A giraffe mount does get the majority of attention in my trophy room. There are many different taxidermy items to be made from them as well.

As far as hunting goes there seems to be two types of giraffes. The stupid ones that just stand there and let you walk up to them (not much of a hunt). And the not so stupid ones that keep you in sight but stay a good distance away. These are the type that can provide a good stalk and a fun hunt.

Giraffes can soak up the lead if shot placement is poor.

My advice is to try stalking up on a few and if you feel that it was a good hunt and a nice trophy then take your shot. If it is not what you expected then take a picture.

Personally I like stalking and hunting them. I also like the sound they make when they hit the ground.

Next august I will be in Namibia and if I have a chance I'll wack (I love this word despite not knowing exactly what it means ) a giraffe !!

Sentimental reasons...por favor!!! I will eat it and make a rug with it as I do with with every other animal I shoot, hunt, trap or whatever you want to call it.

I can just say that I'm practising for my bait hunting in a future lion hunt

I don't have the money (yet ) to shoot lions, eles, or that kind of stuff, so meanwhile I will shoot any other animal running away from me with the exception of panda bears.....mmmmmm...

LG

We hunted with another hunter once who had Giraffe as his primary quarry. His wife had seen a shoulder mount that was coming out of the floor and sent him to fetch her one. Lots of meat on one of those critters. It was as said above a shot placement concern. The anatomy is a little different in a long neck. The vitals are beneath and in front of the shoulder, according to Roberson. This guy shot just behind the shoulder and lost the first one he shot. It ran almost a half mile. According to "The Perfect Shot" he really gut shot it. The PH was a young guy and said he thought it was a good shot. Just behind the shoulder. Wrong. Just behind the shoulder is a gut shot. Good hunting. "D"

mrlexma

I would go for the Giraffe. It would make a great shoulder mount. Why not put it in a stair way

The giraff have a very nice skin. Ostrich is farmed in Sweden why should I shoot something like that? Skin is very nice for boots, jacket, vest etc.

Cheers
/ JOHAN

Shot placement is good advice as always on any animal. But on a giraffe you must also use solids. I had a Trophy Bonded Bear Claw fail to penetrate all the shoulder and the neck from my 458 Lott. Both shots were at about 75 yards. Giraffe skin is unbelievably thick. And their bones are substantial.






One other thing to note. If you are having the hides tanned and/or your taxidermy done in the States. Be prepared for a huge bill for your giraffe and backskin. Since their skin is so thick, they have to be dipped and sent through the "thinning" machine several times to get it to an 1/8". Same for a hippo which has skin twice as thick as a giraffe.

I have not shot either so far, but will take care of that as soon as I get the chance.

Well, I did shoot a wounded giraffe once.

We were hunting in Zimbabwe, and we were putting up lion bait. One of my friends brought a 500 Jef. rifle, custom built by his nephew. It had open sights, so we all volunteered his services to shoot a giraffe for lion bait.

He readily agreed.

The funny part was that we all thought it was going to be a cake walk, as we saw giraffes almost every day.

When we did find them, we tried stalking them so my friend can get a shot at the bull.

Those guys had us chasing them for quite a while, and we were not able to get a shot at them.

My friend said he was going to change rifles, as he also had a 416 Rigby at the camp. This one had a scope.

I offered him my rifle to use, but he flatly refused to shoot what he called a "funny" gun.

I think he was upset with me making fun of his rifles, as he likes to mount his scopes so high - European style! - that I hardly have my chin on the stock when I look through the scope.

Roy, our PH, calls them "abomination", and he is dead right!

Anyway, the next day he had his 416 Rigby, and he went after the giraffe.

Our PH tried to explain to him to be careful not to shoot too high, as the giraffe can be rather confusing for some people.

I went along with my rifle - he said as I have volunteered him to shoot the giraffe, he wanted me to come along just in case he wounds the bloody thing! He was on a pacemaker, so cannot run very far.

He shot the giraffe, which took off. He fired a couple of shot at it while it was running - we could only see its head above teh trees, but apparently he was trying to hit it in the head anyway!

After about a 100 yards, he stopped, and told me to go shoot teh giraffe.

I fired one shot at it as it was disapearing into the bush. We heard the bullet hit, but he showed no sign of stopping.

Our Ph was shouting that we are VERY close to the boundary of the concession, and we better kill it pretty quickly.

I got another clear shot at it, and broke his hip. He dropped right on the road that divided our concession from the next.

We found my friend shot it too high in the shoulder. My first shot went into teh stomach just ahead of the rear leg, and the second one broke his hip.

I used 300 grain Barnes X bullets, out of the 375/404.

Selous wrote alot about hunting Giraffe in "Wanderings..." It seemed pretty sporting to me??

I think most people who propose it would be like shooting a cow are speaking from experience in areas where Giraffe are not routinely molested. In placed where they are often hunted, bet your @ss that they'll be wary and a noble trophy.

As mentioned the skins make terrific room rugs or bedspreads (for a BIG bed)!

I'm echoing much of what had already been said. The Giraffes are very BIG. Getting close to them on foot is a challenge. Europeans tend to shoot them ("camel-leopards") without as much reserve as Americans, who apparently look at their big eyelashes. My friend Peter Sohrada has an over-abundance of the darn things on his ranch in Namibia as the trophy fee is under 900 bucks. That is a lot of critter for the trophy fee.

Ostrich has great leather, but they strike me as being dumber than a rock.

mrlexma,

I can't tell you what is best for you, but giraffe are more sporting if you stalk them than you might think. True, they seem less wary if you are in a vehicle, but things change if you are on foot in most cases.

I shot one on my first hunt at the request of my friend whose cattle ranch we were hunting on for meat for the workers. Since I did not get the cape I had always regretted not keeping the skin for a rug in my trophy room (it was a huge old bull), but never to the point of shooting another due to trophy fee and cost of tanning that huge hide.

This year before leaving on my hunt my wife mentioned that she thought I should take another giraffe, and again I told her that I didn't want to spend the money for "just a giraffe". As luck would have it, while in a temporary camp before my hunt started (waiting for my lost rifles to arrive, even though I had my ammo, which was in my checked bag) I was told that they had a giraffe that was causing lots of trouble by tearing down the fences, and the manager was going to shoot it that afternoon. Almost as an afterthought they asked if I would like to shoot it. Since it was going to be destroyed anyway I expressed a bit of interest. I was offered a deal that I couldn't refuse, so off we went (with a borrowed rifle).

We tried several times to get in position for a shot, and finally I was able to get a clear shot at the chest area from about 125 yards, but the head was behind some branches of a large tree. The shot was at a slight quartering angle from just behind the near side shoulder toward the off-side shoulder, and I used the .375 North Fork 300 grain. At the shot the giraffe took off through the bush and I didn't get an opportunity for another shot. The PH figured we were in for a merry chase, as big old giraffe bulls don't usually stop too soon with only one 375 to the chest. He had a similar experience with another hunter last year, and they chased a giraffe most of a day and a number of miles with a single initial chest shot (apparently the hunter had to fire several additional shots before anchoring the bull).

With that in mind we started off in anticipation of a long walk, but after a few hundred yards we found where he had split off from the others. It wasn't a lot further until we found him already dead, and the PH seemed surprised that he had not gone further.

The real problem with a big old giraffe bull is that the lungs are so large and tough that they seem resistant to "shock" from most calibers short of a crew-served weapon . Any shot that is not in the central nervous system or a critical skeletal area is not an immediate stopping shot. Ask almost any PH how tough a giraffe is, and I think that most will agree that giraffe are not easy animals to kill (no, I don't mean that they are bullet proof, just tough). You have to be careful what shot you take if you don't want a long walk. The attached photo shows the small looking entrance to the wound channel in relation to the overall size of the lungs, yet this entrance hole was not small in actuality. The bullet penetrated all the way into the off-side shoulder.

In conclusion I would have to say that giraffe are more sporting than I gave them credit for and I enjoyed having hunted them, but we all have to make our own judgement as to what we want to shoot. For example, the small antelope species don't do a thing for me, but some people make specialized hunts just for some more uncommon species of "pygmy antelope", so to each his own . Other hunters say that they could never shoot an elephant, but this is some of the most "intense" hunting that you can do. You will know in your own mind whether you want to shoot a giraffe if you really think about it. Don't shoot or pass on the basis of what someone else told you, do it on the basis of what you believe and you will never be sorry.

Jim

Basically I think most of us Americans have been at least partially indoctrinated by Disney, so that even if we are hunters, we still have Disney-inspired feelings about some species.

Thanks to all for the information and insights.

I guess I won't know whether I'm interested in taking one until I'm in the field. I know that there will be several other animals higher on my priority list. But maybe, if they are challenging enough and I get a good opportunity, I will do it.

As for sentimentality and Disney-itis, I am immune. In fact, I make it a point to kill Bambi's daddy as often as I can, and there is no animal (except the domestic varieties and Mickey) that has been more "Disneyized" than Bambi.

If it's sporting, I'll hunt it--especially if it tastes good, and I've heard that giraffe meat is delicious. So, I'll go with an open mind and let you know after the fact where the chips fell.

Thanks again for the input.

One other giraffe trophy that I saw that was impressive was just a skull with mandible. It was from a big old stink bull and it was impressive in size. It they are cheap and are difficult to stalk when I am over there again I just might take one for the skull. Good hunting. "D"

I was talking to a taxidermist (Michael Vaden) and he mentioned that if I was to go for giraffe, not to do it as an afterthought. Apparently, if the hide is not prepared quickly in the field and salted, the hair is likely to slip. I suggested making sure that enough skinners and all were available to do the work in less than five hours.