watched two shows on African hunting this weekend that were very interesting. In the first Craig Boddington's daughter was hunting buffalo with Dawson of Chifuti safaris. In a clip from last years hunt Brittany missed her buff shot and hit a mopani limb. It looked like the bullet would have missed the buff by 6 feet or more. There was another shot a second or two later and you can see a huge cloud of dust erupt from the ground behind the bull. It was too fast for her to have reloaded her single shot to have make the shot. It appeared that Dawson shot right on the heels of her shot and hit the bull but although they found blood they never came up with the bull. "Wounded and lost!" Others here have commented on Dawson having a quick trigger finger. It also appeared that she was charged for the wounded and lost bull even though she never hit it. Any comments?

In the second case it was a Jim Shockey program with him trying for an elephant bull with his muzzle loader (I'll refrain from commenting about the wisdom of that). The elephants in that part of Tanzania appeared extremely cheeky and they experienced several mock charges. In the last shots they were charged by an elephant and it is the same elephant charge used in the intro to his program. We get to see what happened. As it turned out the PH Fell killed the charging ele. They said it was a young bull but it was followed by a small calf. It looked like a cow to me. What do you all think? Cow or bull? Also Shockey was charged for that elephant and his hunt was over. In Zim it would have been self defense and no charge to the hunter. Is the law in Tanzania different?

465H&H

I don't know about the law in Tanzania, but the show was great. The music, the suspense, and then the charge in full view. WOW!

From working in video. I doubt Jim Shockey was charged anything for the hunt.

Most of the time with a show as big as his. A hunt is traded for advertising on the TV show or the bill is paid by a sponsor. He probably ethically felt that his hunt should be over because this happened. If that is so it says alot about him.

The answer should be easily obtained from those in Tanzania on this forum.

I'm glad this topic came up.

First of all, I was glad to finally see the result of that elephant charge, and was very impressed at the efficiency with which PH Fell sorted it out. But I came away with the impression that they were just asking for a charge, brazenly harrassing the herd, repeatedly waving off mock charges, only to go back and provoke another. It seems to me that the ultimate scenario that played out was inevitable given the way they were going about it. As such, the dispatch of that young bull appeared to be an unnecessary waste.

My experience with elephant is limited to this forum, so I'd appreciate comments from others that might have a more educated insight.

I really enjoy the Shockey program, and wouldn't mind hunting with Fell, so I don't want to come across as throwing stones. Just some head scratching on my part.

Thanks, Brian

I saw the show as well, I did have the thought prior to the last charge that a cow or young bull was going to get really ticked and mash someone flat or try too. We got a saying here in Texas,, you keep screwing with the bull you get the horn! and I cleaned it up some. I would of loved to see the entire unedited footage and we would know the "rest of the story"!!

If Craig's daughter clearly missed the Buff, but the PH wounded it, let the PH claim the bill. I doubt that would be an issue. However, a wounded Buffalo in the bush would be. Don't tell me it's raining and p*ss on my leg.
As for the Shockey Ele hunt, I thought they had a bull tag and tuskless cow tag. I was under the impression the PH shot a cow with tusks. Looked like it to me. Wasn't paying undivided attention. After 400,000 hunting shows it gets to the point all I hear is blah, blah, blah, but my eyes are watching and enjoy most of them. Some however should be called "Hillbilly Bob goez huntin'." LDK

I also thought the Jim Shockey show was pretty good. I guess the real question in my mind is who bought the elephant that the PH drilled? I would be pretty upset if the PH hammered the elephant and I had to pay. What's the deal?

Doug