By Chris Avena
In the Fall edition of American Outdoor News we had the opportunity to speak with Craig Boddington. Craig is a decorated US Marine Colonel, now retired. He is a respected award winning journalist and a world renowned adventurer who has explored the outer reaches of wilderness from the mountains of Alaska to the plains of Africa and beyond. Over the years, he has shared his experiences through numerous forms of media. Many of his articles have been published in some of the most prominent outdoor magazines and through his books that you can vividly see and smell the animals that he was in pursuit of as well as in his television shows. I have known Craig for some time now and I have always known him to be a humble and helpful man. He has always been willing to lend advice or an opinion those who have asked. We certainly do need more people like Craig Boddington in the outdoor Industry. So without further hesitation, lets hear what he has to say.
Chris: Welcome to American Outdoor News today. We're here with Craig Boddington. Craig, thanks for taking the time as usual.
Craig: Well, thanks for having me, Chris. It's good to see you and you look healthy and happy and so obviously you've survived this mess okay.
Chris: Well, the staying home thing was a little redundant, but we did what we needed to do.
Craig: I don't think that I have been home this long since I was in high school and this year would have been my 50th High School reunion. But of course, it wasn't held because of the Corona virus.
Chris: How has COVID affected your hunts for the year?
Craig: Gone.
Chris: All of them.
Craig: Yes but I am still hopeful that some things in the fall will happen. I think I had some things planned in the spring and nothing happened. Everything rolled forward to next year, and the year after. That's just the way it goes. I think in the fall, things are going to be a little bit better. The one thing I haven't done is I haven't gotten on an airplane since March and that is very unusual for me. The other day I got word that I drew a goat tag in Montana. I have been applying for that tag since 1971. Took a long time. I finally drew that tag. So I'll actually drive up and take my own saddle and life's good.
Chris: How long of a drive is that for you?
Craig: It will be a long drive but it is doable.
Chris: You have had a pretty celebrated career in the outdoor industry. You have won multiple awards. You recently won the Weatherby award . The Capstick award, the Leopold award, the Conklin award. Wow. That is really something!
Craig: I have been lucky. I have had a pretty good run.
Chris: At what point in your career did you realize that you had become a famous hunter?
Craig: I really never have. I am kind of uncomfortable with that, Chris. I love what I do and I've been doing it for a long time and hopefully I can do it for a little while longer, but there are some words that are like fingernails on a Blackboard to me. When somebody uses the word celebrity, it drives me insane because I am just a guy who has been lucky and made a living doing what we love to do. And the other description that is like fingernails on a blackboard is professional Hunter. I am not a professional hunter. I'm a journalist who hunts. Professional hunters are licensed and go through apprenticeships in various countries around the world. For me, that's a pretty honorable profession, but I'm just a journalist.
Chris: Well, you've written over 4,000 articles and 29 books.
Craig: Yes I have been busy in the last couple years.
Chris: You just published "Buffalo II". What made you write a second part for that?
Craig: Well, the book I did "Buffalo" some years ago and I'm happy with it but I wrote that book the better part of 15 years ago. The simple fact is, I know more now than I did then. The last few years we have been spending a lot of time in Mozambique. We have been spending a lot of time there and the swamp hunting there is just so much different than your typical tracking hunt in Zimbabwe or Tanzania or places. So I know more now.
The other thing is when I wrote that, a Buffalo is a Buffalo is a Buffalo. It really doesn't change that much from one end of the continent to the other. But at the time I wrote that I hadn't had a chance to hunt the Nile buffalo in Uganda. And although I had hunted them, I had not been successful on the dwarf forest Buffalo, which is by far the smallest, but the most difficult to hunt. I tried, but I had not been successful. So I thought, this is my final word on Buffalo as far as books go, I thought I know a lot more now and I can do a more thorough job and really kind of add to what I might have missed.
Chris: So what is the difference in the varied species of Buffalo and in the hunt? Is it more the terrain than the animal itself? I know in general, they're pretty pissed off animals.
Craig: I think it is really the terrain and the vegetation now. They change a lot. The Southern Cape Buffalo that we all think about is big and black and a bull weighs about 1500 pounds. As you get further West in Africa, across central Africa and that huge bulge of West Africa, they get smaller. They get smaller in the body and the horn and they're not black anymore. You start to see a lot of brown and red in every herd now. The majority of bulls will still be very dark, but you will still see red buffalo bulls that are perfectly mature. They are kind of as almost burnt orange red. So if you go across to Cameroon in the North, the Savannah Buffalo, they are way up to a thousand pounds. So they are a third smaller. And then you drop South down into the forest zone where you have the true forest Buffalo and they are tiny. They are 500 to 550 pounds with very small horns. And they are all red. They're almost never completely black. So they change a lot, but the hunting is the same, except for the vegetation. You get into real thick country, then it's more dangerous and more exciting.
The people where they hunt in West African and Central Africa, they maintain their Buffalo more aggressively than the Southern Buffalo. I do not believe it. I think it just so much thicker that you tend to bump them at a lot closer range.
Chris: You have hunted over 300 plus species all over the world, where is your favorite place to hunt?
Craig: Wow, that is both hard and easy. My favorite hunt is always either the next hunt or the last hunt. I'm a nut for it and I love it all. I was out over the weekend hunting pigs here in California. And I still absolutely love that. We're North American hunters. North American hunting is hard to beat. I do not know of any place on earth that is more beautiful than the real wilderness in Western Canada and Alaska. It is just gorgeous. Now, the animal density isn't there. You want to see a lot of animals, hunt whitetail in Pennsylvania or my place in Kansas. But that's beautiful country. Africa is also pretty darn hard to beat because of the variety. You never know what you're going to see on a given day.
Chris: So you really don't have a preference in animal.
Craig: We have our favorites. Like everybody in the US, I love my whitetail hunting, crazy about that, and really all the deer species, but more whitetail than anything else. I enjoy that a lot. I am kind of a nut on bears, but nobody can find an excuse to do an awful lot of bear hunting. I love mountain game because I love the high country. It doesn't matter where it is. I love the mountains but that is also stuff that we are not going to be able to do every year. The permits are scarce and it is hard to come by. As I mentioned earlier, I drew a goat tag in Montana and that is very exciting. I have drawn a couple of good sheep tags here in the US and hopefully I may live long enough to draw a couple more.
Chris: Goat hunting is a pretty physically demanding hunt. You had suffered a heart attack in Uganda in 2014. How has that changed how you prepare for a hunt like this?
Craig: Well, it does change you because it was a really close call. It was actually 2011 so long time ago now. And I'm fine. I see the cardiologist every year and he tells me to go away and he'll see me next year, which is great news. I'm totally fine. But it was a wake up call, because at that time I still thought I was Bulletproof and invincible and kind of showed me that I'm not. So I worked pretty hard at staying in shape, but quite honestly, I don't push myself as hard as I used to. You got to know your limitations. I do stay in shape, but I don't push myself as hard I once did.
Chris: The older we get, the tougher it gets and you approach game differently. The more strenuous hunts, I guess, as we get older, we have to leave that to the younger guys.
Craig: Well, I haven't yet seen one that I can't do, but I go at it a little bit slower than I used to. Got to take your time.
Chris: What was the most compromising hunt you've been on or the most compromising situation?
Craig: Well, the first Marco polo hunt in '98, I got altitude sick and that was bad. I mean, it was really bad and that's an insidious disease because it's so random. It has nothing to do with age or fitness or obesity or lack thereof. It can hit anybody. That's why serious mountain climbers may suddenly succumb to it on their 30th or 40th or 50th ascent because it is random. I have never had it before and never had it since. I was really, really sick. It was bad and I managed to get a ram on that hunt, but truthfully, I don't even remember much of it. I would just go through the motions and it was tough. That was a bad one. Again, the only way you can ward it off is look for the signs and try to stay in shape and that on a genuine altitude hunt, I'll see a doctor before I go. And I take Diamox, which is a standard prescription, and it's a miracle thing for me. That works. I start taking Diamox 48 hours out. If I'm going to be above about 10,000 feet, I don't worry about it up until that. But above 10,000, I'll start taking Diamox 48 hours out.
Chris: It seems like the past year or so, you have been on a lot of those hunts where you are in high altitude.
Craig: Yes. I liked the mountains and normally, I am not affected by altitude. Again, that was back in '98. Good heavens. That's a long time ago now and never any further problems, but I watched the signs. They wanted to take me down, which is always the right answer. And I refused, which was stupid. But I had Diamox and I had not been taking it because I thought, well, I'm young enough and I'm strong enough. I was still in the Marines at the time and I thought, I don't need that stuff. And when I got sick, I started taking it. And fortunately it worked. In about 48 hours, I was as good as I was going to get.
Chris: You did 20+ years in the Marines?
Craig: Thirty one.
Chris: Thirty one years. How do you do that?
Craig: I didn't know when to quit. I had a wonderful time. I really did. I still keep in touch with some of the guys. In fact, I'm driving up to Oregon. A lot of the guys, I went through the inner ROTC program with, and the basic school at Quantico happened to be from Oregon state. And several of us have stayed friends. So we're having a little reunion up there over the weekends. I still keep in touch with quite a few of the guys.
Chris: It's always good to see old friends. You were writing as an outdoor writer while you were still in the marines?
Craig: Absolutely. Yes. I started trying to sell stories when I was in high school, I would say, a lot of my colleagues look at you with a straight face and say that they sold the first story that they ever submitted and never looked back. I can't say that, man, I built up a boxcar full of rejection notices before I sold my first piece, but it took time and it has gotten better. I was doing a lot of freelance work in the Marines and of course, a lot of my time was reserved so I could really pursue both careers.
Chris: With so many books and articles on the belt and your experience in editing and publishing with varied publications, what kind of advice do you give somebody just starting out wanting to be an outdoor writer?
Craig: Well, don't do what I did. I've got an English degree which is good. I use it every day, obviously. But I would strongly recommend at least a few courses in journalism, photo journalism and communications. This is still not an industry where any kind of a college credential is required. It's certainly not. But the more you know, the better off you are. So I think anything in the J school journalism course of study, English degree is useful. Communications is valuable. But anything along those lines, as far as you can go with it is really helpful because you will use it every day. My biggest mistake, and it's still my career failing is that I am a lousy photographer. So I take a lot of pictures. And if you take enough, you'll get one or two good ones, but start early. Start really early with a decent digital camera and really learn how to use it. You should learn how to do studio photography, which I am terrible at as my editors will tell you. But learn how to do studio photography. Because some of the old timers that we revere, like Elmer Keith and Charlie Atkins and the, the old timers who were still around when I got started they were terrible photographers. And if they started today, despite their knowledge, I'm not sure they could sell their first story. So really consider the writing is one line and the photography is another. Learn how to do both and put them together. And you will very much have a leg up.
And the other thing is you have to recognize that it's a difficult field because there is no mandatory retirement, heck there's no retirement plan. Guys like me, don't step aside and let the young bucks in. We should. And I've helped out a lot of young writers and always try to, but we're not going to go away. We can do this as long as health and mental acuity remains. And so when you come in and you are in your twenties, you're competing with guys in their sixties and even seventies, sometimes eighties, who have been doing this for 50 or 60 years. That is tough because the field has not gotten bigger. So you have to really be persistent. You have to believe in yourself and make sure you have the hide of a rhinoceros because you're going to get rejection
Chris: Par for the course. Moving forward, You have the uncanny ability to really sit down anywhere and just bang out a story. You can be in the middle of a party and write a story. How do you do that?
Craig: Yes, I don't know. I'm kind of able to shut things off and do that. It often drives Donna and my kids insane. But when it's time to meet a deadline, I can shut them off and I do, unfortunately often quite brutally. I don't mean to, it's just a, the way I do it. But I can shut things off and concentrate. And I've often said that I can write during an artillery barrage and I have. I shut things off pretty darn well. Now it's not necessary to do that. Everybody works in different ways. Some people have to have an absolutely quiet place and go off by themselves and that's perfectly fine too, but you have to learn what you need to do to really concentrate and get the job done.
Chris: Well, you've had a long, unbelievable career. To you, and I know it would be different for me, what are some of the highlights of your career for you?
Craig: Wow. Well, I think the very best years I spent was when I was at Peterson publishing and I was there in the office from-- you know, one of the problem with the younger guys is they tend to think that this is just going to happen. So I had a full time office job for 15 years from 79 into the nineties, and went to the office every day if, unless I was out of town. But that was a magic time because Bob Peterson was such a great boss and my boss Ken Elliott was fantastic. They're both gone now, but they were great people. And as a young editor, I had a chance to work with some fantastic writers. My best mentors, I think were probably Bob Millick and John Wootters. Both of them gone now, but their work is still out there. And they kind of took the new kid under their wing. That was fantastic.
So I was in that office for 15 years. I left the office in '93, early '94 and have just been writing, purely writing under contract since then. I enjoy that. I really do, but the time I spent at Peterson publishing was such great preparation for everything else. And quite honestly, when I was a kid, I had a real tough scout master. He'd been a POW in World War II, and he was a tough old guy. And obviously then I went off to the Marines and I learned so much from both boy Scouts and and what I learned in the Marines. And that's also stuff that I use every single day.
Chris: I have two questions in closing. You have haunted on six continents, over 300 game species, where is your favorite place to hunt?
Craig: Well, again, the last Hunter the next time. And I mean that, seriously. Because I look forward to everything and look back on everything. But somebody I've spent a lot of time in Africa and somebody once commented that once asked me, he said, "Well, are you still interested in hunting North America?" Well, I was terribly offended because of course I am. But Africa is pretty hard to beat mainly because of the variety. You just don't know what you're going to see. So a lot of my books have been about Africa and some of the more successful ones. So that's been important to me and I love it dearly. I would have been in Zambia with Brittany's husband, my son-in-law in in April. And of course that didn't happen because of the COVID, but we'll reschedule it. So I'm not done there yet.
Chris: When was your first hunt to Africa? What year?
Craig: Kenya in 1977.
Chris: How have things changed since then?
Craig: So much. I was a first Lieutenant in the Marines at the time. Of course, that was peace time and we could plan a leave and we could schedule something with some certainty and it was going to happen. So I did, and I saved my pennies for years, so I could get Africa out of my system once and for all, and that didn't work particularly well. But it's changed. And in 77, Kenya was on its last legs. It was still a fantastic hunt, but I didn't know that. So Africa has changed. It's become more specialized and certainly it's become more expensive, but after all, so is everything else. And planes game hunting in Southern Africa is still the best bargain in the entire hunting world. I do outfitting in a very small way on my Kansas place and good heavens for what I charge for a week's whitetail hunt, you can still go to either South Africa and Namibia and have a great hunt and shoot a half a dozen animals.
Chris: That's great. If you could only hunt one species today, what would it be?
Craig: Oh, I'd have to stick with whitetail deer.
Chris: Wow. That's surprising. I would have thought it would have been Cape Buffalo. Craig. I appreciate your time and everything that you do for our industry.
http://www.craigboddington.com