Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Africa Peter Capstick

I've enjoyed reading his material for years, as it is inexpensive and easily found. Hell, even Haggard's Quartermain is interesting, and it's entirely fiction. Since retirement about 12 years back, I've taken to shaking out and purchasing works by Harris, Cummings, Bell, Selous, Oswell, Akeley, Burchell, Bull, Patterson, Ruark, Corbett, the Johnsons and many lesser known writers with many going back into the 1830's. Such can get expensive as many of those works are mostly found in Europe.

Half the adventure back then was simply getting there with a need to endure months at sea and walking across the continents since motor craft were yet to be invented. Interesting to note too that many considered Africa pretty well shot out by the 1870's. Things were even worse after rinderpest made its pass through the continent in the late 1800's. It's obvious now that Capstick borrowed heavily from others experiences, but to his credit, he brought material to light that most would never make the effort to find.

Other early books by explorers, seafaring captains, etc are also fascinating reads occupying several shelves as well. It is truly incredible what a goal oriented human spirit can endure.

I pray when I buy the farm, the kid doesn't simply lob my bookshelves into a dumpster.

I never knew quite what to think of Capstick hosing a troop of baboons in a palm grove with a MAC-10. He certainly wrote fondly of it!

GrouseChaser:

Given most of us will never live in Africa, there is a very deep seated and sincere hatred for baboons. Fascinating animals, but they will exploit near any advantage to the point of stalking and attacking humans.

Readings suggest the silverback gorillas are one of the most terrifying animals one can ever encounter, but there's essentially no evidence they ever attacked a person in the wild.

if a pack of dogs,coyotes,wolves etc attacked and killed someone you knew or even one of your pets, would you not "hose" them out of existence? i know i would in a heart beat.

I think the writer's from my youth were far and away better writer's than those around today. Back then it was stories, today, well last I'd read the junk, it's all about commitment to some company selling guns, ammo and equipment. The good old days are gone! No more story teller's. Last good one I read was Jim Carmichael when he first took over for O'Conner but he also changed and could not or simply didn't tell story's any more.

I think one is pretty much right on there.

Yeh though I walk through the valley of death, I will fear no evil, for thy Remington 700 in 338 Lapua carrying a Nighforce 6-18X scope launching a 220 grain Nosler partition ahead of 87 grains of IMR 4895 ignited by a Federal 250 large rifle primer and pushed through a Shaw competition barrel is with me. Today's videos with commercials, lists of sponsors, patches, and product placements are essentially 20+ minutes of commercials in a 30 minute show. Our published rags exhibit about the same level of substance.

Saddest for me is the fact that today's magazines are nothing like what they used to be. I used to wait impatiently for each month's issue of Outdoor Life, Field and Stream, and Sports Afield to read the stories of adventures that I could only dream about. Sports Afield seems to be trying to bring that back, but the rest are nothing but advertisements.

I never knew that Capstick had been in the Military. Did he ever write of his experiences during his Service ?

He even made sure he left enough of them alive to restart the colony somewhere else.

Sounds quite considerate to me.

I never read that PHC was in the military, much less that he was a U.S. Army Special Forces officers. He was born in 1940, so he would have graduated from college around 1962. If he didn't receive a commission through ROTC, he would have had to spend three or four years to cover his enlisted basic training, OCS, Infantry Officer Basic, Special Forces school, and then the time necessary to complete his obligation. That wouldn't have left him much time to become much of a stock broker before he quit Wall Street. Maybe somebody with better GOOGLE FOO skills than me could find his military dates of service, but the time line seems a little fishy to me.

I've never read that he was and I've read most of his books.

I well remember when he died. He was supposed to give the keynote speech at the closing night banquet at the SCI convention in Reno. I had tickets because I wanted to hear him speak. He fell ill that afternoon and his wife took over for him and gave the address. A few days later he was flown to RSA for treatment. The rest is history.. RIP...

I knew Peter, and have written about here. There are a few others here that met him, knew him or interacted with him.

For anyone who wants to insinuate Peter plagiarized stories without giving credit never read his works carefully. Peter fully disclosed those stories that were 1.) narratives of events that he was not a part of and 2.) those that occurred to him. “The Killer Baboons of Vlackfontein.” happened to him as did "Mamba Means Death". His stories of about being a cropping and game control officer in Zambia were true. He published photos of his licenses and passports.

Peter never claimed to be the world's greatest PH, but just a lucky guy that got to live out his greatest dreams. He made no secret that he embellished stories to jazz them up. It worked! We read them! There is no doubt that when he first apprenticed with Geoff Broom in Rhodesia (sic) that he was as green as you could be in Africa. He talks about this somewhat in his book "Safari - The Last Adventure" Said chances of becoming an African PH for an American that did not grow up in the country, with the people, speaking the multiple languages, being in the bush from or ranch from birth is nearly an impossible feat.

So I'll leave it right there for now. I liked Peter, and he was very kind and generous to me with his time and were friendly for a time until he passed. Hater will be along shortly to bash him. C'est la guerre!

I was at that one too.

Great post, Jeff.

I agree. I'll never make it to Africa but he made me want to do it. I've always found it "strange" that all of his detractors never came around until way after his death. He was well known and got his start with Winchester, so people knew about him. I liked his one story in Death In The Long Grass where his client said it was his first lion/leopard. Capstick was new at the time and thought "it's my first one, too". He was very self effacing.

Maybe because internet sites like this exist 25 years ago?

Since people that knew him have noted that he acknowledged that he embellished his stories, "jazzing" them up to make them better stories, I'll take their word for it.

The Tink Nathan obituary that started this thread cites his military service in Vietnam as a Special Forces officer. Given the timeline, it seems fishy to me. If PHC did claim military service that never happened, I would consider that an excessive embellishment.

1. Like I said, I've never read where he claimed military service so maybe the obituary writer mixed it up.
2. Many of his stories first appeared in Guns & Ammo, back when everyone read it. So he was well known well before his death.

I stand corrected. Ruark was 49 when he died of cirrhosis

I don't hate PHC. I don't think that I bashed him, I just repeated what I've read on this site and clearly stated that I had no direct knowledge of him or the background of the stories that he wrote. I never read about him being a Special Forces officer in Vietnam and the timeline seems too tight to be true, but that is what I think, not what I know. Given that he embellished his stories, maybe that was just another embellishment. Besides, its all moot, since PHC has been dead for over a quarter century.