Rooting man-eating lions out of thick cover is not my idea of good fun. Some professionals show their assorted scars with pride, but I don't feel that way. On De Beer's legs and Matthew's eyes, they staggered back to the house where Mrs. De Beer drove the thirty miles to Main Camp, Wankie, for the Rhodesian army helicopter that evacuated the victims at five the next morning.Rescuers found Len Harvey's body where it lay in the hut, partially eaten by the lioness. Amazon has encountered an error. 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. He ran forward, spear leveled. Somehow he tugged it free, the sudden release making him fall backward. I'm not much of a reader, but this may have changed that. Used; Good. And, remember, those are just the ones we know of.The scores of other man-eaters in central and south-east Africa, such as the Mpika lions, the Revugwi man-eaters,the Chabunkwa lion that I killed, and literally dozens of others, less famous because of remoteness, have killed without question many tens of thousands of people in this century alone. Silent entered with my flask, and we were able to get a gagging shot down his throat. The fact that a man-eating feline is the most difficult animal in the world to hunt can be explained by the cat's ability to learn well and quickly. The cat gave a horrible roar and released Silent as I wrenched the spear free, the long point bright with blood. In the excitement he was, he was actually shooting at the lion, and to this day I suspect he wonders if I pulled some sort of practical joke.Another hunter friend of mine reports that, upon seeing his first lion at close range, his client threw away his rifle and ran like a lunatic straight after the big cat. After reading Death in the Long Grass I ordered and read 4 of his other books. Reviewed in the United States on December 7, 2022. The banks of the river in this area are perhaps forty to fifty feet high, and below them is one of the niftiest collections of large crocodiles and hippos you would ever want to see. 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. Since the sun was already down, they ran as fast as they could toward the sound and actually caught up with a big lion within shooting distance. An animal that can and does kill Cape buffalo with a single bite doesn't waste much time sorting out a mere human.As we approached the thick cover, Silent and I stopped to peel off our bush jackets lest they scrape against a branch or thorn giving away our presence or position. Yet, they kept at it until, almost at dark the last day of the safari, they heard a lion roaring a mile away. Capstick. Her beauty, h." Definitions by the largest Idiom Dictionary. In heavy bush country men sometimes stumble onto lions that have no sense of humor. "Sorry to bugger your holiday," he told me, "but something's come up . The damp, soft soil muffled our stealthy walking on the outsides of our feet, the quietest way to stalk, as we slid through the mottled murk with pounding hearts, ringing ears, and stomachs full of bats.My mind went over the lion charges I had met before: the quick jerking of the tail tuft, the paralyzing roar, and the low, incredibly fast rush, bringing the white teeth in the center of bristling mane closer in a blur of speed. But he did not see the paw stroke that tore through the skin of his forehead and grated on his skull bone. A very good read. In 1977, he published his first book, Death in the Long Grass, [2] which became a commercial success and established his reputation as an author of true adventure stories. I went back into the hut. The whole camp and our nomad neighbors broke into an uproar, people screaming and running all over the place. for catching humans. Good, old Silent, trying to draw the lion off me, armed with nothing but a spear. 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). If they were made the night before, the standard procedure is to say your prayers, load your heavy rifle, and follow the tracks to the point where the lion has "lain up" for the hot daylight hours, usually sleeping in the thickest tangle of crud it can find until it cools off and darkness falls.The impossibly slow and hopefully soundless creeping through the blast-furnace heat of midday, with visibility often less than ten yards, is enough to rattle the nerves of a snake charmer. A lion can cover forty-five feet quicker than you can pronounce it. For Peter Hankin, one of central Africa's most experienced professional white hunters, the last safari is over.It is light before Hankin's clients, unarmed and cowering in their tents while listening to the wet feeding sounds, can escape and seek help. For proof to the contrary, it is interesting to consult the excellent table compiled by Peter Turnbull-Kemp, the well-known South African game ranger and author, on the age and condition of eighty-nine known lion man-eaters at death: 91 percent of the killers were either in "good" or "fair" condition when disposed of; only 13.3 percent were "aged" and uninjured, and a mere 4.4 percent aged and injured by any cause, including man.Aside from those lions forced through injury to a life of homicide, there are many ways that normal lions may take up man-eating. ""Bugger hit the village just this side of the Munyamadzi--know it?--around midnight last night, so far as the report goes. We left them behind with the water bag after I removed the cartridges from mine. We found two dead lions, which were triumphantly dragged back to camp by the now-intrepid occupants of the tree. I shouted to the client to take the second one since it seemed to have a better mane. My only complaint is that it's not 4 times longer. Death in the long grass by Capstick, Peter Hathaway. The Digital and eTextbook ISBNs for Death in the Long Grass are 9781466803923, 1466803924 and the print ISBNs are 9780312186135, 0312186134. I bought Capstick's "Death in the Long Grass." My first Africa Safari-type book. If you are a professional, every stitched seam on your body shows that you're probably not very good at it. ""Stand by, please," I answered. Can you give it a try before the trail cools? I sneaked my eyes open but saw nothing in the pale moonlight filtering through the tall acacias. I did not make that walk ever again without a rifle.Another night in Sidamo Province, just across the Ethiopian border from the Northern Frontier District of Kenya, I was camped with the late, great Christian Pollet, a famous professional hunter from the Congo. It was that sun-downer or three that made you forget the saber-toothed tsetse flies and the pain in the small of your back, like a hot, knotted cable from too many miles bent over tracking. Shooting a lion in the tail in high grass with a rifle in the dark of night is difficult. 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. 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. De Beer, completely blind and helpless, could only scream as the lioness ate him alive.Ten feet away, petrified with terror, Colin Matthews stood watching the cat ravage his father-in-law. For amoment she hesitates, but her ancestral fear of the smell is washed over by the desperation of her hunger. Death in the Long Grass (1978 edition) | Open Library Peter Capstick Last edited by Tom Morris January 5, 2022 | History Edit An edition of Death in the Long Grass (1978) Death in the Long Grass A Big Game Hunter's Adventures in the African Bush by Peter Capstick 0 Ratings 0 Want to read 0 Currently reading 0 Have read Overview View 1 Edition Great writing style. 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. Bending down, I defined the clear pugmark of a big, male lion. sermon | 134 views, 2 likes, 1 loves, 14 comments, 1 shares, Facebook Watch Videos from Peace Missionary Baptist Church - Durham, NC: Reverend Dr. D.. I knew him as one of the most experienced and talented professional hunters in all Africa, an immensely respected gentleman and a good friend. I had heard lions roaring in the distance but thought nothing of it at the time. I told them, and myself, that the odds of the lion returning were pretty slim, but when I left, that hut was better defended than the Alamo. Snatching up a new flaming brand, she opened the door and ran for the village, right past the lion, who let her go. Sell it yourself Shop with confidence eBay Money Back Guarantee Get the item you ordered or get your money back. In the light of the small plant he grabbed a Model 70 Winchester in .375 H&H caliber, and a Parker-Hale .243, both bolt-action rifles, along with a handful of cartridges for each. Snarling fit to freeze the man's blood, he tore away a section of the grass wall and squeezed his head through, right next to Silent's waist.The little gunbearer scrambled around the floor trying to find his spear without success. As from a long distance, he could hear Colin shrieking over his pain. They were dimly-lit in the semi-darkness of the camp. He was later trapped and, after being displayed, shot.Although there is virtually no area in Africa that has not recorded a degree of man-eating activity, some localities are historically much more dangerous than others. Showing 4 featured editions. Wide open fields of grain hold our quarry and it's here that part 2 of our story. I looked out and saw the world's biggest lion walking past my cot, growling in that low, gutteral tone they apparently use to scare things. Behind its bleached cloth and netting walls, a slender white man sleeps fitfully, tossing in the humid spring silence as greasy sweat darkens the sheets of his camp bed. It was hard, dangerous hunting that I had quit rather than risk a client's being chewed up. My nerves were further jangled when the second client screamed, "Watch it! 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. Inside the travel-dented locker lie three flat five-packs of Kynoch 300-grain soft-point cartridges for the battered, silver-worn, old rifle, a Cogswell and Harrison, .375 Holland and Holland Magnum in caliber. A murmur of voices arising from somewhere in our camp indicated that I was not alone in my apprehension. As lions go, he was a real beaut, well over nine feet and with an anthracite neckpiece that grew down to his cuticles. Through all the firing, he had stayed not ten feet from the wounded one and, if the American had not spotted his creeping up on me, I would likely have been given the New Look. Death in the Long Grass: A Big Game Hunter's Adventures in the African Bush Hardcover - Illustrated, 15 Jan. 1978 by Peter Hathaway Capstick (Author) 992 ratings See all formats and editions Kindle Edition 10.44 Read with Our Free App Hardcover 21.11 5 Used from 17.00 6 New from 20.92 Mass Market Paperback 20.00 3 Used from 20.00 Your right!" Just maybe tonight Man-eating lions have had an almost unbelievable influence on the continent of Africa since the first European explorers and developers began to open up the bush in earnest. St. Martin's Press, 1978-01-15. Some damage to the cover sleeve. "The fact that those lions were not driven off or particularly intimated by repeated rifle fire is fair evidence, Ibelieve, that they were reasonably desperate. these animals wont take any prisoners. Littlehampton Book Services Ltd. First Edition. Writing this, I find it difficult to describe the almost dreamy sense of complacency I felt, almost drugged.A shout penetrated this haze. "But you've shot my hand off. Seconds pass, then the lioness rises and begins to ooze forward, gliding like a tawny wraith between deep clumps of shadow. I have walked up to within a few feet of sleeping lions, elephants, and rhinos, who never noticed me. No blood. I eventually declined the presidency of the republic and got to thinking about the consequences of having bashed this chap. Death in the Long Grass. A post-mortem on thebody of Peter Hankin determines that, mercifully, he died instantly of a broken neck from the lioness' first bite. Eligible for Return, Refund or Replacement within 30 days of receipt. Many lion charges are successful because, considering the velocity, the gunner doesn't hold a low enough lead factor. ""No one had been bitten. 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