quote:

Originally posted by Heym 450/400:
African PH's should be making pilgrimages to his grave for as much business as he sent their way the last 40 years.

quote:

Originally posted by fairgame:

quote:

Originally posted by Heym 450/400:
African PH's should be making pilgrimages to his grave for as much business as he sent their way the last 40 years.

Is that no a fact.

....Mac >>>===(x)===> MacD37, ...and DUGABOY1
DRSS Charter member
"If I die today, I've had a life well spent, for I've been to see the Elephant, and smelled the smoke of Africa!"~ME 1982

Hands of Old Elmer Keith

quote:

Originally posted by Idaho Sharpshooter:
I find it interesting that the longer a current (20th century) PH has been dead, and thus unable to sue every wannabe for slander; the detractors that surface.

Capstick drank. So does everybody else I know.

Capstick embellished his accomplishments. So does everybody else I know. That includes about 99% of the members here.

quote:

Originally posted by Skyline:
I could not agree more. Honestly, some of the comments about PHC by members of this forum actually make many of us form opinions about them that are less than favourable.

Kicking the shit out of decent people after they are gone is the sign of an individual that I would shy away from. What is the point of it? None of the answers to that are good ones related to the individual doing the trashing.

Grow up and get a life.

quote:

I think internet forums are taken far too seriously. They are meant (At least I think) to be for enjoyment and entertainment.

quote:

Originally posted by MacD37:
[QUOTE]Originally posted by JPK:
According to the senior Broom's book (I think it was his book) PHC was in fact a pretty successful PH for several seasons. In Matets as I recall the book.

But I don't think he lived for the bush.

JPK

quote:

Originally posted by umzingele:
“Don’t mourn for me when I go. I’ve fished some of the greatest waters and hunted some of the most magical places. I turned ink into gold through my writings and I finally found the woman I love. I’ll have had a grand life.” Peter Capstick 1996[/QUO


I have to agree with JPK simply because I have talked to several people who hunted with him. Gordon Cundill backed many of Capsticks fiascos such as the lion charge where the lion was hit eleven times in a very close charge with Gordons double getting three hang fires and one dud leaving three of Cundills shots hitting and the other eight shots coming from Peters bolt action 375. I don't know about you but I would say that is some pretty good bolt rifle work, for phony. There is a filmed interview with Peter and Gordon of that encounter as well. The Brooms also say he was a PH for some time as well!

As was mentioned in a post above his dress
was not what you see today in Africa, but you must remember that PHCs stent as a PH was at a time when the big legged shorts and bush jackets were the fashion of the day in the early 1980s being just at the end of the OLD TIME "White Hunter" era.


Having said the above I have also talked to Gordon Cundill and Volker Grellmann and both told me he was not a fake as so many here seem to think. On top of all that I have seen a picture of his PH license, and his passport where he is listed as a PROFESIONAL HUNTER.

.............I know this will not have any effect on the opinions here but it's easy to talk crap about a man who is dead and can't defend himself!

quote:

Originally posted by Skyline:
I could not agree more. Honestly, some of the comments about PHC by members of this forum actually make many of us form opinions about them that are less than favourable.

Kicking the shit out of decent people after they are gone is the sign of an individual that I would shy away from. What is the point of it? None of the answers to that are good ones related to the individual doing the trashing.

Grow up and get a life.

quote:

Originally posted by larryshores:
I would be curious to know the number of his books sold.

quote:

Originally posted by crbutler:
All men have faults.

Leaving aside some of the more spurious stuff about John Taylor, he was a self admitted poacher. Lots of folks have issues with that nowadays.

He also materially contributed to the advancement of sporting arms. I have a number of his books, and feel he was treated poorly by many... but a commercial poacher doesn't get much sympathy with me.

quote:

Mr. Butler, In those days elephant poaching simply bent the regulations a bit and was not a significant impact on populations. I suspect Selous, Bell, Sutherland and others earned a bit of pocket money that way.

quote:

Originally posted by crbutler:
While many of the early guys killed elephant commercially, and by our standards it was problematic, I doubt Selous or Bell poached any, as when they were doing this there were no laws regarding it. In any case, just because others were doing it (poaching elephant for personal gain) does not make it moral... and while my copies of Taylor's books are at my hunting cabin, I recall him writing something about shooting too many elephant and it was cutting down the population so that he needed to find new hunting grounds at times. Sounds like he did know he was adversely affecting the population... assuming my memory isn't playing games.

Taylor's poaching was notorious enough that it was the official reason he was thrown out of Africa, and not able to get back. If you believe Capstick, well, maybe there was some alternative reasons for his expulsion, but then you are buying into the vilification by Americans again...

Yes, it was a different time.

His racial attitudes would likely be more accepted now than they were then, but his antisociality would be the same regardless. (By this I mean his lack of self control in being able to serve in the military, get along in school, follow directions from his superiors to some minimal level to get along, or obey laws and get along with his peer group, not sociopathy.)

Taylor wrote well and was knowledgeable about his subjects. As a factual writer, he was far ahead of PHC, but he was not as entertaining a writer, and obviously, not as successful given he ended up dying in a gutter relatively speaking. He was no "fraud" but that does not make him any better or worse, his flaws were just in a different area.

I actually view the two (JT and PHC) as fundamentally similar people, with significant failings and a gift to write on a subject I enjoy. Of the two, I suspect Taylor may well have been the more enjoyable to have in camp with you...

quote:

Originally posted by Carlsen Highway:
I was 38 when this thread started.

quote:

Originally posted by congomike:
What intestinal fortitude it must take to attack someone who is no longer around to defend themselves.

quote:

I follow and enjoy your contribution to the forum Steve. You posted this long before I found AR.
After having ploughed through the whole thread, I really don't see where your first post is 'a light hearted and fun thread. jc

quote:

Originally posted by Steve Ahrenberg:

quote:

I follow and enjoy your contribution to the forum Steve. You posted this long before I found AR.
After having ploughed through the whole thread, I really don't see where your first post is 'a light hearted and fun thread. jc

John,

All I can say is, I was a different poster back then. My reasons for contributing are far different now. I also had an antagonist back then. He was a rather famous (infamous) character named Adrook.

I give you my word, the intent wasn't mean spirited. It was mischievous if anything.

quote:

Originally posted by drongo:

I enjoy reading his books and credit them with my desire to hunt Africa. He really knew how to tell a story and I am sure listening to him while the Mopane logs burn and crackle (no matter how much alcohol was involved) was an experience to remember.

....Mac >>>===(x)===> MacD37, ...and DUGABOY1
DRSS Charter member
"If I die today, I've had a life well spent, for I've been to see the Elephant, and smelled the smoke of Africa!"~ME 1982

Hands of Old Elmer Keith

quote:

Originally posted by ALF:
Genius come in many forms.
It takes a certain clarity of mind, a sharp sense of observation and a deep understanding of an experience to be able to reproduce it to print so that others can experience the same !

Such are those who can counted on the fingers of a single hand that can said to be the "true" authors of the African hunting experience !

PHC can be counted as one of them ! With his writings he enthused and influenced a hunting world out there as a very few have ever done !

It took Ruark but one Safari in Africa to come up with Horn of the Hunter. So clear and so to the point !

" Deep in the guts of most men is buried the involuntary response to the hunter’s horn, a prickle of the nape hairs, an acceleration of the pulse, an atavistic memory of his fathers, who killed first with stone, and then with club, and then with spear, and then with bow, and then with gun, and finally with formulae."

PHC, I met him twice when he was alive, once when he was introduced to me by my father and the second time during a afternoons participation in a activity called mini sniping. they lived ( and Fiona still resides) just a street block from where I grew up and my mother still lives.

I fear the negative responses surrounding him borne originally from mainly Afrikaner bias ( I know because I am one) founded in jealousy that some "uitlander" would gain fame from what they perceived to be their domain. PHC was not alone in this. Other Americans who gained a foothold in that world were held to a lesser or greater degree in the same negative esteem.

....Mac >>>===(x)===> MacD37, ...and DUGABOY1
DRSS Charter member
"If I die today, I've had a life well spent, for I've been to see the Elephant, and smelled the smoke of Africa!"~ME 1982

Hands of Old Elmer Keith

quote:

Originally posted by ALF:
Genius come in many forms.
It takes a certain clarity of mind, a sharp sense of observation and a deep understanding of an experience to be able to reproduce it to print so that others can experience the same !

Such are those who can counted on the fingers of a single hand that can said to be the "true" authors of the African hunting experience !

PHC can be counted as one of them ! With his writings he enthused and influenced a hunting world out there as a very few have ever done !

It took Ruark but one Safari in Africa to come up with Horn of the Hunter. So clear and so to the point !

" Deep in the guts of most men is buried the involuntary response to the hunter’s horn, a prickle of the nape hairs, an acceleration of the pulse, an atavistic memory of his fathers, who killed first with stone, and then with club, and then with spear, and then with bow, and then with gun, and finally with formulae."

PHC, I met him twice when he was alive, once when he was introduced to me by my father and the second time during a afternoons participation in a activity called mini sniping. they lived ( and Fiona still resides) just a street block from where I grew up and my mother still lives.

I fear the negative responses surrounding him borne originally from mainly Afrikaner bias ( I know because I am one) founded in jealousy that some "uitlander" would gain fame from what they perceived to be their domain. PHC was not alone in this. Other Americans who gained a foothold in that world were held to a lesser or greater degree in the same negative esteem.

quote:

Originally posted by Crazyhorseconsulting:
Human nature dictates that anyone in the same business as someone else, that appears to be successful, is either a fraud or liar.

This will not set well with some or maybe many, but hunting guides/PH's seem to be the worst in that aspect.

Personal/Professional egos really do get in the way of simply being a good person all too often.

quote:

Originally posted by MJines:
Capstick may have been a fraud but at least he tipped.

quote:

Originally posted by Frostbit:
Happy Birthday Peter Hathaway Capstick

Born January 11, 1940

"There are things I would less rather do than follow up a wounded lion into thick brush, but none come to mind immediately. I've done it nine times and I certainly hope it never comes to ten." -Peter Hathaway Capstick



"People come on safari only peripherally to hunt. The wood smoke of seasoned mopane, the sweating beers and other revivers, the soft chatter of the staff, the hyenas in the background, the white ants or termites around the Cadac pressure lamps, the brilliant clarity of the night sky as one may never have seen it, the distant roaring of a pride of lions- hopefully quite distant- the smell of cordite and the aroma of freshly shot guinea fowl or francolin for lunch in the bush- these are what safari is really about: hardly the killing of animals which, with a true sportsman, is at least tertiary."
-Peter Hathaway Capstick

quote:

Originally posted by swampshooter:
FYI, anyone who has read Bell's books is aware that he frequently wrote about poaching elephants.