Russ Gould's site references a couple of articles on hunting with Marc Sutherland who adheres to a strict "hunt from foot only" policy. A very interestin read.

Hunting on foot is the most enjoyable way to hunt. That is if you are there to experience the hunt and not just there to shoot trophies. I have noticed that most PHs will try to discourage it by making a lot of excuses and rationalizations. Try it on your next hunt. Tell the PH that you want to only foot hunt and see the smoke start to come out of his ears as he calmly tells you all the reasons why that will not work. The fact is that they make more money for their safari company by encouraging you to shoot from the truck. On a five to seven day hunt more game will be spoted by driving the two tracks and the sooner you shoot an animal the sooner you drive on looking for another one to shoot.

To my way of thinking this is just not how it should be done. However the safari companies have to make a profit to stay in business. Would it be fair for them to charge a higher daily rate for strictly foot hunts to make up for fewer animals collected?

"The fact is that they make more money for their safari company by encouraging you to shoot from the truck."

Gratuitous nonsense no reputable outfitter encourages shots from the truck.

If you want to hunt your entire safari on foot have at it, it isn't very intelligent in some (probably most) circumstances especially on a concession that can only be described as vast.

Really where do you draw the line. I mean do you actually quarter the animals in the field and bring them back on foot. No???? You use a truck so you can get on other game faster, how interesting, I guess it's all a matter of degree.

I am fairly sick and tired of people putting their preferences as superior and all others as inferior/unethical. Using hyperbole just weakens an already weak arguement.

Actually a fair number of PHs allow shooting from a vehicle and I've seen it done at night. Anytime you see game take off when the vehicle approaches, you are looking at an area where game has been shot from or close to vehicles.

Far more common is the spot and stalk method, where the shot is taken within 100 yards of the vehicle. I have done that myself more than once, before I came to appreciate the more sporting approach.

There is nothing wrong with using a vehicle to get to a certain area and then hunting from there on foot.

I will tell you, sir, where I now personally draw the line: the animals to be hunted should both be spotted and stalked entirely on foot.

Others draw the line at shooting from the vehicle, allowing motorized spotting.

You can draw the line wherever you wish. It's your money and your hunt. I can only say that the hunts that have given me the most satisfaction, are those where the vehicle was used only to transport us to and from the hunt area. The spotting and stalking was done on foot.

And of course, the vehicle is invariably used to recover game. That's common sense.

Wow Odies, what is bothering you so much? Muletrain is not saying you or anyone else should ONLY hunt that way! He is suggesting to some of us to try to do a foot only hunt! You don't have to follow his advise but other might want to try it. And that is our individual choice

I don't have anything against using a vehicle to roam around a concession looking for game but would recommend that on a multiple day hunt one try one or two days of pure walking. Of course the hunting area has to be practical for such a hunt.

There is nothing better than starting along a river on foot with your PH and a couple of gunbearers whilst your porters move your mobile camp to a predestined location and meet up in the evening. The feeling of being totally alone in the bush and bumping game on foot will outlive in your memory any game spotting and stalking from a vehicle. You don't have to carry your trophy out on foot as vehicles are in radio contact to come pick up whatever you shoot. If done properly, you don't even know it is folloing you out of sight and hearing range as you have gone along a couple of miles and the jeep finds the trophy up on a tree using gps coordinates given to them by the ph on his hand radio.

As the sun sets your fly-camp is set up on a scenic location along the banks of the river, fire roaring, hippos snorting and the lanterns flickering around the perimeter. Drinks are ice-cold and food steaming hot. No luxury is compromised; you even have a proper toilet and hot shower

The next day starts with hot coffee/tea and a well prepared breakfast over burning coals. As you set out with your hunting party again (on foot ) the 20 - 30 porters pack up camp and move to the next site. The cycle repeats itself for as many days as you like. Try it! You won't regret it

Hey Mark, what is the 'scout's tag'?

I can't even claim rookie status at hunting Africa -- yet -- but, for several years now, it's been burned into my brain that "You hunt Alaska while you've got your knees -- then you hunt Africa." This is in reference to walking on the plains of Africa versus up and down the mountains of Alaska.

However, considerate people need to realize there are mobility and health issues involved. Further, in these modern times, there are time constraints such as work schedules and flight schedules that make it virtually impossible to "extend" hunts as needed; if you're walking while you hunt and need more time, I can see where a seven-day hunt just might not be enough. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm guessing that Hemmingway, Roosevelt, Taylor, and others weren't constrained by flights that left at such-and-such a time on such-and-such a day, plus I think they had the luxury of "time" on their side. Basically, they could hunt until they got what they wanted, I think. I'm thinking that game which, perhaps, "must" (?) be shot from a vehicle today, probably could have been hunted years and years and years ago because "time available" was on the hunter's side.

Again, I haven't gone to Africa yet, but these are my observations. I just think time and personal mobility issues are more important in these modern times... factors that weren't quite as prevalent "in the good old days" when elephants still had 120-pound tusks and you could kill black rhinos.

Russ

Hell Ruark also shot out of the car. Read 'Horn of the Hunter' carefully and you'll see that he mentions shooting warthog/hyena from the car + jumping out to shoot (+wound) a running oryx. He even spots his lion from the car, with only the final crawl being made on hands and feet. Ruark sure didn't seem to mind!

Boghossian,

In Zambia I have been asked on 2 seperate occasions to shoot animals I had not intended to shoot. Once a government Minister sent a license to the camp and asked that a cow buffalo be shot and delivered to the Game Scout camp. On another occasion the Scout had a "Special" resident license for a tseesbe which he asked if I would please shoot for him. I actually saw the paperwork. The statement you refer to did sound a little funny. I should have explained.

Regards,

Mark

We just got back from hunting with Mafigeni in RSA in Limpopo.

Being an older guy I think the PH sized me up and asked if I wanted to shoot from the car. I told him I'd prefer not to do that. He smiled and said he also prefer not to do that.

We did too much driving the roads to spot. We did a little from a blind. We did some spot and stalk. We did some spot and drive. The PH actually had a plan a, b, and c pretty much ready to execute.

I had 5 trophies in 6 days and was thinking about the last one. The list included a nice 12" warthog, a 20" Impala, an old 48 1/2" Kudu (that I will always remember for his extraordinary heart and courage), an old and scared Blue Wildebeast that had many years of stories to tell, and a 34 1/4" bull Gemsbock that was literally numbed by a 350 grain Barnes X from a .416. These are not be the finest examples of their species and may not even be good representatives in some cases, but they are wonderful memories for me.

I had never considered Zebra as a challenging game animal until I had several stalks interrupted by them and noted that they sometimes had horizontal stripes. ;>

After asking and finding out that they are actually not easy or sure targets, I picked Zebra for my last species instead of the easily hunted Blesbock. We tracked and watched for 2 and a half days. On the last morning we had a marvelous track and stalk hunt that ended successfully with a handsome stallion going instantaneously hooves up at the impact of a 286 gr Nosler 9.3 bullet.

I really enjoyed the trip and I would not rain on anyone's parade for their tactics even if I would not choose to use them, but the highlight really was the last hunt. We had to work for it ... and we got the right breaks.