"Death in the Long Grass"

[boartuff]

I've read "Death in the Dark Continent" and "Death in the Tall Grass," myself and loved them.Thanks to this thread,I too am inspired to "dig" them out again!It's been years since I read them one cold,snow filled winter.

The movie "Ghost and the Darkness" is one of my very favorite of all time!Very ironic,within a week after I'd read the book,out comes the movie.I got to relive it all over again.Portrayed almost to a T,wasn't it!

Thank you to everyone which made posts in this topic!

 

[burgerman]

I loved reading Capstick, and have most of his books, then I bought his entire video series. What a disappointment! The guy is NOTHING like the impression you get from reading his stories. Advice, stick with the books..

I collect African and India safari / adventure early printings. Some of my favorites:
John Boyes (not hunting but a great read)
Bell
Selous
Lyell
Corbett
Roosevelt

 

[bohunter3]

I just finished reading Death in the Long grass. Pretty neat book. I really enjoyed reading it. I wonder how much of it is really true. Anyone out there who has read this, is it pretty acurate? or way over exagerated?

 

[Tsmola]

I asked my mom to get me "Death in the Long Grass" for Christmas, I've been wanting to read that and some of his other books for a while now, but just never got around to doing it, I might pick up some other books as well after Christmas. For those that didn't know, I've seen a lot of his books in stock at Barnes and Noble, if you have one in your area it's worth checking out.

The Ghost and the Darkness is a great movie too, I have it on DVD haven't watched it in a while though

 

[GuidesForHire]

My good friend and my PH, Robert Weber, jingled me about this fallaciousness attributted to Peter H. Capstick.

I knew Peter as did Robert.

Peter was a professional hunter before there were professional hunters.
Peter's life was a novel in itself. From wall street to winchester to south america to africa and around the globe ever hunting and fishing.

The file cabinets are all still there old boy, you won't find any BS in his cropping reports, he ticked off every last one of them and had the tails to prove them.

I had the pleasure of being in camp more than once and Peter was, to be blunt, a jumpy fellow. He often chided other white hunters for walking without a firearm at port arms at all times.

I have seen Peter become hyper sensitive to a hippo that was all of 100 meters away. he always saw a charge as being imminent.

He bore many scars of close calls with chui, mainly, but others as well.

It should be pointed out that he was one of the only white hunters NOT to be given the chop by a large animal. I suppose you could say his alertness to a possible attack paid off, what.

If you're going to speak ill of the dead look over your shoulder and make certain that his mates are not at the bar with you.

yours humbly c/o Robert Weber,
E. Jeremiah Talon
born USA, lived Rhodesia 1963 until 1976
pretoria then knyasa SA until 1991
LongBoat Key, FL currently

 

[jjhack]

He worked as a travel agent in South Africa while he wrote the book death in the long grass. He never worked a day in the bush as a PH during that time. This came to me straight from his own lips! What kind of non-sense are you talking about! Maybe there are two different guys named Peter Capstick, Yeah thats it! You can read several different articles about his autobiography and it tells the same story!

If he killed all the game he claimed living in Africa less then 20-24 years he was hunting there. He would have had to kill more game then anyone alive per year that he was there. How is it that I work with 25 different PH's in Africa all with many many years of Dangerous game experience and none of us have been charged or threatened 1% of the time Capstick was. If we add all our experience together we don't dent the dangerous game threats he had!

If he was truely writing about his personal life experiences he was either the most unlucky man alive to have been in trouble so many times, or completley inept about putting himself in harms way. Nobody could be as lucky to escape that many narrow scrapes as he did and still make through all of them alive and unhurt!

Sorry I have been working there 11 years now and I went to school there. His stories may be great reading can't take that away from him. However the truth is not closely related to the text, at least not with him being personaly involved in the events!

 

[Hntrjohn]

Maybe I should read my copy of Death in The long Grass. I bought used a few years ago. It says nothing about being a secound printing or not. Just copyright 1977.

 

[VABEARHUNTER]

im not much on huntin in africa but after reading these post i truley am going to check out some of these books.i saw the movie THE GHOST AND THE DARKNESS.and realy enjoyed that,but if the book is better,witch is usally the case.ill have to read that one,i knew a guy here in virginia named henry baskervill,he said he was a guide in africa and used to tell me stories of his hunts,i really enjoyed listening to him

 

[mrgadget]

Based on this post I bought the book last week for my hunting partner for Christmas....I hope to read it when he's done with it!

 

[sdbowyer]

Wouldn't Peters time that he worked as a Cropper (correct?) for certain governments account for having killed large numbers of animals? More than the typical PH?

 

[jjhack]

On the surface that might make sense but since he was not a citizen of RSA he could not get a government job. You cannot work at "culling game" on public land unless yoru a Licensed PH. SO those two issues would be clear reasons to question his writing in the early years. He eventually became a PH but it was long after the first book or two were written.

 

[bohunter3]

Ok,
I'm stupid.... Whats a "PH"?

 

[sdbowyer]

I don't know the guy and I really don't have a dog in this fight. But just to clarify, in "Long Grass" he said he was a cropping officer for the country of Zambia under Bob Langeveldt, not SA. Different rules maybe?

PH = Professional Hunter.

 

[Widux]

As i have posted before i went to HS with Peter- a good guy- we were not real close then and lost contact for many years but got to writing and comparing notes again several years before hism death when he was in RSA and I was in AK- he was coming to visit after the SCI convention the year he died- he was a very interedsting writer and thankfully never took him self quite seriously- on the day thr uSA put a man on th emoon he shot mucho elephants for the Govt- kind of always founf that interesting as to what goes on in different places at same time.

 

[shufigo]

Gregg - Speck and all -- Funny you should mention Ruark's Old Man and the Boy, and the sequel. I just picked up the paperback copy (75cents) that I gave my younger brother in 1963, and that he later returned. I took it up to my hunt club, and casually mentioned to one of the junior members that he might like to read it. He never put it down -- read it right thru the night. Gave me an idea -- we've only got about a half dozen junior members, and they're each going to get a paperback copy, as soon as I can find them. What a great way to reinforce all the things that are right about our way of life and liesure!! Consider getting a copy or two, and get them out to the young outdoorsmen that you know! For those of us who now claim "Old Man" status from having carried the rod and gun for more than a couple years, consider loaning out (and carefully tracking) some selected copies of the stuff that you loved. Let's pass it on....

 

[Tsmola]

well, I'm enjoying this book so far, some of those animal attack stories are pretty gruesome

still been a great read so far, I'm gonna have to pick up some more of his books when I finish this one

 

[chukkars]

Rimrock suggeted "Death in the Long Grass" to me 4 years ago and I finally GOT IT regarding African hunting. Read the whole book in one very sleepless night. I'm sure you feel more alive after hunting something that doesn't want you that way and, has the tools to dispatch that task post-haste! After watching the "lion video" with my boys we made a trip to the local Barnes & Noble for a copy of "Death in the Long Grass" which is now, after the Bible, required reading for the men in my family. My 13 year-old I believe said it wide-eyed the best, "WOW! THAT'S COOL!"

 

[Warren123]

Greetings all, a search for the big bore association in SA, somehow landed me up here. I found it kinda hard to leave so joined. I am yet another Capstick fan, having read all his books. From what I can gather he was born in 1940, studied worked as a broker , gave that up and went to South america as an apprentice jaguar hunter in the mid 60's. 1964 most likely.aged 24. A year later he started a travel agency "SPortsmen International" . The agency was sold to Winchester in 1967 and he worked for them , travelling and evaluating various hunting oportunities. MAny of the fishing and more exotic hunts took place during this time I believe. In 68-69 he moved to Africa as a hunter in Ethiopia. Then shortly thereafter it was to Zambia where he joined the old Luangwa safari's out of Chipata. He was also licenced in Botswana as well as Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe).
That would have been around 1970 I imagine. Death in the long grass was published in 1978, so a full 12 or so years after he started active hunting. Many of the elephant and buff encounters would have happened while working for the game departement on culling operations where numbers taken are significantly higher. Herds of 16 or so elephant were ideal sizes and quotas of 30 animals a day were given. Numbers add up quickly, and hunters like Ron Thomson have elephant numbers close to 5000. So 20 or so years of hunting and game department workand the numbers add up quickly. The time frames and numbers seem quite reasonable to me. In an industry known for jealous behaviour I would take any comments on Peter Capsticks integrity with a pinch of salt.

 

[Warren123]

back again.*S* It is not nescessary to be a licenced PH to cull game on public land in South Africa. Elephant occur either on private land or in our National Parks and any cull operations are carried out by Parks Board Officials. A work permit and employement by a Parks board could theoretically see someone culling game in SA. At present all culls are on hold and alternative methods are being investigated. Capstick was culling in Zambia for the game departement.

 

[Widux]

I could dog the letter out to check I think- but in it he wrote to my comments about being camped on the shores of Lake Nippigon with another guy and our 5 kids the night N Armstrong landed on the moon that he was shooting a large ## od elephants- something like 100 or so that day- interesting contrast.
Bt the way the canucks treated us like royalty- just because we were Yanks and so was Armstrong.