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Today is special.....for one I'm 60 today. For another this is my 5000th post and the biggest of all is the email I just sent to my outfitter in RSA asking to start the process to set up a Zimbabwe hunt for a Cape Buffalo. The last two years have been difficult as I've been ill but now I'm sufficiently recovered that I'm planning the return trip and this will likely be the finale. I've built a .404 Jeffery and a featherweight .30-06 for this trip and have developed loads to fit them for the intended tasks. In a couple months my duiker will be done. It's full body mount and represents the end of the first safari as all the events will be complete. It's taken three years to get all the mounts here from RSA and mounted and pedistals made. I posted some pics on the taxidermy forum. I researched my first safari here with your help and it was unbelieveably successful. Everything happened like clockwork and with no surprises at all... Zim isn't at all a done deal so I'm looking for advice as I did the first time. I want a solid base Cape Buffalo, a steenbok, a zebra rug and possible a blue wildebeest. I'm not into shooting as lot of animals. I want to spend the most time finding a good cape Buff and shoot other game in the process when the opportunity presents itself. I also want to spend a lot more time being a tourist. Going places and seeing things and taking a pile of photos. Any advice is appreciated. Vapo One more thing.....I want to thank Saeed and others for making this website available. It's helped me immensely and I think others as well. It's sure helped to pass the time the last two years. Further I've come to learn about many people in many other places on the planet. We share a common ground in hunting and shooting. I think folks here are the best.....and I've met only a very few of you. Thanks all. /////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// "Socialism is a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy, its inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery." Winston Churchill | ||
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Looks like life can be sweet. Happy 60th! CONGRATULATIONS on all of the good fortune ... and have a GREAT buf hunt. Mike -------------- DRSS, Womper's Club, NRA Life Member/Charter Member NRA Golden Eagles ... Knifemaker, http://www.mstarling.com | |||
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Congratulations Vapo! I don't know if I will live to 60 but I am glad you did! You have helped me a lot!     HAPPY BIRTHDAY! With many more to come and many more hunting trips to Africa. I'm happy to help you with any questions.... ~Ann   | |||
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Happy Birthday !!! I agree 100% with your post about AR and AR members. If some day you want to go south for doves, pigs and some deers, consider you my guest. It will be a pleasure to show you my country and do some hunting. Good luck with your buff hunt. Lorenzo | |||
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     happy 60th vapo!!! 577 BME 3"500 KILL ALL 358 GREMLIN 404-375 *we band of 45-70ers* (Founder) Single Shot Shooters Society S.S.S.S. (Founder) | |||
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Vapodog, Happy Birthday to you.... Happy birthday dear Vapodog... Happy birthday to you. You are so lucky there is no sound as my voice and the singing is harder than an unmuffled pistol shot. Many more Sir. Just pushing 56 here!  Member NRA, SCI- Life #358 28+ years now! DRSS, double owner-shooter since 1983, O/U .30-06 Browning Continental set. | |||
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Whew! Am I glad I'm not the oldest guy on the Forum!!  Beat me by 9 months! Happy Birthday, Sir! Rusty We Band of Brothers! DRSS, NRA & SCI Life Member "I am rejoiced at my fate. Do not be uneasy about me, for I am with my friends." ----- David Crockett in his last letter (to his children), January 9th, 1836 "I will never forsake Texas and her cause. I am her son." ----- Jose Antonio Navarro, from Mexican Prison in 1841 "for I have sworn upon the altar of god eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man." Thomas Jefferson Declaration of Arbroath April 6, 1320-“. . .It is not for glory, nor riches, nor honours that we are fighting, but for freedom - for that alone, which no honest man gives up but with life itself.” | |||
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Happy Birthday! and best of luck on your Safari plans | |||
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Happy Birthday! Good Luck on the hunt planning. | |||
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Congrats on 60 in 2006 ,Now that sounds like a great year for Safari, Best of luck | |||
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Vapodog, Happy Birthday you have exactly 10 years on me, for today is also my birthday! | |||
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WAHOO Jim "Bwana Umfundi" NRA | |||
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Happy Birthday, Vapo, and good luck on the up-coming trip! friar Our liberties we prize, and our rights we will maintain. | |||
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Vapodog, You are just getting started! Life begins at 60! Congratulations. Many happy returns and many more. Kudude | |||
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Vapodog, I first met you on the Nebraska game and parks site. You introduced me to this site and I am grateful. Congrats and best of luck with your next trip. | |||
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You've reached some great milestones! COngrats! 577NitroExpress Double Rifle Shooters Society Francotte .470 Nitro Express  If stupidity hurt, a lot of people would be walking around screaming... | |||
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Sex or hunting? Don't forget your sweater!  Happy Birthday and may you have 60 more HEALTHY ones to boot. You can borrow money but you can not borrow time. Go hunting with your family. | |||
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Happy birthday F!I'm glad to hear you are now fit enough to start planning a hunt in Zim, and am sure you'll have a lot of fun with your M1999 404 Jeffery. I also think it's a great idea to plan on seeing a bit of the country, and take pictures while you there as you mention. Think about setting a few days aside to visit Mana Pools before your hunt to acclimatize. It'll give you the oppertunity to take pictures of animals you very likely won't see as easily on the hunt, while still allowing you to be on foot (unlike other national parks). If Mana Pools is logistically difficult compaired to where you'll be hunting etc, then a trip to Hwange for picture taking is another option. A visit to the Great Zimbabwe ruins and Vic Falls would also be an idea. It depends on how much time you want to spend. Have a fun today! | |||
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Vapodog, the best to you and many more...safaris... Mike | |||
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vapodog Congratulations and hope the cape buffalo safari works out. I have visited Zimbabwe several times and made sight seeing trips most times. Things to do, see or consider: Victoria Falls - go through the border check point, cross the bridge and see it from the Zambian side as well. You can walk along the rocks and paths on top of the falls up to the water. White water rafting down the Zambezi rapids - great fun but you will get wet and swallow some water. If you wish! Tigerfish fishing in the Zambezi. Haven't done this yet, but plan to next trip in August. Not sure what calibre is need for these tigerfish (hey I am not a fisherman )Matapos National Park South West of Bulawayo. Worlds View (or End?) where Rhodes is buried. Interesting park with standing stones and boulder strewn kopjes. Great Zimbabwe ruins. Evidence of a pre-historic black stone city. Hwange Park. Not sure what it is like now as I was last there only in 1994. I may find out in August as I plan to hire a guide into the more remote parts if the dates work out. Canoeing down the Zambezi - usually near Mana Pools. Good fun. You will get close to hippos and crocs, sometimes too close. Just some ideas. | |||
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Congratulations! Happy Birthday! O.K., now your next goal is 25 safari's in the next 25 years! Then write a book we can all read by the fire with our favorite "refresher!" Enjoy your day! SCI, NRA Life Member Warm trails and blue skies! | |||
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Happy 60th. I am not far behind. I wish you the best on your hunt. I enjoy your posts and ideas - please stay on board for another 5000 posts. | |||
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Vapodog, HBD, dude! You're 10 ahead of me and I'm NOT planning on catching up with you! Good luck on your hunt and may you have many more hunts and BD's!  Good hunting, Andy ----------------------------- Thomas Jefferson: “To compel a man to furnish funds for the propagation of ideas he disbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical.” | |||
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Happy birthday, youngster (of course I´m older). May the Gods of the chase bring many buffs to your aim. | |||
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Congratulations! | |||
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Happy 60th. In Vic Falls have lunch on Livingstone Island on top of the falls. You could bungi jump off the Vic Falls bridge. Go over to Botswana and spend a couple of days in the Okavango Delta. Have a glass of you favorite beverage, look up at the southern cross, warm your feet by the fire, and just think how fortunate you are to be there. TerryR | |||
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vapodog.......... Congrats. I'm a few months ahead of you. There's a Toby Keith song out that kinda describes being 60 if you're lucky. "I'm not as good as I once was...but I'm as good once..as I ever was!" Just booked a 10 day pack in elk hunt in my favorite place..The BOB in Montana mid September. Next month I'm taking a young fellow (compared to me) on a 30 day four concession safari and then going fishing (a fly in outpost camp) in Ontario a couple of weeks after I get back from Ethiopia. Don't ever quit cause you might not get started again! Rich Elliott Rich Elliott Ethiopian Rift Valley Safaris | |||
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Think I will drink a beer or two in your honor, then come back to finish this reply ... hapyy 6 oph bgthdayy! "If you hunt to eat, or hunt for sport for something fine, something that will make you proud, and make you remember every single detail of the day you found him and shot him, that is good too." – Robert Chester Ruark | |||
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Happy birthday and best of luck with your safari plans! Mike Wilderness is my cathedral, and hunting is my prayer. | |||
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Happy B-day Vap! jorge USN (ret) DRSS Verney-Carron 450NE Cogswell & Harrison 375 Fl NE Sabatti Big Five 375 FL Magnum NE DSC Life Member NRA Life Member | |||
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Rusty, you and Vapodog are both just kids! If you want to know how young 60 is, wait till you hit 70! Happy birth day Vapo, and an early one to you Rusty! ....Mac >>>===(x)===> MacD37, ...and DUGABOY1 DRSS Charter member "If I die today, I've had a life well spent, for I've been to see the Elephant, and smelled the smoke of Africa!"~ME 1982 Hands of Old Elmer Keith  | |||
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H. B. Ain't gettin' old fun? ------------------------------- Will Stewart / Once you've been amongst them, there is no such thing as too much gun. --------------------------------------- and, God Bless John Wayne. NRA Benefactor Member, GOA, N.A.G.R. _________________________ "Elephant and Elephant Guns" $99 shipped “Hunting Africa's Dangerous Game" $20 shipped. red.dirt.elephant@gmail.com _________________________ Hoping to wind up where elephant hunters go. | |||
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Have a Happy BDay and may your shot be half your age! Work hard and be nice, you never have enough time or friends. | |||
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Thank you everyone.....You're the best...... /////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// "Socialism is a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy, its inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery." Winston Churchill | |||
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Happy Birthday, 60 is a milestone, getting you ready for the many years ahead of to continue your African experience. I turned 61 this year, have a trip to Namibia scheduled for July, still working on 3rd trip to Africa to go back to Zim with John Sharp for the BIG ONES. bobga | |||
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vapodog All of the very best to you on your birthday, and your upcoming adventure. Don't see this hunt is your finale - things have a way of changing, and there may be many more to come. Brad Brad Rolston African Hunting P.O. Box 506 Stella 8650 Kalahari South Africa Tel : + 27 82 574 9928 Fax : + 27 86 672 6854 E-Mail : rolston585ae@iafrica.com | |||
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Happy birthday Vapodog. Always glad to see an "old timer" hunting buffalo as I'm pushing 58 and yearn to go back to Africa "just one more time". Best wishes and good hunting!!! Sendero300>>>===TerryP | |||
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