David Ommanney Professional Hunter

Dear Jerome,
let me get back to Italy and I shall send you some nice pics indeed!!! It was incredible. Out of Nairobi it was full of Tommies. My dad used to tell me "Look at that son cos you won't see it for long". And he was right. Still, very nostalgic memories. I still remember the breakfasts at the Norfolk and the bird cages in the court.

AfricaHunting.com said:

Welcome to AH Francesco! Deadly with sandgrouse with a 28, that is music to my ear, these birds are a treat to shoot! Hope you will share some pictures of that time with us!

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Looking forward to it Francesco!

I have for some time now been looking for information regarding David Ommanney, and im so glad i found this site

I work in an outdoor/hunting store i Denmark, and sometime last year we were approached by a local resident, if we could store and perhaps sell three weapons that belonged to his father David Gream Ommanney, the local residents name was David Hugh Ommanney and with each weapon came a letter of provenance. Maybe KOmmanney can help me verifying the Authenticity?

hi ralf welcome to AH.

David Ommanney Jr infact lives in Denmark.. He is Katie's uncle. So it could well be him.
I just got in contact with him after many years.

Bye

Francesco

Ralf Brauner said:

I have for some time now been looking for information regarding David Ommanney, and im so glad i found this site

I work in an outdoor/hunting store i Denmark, and sometime last year we were approached by a local resident, if we could store and perhaps sell three weapons that belonged to his father David Gream Ommanney, the local residents name was David Hugh Ommanney and with each weapon came a letter of provenance. Maybe KOmmanney can help me verifying the Authenticity?

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Francesco said:

David Ommanney Jr infact lives in Denmark.. He is Katie's uncle. So it could well be him.
I just got in contact with him after many years.

Bye

Francesco

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Hi Francesco, That sound wonderful,

I haven't been able to find much in writing about David Ommanney Sr. and his years in Africa, and i would love to read anything there is to find

spike.t said:

hi ralf welcome to AH.

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Thanks Spike. I now have Davids Winchester 101 with inscription and his 22 Lr pump action Winchester. Wonder what they might be worth???

WOW , how good is this thread .

KOmmanney said:

I am not an avid hunter as after moved to the States the opportunities were limited for me, but I have always had a great interest. Here is a photo of David Ommanney, may he rest in peace, with his "arch nemesis". This is not the leopard that mauled him, but as you can see he maintained a wonderful sense of humor towards the incident.

We are in the process of going through all of his hunting trinkets from old shells to ads he was in to skins of animals taken by him and there are a ton of pictures. I will post them as I can.

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I have to thank Douglas and David for all the wonderful keepsakes they let me have I can remember the days he spent teaching me to shoot after he retired

KOmmanney said:

My name Katharine (Katie) and David Ommanney is my grandfather. It is wonderful to see that he is still revered as one of the great white hunters of East Africa.

Monish,
Your initial post stating "He was one of the finest of PHs in Africa." was very heart warming. He passed quietly in September of 2001 and he is mourned by those who survive him, friends and family, still to this day.

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Hello Katherine,
When I was about 12 years old my single focus was to be a professional hunter in Africa when I grew up. Your grandfather, David, was a big part of my inspiration. He wrote for many magazines including Boy's Life which is the official monthly publication of the Boy Scouts and one that I subscribed to. I couldn't wait to read his stories when the monthly issue came. At some point I got his mailing address in Africa. I wrote him and told him about my goal, and he wrote back!
I moved a lot over the years, and sadly the letter from him seems to have been lost, but I remember he told me what he thought were the best parts of being a PH, but ended with "the life of a PH is not all beer and skittles (or a phrase to that effect as I'm not certain he compared it to drinking a lot of beer - ha!) He proceeded to tell me other stories about the hard part of being a guide. I remember he also gave me some ideas about how I might go about it if I still felt it was my calling when I got older.
It was so exciting to get a letter from him, and though I didn't grow up to be a guide and PH, I have done a lot of hunting in Texas, and have collected guns for years. I'll never forget how proud I was to get that letter from your grandfather.
All best regards - David Keith, Clifton, TX

monish said:

Popo,

The unfortunate incident took place in 1959 in Northen Tanganyika in the hilly region known as Pyramids. Dave was hunting on hire as a PH for Safariland Ltd. outfit, to guide one of their clients Baron Boeselager on a dangerous game hunt.Baron had wounded a big leopard who was followed by Dave and took the full charge of his buck shots, and he attacked Ommanney with full vengeance.
Dave has put forth the incident in the best of manner, here it goes...

" I was being chewed by a big male leopard. My gunbearer Salim ali, who had my .470 , came to my aid, and jumped on both the leopard & myself & pushed the leopard away. He also tried to knife the cat , but he had on e of the skinning knives which one of my client Harold Dugdale had gifted Ali, the knife had a curved blade . and it did little damage. Salim was certain that the cat was mortally wounded, either by his knifeor by my me when it came for me. I left for Arusha hospital (75 milesaway), Salim & Mutia my other gunbearer went back for the leopard, it was in the same patch of grass where we had left him. The cat jumped on Salim and chewed him up. Mutia shot at it with my 30.06 severing 6 inches of its tail.

The leopard retreated in the grass whilst the gunbearers retreated to the camp, half a mile away, leaving the cat the victor on the battlefield. Safariland Ltd. sent down Theo Potgeiter(a White Hunter), who at that time was employed by (Harry)Selby & (Andrew) Holmberg Safaris.Stangely enough Potgeiter found the leopard still in the same place.. It went for Theo, who was armed with my shot gun. He missed the first barrel, and clobbered it with te second. The cat still came on now on its three legs. Theo was bending the barrels of my shotgun on the leopard's head when the client Baron Boeselager shot & killed it."( Excerpt taken from Brian Herne's- The White Hunters- The Golden Age Of African Safaris : a must read for all hunters who are infatuated with the Hunters world called -AFRICA)

So this is how it was one on three, a gutsy leopard though.

Monish

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And that’s why the late Harry Selby and others didn’t particularly like shotguns for wounded cats! The chance of something going skew it too high!

Hello AH community!

I hope everyone made it out of 2020 relatively unscathed. I was wondering, I have a ton of David’s old books - some coffee table books and others like Hunting In The Sudan and Hunting The Big Cats from Safari Press (only 1000 printed of the Safari Press books!). I was wondering if anyone knows of a place for me to sell some of these or perhaps if anyone here might be interested in seeing the title list? I also have some great old photos and once they are scanned I will share them here

Thanks for any input and/or direction in this!

Cheers,
Katie Ommanney

KOmmanney said:

Hello AH community!

I hope everyone made it out of 2020 relatively unscathed. I was wondering, I have a ton of David’s old books - some coffee table books and others like Hunting In The Sudan and Hunting The Big Cats from Safari Press (only 1000 printed of the Safari Press books!). I was wondering if anyone knows of a place for me to sell some of these or perhaps if anyone here might be interested in seeing the title list? I also have some great old photos and once they are scanned I will share them here

Thanks for any input and/or direction in this!

Cheers,
Katie Ommanney

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Hi kate safari press deal on second hand books as well...but list on here will work.as I know people on here collectors as well....I am but too broke at moment to even want to look at what you have for sale...cheers mike

Thank you! Will share the list!

spike.t said:

Hi kate safari press deal on second hand books as well...but list on here will work.as I know people on here collectors as well....I am but too broke at moment to even want to look at what you have for sale...cheers mike

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KOmmanney said:

Thank you! Will share the list!

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Please do! Looking forward to it.

David Ommanney (d.2001) and his wife Dilys (d.2014) were good friends of Cathlin and me. Lovely people. As David and I moved about a lot, we kept up a lively letter correspondence. We had met when he managed Chibote Safaris in Lusaka. One of his sons, also David Ommanney, lives in Denmark. We keep in touch. He sent me some pics of his father. Here is one from 1983.



In 1995, we were living in Burford, Oxon, and David & Dylis at 43 Dulverton Rd in London. I was briefly the editor of the African Sporting Gazette in between consultancy work in Africa, and David wrote three articles for submission 1) The Michelin Man - a humorous piece, and 2) a double-rifle article, and 3) An Old Hunter Remembers (later withdrawn). He mentioned that when living in Denmark he "wrote reams of stuff in the good old days." And he was hard at it typing up his handwritten work but had to rush off to Tanzania to conduct a safari. I hope that somewhere is an m.s. waiting to be turned into a book; like Eric Balson's m.s. after being head of anti-poaching in Tanzania. While in Tanzania, he wrote to me:
"I have just finished a difficult 30 days and am due in the Selous. Running late as my car 'blew' a push rod in town the other day right outside a garage. One hates to think what would have happened 24 hours earlier as my driver was on the way back from the lower Rungwa - in itself a 20-hour drive. In the old days, it was 12 hours."

more to come

Enjoying learning more of your history Ian.

Please keep the stories coming.

KOmmanney said:

Hello AH community!

I hope everyone made it out of 2020 relatively unscathed. I was wondering, I have a ton of David’s old books - some coffee table books and others like Hunting In The Sudan and Hunting The Big Cats from Safari Press (only 1000 printed of the Safari Press books!). I was wondering if anyone knows of a place for me to sell some of these or perhaps if anyone here might be interested in seeing the title list? I also have some great old photos and once they are scanned I will share them here

Thanks for any input and/or direction in this!

Cheers,
Katie Ommanney

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Hello Katie,

My friend and your grandfather bought my book With a Gun in Good Country (limited edition of 1000) back in 1995 for $85. If you still have it place an ad on Abebooks.com after having a look at other copies for sale. They fetch very good prices: today- @100 - $165. Do the same with some of the other books.

Aye

Ian

Ralf Brauner said:

I have for some time now been looking for information regarding David Ommanney, and im so glad i found this site

I work in an outdoor/hunting store i Denmark, and sometime last year we were approached by a local resident, if we could store and perhaps sell three weapons that belonged to his father David Gream Ommanney, the local residents name was David Hugh Ommanney and with each weapon came a letter of provenance. Maybe KOmmanney can help me verifying the Authenticity?

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Hello Ralf,
Apologies for not replying to you when you originally posted. While I can verify the authenticity, David Hugh Ommanney is my uncle, I doubt it would help much now. I was actually searching for records of my grandfather’s firearms as they were taken by my uncle and subsequently sold without family discussion. I would love the chance to find them and maybe even buy some back. If you could, perhaps I can email you directly?

Best wishes,
Katie Ommanney

Ian Manning said:

Hello Katie,

My friend and your grandfather bought my book With a Gun in Good Country (limited edition of 1000) back in 1995 for $85. If you still have it place an ad on Abebooks.com after having a look at other copies for sale. They fetch very good prices: today- @100 - $165. Do the same with some of the other books.

Aye

Ian

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Hello Ian,

Thank you for replying! I have done an inventory and will put together ads soon. I loved reading your earlier post. I currently have loads of David’s old written works, including An Old Hunter Remembers. I sent some items to a fellow in Alabama, Loring Jones, years ago and I shall follow up with him to see about getting copies. Please, may I write to you? I would very much like to.

Cheers,
Katie Ommanney