Hunted

[Snapshot]

I have this book called "Hunted- A true story of survival", written by a British mountain climber named David Fletcher.

 

The author relives a true life and death adventure of a trip to Alaska in the 1990's to climb Mount Hess, where he accidentally kills a Grizzly cub, and is hunted through the wilderness and a glacial moraine by the ticked off mother of the Grizzly cub.

 

The story is very captivating and exciting, however, I just have a hard believing some of the story. This guy ends up killing the sow Grizzly in the end by getting her to topple a large ice block on herself. He had no weapons save his ice pick.

 

I was wondering if anyone has read this book, and what your opinion on it would be.

[firstcoueswas80]

Sounds like a book that would interest me! Which that doesnt happen to often!

[Snapshot]

Sounds like a book that would interest me! Which that doesnt happen to often!

 

You are welcome to borrow it sometime.

 

[billrquimby]

If such stories are of interest, I suggest you hunt up some of Jim Corbet's books. He lived for a time in colonial India and his specialty was hunting man-eating tigers and leopards there. His tales will make the hair on your neck stand up, and they are true and verifiable stories. Other good books of the same genre are "Hunters of Man" by Captain John H. Brandt and "Some Bears Kill" by an author whose name I've forgotten. Check www.alibris.com for similar titles.

 

Bill Quimby

[Huntn coues]

I have the same book but have not read it yet.

 

I will soon.

[Snapshot]

If such stories are of interest, I suggest you hunt up some of Jim Corbet's books. He lived for a time in colonial India and his specialty was hunting man-eating tigers and leopards there. His tales will make the hair on your neck stand up, and they are true and verifiable stories. Other good books of the same genre are "Hunters of Man" by Captain John H. Brandt and "Some Bears Kill" by an author whose name I've forgotten. Check www.alibris.com for similar titles.

 

Bill Quimby

 

I have read that Jim Corbett book a couple of times. He has some excellent stories on hunting those man eating tigers in India.

 

 

[billrquimby]

If such stories are of interest, I suggest you hunt up some of Jim Corbet's books. He lived for a time in colonial India and his specialty was hunting man-eating tigers and leopards there. His tales will make the hair on your neck stand up, and they are true and verifiable stories. Other good books of the same genre are "Hunters of Man" by Captain John H. Brandt and "Some Bears Kill" by an author whose name I've forgotten. Check www.alibris.com for similar titles.

 

Bill Quimby

 

I have read that Jim Corbett book a couple of times. He has some excellent stories on hunting those man eating tigers in India.

 

Corbet wrote at least four, maybe more, books about hunting man-eaters in India. All are worth reading at least once. I wish he also would have written about his time in Africa. He was quite a guy.

 

Bill Quimby

 

[audsley]

I once read a collection of Corbett's stories (the Rudaprayag Leopard, etc.), and while Corbett was a great storyteller, I had serious reservations about his veracity.

 

What caused me to doubt him is that all of his stories ended with dramatic confrontations in which he was almost killed but managed to get off a killing shot just before his quarry pounced on him.

 

Most or all of these stories followed the same pattern: the British colonial government has sought Corbett's services to track down and eliminate a tiger or leopard that has gone on a killing spree eating dozens or hundreds of unarmed Indian/Pakistani peasants, all of whom are now looking to the great white hunter to end the terror reign. Corbett follows spoor and sits over bait sites with no luck until the mankiller finally surprises him and Corbett barely lifts his rifle in time to drill the beast before it's on him.

 

I would think most of these adventures should have ended with the cat simply being shot over bait in fairly mundane fashion, but Corbett didn't seem to have any stories that ended that way. I suppose one could argue that he might have had such stories but simply didn't bother to write about them because they aren't exciting enough. But how many tigers and leopards would one need to shoot in order to kill 8 or 10 in mid-lunge so they fall dead at your feet?

 

I believe that in Corbett's time, and for a long time after that, it was accepted practice among outdoor and adventure writers to never let the facts get in the way of a good story. Maybe it still is today. I recall a few years back one of the major outdoor magazines reprinted a story by Zane Grey recounting his Mexican hunting adventure in which he and a partner were treed by a savage band of peccaries that snapped their deadly canine teeth and wouldn't leave until a clever guide set fire to the forest, thus driving away the beasts with the smoke.

 

And who believes Ernest Hemingway deliberately shot a hawk through the wing on in order to keep it as a pet for several months, nursed it back to health and eventually released it back into nature?

[billrquimby]

<<<<< I recall a few years back one of the major outdoor magazines reprinted a story by Zane Grey recounting his Mexican hunting adventure in which he and a partner were treed by a savage band of peccaries that snapped their deadly canine teeth and wouldn't leave until a clever guide set fire to the forest, thus driving away the beasts with the smoke.>>>>

 

Are you sure this wasn't Russell Annabel? He and Elgin Gates were notorious for adding thrills to their stories during the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s. Annabel wrote a bit about his time in Mexico, and Gates usually travelled to more exotic places.

 

Zane Grey did write a series of articles based in Mexico called "Down An Unknown Jungle River" for Field and Stream in the 1930s, and that could have been where you read about that overimaginative incident.

 

From what I remember of Grey's other articles and novels, though, he highly romanticized the characters in his western novels but pretty much told it straight when it came to hunting and fishing. At my age I seem to remember only what I want, though.

 

Bill Quimby