quote:

Originally posted by sdirks:
I think a lot of it comes down to why you go hunting. I hunt upwards of 30 days a year near my home: deer with a bow, deer with a rifle, turkeys, waterfowl and some small game. I also usually go out west every year or so for antelope, mulies or elk with family. Those hunts are for meat, time outdoors, time with family. It's what I have had the good fortune to do, some years more than others, for over forty years now; I grew up with it.

But hunting in Africa...! I dreamt of it as a small boy, reading the outdoor magazines, watching the movies and TV shows. Shooting animals wasn't (and isn't) the main reason I go. It's to be there and see the animals, smell the mopane or acacia fire in the morning and the evening, to hear the PH's stories, to see an enormous variety of wildlife, far more diverse than in North America, to hear the bird and animal calls. The first night I was in camp in the Save I couldn't sleep-- not from jet lag, but because of all the new things to hear!

It is frightfully expensive for me. So much so that in the fifteen years since I started saving for my first trip I have only been three times. Next year I will take my son-- he as the hunter and me as the observer-- for his first trip. I have spent money on African hunting and taxidermy that a more prudent man would have saved for retirement or his kids' college. And sometimes I regret it. But as I sit in my office in the courthouse dealing with some of humanity's nastiest problems (just finished a sentencing hearing on a possession of child pornography case) I am surrounded by photos, wood carvings and a few stones from different places I've hunted in Africa. I am glad I have gone.

The fact of the matter is, an African hunt is unique. Bow hunting for elk is a lot harder, hunting whitetails near home puts a lot more meat in my freezer and after 25 years hunting in the same area there are a lot of wonderful memories that come to me whenever I set foot on that familiar ground near home. But there are no leopards coughing in the night. No bushbabies screaming. No trees pushed over by elephant. No hornbills gliding across the road in front of the hunting car. That's what some of us pay for, not danger, luxury or lots of heads of strange-looking game. That's why I will continue to go as often as I can manage, though surely there can't be that many trips left for me before I'm too old at the rate I can afford to buy them.