So apart from getting my 375/Gibbs 505 S&B scope repaired (focus broke just before mulie hunt, still managed one across a canyon at 805 yds and shot 3 foot rocks at 2500 yds at 15X)and re zeroing I spent the Holidays reading.
So here they are in no particular order:

Great African Calibers. Tony Sanchez Arino. Great read by an experienced hunter and tried many rifles (shot some 1300 elephants). Highly recommended. Nice update and challenges to John Pondoro Taylor.
Africa s Greatest Tuskers. Sanchez. Also great read. Only minor not I would like to have seen a comment about the largest in size / height other than the DC Nat History specimen. In 1974 a desert elephant near Sesfontein was shot that weighed 12,000 kg (26,455 lbs, 13 tons) and 13.7' at the shoulder. Also near Sesfontein, a rogue killed 11 people and was shot in 1978. 14.5 ft at shoulder lying down and shoulder estimated at 13'10". Foot circumference over 60". Unfortunately the desert elephants don't have big tusks so they are not as noted.
The Double Rifle Primer. Cal Pappas. Very informative book for starting out with a double and great companion to Sanchez.
Enjoying The Adventures of Shadrek by Ron Thomson. Enlightens much of the hard to believe strories of Bvekenya Barnard. The idea that a green mamba scared him into dropping onto the back of Dhlalamithi is clear false at least the green mambas don't occur in the Lowveld.

Also started Buffalo by Craig Boddington. At least for me shooting my Gibbs .505 or .577 NE VC off sticks holding the sticks does not work. Either I hold the forend and rest on a the sticks or rest it the rifle in my palm. Much quicker follow up second shot off hand.

Others worthwhile were Looking through the Water by Bob Rich on relationships between fathers sons and grandsons. Remnined me to reread Old Man and the Sea by Hemingway. Remember the Old Man dreamed of lions on the beaches of Africa. For my 2c worth I think its better than Green Hills but I rewatched The Snows of Kilimanjaro and enjoyed it.

Also I found Great by Choice by Jim Collins. Nothing about Africa! But being a little paranoid, disciplined and also empirically innovating is good strategy for walking the veld with a big gun looking for DG.

What did you read and any recommdedations?
Dangerous Game Rifles Terry Wieland. Read this before Sanchez. Some quibbles but a good introduction.

One more comment. This year we lost two great authors and friends, Brian Marsh and Don Heath, who wrote one of he best books on buffalo hunting, namely Nyati. I had the good fortune to work with with both and benefited from their advice. The other great book on buffalo is Africa's Most Dangerous by Kevin Robertson. He advised me to try NFS cups in my .505 so now back to practicing with the Gibbs and .577 NE for a short hike in Africa's veld later this year.

Taylor's Pondoro (again).
Cal

Corbett as usual annually
Greatest Tuskers. Awesome.
Kambaku Manners rocks

Currently reading Kambaku by
Harry Manners. Good book. I like the discovering new areas, meeting interesting people parts as much as the hunting.

Though not an African theme I just finished Another Rifle Another Land by JY Jones. I enjoyed the descriptions of each animal and its habitat as well as the hunts for them. I read his earlier book and liked it for the same reasons.

The one thing I wasn't to wild about was his religious fervor that has crept into his writing. How a man can do so much traveling to some of the most remote areas in the world and pretty much condemn everybody around him for their heathen beliefs kind of ruined some parts of the book for me. In the last chapters his discussion on wolves and bears was really over the top and at least for me he pretty much lost all credibility.

quote:

Originally posted by Cougarz:
The one thing I wasn't to wild about was his religious fervor that has crept into his writing. How a man can do so much traveling to some of the most remote areas in the world and pretty much condemn everybody around him for their heathen beliefs kind of ruined some parts of the book for me. In the last chapters his discussion on wolves and bears was really over the top and at least for me he pretty much lost all credibility.

Sounds like a lot of the posters on the political forum . . . best stay away from there.

I read The Jim Corbett Omnibus. Very enjoyable reading.

One thing did surprise me, he went to Calcutta and bought a new .275 Westley Richards rifle from Manton. He then proceeded to shoot at a man eating tiger with it, but the trigger would not fire. He then worked the action which, of course, scared the tiger away.

He then remembered that the fellow at the Manton gunshop had told him it was a double pull trigger! So Corbett did not test his new rifle at all before hunting a man eating tiger... I was rather surprised!

I got the Corbett books for Christmas and have been reading them. I honestly don't know how that guy survived as long as he did. Also got one of J.H. Hunter's books.
kh

Working my way through Roosevelt's African Game Trails right now. Not sure what's coming off the shelf next.

Into history at the moment. Read "Battle for the Bundu" by Miller, "The Kaiser's Holocaust" about the genocide against the Herero and Nama in German Southwest Africa in the years before WWI, and am in the process of reading "My Life" by Von Lettow-Vorbeck.

Any good hunting books out there?

Forgot, "Between Two Fires" a biography written by Capstick's widow about German East Africa.

Brandon:

That book is what ruined me. When I was about eight years old, my grandmother gave me a copy of that book to keep me from underfoot. I still have the remnants of that old, leather-bound book. It's a stack of pages now, I read it so many times.

It lit the fire and there was no way I wasn't going to hunt in Africa from that point on. Enjoy it. Great book.

Russell Annabel, Alaskan Adventures, Volume I The early years.

I read and really enjoyed Jack Atcheson, Sr. books Hunting Adventures Worldwide and Real Hunting & Campfire Humor. I also on a business trip read Ralph Young's Grizzlies Don't Come Easy. I recommend any of these books.

quote:

Originally posted by lavaca:
Forgot, "Between Two Fires" a biography written by Capstick's widow about German East Africa.

The Trappe family farm is incorporated into Arusha NP. If you are hunting in the north you might want to stop in if you haven't before.

quote:

Originally posted by lavaca:
Brandon:

That book is what ruined me. When I was about eight years old, my grandmother gave me a copy of that book to keep me from underfoot. I still have the remnants of that old, leather-bound book. It's a stack of pages now, I read it so many times.

It lit the fire and there was no way I wasn't going to hunt in Africa from that point on. Enjoy it. Great book.

They all read me every time I read any of them! This is my third time through this particular book. I'm thinking it's time to revisit months of the sun after this.

Frank Dufresne No room for bears
Excellent read

While browsing an antique/curio shop I found a like-new edition of The Complete Short Stories of Ernest Hemingway. 1987 printing. The only previous anthology was in 1938 and this edition included a number of unpublished stories as well. I thought it was a pretty good deal at $8.

AW:

I stayed at Halali in Arusha National Park for a few days after my hunt in Simanjiro in 2012.

Wonderful place. What was interesting after I bought "Between Two Fires" was the fact that my photos of Mount Meru were almost identical to the cover photo of the book. Almost the same angle even. Several photos, of the crater, the soda lakes, etc. were like a time capsule.

quote:

Originally posted by lavaca:
AW:

I stayed at Halali in Arusha National Park for a few days after my hunt in Simanjiro in 2012.

Wonderful place. What was interesting after I bought "Between Two Fires" was the fact that my photos of Mount Meru were almost identical to the cover photo of the book. Almost the same angle even. Several photos, of the crater, the soda lakes, etc. were like a time capsule.

Should have figured you were on top of it.

AW:

Thanks for recommending places and please continue to do so, as this is the most special place in the world and I don't want to miss anything.

I'm reading Jim Corbett's books over and over again. But not only that. Every year, together with clients of mine, I travel to India and visit Corbett National Park.

Besides the national park we visit the places where Corbett had killed man eating tigers and leopards, i e two years ago we travelled to Rudraprayag, last year we went to Mohan and to another famous place near the border with Nepal. This year on our itinerary you'll find Champawat, Talla Des and Chucka. Plus Corbett National Park of course. And we never miss the opportunity to see Jim Corbett's houses, one in Naini Tal, the other one is not far away.

I'm busy with 'Into the Thorns' by Wayne Grant. Great book!


http://www.kapstadt.de/schindlers-africa
http://www.jim-corbett.de

One of my friends gave me a copy of Osa Johnson's, "I Married Adventure" for Christmas. I'd never read it before. Great story. What a girl!

Some great reads! Agree Corbett s books are super. Thanks for the recommendation on Manners Kambaku... Just picked one up today at DSC.

Just as the books relate to a different era, I wonder if we are not transitioning to another, namely with restrictions on importation into USA of elephant and lion. Spoke to some PH friends and they were concerned about the future. What is unanswered is what will happen to the excess lion an elephant populations in Soutern Africa.

the one on the history of Westley Richards.

Been reading Ron Thomson's series of books. Fascinating tales and well written. Also, annual read of Corbett's series. Agree, it's amazing he lived as long as he did and that he could cover the distances he did on foot in the mountainous area he hunted.