Group Opposes Hunting in Catskill Park

I find it interesting that a group that has only 20,000 members is tying to speak for millions of people that are in New York State.

"Rather than persist in scrambling to maintain recreational hunting and trapping, BOW needs to stop catering to a tiny interest group and start supporting the millions of New Yorkers who do not hunt or trap,"

I am curious how much money the 31% of wildlife watchers raises for the protection of wildlife compared to the 4.6% raised by hunters in this country.

My guess would be that the 4.6% of the hunters contribute many times more money, time, and effort into proctecting wildlife and its habitat than most of those treehuggers do.

GiraffeHunter,
Totally unrelated to your post but, Good God that giraffe head is huge!

What's the story on that hoss.

Anytime you read something like this, you can immediately do several things. One, throw away the statistics. They are probably outright lies, and if there is a kernel of truth, then they are intentionally misleading. Two, get rid of the arguments. They are erroneously framed. Like, why should we have an army at all if there is even one hungry child? Does the presence of hunters in the woods prevent others from viewing wildlife? No, it most likely enhances it. And thirdly, start the violin music. Emotions are where people like this win their battles, common sense and reason have no place in this discussion. For a group that believes we evolved from pond scum to think we have no place in the food chain is ludicrous. Rant mostly over, Mike.

DavidP,

Thank for asking, I love talking about this trip.

Click on the link below to see on old post about my Zimbabwe trip in 2002.

Safari - Zimbabwe 2002

We spent much of the 2nd & 3rd days of the safari looking for the Giraffes. Despite the size and there abundance in number in the area we hunted, they were difficult to track down.

In the morning on the third day we found the where they were drinking. We decided that we would try that evening to ambush them when they returned to get water.

However, all good plans never work out. That evening we departed and half way to the ambush site we came across two old bulls. After much discussion between the PH and the trackers we decided to take a shot at the larger bull.

We got positioned about 60 yds from the giraffe. He was facing me nearly head on. The PH instructed me to shoot him just off center in the left front shoulder. The first shoot hit its aim and broke the left shoulder. Then the running began; these animals can easily outdistance you even on only three good legs.

We caught up with him a short time later. The other giraffe had left in a different direction, so tracking the wrong bull was not a problem. The second shot was a good lung shot and off he went again. I quickly reloaded and off running we went. We caught up in about 5-10 minutes and I placed the 3rd shot mid body. This was a bad shot on my part, as it is not easy shooting when gasping for air. (Note to self � be in better shape for next safari)

We ran a short distance and caught up to him for the final time. As I aimed for the fourth shot the PH told me not to shoot. Just then the Giraffe raised on its hind legs and fell to the ground. We walked in staying clear from its legs and placed the final shot down through its back in to the kill area.

It took about 15 minutes of running and shooting to bring him down. The giraffe had made a large circle and ended up near the place we first spotted him. He was a lot of work to bring down, but I can�t wait to get the chance at another one. Some people don�t like hunting giraffes but I can�t get enough of it.

I used my Browning A-Bolt in .375 H&H with 300gr. Sledgehammer Solids for all the shots.

Here are some other pictures of the giraffe and a link to other pictures of my safari.







My safari pictures in Zimbabwe 2002