Big Game
In the West, generally, I think, the lion is considered cowardly—a belief I share, though agreeing with Theodore Roosevelt, who in “The Wilderness Hunter” says cougars, and, in fact, all animals vary in moods just as much as mankind. Because of their feline strategy and craftiness, they are most difficult animals to hunt; I know none more so.
CASPER W. WHITNEY
“THE COUGAR” IN HUNTING IN MANY LANDS
EDITED BY ROOSEVELT AND GRINNELL (1895)
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The wolf is by nature cowardly, being deficient in courage comparative to his strength and great size, but he often becomes courageous from necessity.
ROGER D. WILLIAMS
“WOLF-COURSING” IN HUNTING IN MANY LANDS
EDITED BY ROOSEVELT AND GRINNELL (1895)
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The razorback has a mind of his own; not instinct, but mind … He thinks. He bears grudges, broods over indignities, and plans redress for the morrow or the week after. If he cannot get even with you, he will lay for your unsuspecting friend.
HORACE KEPHART
OUR SOUTHERN HIGHLANDERS (1917)
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I will still his mighty bugle if it is willed. I’ll claim him as a trophy if my puny arrow flies true. But he will always be the unattainable; with the mountain, the fog, and the silent stones.
BILLY ELLIS
HUNTER TO THE DAWN (1988)
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The pleasure of the sportsman in the chase is measured by the intelligence of the game and its capacity to elude pursuit and in the labor involved in the capture. It is a contest with sharp wits where satisfaction is mingled with admiration for the object overcome.
JUDGE JOHN DEAN CATON
THE ANTELOPE AND DEER OF NORTH AMERICA (1877)
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The true trophy hunter is a self-disciplined perfectionist seeking a single animal, the ancient patriarch well past his prime that is often an outcast from his own kind … If successful, he will enshrine the trophy in a place of honor. This is a more noble and fitting end than dying on some lost and lonely ledge where the scavengers will pick his bones, and his magnificent horns will weather away and be lost forever.
ELGIN GATES
TROPHY HUNTER IN ASIA (1971)
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The elk of a lifetime reminds us that the value of the hunt cannot be measured in inches.
E. DONNALL THOMAS, JR.
TWO BULLS (1997)
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By now he knew the old bear’s footprint better than he did his own, and not only the crooked one.
WILLIAM FAULKNER
“THE BEAR” (1931)
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Tigers do not know that human beings have no sense of smell, and when a tiger becomes a man-eater it treats human beings exactly as it treats wild animals, that is, it approaches its intended victims up-wind, or lies up in wait for them down-wind.
JIM CORBETT
MAN-EATERS OF KUMAON (1946)
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Now the familiar cries of the birds told him what the wind could not: the two-legged creatures were still coming— and they were very near. To strike them down, he would need the wind.
LAMAR UNDERWOOD
ON DANGEROUS GROUND (1989)
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A wolf killed with a firearm represents one of the most prized trophies.
CLYDE ORMOND
THE COMPLETE BOOK OF HUNTING (1962)
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Three bear carcasses hung from the meat racks, skinned. A skinned bear looks eerily like a human being. I didn’t know that until then.
PETER FROMM
INDIAN CREEK CHRONICLES (1993)
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For all the time that I’d been in the forest I was hunting my first panther. But over and above this was the knowledge that here was combat as well as hunting. My rifle held one bullet. Should the furious, cornered animal charge toward me I had one chance only to stop him.
JOHN MYERS MYERS
THE WILD YAZOO (1947)
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More than most American game animals, the pronghorn, by virtue of the terrain he inhabits, is genuinely the rifleman’s quarry of choice.
THOMAS McINTYRE
DREAMING THE LION (1993)
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In sheep hunting, good binoculars and the ability to use them are more important than the rifle and cartridge and generally, but by no means always, more important even than shooting skill.
JACK O’CONNOR
IN OUTDOOR LIFE (1960)
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