By chance can anyone confirm that a pair of ca. 190 lb. tusks were purchased by Tommy Friedkin at Holt's Auction in the U.K.? These tusks were purportedly purchased from the TZ Government and rumour has it that they might end up at the Friedkin Recreation Centre in ARSe, TZ. Rumoured winning bid in excess of $1m. If this is all true; might they be the (green weight) tusks of 204lbs.etc. that were recovered from a poacher in 1971 and languished in the basement of the Ivory Room is Dar es Salaam for so many years?

My understanding is those big Tanzanian tusks of 200 per side, that were shot by a policeman, were exported to a hunting exhibition in Budapest Hungary with Count Nagy of Mweka College fame, and never came back to Tanzania. Nagy's daughter Diana Cardoso, who still lives in Arusha, may know where they ended up.

VBR,


Ted Gorsline

Mr. Gorsliine,

Welcome to the forum! Are you still hunting in the Kilimboro??

Kind regards;
Brett Trimble

I saw the action and they went for 380000£ hammerprice!!!it was very entertaining to vue this bidding. tey are the third lagerst tusk in the world and was found in a celler of an piano factory. Who who bought them i dont know. But I know they are big because they where stored in Purdeys Loong room in front of the action and I had the great plesure to see them closely there.

This is a rumor/story whose provenance is of great interest, at least to me.

Whence came these tusks?

Dear Brett,

I am actually hunting for Luke Samaras now but Luke and Miombo have good relations so its not a problem for me to hunt Kilombero if someone wants to do so.


VBR,


Ted

Ted,

Thanks for the update. When I was looking for a Tanz hunt in 2001 I spoke with George Gehrman of Trophy Connections. He recommended you (I think) when you had the area along the Kilimboro flood plain in the Northern Selous. Every reference I called said you were great on lion. I considered going on a 16day trip for lion but decided that a shorter buff hunt was better as it was my first trip to Africa. Wound up hunting K1-2 (Pano, now Miombo's area).

I have always regreted it...

Best regards;
Brett

I understand that they were purchased by Mr. Paul Tudor Jones for his Sasakwa lodge in Grumeti, not by Mr. Friedkin.

Dear Brett,

In the years I owned Kilombero North Safaris I averaged 50 % success on lions. If a hunter got a lion you were the best thing since sliced bread. If you failed you were the spawn of the devil.

One of my clients who missed actually had a nervous breakdown and I think he is still locked up in some home with his shirt sleeves tied behind his back to keep him from hurting himself.

We always had a big male on bait to play with but we didn't always connect. The Kilombero flood plain lions know the habits of people very well. They ate about 50 fishermen while I was there. Sometimes I used to go out collecting bodies.

And there are not many shootable male lions in a population. Zimbabwe National Parks put the figure at something like 5 per 80 lions

The problem is the high cost of lion hunts. Its not like going rabbit hunting on the weekend. No rabbits nobody cares. No real money lost. If you miss on a lion alot of money has gone with the wind.

I tried to compensate for this by selling three buff hunts at buff hunt prices with a lion on licence and then you pay the upgrade if you get a lion. That also motivated me and my hunters. That was fair to the hunter but the tax department then felt it was getting rooked.

They figured I was getting lion hunt daily fees because there was a lion on the licence and pocketing the difference. So they taxed me retroactively on the basis of the higher rate and that virtually put me out of business.

The way to do it is the way Zimbabwe used to do it and that is allocate a quota to an outfitter and let him sell it any way he can and not tie the quota to a minimum number of days.

I had 10 puku and 10 hippo on quota but could not sell them. They are 21 day species and a lion was only 16 (Its is now 21 days). Nobody will buy a 21 day safari to shoot a puku or a hippo. So you don't use them and the game department gets no trophy fee money.

But people would buy a hippo and puku on 7 days. The Zimbabwe system gave great flexibility but I think the place, at least on private land, is unfortunately now beyond repair.


VBR,


Ted Gorsline

Please, could someone throw some more light on the original subject of this hijacked tread?. I´m very interested in the origin and eventual location of these awesome tusks....not in lions in the Kilombero River area.
Regards

Dear Nanital,

That's the only information I have.

VBR,


Ted Gorsline

quote:

Originally posted by nainital:
Please, could someone throw some more light on the original subject of this hijacked tread?. I´m very interested in the origin and eventual location of these awesome tusks....not in lions in the Kilombero River area.
Regards

The info i received from an old hand in Germany was that the tusks were 192/189. I'd still be most interested as to which set of tusks these are. Not so many like these around!