Hunting The Dangerous Game Of Africa

The story of the author's life as a professional hunter and conservationist in East Africa. He recounts many of his greatest hunts, biggest trophies, narrowest escapes and liveliest campfire tales.

Sanger Rainsford is a big-game hunter, who finds himself washed up on an island owned by the eccentric General Zaroff. Zaroff, a big-game hunter himself, has heard of Rainsford’s abilities with a gun and organises a hunt. However, they’re not after animals – they’re after people. When he protests, Rainsford the hunter becomes Rainsford the hunted. Sharing similarities with "The Hunger Games", starring Jennifer Lawrence, this is the story that created the template for pitting man against man. Born in New York, Richard Connell (1893 – 1949) went on to become an acclaimed author, screenwriter, and journalist. He is best remembered for the gripping novel "The Most Dangerous Game" and for receiving an Oscar nomination for the screenplay "Meet John Doe".

"They all pledge to be back. So I believe that you mean what you say. But the odds are that you'll never be back." Less accurate words have seldom been uttered than those of professional hunter Lew Games to client Mike Miller on safari number one after Mike promised to come back as soon, and as often, as he could. Far from being the usual one-and-done safarist, Mike is now making plans for safari number sixty-four! Mike's first sixty-three African safaris—including trips to Zambia, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Mozambique, South Africa, and Cameroon—form the basis for Facing the Charge. A gifted storyteller, writer Scott Longman makes Mike's African stories come alive on these pages, describing in page-turning detail a tremendous range of experiences during which Mike and his colleagues faced charges from the Big Five—Cape buffalo, lion, leopard, elephant, and rhino—as well as from man-eating crocodiles, slithering pythons, vengeful baboons, and a hormonal Chevy Tahoe–sized mama hippo who had Mike squarely in her front-view mirror. In addition to adrenaline-fueled tales of big-game hunting, Facing the Chargedetails how death was a constant companion on safari in the form of terrorists, quicksand, malaria, and witchcraft, among other threats. It also analyzes how ivory traffickers have devastated the elephant population, examines the everyday hardships of life in Africa, and pays tribute to the men and women who have made Africa a second home for Mike. In her foreword, Fiona Claire Capstick, widow of legendary professional hunter and author Peter Hathaway Capstick, captures the essence of Facing the Charge, calling it "the stuff of high drama and retrospective hilarity," while also noting that it showcases the "innate skills and knowledge of the African trackers, without whom no African hunting safari would be possible." Facing the Charge will appeal to both seasoned African hunters and novices anticipating their first safari, as well as to anyone who enjoys adventure in exotic locations.

If you are like most hunters, you probably relish the thought of hunting dangerous game. It’s high adventure, challenge, terror, glamour, all rolled into one face-to-face encounter. Make no mistake—you will also experience fear. Your mouth will run dry, your knees will feel weak, and your hands will shake. You are hunting animals that can hurt and even kill you. These are the stories of hunters and dangerous animals they have channeled. Some hunters did not fare well when it came to that final encounter, but that is what happens when you hunt game that gives no quarter. These tales, dating from the time of Teddy Roosevelt, relate adventures in Alaska, Africa, Malay, Mexico, and other places across the globe. After reading these stories, you will know how it feels to track down a rogue elephant, survive a grizzly attack, face a charging buffalo, and drive an arrow into a brown bear at twenty feet. These classic tales will be sure to make you a bit more apprehensive next time you are in the deep woods.

A big-game hunter from New York is shipwrecked on an isolated island in the Caribbean, and is hunted by a Russian aristocrat. The story is an inversion of the big-game hunting safaris in Africa and South America that were fashionable among wealthy Americans in the 1920s.

The Dangerous Game tells us of modern day, true-to-life actual encounters with dangerous animals in Africa, North America, and Asia. As he says, when a tracker in Mozambique gets tossed into a thorn tree by an enraged buffalo, this is sensational however you tell it. The simple truth is often more sensational than anything we can construct with words. Perhaps we'll find that the most dangerous beast isn't an African lion, Cape buffalo, elephant, or grizzly, but rather a thoughtless moment or just plain bad luck.

Africa, big game hunting, Army style! An illegal safari becomes a fight for survival when a Mogadishu veteran battles Somali militia and ruthless mercenaries. "A darn fine read!" -Snipercountry.com