I have a Dall Sheep mount that represents the greatest hunting experience of my life. The pain, mental anguish, money and effort it took to hunt that animal would be very difficult to copy. Therefore, to me, it is all about the pursuit. Hunting hard and shooting a mature, but smaller, animal is way more important to me than shooting inches of antler or horn. And I have not recorded any animal in any record book.

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To me it is about the getting and not the having

Having said that, there are two that I would have registered had they made it -

1/ a 115 kg (estd) striped marlin that my son - then 11 years - hooked on 10 kg line off the BoI in NZ and had on for 45 mins before it threw the hook. It would have been a NZ JUNIOR RECORD and possibly the IGFA 10 kg world record for a junior.

2/ a duiker ( picture posted on AR at the time ) that my other son shot when he was 13 with a horn that went 6 3/4 inches. Another half inch and I likely would have recorded it for him.

Myself, I would rather take a one horned animal on his last legs than a record animal in its prime. Stalking stags in the Scottish Highlands is a great example where they target and take out the old, deformed and ugly heads!

It's the getting and not the having that counts !

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quote:

Originally posted by bakerb:
Heym 450/400. . . No problem. I plan to post a hunt report for sure.

I don't know the minimums, but I've looked at so many dang pictures in books, magazines and on-line, that I think I can get a reasonable idea of trophy quality.

The tough part will be the Cape Kudu. I'm afraid I'll mis-judge one as too small, because most of the pics you see and drool over are aren't the Cape variety.

Here's a Cape Kudu I took a few years ago...they are smaller than a Greater Kudu as you already know...maybe this will help.

I don't own, nor have I ever owned, a copy of any hunting record book, but I have nothing against them. I have never attempted to enter any animal into a record book. All that being said, I do attempt to book in areas which will likely have the largest animals.

I have 0 interest in the books and even less in the awards if that is possible. Sadly, record books are losing their value as reference material since scores today are more of a floating price scale than standards of animals for the area.

I always let the outfitter/PH know that I have zero interest in books and awards. I want a mature animal representative for the area. Anything above and beyond is a combination of a good outfitter/PH and luck and I am always thankful for both.

Safe travels..........Larry