After giving up his career, the New Jersey native hunted in Central and South America before going to Africa in 1968, where he held professional hunting licenses in Ethiopia, Zambia, Botswana, and Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe). I couldn't say for sure, but in my experience a Botswana lion is as likely to charge on sight at close quarters as not.Because of the loose, sandy texture of the soil, tracking is quite easy in this area. Excerpt. If I had let it eat maybe a leg or two before shooting it, all would have been well. Forty yards away, collapsed in a heap of tan putty, lay the dead lion. Please try again. "The young men thought it was too hot to sleep inside their, , Bwana," he replied. portrays the great killers of the African bushnot only the lion, leopard, and elephant, but the primitive rhino and the crocodile waiting for its unsuspecting prey, the titanic hippo and the Cape buffalo charging like an express train out of control. My client was doing everything right except for one minor item: he had forgotten to pull the trigger. Over. As I neared the huts, I caught the flash of a big, male lion in the probing beam, moving off into the bush and high grass. Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 9, 2014. Access-restricted-item true Addeddate 2011-08-30 17:14:45 Bookplateleaf 0008 Boxid IA142818 Camera Canon EOS 5D Mark II City New York Donor allen_countydonation It's the same reason that FloridaChambers of Commerce don't go out of their way to spread the word of shark attacks along their beaches. What if Len wasn't dead but only unconscious? Based on Capstick's own experiences and the personal accounts of his colleagues, Death in the Long Grass portrays the great killers of the African bush-- not only the lion, leopard, and elephant, but the primitive rhino and the crocodile waiting for its unsuspecting prey, the titanic hippo and the Cape buffalo charging like an express train out The lion lay under a bush, after doubling back on his track in a short loop, and watched Paul track past. ""As I could see lions within what looked like biting distance, I started blasting away with the .308. The death of Peter Hankin in the Luangwa Valley came to me as more than a news item; I had worked for him as a professional hunter in the area quite near where he was killed. After all, if the lion doesn't eat you personally, you won't have to wait long until the vultures, ants, hyenas, and jackals do. Full content visible, double tap to read brief content. Snatching up a new flaming brand, she opened the door and ran for the village, right past the lion, who let her go. I went back into the hut. these animals wont take any prisoners. I had learned in Asia that the best weapon against a thin-skinned animal at close range was a 12-gauge shotgun with magnum loads of buckshot. ""What remained of the night, I spent firing at lion noises in the grass with the .308. We got within what seemed like inches of that lion, when he let out a fine roar, almost as if he didn't like us there. That said, you do not need to be a hunter to appreciate this book. Bring your club to Amazon Book Clubs, start a new book club and invite your friends to join, or find a club thats right for you for free. Were they a man-eating pride? Interesting choice. Some professionals show their assorted scars with pride, but I don't feel that way. The walls seemed intact, as was the roof. Death in the Long Grass 1LionIt is nearly three o'clock in the sweltering morning of September 2, 1974.In four hot, still hours dawn will hemorrhage like a fresh wound in the sky over the eastern Muchingas, the great, towering walls that confine the upper reaches of the Luangwa River in Zambia's Eastern Province. A very good read. Two feet from the end of my bed, where my head lay, was a very fresh set of immense lion pug marks. It seemed obvious that these lions were regrouping for another raid on the camp. As we drove along, I felt an urgent tap on the shoulder from Amos, riding in the back of the old Land Rover. If we jumped him and he charged us, it would be from such close quarters that there would be time for only one shot, if that. Few men can say they have known Africa as Capstick has known it--leading safaris through lion country . At twenty yards there was the familiar Whuff! You may blow a hole in his heart big enough to accommodate a navel orange, but in his condition of hyperadrenia, there will still be enough oxygen in his brain to carry his charge for a surprising distance and enough moxie left over to turn you into something that would give a hyena the dry heaves. Author: Peter Hathaway Capstick Publisher: St. Martin's Press ISBN: 1466803924 Category : Sports & Recreation Languages : en Pages : 320 Download Book. I almost blew my first lion charge by not compensating for this, but luckily the slug passed through the scalp and broke the spine above the paunch. Still, we had our best shot at him yet.We took up the trail at half-past five as the false dawn began to turn the trees into gnarled monsters. After fifteen minutes of tossing, I took another bite at the flask and dozed off shortly after.You don't have to live in the African bush surrounded by dangerous or potentially dangerous game very long before you develop a sixth sense that may mean the difference between life and the alternative. Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for Death in the Long Grass : A Big Game Hunter's Adventures in the African Bush by Peter Hathaway Capstick (1978, Hardcover, Revised edition) at the best online prices at eBay! The beam showed nothing as I pounded through the village until I came to a hut at the far side with the door hanging from a single leather hinge. Except for the arm and some claw marks on his chest, he seemed to be unhurt. - Jacket flap. No lions. I loaded my .470 Evans double-express rifle with soft-points and stuck another clump of the big cartridges into various pockets of my bush clothes where they wouldn't rattle against each other. "What are the details? We were back at the Senga village in late afternoon, the brave little hunter grinning from the painkiller I had given him from my flask.I snapped a couple of pictures of the lion with the self-timer and began to skin him. I felt that just as the day before, the lion would travel a few miles, then stop to feed, although after the meal he had taken the previous day, he couldn't have been terribly hungry. A post-mortem on thebody of Peter Hankin determines that, mercifully, he died instantly of a broken neck from the lioness' first bite. He had almost without doubt stood there to sniff my head as I slept blithely on. Meantime, the whole camp and the nomads were frantically seeking higher ground. And not all the tales had happy endings in an often kill or be killed environs. Wide open fields of grain hold our quarry and it's here that part 2 of our story. I beckoned to the remaining grounded tracker to go with me out into that black, high grass where all those lions were loitering. Book Description As thrilling as any novel, as taut and exciting as any adventure story, Peter Hathaway Capstick's Death in the Long Grass takes us deep into the heart of darkness to view Africa through the eyes of one of the most renowned . We found two dead lions, which were triumphantly dragged back to camp by the now-intrepid occupants of the tree. Operating in a photographic safari area, professional hunter Peter Hankin has had to leave it at his hunting camp, Chitangulu, forty miles downstream. If interested please advise re post code for postage estimate. There is no sound as she slips along on thick pads, the white sickles of her claws sheathed, the aching throb of hunger hollow in her chest and loins.At twenty yards she freezes, the thick, acrid man-scent dank in her nostrils. Catch-22, Afro style. As the thousand grains of lead tore through the roof (happily without setting fire to it withmuzzle blast), there was a tremendous roar that blended with the twin crash of the shots. Capstick. 9x6x1. Reviewed in the United States on October 23, 2022. Watching the sun sink and waiting for time to pass, We prepare for darkness and possible death in the long grass; Moving slowly, one step and then two, we lay in position waiting for what to do . After giving up his career, the New Jersey native hunted in Central and South America before going to Africa in 1968, where he held professional hunting licenses in Ethiopia, Zambia, Botswana, and Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe). Wounded lions' scores for homicide are probably about as high as genuine man-eaters, but obviously the moral considerations are quite different. He's been living in the long grass for about six months. After reading Death in the Long Grass I ordered and read 4 of his other books. I didn't miss the second time as he dragged himself toward me with his front paws.Lion charges are usually, but not always, preceded by a short grunt, which is a great aid in locating the cat. His jaws opened and the long, white canines drove into the unsuspecting victim's temples, piercing the thin bone past the eye sockets, and sank into the brain like driven spikes. He would have to be able to see the lioness to risk a safe shot. Silent whistled for me, and I walked over to see the pool of dried blood on the crusted blanket where the man had received his fatal bite. The killing of a lion seems to excite Africans more than any other species, and this was no exception. In a reflex motion, I spun around and slammed the sides of the barrels against the flank of the lion, who was in midair, close enough to shake hands with. The cat, standing over me, growling horribly, seemed confused, then bounded back to attack Silent. We are sorry. Read more. The first shot fired by De Beer had caught her in the lungs, the second in the shoulder, and the third, traveling at a muzzle velocity of 3,000 feet per second, pierced the cat's right cheek, completely smashed Colin's hand and knuckles, which were inside the lioness' mouth, and then passed harmlessly through the left cheek. A thoughtful author who does well to inform and explain. In the 1920s it was fashionable for young British bloods to amuse themselves lion hunting on horseback in such areas as the Athi Plains. Quivering with adrenalin we listened to it growling ferociously thirty yards in the cover.I led the men back a few yards to have a cigarette and hoped the bloody thing would die before I had to go in and drag it out. The lion, as if he had a shopping list, entered a railway car and killed the man in the company of two other whites, one of whom the lion had to stand upon to reach the sleeping Ryall in an upper berth. Death in The Long Grass by Peter Hathaway Capstick An entertaining read about Hathaway Capstick's experiences in the African Bush. I am, however, a believer in the sooner-or-later theory, sort of an offshoot of Murphy's Law, which, paraphrased, states that if you stick your neck out with the stuff that bites back enough times, you're going to get it sooner or later. I grabbedthe rifle and electric torch, pulled the thorn fence away, and dashed barefoot toward the screams. Actually, all of the man-eaters I have shot or inspected after someone else killed them have been in the blush of health with the exception of one old lioness in Ethiopia who had a horribly deformed lower jaw, from the bone of which I extracted a two-and-a-half-inch chunk of iron curtain rod shot there by a hydrocephalic moron with a muzzle loader. Readers can lean back in a chair, sip a tall, iced drink, and revel in the kinds of hunting stories Hemingway and Ruark used to hear in hotel bars from Nairobi to Johannesburg, as veteran hunters would tell of what they heard beyond the campfire and saw through the sights of an express rifle. Silent started off on the now-cold trail carrying the water bag, a pouch of biltong (wind- and shade-dried meat), and his long spear.The afternoon sun seared our shoulders as we followed the spoor into the bush and finally found the spot in the, where the lion had settled down for his meal.The prints of the hyena were over those of the cat, and the most we could recover was a tooth-scarred chunk of lower jawbone and some splinters of unidentifiable bone. It dawned on him that the lioness must be standing on the stock. Some of these items ship sooner than the others. We were checking a bait one morning when I caught a movement out of the corner of an eye and saw this lion walking sedately across a small, , or flat, as casually as you please.I told the gentleman to please place a large hole in it with all dispatch, and he got into shooting position. I just read it again, and loved it just as much as when it was first published Apparently, the pride had left, so I went back to my cot and fell asleep, lions or no lions. The Man-eaters of Tsavo treated the project as one extended buffet table, their accomplishment having been to have eaten more imported Indian coolies than it took to film. I can only hope he was her first victim. Her stomach contained a small snake, a wad of chicken feathers, and most of Len Harvey's face. I use the term "honest" because there are many ways to get a cat to skin; to safely bust a, across 200 yards of cover such as the putting green grass of the Kenya flats is a much simpler proposition than rooting one out of the scrub. I'd suggest your read his other books too. In the dawn light, that tree proved to be the residence of all the nomads as well as most of our crew. He taped out at a bit over nine feet, one inch, a very fine trophy. Silence blanketed the camp."Colin! It was an interesting few minutes. Coming up, he shouted and yelled at the lion to draw its attention and blew the cat's head into pudding with his own .458. Lions are not at all above scavenging and take to moderately decomposed carrion quite nicely, thanks very much. One of them, older and more weather worn, is pitched fifty yards from the others. Free shipping for many products! His wit, metaphors, descriptions all resonate--British. In a two-day period, three lions had become increasingly bold, even to the point of entering the camp and eating chickens belonging to the native staff. Assurnasirpal II claimed to have done in "370 lions like caged birds" with a spear.In ancient Greece, lion sticking was all the rage. I finally decided, after locking eyes with her for at least six months, that I would prefer the devil I didn't know to the one lying there watching me like a butcher reading a cuts chart. As thrilling as any novel, as taut and exciting as any adventure story, Peter Hathaway Capstick's Death in the Long Grass takes us deep into the heart of darkness to view Africa through the eyes of one of the most renowned professional hunters.. Few men can say they have known Africa as Capstick has known it--leading safaris through lion country; tracking man-eating leopards along tangled . One of the Italians kindly took it on his license for me, solving a very real legal problem.Interestingly, a rash of killings that had been takingplace over the past few months in an area some fifty miles upriver abruptly stopped after the incident. ${cardName} unavailable for quantities greater than ${maxQuantity}. Flattened to the ground, he crept across the open space between two huts and froze into tawny stone as he saw the three huddled forms in the shadows against the side of a hut, near the dying embers of a small fire. The hackles were crawling around on my neck like a nest of maggots, and my palms were slippery cold on the Circassian walnut stock of the rifle. In this case the price of the binge wasn't a headache, but death.The headman pointed to the north when I asked him in Fanagalo where the lion had carried his kill. I'll leave in an hour. With my heightened senses, I could now hear the animal padding through the soft dirt outside the hut, looking for a weak point. What does kick into the long grass expression mean? They did not go away, though; they just stayed out in the high grass adjacent the camp and growled. This reflex seems better developed in humans than in most big game, who have few if any natural enemies. Peter Hathaway Capstick's 'Death in the Long Grass' continues to be one of the true classics of written hunting tales. Can you give it a try before the trail cools? It did. At very least, it was quite a first night on safari for Johnnie Cox. Amazon has encountered an error. Interested in flipbooks about (PDF BOOK) Death in the Long Grass: A Big Game Hunter's Adventures in the African Bush full? Before long, these mutterings rose to a crescendo of gabble in a strange language which left me totally uninformed as to what was going on. I stopped and fingered it. She came through, and soon I was assembling my .308 rifle and shotgun. Nobody had the nerve to go to his aid. These incredibly brazen killers finally had their hash settled by a pith-helmeted paladin working for the railway, a Lieutenant Colonel J. H. Patterson, DSO, but only after a period of several months of frustrating hunting, during which time the colonel very nearly got the chop himself on several occasions. Still conscious, Len screamed for his wife to get out of the hut and run. With humor, grace, and supreme tension, Capstick takes the reader . I have seen the, in the British Museum, dating from approximately 1400 B.C. Colin could have easily shot the man-eater, but he did not. My back flat to the wall, I swung the torch in a slow, wide arc, the dark, grape-jelly gleam of blood spoor reflecting in the lightbeam. You will likely recall the sensation from your first childhood camping trip. If only the bloody Zambians would let a hunter carry sidearms! 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