Hunt long enough and I'm certain you will experience this. In fact I'm sure that more than a few here have specific examples to share.

Every so often in our hunting experiences we encounter animals that in spite of their species reputation for wariness and craftiness behave exactly opposite of what we would expect. In some cases this looks exactly like a death wish, on the part of the subject animal.

I say these animals are gifts from the creator and they should not be snubbed. Others, I understand feel such animals are tests of their resolve to work hard for everything.

It is a personal choice thing, I feel everyone who hunts long enough will eventually have to make.

I thought it would be interesting to discuss the decisions we have made in such instances and if we ended up regretting our choice.

On my hunt with Jaco Human in the Limpopo province a black-backed jackal, with me looking right at him and he looking right at me, trotted to within about 20 yards, and I shot him of course. Jaco will can confirm the distance (Jaco, don't make me out to be too much of liar please).

I've often looked at the "easy ones" as partial pay back for all the blown stalks, etc., that seem to be more a part of the norm than the "easy ones." While it is true that some of the best remembered trophies are the ones involving lots of sweat, frustration, etc., it is still fun to remember those animals who seemed to have a death wish. I am happy to take them all, and believe it adds to the variety of hunting expereinces.

Bill

I could not agree more that sometimes the hunting Gods present you with a trophy animal that is nothing short of a gift. I do not turn these down. It took me a while to get tuned into this but I believe in it 100% now. If I see an acceptable trophy on the first day of the hunt now I shoot it. Not shooting has come back to bite me a number of times thinking I would see a monster later on in the hunt.

Mark

Depends on the game for me, and if I am "trophy hunting" or in quest of the experience. In the past I would have been more apt to take advantage of a gimmie then I am now. However, when I look at the easy ones on the wall, they do not have the same meaning as the ones that I had to work for.

But for most people, over the course of a typical plainsgame safari, some will be hard and some easy, and if one is looking for a number of trophies, one should shoot the good ones that are presented. The difficulty factor averages out…keeps the PH and crew happy too.

I have always suggested to 1st time BUFFALO hunters that they talk w/the PH about the one standing in the road. Especially given the cost of a buff hunt these days, one would be really cheating themselves if they did not get the full experience that buffalo hunting has to offer. I have shot a number of buffalo, and the two that are the most important to me were the two that we tracked the longest, and were exciting stalks requiring effort and up-close shooting. They also happen to be the smallest in terms of width (both do have knurly thick bosses). I have a 42-incher still sitting at the taxidermist that means little, as it was spotted from the truck. I would not have thought that I would have felt this way prior.

Everybody is different, and/or at a different stage in the process...

On the other hand, if a critter does something comical or entertaining, or poses for photos(I am sometimes guilty of having my camera in hand, when I should have my rifle) I usually let them go, at least for the time being.
We're hunting for our pleasure.

On my very first day afield in Zimbabwe we spent a couple of hours tracking a small group of lion on an unfenced cattle ranch. I surely would have taken one of those if we ran onto them. On the way back to the ranch house for lunch we found a huge sable (later killed by another hunter that measured 43 1/2") standing 40 yards off the side of the road posing for us. The ranch owner said "Please shoot it. It is huge." I stepped out of the rover loaded a round and aimed at it. But I couldn't shoot. I didn't dream of hunting sable for over 20 years to shoot one standing on the side of the road on my first day in the bush. The next year I saw another huge sable on a ranch in the Gwai area. But I didn't get a shot as it was sailing over a a low cattle fence onto the neighbors property. I hunted that sable for two more years before finally killing it. It turned out to also measure 43 1/2". Now which do you think would mean more to you when you see it's mounted head on your wall?

465H&H

I had an experience on a farm “Blinkwater†in Thabazimbi in RSA 2 years ago. It is a bow hunting farm and after sitting in the hide from 5h30 to 11h00 with out any action I called it quits. I was briskly walking along the road back to the lodge, making a lot of noise, with my bags, bow and all other paraphernalia when out the bush ran a Warthog into the road and stopped 5m (paced) in front of me facing directly toward me. I slowly put down the bag I was carrying, knocked an arrow, drew the bow all while the Pig stood dead still and looked at me. At full draw I put the sight on his brain area, then started to think…. I had never practiced at anything less than 15m so did not know where my arrow would hit, also I was not confident with the penetration through the skull. I relaxed the bow and after another 10 seconds or so the pig bolted back into the bush. Had I been confident of my shot I would have taken it with no feeling of remorse.

I shot a Leopard the first day of my first safari.

I also hunted Kigosi reserve in Western Tanzania where the Topi are thick as Tsetse Flies.

I still do not have a Topi on my wall.

Go figure.

In September 2006 I hunted in Matetsi Unit 2. One morning we stalked a herd of eland for a couple of hours, much of it on hands and knees or "hoovering". We could never get very close to the herd of about a dozen eland.

Finally, we set up the shooting sticks waiting for a big bull to step out from behind a bush. The shot would have been about 200 yards. Well, the bull reversed course and walked away from us yet again.

About a half hour later as we were trying to outflank the herd, we had to freeze in our tracks since an eland cow was coming right toward us, eventually she walked right behind us, getting to within about ten yards of our position (we were standing in a small bunch of spindly mopanes). Following the cow was the big bull and he never saw us as he had his mind on the cow. I shot him with a .375 H&H from 20 yards as he passed us.

Turns out he field-measured at 40" on the left horn and 39 1/2" on the right. The size of that bull was simply incredible and to shoot an eland from 20 yards was pretty amazing given their wariness.

2 PG trips so far.
On rip 1 I really wanted a Blue Wilderbeest and a Kudu.
I walked and walked, I stalked and stalked for a week. No joy.
On the last evening we were driving back to base and I saw a BW from the truck, just standing there, a real old bull. I got off the truck, walked closer by about 20 yards and shot him.
Did I really work for that one? Well not that one as an individual, but I had certainly put in the hours/days previously.
The Kudu had to wait for 2 years until somewhat similar chain of events.
He is a "representative" Kudu, but he is my Kudu and apart from Fallow Buck from AR I don't know a single soul in the world who will see the trophy and say "that is not a particularly big Kudu", they will all say "Wow! What the f*ck is that?"

No regrets.

It's called luck.

It only comes in two varieties: Good and Bad.

Good is better than Bad. But it is less common.

So I do not ever spit in Good luck's eye, since I know that Bad luck will always be around and hungry to bite me in the ass.

on my first trip to namibia, i wanted 2 kudu. i read a lot and learned that the kudu never come to water during the day, only at night. to increase our hunting time, we would sit over the water holes while we ate lunch out in the bush, hoping to see warthogs. we had just eaten, the ph had fallen asleep, and i was about to, when a very nice kudu trotted down to the waterhole. all i could think was "what are you doing here? you're not supposed to come here during the day!!!" i nudged the ph and he said it was a shooter, so i shot it from about 80 yards. he graces my wall very nicely.

I have been on a lot of very hard hunts/stalks.

However, once in a while,
If the hunting goddess Diana gives me an easy one, I take it.

But sometimes I have passed shooting on some situations, just depends on "how it feels".