It�s bad to kill a female
. Everybody quote female of every species. I note that lioness too are shot instead of maneless lions and especially bongo females. In the equatorial damp forest where one can see beyond 10 yards, fairly half of the shot bongos are females. Bringing a bongo to bay is frowned upon, but it�s the best and safest way to study a game before shooting.
It�s an opportunity to hammer a golden rule home. Always stick to your PH . In Scotland I was taught to always stick to my ghillie. It looks indecently queer.
I forgot this rule when harassing roans in the bush. The PH was showing me a record roan I couldn�t see because I was 3 feet on his left . Should have I obeyed, a half-grown male would have been slain. You are Wysiwyg, the PH not so.

Shakari & Guests

As per normal we tend to mostly jump to conclusions before knowing the FULL FACTS

Here is an example:



This female animal was taken on the ranch in Zambia by a client, it was a sick female that had to be culled out so the client was asked to do the cull instead of the PH having to do it. It was not used for export or other, only to save the animal from further suffering due to it's condition

Regards, Peter

You are so right. Too many are too quick to lay blame, although I must say that absent any kind of explanation, this case seems to be pretty bad.

Anyone who has never shot an animal he wishes he hadn't simply has been incredibly lucky, or just hasn't hunted very much, or both.

Personally, I can think of two right now, but I won't tell the tales because I'm not interested in publicly embarrassing myself or anyone else.

Maybe we will find out the facts. I sent this email to the safari company.



"Greetings,



I was looking over your website and picture 43.jpg (the female sable) on the Farmer Safari caught my attention. Having previously hunted in Tanzania, it was my impression that shooting females was forbidden. What is the story behind the shooting of this female sable?



Regards,



Terry Carr"

Alot of truth in your words, most that have hunted alot have done something, made a few mistakes and made shots based on the call of a good PH or guide that didn't turn out as planned. It doesnt always happen the way we want it to. At the direction of two good Trackers and a PH with many yrs of hunting behind him, I banged a female Zebra. It looked like a stallion, acted like a stallion, was all by its lonesome and etc. All invloved including me was amazed it was a female. Shit happens, and it will turn our to be a nice rug. You just make the best of it and go on.

The sable on the other hand, bet the PH didn't say shoot that one, all I got to say.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

I am going to tell you about my most glorious miss - and I have had quite a few.

This one, though, made both myself and my PH so happy we congratulated each other.

We saw a herd of sable - which we have chased several times before, but never managed to shoot a very old bull in it.

This time it is early morning, and they were feeding in thick bush.

Luckily the wind was right, and we managed to get to about 200 yards of them.

I have hunted with the PH for so many years, we had our shooting plans well and truly worked out.

But, as they say, African is so unpredictable.

Anyway. We could only see glimpses of the sable as they fed. In this sort of situation, we look at the animals ahead of the one we want to shoot as they pass an opening. I then concentrate on that opening, and my PH keeps an eye on the one one we want to shoot. He tells me "shoot the next one that comes into that opening".

We have done this so many times, and it never failed.

I held my scope pointing at that small opening, and waited. Then my PH said "he is going to be the next one that comes into the opening, get ready.

The opening is not very big, as one can only see part of the animals as it passes. I saw some movement to the left of the opening, the sable was walking from left to right. So I started to apply pressure on the trigger. As his chest came into view, I increased the pull on the trigger, at the same time I saw that it was cow, because of the sun shining on its brown coat!

I am sure a few of you must have been in this situation, where that split second is not going to do much good, as the gunt is going to go off. I just yanked the rifle up as it fired.

"OH SHIT! THAT WAS A COW!" screamed my PH.
"I know, but I think I managed to miss it"

We went to have a look, and sure enough, it was a miss.

You could not have found happier hunters at that realization.

We shot that sable a couple of days later.

Peter and others,

We all often make the mistake of "jumping the gun".

But if you knew where the picture came from, and you saw the rest of the photos from that safari, you would know why I am being insistant that it was not an "innocent" mistake. There are several other pics from the same and other safaris of extremely young and immature animals that it can't be blamed on "bad luck"!