FIFTY YEARS OF TROPHY HUNTING. By Gary Joll.

2014 1st edition. Landscape 4to paperback with flaps (256 x 184mm). Pp234. Colour and b/w photographs.

Recollections of deer stalking and big game hunting in New Zealand, Australia, New Caledonia, the USA, South Africa and Zimbabwe. "If you were to walk into the author's trophy room and silently start counting the mounted hunting trophies you would reach a figure of forty-five animals on display. The book - the author's fourth - is simply the story of the hunt for each trophy now hanging on the walls of his trophy room, each trophy a continuing memory of so many special and sometimes remarkable days of hunting. It was while hunting in Alaska, away back in 1963, that Gary became a confirmed trophy hunter. In the pocket of his hunting jacket were permits issued by the Alaskan Department of Fish and Game that allowed him one moose, one caribou, one grizzly bear, one black bear, one Dall ram. Before squeezing the trigger on a prospective trophy Gary had to determine that indeed the animal he had in his crosshairs was a fine aged male, for after making a mistake in selection there was no second-chance permit. Long before departing on his once-in-a-lifetime trophy hunt in Alaska Gary read extensively, teaching himself what was internationally considered a trophy of a given species. His 'Alaskan Experience' carried over into his hunting for all future hunts, always seeking the outstanding aged male. And, once a species had been secured the author seldom sought to better a trophy in hand, but instead sought different species in different places, different countries, his trophy hunting being his personal Permit to Travel, often with his wife Sue accompanying him. Gary's dedication to serious trophy hunting carried over into his professional hunting guiding career where daily he sought for his client only the very best to be found. Testimony of this dedication to quality is to be seen in Issue VI Volume 2 of the SCI Record Book of Trophy Animals where nineteen of the Top Twenty-five bull Tahr and sixteen of the Red stag were guided by Gary. Today the author unequivocally supports the formation of the recently established Game Animal Council and fervently hopes that within his lifetime the day will arrive in New Zealand where the average hunter will hunt for trophies not for tally."