A long time ago, it seems to me, I was doing my best to shoot a lion in the Northern Transvaal. The trophy fee that year (it was before the whole darn country got high fenced) was $1,500 U.S. I saw that the trophy fee for a hyena was $75. I was dumber than a sack of hammers back then (being in my twenties) and was amazed that the trophy fee for them was so high.

On an adjacent property were living two old guys who told us we could shoot game on their place for free but we had to give them the venison. Of course that did not apply to a lion and they would want the $1,500 for that. The plainsgame was mostly all shot out.

Of course. No problem with me at all on that. I wanted a lion so badly.

One night about 11:00 p.m. we came upon a hyena that tried to get through some kind of fence beside the road. I gunned the varmint, we threw it into the bakkie once we were sure it was not going to bite a hand off and we went back to camp and went to bed.

The old bachelors heard the shots and when we did not come into their yard to show them the $1,500 lion - they got madder than hell and drove over to our camp.

They stormed into the old couple's rondavel (they were in bed) and wanted to know why in the hell we were trying to stiff them on the lion?

The old Afrikaners knew nothing, of course, so directed them to our rondavel. It was quite startling to see two old geezers, eyes flashing, storming into our rondavel.

A dozen years later I was hunting in Zimbabwe. The trophy fee for a hyena was $275 and they had been hunted so hard over the years on the 130,000 acre ranch that they had become so spooky that the safari company had never had a client ever take one.

My PH was an older fellow. He was the nicest of folks and told me that if we got a chance for a hyena that the price was $275 but any more would be free.

We were heading back to camp about midnight after a disasterous night in the leopard blind. Suddenly three sets of eyes flashed across the road and bobbed into the bush. Hyenas!

My PH grabbed my 5 or 6 cell maglite and we went after them.

After a couple of hundred yards we could see the three sets of eyes staring at us. I sat down, put the cross hairs between the eyes of one, lowered it a bit and shot.

The hyena collapsed. I swung to the next one and my guide shouted, ' Don't shoot! I don't know what they are!'

I still laugh about that and it has been almost 30 years...

Don't know what they are? Ha! Ha!

quote:

My PH was an older fellow. He was the nicest of folks and told me that if we got a chance for a hyena that the price was $275 but any more would be free.

We were heading back to camp about midnight after a disasterous night in the leopard blind. Suddenly three sets of eyes flashed across the road and bobbed into the bush. Hyenas!

My PH grabbed my 5 or 6 cell maglite and we went after them.

After a couple of hundred yards we could see the three sets of eyes staring at us. I sat down, put the cross hairs between the eyes of one, lowered it a bit and shot.

The hyena collapsed. I swung to the next one and my guide shouted, ' Don't shoot! I don't know what they are!'

I still laugh about that and it has been almost 30 years...

Don't know what they are? Ha! Ha!

Yep, the dollar signs suddenly and magically appeared after the first shot. . . . . . I've had a similar experience, different critter, though.

PH needed more time to calculate the upgrade!

Haha, Great story & thank you for Posting !

I have spend many many nights waiting for Hyena both Brown & Spotted, I have two Browns now & only one Spotted I shot in the Moonlight in Zim, but unfortunately hit it in the head as its head was down, I collect skulls so want another now but in my area 99.9 % are Browns, both of the Browns had been caught in snares at some time in there lives, it was still hanging around one of their necks & the other had a foot missing, I would like a full nice haired one for a skin but don't really want to kill another !

Snares & Poison are the scourge of Africa & the world

I hate to think how many extra animals suffered this year as I wasn't there to pull snares up !!

Thanks for the story!

Wait, I’m not sure!

Assuming you knew what they were, you should have opened fire and screw him.Then tell him you didn't hear him.If he still bitches tell him he ruined your hunt and it's your last hunt with him.This is done on most safaris IMO-some more shirt and tie like but still the same shit.