I'm not much of a hunter, pheasants once in awhile, but I just finished reading a really good hunting narrative (and history/science book) called "American Buffalo" by Steven Rinella. Rinella becomes obsessed with Buffalo after finding the skull of one in Montana and then later draws a tag to hunt wild buffalo in Alaska.
The hunting tale is pretty intense (think of dealing with a 1,000-pound buffalo kill in a very remote area by yourself with grizzlies hanging around) and it's the main thread that Rinella hangs a whole bunch of stuff about buffalo on -- their behavior, their natural history, their relationship with humans past and present. All of which I found fascinating and much of it is surprising. (If you don't like digressions, you probably won't like this book.)
He doesn't talk whole lot about it, but his gun of choice is a .300 magnum rifle (almost certainly bolt action). He does mention putting duct tape over the end of the barrel when he's moving through brush, partly to keep debris out and partly to keep out ice and water. He says gas seeping around the bullet blows out the tape before the bullet reaches the end of the barrel.
Anyway, I enjoyed it a lot. I wonder if there are other hunting books like this where the authors weave a lot of history/natural history, ecology, etc. into the story. I've been thinking about checking out one of Teddy Roosevelt's hunting books.
The hunting tale is pretty intense (think of dealing with a 1,000-pound buffalo kill in a very remote area by yourself with grizzlies hanging around) and it's the main thread that Rinella hangs a whole bunch of stuff about buffalo on -- their behavior, their natural history, their relationship with humans past and present. All of which I found fascinating and much of it is surprising. (If you don't like digressions, you probably won't like this book.)
He doesn't talk whole lot about it, but his gun of choice is a .300 magnum rifle (almost certainly bolt action). He does mention putting duct tape over the end of the barrel when he's moving through brush, partly to keep debris out and partly to keep out ice and water. He says gas seeping around the bullet blows out the tape before the bullet reaches the end of the barrel.
Anyway, I enjoyed it a lot. I wonder if there are other hunting books like this where the authors weave a lot of history/natural history, ecology, etc. into the story. I've been thinking about checking out one of Teddy Roosevelt's hunting books.
