they had a web site but I can't seem to locate it.  I will be anxious to see how your trip pans out.  I would appreciate the pointers.

I just got into traditional archery -- bought my first recurve a couple of months ago.  66" 58# @28" Wes Wallace Mentor.  I picked up some Grizzly Stik Alaskans, I havent decided on a BH as of yet still trying to decide what grain my arrows like best.

When I originally booked this trip I only hunted with compounds, so I was planning on taking them over with me.  My goal is to be profecient enough with my recurve and take both (compound and recurve) over to SA.

What set-up are you going to be using?

Jason
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[Ben Maher]

Lions in the path is a great read,As is Hemingway. Don Thomas' "double helix" is also a great, informative read. would love to read and, ESPECIALLY buy Swinehearts " Sagittarius". I had a copy when i was young and lost it....it was the book that got me interested in bowhunting.
cheers
b

[Trad Lad]

B
Go to your public library and ask them if they will get it for you on loan. I just returned it a couple weeks ago and there can't be too many people asking for it. At least that way you will get to read it.

[Don Thomas]

When reading Corbett, he always let's you know that the star of the story is the tiger. When reading Capstick, he always lets you know that the star of the story is Capstick. Don

[chrisg]

Well put, they are animals and we are not at war against them.
"Always softy tread" by Cronje Wilmot is another great book about early days in Botswana. Several new books by locals are coming out, Brian Marsh has one about "The Hunting Blackbeards" a well known family of hunters, five generations of stories! It will be a great read.
chrisg

[ratgunner]

I have most of Capsticks[many first editions] books and they are fantastic.I agree to a point with the comments above,but Capsticks job was to eliminate problem animals and guide hunters.How exciting would be to read about shooting plains game with a rifle ? Thats why he wrote about dangerous game more and it sells more books.Also Africa may have been a bit more wild than it is now.   :p

[Idahoeyes]

I've personally read every book mentioned on this thread, some mulitple times, (except the Swinehart books, there impossible to find at a reasonable price; if anyone has any suggestions there, send me a message :-}) but my two all time favorites, thought not bow hunting books,are:  #1) Colors of Africa by James Kilgo and #2) African Twilight by Robert Jones.  I'd also add "Safari a Dangerous Affair" as one fo the more "realistic" books.  If you want a lot of buffalo hunting, try Buger's "Honed Deat" available from Safari Press.

[Aaron Proffitt 2]

Originally posted by ratgunner:
I have most of Capsticks[many first editions] books and they are fantastic.I agree to a point with the comments above,but Capsticks job was to eliminate problem animals and guide hunters.How exciting would be to read about shooting plains game with a rifle ? Thats why he wrote about dangerous game more and it sells more books.Also Africa may have been a bit more wild than it is now.    :p  

Never mind the fact that he did some elephant cropping work,which I am sure probably rivals Alaskan crab fishing for the liklihood of winding up buried bent over and used for a bike rack.
FWIW,Capstick was widely available to many of us growing up as alot of rural libraries carried a selection of Capstick books and was often an introduction to safari life for many of us.It lit the spark.

[Don Thomas]

Theodore Roosevelt's African Game Trails offers a great look at the classic safari days from a non-professional point of view. it's obvious that Roosevelt's enthusiasm exceeded his skill level, but it's still a great read. On the fiction side, don't miss Ruark's Something of Value... but don't read it on the plane going over for the first time. (it's a bloody account of the Mau-Mau uprising in East Africa.) Hate to disappoint the Capstick fans, but every literate PH I know in Africa regards him as a buffoon. Don

[Aaron Proffitt 2]

Hate to disappoint the Capstick fans, but every literate PH I know in Africa regards him as a buffoon. Don [/QB]

I figured more PH's would be literate.So,now,along with donating to NothingbutNets;I am also going to have to support Phonics for Pros.Very sad.  :D

[ratgunner]

Sorry to hear that Don.Just how many PH's do you know ?  

[chrisg]

I am not a PH but I am an experienced dangerous game walking safari guide, I have many PH friends and we share stories like all professionals. After ten years of guiding in various big 5 reserves and two years of walking safaris in a reserve where hunting also took place - the animals were not tame-I had one bad run-in with a buffalo,it put me in hospital with lots of pain and broken bones. Just a bad luck situation that I survived, the buff didn't. The point is the animals are not psychopathic, homicidal maniacs like Capstick tries to portray. There are different individuals and some are more ornery than others just like people. Capstick puts a lot of descriptive  detail into what "might be" based in general statistical fact(the number of people killed by animals) out of that he extrapolates motives to the 'action' by animals and humans alike... and then claims all of stories to be his own true experience. THAT is why he is regarded as a boasting fool. No one survives that many encounters, period, nor do they go about telling the tales like a Hollywood gunslinger. The guys I have met, PHs and guides who have also been in that fatal wrestling match and survived would rather not talk much about it out of humility or respect for the animal. I know I was very angered by comments that the buff 'got what he deserved' after I recovered. Utter rot, he was doing what he was supposed to do as a territorial dagha bull. He and I have a bond that will last the rest of my life and I am grateful to have survived. Sorry to fans of Capstick, it's a fun read but not about reality, don't be flippant with wild animals ever.

Read Brian Marsh or JH Hunter, read Magnum magazine for great real stories about real African hunting. Peter Flack has a fabulous book out about trophy hunting all over Africa, can't think of the title right now.

chrisg

[Falk]

good post Chris  

[ratgunner]

Aahhh,that does shed some light on things for me.I can't speak for the rest of Capstick's fans though,thanks Chris.    However it sure is entertaining to read that sort of stuff.  

[chrisg]

Thanks guys, it's not about me or knocking Capstick, he does do a rip-roaring story and his detail is good too, I've been in some of those areas he writes about. But not every single animal is a 'baddy' - at least they aren't until you crowd their space. I have had a trio of 'old gentlemen' dagha bulls sleep in amongst the huts in our camp for several nights, they waited until we settled and then they came in, we respected their space and they moved out in the morning. It was a marvellous arrangement but I was a little on edge with expensive foreign clients in camp I can tell you!
chrisg

[Don Thomas]

Uh-oh... have I started another brawl? Thanks, Chris... my point exactly. And to answer a few questions, I used the term "literate" in the sense of those who DO read, not those who CAN read. And I know over a dozen African PH's who share my opinion of Capstick. Since I live here and not there,Ii obviously don't have as much experience in the African bush as they do. But I have made over a dozen trips to Africa and have spent many weeks on the ground, including some time in the part of Zambia Capstick used to hunt, and have enjoyed multiple close range encounters with dangerous African game.  I have been in on several dozen bow killed buffalo in Australia. And I have spent years in Alaska -- I'm heading back up to guide brown bear hunters this spring -- and have had hundreds of close range encounters with grizzlies. I always treat these animals with the utmost respect, but it just isn't the way Capstick describes it. The point is important to those heading into dangerous game country especially for the first time. The notion that all these animals are just waiting to kill you at the first opportunity leads to foolish human behavior and paralyzes the ability to enjoy these places and their wildlife on honest terms. The principal subject of Capstick's writing is always Capstick. For a contrast, read Col. James Corbett's accounts of hunting Indian man-eaters (all very well documented). His highest praise was always for the wildlife, not himself. If you enjoy reading Capstick, be my guest. It's entertaining -- like Tarzan of the Apes -- and it has about as much to do with African wildlife. Don