doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Pretty good TGS Outdoors video, Africa

I have often wondered about that, Stan. For one thing, Africans seem resistant to heat - one often sees businessmen in three-piece wool suits in hot weather which has me wilting (I couldn't survive in your part of the world). I think it is also a fashion statement - one is more likely to see a poor or rural African in shorts than an urban middle class person, who is more attuned to social expectations. And in the case of someone employed by a safari company, the boss might require his guys to wear a uniform.

Only kind of related, I believe it was on your recommendation that I purchased "Mambas and Man-eaters" which I just finished, great book! Quite the character Ionides was.

In my two trips to africa, most of the black men or coveralls actually. This was in namibia and south africa. I assume other fashions are common in other countries. Africa is not very homogeneous.

I used to wear shorts a lot in Southern Arizona when hiking off trail up sky islands. Bare legs did not hang up in the cat claw quite so badly as pants. Either way, I got scratched up pretty good, but it was not insufferable. Tearing up pants every hike would have been expensive.

Cactus, thorns really did not care if you are bare legged or wearing pants. You are going to get stabbed.

This is the first instalment.

I've hunted Gambel's quail around Tucson, in long pants. Didn't get "thorned" or "cactused". And, there was plenty of it about. I just was careful. It was mostly too cool for shorts, for me anyway. Even if it had been warm enough I wouldn't have tried it.

I wasn't walking hiking trails like my son does out there. I was beating the brush trying to make those dang quail quit running and fly!

We shot many sandgrouse and 3 species of Francolin while on a wingshooting trip to Hawaii. No Hippo’s or Lions to be concerned about.
I wear shorts grouse hunting pretty regularly.

There is a lot of cactus, but a lot of openness out inquail country. Easy to get around. Hiking up canyons. That's quite a bit different. Much denser vegetation. A lot more cat claw and shin daggers in addition to the cactus. And a lot of restriction on trying to get around it because of the walls closing in. Quail hunting in Arizona was pretty sweet. I remember those days well. I mostly used grandpa's 97 Winchester, thirty-two inch full choke and all, because I was loaning my 870 to somebody else.

Glad you like the Ionides book, Steve. He was indeed a wildly eccentric man, who made major contributions to African conservation and science. He ran the Selous Game Reserve in its early days, still one of the most important conservation areas in Africa, and after retiring from that he made major contributions to herpetology. There are a few older white Kenyans left who still have stories about him; Lady Anne Delamere, recently deceased, accompanied him on snake collecting trips to Kenya's Northern Frontier District as the teenage daughter of the Governor in the 1950's.

His Evans .470 is the crown of my modest collection; on long leaves from the Selous, he hunted all over Africa with this gun.

Ah, C.J.P Ionides. There's a name from way back in my memory bank. Can't remember the exact source but had to be one of the many books I have read on outdoors in Africa.

I really enjoy looking at his videos. I just wish everything wasn’t great with everything that he gave an honest review. He seems to be quite a good host and a very good personality and salesman, but I don’t like that. It’s just all fluff and not some really hard study. That would be helpful.