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I just got home from South Africa some daysago and one of the best experiences I had was the darting of a Rhino. I also gave it the shot to stand again.

It took place outside Ellisras in Limpopo Provinvce, South Africa the 2:nd of september in the afternoon.

Outfitter was Tracks in Africa.

We started the hunt by foot and was about ten to feften yards away from him a couple of times but never got the right angle to shoot ( You need 90 degrees angle otherwise the dart will deflect).

Since we also had the need to datr this specific Rhino because he needed treatment to his eyse we decided after some time when we were not able to come close to hime without branches to dart him from the bakkie.

We had him close and comming to us but not the direct angle so the last chance before they needed to use a chopper was from behind and the warning I had was that dont hit the tail. As he was walkink, tail swinging and I was nerwous I hit dead center of the tail and we could only wait some minutes to see what would happen.

Five minutes later he started to slow down and lift his feets and then the vet ran took his tail and pulled him backwards before the trackers came with ropes. five minutes later I was able to approach and we could start take pictures and measurements, longest horn 28 inches, then after another five minutes when his eyes were treated I could give hime the shot to wake up again.

I will now make a piedestal mount in fibreglass to look about as below.

The gun was a (i think) 32 gauge shotgun which was the same size as the dart and behind that an adapter for .22 ammunition was used, ammo chosen after distance.

The full darting procedure will be a part of the DVD production Tracks in Africa that will be released next year, cameraman is Frederik Cocquyt.

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Christer Hansson

Edited by cchunter (11/09/05 09:48 PM)

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