I very much enjoy vintage hunting/shooting/safari books from the 18th to the early 20th century.

So far, a few of my favorites that you're probably familiar with:

- Diary of Col. Peter Hawker
- Jim Corbert Omnibus (I believe containing most of his famous maneater stories)
- John Patterson's Maneaters of Tsavo.

I'm also fond of big game and waterfowl shooting books from the US, most of these come from the late 19th and early 20th century.

More recommendations please.

I need to lay in a stock of new books as I have a Canadian fishing trip coming up and I need reading material for the evenings. Nothing like reading a good sporting book by light of Coleman lantern.

Many thanks.

Grouse

Corbetts story of hunting a leopard when he was tied in up a tree still gives me the shivers.

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It is in truth not glory,nor riches, nor honours that we are fighting,but for freedom - for that alone, which no honest man gives up but with his life.(Declaration of Arbroath, 1320)

Grouse

I cant recomend any big game books but I can recomend the works of Roderick Haig Brown especially as your fishing in Canada...

Andy

Yes, there is a chill-up-spine factor to Corbett's stories. Like the one where he's sitting out on a veranda in the dead of night watching over the body of recently killed boy in the hopes the killer leopard will return. And then he feels hot breath on the back of his neck. Yeah, I'd be needing fast access to the spare pair of y-fronts about then. . .

Overall, it's just fascinating to think about how tough these guys were. Corbett sitting up all night in a tree in a chilling rain. Hawker out crawling the English coast after fowl on the frozen mud in a mix of rain and snow with a howling wind. Talk about a dedication to your sport.

To Coasty, I have read some Haig Brown, he's featured in a Field & Stream Best Sporting Writers collection I have. I'll have to look up and see what else is on offer from him, though. Good suggestion.

Grouse

Grouse

I have read and can recomend :
A river never sleeps ( excellent )
Return to the river ( V Good )
Starbuck Valley Winter ( V Good )

Many others contain much on hunting

Andy

Try 'Kenzie the wild goose man'-Mckenzie thorpe and 'Landscape with Solitary Figure'- Collin Willock .Another.'The poachers handbook'- Ian Niall
All recommended.

Jim

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The Fishermans Friend is the Flirty Fly,Fickle Food for Fleeting Fish.

The Wild Sports of the Highlands by Charles St John 1st published in 1846, covers everything from char, pike,wild cats, roe, grouse, poaching,stags,coursing deer, salmon etc. etc. if your into early sporting books then this one is a gem!

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Duncan

If you have an E-Book download some books from this site and load them on to it, as many as you like, which should keep you going for years

Just do a search on your subjects. This one is 'Fishing'

Internet Archive Search: fishing

I find the PDF's better than the EPUB's which can be entertaining to read as they sometimes get the words wrong and miss-spell them. You can't enlarge the type on the PDF's though which you can with the EPUB's.

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Sandy
Carried it in full, then carry it out empty.

Wild Sports of the Highlands is now on the list, hopefully I can get a copy somewhere fairly soon. Thanks for that suggestion, Duncan.

Sandy, I don't have an e-reader although I can see that so goes the way of the world. But good suggestion with looking them up online as many of the older books (like Wild Sports suggested by Duncan) are available so I least I can browse before I buy.

Grouse

I rate the Corbett books as the best hunting books and the man was so incredibly brave pursuing maneaters for the good of the populace and in so doing placing himself in great danger. He later became an ardent conservationist and has a national park named after him.

I remember two stories, firstly where he was sitting out in the dark at ground level calling to a tigress that he'd been pursuing for a long time, she was desperate to mate and he called her in so close with a tiger''s mating call that once when she called back he felt her breath on his face. The second was when he had a sixth sense about passing a certain rock having stooped down to pick up a bird's nest and this allowed him to see a tiger ready to spring from behind the rock, he then spent what seemed ages slowly turning in order to bring his rifle to bear on the animal and succeeded in killing an animal that was within a whisker of killing him.

My other favourite is "Hunter Climb High" by Keith Sverinsen and is mostly about hunting in New Zealand in the good ole days when trophy stags with large racks abounded plus a few trips to India and the US (Wyoming and Alaska).

Another good hunting book is "Hunter" by John Hunter and tells of a boy who these day would have got an ASBO being sent to Africa where he became a white hunter at a time when a living could be made legally from ivory and guiding wealthy clients. My favourite story is of a black rhino who was chasing one of his gun bearers and seemingly deliberately prodding the poor guy in the backside rather than kill him.

The other books that I enjoyed were those of Howard Hill an American bow hunter in the early part of the 20th century

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“There is no more lovely country than Monmouthshire in early spring. Nowhere do the larks sing quite so passionately, as if somehow inspired by the Welsh themselves. There is a blackbird on every thorn and a cock chaffinch, a twink as they call him there, on every bush...... It moved me profoundly. I had been spared to see another spring, and I thank God for it.”

Oliver Kite
“A Spring Day on the Usk”
A Fisherman’s Diary