Classic and Contemporary African Hunting Literature

Jan 4, 2024 | Archive, News

Hunting

On Safari in East and Southern Africa

Aubrey Wynne-Jones (Macmillan South Africa Ltd., 1980, 180 pages)
Reviewed by Ken Bailey

 

 

Like many others, early on I read the books of Capstick, Ruark and Hunter, dreaming of the day I could live out my own African hunting adventure. As that dream neared reality, I went looking for books that were less adventure-oriented and more instructive. It was 1986, and where I lived, in Edmonton, Alberta, with no internet and few resources available, I stumbled across this title and had my local bookstore bring in a copy. The price tag is still on it, $41.95, a princely sum for a book in those days. But Wynne-Jones’ book provided me with useful advice as I planned my safari, and much of it still holds up today.

 

The first section provides a ton of practical information; some is targeted to the visiting hunter, while other sections pertain more to the DIY hunter. The latter includes recommendations for camp gear, set-up and location, food and beverage suggestions, tracking tips, and advice on emergency and game extraction equipment to carry in your vehicle. Of course, these activities are largely handled by PHs and their teams for the vast majority of us today; DIY is restricted to local residents as far as I know.

 

The book’s section on rifle, cartridge and optics recommendations for the various species has been duplicated and bested in any number of books dedicated to these topics, before and since. Some of what’s here, particularly the optics section, is outdated, and several of today’s popular cartridges hadn’t been developed when this book was written. Still, the suggestions provided are meaningful and will resonate with many hunters, especially those who still prefer a .270 Win. to one of the many new 6.5s or .277s on the market.

 

There’s a short section on bullet placement that focusses on the big five, a brief chapter on bird hunting, and a detailed listing of Rowland Ward’s minimum trophy standards for nearly every imaginable species of game, along with detailed instructions, complete with accurate sketches, as to how each species is to be measured. As an Appendix to the book, there’s also detailed instructions and minimum scores for the SCI scoring method—my book is the 2nd edition, printed in 1982; I’m not certain if the first edition includes the SCI information or whether it was added as an Appendix in subsequent printings only.

 

The largest section of this book dedicates a couple pages or more to every popular, and some not so popular, game species. Each is broken down into subsections—species identification (including height, weight, color, horn description, etc.), preferred habitat and basic behaviour, the regions where the best trophies have been taken (including maps), and a short section revealing some basic hunting tips. Each species page is also beautifully illustrated by South African artist André de Villiers. Interestingly, this section in my copy of the book still has my pencil notations on several pages, remnants from me attempting to narrow down my “want and can afford” list as I planned my first safari.

 

It’s fair to say that there have been several books published that offer advice for planning your safari that are more complete or more up-to-date than this one, including significantly greater information on the landscapes, hunting conditions and game animals you can expect to encounter—Mellon’s African Hunter and African Hunter II edited by Boddington and Flack immediately come to mind. Still, Wynne-Jones’ Hunting—On Safari in East and Southern Africa is an eminently readable book that is well-thought out and contains an immense amount of information that’s as accurate and useful today as it was when it was written.

Gin-Trapped Buffalo Leads to the Fall of a Zimbabwean Icon

Jan 3, 2024 | Archive, Hunting Stories, News

The letter below was copied to me by an Alaskan hunter.

 

What made the letter particularly meaningful is that just this week something terrible happened. When you read the letter below, you will see a reference to gin traps and how terrible they are. And the link you may ask?  It was just this week that a game-farming family inadvertently felt the tragic impact of such a poacher’s gin trap.

 

A tremendous man, from all reports, someone devoted to uplifting communities and wildlife, was killed by a buffalo. The buffalo had fallen victim to one of the impoverished rural poachers’ gin traps. Wounded, suffering, and needing to be put out of its misery, the belligerent beast took out its anger and pain on the very person on a mission to help end its suffering. Digby Bristow was the target of the buffalo’s vengeance as it pummeled him – his wife Vanessa’s words in her heartfelt recount of what happened that fateful day just before Christmas.

 

While the taking of a life, the killing of an animal is hard to understand, and some even display delight in the act, and is what jars with the public in general, it is only a component of the hunt itself. The letter below is a long read, so just keep scrolling if you are busy.

 

Letter to UK Parliament regarding the Ban the Import of African Animals

Dear MP Christopher Chope,

 

After reading the article by Dr. John Ledger in the latest issue of “African Hunting Gazette” I was greatly disturbed to see a Bill by the UK Parliament to Ban the Import of African Animals.

 

It is with great respect to you after reading bios about you from different sources that you are a champion against such a Bill and that you have in the past been a champion against the many “New Age Ideas” that attempt to alter and destroy our natural world.

 

There have been times as a hunter that I have looked upon an animal that I have killed and wonder how I could take the life of such a beautiful creature. But I believe mankind should be overseers of our natural heritage, including the environment of our planet, the husbandry of our ecosystem, and the common-sense use of fossil fuels, utilized for man’s benefit. Until there is a better energy source, fossil fuel should still be our best choice for it is still in great supply!

 

The people of Africa are beneficiaries of those that come to hunt on their soil. The dollars that come to them by way of travel, licenses, permits, taxes, game meat, and trophy fees each help to educate local communities about the natural fauna and flora, and the importance of habitat in which they live within.

Normally these people in rural villages are very poor that have small gardens that will supply them with the food that will carry them through each day and each season. An elephant or herds of antelope that come to feed on their gardens, become an enemy that must be dealt with. Some may be shot with crude weapons, caught in gin traps, or taken with snares. Without education, their value as a renewable game species is unknown to them.

 

When African Countries open blocks to hunters, the benefits to the rural people are tremendous. The funds that are immediately procured become sources of income for game departments that fund species surveys, game counts, boreholes for healthy drinking water in the villages where many have died from disease-ridden water supplies. Those in these villages become part of poaching patrols.  Money is used to build schools that will educate their children about the animals that live around them.

 

A new world that suddenly opens to them, ideas become the creation of dreams to becoming doctors, seeing a world that was never envisioned.

 

Those people that had their gardens raided, will begin to see meat being delivered to their villages, and with this new resource of protein that they can depend on, begin to take an interest in the way animals will be harvested that will not only supply food for their families, but will be a dependable and renewable resource for them in the future.

 

If this Bill to Ban the Import of African Animals is passed, it will destroy the wildlife species like never before. Who will fund the needy when wildlife no longer has a spoken voice, from those that benefited the most?

 

Many of the Wildlife Parks in Africa have been saved from complete habitat destruction by those that come from abroad – to hunt. The hunting blocks, of course, are outside of these parks, but as habitat decreases many species leave to forage where habitat is plentiful. Because Animal Rights organizations will not allow the animals in these parks to be culled, the destruction of these guarded habitats becomes useless to provide life to the species living within them.

 

Without wise management of our natural world that is provided for now by hunters’ dollars and certainly not by those that cry foul yet offer nothing to the poor African people that ought to benefit, the environment and its wildlife will suffer.

 

There are those that come to my home and see animals I have hunted in Africa and elsewhere. There are some that shake their heads, for they do not understand. But when I can explain about the coloration of animal skins, the unique shape of eyes, lips, and horns, some begin to understand from a fresh perspective.

I tell them about a person with a strange name they have never heard before, our tracker who we followed. I tell them about the bent stick he used to point to a hoof-print barely visible in dry and dusty ground among dozens of others, and as I recall my memories I am transported back to that place where warm winds blow and the sweet soft calls from doves are carried in those warm currents of air. A place where the joy I felt was indescribable, where calming peace captivated me in a place like no other.

 

I will recall how wonderfully surprised I was when this man pointed to the direction the animal had suddenly turned, for there was nothing to show in the sand or grass that I could see. But he smiled and nodded.

 

These wonderful trackers became masters of these skills when they were but young boys when they took charge of the village cattle into fields, through jungle and down into river bottoms among ferocious predators, when the rainy season came, with flashes of lightening from thunderstorms of black clouds and racing wind and pounding rain.

I sadly recall that some of these great men I hunted with died at a young age because of HIV/AIDs and other diseases that could not be warded off because their communities were remote and poor. There were no doctors, so none came.

 

Like the animals that have such coloration and form, the indigenous African people are different in color and cultures from our own but are beautiful and unique. They have seen what hunters’ dollars have brought into their lives, and they have learned the importance these game animals now have, and what has been added to their lives and their families that now have schools and health clinics. They have honor. They have very little, but they love their families, as we do ours.

 

They know if they let the game animals propagate, that the oldest males will be harvested, the resource will continue, and the meat and trophy fees will make their villages prosper.

 

We proclaim that our world today is superior to that of the past, but still the horn of the rhino and the tusk of the elephants have no regulated legal trade. Yet poaching has continued, with black markets stealing the lives of these animals, a practice that will continue again and again until those animals are just pictures in a book.

 

There will be no one to count the missing dead, for the game departments will close without funding to maintain the resource.

 

Some nations stopped hunting and brought in people with cameras. But photo safaris travel the same track day after day, giving wild animals no peace to live as people seek their pictures relentlessly, day after day.

 

The habitat loss becomes tremendous with roads and bridges. Non-hunters pay no trophy fees that would fund game departments or poaching patrols. Photo Safaris supply no protein to the villagers who have lost their gardens to animals that no longer are managed or cared for. They receive no funding. They receive no meat.

 

There are those that claim that Kenya is the model African country because it no longer allows organized hunting. But when you talk to those rural people that lived there before 1977, they will tell you a different story.

 

This planet is ours, we can preserve it or let it fall into destruction. True hunters, those that seek our world’s wild places, hunt not just to kill or take away, but come to preserve those things that should be most precious to each of us.

 

How wonderful if we could each hand over to those that come after we have gone, this most incredible natural world gifted to us.

 

Hunters’ dollars fund wildlife!

 

My Best Regards,

Norman Thomas

Alaska

 

 

Classic and Contemporary African Hunting Literature

Dec 6, 2023 | Archive, News

Rhino War

Major General (Ret.) Johan Jooste with Tony Park (Ingwe Publishing, 2022, 268 pages)
Reviewed by Ken Bailey

  

 

Rhino War is a fascinating read describing the staggering level and sheer brutality of rhino poaching in South Africa’s Kruger National Park, and one man’s Herculean efforts to stem the losses.

 

In 2012, Johan Jooste, a retired South African general, was hired to lead Kruger’s anti-poaching efforts. He was selected for this role in large measure because of his military experiences, as South African National Parks (SANP), desperate to reduce the overwhelming rhino losses, wanted to introduce a paramilitary-like approach to combatting poaching. Jooste describes in great detail the unanticipated challenges he faced, from opposition within some ranks of the SANP system and a reluctance to change by many of the park rangers, to chronic underfunding, and a largely unsympathetic government in Mozambique, from where the vast majority of poachers originated.

 

Co-written by Tony Park, an established Australian writer of thriller novels and non-fiction biographies, the crisp and clean writing style encourages the reader to continue turning the page – there’s no fluff here.

 

Jooste quickly discovers that protecting Kruger’s rhinos isn’t merely a local operational issue, it’s heavily influenced by national and international politics, and success requires that he become a rhino ambassador, mingling with government officials, royalty, the media and wealthy patrons as he strives to garner the support and funding required to fulfill his vision and, ultimately, save the last great rhino herd on earth.

 

Jooste is clearly a man of many talents. Not only does he prove to be effective in recruiting support at the highest levels, he also shows himself to be a capable boots-on-the-ground leader, describing in fascinating detail many of the thrilling and dangerous anti-poaching operations he took part in, side by side with the unheralded rangers who risked their lives on a daily basis. And make no mistake, as Rhino War teaches us, anti-poaching is, often times, literally a kill or be killed exercise, reflective of the huge money in the rhino horn trade coupled with far too many poor and desperate people willing to do anything to feed their families.

 

Overcoming myriad hurdles along the way, after several years Jooste is not only able to put the brakes on what had been a growing problem, but with the help of technology, generous private funding, a revitalized and recognized ranger team, and the true grit of a military man unwilling to fail, he ultimately succeeds in reversing the tide.

 

Rhino War will interest anybody with a passion for Africa’s great wildlife. It provides an insider’s look at the insidious challenges of poaching, how vast an impact poaching can have on both a local and regional scale, and how significant the personal and financial resource requirements are to conserve our threatened wildlife for future generations.

Classic and Contemporary African Hunting Literature

Nov 10, 2023 | Archive, News

Wato

Brian Watson ( 2019, 321 pages)
Reviewed by Ken Bailey

  

Brian Watson’s Wato is purely and simply an enjoyable read. I suspect that’s in part because he’s one of us. Like many of us he took a fancy to guns, shooting and hunting as a child, and he grew up in Australia reading about hunting in Africa and dreaming that one day he, too, could make the pilgrimage. He’s been a working man his whole adult life and had to save his shekels to make those dreams a reality—again, just like most of us.

 

Throughout the book, Wato, as he’s affectionately called by his friends and associates, demonstrates remarkable recall of his many safaris to Africa, in addition to a handful of hunts in other parts of the world. Each chapter describes an individual safari experience or a specific animal he has hunted. Over time he’s taken most of the key species in southern Africa, including the big five, though elephant hunting is clearly his passion and is the subject of several of the chapters. He’s also a bit of a gun nut, and if you enjoy reading about firearms, Wato won’t leave you disappointed. He even serves up a little meat for the wingshooting and angling fraternities.

 

What I really found compelling is that Watson has landed on just the right amount of detail in describing his various adventures. That’s a fine line to walk—too much detail and a reader gets bored before the climactic scene; too little and the stage isn’t set properly, we can’t imagine we’re walking side by side with him. Wato tiptoes along that line perfectly.

 

Watson is clearly a naturalist and conservationist at heart, and his appreciation for wild places and the flora and fauna they support, shines through; it’s evident throughout the book that it’s all about the experience for Watson, he’s not stepping off the plane with a tape measure in hand.

 

For those seeking a little eye candy, Wato is illustrated with 15 pages of colour photographs showing many of the people, places and hunts he describes in his stories.

 

If I have one beef with Wato, it’s that there’s too much passive, rather than active, voice. I find that a little distracting and cumbersome, although it’s not all that unusual in self-published books; a thorough editing would have cleaned that up.

 

Notwithstanding that little nitpick, I encourage everyone who appreciates contemporary African literature to pick up this book. It’s all very relatable and would be a relaxing and enjoyable way to spend those long air hours on the way to your next safari.

Campfire Thoughts & Reminiscences Part 23

Nov 10, 2023 | Archive, News, News

Written by Neil Harmse

 

 

 

Chapter 24. A Martini Henry – Resurrecting an ‘Oldie’

 

A number of guns were put up for sale by a retired hunter and among these was a very rusty, badly pitted sporting Martini Henry .577/450 made by Isaac Hollis & Son, an established British gun-maker. At first glance, the gun was in terrible condition and about all it was good for was a ‘wall-hanger’. Apparently the gun had at one stage been wrapped in canvas and buried inside an anthill. The reason for this was unclear, but it might have been during the Boer War when guns were being confiscated, or perhaps during WWI or WWII, for the same reason. At one stage, it had been a beautiful sporting gun made with pride by this prestigious Birmingham gun-maker.

 

On examination, I found that the inner working and barrel were actually in good condition. These must have been well greased and lubricated to protect the firearm from the elements.

 

A friend, Glyn Dennis, mentioned to me that he was looking for an old gun to work on and restore as a project. When I showed him this Martini, he thought I was mad! I said that it was mechanically sound and that once the ‘cosmetics’ had been restored, it would be worthwhile as a shooter. Rather hesitantly, he took my word for it and applied for a licence. We took the gun to Hennie Mulder, a competent gunsmith who I knew could do justice to this project.

 

The first order of business was to dismantle the gun and start removing all surface pitting from the action, barrel and external parts. The gun in its original state was embellished with tasteful engraving in typical ‘English’ style. Removal of the pitting on the surfaces and polishing would also remove a lot of this engraving, so we carefully took clear, close-up photos of the engraving before sanding and polishing began. Hennie had an engraver, Whitey Loggenberg, whose work was excellent and who would be able to re-cut the engraving the same way it had originally been. (Sadly, Whitey passed away a few months after he had worked on this gun – another great loss to the gun industry.)

 

With a lot of careful polishing on the flats of the action, the barrel and other parts were cleaned of all pitting and blemishes, after which all traces of oils and grease were removed.

The Martini action before restoration.

The gun parts were now ready for preparation for the blueing process. Hennie decided to use his special ‘Rust Blue’ process to give the action and barrel an attractive, deep blue finish, similar to the one it had originally had. This is a fairly long procedure, as the parts must be coated with the blueing chemicals and placed in a humidity cabinet for about 12 hours to allow the chemicals to start the rust process. These are then removed and the parts placed in boiling water. The excess oxidation is ‘carded’ or rubbed down and then the process is repeated. This is done over and over for a few days, until the desired deep blue finish is acceptable.

 

Once ready, the parts receive a final polish with very fine steel wool and are then oiled to retain the blue finish. Hennie’s able assistant, Sam, is excellent at this polishing and manages to get the metalwork to a mirror-smooth finish.

 

While the metalwork was being attended to, it was time to tackle the woodwork, stock and fore-end. The stock was not in good condition and required quite a lot of sanding and filling of the grain. The scratches, dents and dings were removed by steaming and more sanding. Once the stock was almost completed, the final rub-down was done with fine water-paper and then fine steel wool to smooth the wood. The gun was then ready for staining. The checkering then had to be carefully re-cut and a final oil finish applied.

 

The fore-end had to be repaired, as there were a few places where wood had been chipped off. To fill these, pieces of matching wood had to be shaped and glued into place, then sanded and smoothed, before staining and oiling. The front of the fore-end had originally had a piece of buffalo horn tip and this had to be remade and fitted. The plates for the wedge pin that held the fore-end to the barrel also had to be fitted flush with the wood.

 

The gun had originally come with a ramrod which fitted under the barrel. This had disappeared and an original one could not be found, so Hennie made one from a hardwood rod which he turned on the lathe. He also made brass fittings for jag and brush attachments and fitted these to the ends of the rod.

 

When Glyn collected his gun, he could hardly believe his eyes. The old Martini Henry had been transformed from a piece of rusty scrap into a gun to be proud of, worthy of a place in any collector’s armoury.

 

Many of these fine sporting Martini Henry guns made their way to Africa and India in the battery of guns of ‘gentlemen adventurers’ who came to hunt in areas of the British occupied colonies. Who knows where this gun had travelled to and what game had fallen to its shots? If only it could talk!

 

It is an immense pleasure to see a gun that left the gun-maker’s bench about 150 years ago being brought back to life and again taking its rightful place on the hunting field.

The Martini rifle after restoration.

To order Campfire Thoughts & Reminiscences – the complete book with illustrations (US $15 excluding S&H), contact Andrew Meyer at andrewisikhova@icloud.com

Classic and Contemporary African Hunting Literature

Oct 6, 2023 | Archive, News

Dangerous Game Quest

Kim Stuart, (Fjermendal Press, 2021, 236 pages)
Reviewed by Ken Bailey

  

Kim Stuart’s Dangerous Game Quest – A Personal Journey is a compilation of stories describing his odyssey to become the first hunter to take each of the Magnificent Seven African game animals (elephant, rhino, Cape buffalo, lion, leopard, hippopotamus, and crocodile) with each of rifle, handgun, and muzzleloader. That’s 21 dangerous game animals in total, and it took Jim 20 years (1997 to 2016) to accomplish this. The book is written in chronological order, with a chapter describing each hunt along the way.

 

Of interest to me was that Stuart wasn’t focused on “trophy” animals, which is to say that he wasn’t hunting horn length, tusk length, or any of the other size standards that drive most African safaris. He saw a tuskless cow elephant or a lioness as being every bit the challenge, equally dangerous, and just as rewarding as hunting for what most consider trophy animals. His primary objective was to take these animals by fair chase using his weapon of choice. He goes to some length in describing the development of each of the weapons used and how they came into his possession. This is particularly true for the muzzleloaders he used, which were designed and built for this quest by his friend, Jim Gefroh. In fact, as we learn, Gefroh accompanied Stuart on most of the hunts.

 

As might be expected when you engage in this number of big game hunts, Stuart experiences many highs and lows along the way, from aggressive animals to missed shots to unscrupulous PHs. It’s refreshing that he isn’t shy about describing the bad along with the good, even when the bad is of his own making.

 

The easy-to-read text is accompanied by 22 full-color photos showing many of the animals Stuart collected through the years.

 

Stuart’s quest was an unusual one by almost any standard, particularly given the costs of hunting dangerous game in this day and age. Dangerous Game Quest will appeal to any hunter wanting to read contemporary tales of hunting Africa’s most dangerous game, and in particular to those with an interest in hunting them with a muzzleloader or handgun.

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