Believe it or not, I don’t care to shoot a sable. The reason is there is no way to capture the true magnificence of this incredibly beautiful animal unless it was done in a full body mount.

I don’t have the room.

Lion, elephant, rhino, hyena, baboon, giraffe and all the "bun" boks - you know the boks that can fit on a bun once you field dress them.

Elephant, Rhino (just because of present population dynamics), Cheetahs, any color-phase/bred Springbok, Aardvark, any type of monkey.

Strangely, I have a strong desire to shoot an ostrich.

I don't have any desire to shoot a waterbuck or crocodile.

I don't know why, the animals has just never appealed to me.

No desire to shoot most of the small antelope, although I've already shot a steenbok.

The duikers, klippies, reedbucks, etc. hold no thrill for me.

I find it interesting the number of hunters that don’t want to shoot baboons. If you talk to any landowners in Namibia, they want you to shoot t them on sight. The amount of damage they do to thatched roofs, digging up irrigation piping, and trashing blinds can be significant. Try replacing a beautiful thatched roof in rural Damaraland- it’s expensive!

quote:

Mark

I'll pass on shooting a croc or a hippo. Expensive target practice, and not to my liking.

No need to shoot a rhino; kinda like shooting a garbage truck doing 35 mph. Even if you hit it, it might still kill you!

I think the rest are on my list for future trips.

I tried to hunt a wart hog & impala - half day and also a full day on doves & pigeons. That is my Africa experience.

Animals I definitely DO NOT want to shoot - giraffe, aardvark, bontebok, hartebeast, rhino

Animals I DEFINITELY want to hunt & shoot - Buffalo, leopard, wart hog, hippo on land, eland, kudu, caracal (called in day light), tiny "ten", zebra, civet, springbok, bushbuck, impala etc.

Animals I might shoot if I won a BIG lotto draw - elephant, lion (Walk and stalk in Burkina Faso?), Sable, roan, waterbuck, bongo, gernuk,

Not sure about baboon and jackal - I'll probably shoot them if they are cull hunts. Not worth paying big money on a safari for that kind of shooting.

Giraffe & Baboon are not game animals in my book.
As to others, Buffalo & Elephant are on top of my list and I try to hunt them every year.
To me the hunt (doing it) and memory is the trophy and I don't care anymore if I take a trophy back or not. The house is full anyway.
What's important, is that the animal is mature and the hunt is good.
Cheers

Tuskless cows x ................(add number according to size of Lotto win) ????

A really good Sable, Warthog Impala, Buffalo, Warthog, Nyala.

A much better Kudu/Bushbuck/Leopard............but I'm being greedy.

Trophy Elephant & Lion are just too expensive to consider.

Lion: I don't mean to brag but I am not challenged by hitting a target as big as a gallon can of paint at 50 yards from a dead rest.

Leopard: see above.

Vervet monkey. Too hard to hit.

Sable. I saw them in Matetsi by the hundreds. Great looking animal but as turned on and aware as a well milked cow.

HUNTING should be much more than a challenge, its the experience......................

I am not interested in an African game specie that can’t be hunted by tracking it (following tracks) down first.

For instance – I am not interested in baiting cats, however give me a chance to hunt them by tracking – it is a different game entirely that jumps straight to the top.

Which one not to hunt. Huh?? Still thinking been a couple of days pondering the question. No answer yet.

I only book African hunts around dangerous game. As to other...I never say never.

Cheetah, elephant, giraffe, lion and the small antelope species. Would like a sable and eland. Saw a mate shoot a baboon. Not fussed about that after the event.

Honey Badger

Giraffe

At this point, I look at it from the other direction. What animals do I still want to hunt? And this would be those that require tracking, close interaction, and stalking.

I really don’t care about the trophy, and if not for meat, I’m only interested in old animals. I am after the experience and overall adventure of the travel, culture and companionship of those around me, and get a huge thrill out of seeing game. I did not feel exactly this way years ago, when “collecting” was a big part of it, and I expect that many of us are at different stages in our hunting/travel expectations, as well as life.

I have no desire to shoot a giraffe; as many have said, they just stand around and look at you - at least the ones I have seen.

The "anti-cats" comments are a bit puzzling; I would say leopard and lions are much more challenging than Cape buffalo, and for sure all other plains game.

As others have mentioned, baboons and jackals are horribly destructive, and usually difficult to find when deliberately hunted. My personal nemesis is the hyena. I have yet to take one, but my wife had two hyenas trying to steal her leopard bait this year. She held off shooting them, and as the light got better, the hyenas left, and the leopard came in. I butched a shot at an ostrich and had to follow it for hours, and use up half a box of ammo before finally putting it down. On the next safari I shot two for the meat and hides. I named them Redemption and Revenge! The croc this year was a known man-eater, and I considered it a privilege to remove him. I have no room for a kudu, ditto for a giraffe, and taking a cheetah would be difficult, as they are just too pretty to kill. Vicki likes her 4 different color-phase springbok, and all of them were tasty. As the saying goes, "Concerning tastes there can be no dispute!"

quote:

Originally posted by ledvm:
I only book African hunts around dangerous game. As to other...I never say never.

Couldn't agree more. Originally I had no interest in hunting elephant until I studied it with an open mind, then chose an area that is challenging to track and find a shootable bull. Now, after 4 elephant hunts, I could spend the rest of my hunting career doing nothing but elephant. I felt the same about many other species, but I've learned never say never. What doesn't present a challenge in one area may very well be quite difficult in another, which often changes your interest in the pursuit.

Giraffe, Zebra and any of the cats. I am in the camp of baboon hunters. Too me, it is my favorite critter to chase.

Cheers, Steve

quote:

Originally posted by AnotherAZWriter:


The "anti-cats" comments are a bit puzzling; I would say leopard and lions are much more challenging than Cape buffalo, and for sure all other plains game.

100% agree. I think some who haven't done a cat hunt maybe don't understand the draw of this type of hunt and think the shot, from a solid rest, to an unsuspecting and baited cat is somehow unsporting.

I suppose one could interpret the shot from a blind to be anticlimactic but from my experience, nothing could be further from the truth.

Getting the cat onto bait in the first place IS the hunt. Every time I've done it, it's been a huge chess match. The chess match is the struggle. Cats that have been targeted quickly learn the game.

My very first hunt report for AR was regarding a big tom leopard Rich Tabor put me on back in 2011. I had my youngest son along for the 14 hunt. We shot and set baits all over Makuti the entire time. We had several instances of a big tom hitting the bait. We would build a blind that afternoon, wake at 3:00 am, walk a mile or so in total darkness in hopes of being in the blind before the cat got into the tree, AND hoping he would stay in the tree until shooting light. We did this several times only to find the tom knew the plan and would never hit the bait again after the first strike. We did have a young tom in the tree until shooting light one morning but obviously passed on him.

Rich is a great cat hunter and he could show me on the map how the cat we were after was patrolling his home turf, based on where the one time bait hits were combined with his knowledge of the area. He planned out with great strategy how to anticipate the cat's next move and attempted to get a new bait out in front of his travels. Every once in a while, the plan would work and we would get a hit. A ONE TIME HIT, and then he'd be gone again.

As mentioned, this was a 14 day hunt. Rich never gave up. We were setting out new baits on the afternoon of day 12! We had one last bait site to check and the intention was to take it down if there was no hit. We got to the bait about noon to find the Zebra leg had been smashed the night before. Trail camera photos showed him to be a monster. We built the blind with hopes of catching him that afternoon before he moved on like he had so many times in the previous 2 weeks.

There was only 1 place to put the blind due to the lay of the land and unfortunately, the wind wasn't correct for sitting that afternoon. Rich made the very difficult decision to let the afternoon hunt pass and planned for us to be in the blind by 3:00 am the next morning.

The cat arrived in the tree about an hour before daylight. We were 34 yards away. No lights allowed in Makuti. Daylight leopards only. We listened in the dark to that cat rip, tear, and eat the bait, punctuated with a few grunts and coughs from time to time. It seemed as if light would never arrive and every time it went silent, we were sure he had jumped down and left the area, never to be seen again on this, the 13 morning of my 14 day hunt.

Finally, there was enough light to provide an illumination of the cat's profile against the morning sky. When I took the shot, the cat fell with a thump into the darkness below. He hit like a sack of potatoes and made one grunt. We waited another 30 mins for additional light to follow him up.

Long story short, I found plenty of sport in that 2 week hunt as it was NEVER a given that the hunt was going to be successful. In fact, I had given up that day we found the smashed bait and had resigned myself to going home without a cat.

Todd's post above is exactly why I DO want to hunt Leopard and Lion. Lion to a lesser extent simply because they normally look so rumpled in trophy pics.

To answer the OP's question; I am not interested in Civet, Serval, Honey Badger, Porcupine etc. All really cool animals I would enjoy seeing on a nighttime drive/sit but I have no desire to shoot them.

Let me throw around a scenario. I do not claim to be an expert and do not intend to offend anyone. But I think a very important part of hunting is being missed by some. The hunting of wild animals that are shy of humans.

I grew up in India and hunted in the 70s and 80. Very hard hunting. Very low animal numbers. Even small game is very aware of village people and grass / wood cutters in the bush. Even wild boar which are plentiful are very hard to hunt in parts of India. They are very cunning and raid crops at night while following hedgerows, gullies and any cover they can get. I have sat up at night for wild boar many many times and never even got a shot at one.

Same goes for sitting up for leopard and tiger (just to watch them). Extremely challenging when they are shy of humans. The thrill of such experiences in a blind is not easy to explain to someone who does not understand how shy and cunning these animals are. THAT is the experience. The hair on the back of my neck used to stand up just to see any animal at night from a blind - even a rare stripe necked mongoose or a sloth bear.

I can understand how some areas where leopards are not shy of people may be considered less exciting to hunt. Now a baited hunt for an educated leopard in South African or Namibian cattle ranch would be very challenging.

Some will take a hunt with dogs over a baited hunt. I could never understand that. Shooting a leopard with dogs is definitely thrilling as seen on Youtube - from a truck. But I cannot compare that to stealthy hunting over bait.

quote:

Originally posted by PG:
Giraffe, Zebra and any of the cats. I am in the camp of baboon hunters. Too me, it is my favorite critter to chase.

Cheers, Steve

A baboon was the first animal I shot in Africa. They’re fun to shoot, especially when high on a cliff or in a tree or other high structure. Destructive buggers.

My bank account limits me, but I don’t see myself shooting giraffe. They were all around and didn’t seem like a “hunt.”

I have always had ZERO interest in shooting a giraffe.

This

Next trip over I think I am going to try and take a giraffe, an old bull - by spot and stalk with my bow :-)

No desire to shoot one with a rifle although I nearly did in 2016 - had one that kept busting us when we were chasing an old Sable bull. He really pissed me of - he saw everything from up there LOL!

My wife saw a gorgeous Giraffe rug and would like to have one so that also influences my decision..

What would I not hunt? I really have no interest in the special breeds such as Golden Wildebeest, etc..

What MUST I hunt? I still have not taken a bull ele (only hunted tuskless so far) and I absolutely must hunt croc! Something about them that just fascinates me :-)

I had no interest in shooting a Giraffe until I saw what a beautiful rug they make. Mine was an old bull, past breeding age, and he did not stand around waiting to be shot! I don't know how animals seem to instinctively know when you are hunting them, but he sure knew and headed for the thick stuff. Try sneaking up close on something that tall in thick jess and getting into a position to get a shot, harder than you think! On the same trip, my wife was going to take a Wildebeest for her one trophy, we damn near had to knock them out of the way with a stick..... until the last day when we decided Mama should hunt one, We could not get within 300 yds for love or money. As far as what I would not shoot, that is almost more of a budget/space issue. I passed on a very good Nyala that we came upon by chance, I just did not have the room. I'd let the air out of a baboon in a heartbeat. Most of the small antelope simply don't interest me.

Share Todd's view on cats. Love hunting them, but they can be a jealous mistress and severely hamper your efforts on other animals. First, you have to stay in bait, so you shoot any old bait animal you can without regard to trophy quality. Second, you have to break off tracks to get to the blind in time. Sometimes it can be easy, and sometimes you have to really work at it. We build blinds when we hang baits, not just when they are hit, so it's a lot of work as well.

I'd recommend keeping an open mind. Last year I hunted Masailand again and really wasn't interested in an oryx. Didn't have a fringe-eared, but had a few gemsbok and just wasn't really interested. But after several days of unsuccessful tracking -- wind shifts, busted by zebra, just about anything else you can imagine -- I've got to go back for oryx.

Cheetah, giraffe, and hippo in the water.