Explore hunting superstitions, rituals, and folklore from around the world, and discover what these traditions reveal about luck, culture, and deep respect.
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Category: Hunting History
The Legend of St Hubert: From opponent of hunting to symbol of European hunting tradition
St. Hubertus is honored as a patron of hunters, and as founder of sustainable hunting, although the historic Bishop of Liege was an opponent of the chase. The Legend of Hubertus and its influence on European hunting tradition that continues to modern times, all the way to cult TV shows.
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The Macnab Challenge: From Postwar Scotland to Modern Times
Born out of a 1925 novel by John Buchan, the Macnab Challenge evolved from an attempt at rediscovery of zest for life into a test of diverse hunting and fishing skills, in many different environments.
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Lions and Lion Lands. From “The Book of the Lion”, 1913, by Sir Alfred E. Pease
In my youth I believed myself so hemmed in by circumstances and duties that I thought I should never break through such barriers into the real world beyond. Conventionalities which then looked like a granite wall I have discovered to be a delusion. I have learnt that human beings do not always understand the language in which duty calls, and that by the use of a little force a hole can be made through the thorny zariba of circumstances by which the poor, impounded creature, whether peasant or potentate, may escape to taste of life.
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The First Safari Book: Cornwallis Harris’s “Wild Sports of Southern Africa”
Many a page in the “Wild Sports of Southern Africa” may seem appaling for modern readers, both for the blatant racism and for hunting practices described. However, it is a document of an epoch, and inspired many later hunters and explorers. Here we reproduce an abstract from it.
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African Trophy Fees: The Past Century
After coming across a few old hunting price lists, it was interesting to compare how hunting prices, trends and hunt marketing has changed over the years since 1977. Unfortunately actual South African hunting prices are difficult to find until around 2005. We will take a look at the pricing trends of the Big 5, some special and most commonly hunted species in South Africa. All prices were originally in SA Rand, but converted to US Dollar at historic rates.
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Hunting in Northern China
Today, you can’t legally go hunting in China. A century ago, however, things were different, and you can find testimony on pages of old books. Here we reproduce a few extracts from one such book, “Fur and Feather in Northern China” by Arthur de Carle Sowerby, F.R.G.S., published in 1914. Bats, admittedly, are mentioned only in passing, but we hope you’ll enjoy the stories about wild sheep, wapiti, and antelope.
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A Heritage of the Renaissance: The origin and appeal of hunting over pointing dogs
Hunting over pointing dogs probably originated in the Renaissance Europe. No wonder it is considered by many affictionaldos a form of art!
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Good Times, Bad Times: Springbok hunting in Gordon-Cumming’s “Five Years in South Africa” and today
“The springbok is so termed by the colonists on account of its peculiar habit of springing or taking extraordinary bounds, rising to an incredible height in the air, when pursued”, wrote Roualeyn Gordon-Cumming in “Five Years of a Hunter’s Life in the Far Interior of South Africa”. The graceful antelope that has become the symbol of South Africa once covered the plains with its innumerable herds. Today it is mostly found on game farms, hunting concessions, national parks and protected areas, and the impressive “trek-bokken” is but a memory of times gone by. But are the good times of springbok hunting then or now?
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The Pheasant Journey
A brief history of the amazing journey of the pheasant and the people, from China to Europe and America.
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