Home Forums Hunting & Shooting General Big Game Favorite book?

"Alaskan Yukon Trophies Won and Lost" by G. O. Young (who went on to serve in the US Senate). A simply amazing tale of hunting and survival in the days before GPS, polyester, gore-tex, down bags, scopes, and even outfitters. This is the hunting book by which I judge all others.

Great books one & all! I just finished Undaunted Courage for the 4th time. What a tragic ending to Lewis's life. One of my all time favorites is Pondoro, the last of the ivory hunters, John Taylors autobiography.
Other ones I have read this summer:
African Game Trails TR
Lord Grizzly Fredrick Mansfield
Into Africa Martin Dugard
West with the night Beryl Markham
The High and the Mighty Ernest K. Gann

A Sand County Almanac helped change my career plans, and for the better! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" /> The story that struck a cord with me is him stating that he'll never return to the river delta he canoed, as it wouldn't be the same. Gotta save some of those good places.

A bit on the mystical/emotional side of hunting, but I've liked what I've read from David Peterson and Ted Kerasote.

My favorites would have to be John Taylor's books (he wrote four all together) and if I had to choose one of them I guess it would be "Maneaters and Marauders". He lived for nearly 30 years in the African bush hunting nearly year-'round, so his level of experience is staggering and the stories are a thrill to say the least.

Anything by Wilbur Smith, basically.

If you haven't read them yet, read the Courtney and Ballantyne series...great African adventures.

Although it verges on "how-to", I'm a big fan of Datus Proper's "Pheasants of the Mind".

I really like Y.J Jones's One man, One rifle, One land.

Glad to find so many fans of A Sand County Almanac!

Also, can't believe "Traplines North" was mentioned... I loved that book as a kid. Ditto Cahe Lake Country.

Sigurd Olsen's stuff is good too.

My favourite hunting/bush books are "Three Against the Wilderness" by Eric Collier, the single finest account of actually living in the wilderness of B.C. that I have ever read; it was/is based on REAL experience and the conservation lessons it contains are timeless. The other author I highly respect is the late Roderick Haig-Brown, formerly of Campbell River, B.C.; his writing inspired me as a youth to become active in wilderness preservation and wildlife conservation.

Another rather rare, but, very worthwhile book is "Campfires in the Canadian Rockies" by the late W.T. Hornaday, an account of exploration in the Kootenays circa 1900+. This book details what the wilderness was actually like when my pioneer ancestors, among others, opened up the Kootenays...and it was NOT easy country!

One more is "Sport and Life, etc" by W.A. Baillie-Grohman whose name graces a creek near my hometown where my buddies and I hunted and fished in our high school years. In those days we could and did walk through the center of town carrying our guns openly, without a concerned glance from anyone....only 40 years ago and doing this now would get your ass in the "crowbar hotel" P.D.Q.

Of course, we have more "freedom" in Canada now....abortion on demand, gay marriage, acceptance of drug abuse, sodomites teaching in our schools and non-traditional immigrants in bureaucratic positions of power denying government jobs to native-born Canucks....and the school libraries don't have copies of "Outdoor Life" or the books I have mentioned.............the conclusions are obvious, to me.

"Hunter" by John A. Hunter. He had a house on the Ngong Road near Isak Dinesen and was one of the best-known white hunters in Kenya. He guided clients during the first 50 years of the 20th century and did a lot of control hunting for the Kenyan game department, often for rogues. He killed almost as many elephants as Bell, and may hold the records for rhino, buffalo and lion. I read it when I was about 10, and now I've been reading it to my 9-year-old son. It's a superb read.


Okie John

okie john - agree with you on "Hunter."

Some of my favorites:

"In Defense of Hunting" by James A. Swan
"The Wanderings of an Elephant Hunter" W. D. M. Bell

One of the best I have read on African hunting in the late twenties, thirties and forties has to be "Heat, Thirst and Ivory" by Fred Everett. Very compelling and interesting story.

Anything by McManus for the shear joyof it.
Anything by T. R. for the history.
I also agree on Corbett. The man must have had nerves of steel!

Excellent question! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" />

The Old Man and the Boy by Robert Ruark

If I were in the mood for a bit pleasant nostalgia, it would be "The Old Man and the Boy." If it was a bit of rousing adventure, it'd be any of Roy Andrews' books on the Central Asiatic Expeditions. For Africa, it'd be one of Walter Bell's fine books. India would be Corbett. Jeez, there's no way I can pick a single book.

DB Bill - A hearty "Yes!" Best, John

Where The Red Fern Grows,
by Wilson Rawls.

It's a kids book, but a damn good one. I've got a copy autographed to me from the early 70's, and it's one of the first things I'd grab in a house fire.

S.H.,

Glad to see another Wilber Smith fan. I usually have one fiction and one non. in my pack. Lots of history in his books, as well as adventure.

Ric

Anything Capstick wrote. For those of you who may not have read his stuff, it makes for a really easy read. Most of his books are nothing more than a compilation of short stories. He does an incredible job of putting the reader in his shoes. He combines graphic detail and humor into an interesting twist that makes it hard to stop reading. Death in the Long Grass, Death in Silent Places, and Death on the Dark Continent (shooting from memory here) are my favorites. African Adventurers is a bit of a historical perspective. Safari is an instructional of sorts. There are more that I have read. I enjoyed them all.

While working for my first degree as a forest engineer, Aldo Leopolds "Sand County Almanach" was a very essential concerning "education for conservation". It is a must read for everybody.
Another book I like very much is "Jordan/Jordan" - no hunting book, but dealing with Montana's people and nature 100 years ago.
RD

Hemingway's "Green Hills of Africa".
RS