What are your favorite hunting/shooting books?

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swampdog

New member
With the best part of half a year left until bow hunting season starts, I've been trolling Amazon and B&N looking for something to read. Any suggestions?

I was bitten by the gun bug as early as I learned what one was. I was born in 1964 and grew up watching westerns and war movies. As an early teen, my favorite book was "Sixguns" by Elmer Keith. I must have read this book 20 times. I managed to hold onto it into my 30's but I leant it to someone and never got it back. It's out of print, now, but some copies are available for around $60. Ouch! It's definitely on my list.

I'm currently about 3/4's of the way through "Hell, I Was There" by Mr. Keith. This book gives a realistic portrayal of what it was like to live on the frontier in the early part of the last century. These people were TOUGH. I've got a pretty strong stomach, but the treatment Mr. Keith received after being badly burned in a motel fire about made me sick. Old Elmer takes on everything from feral cats to elephants in this book and it is not at all politically correct. I've been enjoying it, immensely. If I'd gotten this book when I was younger, I doubt I'd have wanted to be a cowboy quite so bad.

Another of my favorites as a child was "Cooper on Handguns". I've pretty much read everything else he's written since and enjoyed just about every one of them.

I devoured anything by Zane Grey and Louis L'Amour when I was a kid. Some of Grey's descriptive narrative was literally breath taking. Mr. Keith didn't seem to think much of him, though. Something about an unpaid debt.

Peter Capstick is another favorite. I've heard him described as a drunken blowhard, but I enjoy his style of writing. I've learned quite a bit, even if it is second hand knowledge, as some people allege. I highly reccomend him.

Another one I liked was "White Hunters" by Brian Herne.
"Shots at Big Game" by Craig Boddington was a good read.

It might be blasphemy to some, but Hemingway I can take or leave. I did enjoy "For Whom the Bell Tolls", though. My dislike of Hemingway might have more to do with what I've heard of his personal life than with his skill as a writer. His descriptions of Africa have stuck with me long after the plots have been forgotten.

I'm waiting for "Unrepentant Sinner" by Charles Askins to be delivered. From reading the excerpts at Amazon, I expect this book is even less politically correct than Mr. Keith's biography. I'm looking forward to it. I always wanted this one as a kid but for some reason I couldn't talk my parents into ordering it for me. I wonder why.

Although they are not exactly hunting or shooting related, I highly reccomend "Time Enough for Love" and "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress" by Robert Heinlein. If you like this forum, you'll love his philosophy, as many here already know.

These are just a few of my favorites. How about the rest of yawl? :D
 
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Cowled_Wolfe

New member
This definately falls under hunting... Anything by Pat McManus... Anyone who's read his works should know why. ;)

Cheers,
Wolfe.
 
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hippo

New member
You might want to try some of Robert Ruarks stuff. I would start with "Use Enough Gun" and then go on from there. Most of his works are novels and the ones with Africa in them as a setting always have hunting and animals woven into the stories. Some others: "Something of Value" (this became a motion picture); "UHURU" and then "Horn of the Hunter". If you go on EBay you can find some of these there. Also, there is always the library. Now, you have rekindled an old spark and I am going to look up Ebay muself and see what is available. Also -- take a look at the "Foxfire" series ------ some realy great stuff in one of the volumes on how the "Mountain Men" in the Applacains made guns, powder and all sorts of neat stuff.
 
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sm

New member
Robert Ruark for sure.

The Old Man and The Boy is a must have.

I still read this, I still read to kids and elderly this book. I have no idea how many copies I have given to kids, used as raffle prizes [amazing how 8 kids all had their numbers drawn for one example *wink* ] - and yeah so the newborn was a bit more interested in mom for a bit - does not mean a newborn does not understand when an "adopted uncle" (yours truly) or parents or grandparents read this to a kid.

Call me old fashioned and sentimental I will deny it - Just figured the kids needed their own book early on; something that is not outgrown, out of style, dependent on batteries, and something to hide in rooms with when parents break out the potty training pics and share with everyone in the front room.

From there one must read its sequel. Before long you will read all of Ruark's Works.

Cory Ford's The North Forty is a must read as well.

Shotgunning : The Art and the Science - Bob Brister

Maybe not "hunting" per se' - might explain why you missed. :p

Regards,

Steve
 
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swampdog

New member
Thanks for all the replies.
Robert Ruark was one of the names I was looking for. I read Uhuru years ago and vaguely remeber it but I couldn't remember the author. I saw The Old Man And The Boy at B&N last week and will probably pick it up today. I didn't know it was by the same author.

I read one by Pat McManus years ago. I'll look for one of his today, too.

Thanks for the safaripress.com link. My credit card is going to get a work out. "Meditations on Hunting" is on my list, too.

So many books, so little time.
 
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BlueTrain

New member
One of my favorite outdoor writers is Horace Kephart. He produced a two volume book on camping around 1920 that is as relevant and useful now as it was then. There are two or three chapters on food and cooking that makes mighty interesting reading. There is a chapter on shooting that might take you down a notch or two. He was actually married and a trained librarian but you would never know it from his writing. He spend the latter part of his life in Western North Carolina. He was killed in a car accident on the way to his bootlegger during prohibition. Another writer before him called George Washington Sears also wrote very well on outdoor subjects, including hunting. Apparently he continued to use a muzzleloader decades after cartridge firearms became common.

Another writer from the other side of the world, Masters, I think his name was, produced an autobiography called "Bugles and A Tiger." He was a serving officer in a Gurkha regiment in the 1930's and during the war. There is a good description of a tiger hunt, among other things, including a visit to VMI. A little different from the usual run of things.

I like Elmer Keith's books because when I read them, I hear my father talking, if you follow me. My father talked in the same way Keith wrote, though otherwise I suspect they were not much alike. I'm not at all sure I would have liked Elmer Keith because it always sounded like people either loved him or hated him, though I've never heard anyone else say that. Bill Jordan sounded like an easier person.

I've never read anything by Hemingway, being more of a Thoreau kind of person, less so since I have now lived longer than he did. But he wrote a good description of a hunt in the Maine woods.
 
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Mannlicher

New member
After reading about hunting for half a century,

I feel that "Shots at Whitetails" by Larry Koller is still the best ever written.
 
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Rembrandt

New member
These are my favorites....."Great Hunters, Their Trophy Rooms & Collections" (Safari Press). Think you've seen taxidermy?.... you haven't seen anything till you view these. Hours of enjoyment, stunning homes and trophy rooms. Finest coffee table books I've seen. (Volumes 1,2,3,4)

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