I’m feeling a bit under the
weather today. I think I still have some
lingering crud that I picked up at the SCI show. Compared to what some of my friends came down
with at SHOT this year, I count myself lucky.
But since I’ll be away from the blog for a few days next week while I
attend some work training, I should probably get around to discussing that
Boddington book to which I alluded earlier.
As I mentioned earlier, I
first got interested in African hunting by reading Peter Capstick’s classic “Death
in the Long Grass” when I was just a lad in short pants, as they say. Capstick’s wild tales and colorful turns of
phrase riveted my attention in the way that no non-fiction could at that
point. I tore through that book (and
every other Capstick book in Dad’s library) like a starving leopard through a
particularly pungent warthog bait. I
think it helped that it worried my fairly liberal reading/English teacher at
the time; I felt somewhat subversive.
So Capstick whetted my
appetite, and I continued to read his stuff as it came out (or, more
accurately, as Dad acquired them). When
the Capstick Library editions of classic books came out, I started on them as
well. I read Man-Eaters of Tsavo and
enjoyed it, though I thought the writing wasn’t quite as elegant and readable
as Capstick. I felt the same about Jim
Corbett. In fact, I tended to measure
every African safari book against “Death in the Long Grass”. But eventually I
ran out of Capstick to read, and he is sadly no longer able to write more. So I branched out. I read some Hunter, some Cooper, some
Hemingway. All had their merits.
The first time I read
Boddington was a few years ago when I decided that an African safari was both within my reach
and something I wanted to spend the time, effort and money to do. On the advice of several folks, my grandmother gave me a copy of “Safari Rifles II” for Christmas that year and Iwas impressed with the honesty and pragmatism
tempering his appreciation for some of the odd-ball cartridges. He had a very real thing for the 8mm
Remington Magnum and the .358 Winchester, the latter of which I had been
looking at in a Browning BLR levergun to use on feral pigs.
So fast forward to the Safari
Club International show earlier this month, where I saw Boddington autographing
books. I already had a copy of Safari
Rifles II, so what to get? Despite the
fact that I won’t be going after one on this trip, I chose “Buffalo!” because
it seemed to be one of his favorite game species, based on what I had
read previously. I figured if a man is passionate
about a thing, his writing will show it.
In that assumption, I was correct.
Boddington’s passion shows
from the start, as he describes why he hunts buffalo. The first chapter is dedicated to the reasons
to hunt these big beasts, from his first encounter nearly three decades earlier
to his pragmatic reasoning of cost, availability, and meat supply compared to
the other members of the Big Five. Like
Capstick before him, he cites Ruark’s immortal description that the buffalo “looks
at you like you owe him money”, and he says it with reverence to both the
animal and the writer. He openly
expresses his admiration and cautious respect for the creatures, contrasted
with the fear he feels towards lion, cow elephant and leopards.
That’s a theme to which
Boddington returns time and again in this book: his respect for the game and the rules of fair
chase. Like the great conservationists
of old, he understands that there has to be a balance; that game must be
protected and shepherded, and in order for that to happen, there must be a
financial incentive to doing so.
Boddington is very clear that the only way for game to survive in modern
Africa is through the deliberate and measured use of sport hunting to generate
sufficient value from the animals to both landowners and governments. This eye towards conservation continues in
his self-imposed criteria for a ‘shootable’ bull. Several times in the course of the book, he
states that he tries to shoot bulls that are past breeding age, even if their
horns are less of a trophy than the younger bulls. I mentioned I got a signed copy; the
inscription reads: “Matt – shoot old
bulls!” That kind of commitment to
ethical hunting is a far better representation of our people to the outside
world than, say, Ted Nugent.
The book continues on with discussion
on the various subspecies of African buffalo, from the well-known Cape buff to
the smaller forest buffalo of Western Africa.
The bulk of the book, however, consists of some very pragmatic advice
regarding tracking, stalking, estimating horn size, shot placement,
guns/cartridges/bullets (this chapter is basically a re-hash of part of “Safari
Rifles II”, which is fine because this is a perfectly valid subject), and what
happens when things go sideways. There is
a lot of experience at work here, and yet Boddington remains humble and defers
to both his PH’s and his trackers. One
bit of advice struck home: make a set of
shooting sticks and practice with them.
A bit of research shows that Home Depot sells bamboo poles for very
little money; three poles and some old bicycle inner tube can make a very
useable set of shooting sticks. Given my
lackluster performance on the sticks at the last safari match (the plains game
stage was by far my weakest, and the only one where I shot from shooting
sticks). Perhaps this could be a subject
for a later post...
The book wraps up with a
reasonably in-depth treatise on the other game buffalo of the world, focusing
on the various types of water buffalo found in India, Asia and Australia. He then moves into a fitting coda: recounting the ‘perfect’ Cape buffalo hunt.
All in all, I found “Buffalo!”
to be an enjoyable and satisfying read.
I don’t think Boddington is the same level of wordsmith as Ruark or
Capstick, but his advice is very down-to-earth and pragmatic without
sacrificing an obvious passion for the animal and the hunt. He’s certainly got far more experience than
Ruark (at least, Ruark at the time of “Horn of the Hunter”), and he is far less
likely to sensationalize and embellish than Capstick. I intend to look into more of Boddington’s
work, and I think he’ll have a place in my library for some time to come.
