I am re-reading White Hunters by Brian Herne. A wonderful book about safari hunting and professional hunters.

In the book Herne tells the story of a professional hunter named Clary Palmer-Wilson. Clary, among other things, is noted for having successfully hunted the "Crown Prince". The Crown Prince is believed to be the elephant that the Prince of Wales, Bror Blixen and Dennis Finch Hatton hunted and tracked for four days in 1928 before a broken twig sent the bull running.

Clary hunted the Crown Prince continuously for eight years. He ended up shooting the bull that weighed 159 and 143 pounds. Talk about persistence. That is serious persistence.

What are you thinking Mike? Money growing on trees?
Every time you put some book on AR I gotta buy it.
I just about had last one paid off.
Allright, looking forward to reading it

Ha. Herne's book was published in 1999 so it has been around a while.

It is one of the great books on Africa. I've had the pleasure of corresponding with Brian. A true gentleman.

It's my favorite out of all my african books.

Thanks for the heads up, Mike. I'll be sure and get that book.

I too appreciate the insight... I have a pretty good collection and it sounds like this one needs to be a new part of it!

Definite thanks Mike

You will enjoy it. Clary also shot the world record buffalo in 1946, the 64" cow. Lots of interesting stories. Like Bill Judd who was killed by an elephant after shooting it four times with a .577. To be able to go back to the 1920's and 1930's for a hunt or two. How special would that be?

It IS a GOOD book.

Buy it, you cheapskates

A top shelf book indeed. One you'll enjoy reading many times.

Just ordered it and had it within a minute. Gotta love Amazon and Kindle.

Good book...

One of the cool things about that book is that the author mentions other titles written by some of the hunters in the book. I've bought some of the other books, like the one by Doug Collins, on ABE.com.
"White Hunters" is fun read.

Yea, yea, it is a great book . . . but what about someone that hunted a single elephant bull continuously for eight years. Eight years. My attention span is barely eight minutes.

I read mine every year or two and never tires. WH, along with two from Taylor, and Bell, Corbett, and Hunter are my absolute favorites.
Cal

on the way from Amazon

quote:

Originally posted by MJines:
My attention span is barely eight minutes.

Squirrel!

just ordered it... thanks!

quote:

Originally posted by cal pappas:
I read mine every year or two and never tires. WH, along with two from Taylor, and Bell, Corbett, and Hunter are my absolute favorites.
Cal

I wish every writer of hunting stories could write like Corbett. He has got to be about the top of the food chain when it comes to hunting writers. He would have been amazing company around a campfire.

quote:

You will enjoy it. Clary also shot the world record buffalo in 1946, the 64" cow. Lots of interesting stories. Like Bill Judd who was killed by an elephant after shooting it four times with a .577. To be able to go back to the 1920's and 1930's for a hunt or two. How special would that be?

Mike....imagine going back to ca. 1904...and hunt/poach for big ivory in the Lado enclave along with people like Major Foran and William "Bill" Buckley...man that would be something..

"Bill" Buckley was reputedly the first white hunter who went into the Lado in 1902..a staunch believer in the .577 NE.

His book (from 1930) Big game hunting in Central Africa is a good read..

I am born too late, 80 years or so..

Foran's book is one of the best, and Buckley's is right up there. Right now I'm reading William Finaughty's memoir. He stopped hunting ivory before Slous even got there, because of the "scarcity" of game!!!.
I guess being born too late is a relative thing.

So appropriate to have that book at the top of our AR Hunting Reports forum!

I had not read many of the African Hunting classics. In fact Hunter & Death in the Long Grass were the only ones I had read until I found Herne's book in a big multistory shop in Portland during a visit in 2007!

Incredible book with virtually a full chronological history of most great African hunters. No mention of Capstick though!

quote:

Originally posted by COYOTE HUNTER:
It's my favorite out of all my African books.

quote:

Originally posted by Marty:
Foran's book is one of the best, and Buckley's is right up there. Right now I'm reading William Finaughty's memoir.
He stopped hunting ivory before Slous even got there, because of the "scarcity" of game!!!.
I guess being born too late is a relative thing.

Selous wrote that Finaughty stopped ivory hunting for that reason.
Finaughty at one point also tired-bored of shooting game, because it was so plentiful and so easily got.

for those interested -heres a page-by-page readable archive of Finaughty;

https://archive.org/details/recollectionsofw1916will


..as for Major W. Foran..and William Buckley
they like other past great hunters, saw military service in the empire wars of their time.

- Foran was a Boer War veteran,
- Buckley was a Zim.-Metebele and Boer War(POW) veteran,
- F.Selous(captain)a twice Zim.-Metabele then WW1 veteran,finally killed in Tanzania in mil.conflict.
(his son then being killed just a yr later in war)
- WDM Bell(captain) Boer War(POW) and WW1 veteran,

as such, hunting(of animals) was not necessarily the largest or most significant part of their lives.

Its interest to note how much such people from that era suffered from disease & fevers
from their hunting forays into Africa and war zones during their military service.

Finaughty was quite effected by such health problems, and WDM.Bell saw need to spend considerable
time recuperating before returning to hunting, due from the debilitating health conditions he had
contracted during his war service.

Knowing more encompassing things about such individuals helps paint a more conmprehensive picture
of the kinds of people they were and what they endured in their life of achievement, than if one was
to just focus on their animal hunting exploits.

"Ah, hunting Africa in the twenties..."

Well, let's see. No ice maker. No anti-malarials. No Immodium. No antibiotics. No air conditioning. No Coca-Cola. No telephone. No satellites. No GPS. Tons of walking all day. No shower besides a bucket of water. No supermarket for a last shopping in town. No chocolate. No Medevac. No real hospital within a few days' reach. No Deet. No solar panels. No LED lights. No gas cookers. No camp fridge. No 4x4 with Engel fridge. No Comms once in the bush, nobody to rescue you if you were attacked, no nothing to make life comfortable unless you provided it yourself, and great odds to get seriously ill for months or for life...

Being that so many of those who visit Africa in this 21st century cannot cope with even the mundane reality of modern African day-to-day life (sorry, but having ice in the gin-and-tonic two days away from town, and whining if said ice is missing, has no great resemblance to African life even by modern expatriates' standards), I doubt very much that many would have enjoyed Africa in the 20's.

Corbett must know a lot about what he is doing or writing about to describe things so well.He sticks to what he has experienced-his life there...Pure is a word that comes to mind when I think of him.

We are fortunate in that at least some memories of the old days have been committed to paper.

Those guys were made of stern stuff, it is an eye opener to see the lenghts they had to go to survive. The cemetery's are always interesting to visit, especially to see the huge proportion of children's graves.

What I have always found interesting is the Voortrekker ivory hunters that operated from Schoemansdal west of the current Louis Trichard. These guys hunted the current SE Rhodesia and Gaza province of Mozambique mostly on foot in the winter months. What a job it must have been to get there, find the elephants, kill them with muzzleloaders and get the ivory back home. If memory serves me the ivory was then sold south to Durban, Port Elizabeth or Cape Town.

There must be a couple of unmarked graves beneath the baobabs of the bushveld.

Mike, if you are interested in a well written historical book which is well worth reading you can look at A Cameo from the Past by Tol Pienaar, available from Amazon. It covers the history of the South African Lowveld from prehistoric times. I hope the English translation is as good as the original, I suspect it would be, the author was no fool.

Another book which is interesting, especially the amount of energy consumed is Trekking the Great Thirst by Arnold Hodson.

There he describes trekking the Kalahari in an oxcart. You would inspan and trek a shift from a waterhole, then outspan and chase the oxen back to the waterhole to drink. Chase them back to the cart and trek a shift further, outspan and chase the oxen to the waterhole you are heading to. Water them, chase them back to the cart, inspan and trek to your final destination. My lack of attention to detail could be cumbersome....

Thank you Martinus, I just ordered copies of both books. I am not sure I am up to living those adventures in person but vicariously living them through a book is wonderful.

Mike: So glad you mentioned Clary Palmer-Wilson. I think he was one of the all time great hunters who didn't write a book or have a big reputation because he wasn't really much of a professional hunter so he didn't have clients to talk him up or write stories about him. The quality of the game he shot was really extraordinary. MMP

Saw this and ordered it on the Kindle last week and just finished it! Great book!

I got it too and will start reading it soon.I stii have not finished Footsteps of an Ivory Hunter.

Mike - There's not much I wouldn't do for a 159lb elephant!! His persistence is as you mention, very impressive.