The hunt report that almost wasn't. After the thread on not posting because of fear, I decided to put this up anyhow. I had originally sent this out for some friends, so there is a bit of soliloquy about rhino and hunting. Most probably know this here, but if its all together, maybe folks will realize how important hunting is to conserving these animals. Can't say I have seen a rhino report here.

Rhino at Sunset



Agent: Adam Clements at Adam Clements Safari Trackers
Outfitter: Mike Murray- African Field Sports
Location: Rygerspoort, Eastern Cape Province, South Africa
PH: Sakkie Retief
Flights: Delta and South African Airlines
Rifles: Dakota 76 .416 Rigby using Federal Premium 400 grain Trophy Bonded Sledgehammer Solids
Dakota 76 .30-06 using 165 grain Nosler Partitions (handload)
Dates: June 15-26, 2016

Eastern Cape at Rygerspoort



This hunt was something that I had not planned on doing soon. I had planned on going after Rhino to complete my Big 5 as a 50th birthday present to myself, and that is a ways away (well maybe not that far, but one likes to think that way...) I had talked with Adam and Brian Van Blerk about hunting Rhino several times in the past, and while I would like to shoot Black Rhino, unless I win the Powerball, that is not going to happen. After the various bizarre things that USFWS has done lately, people were getting panicky. I was told thhat many South African game farmers were trying to sell off rhino at a lower rate because they were convinced that USFWS would ban impport of them and since the US is the principle market, this caused prices to drop quite a bit. Even so Mike Murray, who owns African Field Sports repeatedly said he expects the Rhino hunting to stop "shortly"- within a couple years. He repeatedly said that I was likely to be one of the last of the Rhino hunters. Maybe so, but it probably just means US hunters. Adam told me that Mike had an excellent area for Rhino, and that it had a large population of self sustaining rhino present.

A little background on Rhino in Africa.

At one time, Rhino were considered a dangerous pest. They were effectively impossible for the average man to hunt before the advent of firearms, and the usual response was to avoid them, or climb a tree if you must. The Black (or Hook Lipped) Rhinoceros was the most common Rhino in Africa. There were also a species called the Northern White Rhinoceros that lived in the southern fringes of the Sahara Desert. This was the animal that President Theodore Roosevelt shot in his epic hunt/naturalizing tour of Africa after the turn of the 20th Century. Unfortunately, this species is now effectively extinct. There is also the Southern White Rhinoceros, which inhabited the savanna areas in Southern Africa. The name White Rhinoceros is actually a corruption of the Afrikaans term for "wide" as these are properly the Wide Lipped Rhino. The difference is that the White are the same color as the Black, but the White are grazers, with their necks incapable of lifting long enough or high enough to eat branches. The Black or Hook lipped Rhino is a browser, and eats from brush and trees. The black is usually much shorter tempered, and very aggressive, while the white is more placid, and mainly due to its preferred habitat, easy to avoid. The Rhino got its place on the Big 5 of Africa due to the fact that the Black Rhino charged with no warning from close distance, and as a pachyderm with a small brain, was very difficult to put down in a hurry even with big bore firearms. They killed many early hunters and explorers, not to mention local natives. While the White is decidedly less dangerous than the black, it is still dangerous. Sakkie told me of Rhino killing eland and horses at Rygerspoort, and they do charge if not shot well. Mainly, the idea is that if you don't have a reason to be near them, you just avoid the white rhino, and since they tend to be found in relatively open terrain most of the time, this is fairly easy to do.

The sorry state for the rhino now is that in the heart of Rhino territory (Kenya, Tanzania, Zambia, Zimbabwe and Mozambique, although they were found from Cameroon to South Africa) the white settlers decided that cattle were king. They eradicated the tsetse fly in many areas and then started removing the Rhino (often by shooting from helicopter, as one can find on video) to make room for farming and ranching. While poaching for Arab dagger handles and Chinese natural remedies played a significant role later, this was the real number reduction (similar to the American bison) that broght them to the point where they were pushed over the brink to where unregulated hunting and poaching could make a difference. Now that Rhino were pushed out of the majority of their native habitat (and lets face it, old Faro was not a nice neighbor) the relatively finite hunting blocks and parks could not keep up with the demand for illicit horn. First the Northern White then the Black Rhino became endangered (and now the Northern White is extinct) and now the Black is having a hard time holding on.

Black Rhino (from Zimbabwe a few years back)



Very limited hunting of Black Rhino still goes on. These are generally special permits aimed at specific old animals that actually are a hindrance to breeding- old bulls that won't/can't breed but kill younger bulls that invade their territory to mate. South Africa has a CITES (the international body that regulates trade/export of wild animals) quota of 5 a year, but they traditionally have not shot the full quota; and the US refused to allow this use to be imported into the country as hunting trophies as a political gesture. Namibia has also had a intermittent quota, and they did go through the US political hoops to allow import rarely in the past few years.

The exception has been a triumph of private industry. South Africa has a strong game ranching industry, and some wise businessmen found a way to preserve the Southern White Rhino...by farming them, and then selling the surplus as huntable trophies as well as living animals to zoos and reintroduction programs. As such, while poaching is becoming near unsustainable, the Southern White Rhinoceros is not an endangered animal at this time. South Africa has had a good sustainable population for decades, and in fact, the main reason it has many controls on it was that originally they were worried about using the status of the Southern White Rhino to get Black Rhino horn out of the country illegally. As part of their statement on Lion hunting, USFWS did admit that this captive breeding program for Rhino is essential for the continuance of the species.

White Rhino



The process for hunting Rhino in South Africa has become quite involved. I had to prove my bona fides to the government in order to get the permits. They needed a copy of my gun license (which is a bit disingenuous, as we don't really have a permit for owning a rifle capable of shooting rhino, but a carry permit or a US customs form serves. You need to prove that you are a member of a US hunting club (In my case, SCI) and you have to prove that you are a legitimate big game hunter, and document 5 different major animals/hunts that you have done, preferably I was told with CITES animals. You then give all this info, have your outfitter also provide his certifications and establishment that he has a living male rhino that you can hunt, and then you wait 3-4 months for that to go through. Mike told me that my timeframe was as short as it could be. About 2 weeks before I left, I was given my Rhino permit. Then, which is unusual for South Africa, a provincial Game officer has to accompany in the field when hunting Rhino.

I had a rather long and illuminating discussion on Rhino with the game officer from the Eastern Cape province (I will not give his name as I do not want him to be targeted by the antis...) as well as Sakkie, who along with Mike has been involved in Rhino conservation for a long time. Rhino poaching is becoming more and more of a problem. It is approaching the threshold where they will be unsustainable. Unfortunately, banning hunting will make it absolutely unsustainable. The hunting income is really the only hard currency that ranchers can get from their animals. The zoos do not buy many animals at all, and the reintroduction programs pay in local cash, which is throughout Africa having issues with horrible inflation. It costs money to protect the Rhino, and without an income for the private guys (photosafaris tend to go only to the parks...) they will stop their antipoaching patrols and sell what they can for whatever they can get. Mike has managed to avoid poaching on his ranch mainly by making it much easier for poachers to go elsewhere. Both he and Sakkie were SADF special forces, (Sakkie had some tales about the war in Angola, and did not care much for Russians and Cubans from that experience) and while they state that it is not impossible to get in, the multilayered security is expensive as well as effective and they need something to pay for it.

As an aside, the Game Officer did have a comment or two about the US and the whole canned lion debacle. Firstly, he said that acclimating captive reared lion to the wild is not as difficult as people make of it. He noted that while finding a home range may be difficult for a captive bred pride, if they are introduced to a low lion density area, they do fine. He noted that captive lion are killing prey on their own within days of release, and that they tend to be less afraid of humans and more likely to attack because of that. While he acknowledged that there are some outfits that don't let the lion acclimate enough and are in excessively small enclosures which bother many, his comment was, and what about your beef cow or hog? What about the whole commercial Ag industry in the US? These lions have a much more natural life than any US farm animal. He also pointed out that a few years back they had a massive die off of lion in Kruger Park, caused by Tuberculosis, presumptively caught from Buffalo. They repopulated lion in the park from captive bred (hunting farm) stock. His feeling is that by removing the commercial sources of lion, we have just made the lion poaching problem (for Chinese natural remedies) guaranteed to be significantly worse- not only in South Africa, but throughout the range states.

Anyhow, enough of my Rhino commentary- this was put in to make sure the reader knows that this is not a slaughter of the innocent that kills an endangered animal.

My rifle selection was mainly made by Mike Murray and Adam. The concern was that as Rhino sometimes stay out in the open, the shot might be a bit longer, and precision might be needed in the close bush, so they wanted me to bring the .416 over the .470. The other side (.375) they thought was marginal on Rhino, but that the Rigby would be perfect given the superior penetration. For a light gun, they preferred a .300 mag for long shots, especially on Rhebok- but with my choices available, the comment was that a .30-06 will do anything I needed, if I shot well. I later found out that Sakkie even considers a .30-06 adequate on Eland.

I flew from Minneapolis to Atlanta and then took DL 200 to Johannesburg. Our flight was delayed a bit due to some luggage being misplaced. No one likes flight delays, but I was glad that they were willing to do that rather than have some people make a 16 hour flight and then not have their stuff, so this was good for Delta. I was met by Bruce from Gracy, who handled things with his usual high degree of efficiency and professionalism. I had an overnight layover at City Lodge, which is pretty much a standard hotel, but on the airport grounds so you do not have to worry about getting a car and driving around. While you could go to their restaurant and eat, I just take a shower and go to sleep.

I had to be up at 6 the following morning to meet Bruce to get me on a internal flight on South African Airlines to Port Elizabeth. This flight was on time and smooth, no issues at all, although some nosy parker at the check in line asked me what the tuffpak had in it- he was not satisfied with sporting goods, and kept asking. I finally said "rifles" and he looked at me like I had the plague- he sounded British, and promptly ignored me. Bruce told me I would be better off ignoring folks in the line in the airport. Probably a good point, although if I am following the law, I do tend not to lie or ignore folks. I ended up sitting next to a young lady who was wearing a sea shepherd jacket. That was a short, but unpleasant conversation after she also kept asking me what I was doing in South Africa- this one was an Australian, who knew enough that when I told her where I was going (the usual chit chat), she figured out I was one of those evil killing types, and I guess I look like the stereotypical "fat american who makes up for his private inadequacies by killing innocent animals!" The stewardess overheard this and told her that the hunters pay their way more than her activist types and told her to hush up, and then apologized profusely to me. I met up with Sakkie at the main terminal waiting area, and then we cleared the rifles again and headed out to Murray Ranch.

This is the old family ranch house, and is very nice. Heat (needed), A/C (which we definitely didn't) and a nice bar/lounge area. The elephant tusks they have there made my 60# bull look like a baby. 150#/148#- but not a hunted animal. Mike brought them back in the late 60's from a dead animal find in Kruger; he was surprised that he was able to as for their weight, but because it was not a known animal at the time, they didn't put them in the museum they have for great tuskers. The buffalo mounts were animals they found dead on the ranch and a taxidermist wanted to use them for demonstration.

Murray Lodge





Bar



They also have a nice trophy room that we occasionally ate in as well as the formal dining room.



That afternoon we drove around a bit and checked my rifles, which were on per their norm (since I learned to remove the bolt from the gun in the case, I have not had any issues with the gun being knocked off- although this time some baggage ape put a gouge that is halfway through the side of the Tuffpak... We then began hunting Rhino. The first day we saw a cow- my photo was too blurred to use. There are about 50-100 Rhino living on this property. There are some small fences up, but Sakkie pointed out that a Rhino goes where it damn well pleases... and we found gates and fence spots that showed this to be the case. The fence is needed to keep some of the game separate- especially the Blesbok and the Bontebok- but it is not anywhere near high enough to stop the Eland or the Kudu.

Eastern Cape Terrain



Rhino!





Rhino Tracks



The next day, our first, we started out by looking at the ranch and getting the lay of the land. In the morning, we spent some time looking at Rhino tracks and spoor. While they monitor overall, they do not track the Rhino individually here. Sakkie said that there was one particular older bull that he had his eye on for hunting. He spent some time near the lodge, but hadn't been seen for several months. We then followed a large track for a while. Dominant males tend to wander the roads spotting with urine and scuffing the ground. they usually leave a snakelike mark as they wander as they drag the tip of their penis on the ground.we would see this sign for several miles on the road then he would leave and we would pick him up again later. Rhino , like elephant have distinct tracks based on their wear of their feet. I once again was treated to the sight of rhino, just not the guy we wanted to find. The first day, we did not come up with him, and we then spent the rest of the afternoon looking for Kudu.



The second day while we once again found tracks, and narrowed down where he was likely to be, but while we saw rhino, we did not see him. We did find a bunch of buffalo and eland, but since we were not wanting to disturb the rhino at this point, we held off on hunting the eland. Again, I was given a crash course in Rhino behavior and management as we talked Rhino extensively while looking for them. I was a little surprised how long it was taking us to come up with the animal given that it was a game ranch, but we were looking at new areas each day as well as reinspecting the old areas we had checked already.



The third day of hunting ended up being the charm. We saw a big herd, or crash of rhino in a bunch of trees. One looked like a big male, so we got out to take a closer look. As we approached them, some sound or smell caught them and they bolted out of the copse of trees and ran out to a thicker bush area. While we did not get too close, maybe 75 yards, Sakkie was able to tell that this bull was actually much younger than the one we were looking for. We then drove to a high hill to glass for a while and saw a different group and one looked pretty big, so we drove over to get the wind right and proceeded to walk them up. This group did have a big bull leading him, but he didn't quite have the mass of the bull that Sakkie knew of. I was asked my opinion, and stated he knew his animals, and if there was a bigger bull, we could certainly wait on finding him- after all, we still had a week. We walked out and as we left the area, Sakkie's tracker pointed out the tracks of the old guy we had been following the day before, and they were very fresh- the urine on the ground was still warm. We then tracked this bull for about an hour and entered a gullied out river bed. This area looked like low bush from a distance, but ended up being perfect habitat for a lone bull. Areas to sun himself, lots of food, sand to lie in and mud to wallow in. There was also a bunch of rhino droppings all over. He was laying up against the bank we were walking on, and the tracker spotted him just before he noticed us; but he did hear something and got up snorting and ran out of the riverbed on the far side. Sakkie and I ran after him and he turned around as we got out of the riverbed and stared at us. He had heard something, but didn't want to leave "his spot" and wasn't really sure what he had heard. He ended up quartering on looking at us, at about 30 yards and I shot at the point of his near shoulder and drove the bullet through both lungs and the heart. He lurched as the bullet hit with a loud thwack , then spun and ran off, and as he went I emptied the rifle at him as he sure didn't seem to be reacting like I would have thought he should from that shot. I hit him in one leg low and missed with the two other running off shots. We then started tracking him. I was rather concerned that I might have flubbed the shot up as he sure didn't act like something that had taken a solid hit. Of course, most of this is my lack of experience (until now) of how a truly big animal handles a solid in the heart/lung area. He ran out of sight, and while we started seeing a little blood after several hundred yards, it sure didn't look like much. After about a mile of tracking, we saw him lying on his side, with his back to us. I put in an insurance shot that he did not react at all to, and he was down.

Hunting Team






Horns on the Rhino



In retrospect, I think Sakkie knew exactly what had happened, as he did not make a move for shooting at him after my shot, although he did comment that sometimes the bullet takes a bad track and skims the rib cage rather than penetrating the chest. He later commented that I must not have shot my elephant with a heart lung shot, as this was typical performance with this kind of shot. He did note that if you give a slight flesh wound, more often then not the Rhino will then charge you at that short a distance, and the fact that it ran away was a good sign given we heard the bullet strike. It may have been a behind fence hunt, but I shook as long as I had for any other animal after getting him down from the adrenaline, and was truly a great hunting experience to me. I now had my big 5.



The first thing that happens after he is down (after pictures, anyhow) is to get the necessary samples for the game department. They took some hair from the tail, a slice of tissue from his ear, and some blood. The crew from the lodge had shown up by then and the next order of business was getting the horns off of him. We had to keep the horns with the game officer until he had microchipped them, so they were removed and kept in our physical custody until the chip was placed. They run DNA testing, and by this they will be able to identify him (or his horn fragments) if his horn is stolen. His horn weighed in total about 20 KG, and I was told it would be worth about $2,000,000 if one could get it to the black market in China. As it is, his horn was worth more than what I paid to hunt him even in the RSA on the black market. This is part of why there is so much difficulty with poaching.


Mike had said that if one removes the horn properly, it does not harm the rhino, and as they grow about 2#/year (as they get older they wear off rubbing more than they keep on) one could conceivably make very good money removing horn on a living rhino for the chinese market, but that is not allowed under CITES, only hunting offtake is legal. I did ask what happens to a rhino without a horn, and I was told that to a rhino, his horn is a dominance item. Some old bulls when they are dehorned refuse to mate, and basically hide until they have at least a nub. Others, really don't care much and do what rhino normally do. Apparently, the cows really are not that affected by dehorning.

After they had taken him back to the lodge by tractor, they did butcher him, and found my bullet...which looks like it could be reloaded and shot again.



Unlike other major big game animals in my experience, there was no big camp celebration at the killing of a rhino. In fact, everyone seemed rather introspective that evening.

We did have Rhino Tail a couple days later. Very tasty!



Sneeuberge Moutain range



The next day we left 2 hours before dawn to go to another property that African Field Sports has the hunting rights to to look for Vaal Rhebok. I was told that many hunters end up scheduling a whole safari just to hunt this animal. We went up to about 6000 feet and it was cold up there! they had a small snowstorm in the area (which were the Sneeuberge Mountains) that evening.



We met up with a group of the farmers, who rode horses and would help us in the hunt. They would also, in effect, serve as beaters for us. We would climb to just below a mountain crest, and then set up and sit still. Sakkie noted that if we drove up, the Rhebok would not come anywhere near us, and then the riders would follow the ridgelines to us. The Rhebok would see them, and then move away, allowing us to see them and, if lucky, get a shot. as we drove in to the mountains, we saw a small family group of 4 with a mature male, but they would not stay still long enough to get a shot at them. We also saw a few Southern Mountain Reedbuck, but had also seen a bunch of them at the main ranch as well, so were planning on getting one of them there. We ended up getting quite cold (and me slipping and falling a time or two- a mountain hunter I ain't...) and ended up setting up 2-3 times before we saw a ram. However, he was a really good one, but I hit him a bit far back and my follow up shots were a bit too close to the horns, so Sakkie recommended we let the horsemen grab him and we climbed down off the mountain (which was quicker than climbing, but still a bit of a walk.)



We got back to Rygerspoort early enough to take a look around again for Kudu and Reedbuck, but did not see any worth shooting. We did however, see some Cape Mountain Zebra, which are shootable on the ranch, but not importable into the US. However, they are doing well enough that the restriction may be coming off in the not too distant future.

Cape Mountain Zebra



Murray Ranch has a good selection of Plains game as well. I shot a nice Blesbok on the following morning. He was not willing to go down, and took 4 solid hits before falling- probably because the first one was a little too far back.



Thursday ended up being my best day of plains game hunting. Early on in the day we found a really nice Bontebok. Bontebok are another South African success story, at one time thought to be extinct, they have been bred up from a small group of remnant animals and are now found on many ranches in South Africa. They do interbreed with the Blesbok, so there have been some issues with hybrids, but they are now genetically tested to ensure that they are actually Bontebok. Given the recovery, they are huntable, but do require a USFW CITES permit to import one into the US. I am told this is just a formality, but it is some paperwork. We are only to shoot older, post breeding males. While we saw some Bontebok every day, it was not until the 6th day of hunting we saw one that made the grade for Sakkie.



On the way back in after getting the Bontebok, we also came across Kudu. We had been seeing some Kudu bulls multiple times every day, but usually after getting close enough to evaluate we ended up calling off the stalk due to not being fully mature, although we also got blown and had the bull run on us often as well. This time, we managed to have everything just right on a big bull and he stayed still just a bit too long.



That evening, we went out looking for Eland, and while we saw them, they were too far out for a reasonable stalk. We drove back and on our way found a Mountain Reedbuck that met Sakkie's standards and was in a position we could get at him. I shot him a bit far forward, and he went down with the shot, but then got up and ran. My second shot clipped his one horn as he ran, which stunned him enough for me to finish him without further ado. You can see the dinged tip of his right horn in the picture here.



The next two days were spent trying to get a shot at eland, which we did not manage to pull off, a big black wildebeest which I blew a shot on and missed, checking on Nyala, which we did not see a big enough one to go after, and trying to find good springbok. Mike has all the color phases on his ranch, and they pretty much all run together. I had a good common springbok, so I did not see anything better here, but I did shoot a Black springbok the last evening, and at last light shot a White springbok.

Black Springbok



White Springbok



Ordinarily, I bring rather heavier rifles to Africa. This time I was using the .30-06 for most of my shooting- except for Rhino and Eland- and Sakkie was not adverse to using the .30-06 on Eland, either, stating that it would do a good job, but one needed to avoid hard quartering shots and you had a bit less margin for error. Notably, the only bullet I recovered was from the .416. Every shot from the .30-06 showed through penetration. I would not hesitate to use the .30-06 on anything short of eland, and eland are probably just fine if one takes some judicious care in shot selection.

Finis

Prodigious!
Thank you for taking the time and putting forth the effort
to file this wonderful report.


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Excellent !!!

Mike

.

Great report and pictures ! Good for you Charles and congratulations on an early '50th'!

Thank you for posting.

Charlie

.

Very well done on completing your big five with such a superb animal. Great to see those who are prepared to support these conservation efforts in RSA.

Admirable.

Proper report !!

Didn't offend me!

Nice report and congrats on the completion of the Big 5!

And thanks for posting the hunt report with some great photos, very interesting, entertaining read.

Not sure why someone would criticize your report. Nice write up. I enjoyed it. Congrats on a great hunt. Bruce

Most excellent!!

Congratulations on completing your Big 5.

Love to read your detailed and honest hunt reports.

Steve

Thank you for sharing. You have accomplished something younger generations can only dream of.

Happy Hunting,
Ski+3

Fine report!

Well done Sir
congratulations on a fine trophy,Report and Birthday present

Very fine and detailed report

am very jelous

Charles,

Well done! Congrats on completion of your Big 5.

Mark

A Rhino trophy...Mr Butler is Da Man!!!!

Sir congratulations on your big 5, that is a splendid animal and a fine report! I don't see how anyone could see any bad in this, again congratulations and thanks for sharing.

Great report and very interesting, thanks,

So happy you had such a successful hunt! Congratulations! Great report!

Best regards, D. Nelson

What an amazing accomplishment! A very well deserved congratulations and thank you so much for sharing with us. The only question now is what next??

.

Wanted to ask - I assume that the meat was taken ( other than just the tail )and processed same as any other game animals ?



Charlie

.

Congrats on your Big 5. Nice vifaru!

Thanks for posting CR.

Thanks all.

The offended sensibilities are the antis, not my fellow hunters in general.

Yes, the meat was all utilized.

Glad folks enjoyed seeing this.

Good on you!
Thanks for the lessons in "Rhino 101".

Beautiful report. Congratulations.

Congrats on your hunt and big 5 CR. Rhino's are a treasure and without hunting, we won't have the funds to conserve or give them value. I was among many last week. They walked freely in and out of camp. Just glad none of them were in a bad mood...lol

Congrats on Rhino and your Big 5 and more importantly supporting the continued conservation of Rhino's.

Great report and an excellent hunt!

Thanks

Wonderful story related in a most respectful manner. Well done!

Congrats!

Thanks for the awesome report!

congrats! Super nice report, super nice photo(I noted the absence of blood, and use of dust to cover it on rhino, a extra delicacy)
2 critique:
1) can you give us some mesuraments of horns? ( not only rhino, I have interest also in Vaal's mesure)
and 2)... if buffalo mounts are like looks in photos I think you have to give the taxidermist name, to avoid it...

Fantastic Report, fantastic hunt. But the main thing is that you have the guts to post it with pictures. So you must be wealthy, unafraid, cool, not worried about PETA terrorist etc. Seriously your bravery is impressive!

Thanks for a writing a great report. Congratulations on the Big Five!

After reading lorefuma's post, I looked back to the photos of the rhino and noticed the bullet hole. As I've never researched shot placement on a rhino; is that the optimum spot? This is not a criticism, just out of curiosity.

Not really wealthy or anything, just a professional with no wife or kids and don't do much other than hunt. I wouldn't say brave, either...that term goes to the game scouts and rangers protecting these animals from poachers.

The rhino is PHASA gold medal, but not SCI Gold, front horn was 23" officially. That's how they sell them, so those numbers I have, the rest I don't have any hard numbers for. The Rhebok, can't say, no clue, but he looks good. The kudu was about 50" guesstimated. There were no tape measures in the field.

As to the shot, that was the insurance shot that you see, from him lying on his side. The shot I hit him with first was on the inside of the right shoulder, and not visible on the photo. He was quartering on when I shot him.

Congratulations CR on a great hunt and on completing your Big 5!

Its only the second Rhino hunt report I've ever seen on AR!!!

i Like the diversity in the hunts you do vis a vis big game, plains game etc.

Good luck on your next adventure.

cheers

Nick

Congratulations! Great report, thank you for posting!

Well I'm offended, but fortunately I like being offended!
Thanks for posting such a nice report. Actually, with all you have written about rhino hunting and conservation, I may pass this on to a few acquaintances who are a bit iffy about my elephant habit. You make a fine case for rhino breeding programs, not seen in the mainstream media.

Well done and congrats on completion of your "Big 5"!

Congrats on the Rhino, and the completion of the big 5. After that, where do you go from here? No matter what crap you get from anyone regarding the taking of a Rhino, remember this: You have lived your dream, and lived it well. There are many who would like to have had your experience. Congrats again on your success, and good luck thinking of what's next!