I stopped by my dad's neighbor's house on Father's Day. I knew that he had taken at least one safari years ago (my elementary school class toured his trophy room on a field trip around 1978). The gentleman invited me in and I explained who I was and that I would love to see his collection if possible. He was not feeling up to showing the trophies, but his son arrived soon after and gave me a tour. His collection includes an elephant, nyala, lion, kudu, duikers, turkeys, the grand slam of sheep (minus the desert), 2 grizzlies, several caribous, a moose, whitetail and mule deer, wildebeast, zebra, and elk (I probably left off a few). I went back into the house to thank the owner for allowing me to see his collection and he asked me to stay and talk for a while. He is 91 years old and a recent widower. He remarked that his safari was one of his fondest memories. He hunted Mozambique around 1971. We discussed rifles and he amazed me by saying that he killed 45 animals on his hunt with a 300 H&H! The PH wanted him to rent a .458, but allowed him to shoot a buffalo with the 300- he said that the buff went 50 yards and piled up dead. The ph was stunned by the performance and asked to see the ammo. Mr. S. said that he was using handloaded 250 grain Barnes bullets and used them to take everything including a nice elephant with a heart shot (and 3 follow up shots). This was a great visit. The gentleman and his son asked me to visit again when I return home and they promised to show me some movies of his safari. I took a few pics with my iPhone and will try to post them later.

Great story, those were probably some great times to be over there!

I enjoyed reading this. God love our senior hunters...

Nice post. After he realized that you were not some PETA maniac, I'll bet that the old gentleman probably enjoyed the visit as much as you did. I hope that you do go back.

John

Would be nice if he would allow you to copy his films for posterity for someone, such as yourself, who enjoys them. I was allowed to do this with Doc McComb's photos and films.


Dutch