doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Best Reads

One high on my list that hasn’t been mentioned is Kingsley-Heath’s Hunting the Dangerous Game of Africa.

It has to be a generational thing.

One generation, the allure and fantasy of Africa filled their dreams. Authors beyond measure stoked the fire.

A generation later, and all we ever heard was how we had to save what is left. Endless documentaries of Africa’s miseries.

How the post colonial world has changed.

It's similar with the US. There are great books on the fur trade, buffalo hunting, the frontier, market hunting waterfowl, and on and on. Not exactly topics to bring up, while chatting at a free charging station.

Hard to pick a favorite. Those of you who enjoyed Corbett might like Sasha Siemel's "Tigrero" and "Jaguar Hunting in the Mato Grosso and Bolivia" by Tony De Almeida.

Next on my list is "Kambaku" by Harry Manners as a primer for my trip to Mozambique this fall.

A very interesting and enlightening read are anything by Gough Thomas . Shooting Facts & Fancies is a goldmine of useful information .
But the 'Bible' surely has to be 'The Shotgun' volumes 1, 2, and 3 by Major Burrard.

If you can find it, "Mambas and Maneaters: A hunter's story " by C.J.P. Ionides is a terrific window on East Africa in the first half of the twentieth century. Iodine, as he was known locally, was a wonderfully eccentric Brit who started his career as a soldier in India, then became an ivory poacher in Africa. He went legit and became a professional hunter, and eventually was hired as warden of the Selous Game Reserve in then Tanganyika, still the largest reserve in Africa. The life of a warden back then was daily adventure, hence the Maneaters in the title. In those days, British officials in the colonies got long leaves of absence, as most went back to the UK and travel was by steamer. Instead, Iodine spent his leaves hunting in remote areas all over the continent, collecting specimens of everything on four legs, using mostly his .470 NE, of which I am now the proud owner. His descriptions of travel and hunting in remote areas are fascinating, but even then he witnessed the decimation of species which are now essentially extinct in the wild.

When he retired from the Game Department, he made his home in a part of the Selous which he reckoned had the highest density and diversity of poisonous snakes in Africa, hence Mambas. He was Africa's first herpetologist and collected specimens both for research collections and to supply venom for the production of antivenin. He was bitten many times by a variety of snakes, used no antivenin afterwards, and took detailed notes on the effects of the venom and his recovery. E. Africa in those days had plenty of wild characters but few matched Iodine.

Thanks for the tip on "Mambas and Maneaters", I just snagged an old library copy off ebay for 30$. Looking forward to this one.

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'Maneaters of Tsavo' by Patterson maybe? Good read by any standards. Lagopus.....