To follow up on some of the other recent Big Five threads, do you really WANT to take all five?

I know some people do just for the prestige factor, and some will just to check another thing off their to do list, but how do most folks feel?

I fully realize that the readers of this forum probably are not anything like a representative cross-section of the population or even of the hunting population.....that's a good thing.

I'll start it off:

I've taken buffalo and elephant, and hope to go for leopard next year. But I really have no desire to take a lion or rhino. I might consider a "green/dart" hunt for rhino though.

Let's poll:

Question:
I REALLY WANT to take

Choices:
All five
Buffalo
Elephant
Lion
Leopard
Rhino

 

lrh270
I darted my rhino. I counted that as does Safari Club. I am a goal oriented person. It as nothing to do with prestige. I have not listed them with SCI and don't intend to. Having done it, I am glad now. I loved the ele. buff and leopard hunts. Have no desire to shoot another lion or dart another rhino. Your poll does not account for those who have already done it. I am betting once you do the rhino you will get the desire to get that lion. I once had no desire to to shoot an ele. Will leave in Aug. for my second.

None of the above.

I've shot some buff and some elephants. I've tried for lion and leopard. Everything but elephants is a secondary desire and my failure to bag a lion or leopard shows that. If they are priority targets, and they must be if the Big 5 is a primary goal, then they deserve the proper time and effort. I end up concentrating on elephant, and every thing else get the short shift. Once I get lucky enough to kill a leopard and lion I'll see if I can dart a black rhino.

If there were no elephants to hunt in Africa, I am not sure I would return.

JPK

I have taken buff, elephant and leopard. I would like to hunt lion sometime but although I could I always think of how many elephants I could hunt for the same money. I'm not interested in hunting a rhino. It is too tame now. I was lucky enough to see several in Dande North in the late 80's while on a leopard hunt. Those were truely wild rhinos that had been there for centuries. A pity they are no longer there.

465H&H

I fell for the African Marketing Department's Big Five advertising campaign and have no regrets. Not only the Big Five, but also hippo (I screwed it up and got a charge) and croc for the Big Seven. I am a frugal hunter as I took a lioness (not canned, but in Chewore North), several tuskless elephant cows (a great hunt) and darted a white rhino. I enjoyed them all including the rhino which was much more fun and exciting than I thought it would be. Each animal was different and thrilling to hunt in their own way. In the future, I plan to leave the cats alone and will limit my hunting to tuskless elephants, old dagga boys and crocs.

I like the big cats. Buff and Elephant are good too but I doubt I'll pester a Rhino. I see them all the time up close and personal. A black would be good, but not at the price tag. That borders on insanity. Hippo and Croc-allidile should be a must for anyone wanting danger options in the hunt. To me the Tiny Ten are giving me just as much of a challenge. I hunted Sharpe's Grysbok (as did my friend) and neither of us got one. We both saw high end trophies, but no cigar. Finally took a decent Klippie but the Vaal still evades me.
LDK

For me, I am just working my way along, gathering experiences as I hunt with my family.

One thing I notice is that everyone that hunts DG will tell a lengthy story about their buff hunt. They say - "Yea, I took a leopard and lion and buff. Let me tell you about the buff..." Others say that elephant hunting is the ultimate hunt. The agent I use has taken every big game animal out there except Mt. Nyala. I asked him - if you have one hunt left, what would you hunt? He says - "Elephant in the Okavango Delta", as fast as I ask the question.

I think the Big 5, is not really all it is cracked up to be. The rhino will be high fenced and not that much of a challenge. I have yet to hear of a dart hunt or a shooting hunt for rhino where the rhino wins (in modern times.

For me, cats are next and maybe elephant - but I am not sure.

Went with Buff only. The other members of the Big 5 are certainly worthy trophies but, to me, there are just so many more plains-game species that take priority.

The first trip over was to finally experience Africa, and hunt PG, on my "once in a lifetime" hunting trip.

Then I had my son and daughter-in-law go the next year.

The next was figured out to get that "once in a lifetime" leopard, and all the other PG that eluded me. Talked the wife into going along for the anniversary.

This next "once in a lifetime" trip in 2009 for buffalo and elephant will be the trip to end all trips. (I promised ? my wife). Can't afford a lion, and don't want a rhino.

Wonder how all the grandkids feel about springbok??????

I would love to take the Big Five as to do so is to have participated in one of the world's classic hunting adventures. Each specie, and therefore each hunt, is unique unto itself. If all are done free chase, I think it would be hard to beat as the ultimte hunt.

I just like to hunt so the answer is yes!

I like to hunt moose, deer, sheep, elk, birds, bears, completely enjoyed my first safari last year, am booked to hunt DG next year, and will continue to plan and dream for future hunting adventures.

As I am self employed in a rural Alaskan town, it's hard to say whether or not I'll ever be able to afford a Black Rhino, but I'd love to hunt one!

I would like a buffalo and that's all out of the big five.
I would like to take it with big heavy cast .458 slug.

quote:

Your poll does not account for those who have already done it.

I assumed they would check that they wanted to do what they had already done.

Maybe that's a bit too presumptuous????

quote:

I once had no desire to to shoot an ele.

True, I was that way also at one time. Having done PAC ele, now I want to take a tusker with the .470

I'd love to shoot them all, but a rhino hunt these days seems like a joke compared to the days of old. I think you're probably kidding yourself if you take a white rhino and think it was every bit the hunt that a black rhino was in the old days of East Africa (keep in mind that I've done neither just the opinion I've gathered).Even if cost weren’t an issue I think the black rhino is just as bad. I’m not a game collector or a killer. I go for the experience and the hunt. I have no interest in hunting dangerous game where it has no business being. A black rhino hunt for an animal that is predetermined in a fenced area of any size in an area it wasn’t meant to be in sounds in now way like something I want to be a part of or be proud of. That said I tip my hat to the forward thinking people of Southern Africa who have saved the white rhino and who are saving the black rhino. I am under no allusion as to roll hunting of surplus animals has played in the recovery of these two animals.

I have a buffalo and have set a goal to go on a lion hunt for my 30th birthday (currently 25). When in Rome I suppose I'll do as the Romans, but I really hope to take a lion through tracking. I do realize that this isn’t possible under certain soil and grass conditions and will diminish my chances for success, but I can't imagine a greater thrill except maybe elephant. Which brings me to my next point. I would love to hunt elephant and in fact I would prefer to hunt elephant before lion, but I just don't see lion getting any easier or cheaper! After I’ve done it “ALL†I can see myself going back to elephant and buffalo over and over again. Leopard aren't nearly as exciting to me as buffalo, lion, or elephant and I think that's because of the passive roll the hunter takes in the whole experience. I would love to track a leopard also, but I know this is even more futile that tracking lions. I suppose some day I will have the other four and decide on a nominal rhino darting, but I doubt my heart will be in it. Then again I may never bother and just spend the money on a buffalo or elephant hunt.

Brett

LRH270

Good poll, but it's flawed. It doesn't leave room for combinations of animals. Some many want only two or three or four (like me).

Brett

Yes, good poll.
Interesting results, too.

I would NOT shoot rhino under the current circumstances, i.e. it is too endangered. But if the situation was different then yes.

Out of these, the elephant for me is in many ways the most ultimate - not having even been on safari at all yet.
The elephant is mystical, big - and expensive. All the stories about the old ivory hunters are fascinating and exciting, and for me to get to shoot an elephant would be a whiff of the old times; and would make me feel like I'm in their footprints.

The buff I take as "granted": it's so numerous and not exorbitantly priced that I see that already during one of the first safaris I'm likely to shoot it.
Despite this it is very, very African and the mere thought of buffalo is most exciting!

I'd have loved to have been with Carl Ackley
as he did it, and further, hunting the giant
Silver Back Gorilla. My God, it must have been
almost too much to believe that it was really
happening...

YEs I do I do I do
YES

Have shot several Elephant,a couple of Leopard and one Buffalo. Don't care to ever hunt a Rhino but would like to take a Lioness. Not a male Lion but a female.Buffalo is uneventful hunting to me and Rhino hold no allure but Elephant I could hunt everyday happily and I have ALWAYS admired and wanted to take a Lioness.

I have no desire to kill a rhinoceros of any kind as that's pretty much all it is these days, killing, rather than hunting. I like the hunt far more than the kill, although I recognize and appreciate that killing is essential to all true hunting.

I have hunted (and killed) all of the others of the Big Five and will continue to do so as long as funds and health permit.

There is no hunting on earth these days that can compare with African dangerous game hunting - especially lion and elephant hunting. It is the best there is.

My hopes of being a successful enough writer to afford to take the big five by the time I’m forty will officially be crushed on Nov. 13th of this year. I guess I’ll move it back to “by the time I’m 45.â€

I've taken the cats, buff and elephant. I'd like to take a white rhino if I could hunt it in a situation like on the Mukuze Game Reserve were you are not hunting a stocked and measured rhino. For me the white rhino does not take the place of the black variety in the Big 5 but I'd still like to hunt one.

I personally could never be satisfied to hunt buffalo or anything else to the exclusion of other game. There are just too many interesting places and species to hunt.

I did...Ready to do it again...

I'd certainly like to take all five, but only a green needle hunt on the white rhino!

I'm sure I'll never take them all, as I'm too old now to risk the money it would take to do it right. I should have done it when I was younger, but I simply couldn't leave cape buffalo alone long enough to hunt the others!

I do, but there are no rhino "hunts" anymore like 60+ years ago.

Buff.

If money was no object, I'd hunt all of them til I dropped.

However, I checked leopard as the second choice. It seems so classical in terms of safari culture. Something of an intellectual chess match with THE solitary master of stealth, caution, and quiet.

I killed a very nice buffalo in 2006. Exciting? Sure and something to be repeated many times. Not only dangerous but affordable danger. There's an oxymoron for you.

PAC elephant is probably all the excitement for your buck that you could ever want. Hand shake distance with 6 tons of mammal with attitude? Yikes!

How can you listen to lions roar at night and not want to mix it up with them? It makes the hair on the back of my neck stand up. King of Beasts? You better believe it, at least after dark. No, they don't look at you as if you owe them money. They look through you as if you don't matter at all.

Going tiptoe with the hippo? Check!

Croc? Hell yes, but there are alligators down south, some of which kill and eat things we love. Big damn lizards. Can't kill them fast enough to eradicate 'em. Ask the the Aussies how salties are doing these days? Lots of boots and belts in just one of these bad boys.

Rhino? Seen too many T.V. shows with cute little 13 girls feeding them by hand and scratching them behind the ear. White ones, of course.

Hm in case of numbers only Big 3 in my book, with 1 under big question mark - makes it 2+1.

1. buffalo - always
2. elephant - got cold feet when I first met them close in the wild, but I have just read the Elephant hunting in East equatorial Africa by Neumann (from nickudu files) - hell this stuff is contagius!

3. lion - only if one was to be walked down on foot.

Im not too fussed on Rino but give me another chance at Leopard and that with my Hippo would be my big five.