Any Trophy Hunters Here?

Plains game only: .300 would be OK, but .338 would be better.

Dangerous game: .416 seems to be preferred vs .458 in my experience. I'm not sure why this is, but it seems almost all of the guides carry .416.

In any event, you definitely need a Mauser action if you are not using a double gun.

 

As I think about it, I vaguely recall that there may be a lower legal limit on caliber in some of those countries.

I seem to remember that you need a .338 or maybe even a .375 to hunt in Tanzania. I suspect the rules change so you sure better check the country's laws.

 

Ive hunted Namibia and traveled throughout all of Southern Africa (many times) email me if you have any questions... [email protected]. Also be careful and don't over pay. Insist on paying in Rand... I have a friend who is a PH in Namibia and he gave me two brochures for his hunting company. One states US prices the other Rand. Example ... Impala trophy fee $750.00 in the US version... Impala trophy fee R750.00 in the local version... I would like to write a book called "Hunting Safari on a shoe string" someday.

BTW I use a beater 30-06, beater .270 and beater .460 wby mag in Africa.

 

This week a co-worker showed some pictures of his cousin's recent hunting trip. Several different antelopes, a zebra, and he was offerred the chance to remove a problem elephant.

The permit for elephant was $30k. Apparently with the right paperwork you can import the ivory (he is having the head mounted), but it will take more than a year before it arrives in the US.

If you like daring tales of hunters from a bygone era, any of the Capstick books are a good read. Around the turn of the last century, they considered it to be a sport only if you had a decent chance of being killed yourself.

 

Capstick books are great! I met him in Pretoria back in the 90's. His wife comes to the states with her new husband annually to the Dallas Safari show.

Also read Jim Corbet books, amazing stuff..



You mentioned Elephant costing 30K that is rip off! Especially a problem Elephant... If they are not on a game reserve and problem elephant can be shot for free with permission of the game authorities. What probably happened is the PH heard of the problem elephant and thought he try for an extra 30K. I was offered to go with the SA game department and cull a herd of Elephants in 98. I would of been allowed to kill the entire herd. I couldn't stomach the idea of taking young, female's and all and turned down the offer. Now that I look back I should of probably went for it, the herd was culled anyway...



Yes you can import Ivory with a CITES permit. I traded a bunch of Ivory from a chief in Ghana for a Suunto watch but couldn't import it because there was no proof it wasn't poached. Its still sitting in storage in Nalerigu. Maybe someday I can get it.

 

Let's see your trophies already! I haven't shot anything myself but have several skins on my walls w/ a skull or 2. Mostly Native American art type stuff. I do have an authentic African spear I bought in the 60s from one of my art teachers whose son was selling artifacts he brought back from working there.

 

I'm speechless...

 

Dude: Would you shoot an endangered species?

 

Oh, nevermind...

http://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/showthread.php?t=171478&highlight=trophy+wife
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Tony,

If you have any further questions about hunting in Africa I'd suggest this website/forum. http://forums.accuratereloading.com/eve
They are the FerrariChat of hunting and, in particular, African hunting. I hope it helps.


In regards to the shooting "endangered" species questions and comments. I think the above link would be helpful as well. I'd think you find if you researched further beyond what Animal Planet tells you, you would find that elephant (and many other species) are thriving beyond capacity in some areas and that it is necessary to control population numbers through hunting. Hunting of an animal (Africa, America, Asia, wherever) is all regulated to help manage game herds within a given region. Tags and permits are issued based upon what the current herd population is and what the area can sustain (with many other factors taken into account). For an animal like an elephant or leopard, CITES permit (mentioned earlier) are another regulation imposed to ensure that the hunted animal being exported is going into a private collection and not into the black market. All tags and permits issued for hunting cost a fee. Prices can be inexpensive for animals that are in abundance or feral (my wild boar tag cost me around $20) up to hundreds of thousands of dollars for animals with limited quotas (Botswana issues one lion permit per hunting area a year. Accordingly, these hunts routinely go for over $100,000 - that's the cost of a 360 Modena right now!). The most I've ever heard a tag going for was a Desert Bighorn sheep which was somewhere in the neighborhood of $200,000+. The two things to keep in mind with hunting tags and permits are that 1) these fees provide huge donations to wildlife conservation and 2) there is no guarantee you will shoot anything. A few years back my father and I went hunting for elk in Montana, cost us $650 per person for an elk tag - neither of us shot an elk. That's $1,300 we donated to the Montana Fish and Game Department - there's no refunds and no free tag next year if you don't shoot anything. Hunters are the single largest contributors of money to wildlife and habitat conservation (more than PETA or any anti-hunting group). Also, in countries like Africa, they do not hold the same view of elephants, leopard, lions, etc. that we have. Animals that compete with their cattle for food, eat their cattle, or eat them have no value. Hunting brings economic value to animals and encourages people to not shoot all the antelopes to make room for their sheep and to not shoot the leopard because he is eating their sheep. In South Africa many cattle ranches have been converted back into natural habitat for native animals. 10% of South Africa's economy is from hunting. Hunting plays a vital role in the conservation of wildlife and wildlife habitat all over the world. I'm not saying everyone should go out and become hunters, but it is important to recognize the value that hunting provides.

Would I shoot an elephant? Yes, but I have to save for it just like we here all save up to buy a Ferrari.

 

Here's my advice:


1. take your malaria med.

2. don't get gored by a Cape Buffalo.

3. If you do get gored, don't take a transfusion in Africa, a quick death is best.

 

I saw a thing a few years ago that I thought was pretty cool. When a rhino needs to be relocated, they will sell the right to dart it to a hunter. At the time it was $20k or so because it demand outstrips limited supply. Anyway, the hunter is the guy who "shoots" the animal with tranquilizer. While it is out they take trophy pictures just like if it had been killed. Then it is transported to a safer area.

Seems like a beneficial situation for everyone, including the endangered rhino.

It is also fairly dangerous as you have to be very close to dart one, much closer than a firearm.

 

I usually tell the wife to go run in a field. I guess my aim is off.

 

Heck yea! I have bras and panties from at least.... Oh wait... You mean like bears and stuff???

 

I traded my watch to while i was there,but not for ivory,i got a bunch of carvings and skins from a roadside souvenir shop,take a camera not a gun.

 

LOL... its amazing what a watch can get you in Africa!

 

Only to ensure its safety.

 

I hunted in Namibia two years ago. It's a great place. I used my Blaser .300 Win. Mag. for all the plains game hunting as well as for Leopard hunting.

 

If you the hunter do not or cannot eat what you harvest why shoot it? I have been a hunter for 40yr's but have no urge to shoot any African game. Too me an African safari hunt is nothing more than an ego trip. No dont get me wrong because culling need's to be done but that can be done within the said state/region/country by their goverment.

Last trophy I shot fried up nice and the only cost entailed was the gas to get to the lease, maybe $25 tops.

 

African plains game tastes great........you should try eating Oryx, Wildebeest or Impala, best meat you'll ever eat.

 

Hunting on a Texas deer lease, sitting in a blind over a corn feeder popping a German Shepard size white tail can hardly be compared to an African Plains game hunt.. With all due respect. After I hunted Africa I have never hunted in Texas again... Just isn't exciting to me..

All meat I have hunted in Africa was eaten by us and the locals... never any wasted.

Its better to charge a foreign hunter huge bucks for the experience than to let the state/region/country do the culling of over populated animals.. C'mon man think!

 

In the elephant story I posted earlier in the thread, the natives butchered and used the entire animal. I assume it was the same for the antelopes and zebra the guy shot.

 

Agree. Guys who go on safaris to kill wild animals for "sport" and the head or ivory are in serious need of something of the pharmacological or spiritual variety, or both, in large doses.

Starting odds:

Animal, maybe 10.

Man armed with .500 double nitro express and a crew of natives calling him "Bwana", around 90.

Seems like they could find something better to do.

Hunting and eating what you kill, no probs with that.