Craig Boddington’s latest book is a collection of his greatest hunting memories.
I think it’s safe to say that there are few people in the world today with the length, breadth, and depth of hunting experience possessed by Craig Boddington. Craig never claims to have done everything the hunting world has to offer, but he has certainly come closer than almost anyone I can think of. Craig is a mountain hunter extraordinaire and a veteran of scores of African safaris, and he has spent extensive time in the forests and fields of North America, South America, Europe, Asia, and the South Pacific. In fact, over five decades he’s hunted in fifty-six countries, all told. His hunting awards and accolades are too numerous to mention, other than to say they include the incredibly prestigious Weatherby Trophy and the Conklin (“Tough Guy”) Award.
Best of all, Craig has spent his lifetime not only hunting, but also sharing his stories, knowledge, and expertise with those of us who only wish we could spend as much time in the field as he does. In the course of this, he has published some thirty-one books, most of them with specific themes such as Africa, North America, firearms and shooting, or hunting techniques for a single species such as buffalo or elephant.
Craig’s latest book, 50 Great Stalks: Hunting the World’s Greatest Game Up Close, is something of a departure from those single-themed books. As he says in the Preface, “I guess you could call [this] a ‘hunting highlights’ book, and I suppose I’m old enough to indulge in such.” It’s a collection of half a hundred tales of his most memorable and enjoyable hunts from all around the world. But these are not just any hunts, nor are they chance encounters; they are (almost) all spot-and-stalk adventures. “The more I thought about it,” Craig writes, “I realized that my favorite hunting memories come from identifying a desired animal, then approaching for the shot.”
The book is divided into four parts: Plain, Forest, Skyline Pursuits, and Formidable Game, with a dozen or so stories falling under each heading. Each tale stands on its own and every one of them is a great read, so you can savor this book of hunting adventures cover-to-cover, or flip directly to the section or chapters that most interest you (guilty as charged—I devoured the entire “Skyline Pursuits” section first). These stories take the reader on a fascinating romp through the world’s greatest game fields, ranging from coastal Alaska to the high Pamirs in Tajikistan to the Wyoming prairies to the swamps of Mozambique and beyond. While the stories are not in chronological order, they span several decades, including a tale of Craig’s first safari in Kenya in 1977 and a pronghorn hunt with his father in 1978, and ending with a fun tale of a buffalo hunt on his seventieth birthday in 2022—one that made him late for his own birthday party.
If you are a fan of Craig’s writing you will recognize the broad outlines of many of these hunts, since he has written about most of them in the pages of Sports Afield and other publications. However, the chapters in this book are not reprints of his magazine articles. In the process of looking back at these adventures, he often adds details and context that were not included in the original stories. As such, through some of these tales you’ll get a taste of how the world of hunting has changed over the years. The book’s ending is inspiration in itself—we should all hope to still be hunting dangerous game (and everything else) as we head into our eighth decade.
It’s hard to pick a favorite among Craig’s many excellent books, since he has an uncanny ability to capture the essence and thrill of big-game hunting in the world’s most exotic places while still making it approachable and enjoyable for the average hunter—and ensuring the reader also learns something along the way. But for sheer variety of subject matter and great storytelling, if you only own one Boddington book, this is the one to get. It’s the one you’ll curl up with and read by the fire as you dream of your own next adventure. Order a signed copy directly from craigboddington.com.
