I thought I was shooting a impala doe once at about 40 yards in thick bush, it was for a leopard bait. When we walked up to it we saw that it was a very young ram, its horns were hidden by its ears. So mistakes do happen. I also shot a female zebra once out of probably 20 in my life.

There is zero excuse for that sable, the PH sucks and the hunter is responsible too, he should have done his homework before stepping foot on the plane. I dont put 100% responsibility on the PH under any circumstance. Its your gun and as the saying goes "dont point your gun at anything yo dont intend on shooting". Befoe I ever hunted Africa I did as much research as possible, these days thanks to the net there is enough good info that anyone should know better than to shoot that sable.

Ladies and Gentlemen,



If you will recall from the original post Would You Shoot this Sable, there was a pic of a female sable on an outfitters website.



I sent the following email to the outfitter:



"Greetings,



I was looking over your website and picture 43.jpg (the female sable) on the Farmer Safari caught my attention. Having previously hunted in Tanzania, it was impression that shooting females was forbidden. What is the story behind the shooting of this female sable?



Regards,



Terry Carr"





Here is their reply:



"Dear Terry,



Thanks for your email. I presume you enjoyed the adventure of the XXXXX Safaris website. You are correct in saying it is forbidden to hunt female animals in Tanzania. However, in life, people make mistakes and this was one of them. It was a bad judgment call on the side of the PH. However, in this situation, this Sable was written up on the license, and a report submitted to the game department. Just for the record, this PH is one of the most experienced PH's still hunting in Tanzania. This is proof that mistakes do take place.



If you have any further queries regarding this sable, please feel free to contact me."

Received the following email from the outfitter today:

"Dear Terry,

My apologies, having spoken to the PH involved on that safari, the sable was not shot. It was found dead in the field. The client merely wanted a photograph of the animal. Riggamortice had already set in and the stomach was bloated hence the strange positioning of the animal.

Again, sorry for the misinformation on this Sable. If you have any further queries, please feel free to contact me."

Terry,

Something sounds a bit fishy to me here.

First they admitted shooting the female by mistake, then they claim they have founded it dead.

Which one are we supposed to believe?

Saeed,



Yes, it sounds a bit fishy to me as well. "The lady doth protest too much, methinks."



Regards,



Terry

Well I learned today that TAHOA (Tanzanian Hunting Outfitters Ass.)are requesting the Game department to investigate the issue.....They are not even members of the association!

Are you asking for more information about me or about the impala, lion, sable?

If the latter, there is no secret as far as I can see as all the information is on the website of the outfitter; Zuka Africa Safaris. As Terry stated, they have removed the sable. I haven't checked if the lion and impala are still there!

Sure is a lot of pussy-footing around. Why not go public with the name? Professional "courtesy"?

So I guess he was also wrong about the details of the animal having been entered in the hunting license and a report having been submitted to the Game department? He sounded so convincing in his explanations....

I apologise then for all my "assumptions".

Thanks Bwanamitch.

You are speaking of :
http://www.zukaafrica.com]web page

I found some puzzling picture ie :

Is the worst to be coming?

They have now also removed the "baby" lion picture from their site. soon they will have no trophy photos at all left in their photo gallery.

In response to the baby lion pic. I know the PH very well that shot that lion, and have heard the story about the hunt from him. With this same PH I killed a lion with a 26 inch skull this year.

I received a email from his fianc�e this morning he is hunting in Tanz and has heard about this and would like to respond. As you can image from a bush camp in Tanz that is a little hard. So please don�t judge what you see until the people that where there can speak up for themselves.

Lee Foster

Hear hear oh58...

I enjoy reading the posts and most of the opinions on this forum, but I have to say...once one of the heavies(you all know who I am talking about) steps up to bat and starts swinging...all of the sheep just fall in line and may the gods be with whichever poor sucker they have decided to trample.

Perhaps it is wrong of me, but for one reason or another I maybe expect too much of some of the people here, especially those of you who post legitimate and informative posts...with the collective experience gathered on this forum my expectation is that if anybody can understand that a situation is not always what it appears to be - then the people who read & post here should be some of the few that actually would

There was a classic a few months ago when somebody queried the issue of some trophies that should have been shipped, but hadn't...tic tac toe and before you knew it people were ready to set up a lynch party...until somebody else stepped in on the PH�s behalf...leaked the ID of the PH to the forum...and all of a sardine....oh dont worry bud...its Africa y'kno...tough logistics...hectic season....beauracracy, paperwork blah blah blah and all becoz the PH was one of the Golden Boys that hob knobs with the heavies it was suddenly all overplayed and everybody was all understanding again

Y'kno - bwanamich...i dont know you from a bar of soap - nor any of you other guys actually...but in the limited time I have been hunting and involved with the hunting sports I guess some of my most valuable lessons learned have been to expect the unexpected...first impressions can often be completely wrong...and very few things are ever quite as simple and straightforward as they seem.

I am guessing that I am among some of the younger members here and it only makes me think sometimes - thank all the gods that the good old days are fading, together with some of the good old busybodies...

I'd say Baboonbreeder has a point. It's real easy to criticise without knowing all the facts, and any internet forum is bound to have a percentage of instant experts. For example, I haven't seen the photo of the Lion mentioned here, but it's easy for some people who may have hunted a Lion or two (and maybe consider themselves an expert)to take a look at a Selous Lion and yell immature.........don't forget that the vast majority of Selous Lions never develop anything like a half decent mane......actually, many always look young. If you're a believer in the black nose theory you can often see a fully black nose on a Selous Lion that still has spots, let alone a good mane......so does that mean it's an adult because of the nose or a youngster because of the mane etc? Maybe one should take a VERY careful look at the size of the Lion before criticising another hunters trophy..... problem there is that it's real easy to even misjudge that. Put the hunter a few feet behind the trophy and it suddenly looks a hell of a lot bigger than it actually is, lean him over the trophy and it looks smaller than reality. If an animal has horns, a good photographer can make them look a lot bigger or smaller just by having the client tilt the animals head backwards or forwards a little.

I haven't seen the Zuka Safari website, but I do know some of the Zuka Safari guys, and from my personal experience they're a very honourable and experienced bunch of professionals.......for example, when a certain PH/Outfitter disappeared up his own ass a while ago, they were the first company to step forward and make sure a lot of hunters who had already paid for their hunts still got a chance to have them.....at no additional cost. (as far as I know)

Another problem is that there are a lot of guys in the hunting industry who are crooks, and it's easy to tar us all with the same brush. The late delivery of trophies was a good example of this. Had it been many Outfitters there would have been cause for concern..... but as I'm sure a lot of members here will agree, Vaughan is a very reputable guy who runs a first class and highly professional operation......and if he had a delay, there was probably a bloody good reason for it. Had it been some other Outfitter it might have been different.

There's an old saying in Africa. Never, say never, and never say always.......

Now I've had my bleat, this post is in no way aimed at, or meant as a criticism of any forum member It's just supposed to suggest that we all (myself included) try to think before we criticise too much. In Africa, sometimes things aren't always as they first appear..... but that's part of what makes it Africa.