Been reading this one with interest. This topic reappears from time to time.

Let's face it, much hunting {most, actually, in terms of numbers of hunters hunting} in "Africa" is canned if you include garden run SA ranch hunts in the mix. And I really don't care if the ranch is 4,000 hectares. If it's high wire, it's canned, in a legitimate manner of speaking.

For me the issue boils down to whether a fellow is hunting/shooting/culling for the TRUE EXPERIENCE OF THE SPECIFIC EVENT...

...or...

...if he is doing whatever he's doing as an act of bravado or exposition of his "manliness" or some such thing and recounts the story after the fact as such an act of courage.

If it is the former then I say "Who Cares?" and maybe even depending on the hunt, "Sounds like fun!". Like Nitro said, shooting lions in a cage probably maintains the lion's existence on planet earth {maybe a little exaggeration}. Heck, look at what happened to blesbok when high wire gunning became popular in RSA and look at the fake deer hunting industry that exists in Texas!

But, if it is the latter, well, then I say "Bullshit". There really are VERY few hunts of any type that have the TRUE promise of danger, if you actually count the number of actual injuries sustained in said hunting, and African hunting more specifically. Not over-the-beer "my heart was thumping", but rather, lists of injuries and deaths as a high percentage of those taking part in the activity.

So, in the final analysis, comparing hobbies with the likelihood of injury, if a guy wants to truly mix with those who get busted up on a regular basis, he should take up rodeo or follow my daughters on the Omoksee circuit...