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Hunting >> Hunting in Africa & hunting dangerous game

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BFaucett
.333 member


Reged: 13/01/04
Posts: 472
Loc: Houston, Texas
Re: What are your favorite memories of Africa? [Re: DoubleD]
      #57943 - 29/05/06 12:10 PM

In 1998 I went on a photo/tourist safari in Botswana in the Okavango/Chobe/Moremi areas. We were driving back to camp one night after dark. Seems we went around a curve in the road (really a trail in the sand) and the driver/guide suddenly stopped the truck. Next thing, he's shining a spotlight from side to side. Well, we had driven right into the middle of a pride of Lions. There were Lions all around the truck; left, right and in front. This was my first trip to Africa and it sure got my attention! I knew we were fairly safe in the trucks (which were open with no doors) but it was still exciting. I realize this doesn't compare with the experience of people that have hunted Lions on foot, but it was pretty amazing to me to be that close to Lions in the wild (even if they are habituated to the tourist trucks).

Here's a photo I managed to take of the Lioness that was closest to me. It's just a snapshot made with an inexpensive camera but I think it turned out rather well. I still recall fond memories when I look at this photo.



Cheers!
-Bob F.


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shakari
.400 member


Reged: 09/02/03
Posts: 1107
Loc: South Africa
Re: What are your favorite memories of Africa? [Re: BFaucett]
      #57947 - 29/05/06 03:36 PM

Bob - That has the potential of a terrific photograph - I hope you don't mind, but I played around with it a little on photoshop and here's what I came up with in a few minutes:-


I'm not really a photoshop fundi - and I reckon someone who is could do a much better job........


--------------------
Steve "Shakari" Robinson
Kuduland Safaris (Africa) Ltd
info@kuduland.com
www.kuduland.com



Edited by shakari (29/05/06 03:38 PM)


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NitroXAdministrator
.700 member


Reged: 25/12/02
Posts: 40609
Loc: Barossa Valley, South Australi...
Re: What are your favorite memories of Africa? [Re: shakari]
      #57966 - 30/05/06 02:14 AM

Death in the dark.



--------------------
John aka NitroX

...
Govt get out of our lives NOW!
"I love the smell of cordite in the morning."
"A Sharp spear needs no polish"


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Judson
.300 member


Reged: 21/09/05
Posts: 192
Loc: St. Albans Maine U.S.A.
Re: What are your favorite memories of Africa? [Re: mikeh416Rigby]
      #58167 - 02/06/06 09:15 AM


When a person goes to Africa they do not come back the same. Africa is a place that changes the way you look at the world. Barbara, my wife and I found that leaving South Africa hurts deeply and she summed it up rather well when she said ; "I feel like I am leaving a part of my heart behind"
Our first trip was in 2001 and it seemed like everything was against us going. 21 days before we were to leave I was told I had cancer. 14 days before the trip I had surgery for the cancer. The doctors told me to cancel the trip and Both Barb and I said no!!!! Cancer was not going to rule our lives and we had been planing this trip for three years it would happen. 7 days before we leave Barb gets a chemical burn and we are concerned it could get infected, it did not. ! day before the trip Barb breaks a tooth and a sharp edge is cutting her cheek. We can fix that, into the gunshop and with a bit of work with a stone that I use for trigger jobs she is fine for now.
I was going to field test a cartridge I developed in a rifle I built for my self so this added to our trip. The cartridge is the .366DGW which is a neck down of the .416 Rigby. The cartridge and rifle performed better then I could have expected. (If you want info on the cartridge you can find it at customguns.us)
Our second trip was in 2004 but this time it was smooth sailing getting there. This trip was planed for 7 days at Kruger Park then up to the Waterburg Mountains for 10 days of hunting. From here we went to the Kgalagadi which is unforgetable. One evening we were driveing down a track (Dirt road) and came across a pair of lions just off the edge of the road. (They were actually a breading pair and we even got that on the cam corder, is that kitty porn?) We were maby thirty feet from them and for a time they seemed to find our truck very intresting as we did them. I must add that the truck was enclosed. The lioness got to the point where she indicated that we should leave and we took her hint as our P.H. explained that the windows on the truck would probably not stop her if she decided to push the issue.
The male lion was better tempered and seemed to get bored with us before we left.



--------------------
It is the small calibers that are the biggest bores.

Edited by Judson (02/06/06 09:43 AM)


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DPhillips
.375 member


Reged: 09/10/03
Posts: 819
Loc: Alaska
Re: What are your favorite memories of Africa? [Re: Judson]
      #58329 - 05/06/06 01:30 PM

On the way back to the airport, Steve (PH) asked me what the one thing was that I would always remember or that I enjoyed most. I had already forgotten the energy sapping heat and the aggravating mopani flies. I told him I couldn't pin down just one thing. The amazing skill of he and Dix (Tracker) tracking and putting the stalk on the animals was likely the most impressive. I had always fancied myself a bit of a tracker before, but I wasn't even on the same planet as these guys. Then there were the Bush Pigs. I'll never forget those little guys. Kinda like the football of Africa, everything picks on the bush pig, and they are just the neatest little animals, so entertaining to watch and hard as can be to get a shot on one. Then the elephants, being that close to them in the thick reeds and long grass along the Mazunga then having them to come at us was really something! The Honeybadger that came in to our Hyena calls to kick some hyena butt and take their lunch money only to discover it was us. He never showed any fear of the armed hunters, only disgusted contempt.

The most wonderous sight, though, was on the second day. We had just had a stalk on a group of sable busted by an old blue bull eland. We were out in the noonday sun and the heat was nearly unbearable, especially have chasing those sable through the acacia thorn and mopani scrub for 4 or 5 miles. We were making our way back to the cruiser a little depressed and rejected. Dix and I saw horns in the scrub brush at the same time. I'll never know how I was able to see anything at the same time Dix was, maybe it was because I was looking for animals and he wasn't? It was a really nice sable bull and we put a stalk on him. He was in some real nasty scrub and appeared to be wise to us. I had one shot on him, but could only see his head and part of his neck at a longer distance than I was prepared for. I hesitated a little too long and he slipped away. When we saw him next, he was loping across our front about 100 yards away. Just as I raised my rifle, I saw him tuck his chin down and lower those big sweeping horns to act as a battering ram, then he kicked it into overdrive. The mane on his neck stood out, and his tail went straight back like a thoroughbred. The big black knight shone almost blue with the sun beating down him. Maybe it was because it was the first good look I had a big sable bull, but with chin tucked sprint was the most amazing sight I had ever seen. I'll never forget that. My jaw would have dropped, I'm sure, if the borrowed Ruger's stock hadn't been hard pressed into my shoulder. I really didn't have a shot to take, or maybe I was too slow using the unfamiliar rifle, but for whatever reason, I never squeezed the trigger and we never saw that big fellow again.


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