October 1960: Avalanche!
This photo appeared in a hyperbolic account of an ibex hunt taken in the mountains of Pakistan in the late '50s. Author Count S. Krasicki is already injured and hungry when his party is struck by an avalanche, which strips the clothes from his guide, and they get stuck on the mountainside for days. Eventually he shoots this buck for the meat rather than the horns. The caption on this photo reads: "I could summon up no elation when I was photographed with my ibex, for I was completely exhausted and racked by pain.". Field & Stream Online Editors
This photo appeared in a hyperbolic account of an ibex hunt taken in the mountains of Pakistan in the late '50s. Author Count S. Krasicki is already injured and hungry when his party is struck by an avalanche, which strips the clothes from his guide, and they get stuck on the mountainside for days. Eventually he shoots this buck for the meat rather than the horns. The caption on this photo reads: "I could summon up no elation when I was photographed with my ibex, for I was completely exhausted and racked by pain.". Field & Stream Online Editors
According to the story this photo was published in, Cecil H. Sheldon was a Kansas lad who caught the wanderlust and got himself “stationed in the Phillipines” (it’s unclear whether or not he was in the military, though he was apparently some sort of teacher). At the time his “heart’s desire” was to kill a carabao, or wild Phillipine water buffalo, on the island of Mindoro. The article, titled “Exploring in the Phillipines,” details his adventures in the jungle in pursuit of his quest. The photo above shows Sheldon with his guide, an old man named Dali-onin. Field & Stream Online Editors
This picture (and the picture in the following slide) appeared in an article about the debate over whether or not “wolves” were returning to New York’s Adirondack Mountains. The article comes down on the side of those who say that the big canines had indeed returned, citing these photos as evidence, but it is confusing in that it calls the animals “Western brush wolves,” probably meaning coyotes. Indeed, the critter in the photo above appears to be a coyote. But check out the next slide, which is definitely an image of timber wolf and appears in the same story. Field & Stream Online Editors
This and the following photo appeared in an April 1932 account of a big game hunt in Indo-China titled “In the Land of the Sladang.” Shown here is author Edison Marshall, a famous adventure writer of his day, with a tiger (above) and a mouse deer (next slide). Field & Stream Online Editors
A monster of a jaguar. The photo appears in a story titled “Venezuela: Sportsman’s New Frontier” by A.J. McClane. “This is the report of two Field & Stream men who surveyed Venezuela’s hunting and fishing at government invitation, and who bring back some spectacular good news.” McClane and F&S Director George Bass travel to this South American country to sample the hunting and fishing at the request of its minister of the interior. They split up; Bass heads to the coast for some deep-sea fishing while McClane treks inland to fish for dorado, peacock bass, and payara and hunt for jaguar, ducks, and quail. “El Tigre is a dangerous animal. Full-grown, he weighs 350 pounds or more and is capable of disembowling a steer with onw swipe of his paw.” The article does not say if McClane shot this animal or just took its picture. Field & Stream Online Editors
James L. Clark, a director of the American Museum of Natural History “and one of the foremost authorities on big-game animals,” with an African rhino. The story this photo appears in, titled “Are They Killers?,” is an unusual departure from the normally sensational tone of most other big game articles published in the magazine at that time. In it, Clark argues that big game animals are often misunderstood, and that “man’s trouble with animals is not so much that they are dangerous but that he is dangerous ….” Field & Stream Online Editors
“Safari For Simba” was published in March of 1950. This photo shows one of F&S’s regular contributors at the time, Russell Barnett Aitken, with a lion he shot in Kenya. Aitken killed this big male on the stalk from 50 yards away as it was charging. Here’s a great line from the article; “It’s a phlegmatic nimrod indeed who can sleep calmly when the challenge of Simba first echoes through the black night across the far-flung veldt.” And another; “Upon your performance on your first shot depends the future proximity of your gun-bearer at some crucial moment.” Field & Stream Online Editors
Author Verna Buttles with her “Spotted Nightmare,” as the article in which this photo appears is titled. Buttles’ close encounter with a leopard she wounds (“I looked at my tooth-gashed rifle and shivered. Hours earlier I had seen the snapping jaws of a leopard splinter the heavy black walnut stock …”) is the subject of this story. Apparently the big cat seriously injured three men before succumbing to its wounds. Though the rifle stock in this photo seems suspiciously un-splintered … Field & Stream Online Editors
This unique photograph is apparently an outtake from a June 1952 profile of Edgar Monsanto Queeny, a former chairman of the now giant agribusiness conglomerate Monsanto, and, according to the article, a passionate documentary photographer of African wildlife and culture. On the back of the print is typed: “Madi (a tribe) hippo hunter on The White Nile, in The Sudan.” Note the large log float to which the harpoon’s rope is tied. Field & Stream Online Editors
This is Warren Page, with an ibex (location of the shot unknown). The picture appears in one of his columns, in which he is reviewing “sporting guns that shoot.” Field & Stream Online Editors
There was no ‘date published’ information located anywhere on this print. But written on its back in red grease pencil are the words “Andandi dancing around a lion they have speared. Africa. Photo by Kermit Roosevelt.” According to Dave Petzal, (who is not only our venerated gun columnist but also, by virtue of his advanced age, our resident Field & Stream historian), this is the same Kermit Roosevelt, son of Teddy, who accompanied his father on T.R.’s famous 1909 “collecting expedition” to Africa. For more on this expedition, check out the following web site: (www.eyewitnesshistory.com). It’s not the most hunter-friendly of history sites, but it has some great first-hand accounts of the Roosevelt safari. The following general info was taken from the site: > > “In April 1909, (Teddy) landed in Mambasa with his son Kermit. Roosevelt, at the head of a safari including 250 porters and guides, trekked across British East Africa, into the Belgian Congo and back to the Nile ending in Khartoum. The ex-president thoroughly enjoyed himself. The expedition collected 1,100 specimens, including 500 big game ….. Between the two of them, Theodore and Kermit slew 512 beasts including 17 lion, 11 elephant and 20 rhinoceros.” Field & Stream Online Editors
From the article “Trying for Tigers” by Lieutenant John C. Grable. The caption reads “Lieuntenant Grable with banteng killed at range of about ten yards while charging.” Field & Stream Online Editors
This photo appeared in a story about hunting bear, moose, and caribou in British Columbia titled “AHunting with George” and written by H. Glynn-Ward. Here the author’s native Canadian guide ponders an enormous caribou bull that the author has just taken as it was fighting another bull. He’s probably thinking something like “great, now I have to butcher this darn thing by all myself.” Field & Stream Online Editors
Another military man on an exotic big game hunt. Colonel Thomas Stark travels to India and shoots this large sloth bear after it scares off a cheetal stag he was stalking. The article he wrote is titled “A Few Days in an Indian Jungle.” This photo’s caption reads; “The great bear and my faithful gun bearers, Boma and Soma.” Field & Stream Online Editors