My good friend just returned from Zim and he said it looked bad to him...

When he arrived in Harare his second bag did not arrive... Which happened to contain his ammo for his elephant hunt... Around the fifth day it came to camp and it was obviously opened lock cut off and rifled...half of ammo gone, leatherman tools taken... This was in the Joberg airport...

He shot two bulls but I will let him tell his stories...


Mike

Seems like there are a lot of stories like that out of that particular airport.

Zim looked bad or just ticked about Joberg?

Dais equal don't ja no.

I don't care for the Joberg airport and will avoid it whenever possible. Unfortunately, you have to go there to get to Harare and ironically, I feel safer in the Harare airport than I do in Joberg.

Pity about your friend's baggage and curious that they actually left stuff...1/2 the ammo? Strange. Well, the important thing is that he got 2 bulls. Looking forward to his report.

How about this. Fly to Windhoek and then take a nice drive to South Africa. Registering your firearms at the border. Or do not take guns, use theirs. See some of the country you never would. Get more of an experience for the country you are visiting.

quote:

Originally posted by Cunningham:
How about this. Fly to Windhoek and then take a nice drive to South Africa. Registering your firearms at the border. Or do not take guns, use theirs. See some of the country you never would. Get more of an experience for the country you are visiting.

That sounds good if I wanted to be in SA and not ZIM!

Yukon,

I am the hunter who had the issue with the luggage.

Story: I arrived at Harare on time and my tuffpak with rifle arrived with me. My support luggage was held up in Joberg for 4 days. My locks cut off, everything was ripped apart. Stolen items included ammo, leatherman, medications, and a shirt. The stolen ammo was federal factory. They did not touch my reloads in the plastic box. Perhaps the thief suspected the reloads were of no value?

In addition, 2 other hunters traveled on the same flight with me and their rifles never arrived, but their support luggage did.


On the return flight I spoke with a SA airforce officer who was traveling to USA for flight training. He explained to me that there is a theft ring at Joberg airport were the police are partners with the baggage handlers. They have a great theft business going on.

suggestion: travel with 2 tuffpaks, and avoid SAA if all possible.

I forgot: The thief also stole a 5lbs. box of various Hersery chocolate bars.

Sorry to hear about your troubles Dale. Now for the good stuff...we need a hunt report with photos!

quote:

Pity about your friend's baggage and curious that they actually left stuff...1/2 the ammo?

Probably they (thieves) figured that he was carrying too much Ammo for the hunt and left what they thought was enough.

Just curious, did your bags have any clues that it might hold hunting material? ie camo print or maybe a tag suggesting hunting?

The luggage was a plain black duffle bag. Nothing to indicate that there were any hunting materials inside.

That is a really bad place. I have had lots of things go missing.

I can't wait to see what they do when the World Cup goes to the RSA.

I have been through the JoBurg airport a dozen times now. I have never had ammo stolen but every single time I have been throuhg that airport that have searched for something to steal. That place is full of slime.

quote:

Originally posted by daleW:
I forgot: The thief also stole a 5lbs. box of various Hersery chocolate bars.

Now that is totally unacceptable --- just how low will these scheming individuals go anyway!?

Professonional Bitch

I flew throug Jo'berg in novenmber...flying co-air

Declaired in my lugage was 500mg of M99 (ie enough to kill 25 people It was stored in Ice etc.

It went missing.

To this DAY BA have refused to awserer any email on the missing drugs at Jhb Int and as they are are dangerous narcotic drugs I have resorted to legal action. BA deny.....FWP's

Ganyana- What is M99?

M99 is used in animal capture right? I believe Alf uses it also.

M99 (etorphine hydrochloride) was synthesised by Bentley & Hardy (1963) and is chemically related to morphine. When given subcutaneously, M99 is 1,000 to 80,000 times more potent than morphine as an analgesic. Its use for immobilising game animals results largely from its ability to cause catatonia at very low dose levels (for example, the total dose for a rhino may be as low as 5 mg). Because of the great risk involved to man and animal in handling this substance, the possession and use of M99 is strictly controlled by law in almost all countries. Novartis enforces this and ensures that M99 and M5050 is only supplied to registered veterinarians.

That is some scary stuff. I had the oportunity to assist in capturing some Sable that were in an enclosure and they go down almost immediately. What is more amazing is we gave them a shot of something in a vein in the ear and they were up and alert almost before we could get out of the truck. Seemed to have no adverse affects and we transported them and released them successfully. I did not find the capture gun to have much effective range and would not like to tackle dangerous game with it.

quote:

M99 is 1,000 to 80,000 times more potent than morphine as an analgesic.

M99 is essentially the same as fentanyl, which is given to patients in the operating room every day- 200 micrograms will put a patient in LALA-LAND AND 400 MICROGRAMS will cause respiratory arrest, if given IV. yes it is about 1000 times as potent as morphine. the drug given to wake them up is Narcan and it works to immediately reverse any pure narcotics. just FYI