I just got Volume 8 : Issue 3 yesterday, with the sable bull on the cover.

Johan looks a lot younger than I expected, in the photos that accompanied the interview/story. More than a year after getting gored and squashed by the cape buffalo, Johan was still facing surgery to repair nerves and tendons in an arm to get him back to full PH power.

This is a great magazine published in South Africa and mailed from Plano, Texas
to your US mailbox, methinks.

A note from the editor was included as an insert in the "plain brown" mailing envelope. Here is one paragraph from that letter:

Please help to ensure that support for the Hunting industry is not only maintained, but also increased, by 1) Sending the email addresses of four of your fellow hunters to taryn@thefuture.co.za or 2) Forwarding this letter to fellow hunters to subscribe. For further information, please visit www.africansportinggazette.co.za

edit: That link won't work for me. but here is a way to order the current issue:
http://www.griffinhowe.com/store/index.cfm?key=10

second edit: It is working for me now

http://www.africansportinggazette.co.za/

[ 03-16-2003, 19:48: Message edited by: DaggaRon ]

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I agree that The African Sporting Gazette is a great publication. It is attractively designed and easy to read. There is always a good mixture of well-written stories and high-quality photos covering all aspects of African outdoor sporting activities.

Although it is a high-end, glossy paper production, there is none of the pretentiousness found in some of the other high-end outdoor publications. Millionaires and working stiffs alike will find it interesting, entertaining and readable.

I was especially thrilled when I received the last issue (Sable cover, Vol. 8, Issue 3) and discovered a photo of me with my 60 1/2" kudu in the "Sporting People" section on page 117! Thanks to Coenraad Vermaak Safaris for sharing the photo.

The story of Johan Calitz's harrowing experience demonstrates how quickly things can get out of hand when in pursuit of dangerous game. Fortunately, his companions shot the buffalo off of him before it could finish the job. The fact that he survived such horrendous injuries is testament to his mental toughness and physical tenacity. I would really enjoy hunting with him one day!

[ 03-16-2003, 19:36: Message edited by: Mark in SC ]

Mark,
Ain't you special! Swell kudu at nightfall there!

Alf,
I have the last three issues. They are great.

The Africa Afflicted (the other AA) should subscribe to this most comforting and classy journal, if they are not doing so already. Same goes for African Hunter and Hatari Times.

I do not have a subscription to Magnum, as yet. Can anyone supply the latest contact info? ... off to the web search ...

http://www.africansportinggazette.co.za/

Some good reading here to entice you to subscribe.

All the big talk about PH's bailing out the client.

Hmmm...., two PH's and one of them still gets nailed.

In the one video, JC is bluffing the bull elephant. I wonder if he will be up to that anymore.

ASG is getting better but still lacks enough hunting stories, and is centered around SA, which is not necessarily a bad thing.

Will

[ 03-17-2003, 00:23: Message edited by: Will ]

DaggaRon,
Try manmagnum@saol.com

Thanks!

This is pretty old news and it happened two years ago...He is fine now, we visited in Dallas, he has a limp and a couple of stiff fingers but he can hunt, ...

Will,
Apparantly you do not know the circumstances but basically what happened is Johann was one of the hunters and being treated to the hunt by a sheik, a postmans holiday...

The Tanzania PH (a Frenchman btw) told the sheik to shoot the bull at some distance against Johann advise, but he was the PH, the sheik gut shot the bull and it charged, the sheik froze, the frenchman left at a run, Johan finally sized up the situation and stepped in front of the sheik to kill the buff, stepped in a wart hog hole and broke his ankle in 3 places and fired one shot as he black out, and he got mauled considerably, finally the sheik shot the bull off him...I havn't read the article but this is what happened....The sheik stuck Johann in his Leer jet and got him to Dubai, and that is the only thing that saved Johanns life...He was later taken to Africa and then home to heal up and hair over..both Butch Searcy and I were in contact with him all during his ordeal.

Johan is the most competent PH in Africa today and probably has as many Buff, Lion and elephant to his credit as any man alive in Africa today, with the exception of a few old time poachers/elephant hunters who are retired..

I'll bite - what happened? Where can I find the story?

Glad he's doing well, and I'd like to know more about the story to better appreciate why dangerous game hunting is well named.

Arrggh - sorry. I didn't see Mr. Atkinson's reply before I sent mine. Oh well, never mind.

Good story, though, in several aspects. Congratulations to Johan for his sense of professionalism.

Ron
I could only access the Griffen Howe link. Its says that its $12 for 1, that would be $US. Can you tell me the subscription price for a year? Is that in $US or Rand?

Thanks
Bakes

Couple of observations.
Anyone notice how markedly different the actions of the PH , as described in the magazine are from his actions as rumoured/reported in these forums a few months ago ?
The photographs accompanying the article , somehow seem very contrived and clinical , having said that,the African Sporting Gazette really is a very good magazine, well ahead of it's competitors.
DJ.

According to the article, Johan received his trouncing on September 30, 2001, almost 18 months ago. He was accompanying an English speaking "Prime Minister" on the PM's hunt. Johan and the PM spoke English, the PH spoke only French, the trackers spoke Swahili, and there was a French-English interpreter along too. Lot of sign language going on there!

Johan carried a 500 NE (Butch Searcy has a full page ad imbedded in the article). The PH was borrowing the client's (the PM's) 470 NE, because the PH's 475 NE had faulty ammo that had misfired on a previous episode with buffalo on this same safari.

The client gut shot the buffalo and went back to the bakkie to wait while Johan, the PH and the trackers went tracking. The PH and trackers ran ahead, one shot was fired. Johan ran up to the scene, just in time to fire a shot himself, and get gored.

The medical air evac was first to Dar, then to Nairobi, then finslly, after surgery, Joburg, for more repairs. He went to Georgia, USA for ankle reconstruction.

Bakes,
$50 US, for four issues.

[ 03-18-2003, 13:30: Message edited by: DaggaRon ]

Thanks Ron.

Bakes

When I had to choose a "hunt school" some years back to do my PH training, I made a point of doing extensive research on the alternatives available. I spoke to many PHs and outfitters and hunters, and finally decided to attend the Calitz school.
Taking nothing away from some other fine schools in SA, I am proud of that decision. Around the camp fire one has to answer this question quite frequently : "which school were you?"

Lochi.
ps. of course that doesn't make me a hot-shot PH like him!

A quote from the article, in the words of Johan Calitz:

I learnt a lesson from all of this. In hindsight, I should have stuck to my motto, which, up to then, I had always done: 'If I am not in control, then I don't get involved.'

But the most important thing I learnt was that there is a living God. This was reality for me. Miracles still exist in the 21st century, or I would not be alive today. And one thing I told my client: "When some taxidermist has finished with the Buffalo, I want it!"

BTW, it did look like the photos illustrating Johan's medevac were after-the-fact, staged, re-enactments, IMHO. Also, If Johan has over 27 years of PH experience, then he must have started when he was about 20 years old. With his recuperation to full horsepower, hopefully he has another quarter century of "in control" Ph-ing in him.

Another motto comes to mind: 'If a Frenchman is in control, then I don't get involved.'

Chalk another one up to France.