IN my case that desire was not started by a book or books because it happened when I was too young to read or at least no books were available to me on that subject. Below is something I wrote several years ago, and do not remember if it has been posted here or not. If it has simply disregard!

What started my lust for Africa was the same thing that started my love for NE double rifles, a man named Mr. Kelley, in of all places the geographic center of Texas! This was before most of the writers on Africa gained their fame, and when P. H. Capstick was one year old, and Robert Ruark was only 26 yrs old.

Back in 1943 or 44 when I was six or seven years old my grand father took me to the little railroad town of Santa Anna, Texas, where he traded, from his ranch in the top end of the Texas hill country in the South East corner of Coleman County. In that little town there was a hardware store owned by Mr. Kelly. In that store which had a mezzanine like cat-walk up high where animal mounts were placed all the way around the store, and among them were old guns, and Indian artifacts.

These mounts were mostly African and I was full of questions about what the animals were and where they were taken. Mr. Kelly was happy to answer all my childish questions, and every time my grand father took me in that store he had trouble getting me to leave.

I think Mr. Kelly enjoyed answering my questions because he had hunted Africa back in the roaring 1920s and was the only man who had even been to Africa from our area, much less hunted the great beasts of that wonder land. He had only one son, about 20 yrs old who was gay, and who cared nothing about his fathers hunting or the large guns he owned. Mr. Kelly recognized the hunter and shooter, buried deep in my soul, and at my young age I appreciated the thought of hunting Africa but never dreamed I would be able to do so someday.

I was hooked on Africa, but one day when I went in the store Mr. Kelly called me back to the back counter and placed an oak & leather luggage case on the counter and opened it! WOW, it held a beautiful H&H double rifle with all the little do-dads that go with such treasures. Mr. Kelly took the rifle out of the case and put it together and handed it to me, cautioned me not to drop it because it was damn heavy for a 65 pound seven year old. Damn that rifle was heavy! Then he handed me one of the big cartridges for that rifle as he took the rifle back. Man! That cartridge looked like a artillery shell. I dug in my bib cover-all pocket and pulled out one of my .22 lr shells and compared it to the, if I remember right, 500-450NE round Mr. Kelly had handed to me and then looked back at that beautiful double rifle, and I was hooked on both Africa and double rifles! After that day, every jack rabbit I shot was a cape buffalo, and my uncle’s 410 double barreled shotgun was that H&H double rifle in my hands. Dreams of a young kid!

From that day in Mr. Kelly’s store I dreamed of hunting Africa with a double rifle. I must say that, my finding that actually doing a safari in Africa would be possible for a poor ranch kid from Texas was when I first encountered SCI back in the early 1960s. If the written word did it, it was the magazines from SCI all had stories with good pictures of African animals taken in places like Kenya, (now closed) and Tanganyika (now Tanzania) but in those days one saw few double rifles in those magazines and I had already bought my first double rifle in 1958, and had found the reason so few where being used was that ammo was a scarce commodity. It was 1992 before I got to Africa, and I’m still hooked but at my age now about seventy five years later I’m back where I started at age seven doing nothing but reading and dreaming about Africa again while watching Saeeds films! Full circle so to speak!


So that was my story of where the intrest began. Now though I do read a lot more than I did when I was young, books have become my constant companion, many of witch are by people I know personally. My home looks like a library of hunting and gun books!

……………………………………………………………...

You are a man of my heart.

My interest for africa was through Tarzan books, Johnny Weismüller movies and "King Salomons mines". Later books by J. A. Hunter, Burnham etc. The gunbook by W.W.Greener: "The gun and its development" pushed the interest for the calibers used in the golden years of the british empire. A particular older gunshop in Copenhagen in the 70s had a big cartridge display where a .600nitro was on top(where else?..lol). I often pushed my father to drive me there just to look at guns and cartridges.
The public library became dusted and sweeped for gunbooks also.

When I was about 5 , I saw pictures of President Roosevelt behind his rhino and his elephant in the tick stuff with his double. It was in a history book. I had to have Game Trails. That day I made a promise to myself to own a double double and hunt beyond my holler.

I read Carl Ackelys biography early on + as a kid Tarzan Of the Apes made an impression on Africa in general. Then when Ruark's books became popular we were inundated with African movies that we used to go watch at the drive-in.

My father took me bird hunting several times as a teenager in California but I never hunted any big game. I didn't have a desire to hunt in Africa until fairly late in life. I was in the bush in Africa in game rich areas for several years in the 70s, as a Peace Corps volunteer in the Central African Republic. I went bird hunting a bunch of times in France but I didn't hunt in Africa until a friend convinced me to go on a hunt with him in South Africa in 2007. I then started reading a lot. Now I have hunted in Namibia, Tanzania and Burkina Faso, also South Africa a couple more times.

First thing I remember reading by an “African” author was Capstick’s Minisniping article. I was 12. I think the exotic nature of him just being in Africa got me curious as to who he was and I slowly paid more attention to him. I was already kind of interested in africa because a couple years before, my best friend moved to Liberia, just off the St. Paul River and all the stories and stuff they would talk about and brought back was fascinating. When we moved to a bigger town with bigger libraries I found Capstick’s Death in the Long Grass and that just leapfrogged into everyone else. There was a store in Bethesda MD called The Gentleman hunter (closed for a long time now), owned by Art Harris and there was a guy named Ian who worked there. They had a walk-in vault and it was right there I got to hold a double for the first time - not an H&H Royal, but a Krieghoff 470 Nitro. I had already stated buying books and sending letters to Westley Richards for catalogs. I’ve never stopped buying books and they for sure led me to Kenya. But dreaming of far away places doesn’t really take all that much for me, because, as PJ Pretorius once said, “I must have been born with the divine unrest of adventure.”

I’m fortunate to be the the son of a gun nut and hunter. I talked him into a SA plains game safari in 96. Years later I read Months of the Sun and nothing would do but a double rifle and buffalo in Zimbabwe. I got there in 2014. Great hunt

quote:

Originally posted by tomahawker:
I’m fortunate to be the the son of a gun nut and hunter. I talked him into a SA plains game safari in 96. Years later I read Months of the Sun and nothing would do but a double rifle and buffalo in Zimbabwe. I got there in 2014. Great hunt

One of the very best books on African hunting. He was a very interesting person.

Baxter, I think I remember the article of "minisniping" by Capstick. If it's the same one I was reading it in Guns + Ammo mag. in the shops' lunchroom in either the late 70s or early 80s. I had never heard of him before + was a bit surprised that G+A mag. would print an article about 'Bwana Dick' stalking rodents with a pellet gun. It was amusing though. I have read all of his works since then.

Outdoor Life, Field & Stream magazines at the library and growing up in Ethiopia with only a slingshot did it for me.

When I was very young my parents gave me a kids book on stories taken from Readers Digest. One was a chapter from JA Hunter's book Hunter. That did it for me plus my dad always had subscriptions for Sports Afield and Field & Stream.

That reminds me of when I was in high school + most of us carried around gun mags + catalogs along with our books. S.O.P. then, probably get a kid in trouble these days.

Hatari, Tarzan, Jungle Jim, and any other movies set in Africa were the sparks. Then the shows Africa Texas Style and Doktari added fuel. What pushed me over the edge and lit the fire was reading Hemingway's Green Hills of Africa. My first trip was a hiking safari in Kenya in 1987 where I met my wife. I have been back four times since for various reasons, twice to hunt and most recently to visit a niece in Uganda. I hope to go again in 2021 to take my daughter and son hunting.

JA Hunter's abridged "Hunter" in a Readers Digest Omnibus - around 1964, followed by Rob Ruark's "Something of Value" and Uhuru" All the while growing up in suburban South Africa. Ruark is still my favourite writer with his evocative descriptions of Africa. He was the real deal and spent a lot of time in the African bush

Yes indeed until the 'NEW' political scene declared him persona non grata. A pity. I know the bottle killed him but that forced "not welcome mat" certainly did'nt help.

He want on many less publicised safaris in Mozambique in the latter years, after he was declared persona non grata in East Africa, and if my memory is correct it was with Wally Johnson.

quote:

Originally posted by umzingele:
He want on many less publicised safaris in Mozambique in the latter years, after he was declared persona non grata in East Africa, and if my memory is correct it was with Wally Johnson.

That is correct. He hunted with Wally quite a bit. Eva Monley was with him there. One of the camps was known as Camp Ruark, and the archer Fred Bear hunted out there with Wally.

Wally's story was a sad one as well.

Mac, what a great story.

My paternal grandmother, tired of having me underfoot, gave me a leather bound copy of TR's African Game Trails when I was 8 to keep me occupied and out of trouble. I read it cover to cover many times and was hooked. Still have what's left of that book. Who would have thought that a kid from South Texas from rather humble beginnings would ever be able to hunt in Africa at all, let alone big game, but from age 8, I set my mind to do it. Then in my teens and and early twenty's, Capstick came around, and whatever you think of him, he told a good yarn. And he republished a lot of old classics. I collected and read them all. At that point, I was really hooked. Then came the books authored by Ruark, Mellon, Hunter, Selous, Boddington, and many, many more.

With the press of career and family matters, it took me until I was 44 years old to make my first trip to Africa. I go back as often as possible and will for as long as I can, averaging about every other year for the most part with some interruptions for business and family reasons. Last trip was in 2017. Taxidermist has promised that safari before the end of the year. Changed law firms and had to cancel for the last two years, but going next year come hell or high water.

Years ago, at an HSC meeting, Boddington was speaking and said something I'll always remember. He said something like, "if you haven't hunted in Africa, don't. Just take up something less addictive like like cocaine or heroin." That's been pretty much how it's been for me.

Read all of Ruark's books and Horn of the Hunter grabbed me (still trying to get to Tanzania), then Hunters and others. Everyone I could get and read. Pondoro one I've read several times, and thought, this is the way I'd want to do it. Go out there and "live" in the boonies for months. Of course, read O'Connor's and Keith and Page's stuff, and others of the time. Finally made it in 72. Hunted a ranch in Namibia right after J. O'Connor, he was the 2nd hunter at the ranch and I was #3. Then we went to Rhodesia. That was my college graduation gift to me from me. borrowed the money and quit my job. Then got busy with the career, and took another 37 years to get back. But have been over 4 times more. Looking at next year now. When I went in 1972, got to take the Marlin 95 in 45/70. Nice rifle but ammo in those days stunk, and used an 06 for a number of the animals.