This is meant purely for discussion in an academic sense.

First, let me preface this by saying I have not yet hunted Africa.

I was talking to a fellow hunter not long ago and the conversation turned to African hunting. I told him about my plans to hunt Africa in the not too distant future. When I asked him if he ever wanted to hunt Africa, he said, "You don't hunt in Africa. Someone else does the actualy stalking and hunting - you just pay a lot of money to pull the trigger."

This person is a good friend of mine and I didn't want to debate him about this, but did get me thinking.

Do paying clients actually "hunt" in Africa, or on any other guided hunt?

I looked at my own experience. To me hunting is the thrill of the chase, the thrill of the stalk, being out in nature. When I deer hunt or small game hunt, it is me, my weapon, my skills and equipment against my prey. They live in the woods 24/7/365 - I'm in the woods a hand full of hours a year - I'm like a brass band walking around.

Yet to bag an animal, I use the skills I have acquired over years of hunting to outsmart the animal I am pursuing.

On guided hunts, however, it is the skills of the professional hunter and the trackers that allow people to get a shot at their game.

Is this true? Are we really "hunting" animals on guided hunts, or is our PH doing the hunting and we are mearly along for the ride - there to shoot an animal when the opportunity presents itself?

Again, I post this for intellectual debate. I am curious what others think.

During my few trips I have experienced both.
I have hunted by my own and I have been taken by the hand...

But I think it all depends on you, as you want to live it. Hunting Africa is not just stalking by your own or just pulling the trigger for someone else. It's the whole experience, being there, watching all those different animals, hearing them, watching your ph and his trackers working, learning from them, doesn't matter who pulls the trigger, it's like being the principal guest in a great party. Just living it to keep those first hand memories is something you will never forget. For me it's just MUCH more than who finds the animal or who pulls the trigger.

Just my opinion.
L

For the most part, you're along for the ride. However, that doesn't necessarily make it any less thrilling. Also, I believe that by observing the trackers particularly, you can learn more about hunting on a 15 day safari than you might have accumulated in many years back home.

Is a quail hunt where the dogs locate and flush the birds and you just pull the trigger any less of a hunt? Would anyone characterize that as something other than hunting?

quote:

he said, "You don't hunt in Africa. Someone else does the actualy stalking and hunting - you just pay a lot of money to pull the trigger."

It really doesn't matter how good a stalker the PH and his trackers are, if you can't emulate them, you'll spook your quarry. In that sense, you are indeed stalking. If, like so many others, you've aged to the point that you can't slither like a snake, you may have to guide the stalk so that it stays within your realm of physical ability.

quote:

Do paying clients actually "hunt" in Africa, or on any other guided hunt?

If by hunting, you mean that your knowledge of the prey's habitats and its behavior is the equal of your guide's, probably not. But does that mean that when you just 'luck' into an animal, that you weren't hunting?

quote:

I looked at my own experience. To me hunting is the thrill of the chase, the thrill of the stalk, being out in nature.

If you aren't thrilled by being in Africa, in game habitat, with a weapon in hand, with the intention of killing something, then you shouldn't be there.

quote:

When I deer hunt or small game hunt, it is me, my weapon, my skills and equipment against my prey.

And if your skills aren't up to having you accompany the PH and tracker without spooking game, you aren't going to get a shot.

In my mind, I'm hunting. The more I hunt, the more I learn and the more it is my skills that lead the hunt. On my first hunt, I did little of the leading. On subsequent hunts, more and more of my skills learned from previous African hunts came into play. If you develop a real hunting relationship with your PH, ask him when it is over if you've hunted or just been led by the hand. Considering that there were the tag ends of some long stalks that could only be finished by one person (more would have spooked the game) and my PH had to just huddle under a bush as I finished the last 100 yards on my own, I know what his answer would be if I asked him that question.

If you are an experienced hunter and are actively learning what is happening and have a good teacher for a PH, it doesn't take too long until you become part of the team.

And a team it is. The PH isn't the tracker the trackers are and the trackers may or may not be able to plan an approach that will get the shot opportuntiy that will work. They probably work together to figure where to go looking, at least that is my experience.

But if you stay alert, and work hard, you will be seeing animals that the others miss, hearing buff or eles that the others do not... Perhaps catching a missed track or an ox pecker or...?

Still, if the PH's and the trackers had the $'s to do the hunt without the client, they would make a complete team. So to be able to participate, and to contribute meaningfully, you need to work hard, pay attention, keep your eyes open and learn, learn, learn.

Or you can decide not to and still have a grand time, which is the whole point. The choice of whether to join the team of follow the team is up to the individual. Neither choice is wrong.

In my experience, if you want to work hard and join the team, the trackers and PH are willing to have you join the team. You will end up going places and seeing some terrain that you might not get to if the others don't "adopt" you. I think trying to learn and to contribute is taken as a sign of respect, and really it is. When you are trying to learn, you also end up appereciating the contribution to the team's success made by all others.

JPK

In Africa

If you are consistently looking for game, you will spot some critters before the tracker or PH.

When tracking and the track is lost, you can help look, and try not to screw up the ground, and you may find the track.

When stalking, if you make noise, you might not get a shot.

When stalking, if you are watching, you may notice something that escaped the vision of the PH--another animal, or the PH has chosen a path which puts you in sight of the critter, or perhaps a better way to progress.

If you are paying attention, you will learn many good things from the PH's that will make you into a better hunter. The PH's are usually quite willing to teach you if you ask, and they really are professional hunters (at least on the DG hunts).


Or one can sit and let the PH and the trackers have all the fun and do all the work and point out a critter they think is dumb enough for their "client" to get a reasonable shot at.

It can be great hunting and great education if you help make it so.

Absolutely you are hunting. It is the most "alive" hunting I have done outside of sheep hunting. In Africa, you are about as switched on as you want to be. Buy "Boddington on Buffalo" or "Hunting the African Elephant" DVD's and see for yourself.

Yes, we are not good trackers in the US or Europe, but I do not track deer or elk either. The stalk is part of the hunt and the tracking is done by guys that are true pro's at what they do. Trophy judging is hard due to not being familiar with all of the animals. The PH helps with that. The PH is there to advise and keep you out of a potentially dangerous or stressful situation. You are hunting in a different environment than in Utah or Texas or Florida. The stuff over there can be dangerous along with a host of plants, snakes and bugs that bit as well.

Yes!!!!!!!!!!

YOu are hunting.

It beats the heck out of sitting in a deer stand over an automatic feeder in a 1000 acre fenced deer farm.

Go!!!

Just because you use the services of a guide doesn't mean you have to be led around until your guide says "shoot that one" Far from it as far as I'm concerned.
I hunt both locally by myself and with guides as required and figure the guides give me the opportunity to hunt an area for the particular game I'm after. I still activly involve myself with the hunt, looking for sign, spotting and evaluating animals and I tend to treat the guide as just another hunting companion whilst still respecting his judgement.
If I were to go on a guided hunt where I was told to walk behind the guide and only shoot when the guide says shoot, then I probably wouldn't use that guide or outfitter.
Like I said at the start, ijust because you hire a guide you shouldn't be left out of the hunt.

Just my 2c worth.

Cheers,
Mark.

Also, the PH is a great guy and loves to hunt as much as you. They get as big of a charge out of your taking a great animal as if they shot it themselves.

Also, also - I have hunted a lot in the US in several states in many types of hunts. If you told me that I could hunt one more time in Africa and never hunt in the US again - I would do it....

just had hand surgery, so short & sweet

you have to have a ph in most all african countries

this excludes 'canned' hunts which all would agree aren't hunting

in many instances, you'd never close w/ the quarry enuf in afri to start a stalk w/o ph

when you do, their skill is necessary to close, and that of the trackers after the shot to bring it to bag

On the other hand, I have suggested a means of stalking an animal based upon our American experience that my ph did not see.

africa is true hunting, but in a "target rich environment" compared to what we experience in deer hunting here.

elephant hunting & buff hunting is right up there w/ the most rugged of our experiences like mt sheep & goats

its different, but it is hunting.

577,

I've been fortunate to have hunted quite a bit by myself, with guides/PH's and I've helped several people take some awesome trophies.In all those situations I never felt I was not hunting. I helped one of the AR members take a 65" moose just before I left Alaska plus a nice caribou. It never crossed my mind that because I provided the camp and expertise for hunting those animals that my friend had not hunted. If you are an Eastern whitetail hunter and a friend in Wyoming asks you to come out to shoot an antelope would you not be hunting if your friend told you which antelope was a dink and which was a good representative trophy?

I think we tend to think of hunting in the terms of what we are used to as what hunting is. In fact hunting is whatever it happens to take to get game where you are "hunting".

Mark

This is pretty fundamental. But I'll say it anyway.

I believe that first of all you have to know how to hunt. Otherwise, you are just going to be a tag along, if not a general nuisance, no matter where you go.

The converse is that if you do know how to hunt, then you can hunt pretty much anywhere - and that includes Africa.

To get the most out of any hunt, you have to be a participant.

You have to be active, a true partner in the enterprise, along with your guide or PH, and not merely a piece of animated baggage brought along for a price merely to pull the trigger and buy the whisky.

Some people want to do that, and can do it, and IMHO, they get the most out of the experience. Others can't and don't.

Whether or not you want to hunt in Africa or play the canned hunt game is entirely up to you.

I spent a month getting the zebra mare I wanted. Stalking on foot with an occasional lift in a bakkie here and there and back to camp. Put about 400 klicks on my boots. Seemed like hunting to me.

Easy: every depens where (the place, country etc..) and with who (PH) you are hunting !!! If you choose wrong, surely you will be just killing for a lot of money.There two possibilitys: a fenced farm with/and/or canned trophys or a huge free land with free animals...for the other side a really honest PH "HUNTER" (with all the letters) or a hunting bussines $$$$$ man.
You must ask everithing before contract a safari.Luck!!!

By far I have not the experience of dozens of safari's, but I am a hunter... While in Africa and before I studied my animals pics, names, tracks, and even some of their droppings... I wanted to know what I was hunting and be able to find the spoor when we were tracking...I even put my hand on hot buf crap to know I was chasing a hot track and not just taking someone's word.
When we tracked buf and lost there spoor I would assist by spreading out with PH and trackers to try to help unravel the tracks and direction...
One can just sit like a nerd and not help and not enjoy the excitement of the spooring and just pick up ones rifle and shoot and fade back into boringness...

If one goes to Africa and does not want to drink all she offers, you are definately missing out on the experience of true hunting...

Mike

Yes we really do hunt in Africa. Also, please do not forget that many of the animals hunt back!! You will walk from dawn to dusk after buffalo and elephant. You will be tired, hot, insect bitten, and look forward to the next day. Africa is what unting is all about. Once experienced with a great PH (as described by many in this string), hunting north america does not hold much interest to me anymore. I grew up in Utah and hunted the west for 20 years before hunting in Africa. Another opinion, however, I think that this forum is rather biased. I know that I am. Regards.

Is Africa hunting? If you go to Africa to "collect" a certain size trophy for the record book or to say that you have shot one of everything, then you probably have missed the real reason we hunt. If you go to shoot an animal on camera for some TV show, then you went for the same wrong reason. If you love hunting (the stalk, sights, smells, sounds) for the experience, then Africa is the best there is. God help the person who loves to hunt and has not experienced Africa. I behave myself while here on this earth because I believe the hereafter will be the Africa bush with doves cooing and leopards calling!

Nothing in the world gives me more enjoyment as when a client chooses to become a part of the whole game plan on a hunt. Then I feel that I am truly doing my job as a guide. Somtimes you do get a person who has little or no bush skills . But then you get the joy of teaching that person.Once in a blue moon you do get somone who just wants you to lead them around . That person is when the job gets to be just a job, you tend to get it over with quickly as possible.And that is the only time I feel that I'm the one hunting.

577NitroExpress

Good point - certainly food for thought. We involve the hunter a lot. Not all do. Many interesting replies!

While we are on the topic of stalking ... almost everyone practices shooting before coming to Africa to hunt. Does anyone practice "quiet walking" with those nice hunting boots? I am always amazed how noisy some guys are when moving in the bush ...

quote:

Originally posted by Bahati:
Does anyone practice "quiet walking" with those nice hunting boots? I am always amazed how noisy some guys are when moving in the bush ...

Interesting point Johan, I've also found that some clients can be "noisy" in the bush. But I think the choice of their footware often has more to do with it that thank their inability to walk softly.

quote:

Originally posted by Bahati:

While we are on the topic of stalking ... almost everyone practices shooting before coming to Africa to hunt. Does anyone practice "quiet walking" with those nice hunting boots? I am always amazed how noisy some guys are when moving in the bush ...

I like to wear river sandals. Nothing has bitten my toes off yet and I can walk quietly in them.

I need to wear a relatively stiff boot because of my weak and troublesome ankles. But I do my walking in the woods. I work hard at sneaking up on whitetails. If you try it you will inevitable get better at it. If you can walk up to within, say, twenty yards of a bedded or feeding whitetail you can walk up to anything.

Also, for those of us who live in the city, walking on smooth asphault or concrete is no preperation for walking in even modestly rough terrain as far as footing and ankles go.

JPK

First, a bit off topic: I have very often wondered why there is a facility to rate threads. Now I do. I have rated this thread tops. Thanks for posting, it certainly is food for thought.

From the PH perspective I fully endorse B Watson in stating that I really enjoy it when a client chooses to become part of the team. Such clients I would allow to hunt very much on their own for non-dangerous plains game. I have not hunted much in the USA, but always make a point to, early in the safari, point out that hunting is hunting, no matter where. I then also allow the client to make a choice about hunting. "What do you choose: Do we go around to the left of this hill, or to the right?" If the client then responds something like this: "Well the wind is so-and-so, the sun is shining from that side and, , , , , , , ,so I would suggest we go left side.", well, then I know I'm in for a most enjoyable safari with a true hunter. For such clients I try to be there just because the regulations dictate that I must be. The South African hunting regulations require that the client must be under the 'direct supervision' of the PH. If I am sitting on top of a hill and can see my true hunter client with binos, and maybe have radio contact, he is legally hunting under my direct supervision? If that client then also ask advice a about the hunt, and not act as a Mr. Know-better-than-you, then I am ready to really enjoy a good hunt.

On the other side, a hunter who requests to: “Show me how, and tell me why, you do it in South Africa?†can also be great fun to hunt with. Sometimes the guy who really knows how to hunt do this. Maybe they do this to ‘test’ my hunting skills?

The guy who just tags along, waiting for the PH to show him which animal to shoot, is usually a proverbial pain in the ass. But hunting with such an individual is sometimes even more fun as, with such a person “I†sometimes hunt for myself: He is just there to pull the trigger and save me ammo. For example, I may decide to take him on a stalk for territorial springbuck ram on the open plains, rather than looking for a ram with a bachelor group amongst the hills, where the hunting is much easier. If the tag-along hunter then gets close enough for a shot – usually much closer than the distance from which I would have taken a sure shot – and he succeeds, well then I have really hunted and feel that I have accomplished something worthwhile. And the client will have enjoyed, and maybe learned something from, the hunt also!

On the very good point of walking quietly; It seems to be more a matter of foot placement than footwear: Some make a lot of noice with "river sandals", while other are quite quiet with military style boots!

In good hunting.

Andrew McLaren

But military boots take too long to dry out after fording a stream and the water in them makes squishy squeaky noises.

As others have said participation is the key. If you take a real interest in what is going on and look and learn, both you and the guide will have an enjoyable HUNT. It can be a real team effort and I am not too egotistical to say that clients who participate dont see game for themselves OR I cant learn anything from my clients. They do and I can!

If you sit up front of the truck like you are driving mindlessly through traffic or walk head-down behind your guide.... you might as well be back home or sitting on a beach somewhere.

Usually the trackers are the best hunters in the group, but the PH may be the best in judging trophy quality. You are usually outclassed by the better Zimbabwean PHs and trackers. After all it is their home turf and they do it all the time. Many other PHs from other countries too.

However on many occasions the clients own skills are still part of the team. Some personal examples:
- hunting eland and tracking them for five to seven kilometres. We had spooked them after surprising a klipspringer. I was pleased to spot a rear "knee" of the rear eland before the sharp eyed trackers saw them through about two hundred metres of thick bush as they walked in front of us.
- last year the tracker could not find any blood trail of a hartebeest I had wounded. On a grassy hillside I found three small drops of blood about 200 to 300 metres away on a pebble and small blades of grass. Only blood actually found. That tracker was not very good.
- trackers especially often look down, the PH might do some tracking as well. The client should keep an eye on the surrounding area especially to the front so you spot the actual game. In 2002 we walked up to with ten metres of a sleeping herd of hartebeest, the tracker and PH were intent on the sign. I was not able to distinguish in a rush which was the trophy male, so they escaped.

Probably other examples. You make of a hunt what you want of it. But I have always found the trackers the best hunters (sorry to the PHs here ). But a good PH hires a good tracker.

I agree with Nitro X - a good tracker is generally a better hunter than a fair PH, apart from the fact that he can't shoot straight. He doesn't need to - he's always got his animal in other ways.

In answer to the original question - Remember that your PH is (by definition) also a hunter - a very dedicated one, at that. He appreciates somebody who wants to hunt for him/herself, and will adapt the hunt to suit the client, as long as it's legal. It's one of those things you need to discuss at length with your PH / outfitter before confirming the hunt.

I often refer to myself as the "trigger puller" on African hunts. I probably could not track, find and get myself into a shooting position without the trackers and PH. I do not know the terrain well enough to anticipate the animals patterns, however, all the above does not mean that I do not enjoy the chase and the skill of the pro's; nor, does it mean I do not enjoy my time in the bush, it simply means, to me, that I tag along, learn what I can then, if we find the quarry pull the trigger.

I think that even a good African PH would want a guide when hunting in North America. Knowledge of the terrain, animal habitat and habits, judging trophy size per species, etc. isn't something one knows how to do coming off an airplane, no matter how much one has done it somewhere else with other species. Following up a wounded animal has some of those elements of course but the most eye opening hunting experiences in which I have ever participated are watching a good tracker "think and feel" like the animal. It's mind boggling.

Going back to the original question and indeed many of the replies, the word 'we' keeps cropping up. This word in some/many ways seems to imply that all hunting clients are the same and all have the same level of hunting ability. Believe me, they're not all the same and ability varies enormously. Part of the professionalism of being a good PH is being able to recognise that fact and he must tailor the hunt to suit the abilities and wishes of the individual client. Most seasons, the PH will see everything from highly accomplished and supremely fit hunters who can shoot brilliantly all the way through to hunters who can't walk more than 100 yards and/or can't shoot for shit. A good PH will have to deal with both types of client and everything in-between.

Plainly and simply, in six Safaris to Africa I have never had someone do the stalking and the hunting, just requiring me to pull the trigger, without me being there to fully participate in the same in every way. Maybe that goes on, but I've not seen it yet.

Of course you're hunting! You are hunting WITH your PH, and trackers. Those of us who invest the money in guided hunts anywhere in the world, and in particular Africa are almost always "hunters" prior to going on a particular trip. We participate, we learn, we help track and observe sign,and utimately use our skill with rifle,pistol, or bow to take the animal as cleanly as possible. Most of us relish the pursuit, and all that goes into that aspect of the trip just as much as the"kill". I know of noboby who would just want to shoot 12 head of game in two days, and then head home. Cheers

Another cold hard fact that makes each client different are the reasons the individual comes hunting. Some just want to hunt in the purest sense, some sadly, just want to kill, some want the trophies for the memory of the hunt and some come just so they can hang the trophy in their office or home just to impress others.

UEG's point is very valid, but possibly only because he's the type of hunter who wants to take part in every part of the hunt, and is a true hunter in the purest sense.

And all my points mentioned above, don't even take into consideration those clients who just want to hunt for the tape measure...........

I think the problem here is the definition of "hunting". To me, hunting is not an action per se, but a state of mind. If mentally you are seriously engaged in "the hunt" on all levels (anticipation, trying to spot game, attempting to execute a good stalk, and trying your best to do a well placed shot), then you are hunting, whether or not you are getting some sort of help. I can assure you that while I was in Africa I was always scanning for game and trying to be as quiet as possible. Did the trackers spot game 5 times more often than me? Sure, but believe me, I was hunting.

The only time I see someone definitely not "hunting" is when I watch a video where the hunter isn't even bothering to pay attention to what the the PH is doing and just brings the gun up when told. To me, that's just shooting.

Paul, this is a very good thread, and one that is largely missunderstood by those who have not hunted Africa. However, I find the ones who tend to downgrade the actual hunting in Africa as only "follow-the-leader" shooting, are usually those who have a far more approving opinion of their own hunting skill than is justified, in reality!

I can only speak for myself, and would never consider my experience in Africa to be the guage for others to go by. That being said, I am an old man, and have hunted all my life on my own since the age of six years, and before that with my father, and grandfather, since before memory can recall. That time before the age of six tought me lots of things, that I have improved on for the next sixty five years of hunting, a great deal of it in some pritty exotic places. So what I'm getting at, with all this noise is,when I hunt with or without a guide, or PH, I'm hunting, and I consider the PH as more of a friend, and hunting partner, than someone I just HIRED! I'm not shy about stateing my own opinion of an animal pointed out to me, by PH or tracker.

I like to hunt in Africa, by rideing the tracks looking for spoor crossing the road,pull off, and if the spoor is fresh, get on the tracks, on foot! I also like spotting animals in the bush, and driveing on a half mile, or so, then stalk back, and I'm not shy about suggesting that either. IMO, the use of a hunting vehicle, is to save precious time, giveing me the most time on spoor I can get, not as a portable shooting bench! The only thing I will shoot from the bakki, is camp meat, or baits. For the camp meat you need head shots to conserve meat, and the baits are only used to feed another animal I want, and are done as easily, and the least amount of my hunting time wasted, as posible. Those two instances I do not consider hunting, but simply shooting!

Your friend is a very close minded person, who has seen to many game park documentries, that give the idea tha animals in Africa, simply stand and let you shoot them. Addtionally, I think he has discounted the fact that in most hunting concessions in Africa, there are animals that hunt you, on occasion, and you never know when or where you will incounter them, when stalking something else. This adds spice to any hunt, and is a little like going ito the willows in Alaska, where you must be as quite as you can, to avoid spooking a moose, but at the same time stepping over piles of FRESH BROWN BEAR DUNG, that is still steaming. I'd say stalking a Kudu, and suddenly realize you are in the midst of a herd of Buffalo ,that you can smell, but can't see, is an experience, that would give your buddy, and new respect for the hunting experience in Africa.

I've never hunted where I considered myself to simply be the assassin, of someone else's findings! However the SAFARI starts as soon as you are picked up at the airport, and ends when you get back on the airplane headed for home, and will live in color in your memory,and tend to fade all other hunts in other places, and make them mundain is comparison !

In the final analysis, any hunt is what you make it!

Well said MacD37 . The part about suddenly realizing that you are in the midst of a herd of Buffalorings very true from just last month. Luke

These are the skills I was required to use on my recent plains game hunt to Namibia.

Stalking - I had to be as quiet and stealthy as either the tracker or the PH. Any mis-step on my part, and the game was gone. There was no forgiveness just because I was the client.

Spotting - I spotted for game just like the tracker and the PH. Their skills were so much better than mine, however, that in almost all cases they saw the game first.

Knowledge - While the tracker and the PH had vastly superior knowledge of the game and the country, nothing could substitute for my required knowledge of ballistics and anatomy.

Physical Condition - Stalking required miles of walking over desert and rocky hillsides. Had I not been sufficiently fit, we would not have been as successful as we were.

Wounded Game - While tracking wounded game, I was required to keep up with the tracker. I was amazed at how fast he could move through the bush following God-knows-what sign. I had to keep up, and be prepared to see and shoot the wounded animal the instant it was spotted.

If the above isn't hunting, I don't know what is.

There are hunters who take a DIY approach to hunting and occasionally they hold the opinion that anyone who doesn't hunt the same way is not a real hunter. I have always found this a rather limiting outlook.

Let's not forget that one of the primary reasons a PH is required is for your own safety.

The location to most people will be entirely new. The field conditions will be very different - judging distances, for example. Water sources will be unknown to the hunter. Temperature changes and altitude will likely be very different from what the hunter is used to. And last, but certainly not least, there the flora and fawna of Africa has many ways to hasten your demise.

Even in the military, before being inserted into some hole in parts unknown, you practice in terrain and conditions similar to your objective. You study "sand tables" of the area, get meterological briefings of weather patterns, wind patterns,etc. And even after all of that, if an asset familiar with the area is available, you grab that and take it with you. But you also take highly skilled people on your team - people who could literally locate a needle in a haystack with a compass.

Even with all that prep and planning, you schedule set times time make contact and have a plan to schedule emergency extractions if needed.

Most of us go from our offices to the bush in a matter of 48 hours. And we don't have a "team" available to accompany us. Just a swag here, but if there were no PH's involved, it is my guess that at least 10% of people going it alone would never come home, with the majority of that number getting hopelessly lost, some succumbing to injury and some revitalizing the African landscape as dangerous game dung.

Others would make it back empty handed, glad to just have made it back.

I guess the point I am making here is that even with a PH, it is still hunting for most. There are the collectors out there who are happy to fill the sole role as trigger man, but the vast majority are indeed hunters.

You friend does not seem to realize the difference between hunting smart and hunting stupid. Hunting with a PH in an unknown land 10,000 miles away is hunting smart. And as hunting goes, there are few older stupid hunters around - that is because Darwin has a very special place for stupid hunters in his heart, and collects them quickly before they can age.

I suspect that your friend is one of those unfortunate people who disparage that which they either cannot attain or are too afraid to try to attain. He clearly has not hunted Africa and I suspect can't afford, or believes he can't afford, to or suffers from that irrational fear of Africa that seems to afflict so many. Rather than admitting that he can't, or will not, go to Africa, he demeans it.
I have hunted in Africa, Botswana to be specific. I have also hunted in South Carolina and Pennsylvania. Were the experiences the same? Not by a long shot, yet each was hunting. Each required me to employ my skills to succeed. I thoroughly enjoyed each and expect to continue to hunt in each place. As for your friend, I feel sorry for him. He either is unable, or unwilling, to partake in one of the most unique and enjoyable hunting experiences that one could have.

TerryR