japantiger said:

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Advice to young me
Buy a Land cruiser and never sell it

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It's never too late

Lion didn't come back to bait.
Sat leopard bait....a female hit the bait ...no shot

chocolatelabs said:

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How you tell difference between males and females?

Just looks for the balls or other ways to tell?

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Of course, how else is he gonna shoot 'em in the nuts?

chocolatelabs said:

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How you tell difference between males and females?

Just looks for the balls or other ways to tell?

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Balls.

It gets worse ... After we got back to camp we talked...2 cats, 1st one that fed was male. PH couldn't tell until it put it's butt in the air exiting the tree. So I had a shootable mail feeding and had minutes of time to get a shot and they couldn't give me positive ID that it was a male.

2nd cat came up about 15 minutes later ... Just smaller and was easier to see it was a female without seeing the butt. When she jumped off the tree, the male was at the base according to Asst PH. We got on the blind about 4. He came in about 6:40. Low lite but shootable.

They announced themselves with a growl/grunt when coming into the bait. Then you heard the tree shake.

Lead tracker took the Honda down to the bait early to get camera card to verify all this. If it is indeed a male, we will set the bait again tonight. Tracker is repositioning the bait so animal will have to present more when eating.

Wow, so close! Keep at it- he will slip up soon!!!!

cupofjoe04 said:

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Wow, so close! Keep at it- he will slip up soon!!!!

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We had him. Quite disappointed .

When he was on the bait , my heart started jumping out of my chest . I recited the fruit of the spirit about 1000 times to hold steady . It's my get your crap together verse. Special emphasis on patients and especially self control.

chocolatelabs said:

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How you tell difference between males and females?

Just looks for the balls or other ways to tell?

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ph career is on the line for that call. So they have to be one hundred percent sure . Size of ears relative to head, overall body size , neck thickness among others are indicators , but all the license board cares about is balls

Two nights ago in the blind a group of elephants came about twenty yds from the blind . Loud rumbling and breaking tree branches and trees .

Coming back last night an elephant was crossing the trail as we drove up...he spun around and started trumpeting and we got the hell out of there in a cloud of dust

New bait animals...total 3 impalas, 2 hippo, bushbuck, Waterbuck and warthog...

We will sit same bait tonight. Game cam confirmed balls on 1st leopard

Hope you don't run out of ammo shooting bait...

what would if take for me to get a hippo skull for a euro mount? that would be awesome!

Your bait is other people's trophies.

Do they make you pay fees for all the bait?

Or is it included?

Female only came on bait . Headed back out at three

OnlyForNow said:

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Do they make you pay fees for all the bait?

Or is it included?

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You pay

japantiger said:

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Female only came on bait . Headed back out at three

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No joy....female showed up again...game cam says male a no show. The grind continues.

Trophy room bar...the new warthog will be called Stanley.... he'll go at the opposite end of the bar from Livingstone.

Random photos

I want to be japantiger when I grow up

they are open to hunting. I made some domino tables for an ag and when I delivered them he had a shoulder mount on the floor in his living room. it reached 10'+ up.

I have seen people with Giraffe mounts like this:



I have also seen the hides used like a hall rug.

lurker76 said:

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Awesome photos. Thanks for posting. Here's a question out of left field; seeing the giraffe picture made me wonder if that is some sort of game animal open for hunting, or are they protected. I can't imagine what a giraffe mount would be like.

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High.

Quote:

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No hukuna mutata for you, Pumbaa.

powerbelly said:

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I have seen people with Giraffe mounts like this:



I have also seen the hides used like a hall rug.

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Things did not go well for Geoffrey after Toys R Us folded.

RCR06 said:

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Guy that came on our annual pheasant hunting trip one year was talking about shooting a giraffe while hunting in Africa. We all basically thought of it like shooting a tall cow(bovine) with a really long neck. Maybe that was the wrong way to think about it, but it just didn't seem like it would have been much of a challenge. It was an add on animal that they came across, offered and he took it.

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In my limited experience, being on the ground with a giraffe gives you a much different perspective than seeing them in a zoo. I was not exactly comfortable getting close to a big bull.

powerbelly said:

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RCR06 said:

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Guy that came on our annual pheasant hunting trip one year was talking about shooting a giraffe while hunting in Africa. We all basically thought of it like shooting a tall cow(bovine) with a really long neck. Maybe that was the wrong way to think about it, but it just didn't seem like it would have been much of a challenge. It was an add on animal that they came across, offered and he took it.

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In my limited experience, being on the ground with a giraffe gives you a much different perspective than seeing them in a zoo. I was not exactly comfortable getting close to a big bull.

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For that matter, a wild bovine isn't a picnic from a hunting perspective.

japantiger said:

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Two nights ago in the blind a group of elephants came about twenty yds from the blind . Loud rumbling and breaking tree branches and trees .

Coming back last night an elephant was crossing the trail as we drove up...he spun around and started trumpeting and we got the hell out of there in a cloud of dust

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Every day a new Elephant encounter. Last night was the most serious. We were in the blind. I'll post a photo of the blind. We heard elephants moving around all around us within about 10minutes of sunset. When they would get too close, I'd start tapping my rifle barrel with a bullet, and the PH would turn and shine a lite in their direction. The noise and/or light usually steers them away.

The noise got loud all of a sudden and the PH couldn't see where the animal was. He stood up to look over the blind top and his eyes went wide. He looked at me and said "tap"....the Asst PH was now turned in his chair and his eyes showed visible concern. The PH reached for his 458 Lott and shouldered it. The Asst PH was shining a lite in the direction of the elephant and I was tapping like hell!!! My morse code is a little rusty, but I think I was tapping "tell my wife I love her" and "get me the hell out of here". Or it could have just been "OOOOHHHHHH SSSHHHHHIIIIIITTTTTT" Either way, I was tapping the barrel and trying to turn around to see. My rifle is tied into the blind so it will rest in near shooting position so I don't have to move much when shooting time comes.

To give you a view of how close and how big the elephant was, the PH's rifle was pointed up at about a 75 degree angle. His trunk bumped the back of the blind. A big bull. It was a pretty tense few seconds. It finally backed away and moved on. We had to tap and shine the light a couple more times before things settled down around 8:00 pm.

When we finally gave up last night to come in, the truck pulled up and the hunting team jumped out and then we heard a big thud and crunch behind us. A hyena had come in after all the elephants settled down and just laid down behind our blind. The truck startled it and it was in a hurry to get away and crashed into the blind. We had heard him earlier "whooping' maybe 15 - 20 yds from the blind to some of his buddies nearby. When he stopped, he came over to us.

Out again last evening and this morning. No joy. Trying to decide between two blinds for tonight...depends on game cam info.