Nainital, believe it or not, but between orange and orange I dreamed how nice will be to dissapear for a while in those fabulous regions the author describes so well.

Canuck,
The spring has just arrived so nights are getting warmer, good time for cold beers, do some reading in the porch.....let alone the testosterone

L

As much as I do??
Yestarday night it was hot and I just stay outside reading "Where the lions roar" and eating oranges till 3 am!!

In one of the chapters I got so excited that I took my 9,3 out of the box and put it against the wall just beside me

Is this normal or I've some kind of mental illness??

Regards from the sunny Uruguay

Some here will definitely accuse you of mental illness. (I am surprised 500grains hasn't already jumped on this! I expected his internal radar to be beeping loudly by now. )



I on the other hand, wholeheartedly agree with you. I very much enjoy Boddington's writing. Top 6 or 7 in my book at least, and even higher amongst active writers.



I do wish it was hot enough here (at any time of year) to sit on the porch all night, read and eat oranges.



Cheers,

Canuck

Lorenzo, you liar, you!. You weren�t nervous eating oranges and enjoying the weather and good reading, you were thinking in your incoming marriage and thinking of leaving on another extended safari....one or two years should suffice for your fiancee to get the business straight.

I enjoy reading his articles and the one book that I have that he wrote. Safari Rifles.

Boddington is one of my favorite gun/hunting writers. However, his style isn't for everyone as it is clean and technical. My brother hates his stuff and would much rather read Capstick or Hemingway. Boddington rarely writes in a manner that can make you see a sunset or sunrise, taste the dust or smell the camp fire like Capstick could. Nor is his writiing generally as entertaining as Rouark or as grand as Hemingway, but I enjoy his articles and have read many of his books a number of times as they are more relevant to modern safari hunting. Also, reading his articles and books is like a converstation with your hunting buddies around the fire and not at like listening to your windy uncle tell you a tall tale of his life in younger years.

Perry

I enjoy his writing and have also had the pleasure of meeting him twice. Once in Denver at the SCI Auction and the second time in a hotel in Cameroon after we both were finishing seperate safaris. We also sat next to each other on the flight from Gaura Cameroon to Douala Cameroon when we left the hotel. He's a heck of a nice guy.

Mac

I really enjoy his stuff because it is technical yet approachable. "Shots at Big Game," and "African Rifles" are some of my favorites. I know I'm kinda of a freak about this, but if I read shooting/hunting stuff I really prefer to learn something, rather than just be entertained.

Alot of outdoors writers, who try to do the "adventure story" and non-technical stuff really don't do it for me because quite frankly many of them are not good writers. For a the "adventure" genre to work for me they really have to be good writer: Ruark, Corbett, O'Conner etc. and quite frankly we get very few of those, and I haven't seen one in the past 20 years or so....

Now some guys did manage to blend technical with good writing, and they seem to be more shotgun writers than rifle writers: like Gough Thomas, Bob Brister, and Mike McIntosh.

But its really a preference thing. When my brother and I swap hunting books we come from completely different points of view. He wants old time adventure stories with man eating tigers and guys trapped in the mountains, and I want technical stuff that tell me how to mount a scope, reloading data, what bullets work and why etc. Mine bore him, and his bore me

I appreciate Boddingtons writing for his technical abilities. But he has to be the most BOARING outdoor writer alive. And he is also a complete gun mag industry whore. He'll write good things about any company/rifle maker who sends him hunting.

Just my humble opinon no insults intended to his fans.

I enjoy Boddington quite a bit.

Much more so than a few others out there.

I just started his book on Safari Rifles. Being an engineer, I appreciate his style as he has to write on technical issues for a non-technical audience.

So far, he has not said anything controversial or bogus from what I can tell. His research is thorough and his opinions are well founded based on experience and "data". I have had to learn in the hunting world, that "emotion" is part of the deciding factor on guns and bullets. He does his best to deal with facts and not emotion or hear-say.

I have found that I can use his book as support to buy about anything I want. Now, that is something useful for me!!!

Yes. His books are excellent in my opinion.

His magazine articles are unfortunately not as good, but very few magazine articles by any authors measure up these days.

That's the fault of the publishers. The magazine gun scribes are pretty much forced to just give the publishers and their editors what they want, which is all too often mundane, unimaginitive or recycled, and ultimately uninteresting stuff.

Having been fortunate enough to have hunted wild pigs with Gen. Boddington many times I would indeed concur that his is quite BOARING !

I would never say he or his writings are boring though, in fact far from it. Factual, chronologically correct, concise, yes, but not boring .

If all writers were as honest as he is the world would be a better place.

Great hunting with great hunters,
Kyler

I also enjoy Boddington for his technically oriented but also entertaining writing. If someone wanted to send me on a hunt, you bet I could write a fluff piece on the Nitro Express Pea Shooter du jour more power to him!
Russ

Yep, sure do... I really like Craig's writings and frequently read a few pages when I'm in the mood for a good story. I've read it all many times but never tire of it, which is an indication of a good author.

My all-time favs are Elmer Keith, John Taylor and Jim Corbett.

While I like Boddingtons technical stuff, most of his writing leaves me a little flat..

i respect him for what he has done, and I think he has a hunting record that any of us can only dream of. I certainly will listen to his opinions, but for a good "read" I'm not a fan..

However, I've only read his magazine articles, and I should probably look at his books, too. Books usually allow a writer to flesh things out a bit more...

dogcat
If you like Safari Rifles, be sure and read John Taylors "BIG GAME AND BIG GAME RIFLES" and "AFRICAN RIFLES AND CARTRIDGES" as well as S.R. Truesdell's "the RIFLE ITS DEVELOPMENT FOR BIG-GAME HUNTING".

I appreciate Boddington because he is quite straightforward and limits his writing to issues he has experience with. He very rarely mentions handloading specifics as, by his own admission, that is not an area where he has much experience. And so on.

It appears to me that he writes about equipment that he actually uses in the field ( e.g. rangefinders in general ) and not so much specific reviews of a certain manufacturer's product. I like that.