it's an election year and the country is very divided. Comments on the Political forum are just nasty, but as hunters, we have a lot in common. I'd like to start a positive thread on what you like to hunt most and why. Maybe even some good hunt stories.

I'll start. I like to hunt cats and buffalo. Cats are a chess game and while a lot of work, flies, etc, it's just great when a plan comes together. Buffalo are just amazing as they can be super easy or difficult depending on what happens when you open the hostilities.

In 2015, we had a leopard that had been on bait for two weeks before I arrived, but he never showed himself in daylight. We saw him one morning when hyaenas kept him up the tree past daylight, but he walked down the tree and disappeared. Saw him again right at last light, but it was too dark for a sure shot. We sat him morning and night for two weeks, but he came to feed after dark and left before daylight. We were down to our last piece of meat, a kongoni forequarter -- not much. True to form, he came in before daylight and pulled it on top of the branch, shaking off all the covering brush. He left before daylight, but a vulture showed up and started to eat. He came back to run off the vulture and we shot him on the ground under the tree.

Great idea.

But, where do I start?

Practically all my hunts are nothing but disasters in the making!

Most of the time I hunted with Roy Vincent.

A man who has been born 200 years too late!

Then when he retired I started hunting with his son, Alan.

Between us something is guaranteed to go wrong!

I keep wondering how we ever managed to shoot anything!

It seems almost on purpose that one of us is going to screw things up!

Roy is one of those who believes anything smaller than a 55mm canon is too small!

When I arrived at camp with a bog standard Remington Safari in 375 H&H and a Ruger 77 in 2606, he looked at them and said "That 375 is the minimum caliber here for buffalo and elephant. And that other one is useless except on impala"

This train of thought never stopped.

He believed 50 yards from a buffalo is too far!

One MUST get a good angle before one shoots.

Spine shots are a definite NO NO!

And unless is a bullet is placed PRECISELY in the heart, it is either too far back, too far forward, too high or too low!

The endless arguments we get into.

Here is one.

I had problems hitting anything on our first day trying to shoot leopard bait.

I was missing very easy shots.

Then we found that action screws on my Lazzeroni rifle were loose!

No way to fix that as we needed an Alen key.

So I decided to use my 375/404 to shoot impala.

Got 4 with 4 shots.

One particular impala wsas running up a hillside opposite where we were.

Measured later at over 420 meters.

They stopped, and the ram was facing away.

We were by a large rock, so I rested my rifle on it.

Roy said "Don't worry about him. He is too far anyway."

I was aiming at him, and just could not resist pulling the trigger.

The impala drops dead in his tracks!

Off we went to get him.

I hit him in the rear end.

"There you go again! Why did you shoot him in the backside?"

And pointing to the shoulder, he says "HERE is where you are supposed to shoot! Not in the backside!"

The fact that the impala was facing away was immaterial to him!

Alan used to be our camera man.

And Roy never stopped complaining about him.

He kept telling Alan "stop fiddling with that thing!"

Now Roy is our camera man.

He never stops fiddling with the camera.

And both Alan and me never give him a minute of peace!

Sometimes I have to take a very quick shot.

"did you get that on video?"

"No I did not. You shot too fast, as usual!"

Ha!

Had a situation last year where I was wounding game. A zebra, a kongoni, a shot on a grysbok that was fatal, but not ideal. Finally, I had a good shot on a kongoni that was perfectly broadside at 100 yards and I was very careful. He dropped, but the shot was 6" low left of where I was holding. Had some loose screws on my scope mount. Tightend them up and re-sighted and no problems.

Found a pair of old dugga boys with broken horns. Got a full pass through on the first with a soft (first time I've seen that). He was down and dead in 20 yards. The other stopped at about 160 yards broadside. I pulled it and hit him in the neck, but he dropped to the shot. Two Old broken horn dagga boys down in a couple of minutes.

everything was recovered, just with some work.

Some of the posts on the Political Forum are quite shocking so this is refreshing

quote:

Originally posted by fairgame:
Some of the posts on the Political Forum are quite shocking so this is refreshing

No shortage of uncouth mouths on that forum.

quote:

Found a pair of old dugga boys with broken horns. Got a full pass through on the first with a soft (first time I've seen that). He was down and dead in 20 yards. The other stopped at about 160 yards broadside. I pulled it and hit him in the neck, but he dropped to the shot. Two Old broken horn dagga boys down in a couple of minutes.

Opportunity knocks once in such scenarios and not to be shunned when it presents itself.

I had a father/son combination where son was doing his first African DG hunt and two solid old bulls presented themselves; the youngster floored one and as common, the other stood around. I asked the father to do the honors but he offered such a rare opportunity to his son who gladly obliged and laid it flat within 20 yards of the first.

Needless to say that both were over the moon but mostly the father who was actually in tears having witnessed his son concluding such a unique feat on his first ever African hunt.

We were driving along on the way to camp late one morning.

We passed a bunch of trees near a mud hole.

Out jumped an old bull, followed by three others.

We stopped and went after them.

Somehow they got mixed up with others and we lost the tracks.

Back to the car.

Suddenly we see them.

We got close, and in short few minutes all four were down!

Spine shots do wonders!

Done plenty of Africa so lately been hunting all over Europe
So much diverse country side and game and reasonable to boot
I agree about PF, just reading those comments make me sick and especially from hunters and shooters taking sides with Dems…but I refrain
I’m hunting red deer now in Austria but last few days of massive flooding got us cut off from outside world … crazy weather so hopefully wind dies down and rain slows down as well so we can get out tonight but with good company and some excellent whisky, life is simply awesome
Latvia this summer through Eva the huntress agent was spectacular and Turkey boar hunt through her was epic as well
Rest of the year is filled with Montana and Idaho elk and deer hunts
Anyway, wish everyone great rest of the hunting season

quote:

Originally posted by fulvio:

quote:

Found a pair of old dugga boys with broken horns. Got a full pass through on the first with a soft (first time I've seen that). He was down and dead in 20 yards. The other stopped at about 160 yards broadside. I pulled it and hit him in the neck, but he dropped to the shot. Two Old broken horn dagga boys down in a couple of minutes.

Opportunity knocks once in such scenarios and not to be shunned when it presents itself.

I had a father/son combination where son was doing his first African DG hunt and two solid old bulls presented themselves; the youngster floored one and as common, the other stood around. I asked the father to do the honors but he offered such a rare opportunity to his son who gladly obliged and laid it flat within 20 yards of the first.

Needless to say that both were over the moon but mostly the father who was actually in tears having witnessed his son concluding such a unique feat on his first ever African hunt.

How often did you see the younger bull attack the dead older bull?


While hunting in Cameroon with a client, he dropped the older bull on the ground. I've seen aggressive behavior of the younger bull towards the older bull before. But in this case the younger bull immediately went after the deceased older bull with such aggressiveness that he punctured his guts and ripped him open. We made some noise to scare him away and stop him from doing damage to the cape, but it took some efforts and noise to stop him from his corpse scavenging mission.

I have seen bulls attacking a downed buffalo, several times.

quote:

Originally posted by Saeed:
I have seen bulls attacking a downed buffalo, several times.

I have seen elephants try and kill Buffalo several times with serious intent

We decided one day to give up on hunting and shoot birds.

I had a Browning B2000 semi auto.

I shot a few francolines then passed the shotgun to Walter.

Despite him being in the German national skeet team, he kept missing.

Roy was having a ball teasing him.

Then Roy decided to help Walter, by taking the shooting sticks to him.

“Here, Walter, try these. Might help you hit something!”

Roy deploy the sticks, Walter gets on to them, and fires 5 shots in quick succession!

Close to Roy’s ears!

“#%$&@%#!”

Was Roy screaming!

“I will get you, you nasty bloody German!”

Walter was crying with laughter.

In the truck back to camp, Roy was driving and I was sitting with him in the front.

I kept looking at him nd moving my lips, silently!

“I cannot hear anything! That bloody Walter ruined my ears! I will put the muzzle of my 460 Weatherby by his ears and blast them!”

He never did.

But always kept threatening him with it!

Growing up hunting whitetails, I’ll ALWAYS be into hunting trophy whitetails. The chess match and the fact that they are in my backyard (literally). I’ll always hunt them and feel a rush when a big buck is in front of me.

Elk. . . There’s something about elk. Big animals. Impressive headgear. The country they inhabit. The calling and bugling aspect. Just the whole package.

I’ve only hunted them once, but last year I hunted elephant and leopard with dogs. I think about the elephant hunting every single day. If I could elephant hunt every year, I would. The adrenaline, walking the fine line between predicable and unpredictable, adrenaline and fear, etc. I’ve never felt that way before. I loved it.

I haven’t hunted buffalo yet. I need to.

The big ol' solitary dog baboon was sitting broadside on the road happily eating a stalk of sugar cane that had fallen off a truck.

My son had been doing all of the shooting and the young PH asked if I wanted to gun the critter?

I was not low on shooting the varmints but I said, ' Yes, indeed. I can hit it from here.'

It was a far piece down the road but I had a great rifle and excellent rest.

When the .323 Hollis Magnum roared, there was an exposion of dust and the baboon toppled over. Shot perfectly behind the front shoulders.

Damn, but I am good with a rifle.

When we approached the funky monkey the tracker pointed at the ground and started to laugh. Never a good thing to do when you rely on tips to augment your income.

I had hit 20 feet low and killed the beast on the richochet.

quote:

Originally posted by lavaca:
it's an election year and the country is very divided. Comments on the Political forum are just nasty, but as hunters, we have a lot in common. I'd like to start a positive thread on what you like to hunt most and why. Maybe even some good hunt stories.

I'll start. I like to hunt cats and buffalo. Cats are a chess game and while a lot of work, flies, etc, it's just great when a plan comes together. Buffalo are just amazing as they can be super easy or difficult depending on what happens when you open the hostilities.

In 2015, we had a leopard that had been on bait for two weeks before I arrived, but he never showed himself in daylight. We saw him one morning when hyaenas kept him up the tree past daylight, but he walked down the tree and disappeared. Saw him again right at last light, but it was too dark for a sure shot. We sat him morning and night for two weeks, but he came to feed after dark and left before daylight. We were down to our last piece of meat, a kongoni forequarter -- not much. True to form, he came in before daylight and pulled it on top of the branch, shaking off all the covering brush. He left before daylight, but a vulture showed up and started to eat. He came back to run off the vulture and we shot him on the ground under the tree.

Thanks Lavaca. I too have tried to communicate at a dignified level down in that cesspool. I cannot. I've lost lots of respect for some members due to the language and lack of common respect for others.

Not Africa, but just last week here in my home state of Arizona, I had a much coveted Pronghorn tag. Our Antelope here are not just found in the open plains and grasslands, but are found in the dense stands of Ponderosa Pines as well. Since I have a Log Home in Flagstaff, I decided to concentrate my efforts in the timber.

The hunt was from Friday the 6th through Sunday the 15th.(yesterday) I killed on Friday the 13th.

What made it so memorable is how it came together. I spotted many Antelope during the week, but no mature males. The rut is late and there were many young bucks mixed in with the herds of does. nothing shootable.

Friday morning I was moving from one area to another, driving slowly on rough forest service roads. Antelope are pretty easy to see in the timber if there are gaps. Their white is very bright in the morning rays of the rising sun.

I spotted some 250-300 yards into the woods. I moved my truck into some cover, stopped and got my Leopold Spotting scope out. As stated, the timber can be thick. Its hard to look over all of them adequately.

One by one they fed through the only opening I could see. Finally, A shooter passed by. I put the scope back in the truck, grabbed my 25-06, Bino's and range finder and planned my approach.

They were on a bit of a ridge the allowed me some cover to their right. The wind was howling about 15 from my left to my right. The wind was loud enough in the pines to cover lots of my footfalls. However, I moved very cautiously. I knew I would lose sight and have to re-aquire them after I got to where the ridge they were on ended.

AS I moved slowly, constantly check through my glass, I saw a coyote looking my way about half-way between myself and where I figured the Antelope to be. Big problem. I had to stop and hope he lost interest and didn't run their way and spook them. He eventually walk away to my left.

I still hadn't found the Antelope and began to wonder if they saw my. Their eyesights is second to none and are very difficult to approach unseen. I got to where I thought they would be and was taking plenty of time picking apart the timber looking. I had been at it for about 90 minutes when I finally saw on doe. She was looking my way but not directly at me. I stayed put for quite some time before she continued feeding. They were a lasered 377 yards and there was no shot, and I still have not seen the buck.

I saw a downed pine the would offer my good cover the closed the distance. I now have my bipod extended for a seated shot. I would move the rifle, crawl only hands and knees from one large pine, to another. I found my way to the downed tree and looked for an acceptable opening.

There were 8-9 of them. They were peacefully grazing. They were slowly moving through a small shooting window. one by one. I was ready for the buck. I range found one of the does at 338. My 25-06 load drops 6" at 300 so I did a mental calculation and waited.

Nope...Nope...Nope...Nope. No buck. I was resolute and just stayed ready. He finally walked into my window and I fired. He dropped motionless at my shot.

The feeling of accomplishment was awesome. A solo Antelope in this area is difficult. I used every hunting skill I have acquired through my life. He was not very big, but that doesn't matter to me. It was a Boone and Crockett memory.

Yes, it was just an Antelope, yet one of the highlights of my long hunting career. I have a Desert Mule Deer hunt in November and hope it is as rewarding.

This is what drives me to hunt.

Lavaca, again thank you for recognizing the issues. Cats and Buffalo are my favorite as well.

Yes, Steve without a guide or PH. Dunno why more people hunt Africa on that basis.

Just did an Elephant hunt on that basis and the client made all the decisions and I was riding shotgun. He shot a big Elephant and brained it on a charge.

Nice thread idea!!

For me it's not what I hunt as a favorite as much as who I hunt with.

I've had the same hunting/adventure partner for going on five decades.

The only two hunts Joyce has not been with me on are Sheep and Goat.

"I don't do mountains", she says. Yet she carried out two Caribou off a mountain two miles in in three trips. The second of which in total darkness via headlamp in Grizzly country.

I'm pretty lucky!!

Jim

quote:

Originally posted by fairgame:
Yes, Steve without a guide or PH. Dunno why more people hunt Africa on that basis.

Just did an Elephant hunt on that basis and the client made all the decisions and I was riding shotgun. He shot a big Elephant and brained it on a charge.

Most excellent!!

I was hunting in Tanzania (Ibanda/Rumanyika) with Wayne Grant in 19' IIRC. We spotted a lone Buffalo in the foothills we were hunting. Just Wayne and I approached it. We got to about 100 yards and Wayne motioned me to the front.

He told me that he would be behind me, "just in case things go badly, but to go ahead and do it yourself". I killed it with one shot from my old Charles Osborne 450-400 3-1/4.

Those are the sweetest of hunts. Thumbs Up.

Folks,

Some years ago when I lived in Dillingham, AK moose season had started and the weather turned horrible which was of no surprise. The point was we were trying to get up river by boat to hunt and the wind just was not letting us.

We had a housesitter lined up but each day the weather kept us from leaving and finally we told the housesitter who would also take care of our two dogs to forget it. Maybe we weren't going on our hunt after all.

A couple more days and the weather turned beautiful. With a great deal of apprehension we set out for a short hunt with both dogs. Neither dog had been on a hunt with us so I expecting the worst with no moose as we would be hunting from the boat with the dog along. I was expecting a clust!@#$ if we found a bull to shoot.

The first afternoon after setting up camp we ran up one of the braids of the Nushagak river to re familiarize ourselves with the winding channel. During that run we saw a mature bull following 3 cows into the trees.

That evening we once again ran up the braid and stopped just above were we had seen the bull earlier in the day.The plan was to let the riverine quite down from the roar of our jetboat and then drift out with the hopes of finding that bull from earlier in the day or another bull along the shore.

About the time I wanted to cast off and start our float out one of my neighbors from town came blasting by in his boat and thankfully he did not stop for a visit. We waited a few more minutes and started our float.

In around five minutes into the float we were about to pass a steep bank on the left near were we had seen the moose earlier. I could hear a bull thrashing the trees and bushes with his horns. What to do? I couldn't see the bull but I could tell he was just in the edge of the trees.

I fired up the the little 4 cycle auxiliary motor that made little noise and ran the boat as quietly as possible into the bank. I then climbed up on the bank with Sadie holding the boat into the bank and restraining the dogs.

I made one cow call and the bull popped right out at maybe 25 yards. He tried to circle to get my wind but presented a raking shot and my 375 anchored him and another shot dropped him.

Playing that back in my head I would have said no way could that all work out. Finding the same bull and dealing with dogs but it did and filled our freezer for the winter.

P.S. The dogs behaved beautifully and never made a peep.

Mark

Have a friend who had a stroke at age 50. As the EMTs carried him out of his house and saw his trophies, he kept sayin, “I just wanna go back to Africa “.

Fast forward 2 years and my wife and I asked him to come with us as cameraman on my elephant hunt. After much rehab, he was doing pretty well, and jumped at the offer. Even went out and bought a top of the line, carbon fiber monopod to help steady the camera. He was READY!!

We get to joberg and stay the night at Afton House. That’s when he discovered the slip inside his bag, from TSA, noting they had been though his luggage. And to his horror, they had removed the monopod. He was nearly in tears because without it, he just wasn’t steady enough to be the cameraman. That was his reason for accepting our offer, and now it turned into a disaster.

As it happened there was a group of hunters there who were heading back to the US. One of them had a monopod and offered it to my friend to use. He could send it back to the nice gentleman when we returned in about 3 weeks. My friend was beyond words in gratefulness, and we all hugged a bit.

I got the elephant, friend got chased by it - which led to some interesting footage as he had the camera on while running. Wonderful, wonderful trip.

Shortly after arriving home, my friend calls up. He relates (somewhat sheepishly) that not only did TSA remove his expensive and treasured monopod, they then went to his home and put it back in his closet.

We still laugh about that!

quote:

Originally posted by H T:
Have a friend who had a stroke at age 50. As the EMTs carried him out of his house and saw his trophies, he kept sayin, “I just wanna go back to Africa “.

Fast forward 2 years and my wife and I asked him to come with us as cameraman on my elephant hunt. After much rehab, he was doing pretty well, and jumped at the offer. Even went out and bought a top of the line, carbon fiber monopod to help steady the camera. He was READY!!

We get to joberg and stay the night at Afton House. That’s when he discovered the slip inside his bag, from TSA, noting they had been though his luggage. And to his horror, they had removed the monopod. He was nearly in tears because without it, he just wasn’t steady enough to be the cameraman. That was his reason for accepting our offer, and now it turned into a disaster.

As it happened there was a group of hunters there who were heading back to the US. One of them had a monopod and offered it to my friend to use. He could send it back to the nice gentleman when we returned in about 3 weeks. My friend was beyond words in gratefulness, and we all hugged a bit.

I got the elephant, friend got chased by it - which led to some interesting footage as he had the camera on while running. Wonderful, wonderful trip.

Shortly after arriving home, my friend calls up. He relates (somewhat sheepishly) that not only did TSA remove his expensive and treasured monopod, they then went to his home and put it back in his closet.

We still laugh about that!

Great story. Love it. Thanks for the laugh

First deer for my youngest son at age 11, we were hunting does in Oklahoma using a blind.
Doe walks out and he sees it. He spends a lot of time looking through the scope then over the scope and back to the scope. I finally asked - can you see the deer ok?. He said he could but wanted to get "lined up".
I said ok and asked where he intended to aim.
He said - right between the eyes.
I said - may want to hit the front shoulder.
He says - ok...
Boom! Down goes the doe.
We walk up and she has a hole right between the eyes...

I asked if that was his intended shot.
He said - "Dad, I do this on video games all the time, it is no big deal"

Enough said, off to Africa the next year and he wacks and stacks the plains game...

Thanks for the break from the PF. Great stories. Pleas keep them coming.

In 2008, I had my first female game scout, Rebecca. She was very popular with the guys and I'm sure she had a very profitable side business going on, but she was a horrible game scout. I've had very good female game scouts since.

This was in the Selous and we picked up the trail a herd of maybe 200 that went into some dense riverine bush. We followed. When we caught up with the herd, we spent a couple of hours trying to sort them out. Nothing shootable but we were close on a number of occasions. Trees shaking where you couldn't see the animals. Rebecca was not happy. Once we had sorted the herd and given up on it, we were walking back to the gari and bumped into a bull elephant. He screamed but eventually left. Rebecca was physically ill. On the next tracking job we did, we were tracking a lone bull and found blood on the trail. When we bumped him he did a little of a bluff charge before, not real serious before wandering off. She never got out of the gari for the rest of the hunt.

Another time in 2013, we hit the doldrums and nothing was moving. I mean nothing. So I went out with an appy, not willing to give up an entire day, no matter how unproductive it was likely to be.

We were driving along and three brown streaks crossed the track. Common duikers, but hey, it's all we had.

We bailed out and followed. Came up on two male duikers fighting it out. The female had climbed an anthill and was watching the show. We arrived just in time to see the old man get his ass kicked and surrender the field. The appy said shoot him and I asked which one. He said the one limping. I did. It really wasn't his day. He lost his girlfriend, got his ass kicked and then got shot.

Talking of game scouts I had one on the Kafue Flats while catering for a BBC filmmaker and one day I diverted off the usual trail to an old abandoned chalk mine and the scout piped up that I should not go there as Mbobo lived there. Mbobo is a large mythical feathered flying snake that punches a hole in your head with its beak. The closer we got to the mine the more restless the scout became and pleaded with me to return to camp. Having parked the car and leaving my shaking scout I walked up to a raised washing pit and on the edge of the reeds a large cobra raised its head. There was a screech from the scout as he departed across the flats as fast as he could.

I found him a day later at the Scout camp and my presence drew a large crowd that celebrated me surviving a Mbobo attack. Some of whom thoroughly checked my scalp for holes.

We were hunting at Chete, Zimbabwe.

One evening, Walter put on a gorilla suite, and went to the staff kitchen.

All hell broke loose - as for the previous couple of days we kept telling everyone we saw a large ape close by.

One kitchen helper spent all night up a tree!

On another occasion in Tanzania.

We had my friends Todd and Dwight hunting with us.

We were at the dinner table, and after finishing, and everyone was having coffee, Walter decided to go and put on his gorilla suit, and hide behind Todd and Dwight's tent.

They eventually made their way back to their tents.

Walter jumps at them as they were getting close to the tent door.

Todd was in front, he immediate moved back, and hid behind Dwight, pushing him forward towards the gorilla!

And talking of gorilla suits.

We have a farm out in the desert.

The girls were having some sort of party in the afternoon.

One of our friends had a gorilla suit.

I just arrived at the farm - the party was outside the farm on the sand dunes.

I was told Ali has put on his gorilla suit and was about to go scare the girls, just as the sun was going down.

I thought of turning the tables on him.

Got my A5 Browning shotgun, and loaded 5 shots in it.

Went over and stay away to see him scaring the girls.

As soon as I heard the screaming, I ran towards them, firing in the air.

Ali saw me coming, and was trying his best to take the head off, which wasn't easy.

He was screaming DON'T SHOOT! DON't SHOOT!

It dawned on the girls what was happening.

They started chasing him up the dunes.

Afterwards he said he thought gat was the end of him!

quote:

Originally posted by lavaca:
Thanks for the break from the PF. Great stories. Pleas keep them coming.

In 2008, I had my first female game scout, Rebecca. She was very popular with the guys and I'm sure she had a very profitable side business going on, but she was a horrible game scout. I've had very good female game scouts since.

This was in the Selous and we picked up the trail a herd of maybe 200 that went into some dense riverine bush. We followed. When we caught up with the herd, we spent a couple of hours trying to sort them out. Nothing shootable but we were close on a number of occasions. Trees shaking where you couldn't see the animals. Rebecca was not happy. Once we had sorted the herd and given up on it, we were walking back to the gari and bumped into a bull elephant. He screamed but eventually left. Rebecca was physically ill. On the next tracking job we did, we were tracking a lone bull and found blood on the trail. When we bumped him he did a little of a bluff charge before, not real serious before wandering off. She never got out of the gari for the rest of the hunt.

Another time in 2013, we hit the doldrums and nothing was moving. I mean nothing. So I went out with an appy, not willing to give up an entire day, no matter how unproductive it was likely to be.

We were driving along and three brown streaks crossed the track. Common duikers, but hey, it's all we had.

We bailed out and followed. Came up on two male duikers fighting it out. The female had climbed an anthill and was watching the show. We arrived just in time to see the old man get his ass kicked and surrender the field. The appy said shoot him and I asked which one. He said the one limping. I did. It really wasn't his day. He lost his girlfriend, got his ass kicked and then got shot.

I feel for him. Happens to me a lot...

Well, I’ll tell a story. It was 1991. It was in my second safari . All excited .

We were hunting lions . We saw some but no shooter . We left and headed back to the camp. Along the way, I saw something. Told the PH to stop . At first , I thought it was a lion . It was a hyena . The PH got all excited and told me to shoot it . I did . DRT.

The trackers start to go crazy. I ask what this is all about . The PH explains that this was the first hyena ever killed on sport safari . I had just elevated the status of the trackers even though they had nothing to do with it . Then he added that it was big muti. He brought up big muti several times . I finally pinned him down on what he meant . He explained that the Africans think that a witch lives inside of every hyena . It comes out at night and rides on the back on the hyena . It was obvious to the Africans that I had not only killed the hyena but I had killed the witch too. I am thinking this might be total BS.

At any rste , we drive back to the camp. A few hundred yards away , the guys in the back start singing and chanting. Every single African in camp came out and joined the festivities. They were all singing , chanting and dancing around the truck with the hyena in the back . I was briefly quite nervous as I had no idea what the hell was going on.

We go to dinner . I hear feet rustling in the grass. One of the Africas has arrived. He wants to trade something ( like a goat or a chicken) for some part of the hyena . I was shocked . Regardless , I said no.

This happened several more times. I was offered different things by different people for hyena parts . I always said no. I was absolutely shocked by what was transpiring but not as shocked as I was going to be.

The next guy shows up with his daughter. She was probably 14 or 15. He wanted to trade his daughter for hyena whiskers ! His idea was that I would take her as a bride ! Needless to say , I said no.

I’ll never forget that episode .

quote:

I’ll never forget that episode

This brought back a memory, 2013 or 2014 hunting at Mokore with Lou Hallamore, left main camp one morning and less than a mile from camp a hyena ran out and stopped in the road looking at us. Lou says “shoot the bastard”, so I did with .416 Rigby. Dropped in its tracks. We drove up to it and trackers wouldn’t touch it…said it was bad medicine. Lou and I loaded it, when we got back to camp later that day, every black worker came and shook my hand, thanking me for “killing the beast”.

All involve my daughter. When she was about 10 we were in a big box store like Dicks. They had a shelf with miniature versions of the tents they had in stock. “What are these for dad?” They are tents for cats!
Went home and told her mom, “ Dicks has gents for cats” The look on moms face let her know she was had

Great stories all, thanks for sharing. Andrew, that story about the game scout was hilarious. Walter stories are always hilarious. Here's another one that I think is rather funny that took me years to unwind.

I hunted in the Selous with Nigel Archer (Tony Archer's son). The camp was on the Ruaha River and Pierre Von Tonder had a camp a couple of miles downriver on the other side. At one point in the safari we had a problem and needed a fuel pump and Pierre was very helpful. Which is how i found the rest of the story years later. More on that later.

I followed a party of Russians that Nigel had guided and he explained a number of problems he had in camp during the preceding safari. It seems that the two Russians had both brought "interpreters" with them, who shared their tents. Now these "interpreters" happened to shapely, attractive young women, much younger than the Russian clients. But the "interpreters" stayed in camp during the day and didn't go out hunting.

After a day or two, Nigel noticed that nothing was getting done in camp when he was gone. Repairs weren't getting done, etc. So he started to make inquiries. Turns out, the "interpreters" spent most of the day while the hunters were gone sunbathing topless and generally walking around topless. No work was getting done.

Nigel found a solution. Seems there was a big rock on the banks of the Ruaha about two miles downriver, so he gave an old rifle to oldest guy in camp and told him to escort the "interpreters" to that rock where they could sunbathe to their hearts delight and make sure nothing ate them that they didn't want to. Problem solved. Camp ran smoothly after that.

Years later, I ran into Pierre Von Tonder at DSC and wanted to thank him for the fuel pump. This story came up and I heard the story from the other side of the river. It seems that Nigel had transported his problem to directly across the river from Pierre's camp. One day, Pierre said his party just happened to be near camp around lunch time so decided to get a hot lunch and a nap in a bed instead of on the ground.

After they arrived in camp, one of the clients announced that he had been robbed -- he had missing stuff from his tent. All the other clients checked and they all were missing items.
Curiously, the only things missing were any and all optics. Binoculars, spotting scopes, spare rifle scopes etc.

At that point, Pierre noticed the camp was incredibly deserted. They followed tracks down to the river and found pretty much the entire contingent looking through the "borrowed" optics at Nigel's "interpreters" sunbathing nude on the rock across the Ruaha.

Talking of Hyena, the myths surrounding this creature are quite extensive throughout Africa and differ between one geographical region and another.

Back in the late 70’s the killing of Hyenas was taboo to the Maasai and most would have nothing to do with one after it had been killed because according to their beliefs, the Hyena and Vultures represented their ancestral spirits reincarnated as their dead were not buried but left to be devoured by scavengers so that their spirit would continue to live on.

Taboos and witchcraft are pretty much endemic and still play a dominating role in most of Africa’s tribes no matter the person’s status, to this very day.

Fulvio,

I always shared that view with respect to hyenas and would never shoot them. But after the elephant poaching problem in Tanzania there were so many hyenas I let a PH talk me into shotting one. I clipped a tuft of hair off his back resulting in one single drop of blood, so I bought it, but I kinda took that as a sign and pretty much back to not shooting hyenas.

I understand Paddy Curtis changed his view on hyenas. At one point, I heard, he wouldn't shoot them, but as most know, Paddy had his seats in his gari covered with very nice elephant leather. I'd seen it. It was impressive. Apparently the hyenas in the Selous ate his seat covers and Paddy declared war on them.

I don't know. I'd shoot a striped hyena (and have hunted them unsuccessfully), but not sure about spotted. They are after all the sound of Africa. And add potential bad muti/juju, whatever you want to call it.

Also, Hyenas are your partners when hunting either lion or leopard. You need them.

One time in Zim, I found two tortoises in one day and tracker told me it is big lucky sign and I’ll get big elephant soon
I did and it was a jumbo and on my 50th to boot
I don’t believe most of it but I’ll still spit three times when I see black cat running across the road like my grandma

quote:

Originally posted by M.Shy:
One time in Zim, I found two tortoises in one day and tracker told me it is big lucky sign and I’ll get big elephant soon
I did and it was a jumbo and on my 50th to boot
I don’t believe most of it but I’ll still spit three times when I see black cat running across the road like my grandma

I was hunting a Leopard when we came across a large Python. The trackers claimed it was a good omen, and we would shoot the Leopard. On reflection, we should have shot the snake.

I have been quite lucky with both leopard and lion.

Years ago hunting in Westwood, Zimbabwe.

There was a large pan, with water in it.

We were putting a leopard bait on one side of the pan in the afternoon.

Right across from us, a few hundred yards, a big tom walks to the water to drink.

Roy thought we were kidding him when told him we see a leopard, as usual!

Then he saw the leopard.

We took our bait down , and drove quickly ahead of the leopard, put the bait in a tree and made a very rudimentary hide.

Came back very early next morning, and a few minutes later he appeared.

A few minutes later it was kaboobi kaboobi!

quote:

Originally posted by fairgame:

quote:

Originally posted by M.Shy:
One time in Zim, I found two tortoises in one day and tracker told me it is big lucky sign and I’ll get big elephant soon
I did and it was a jumbo and on my 50th to boot
I don’t believe most of it but I’ll still spit three times when I see black cat running across the road like my grandma

I was hunting a Leopard when we came across a large Python. The trackers claimed it was a good omen, and we would shoot the Leopard. On reflection, we should have shot the snake.

Andrew -

When I shot my Sitatunga with Terry, we were out hunting near lake Kaku (the crater)we came upon a very VERY large python.

Knowing young Mr. Von Rooyen, you know he had an abnormal interest in reptiles. We were able to catch this large snake and Terry wanted to bring it back to camp to show everyone.

The trackers would not have it...period. we released the snake and carried on hunting. Terry was a lot of fun to hunt with. I believe he was like 19 then. We also saw a large monitor climb into a dead tree. We spent hours dissembling the tree until Terry could put his hands on the monitor lizard.

Sheena, Queen of the Jungle.



RIP.

Up north in Tanzania.

Went to a built up tree stand.

It was bending over to one side.

Roy kept complaining that if it fell down, which it looked like doing, he was first down and both me and Alan eland on top of him.

The sitatunga appeared from nowhere!

Less than a 100 yards from us.

But, all I could see was his head and part of his neck.

I shot him in the neck and he dropped.

Walking on that floating mass was not very easy.

We had to get to him quickly and carry him out before he sank.

And us with him.

Back to camp, my friend Dwight Scott asked what did we shoot.

I said “sitatunga”

He said “WHAT?”

I repeated again.

He said WHAT again.

Then in a classic Dwight reaction, he said “I don’t believe you!”

Apparently he had never heard of a sutatunga!