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When I arrived in Kenya and we were driving out to our first camp site, my PH casually mentioned that we would need some camp meat. Later, he stopped the car, pointed to an animal on the right side of the car which I recognised as a kongoni (hartebeest) and said, "Why don't you bag him for supper?"

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No doubt a test to see if you could shoot.

One always seems to go for some lesser beast before the big ones.

Same with the shooting range to "test" the rifles. One PH was impressed however when I put the second .450 bullet through the same hole as the first. The trackers said I had missed but the back of the target slowed a slight figure 8 so the PH informed them it was also the second shot and he was right. Of course it was my incredible skill not pure lucky arse to do that!

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A few days later, I shot my first elephant. This time my PH was right next to me and immediately after I fired my first shot and the elephant went down, he fired, too. I was incensed and told him so. He pointed out that the sisal field which the elephants were raiding was only about 100 yards from the boundary of a National Park, and if I had wounded the elephant and it had gotten up and run off, there would have been no way to recover it.

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Ha ha, didn't read this post before my earlier post. One of the times when a PH will also shoot without being asked.

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To me, the value of the PH was in estimating trophy size. Having never been in Africa before, it was impossible for me to differentiate between a good set of horns and a mediocre one.

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At one point, I was told to shoot, had the rifle in my shoulder and was about to fire, when my PH touched my arm and told me to hold my fire. He told me that the ivory was no bigger than what I already had.

I was furious and being pulled back and forth like that. It's like coitus interruptus in the game field. Afterwards, when I had my really big elephant, I was glad he had intervened.

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Kaoli, who was a good fifty feet away from me when the shooting started, had raced toward me to be there when I needed him. I was overwhelmed that (1) he had placed his duty to me above his own personal safety, and (2) he had enough confidence in my shooting to do so.

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Kaoli, and the other gunbearer and the tracker, Kehri Bai and Sabuni, were a taciturn bunch. There was no back slapping or thumb pulling, no matter what the occasion. At most, there was an appreciative grin, but I treasured that as much or more than all the hystrionics that Hemingway and Ruark seemed to set so much store in. See http://www.frappr.com/?a=viewphoto&id=3823381&pid=6978040&myphotos=1 That's Kaoli, second from the right, next to him Kheri Bai, and in front, Sabuni.

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I will load that photo onto the NE server.



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John aka NitroX

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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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