Please help me to pick the best book ever written on sheep and goat hunting around the world. O'Connor, McElroy or... ?

I really enjoyed Elgin Gates' "A Trophy Hunter in Asia", but it is Asia specific.

Jesus Yuren's "Song of the Summits" is very good, though can get repetitive.

Kermit and Teddy (jr.) Roosevelt's "East of the Sun West of the Moon" is fantastic.

There are a few compilation type books that were published by Amwell Press that are very good. Check eBay as they turn up there from time to time.

I picked up a copy of "McElroy Hunts Asia" and am not real impressed with his writing. I'm sure his achievements are grand and does (or did) have the world record Altai Argali, but I just don't like his writing style.

Likewise with Rashid Jamsheed's "Memories of a Sheep Hunter". Maybe that is from cultural differences, but have a hard time reading that book. Too much pomp when things worked out and always someone else's fault when it didn't.

The Great Arc of the Wild Sheep
by James L. Clark

A copy of this book belongs in every mountain sheep hunters library!

-Ron

"I picked up a copy of "McElroy Hunts Asia" and am not real impressed with his writing. I'm sure his achievements are grand and does (or did) have the world record Altai Argali, but I just don't like his writing style."

You will like his more recent "McElroy Hunts Mountain Game" from Trophy Room Books better.

In my opinion, Elgin Gates was a master of "creative writing" to bolster his blatant ego. He also obviously wrote with a thesarus in his lap, which resulted in his stuff being sophmoric.

Study Gates' books carefully and you'll see even his photos are guilty of exaggeration.

BillQ

Thanks Bill, I will pick up a copy of McElroy's Mountain Game.

Have got a stack of Batten's mountain hunting books that I'm ready to read. I've just started "Skyline Pursuits" and am enjoying the first few chapters so far. Other than Batten's books, I haven't heard too much about him from other writers or those that knew him. Do you have any insight?

Gates was a promotionist, there's no question about that, but the man could write very well and had adventures that many of us can only dream about. I would suppose he was much like Russell Annabel. I still hold both of his "Trophy Hunter" books in highest regard and have not read many books that can carry the reader to the time, places or adventure, quite the way Elgin could. I do hope his family is successful in bringing "Trophy Hunter in North America" to print.

"Other than Batten's books, I haven't heard too much about him from other writers or those that knew him. Do you have any insight?"

I never met John Batten nor have I read any of his books, but he was on the SCI Trophy Records Committee a year or two before I became the SCI Record Book's editor. Everyone on the committee spoke highly of him, so I'm sure he was the real thing. All of the committee members had considerable hunting experience themselves.

BillQ

Thanks.

''Across Mongolian Plains '' by Roy Chapman Andrews ,i thought was good reading ! ''Hunting Trips in the land of the Dragon'' by Dr Kenneth p Czech ,is a collection of various old hunting stories which i thought was good ,short stories and a bit of variety, so you dont get bored and easy to finish, rather than dragged out stories .Iam trying to get my hands on them all good or bad about ''mountain hunting''

I have two of RAC books ready for reading.
Across Mongolian Plains and Ends of the Earth. Currently reading John Batten's "Skyline Pursuits".

Please pardon the plug, but mountain game hunting fans may be interested in one of my books, "Wind In My Face."

I wrote it with Hubert Thummler, a German-Mexican who received the 1992 Weatherby Award . It was introduced at the 2006 SCI convention and has been selling very well.

Although it covers all of his major hunts on six continents, it also tells how Thummler took at least one specimen in every Ovis and Capra category in the SCI record book.

His three trophy rooms at his ranch northeast of Mexico City are shown in the book, and are nearly as awesome in photographs as they are in real life.

You also may like my "Royal Quest," which covers Iran's Prince Abdorreza Pahlavi's worldwide hunts. The Prince, a buddy of Jack O'Connor was the first to hunt the Pamirs for Marco Polo sheep in the middle 20th century. During a marathon two-month collecting trip he took two specimens each of most of North America's big game species -- including two Grand Slams of wild sheep. His hunts were arranged by O'Connor, Herb Klein, Elgin Gates, and the U.S. State Department. He hunted high-elevation sheep, goats, serow, goral and white-lipped deer in Asia well into his 70s.

My books are available from www.safaripress.com



BillQ