I've never really understood the saying "I'd rather be lucky than good", but since I've never hunted Jumbo, I certainly won't be good. Therefore, I need some luck. What are some of your rituals to help coax out a little good hunting luck?

Be sure to wear your lucky hat.

Lucky hats are good.

I have a couple lucky knives that I alternate carrying daily. If you carry them both at the same time, they cancel each other.

Oh and you aren't supposed to speak of the animal the night before you start the hunt.

And most important of all...no gun can be trusted on an important hunt until it draws blood on something else. Deer, coyote or whatever.

A good area and a better PH provide the best luck.

465H&H

+1

Chamber the shells that you carried in your belt on the last elephant hunt!

work hard and hunt every daylight hour you can ...the harder you work the luckier you will get !!!!

quote:

Originally posted by SBT:
I've never really understood the saying "I'd rather be lucky than good", but since I've never hunted Jumbo, I certainly won't be good. Therefore, I need some luck. What are some of your rituals to help coax out a little good hunting luck?

"When in Africa" - Use a Witchdoctor!

SBT

RELAX! Hunt hard but let the safari unfold as it will. I have a much better time and shoot better trophies if I don't get anxious. You can't will a big trophy to present itself so worry is really counter productive.

Have fun and don't melt!

Mark

Wear your lucky shirt.

Scott, you are a hunter and know that hard work pays off... Put your all into it. Success will follow.
This is the herd of bulls I shot my first ele out of... This is for you.
They are in 8 foot brush, pic taken at 500yds. Shot mine from the right side as they were moving into the deeper cover.

Mike

Going ove each reply, I think I have it all. the hardest one would be to not speak of the elephant the night before!

Mark, these forums are great for information and learning, as well as for fun. This post is for fun. Breath through your nose.

Thanks Mike, those are special photos. Very impressive to see a group like that!

Scott,

I see now! I have a hat with a lobster on it(no sht)that I'm sure has made the difference in my success or it has helped me RELAX and that has made me more lucky. I just can't figure out which.

Mark

Hard work = Good luck

You are in luck!! I recently started a new business providing elephant hunting insurance. Please send me the dates of your hunt and your Visa/MC number. I will take care of everything else. Enjoy your hunt

quote:

RELAX! Hunt hard but let the safari unfold as it will. I have a much better time and shoot better trophies if I don't get anxious. You can't will a big trophy to present itself so worry is really counter productive.

Have fun and don't melt!

Mark

+1


And the better shape you are in the better luck you will have. I would recommend walking 4 days a week leading up to your hunt. Walk(march) 4 mile at a brisk pace 3 days then walk 10 miles on Sunday. Do as much of you walking on slightly hilly ground. This will get you ready for the hunt and assure that you can recover quickly enough to hunt the day after a grueling march( extremely important! ). Walk in your hunting clothes and shoes. This will prevent blisters and chaffing during the hunt.

The PH will be monitoring how you are holding-up and he does not want to do you in half way through the hunt. If you are in shape your PH will lead you on a real hunt. If you show up in "banker" shape your PH will take it easy on you and that will affect the success of the hunt.

Some say that there is no such thing as luck.

Some believe that we make our luck and that any so-called luck that we don't make is at worst, non-existent, and at best, a helpful illusion.

I think that there is some non-made, and purely findable, luck, just lurking around, and that we can improve our odds of finding that findable luck - by bringing the right attitude to the enterprise.

Still, my luck on big bull elephant, after all has been said and done, is no better than fifty percent.

Is that luck?

Good Luck is where preparation meets opportunity!

P.M. me your address and I'll send you a lucky charm.

When we were at Hwange on a game viewing trip the guide picked a round brown seed from a pile of elephant dung. He said that to keep it was good luck.

465H&H

Here's some food for thought:

What's it mean to have no luck?

Is there such a thing as bad luck?

Or is bad luck just the absence of good luck?

How does one avoid bad luck?

I always liked this one: The harder I work, the luckier I get!

Too much talk about luck is not a good thing. I do know that.

Don't mess with my mojo.

Luck favors only the prepared mind" - Louis Pasteur

quote:

Originally posted by G L Krause:
Luck favors only the prepared mind" - Louis Pasteur

Like lottery winners . . . right?

quote:

Good Luck is where preparation meets opportunity!

This is a good quote! also your favorite lucky hat wouldn't hurt!

Luck

The first animal I have ever hunted and successfully killed was a Zebra, from 152yds. I'm a marksman of above average skill, but I was shaky, and my heart was thumping, and all the other wonderful things that come with the first time you look through the scope at the first animal you'll ever take. I lined up on the vitals, and I squeezed the trigger . . . and missed by over a foot.

The shot went high left and cracked his spine. He was dead before he hit the ground.

To me, that's what luck is. When you err, and somehow everything falls into place and you succeed anyway, that's luck. Good luck for you, bad luck for Zebra.

When you succeed without screwing up at all, then you're not lucky, you're just a badass.

Best of luck vs. the big tuskers!
Or . . . just be badass.

quote:

Originally posted by G L Krause:
Luck favors only the prepared mind" - Louis Pasteur

I thought it was, "Chance favors the prepared mind."

Luck exists. There are some situations that develop where skill will have no effect. When that gap suddenly appears in the impenetrable line squall you are approaching at 35,000 feet, that's luck. Your skill only got you there and would not otherwise take you safely through.

Luck = Balls to the wall + positive attitude.

Also wanting something so bad often produces nothing, but when one stops obsessing about that trophy animal and lets the continual chain of thought go then things start happening.

Put it this way, dont spend 18 days staring at ele spoor, look up and about at all the different sights that one will find in the bush and sooner than you know it you will be onto your trophy

I firmly believe that "luck" favors near indifference. Go in prepared in terms of gear and shot placement knowledge etc.....but concentrate more on enjoying the hunt and the area and the company. It often seems to me that the less I care about "bagging the game", the better and more game I seem to bag.

I can tell you how to avoid "bad luck". Read my "Seven Ways to Ruin an Otherwise Perfectly Good Safari". here

To this I will add, cycle EVERY cartridge through your rifle BEFORE you get on the plane.

Left foot first.....followed by the right.....can't go wrong.

Just send me US$5K and I'll have my duty witchdoctor cast you a good luck spell to keep you safe and bring you the biggest tusks in Africa.

Guarantee expires when you enter Africa!

Remember to rotate/change your cartridges every day until you find the lucky one

I heard rolling in elephant dung as soon as you see it will bring you luck in shooting a big bull.
Make sure you do the dog roll and get it covering your entire body. It will add 20 lbs to the ivory of ele's in the area.

SBT must be home soon, did he get lucky ?

Little Ernest, courtesy of The Judge, proved to be the right medicine. Here he is with his second elephant.

SBT, all you need to do is pull the trigger, your barrel is pointing straight at that stuffed jumbo. it even appears to be a perfect side brain shot.

Steve