Review by Larry S. Sterett | Contributing Editor
THE SPORTS AFIELD BOOK OF HUNTING AND SHOOTING RECORDS AND FACTS 2015, by Jens Erik Perto with Jens Hogh. ©2015. Published by Safari Press, Dept. TGM, 15621 Chemical Lane, Bldg. B, Huntington Beach, CA 92649 (Safaripress.com) Price: $39.95, plus postage.
This 350-page hardbound book is a wonder book of information for the shooting sportsman. There’s a brief Preface explaining the entries all originate from firsthand interviews, or written sources. (They may be incredible, but true as far as the authors know.) The Introduction is full of information such as in the US in 1900 there were 0.5 million whitetails; today there some 22 million. The introduction is divided into four parts from History to Proper Forms. The bulk of book is divided into five parts, from Dangerous Game through Birds and Small Game, with a total of 15 chapters. There is a bibliography, but no index. (The topics covered in each of the chapters are listed in the Table of Contents. For example, in Part 3—Big-Game Hunts and Hunters—Chapters 8, Unusual Hunts, covers 21 topics, from Hands-On Leopard to The Lancers. In Part 5—Birds and Small Game—Chapter 13, Shotguns, covers 27 topics, from Earliest Hunting Arms to Rarest Production Gun.
Have you ever had a good day when you filled your bag in a short period of time? Have you ever shot doves in Argentina? In 2005, Steve Marsden of the UK used 9,500 cartridges to bag 7,314 eared doves, a species which is a known crop destroyer in the Cordoba province. He used two 8-shot Benelli semi-automatic shotguns for hit rate of about 77%. (During one hour in the afternoon he shot 744 doves, or 17 doves per minute.) Two years later Marsden beat his own record, by shooting 10,335 doves in ten hours, in the same area, using 20-gauge over/under shotguns. Marsden used 12,100 cartridges, and 4,516 of the doves were shot as doubles.
What’s the longest successful hunting shot ever recorded? Until someone does better, metallic silhouette shooter Kreg Slack, using a custom-built rifle chambered for the .338 Lapua Magnum cartridge, nailed a prairie dog dead center at 3,125 yards. His wife, Nadine, was spotting for him in a silhouette match when the prairie dog made its appearance not far from the targets and Kreg decided to switch targets. The first shot hit some distance from the intended dog, but after some sight adjustments, the second shot sent the critter to never-never land.
Dogs weighing 100 pounds are considered good size, but male wolves tend to average around 135 pounds. For many years the record was 174 pounds for a male wolf from Alaska. In 2009 a male wolf killed in Alberta providence of Canada weighed at least 198 pounds and the photograph shows a wolf slightly larger than the man holding it. That was definitely a BIG Bad wolf. (Tsar Nicholas II, the last Russian Tsar, bagged over 10,000 wolves prior to the Revolution.)
This is an excellent book with some highly unusual information. Samuel Baker killed a water buffalo by shooting it with “three shilling in change…” a barrel length away. Frederick Banks killed three elephants with one shot from a .256 Mannlicher rifle; an event verified by his porters who witnessed it.
Amply illustrated with period black and white photographs, many of them not previously having been published, and some sketches, this book also features a few maps, sidebars of information, and even a table listing the 557,688 heads of game shot by Marquis of Ripon from 1867 to 1923. (Among the total were 12,616 warthogs, 241,234 pheasants, and 40,138 rabbits. On 4 December 1875, Ripon killed 95 pheasants in only ten minutes.)
Worthy of space on any shooter/hunter’s bookshelf, this volume provides information that would be next to impossible to easily ferret out by one’s self. It’s the type of book to keep handy and read a few pages, or chapter, at a setting. It’s enjoyable and informative reading, and, if one wants additional information, the bibliography provides a place to begin.
