{"id":45,"date":"2016-04-07T17:15:50","date_gmt":"2016-04-07T17:15:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tma65.com\/blog\/?p=45"},"modified":"2026-05-21T11:38:45","modified_gmt":"2026-05-21T11:38:45","slug":"hunting-books-4-favorites","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.tract-optics.co.za\/hunting-books-4-favorites\/","title":{"rendered":"Hunting Books: 4 Favorites"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p><p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">As youngsters, we often discover the world through the pages of what books our parents choose to read us at bedtime. Some learn about the stars and aspire to become astronomers, which is a noble life pursuit. Fortunately, we were read the amazing adventures by some of the biggest names and greatest characters to ever hoist a <a href=\"https:\/\/blog.tractoptics.com\/rifle-scope-accessories-you-might-consider\/\" title=\"Rifle Scope Accessories You Might Consider\" data-wpil-monitor-id=\"854\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">rifle<\/a>, head afield, then live to write about it. Even as grownups, there are still works that continue to inspire us as outdoorsmen.<\/p><p><\/p><p><\/p><div id=\"ez-toc-container\" class=\"ez-toc-v2_0_85 counter-hierarchy ez-toc-counter ez-toc-grey ez-toc-container-direction\"><div class=\"ez-toc-title-container\"><p class=\"ez-toc-title\" style=\"cursor:inherit\">Table of Contents<\/p><span class=\"ez-toc-title-toggle\"><a href=\"#\" class=\"ez-toc-pull-right ez-toc-btn ez-toc-btn-xs ez-toc-btn-default ez-toc-toggle\" aria-label=\"Toggle Table of Content\"><span class=\"ez-toc-js-icon-con\"><span class=\"\"><span class=\"eztoc-hide\" style=\"display:none;\">Toggle<\/span><span class=\"ez-toc-icon-toggle-span\"><svg style=\"fill: #999;color:#999\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" class=\"list-377408\" width=\"20px\" height=\"20px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" fill=\"none\"><path d=\"M6 6H4v2h2V6zm14 0H8v2h12V6zM4 11h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2zM4 16h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2z\" fill=\"currentColor\"><\/path><\/svg><svg style=\"fill: #999;color:#999\" class=\"arrow-unsorted-368013\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" width=\"10px\" height=\"10px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" version=\"1.2\" baseProfile=\"tiny\"><path d=\"M18.2 9.3l-6.2-6.3-6.2 6.3c-.2.2-.3.4-.3.7s.1.5.3.7c.2.2.4.3.7.3h11c.3 0 .5-.1.7-.3.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7zM5.8 14.7l6.2 6.3 6.2-6.3c.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7c-.2-.2-.4-.3-.7-.3h-11c-.3 0-.5.1-.7.3-.2.2-.3.5-.3.7s.1.5.3.7z\"\/><\/svg><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/span><\/div><nav><ul class='ez-toc-list ez-toc-list-level-1 eztoc-toggle-hide-by-default' ><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-1\" href=\"https:\/\/blog.tract-optics.co.za\/hunting-books-4-favorites\/#Hunting_Trips_of_a_Ranchman_The_Wilderness_Hunter_%E2%80%93_Theodore_Roosevelt\" >Hunting Trips of a Ranchman &#038; The Wilderness Hunter&nbsp;&#8211; Theodore Roosevelt<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-2\" href=\"https:\/\/blog.tract-optics.co.za\/hunting-books-4-favorites\/#Just_Before_Dark_Collected_Nonfiction_%E2%80%93_Jim_Harrison\" >Just Before Dark: Collected Nonfiction&nbsp;&#8211; Jim Harrison<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-3\" href=\"https:\/\/blog.tract-optics.co.za\/hunting-books-4-favorites\/#Green_Hills_of_Africa_%E2%80%93_Ernest_Hemingway\" >Green Hills of Africa&nbsp;&#8211; Ernest Hemingway<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-4\" href=\"https:\/\/blog.tract-optics.co.za\/hunting-books-4-favorites\/#Death_in_the_Long_Grass_%E2%80%93_Peter_Capstick\" >Death in the Long Grass&nbsp;&nbsp;&#8211; Peter Capstick<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/nav><\/div><h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Hunting_Trips_of_a_Ranchman_The_Wilderness_Hunter_%E2%80%93_Theodore_Roosevelt\"><\/span><em>Hunting Trips of a Ranchman &#038; The Wilderness Hunter<\/em>&nbsp;&#8211; Theodore Roosevelt<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2><p><\/p><p><\/p><p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Written during his days as a ranchman in the Dakota Badlands, these&nbsp;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Hunting-Trips-Ranchman-Wilderness-Hunter\/dp\/0375751521\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">two wilderness tales<\/a>&nbsp;by our 26th president Theodore Roosevelt endure today as part of the classic folklore of the mostly unexplored West. The narratives provide vivid portraits of the land as well as the people and animals that inhabited it, underscoring Roosevelt\u2019s abiding concerns as a naturalist.<br \/>Originally published in 1885,&nbsp;Hunting Trips of a Ranchman&nbsp;chronicles Roosevelt\u2019s adventures tracking a 1,200-pound grizzly <a href=\"https:\/\/tractoptics.com\/blog\/hunting-safely-in-bear-country\/\" title=\"Hunting Safely in Bear Country\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">bear<\/a> in the pine forests of the Bighorn Mountains. Yet some of the best sections are those in which Roosevelt muses on the beauty of the Badlands and the simple pleasures of ranch life.<br \/><em>The Wilderness <a href=\"https:\/\/tractoptics.com\/blog\/30mm-vs-1-inch-rifle-scope\/\" title=\"30mm vs 1 Inch Rifle Scope\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Hunter<\/a>, which came out in 1893, remains perhaps the most detailed account of the grizzly bear ever recorded. Plus, TR <a href=\"https:\/\/blog.tractoptics.com\/all-about-hog-hunting\/\" title=\"All About Hog Hunting\" data-wpil-monitor-id=\"619\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">hunts<\/a> antelope, mountain sheep, caribou, elk, moose, among other wild game of the west. There is an introduction by Stephen E. Ambrose, perhaps most notably known for Band of Brothers, which became an HBO series of the same name.<br \/>Note: These two stories are now published as one book.<\/p><p><\/p><p><\/p><h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Just_Before_Dark_Collected_Nonfiction_%E2%80%93_Jim_Harrison\"><\/span><em>Just Before Dark: Collected Nonfiction<\/em>&nbsp;&#8211; Jim Harrison<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2><p><\/p><p><\/p><p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Jim Harrison is no stranger to the <a href=\"https:\/\/blog.tract-optics.co.za\/tag\/outdoors\/\">outdoors<\/a>. In this&nbsp;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Just-Before-Dark-Jim-Harrison\/dp\/061800193X\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">collection of essays<\/a>&nbsp;written between 1965 and 1991, he speaks strongly on the matters of \u201cFood\u201d and \u201cTravel and Sport,\u201d pulling no punches as he decries the ugliness of wasteful butchery of wildlife and <a href=\"https:\/\/blog.tract-optics.co.za\/tag\/nature\/\">nature<\/a> in general. He\u2019s quick to poke fun at \u201cdimwitted machismo\u201d and literary snobbishness, both equally available in the many classes of outdoor writers.<\/p><p><\/p><p><\/p><p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">From trout and ice fishing the waters of the United States to stag <a href=\"https:\/\/tractoptics.com\/blog\/category\/hunting\/\" title=\"hunting\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">hunting<\/a> in France and his obsession of nouvelle cuisine,&nbsp;Just Before Dark&nbsp;explores the passions and concerns of a man who was one of America\u2019s finest writers and a self-proclaimed \u201camateur naturalist.\u201d<\/p><p><\/p><p><\/p><h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Green_Hills_of_Africa_%E2%80%93_Ernest_Hemingway\"><\/span><em>Green Hills of Africa<\/em>&nbsp;&#8211; Ernest Hemingway<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2><p><\/p><p><\/p><p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">How can we create a list of classic <a class=\"wpil_keyword_link\" href=\"https:\/\/tractoptics.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" title=\"hunting\" data-wpil-keyword-link=\"linked\" data-wpil-monitor-id=\"275\">hunting<\/a> books and not include Ernest Hemingway? In&nbsp;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Green-Hills-Africa-Ernest-Hemingway\/dp\/0684801299\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><em>Green Hills of Africa<\/em><\/a>, he is living and hunting East Africa with his wife Pauline. Divided into four parts, including \u201cPursuit and Conversation,\u201d \u201cPursuit Remember,\u201d \u201cPursuit and Failure\u201d and \u201cPursuit and Happiness,\u201d the book is equally interspersed with ruminations about literature and Hemingway\u2019s own adventures of a big-game hunter.<\/p><p><\/p><p><\/p><p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The events described in the book took place in 1933 though the first edition, which printed just over ten thousand copies, wasn\u2019t published until 1935. For hunters and the avid fan of Papa Hemingway, this is one of the best collections of nonfiction still in print.<\/p><p><\/p><p><\/p><h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Death_in_the_Long_Grass_%E2%80%93_Peter_Capstick\"><\/span><em>Death in the Long Grass<\/em>&nbsp;&nbsp;&#8211; Peter Capstick<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2><p><\/p><p><\/p><p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Peter Hathaway Capstick was no stranger to the perils of Africa. Just shy of his 30th birthday, he walked away from a successful career on Wall Street to pursue his dreams of becoming a Professional Hunter. He would eventually catch up to those dreams as a PH and game ranger in Zambia, Botswana and Rhodesia.<\/p><p><\/p><p><\/p><p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Death-Long-Grass-Hunters-Adventures\/dp\/0312186134\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><em>Death in the Long Grass<\/em><\/a>&nbsp;was his first go at a book after writing numerous articles for various sport magazines throughout the 1960s. It became a commercial success and established his reputation as an author of adventure stories.<\/p><p><\/p><p><\/p><p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The book is based on his own experiences and the personal accounts of his colleagues and portrays the great killers of the African bush, including the lion, leopard, elephant, rhino, crocodile, Cape buffalo and the greatest killer of men, the hippo. He also pays tribute to the surprisingly brave and cunning hyena, the lightning-fast black mamba snake and the wild dog. This is a great book suitable for a campfire and anyone willing to listen to you read aloud.<\/p><p><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Hunting Books: 4 Favorites | TRACT design and engineer performance-grade optics without the added retail costs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":12611,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2258,1],"tags":[2797],"class_list":["post-45","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-hunting","category-uncategorized","tag-hunting"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.tract-optics.co.za\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.tract-optics.co.za\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.tract-optics.co.za\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.tract-optics.co.za\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.tract-optics.co.za\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.tract-optics.co.za\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11598,"href":"https:\/\/blog.tract-optics.co.za\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45\/revisions\/11598"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.tract-optics.co.za\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12611"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.tract-optics.co.za\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.tract-optics.co.za\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.tract-optics.co.za\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}