I always found the heart of anything bigger than a chicken to be tough as a boot. Maybe I'm cooking it wrong.

A properly aged backstrap, now that's some fine eats.

As my brother John always said, "It'll make a turd."

quote:

Originally posted by Don_G:
As my brother John always said, "It'll make a turd."

Don, On your upcoming trip, try the buffalo backstraps fresh (fried breaded cutlets), I think you'll be well pleased.

My favorite breakfast in Africa is Impala liver and onions with fried eggs, toast and tea.

It appears you are having quite the adventure.

Glad you are enjoying yourself. I know we will see some excellent photos when you return.

Since you undoubtably also have that new High Def Canon with you, you will probably have some excellent High Def footage as well. Remember if you convert some of that footage to HD-WMV quite a few of those on this board will be able to enjoy it on their computers

Please pass the heart, tongue and tripe.

But as I prefer not to be a study in toxicology, I will pass on the liver as eating one is akin to eating the oil filter in your truck.

Actually, the oil filter of my truck is quite tasty.



analog_peninsula

quote:

As my brother John always said, "It'll make a turd."

Funny, when I say it now, I always preface the comment with "As my buddy Don always says..."

Lookin' forward to cape buff backstrap....

Cheers,
Canuck

Today was bait checking day. One of our leoprad baits was eaten, so we replenished it.
The lions have not been so co-operative. They pass with yards of our bait and not touch them!
We see lion trackes in almost every sandy river bed we pass.

Yesterday Dwight shot a wildebeest, and Todd shot an impala.
Walter wanted to BBQ an impala, so we told him he had to shoot it himself. He did shoot one this afternoon, which he is going to cook tomorow.
I shot an kongoni and Todd shot a zebra today.

We saw the tracks of an eland bull, but, as the area is difficult to track in, we decided not to follow him.

We did not come across any buffalo tracks today at all. But saw so many impala and wildebeest. A few warthogs and giraffes and of course hippos in the river.
I am writing this with back to the river. Each time we turn and shine the light we see many eyes looking at us, including 2 hyaenas which seem to enjoy keeping us awake at night - not to mention the noise from the hippos.
But, this part of the fun of being in an African hunting camp.

Good Lord man I can hardly wait for Tanzania-2007!!!! Thank you Saaed you feed my dreams!!!!

Saeed,

I think you will be forced to ask Witch Doctor WalterHog to say a few words over your lion baits. It is obvious from here that he has put a voodoo curse on them!

quote:

We did not come across any buffalo tracks today at all.

Wow. I kinda find that surprising, but I probably shouldn't. I guess somebody must have warned them that you were coming Saeed!

Cheers,
Canuck

Saeed, when i wrote if walther could write something ,and you wrote back that all he was allowed to was to eat and breath, and then i wondered on is he allowed to visit the bathroom occasionnally too or will that also be destroyed in a stunt?

Slightly off-topic but as Saeed used to shoot American Trap I thought he might like to know Kay Ohye, long-time All-American from New Jersey, won the 1st Grand American Handicap at the new ATA HomeGrounds in Sparta, Illinois.

He was one of 11 shooters who broke 99x100. He shot a perfect 25x25 in the 1st shoot-off round to win trap shootings most prestigeous event.

Saeed,

Thanks for the updates.

Do you trust Walter BBQing an impala. Is it safe for him to be around that much fire?

Is it wrong to fondle my .416 why I read Saeed notes. I cant wait for the next 6 days. I have to go to the Slous now!!!!!!!!!!!!

Just finished watching another tanzania video.

Saeed is making me crazy with the hipppos!!!!!

cant wait to see the pics

Don G--can you define "properly aged backstrap" in regards to African hunting? If it includes scraping off the maggots, I'll take "fresh"

I don't know how to age meat in Africa. It was damn near impossible in Texas most years.

Here in Ohio it involves hanging the meat in a tree or shed for a few days if the weather is mild, in the garage if it is too cold outside. (My neighbors have finally quit calling the cops when I hang my deer in the backyard of my yuppie suburb - at least they don't call 'em every year anymore. The neighborhood boys all seem to get a kick out of it, but many of my neighbors seem a bit stand-offish!.)

I try for a quick chill of the carcase, then I want the integral of days times temp in degrees C to be 40. So: hang for ten days at 4C/39F if you have a cooler. I learned that here on AR (from a Dane or a Swede, I think). Meat is marvelous when properly aged.

In Africa with no refrigeration that formula works out to about 24 hours! I don't think it works at temps above 50F/10C, the maggots eat too much.
[/]

You really should hang a carcase whole for at least 24-36 hours in a cool place or walk in cooler.
If you go quartering one sooner it will most likely be tough. You need to let rigamortise set in. Then cut it up. As Don said above, properly aged meat is the best!

AMEN Rusty!

We are trying to concentrate on the cats, but, so far they are winning. We see lion and leopard tracks every day. 2 of our leopard baits have been hit. One eaten completely. We have replinished them and hope he will feed again. If he does we will build a blind and wait for him.

I shot a zebra and a wildebeest this morning.

We saw literally hundredes of impala. And so many zebra and some giraffe and wildebeest. Also a herd of eland, but, no bull amongst them.

Came back to camp abou 3.30, and decided to take it easy and help Walter prepare his BBQed impala.

We put some bones in front of the camp, and watched an enormous number of vultures feed.

Todd and Dwight have not returned yet, so we have no idea what they have shot.

Last night we had hyaenas in the camp all night. Some were fighting and triping over the guy wires of the tents.

Eveyone is hunting with 2 375/404 rifles and 300 grain Walterhog bullets.

quote:

Originally posted by mrlexma:


Good luck on the lion. As for Blasers, well, I have only killed two lions with my Blaser, and with two different barrels.

Sorry, no intended, just having some fun.

This could be interpreted to mean that Blaser barrels only last for a very short time!

Good luck with your hunt Saeed.

Saeed,

Again I see no mention of buffalo sightings in your report!

Maybe the word is out that you are back and they have all headed for safer country.

Good luck on the cats!

Today was a day of those days when things happen and one wonders why. Not long out of the camp we saw some vultures sitting on trees. We went to investigate. We found a bull eland dead. He did not seem to have ny wounds of any sorts on him. He also did not seem to have struggled where found him. For all intent and purposes he looked in a very health state before he died. The guess was he got bitten by a snake. We did not touch him and left him for the vultures.

We continued to go around our baits. The lions never touched any of our baits. We found aleoprad feeding on the bait that got eaten a few days agao ande we have replinished. We built a blind and sat in it for about an hour. But nothing came back.

We went to have lunch un der some trees, and rest for an hour or so. After that we drove around. We saw a herd of eland, all cows. Literally hundreds of impala, and so many wildebeest and zebra. At 4.30 we went and sat in the blind. Two hours later our leoprad came to eat, which I shot. So one cat is down, and one to go. And from the tracks we see of lions around here. We are hoping some will come to feed on our baits.

Yesterday Todd shot a buffalo. And Walter made a fantastic BBQ of his impala. Now he is given the choice of either doing that regularly, or end up in the hippo pool.

We see buffalo or sign of buffalo every day. It is just we are concentrating on the cats.

Congrats on the leopard!

It seems that for once, a male lion is the best friend the selous buffalo have!

Hope you manage to find a nice simba before making inroads in the buff.

quote:

Two hours later our leoprad came to eat, which I shot. So one cat is down, and one to go. And from the tracks we see of lions around here. We are hoping some will come to feed on our baits.

Wooohooooo! That is great news. Congrats on the leopard and best of luck on the lion!

Boghossian..love your comment!

quote:

And Walter made a fantastic BBQ of his impala. Now he is given the choice of either doing that regularly, or end up in the hippo pool.

That does sound good! Mmmmm, mmmmm.

Cheers,
Canuck

Saeed,

I hope the rain stopped while I was up river from you 10 to 15 kilometers, we had rain for 10 straight days and nighily downpours...

Kaboobie kabobbie....


Mike & Cherie

Most cat hunting is 99% hard work, and one percent shooting.

Ah . . . but that one percent is pretty important.

Congrats, Saeed on your leopard!

We thought we will give the hippos and crocs some bother today.
There is a part of the river which makes a good place to put a bait for a croc.

As we got there and got out of the trcuk to look at the hippos - which were everywhere. We saw one large bull getb up from one of the pools in the river and walk away. We decided to shoot him, so a quick run back to the truck - luckily Walter was still up there, and he handed me the rifle. I shot the bull as he was walking away at an angle in the head. He dropped. I fired two more shots into him to make sure he stayed there.

We cut the head off and the two rear legs to use as lion baits. The rest we tied to a rock as bait for the crocs. By this time it was lunch time. We drove a few miles and had lunch by the river. After that we drove around, and about 5 we got bacxk to the croc bait. We surprised a poacher with a handfull of meat. He took off like a rocket into the bush. Alan took off after him. He dropped his shoes behind and disappeared. We looked around and found several sacks they had transported meat int, but no sign of them.
The hippo was completely clkeaned up, so there was nothing left for the crocs.

Enrique shot a wildebeest and an impala. Walter is going to BBQ it tomorrow, which everyone is looking forward too.

Glad you having fun please send my regards to everyone there make sure Alan finds me when he is able too,

best to everyone,

eric

How are poachers for Croc bait? I wonder if they have gotten wise to the idea that safaris provide a lot of free and easy meat for sale to others.
Frank

First let me state that I am an avid hunter,not of the big 5 but a life long hunter none the less.But I must ask what is the sole purpose of the hunting of the giraffe?

Hunting Giraffe ?

Cause they look like a building falling down when you shoot one !

Not much prettier than a nice giraffe skin in the CASA ...

Billy

Saeed is not hunting giraffe, since they may not be hunted in Tanzania. Of course, that doesn't stop the lions from hunting them.

Giraffe may be hunted elsewhere in Africa. As for the purpose of hunting them, well, what is the purpose of hunting anything?

Your question is far too open ended.

quote:

Originally posted by Red Neck64:
First let me state that I am an avid hunter,not of the big 5 but a life long hunter none the less.But I must ask what is the sole purpose of the hunting of the giraffe?

They make a cool mount and the skin is great for pillows.

quote:

Originally posted by Red Neck64:
First let me state that I am an avid hunter... I must ask what is the sole purpose of the hunting of the giraffe?

I'm assuming your question stems from the reference to the dead giraffe in the thread. Please re-read it. The giraffe was found caught in a poacher's snare! Poachers indiscriminately kill any animal to sell the meat, horns ivory,etc. As for those who do hunt them, why not? Where they are legal game if someone wants to hunt one it's his choice. There are those who think I'm a bit odd for getting excited about shooting doves & geese in Africa!

I can tell you from experience that a Giraffe is not an easy animal to take down. In 2004, we hunted in Namibia and some ranchers needed to cull two of the bulls. I did not know at the time that a Giraffe's toe nail keep growing like a human toe nail. Most of the time the rocky terrain keps them nice and trim just like a horse's hoof without a horseshoe. The two bulls were very old and mature and didnt move around as much so this casued there toe nails to become very long. This hampered there movement and the younger bulls would literally beat them to death with there two horns on the top of there head. So one of our hunters decided to take one. This is a huge ordeal. About 30 of the local villiagers came behind us in the trucks to take care of the meat and watch. After about the 5th shot and about 1 mile of running this mammonth down, he finally fell. He did not expire quickly so we again placed a shot in the chest with the .416 from about 10 yards. This again did not do the trick. we also had a .17 mag to use so the PH told the hunter to go behind the head and place a shot right behind the ear and that would do it. Big mistake! In a millisecond the Giraffe snapped his neck back and hit the hunter square with his 2 horns and knock him about 20 yards back and the bent the barrel of the gun. The hunter could have been killed if the giraffe did not hit the gun first. After all of the laughter from the crowd, we finally got the hunter to stand up. He was pretty messed up. Couple of good scrathes from the thorns and one nice cut on the arm from the impact.
Needless to say, a giraffe is a trophy animal that is not the little Geoffery in the store. I know they are easy to kill and not much a challenge physicaly but what a beatiuful trophy he has in his office at home. Plus the village had much needed meat for a while.
I would say on our hunt Giraffe 1, Hunters 0.

We went to check our lions baits again. Nothing was eaten.

We saw an old dugga boy standing on an edge of a dry river bank before he turned tail and disappeared into the long grass behind him. We followed him for a while, but he continued going downwind.

We gave up the chase and drove around looking for something else. Walter wanted to shoot a warthog, but, as it happened, when we found a good male, Walter was left at camp to prepare his BBQ.

Anyway, we decided to shoot the warthog for him.

A while later we found a herd of waterbuck, with one good trophy amongst them. We shot him and decided to head to camp. We got back to camp at 3 in the afternoon.

We saw a number of elephant bulls, one at least was a borderline legal. Lions tracks are found everywhere, as leoprad's. Dugga boys tracks can be seen in river beds. But, it is extremely difficult to track them once they are into the grass. Herds are much easier.

Quite a bit of poaching is going on around here. We have collected a number of snares set by the river. The game warden in charge of the Northern Selous came over to visit. We told bhim about the poaching, and he promised to send in patrols. In fact, we saw one patrol working in our concession the morning he left. Hopefully this might help.

Poaching is on the up country wide and not just for ivory!

Saeed, you shot a leopard and all we get to read is a "one liner" hidden amongst tales of croc and hippo hunting! Out with the details; time of shot? where you hit it? did it DRT? bullet used? recovered? celebration stories?

quote:

We saw a number of elephant bulls, one at least was a borderline legal. Lions tracks are found everywhere, as leoprad's. Dugga boys tracks can be seen in river beds. But, it is extremely difficult to track them once they are into the grass. Herds are much easier.

That kind of stuff is music to my ears. I can hear the hippos and hyenas already.

3 more big sleeps and my journey begins. I am not sure Christmas as a kid can be used as a benchmark for anticipation/excitement anymore. I never got butterflies this far in advance of Christmas!

Cheers,
Chris