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I thought he was an excellent writer.....
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Have read one book by Capstick. Have read everything J. Corbett wrote 3 times over, maybe 4. If able, I would rewind the clock and read anything of Corbett's again instead of reading Capstick the first time.
I do not entertain hypotheticals. The world itself is vexing enough. -- Col. Stonehill
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I've always heard that Capstick's personal stories were rather embellished, to the point of being stolen from others. Entertaining reading for sure, but should be taken with a grain of salt. Capstick is a joke among PHs in Africa. He did most of his hunting from a barstool. He took other peoples adventures and made them his own. gifted writer though- i have all his books.
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I think the video market did a lot of damage to many writers. When you say how they handled a rifle, or shot, you knew.......
When truth is ignored, it does not change an untruth from remaining a lie.
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I've read most of Capstick's books -- and thoroughly enjoyed them. I knew a guy, however, who hunted the Luangua Valley several times and asked several PH's about Capstick and they all said Capstick was not a PH in Africa. I don't know one way or the other -- but he does spin a pretty good tale!
I won't be wronged. I won't be insulted. I won't be laid a-hand on. I don't do these things to other people, and I require the same from them.
John Wayne
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If I am not mistaken, he was a Game Control officer and not a PH in Luangwa. I know he did an apprentice PH stint in what was then Rhodesia first. He took his veteran tracker Silent with him to keep his butt out of trouble when he went to Zambia. Don't blame him. A smart man surrounds himself with good talent.
"The Democrat Party looks like Titanic survivors. Partying and celebrating one moment, and huddled in lifeboats freezing the next". Hatari 2017
"Hokey religions and ancient weapons are no match for a good blaster at your side, kid." Han Solo
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I don't see how anyone could allege that Patterson's "lions" were hyenas since there are photos of them in his book. You can see those photos here. John Henry Patterson
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I've always heard that Capstick's personal stories were rather embellished, to the point of being stolen from others. Entertaining reading for sure, but should be taken with a grain of salt. Capstick is a joke among PHs in Africa. He did most of his hunting from a barstool. He took other peoples adventures and made them his own. gifted writer though- i have all his books. One of the reasons why his last book, published posthumously from his notes, was a disappointment had to do with the way he inserted himself into his subject's story. Several times, at least, he wrote that if Meinertzagen had known him, they would have been close friends. Maybe so, and maybe Meinertzhagen would have slapped him with a wet towel. But this is the kind of wishful longing that is suitable for a private diary, and should have been edited out of the copy long before it went to print. IIRC, there's a photo of Capstick holding a German battle flag outdoors somewhere, and he says that it is not the battle flag that Meinertzhagen captured during WWI, but one just like it. IMO, the proper way to do that kind of thing is to simply print a photo of the flag, without the author holding it like a trophy (inserting himself into the story again, the attention-hound), and say that it is similar to the flag captured by Meinertzhagen, etc., etc. Had he lived and the manuscript been put into the hands of a more demanding editor, I'm sure the book would have been better and more entertaining. I enjoyed reading his earlier tales.
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How about a quick reminder of Peter's style from a review from Robert F. Jones in a 1989 issue of SI:
Last Horizons: Hunting, Fishing, and Shooting on Five Continents ( St. Martin's Press, $19.95), a collection of Capstick's magazine pieces dating back to 1969. The locales range from Nicaragua (where he harpoons freshwater sharks) to India (pigsticking during the height of the Raj) to medieval England (the setting for a fantasy about the opening day of the dragon-spearing season). The emphasis, though, is on Africa. Whatever the place, the intrepid Capstick evokes it in imagery that seems to have been achieved by feeding a Webster's Unabridged into a Cuisinart. Examples:
Capstick on being attacked by a hippopotamus: "Over my shoulder I saw a bull hippo the size of a mobile home heading straight at me like a bowling ball thrown by an irate Dick Butkus...the [hippo's] mouth open and looking like a hall closet with curving, white tusks."
Capstick on being charged by an elephant in Ethiopia: "As the seconds ticked by, I wondered vaguely to myself what in the world I was doing here, freezing, dying of thirst, and about to be stomped into furry pink Jell-O in a land that was already hoary with history before King Solomon and his Merry Band pried their first diamond from her rugged surface...."
Capstick on confronting Africa's deadliest snake: "The checklist for the black mamba is about as cheery as the 'Things to Do Today' memo pad of a Gestapo colonel.... The mouth contains shortish hypodermic fangs, packing enough venom to kill most of a good-sized cocktail party...."(My all time favorite Capstick line)
Often Capstick's imagery achieves effects other than what he intends, as in this description of an idyllic Yucatan duck hunt: "Ducks were everywhere, trading in clouds around and between the three ponds we were shooting, thicker than houseflies during an August garbage strike." Sometimes the writing is just plain silly. Take his account of having his foot bitten by a supposedly dead jaguar in Brazil: "I untied the bitten-through lace, listening to guariba monkeys shrilling through shaded emerald jungle as green and damp as my mildewed underwear, the whole forest of Xingu a verdant poussecafe of vegetation layered by sun and storm.... Possibly because he didn't like the taste of Neolite, to my infinite relief after a couple of thoughtful chews he accepted a better offer in a nearby patch of bush with the visibility of a pot of fettucine Alfredo verdi [sic]."
Capstick and his hunting buddies never just load their rifles; they "insert" pairs of "brass panatellas" or "frankfurter-sized cartridges." Here's one client arming a double-barreled Jeffery Express: "Quietly, Antonio chambered a pair of the four-and-a-half-inch .475s, like dropping a couple of bananas down a drainpipe." Clearly, Capstick enjoys eating, drinking and smoking as much as he does hunting. (No doubt!)
Yet the impact of these verbal pyrotechnics is refreshingly surrealistic�the narrative equivalent of a collaboration between Bosch and Dali. However, on the bedrock levels of African natural history, tribal sociology and appropriate sporting weapons, Capstick is dead accurate. He also can write action as cleanly and suspensefully as the best of his predecessors, and with far more intentional humor. He is certainly never boring.
Perhaps a whirlwind of mixed metaphors is the most effective way to convey the excitement and contradictions of contemporary Africa.
"The Democrat Party looks like Titanic survivors. Partying and celebrating one moment, and huddled in lifeboats freezing the next". Hatari 2017
"Hokey religions and ancient weapons are no match for a good blaster at your side, kid." Han Solo
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Campfire 'Bwana
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And that right there, is why he is my favorite outdoor writer.
A good principle to guide me through life: “This is all I have come to expect, standard lackluster performance. Trust nothing, believe no one and realize it will only get worse…”
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I met Pete several times and he was always a nice a gracious man. Actually, he rather reminded me of Jim Carmichel ... and I do not mean that in a disrespectful way.
The difference was that my friend, Jim, actually is a fantastic rifleman, shooter and hunter. Pete Capstick was a writer, a rather gifted writer, and while he wrote about stuff, he didn't actually do the acts he wrote about.
Indeed, somebody actually did that heroic stuff ... just NOT HIM.
Many, many times I've been drinking a "sundowner" in Afrika, just shooting the [bleep] with locals and my PH. Then the subject of Pete Capstick would come up. They LOVED the man.
Literally, nobody has captured the hearts of folks of all generations and nations like Peter Hathaway Capstick. Pete captured the romance, the danger, the very essence of Afrika like Peter hathaway Capstick.
And after reading the MASTER, folks simply have to hunt in Afrika. And that sells lots of safariis and that employs lots and lots of professional hunters.
One of my gunny writing friends bumped into Pete at an SCI Convention. Pete was on crutches and informed my friend that he'd been "Bumped and hooked by a bloody [bleep] Cape buff."
A few hours later, my friend was told by the PH on that safari that Pete was drunk and sitting in the back of a Land Rover. The Rover hit a bump and Pete was thrown out of the Rover ... he landed ass-first.
The PH thought that Pete's story about the ficticious encounter with the buffalo was about "Par for the course."
Anyway, I thought Pete was a good gut. He didn't do all of those heroic things, but somebody PROBABLY DID. I'm thinking that Pete probably laughed, at privately to himself, that folks actually believed the wild tales he told.
God Bless,
Steve
Are you saying that Capstick was never a PH in Africa?
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Capstick is wonderfully entertaining,a joy to read.
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Capstick turned me on to Africa. After reading his stuff I got into Corbett, Hunter, Neumann, and Roosevelt. Still it was Capstick that lit the fire and I have a hard time swallowing that he was never a PH at all.
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on the turning the bullets backwards.....Capstick isnt the only one ive heard that from......and if you look at the way some of the old solids were produced it is a half arsed facsimile of one.....i think it could work....should be easy enough to test by anyone that handloads.....wonder if someone has done so? I actually have loaded some of the old nosler solid bases backwards and shot them. They shot fine and penetrated big oak stumps like crazy.
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Campfire 'Bwana
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A good principle to guide me through life: “This is all I have come to expect, standard lackluster performance. Trust nothing, believe no one and realize it will only get worse…”
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Campfire Ranger
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Capstick turned me on to Africa. After reading his stuff I got into Corbett, Hunter, Neumann, and Roosevelt. Still it was Capstick that lit the fire and I have a hard time swallowing that he was never a PH at all. He was in both Africa and South America. He never said he did did it for a long time or was great, but he did do some. Griz saw him get started: Actually I believe he worked for Luangwa Safaris in Zambia first, which is where I knew him. He was a nice guy but in way over his head at the time.
"The Democrat Party looks like Titanic survivors. Partying and celebrating one moment, and huddled in lifeboats freezing the next". Hatari 2017
"Hokey religions and ancient weapons are no match for a good blaster at your side, kid." Han Solo
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Capstick turned me on to Africa. After reading his stuff I got into Corbett, Hunter, Neumann, and Roosevelt. Still it was Capstick that lit the fire and I have a hard time swallowing that he was never a PH at all. He was in both Africa and South America. He never said he did did it for a long time or was great, but he did do some. Griz saw him get started: Actually I believe he worked for Luangwa Safaris in Zambia first, which is where I knew him. He was a nice guy but in way over his head at the time.
his story on hunting water buffalo on Maraj� Island at the mouth of the Amazon is a good read and where the photo of him thats on the jacket of most his books where he looks like chit from a rough days hunting was taken....reading a book now bout another guy that did buffalo hunts there aswell...."hell on earth" is a good description of the place in the wet season...
A serious student of the "Armchair Safari" always looking for Africa/Asia hunting books
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I believe that Capstick made up some stories for the sake of fun and wowing readers. The .270 bullet turned backwards by the guys teeth to shoot the elephant was one and the baboon shooting in Vlackfontein with the full auto Mak-10 being another example. However I don't believe the man was a fraud as many of his stories just weren't that sensational. I've found JA Hunters stories to be more sensational than most of Capstick's and I'm not in any way calling John Hunter a fraud.
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Capstick was a PH working for Geoff Broom. Some of his tales were actually things that Geoff Broom did. I was told this by a PH who knew both of them.
Don't blame me. I voted for Trump.
Democrats would burn this country to the ground, if they could rule over the ashes.
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If I am not mistaken, he was a Game Control officer and not a PH in Luangwa. I know he did an apprentice PH stint in what was then Rhodesia first. He took his veteran tracker Silent with him to keep his butt out of trouble when he went to Zambia. Don't blame him. A smart man surrounds himself with good talent. He was a PH and had his own hunting block until they pulled him out of it for having too many wounded lions running around in it. Bob Langefeld was the Chief Cropping Officer in Zambia at the time and I'm pretty sure he didn't know who Capstick was. Serving as a cropping officer was a fast track path to PH however. On the other hand if you had connections, you could get a job as a PH pretty easy then. I never heard about previous service in Rhodesia as he was still talking about gauchos when I knew him. He had Fifth Avenue (or more likely Park Avenue) social connections to the short-lived Winchester Hunting Adventures (or whatever it was called) and that got the door opened for him. To his credit he did take advantage of the opportunity, although I think his mother wanted him out of town anyway. And his best tracker/gun bearer was one we loaned him when he was moved to our block as his guys didn't know diddly. I don't remember meeting anyone named "Silent" and always assumed he was a convenient fiction but perhaps not. BTW, and I think I mentioned this before, the reverse seated bullet story was heavily "borrowed" from a story in True or Argosy magazine (or some such) that he would have read as a callow youth. He was quite a reader and knew lots of stories. He was a fun guy to be in camp with. In the bush, not so much.
"Be sure you're right. Then go ahead." Fess Parker as Davy Crockett
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