Capstick and after I read "Death in the Long Grass". There was no stopping me.

Mike

quote:

Originally posted by SquirrelNut:
...

Here is a pic of what the industry attempts to sell us but is far from what we actually buy. The African hunting industry is all smoke and mirrors that uses romance and history to sell a product. There's nothing wrong with that and there's also nothing wrong with understanding what it is they are doing.

Hey, romance is good, and one can always try.

Capstick

Good thing Mark Sullivan did not factor into this.

If I had seen any of his made up videos, I would have never have given Africa a second thought

quote:

Originally posted by Saeed:
Good thing Mark Sullivan did not factor into this.

If I had seen any of his made up videos, I would have never have given Africa a second thought

Ooops!! your green eyed monster is showing again.

Capstick and an artcle in Peterson's Hunting in 1983.

I went to Zimbabwe in 1985 at the age of 23, and brought home a Kudu, Blue Wildebeest, 2 ram Impalas, Klipspringer and Jackal. Also shot many baboons, doves, Francolin and Guinea fowl. I also shot three doe Impalas for meat. The amount of game was astounding.

I was a devout North American hunter, taking 21 different species over 30 years and always thought of Africa but was busy with N. American species, and regularly catching fish, hunting deer and ducks here in Louisiana between adventures. Finally, I got old, mountains too high, N. America too expensive, so I started looking at Africa. Went to DSC and booked a hunt to Namibia at age 60. I loved it and regretted not going sooner. Now, I have 10 safaris under my belt to 4 different countries and two more booked next year to two different countries. The books helped, with my favorite being J A Hunter. Will be 67 next year and expect to start slowing down, but it has been fantastic. Wish I was younger.

I had a friend when I was young that owned a car dealership, he had hunted Zimbabwe and Tanz in the 70s and early 80s. He would talk to me on end(I was a willing listener) about his hunts. I was a gun nut and hunter as a kid,that sealed it for me..I was 33 when I went on my first one, I am now 39 and have been on five safaris, and hopefully get a few more in before they toss dirt in my face.

My friend is gone now...but thank you Mr Ivey for the stories!

Ed

"Death on the Run" by Mark Sullivan.

Bull1

I"m not sure that I can come up with a reason that is as 'romantic' as reading the various tales of the big time hunters.

In reality, a buddy and I had always chatted about going somewhere 'exotic' to hunt whether that be Africa, Australia, Alaska, or The Rockies (it's all relative). Yet, in 2009, he was going to the Rockie Mountain Elk Foundation national meeting for which he received an auction book. We went through the book page by page and wrote the maximum price that we'd pay for various items whether guns, hunts, etc. I was at work when I got a call at 9:30a. He asks if I'm ready to got to Africa as he just won an auction for a 9-day hunt in RSA! Holy crap! We're really going to go to Africa!!!!!!! I can not describe how excited/anxious/nervous that I was.

Anyway, we took that trip and had a great time. Our PH's were great, friendly and enjoyed the same banter that we did. That set the precedent. We went back again 3 years later with the same guys but to the Eastern Cape of RSA. Dang, what a beautiful place!

So, our plan is to head back again in a few years so that I can 'punch my ticket' on a cape buffalo with a handgun. Not sure if we'll stay in RSA or later in the trip head up to Moz for some tiger fish. All told we have plans for many years to come.

quote:

Originally posted by Aaron Neilson:
For me it was Mutual of Omaha's "Wild Kingdom" on TV as a child. Who remembers that show? And reading Petersen's hunting magazine all the time too.

Then I saw Mark Sullivan's - BLACK DEATH video when I was 18, in 1990 and it was all over for me. 5 yrs later at 23, I was on my first safari.

My whole family was so concerned, that my mommy - actually called my father, and told him that he needed to forbid me from going, really??? My father was like, he's 23 and paying for it all himself - not much we can do Judy.

Yessir!
Back in the day of 2 channels on TV, Church Sunday morning, hunting, fishing, or cowboying Sunday after lunch...then in for Wild Kingdom around 5-6pm.

Now...I am friends with Stan Brock...one of the co-hosts.

Then American Sportman...I remember Curt Gowdy stalking up to and shooting an ele! Impressed me.

I never read an African Classic until after I went the first time.

Same question from 2003:

http://forums.accuratereloadin...1411043/m/66510672?r

I wonder what [who] the Generation Y/Millenniums will say their inspiration was?

Very good question, Bill-

-on a lot of levels.

I'm probably not the standard model for this forum. I never went to Africa till I was 63 years old. Until that time the only book about Africa I had read was 'I Married Adventure' by Osa Martin Johnson and I read it mostly because she was a pilot and they flew Sikorsky Flying Boats. I have always been enamored with guns and attended TSJC after high school. While there I realized I was never going to be a GREAT GUNSMITH so I went on to college and finished my education in order to make a living. I had always like BIG rifles and in point of fact I bought a Cogswelll & Harrison 450/500 while in high school. I just knocked on for years building rifles for myself and friends and hunting whatever local game there was where I lived at the time.Then just before retirement my wife died and all my future plans for retirement went south when she died. I became good friends with a local dealer/gunsmith and just continued to build big rifles. I had just bought a 375H&H Brno 602 that was Jon Speeds last rifle he used in Africa and had met him more or less by accident. He said I should now take it to Africa and use it. My gunsmith friend then declared he was going to Zimbabwe and I said why not. I also had been notified my late wife had had an insuarace policy I wasn't aware of (she wasn't either it was some kind of automatic company thing) so I got some SCI magazines and started calling outfitters. I selected one and was actually back from Zimbabwe before my friend left for Africa. I followed that up with 7 more trips and shot most game Zimbabwe offered, including a couple of Elephants and Leopards. I hunted till the money and health ran out. Would have really liked to have gone back just one more time but it was not to be. I never read a Capstick book to this day and have only browsed thru Rourke and Hemingway. I did however correspond with two of my hero writers - Lucien Carey and Jack O'Connor - about Gunsmith school. I relive everyday of my African Adventure daily. The tusks from my last Elephant are in a cradle on the coffee table as I write this and a Zebra rug is on the floor. The extent of my trophies. One of my PH friends got my very nice Sable and had a pedastal mount done and another close friend there also a PH got my very nice Oribi trophy and had a wall mount done.

quote:

Originally posted by zimbabwe:
I'm probably not the standard model for this forum. I never went to Africa till I was 63 years old. Until that time the only book about Africa I had read was 'I Married Adventure' by Osa Martin Johnson and I read it mostly because she was a pilot and they flew Sikorsky Flying Boats. I have always been enamored with guns and attended TSJC after high school. While there I realized I was never going to be a GREAT GUNSMITH so I went on to college and finished my education in order to make a living. I had always like BIG rifles and in point of fact I bought a Cogswelll & Harrison 450/500 while in high school. I just knocked on for years building rifles for myself and friends and hunting whatever local game there was where I lived at the time. Then just before retirement my wife died and all my future plans for retirement went south when she died. I became good friends with a local dealer/gunsmith and just continued to build big rifles. I had just bought a 375H&H Brno 602 that was Jon Speeds last rifle he used in Africa and had met him more or less by accident. He said I should now take it to Africa and use it. My gunsmith friend then declared he was going to Zimbabwe and I said why not. I also had been notified my late wife had had an insuarace policy I wasn't aware of (she wasn't either it was some kind of automatic company thing) so I got some SCI magazines and started calling outfitters. I selected one and was actually back from Zimbabwe before my friend left for Africa. I followed that up with 7 more trips and shot most game Zimbabwe offered, including a couple of Elephants and Leopards. I hunted till the money and health ran out. Would have really liked to have gone back just one more time but it was not to be. I never read a Capstick book to this day and have only browsed thru Rourke and Hemingway. I did however correspond with two of my hero writers - Lucien Carey and John O'Connor - about Gunsmith school. I relive everyday of my African Adventure daily. The tusks from my last Elephant are in a cradle on the coffee table as I write this and a Zebra rug is on the floor. The extent of my trophies. One of my PH friends got my very nice Sable and had a pedastal mount done and another close friend there also a PH got my very nice Oribi trophy and had a wall mount done.

My heartfelt condolences for your loss and it's timing. I can personally imagine how the "future plans went south when she died". A close call is the biggest reason I have moved my retirement date up to this December.

quote:

Originally posted by SquirrelNut:
...

Here is a pic of what the industry attempts to sell us but is far from what we actually buy. The African hunting industry is all smoke and mirrors that uses romance and history to sell a product. There's nothing wrong with that and there's also nothing wrong with understanding what it is they are doing.

SN what you need to remember is when that picture was made, very few Americans had even been to Africa for any reason and those who had, in most cases, went there to camera safaris in national parks. In those days all the guides in those parks, and the real PHs dressed in bush jackets, and wore the snapp brimmed hats with game skin hat bands!

At that time everyone in Africa was living in a period that was just as the hey-day of the two and three month walking safaris by very rich people, mostly from England was just coming to an end SO, the dress was the same for Americans back in the 1960s because that was all they had ever seen. In the shops where Safari clothing was sold was that type of clothing and that includes the SCI shop in Tucson, AZ .

It matters not, that the way we dress today how people dressed in the 1960s and before, or how they hunted. I’ve read posts here making fun of Capstick because of how he was dressed in one of his VHS tapes filmed in the late 60s, or early 70s. Most of those who were calling him a fool were still in grade school when those films were made, and the picture in the above post was from KING SOLAMON’S MINE was filmed even earlier, and was indicative of the dress of that time on an African safari. Sure it is romance they are selling, and it is romance of hunting in Africa like the famous guys like Bell, Taylor, and Pondoro, but that is simply the spice we all seek, and that is why the animals we hunt in Africa are called EXOTIC!

There is nothing wrong with the romance of safari days gone by, when people took six month safaris and shot 80 or 90 head of game. That is like saying buckskinners hunting with period flintlock, rifles are somehow silly because they want to imitate the mountain men of old!

…………………IMO, to each his own! Live and let live!

quote:

Originally posted by tanks:
Hey, romance is good, and one can always try.

For me it was Hunter by John Hunter. I read it when I was eight. I collected all of his first addition books and dreamed of Africa my whole life.
Corbett, although India had a big hand in it.
Months of the sun basically sealed the deal.
I know he doesn't post on here much but Ron Jenkins really got me in the right direction and I can never thank him enough. thanks RJ.

A wee bit too much bourbon at a fundraiser auction got me to Zim the first time.