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From Ron Thomson's book Mahohboh: "Hunting black rhinos with a dart gun is, without doubt, the most exhilarating kind of big game hunting possible. In anybody's language it represents, by far, the 'Nth' degree of hunting." This from someone who hunted thousands of elephants. Anyone out there that has done this and what is your opinion? Mike Mike | ||
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?????  "When you play, play hard; when you work, don't play at all." Theodore Roosevelt | |||
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Mike, NO, I never hunted black rhino (few have), or white rhino for that matter (no desire to "dart" one either). But we did track one in the Save Conservancy w/Buzz. Possibly because it was my first experience w/a rhino, and thanks to all the stories and mental images of a rhino blindly charging just to sort things out, it was exhilarating to say the least. We were maybe 40-50 yards when he caught our scent and turned to see what was following him. This lasted for about 5 minutes until he eventually trotted off. I snapped a series of pictures, none of which came out too good, but they were taken from "ground level" and not from the security of the Cruiser! I know others from the forum have had closer encounters with black rhino, and perhaps will post/re-post their experiences.  | |||
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Neat picture. I was really surprised by Ron's statement in his book. I always thought of elephant hunting as being the pinnacle of the hunting experience. Frankly, from the videos I have seen of rhino darting it seemed pretty anticlimactic to me. Admittedly, most of those hunts were white rhino though. Mike | |||
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A load of bloody BULLSHIT! Let him try darting a black rhino without another man next to him with a rifle, then I might agree. | |||
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Sounds like old Ron has new a$$ociation$ with concerns offering rhino darting. | |||
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I had to going looking for clients wounded Ghemsbok in S.A and there were Rhino on the property, the land owner told me "he didn`t care if I was stuck on the end of the Rhinos horn, I wasn`t to shoot it ! as they sell darted Rhino hunts ! I did stalk up to about 100 yrds of them, and IMO was quite easy.It was as though the Rhino must have thought, "oh here we go again, a small prick,we have a sleep then we wake up " Personally I don`t like the idea of darting something,taking the pictures and then injecting it to bring it round again,not totally ethical to me. Get out in the bush and see the animals on their own turf. | |||
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I shot black rhino back in the days of history when it wwas leagal, but it sure wasn't with a dart. So, I can't comment on Ron's statement, except to say it sounds like BS to me. | |||
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 NRA Life Member, Band of Bubbas Charter Member, PGCA, DRSS. Shoot & hunt with vintage classics. | |||
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If you go elephant hunting, you use an elephant-suitable caliber rifle? And you expect your PH to also carry an elephant-suitable caliber rifle. If you go rhino darting you carry a dart gun? And you expect yout PH to also carry a dart gun? Now, as Saheed said, that will be exhilerating! Andrew McLaren | |||
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MJ-If you want to see the results of a real black rhino hunt go to Madubula Safaris website and see the one Greg took at Mkuze. | |||
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If I remember correctly, Ron was talking about the days when Rhino were being relocated from the bush in an attempt to save them from poachers and he darted (and saved) quite a few back then. And because this work was done in the thickest jesse, he usually made his final stalk alone as he had to get quite close and any backup would have reduced his chances for success and he had some close calls and narrow escapes in the process. This was no “Green trophy hunt†(or whatever they’re called) on a South African ranch. It was a few extremely dedicated and highly competent PHs going to sometimes extraordinary lengths under difficult conditions to preserve what was left of Africa’s last wild Rhinos at that time. Ron Thompson is, in my opinion, one of the most important figures in the fight to save Africa’s wildlife and is a strong voice in support of trophy hunting. His book, “The Wildlife Game†is (also IMO), the definitive work on the wildlife management in Africa. He is amongst the most experienced professional hunters alive today, having personally shot over 5,000 elephant. He is now writing his memoirs and interested subscribers can get a signed limited edition when they are published: Ron Thomson S. | |||
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| Moderator |
Thanks for posting. Makes a great deal more sense. | |||
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