Only 36-38 days to go before heading to Zim for 1st leopard & 2nd buff hunt.

Can't wait.

I keep frog fingering my gear.
I've had it all packed and unpacked at least 4 times!
At this rate I'm gonna wear it all out before I even get out of the door!

Wife thinks I'm daft!

Any of you guys ever get this way?

Tim "The Gear Nut"

It is a age old feeling. I'm leaving for Namibia on Saturday, everything is packed, checked, checked and checked again. Finished my reloading tonight and will do the last tests tommorow morning. Then I must still kill half of tommorow, Thursday and Friday.

Wait till you really get close to departure, that's when the problem gets bigger. The last day you will run around to make sure everything is OK. Enjoy it, it is part of the build up.

We have a spare bedroom you can't even get into for all the gear we may or may not or maybe or...ok, ok...just get the damn stuff in there and let's go!

quote:

keep frog fingering my gear.
I've had it all packed and unpacked at least 4 times!
At this rate I'm gonna wear it all out before I even get out of the door!

Wife thinks I'm daft!

Any of you guys ever get this way?

Hell, yes. The anticipation adn preparation are half the fun.

Thank God! I thought it was just me! And, I'm not leaving until the end of Sept!

I haven't had this afliction since my 2d or 3d trip; however, its worst manifestation was on the first trip. I was like Father Christmas, I made a list, I checked it twice. I packed the whole kit, just to see if it would fit. I did not like the lay of everything, so I re-packed. Because my ammo wasn't all loaded, and it was on the bottom of the bag, I unpacked again. The week before the trip, all my ammo loaded, all my clothes cleaned, all my boots broken in, against my loadlist, previously shared with everyone back before Terry's (almost an exact duplicate of his-I was proud!), I packed again. I was ready to go. Racked and stacked and STRAC! (Does that take any of you back.)

My brother shows up on the Friday evening before we are to drive to Miami and catch the big bird to Cape Town on Saturday afternoon. He hadn't packed a thing. He had various bits and pieces of gear, clothings, shoes, and other kit thrown in the back of his car along with his rubber boots, hard hat, and latern thing he goes underground with. He and I make a dozen trips to my den, carrying this stuff in along with several of his bags. He insist, DEMANDS that I unpack. I have yet to understand the reason for that, nearly ten years later, but he won't pack until I unpack! So I unpack again.

My den looks and Army Surplus store. My wife was beyond herself. (It was a good thing the rifles were locked in their cases.) I had to repack and explain everything that I took and why I wasn't taking other things, like shorts. My brother did not take my word that it was winter in the Cape or that it might snow in the mountains where we were going. Not only did he take shorts, but demanded that I take shorts too, so that he wouldn't look weird wearing them by himself. About 2 am I got to bed to arise at about 7am to get ready to roll out at 8 am.

Needless to say, the den looked like the wreck of the Hesparis as we departed, which my wife has never forgotten nor let me forget. Our trip to Zim in '98 was almost an exact repeat, only my wife insisted that we put everything we were not taking away before we went to bed. We were more efficient, but having to put everything away, I still got to bed about 2 am. The second trip, when I started to get itchy and wanted to pack, my wife asked me in that especially sweet voice wives have, "Why would you want to pack all that now. When your brother gets here, you'll have to unpack it and pack again."

Her red letter day was when SAA moved its flights to Atlanta. My brother lives in B'ham, and now I drive there before leaving on a trip. He still doesn't pack until the last minute; he still carries shorts; but our rejects and overages don't litter our den after we've gone.

I leave in just over thirty days for Tanz, and all my bags, my step-son's bags, gun case, and piles of gear litter my tropy room amid various targets from final load testing and zeroing. It looks like a disaster area. I sat down at the computer, to print out my load list, and thought I'd check what was happening at AR, and guess what is at the top of the heap. Weidmann's Heil to all you who are packing. The games afoot. Kudude

Man, don't get me started on getting my kit together. I've been ready for 3 months. My wife has a list of things she wants to buy, but won't do it until the last minute.

Someone please email her and tell her to get off high ground and get it done! I'm tired of trying to convince her to get after it. She does this every damn time! Drives me crazy.

Regards,

Terry

Terry, et al, we're all in the same boat. I leave in 20 days and I'm going nuts. Went to the range again today to rechck, for the umpteenth time my rifles. The 300 H&H made a nice little 1" 3 shot triangle 1" high @ 200 yards, but when I got home it slipped out of the soft case from about 2 feet and fell to the ground ( on the butt end that has a pacjmyer deccel on it) so regardless, I have to go BACK tomorrow to recheck zero. arrrgh! So yes, I am getting quite postal. Hopefully you guys can get me through the next 20 days! jorge

quote:

Originally posted by Tim_Wegner:
Only 36-38 days to go before heading to Zim for 1st leopard & 2nd buff hunt.

Can't wait.

I keep frog fingering my gear.
I've had it all packed and unpacked at least 4 times!
At this rate I'm gonna wear it all out before I even get out of the door!

Wife thinks I'm daft!

Any of you guys ever get this way?

Tim "The Gear Nut"

Tim as you see you are not alone, the bad part is even after twenty hunts or so it still happens, and you usualy leave something behind because of distraction from the other half asking you why you are doing it for the umteenth time. Good luck and good hunting. Charlie

I know I suffered from gearitis the first time, but I now tend to do with less. I keep my check off list of basics, but I think you could almost get by with the clothes on your back and a few basic necessities. I really don't like dragging along a lot of stuff. I can throw my stuff together rather quickly.

It's all part of the thrill... The anticipation of it all! Killing the game is almost an anti-climax at the end. The endless preparation and planning beforehand, the tinkering with your gear and checking and rechecking is all part of the package and why we do what we do...

Two months to go and I'm starting to get itchy to get my stuff together. I have to go to the new Cabela's in Wheeling WVa. What for? Beats me but I'm sure I'll find something that i need to have.

TerryR

You guys should try flying from the UK or most other country's outside of North America and you won't have to worry about "gearitis" as we only get 44lb of luggage allowence with most airlines...

That "officially" includes your rifle and case too!

And with excess luggage rates running at around $20 per lb (each way) for Virgin Atlantic flights between London and RSA, thats a pretty good incentive to pack light!

Regards,

Pete

kudude,
I haven't heard "STRAC" in... well quite awhile!!

yes I have absolutely worn gear slick packing , checking, sorting, culling... even though I pack fairly minimalist, it is quite comforting to lay my front feet on it to assure myself that it is actually all there.

I have seen my hunting partner start his packing actually in the airport parking lot!!! I think he does it just to get under my skin.

Mike

I work on the panic mode. Get some gear together ahead of time. Shoot off all my ammo. Then find the gear I have collected weighs three times what I can take and start culling. Then have to reload all the ammo again. Hey it is dawn and my flight is leaving!

I beat you all! I´m planning what to pack for the buffalo hunt in 2006!

A hunt I haven´t even won yet...

Unfortunately, like Buck Fever, that too will come to pass, and that is the shame of it...

Cewe,

You have obviously made a mistake... Afterall I have decided on what rifle I'm going to buy forr the same hunt!!!

FB

Gosh Ray I hope not... the day that a hunting trip or a pretty girl don't enthuse me I hope they throw clods in my face.. what's the point if it doesn't warm the hearts of your cockle?

Mike

Great posts guys!

I resemble those remarks!
At least now I know this sort of "excessive compulsive disorder" is commom to our collective genepool and I now feel muchmobetta!

My poor wife keeps mumblng things like:

I thought you were done packing?

You cleaned your rifles last night!

You already weighed that stuff!

You ordered MORE stuff from Cabela's?

Your going to the range AGAIN?
You just spent 3 days at Gunsite taking the Africa prep class FOR THE 2nd TIME!!!!!!!!!

How much ammo do you need for Africa?

I'm guess I'm gonna have to give her a credit card and tell her to go shopping at the Mall! 2nd thought I'd better take her to the Mall myself!

Ha! Ha!

Again guys! Thanks for the great posts!

Tim

PS:

I think she is finally starting to resign herself to the fact she is becomming a part time "AFRICANHUNTINGGEAR" widow!

Oh Yeah!

When I get home from the shop tonite
I'm gonna grab my Hill Country .375 and hug it and pet it and hold it and sqeeze it! Then I'm gonna??????????????????????Oops Gota Go! Here she comes!

Tim,

You damn'd nut!!

I thought that trip down here to Texas would have held you over for at least a few months....Oops, forgot - you too have the sickness!!!

Good luck bro - I'm heading over on the 8th!

Jeff

Unlike Ray i still suffer from packing fever and i hope it will never wear off. Charlie

quote:

Originally posted by NitroX:
I work on the panic mode . . . Hey it is dawn and my flight is leaving!

I am so last minute that I never get more than two or three hours' sleep on the day/night before leaving.

That's a sure cure for "gearitis" but not one I'd recommend to others!

Gee I am glad someone mentioned this dreaded disease, I had it bad. Then when I got over there I used about a third of what I had. Africa was the worst but I guess it is a very contagious, when my group of 15 head for Colorado the wife's all have a farewell party and breath a sigh of releaf, then they go on a shopping binge for three days and we wonder why we can't find them. Good shooting.