Horned Death

Originally published in 1947, this book is considered one of the best ever written on hunting the African buffalo. “John F. Burger, Afrikander and author of this book, would heartily endorse any theatrical effort to simulate the charge of an African bull buffalo—if no human life is to be risked. This notable professional hunter, who is here being introduced to the American public, has miraculously survived to live and tell of many last-ditch encounters with the powerful and crafty buffalo. Mr. Burger’s experiences in the game fields of his native continent cover a period of forty years, and in that time more than one thousand of the massive brutes have fallen to his rifles. As he takes care to explain, only a small number of the animals in that record bag have actually charged; but in that temperate statement there rests proof of his usual success in placing a first, effective hit—the shot that renders a charge improbable. Failure of that first shot, or the effect of factors beyond the hunter’s control, constitutes the explosive cap that can set this specimen of black dynamite into action. Once the buffalo’s charge is actually under way his only objective is to produce a dead hunter. The animal has accomplished his grim purpose in many instances. Too frequently the gored and trampled victim has been a veteran of the trails, not a novice hunter or a defenseless native. In some vitally unaccountable way the buffalo had gained advantages at a rate faster than was allowed the hunter. The man was then denied that last precious asset for survival, luck. Our author lives to tell of his close encounters with the horned death simply because luck never failed to tip the scales in his favor.”