What are some favorite hunting stories and books?

The Golden Crescent by Bob Brister probably is at the top of my list.

Ernest Hemingway has a special place.

Oh no! We Are Going to Die! 1 & 2 are very entertaining reading.

Gray's magazines were wonderful growing up.

Sporting Classics is a great current magazine for those that love hunting literature, new and old.

If Moby Dick counts as a hunting story, put it on the list. It is one of the greatest works of American literature of all time. Read it if you haven't.

I like most hunting books, particularly those of old Africa. Currently reading. Out in the Midday Shade by York. My dad hunted the globe and collected a fairly extensive library which I have been fortunate enough to maintain and expand upon.

Death in the Long Grass or anything else by Peter Hathaway Capstick.

This looks interesting for African hunting. Exploration and Hunting in Central Africa 1895-96 (1898) https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07FZC4CJD/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_z4VNBbTYZC28E

Thirty Years Of Shikar supposed to be good about Tiger hunting.

It’s really too overwhelming a question for me to answer. I love hunting and outdoors books of all types - particularly adventure stories on mountain game.
Also love upland hunting books - some tremendously gifted writers concentrate in the wingshooting and flyfishing arenas.
My biggest concentrations are in those areas but I have a pretty extensive library across the board of outdoor writings. I’ve probably only read about half of them and am acquiring more all the time.

If I were pinned down at gunpoint I would list these as among my favorites so far:

“Sheep and Sheep Hunting” - Jack O’Connor
“Hunting Big Game” - Col. Townsend Whelen
“Tiger” - John Vaillant
“Colter” - Rick Bass
“The Best Of Sheep Hunting” - John Batten
“Meditations on Hunting” - Jose Ortega y Gasset
“Timberdoodle Tales” - Tom Waters
“Dancers in the Sunset Sky” - Robert F. Jones
“Big Woods” - William Faulkner

There are dozens more but I’ll stop there.

I read anything and everything I can find from Dave Petzal. He has a dry humor very much like I do, and he’s a brilliant writer. Some on here think he’s full of himself, but they’re still learning to read.

I like Petzal. I think that (unlike Jeff Cooper, for example) his arrogance is 98% tongue-in-cheek. At the very least, he is self-aware about his arrogance which takes the edge off of it.

Cooper’s arrogance was earned, but I was never interested enough in the subjects of his writing to fight my way past it as I can O’Connor’s, for example.

I am wanting to spend more time reading of old Africa for sure..

Jack O'Connor's Big Game Hunts

Jeff Cooper turned me off from that type of reading material. If you ignore or omit the self adulation from his writing, there isn't much left. Without that, most of his book chapters or magazine articles could be reduced to one ridiculous sentence like "Elephants are big" or "Shooting sticks are nice".

Agree on Capstick

I always take and read The Green Hills of Africa, by Hemingway, every time I go to Africa. I really enjoy his writing style.

I agree. IMO he was the most overrated gun writer that has ever come down the pike. Take the “scout rifle” concept, for example. The idea of a short, handy rifle that can be brought to bear quickly has been around for over a century. He took a short-barreled bolt action with a scope set forward for quick sighting, gave it a moniker, and folks act as if he gave birth to some revolutionary concept. 100% hype IMO.

As a kid I read Peter Capsticks Death in the long grass. I thought it was the best thing since sliced bread. After reading it I bought several other African hunting books by Capstick, Ruark and others but never could even get into them enough to finish them. Several years later I ran across Death in the long grass again and as I struggled to read it again I wondered to myself how the hell it was so much better the first time and gave up and shelved it.

Anything by Gene Hill.

John Barsness
Wayne van Zwoll

'The Guide Shoots First' by William D Baker. By the end of this book you will swear that you and this guy have been been on a hunt together.

'Stories of the Old Duck Hunters' by Gordon Macquarrie. The set of three books is the best deal. Hunting and Fishing stories

One that has always stuck with me since I was a kid is 'Where the Red Fern Grows' starring Old Dan and Little Ann

Also a Robert Ruark ('The Old Man and the Boy' ranks up there for sure) and Gene Hill fan for sure.

This - Capstick was awesome - also the Boone and Crockett old record book back in the 80s when free range bucks were making book

look up Capstick

My son is reading “where the red fern grows”

I wanted to like that book but even when I read it as a kid the premise seems so rediculous.

Kid spends days out in the woods alone cutting down trees but his mommy won’t let him have a gun until he is 21, when the legal voting, drinking and draft age is 18. But running around a he woods with a axe is fine and cutting down trees is apparently an accepted coon hunting practice even though I’ve never ever heard of actual coon hunters doing it.

Sorry but it’s a hokey piece of literature

Yep, Hunters Fireside Book is a good one.

I like reading Capstick's Death in the Long Grass to the kids at bedtime, the girls think its a hoot and I don't fall asleep in the middle.

Ruark's "Old Man and the Boy"

Where the Red Fern Grows is a great read, I love that book. Axes were tools back then you used every day, I could see how a woman might not have hangups with one of those but a gun. Ironic though considering what happens to the one kid. Actually makes sense though as if he'd had a gun he might have shot the fellow over the dog, thus creating a whole different ending.....

Use Enough Gun, by Robert Ruark. When it comes to Africa, he was better than Papa. Do NOT try to read his book about being a writer in NYC - The Honey Badger. 'Worst book I've ever attempted to read.

Sneaky's spot on about Petzel. Although his endorsements sometimes scream "schill", his talent overcomes his commercialism.

The Deer Pasture, by Rick Bass, is one of the best books about hunting in the Texas Hill Country I've ever read. (It's old by now. Long before he moved to the Yaak Valley of MT, took up a pointed stick, and became holier-than-thou about hunting.)

My great grandparents, grandma, great uncles and Uncle were raised on a farm outside of Stockdale. Share crop farmers.

Uncle shot squirrels, rabbits, coons, possums, etc as a kid. They didn’t run around chasing them with axes cutting down the trees they were in.

I’m sorry but it’s a romanticized bs novel. Publications like that and continues to be spoon fed to kids are one of the reasons why we have such soft headed people.


If Beto gets elected in I’m blaming that book

I would second “The Old Man and the Boy” and “The Deer Pasture”.