Book for Hunt Camp?

mdunc8

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I know there's probably only a few people on here that actually open up a book for enjoyment every once in a while, but does anyone have a good book to suggest for my hunt next week? I'm hiking quite a ways into the mountains for a 5-6 day hunt and need some reading material in case the weather doesn't cooperate. I'm open to anything, but would like to catch up on the early history of the West.
 
While on a dropcamp in alaska we were reading the book "Alive" about the urguyuan rugby team that crashed in the Andes and went cannibal. Now that is a wierd feeling being in the backcountry reading about guys eating intestines, brains, etc.
 
More of a coffee table book than a "paperback for the pack"


Hunting the american west: The Pursuit of game for life, profit, and sport, 1800-1900

By Richard C. Rattenbury

For every hunter, conservationist, gun and sporting art collector, or history buff who has dreamed of the epic grandeur and adventure of hunting on the western frontier, a new book from the Boone and Crockett Club is a must read.

Hunting the American West explores the pursuit of big game for life, profit, and sport from 1800 to 1900.

Handsome, heavy, colorful—even this book’s look and feel reflect its larger-than-life subject. Published by Boone and Crockett Club and backed by years of research, Hunting the American West is among the few scholarly works focused on hunting in the 19th-century, from aboriginal hunters to adventurers to market hunters. Drawing extensively on vivid accounts from participants and observers—along with abundant historical photos and illustrations—this book affords rare insight to the methods, motives and character of big-game hunters in the Old West.

“It was a period in which hunting evolved from a subsistence activity to a sport of aristocrats to market-driven devastation of our wildlife resources. It’s a saga that ultimately led to the rise of the hunter-conservationist movement and the founding of the Boone and Crockett Club,” said Julie Houk, director of publications for the Club.


To place an advance order for the book visit the Club’s web store or call toll-free 888-840-4868. If you are interested in a Deluxe Limited Edition, please call the Club's headquarters at 406-542-1888 today. Limited editions retail for $350 and will be available in November.

I've also enjoyed a number of crime drama paperbacks in an antelope blind. But some other good books that I keep in easy reach (at home mind you)

Hell I was there Elmer Keith
Idahos Greatest Mule Deer and Idaho's Greatest Elk by Ryan Hatfield
Ishi the last Yahi edited by Robert Heizer and Theodora Kroeber
One man's wilderness: An Alaskan Odyssey Sam Keith
Horses, Hitches and Rocky Trailsand Back Country by Joe Back

I also like to have a book on the History or the Natural history of the area I'm Hunting. While in the Eastern Sierras, I started
The Sierra Nevada Before History Ancient Landscapes, Early Peoples Louise A. Jackson

Check out selections from
Safari Press
Mountain Press
 
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If you don't mind reading about elk camp while in elk camp, "The Phantom Ghost of Harriett Lou" by Roland Cheek is one of my favorites that would be reasonable size to pack around in the backcountry for a week. Kind of like a more coherent, and more thought out Copenhaver book.

I've got "Rifle in Hand: How Wild America Was Saved" in my hunting gear this year. Read the first two of his but this one intrigues me the most.
 
"Alone in the Wilderness." is a very good book. Also, anything by Louis Lamour. Lot's of times I will take one of my journal type magazine as they will put you right to sleep.
 
I just read "The Big Burn: Teddy Roosevelt and the Fire that Saved America" in the Lope blind. Decent enough read. It even has some pictures in the middle to look at. Quick and dirty history of U.S and our public lands.
 
Joser said he liked this one. I'm not much on fiction.

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I'm open to anything, but would like to catch up on the early history of the West.

Although fiction, any of Larry McMurtry's tetralogy that included Lonesome Dove are good period piece tomes...Commanche Moon, Dead Man's Walk, and Streets of Laredo being the other three. IMO chronology is not essential.
 
Thanks for the suggestions. I'll check up on them. Any suggestions for biographies on folks like Jim Bridger or the other early explorers (not including Lewis and Clark)? Dink, I like the Roosevelt suggestions, but I just finished Theodore Rex, which I didn't really like too much. Should have started with the first one from Morris.
 
A fictional passage of a couple characters based on non fiction events centering the rendezvous / fur trappers - in the Idaho, Wyoming, Montana area - Terry Johnston. He writes a variety of books based on that time frame though my favorite series was based on a character, Titus Bass and Josiah Paddock.

The series reminds me a bit of the Redford movie Jerimiah Johnson.

http://www.msubillings.edu/library/Speccoll/johnston/shortbio.htm
He is known for his mountain man/fur trapper books of the early western frontier. His mountain man series began with the original trilogy to only go back and write a prequel of three books and then to finish the series with a trilogy sequel. Johnston knows that the mountain man/fur trapper is an important part of our history, and Johnston stated, "Call it manifest destiny, call it what you will – the Americans had come to trap and map, lay their traps and eventually conquer all of what lay between the Atlantic and the far Pacific." His central character of the Mountain Man series, Titus Bass, has come to capture the attention of avid readers from all over the world. Titus Bass is a mountain man, trapper, explorer, Indian fighter, and survivor. Titus is a crude unkempt mountain man who loves to drink, buy a night of romance, but he is also a staunch friend who is generous and fair in his business dealings.

The series:

•1 : Dance on the Wind (1995) by Terry C. Johnston
•2 : Buffalo Palace (1997) by Terry C. Johnston
•3 : Crack in the Sky (1997) by Terry C. Johnston
•4 : Carry the Wind (1982) by Terry C. Johnston
•5 : Borderlords (1985) by Terry C. Johnston
•6 : One-Eyed Dream (1988) by Terry C. Johnston
•7 : Ride the Moon Down (1998) by Terry C. Johnston
•8 : Death Rattle (1999) by Terry C. Johnston
•9 : Wind Walker (2001) by Terry C. Johnston
 
Although Fiction, Yellowstone Kelly was a good read. I used to have a Huge box of western novels I started reading as a teenager waiting on the house to cool off so I could sleep. John
 
I'm open to anything, but would like to catch up on the early history of the West.

If you like to learn about the history of NW Colorado this is a good source

Museum of Northwest Colorado

Some good histories of the Great Basin at the Western Folklife Center

One other thought is that if you are hiking, you can do the audiobook on an mp3 player, and not burn up any batteries in your headlamp after dark..
 
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After having a close encounter with a grizzly one evening in my tent, I'm hesitant to listen to anything, especially using earphones. I like being able to hear what is going to eat me.
 
I like a lot of the books by CJ Box he used to be a game warden and lives in Cheyenne. They are fiction but good reads.
 
Try any of the books by Cormack McCarthy from the Border Trilogy; All the Pretty Horses, The Crossing, and Cities of the Plains. If you can find a copy of it you might like The Outlaw Trail by Robert Redford. Not Pulitzer Prize material but a very interesting look back to the old West with some humor and lots of illustrations.
 
I agree with tarheel, the Cormack McCarthy books are great. I also liked "The Road", and "No Country For Old Men".

Another great read is "Killer Angels" a book about the events leading up to the Battle of Gettysburg and the battle itself. The author uses true characters and events but uses fictional dialog. Excellent read and page turner, one of my favorite books.
 
I'm only half way through it but so far it's pretty funny.

book.jpg
 
Bugle Magazine helps me pass the time on the rainy days in camp.
 
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