Lifting you up JapanTiger - praying for the peace and comfort that surpasses all understanding - The peace that only He gives.

Truly sorry, Japan. Asking the Lord to comfort and encourage you.

First off I want to thank you for sharing your adventures with us. Each post, each story, and each adventure better than the last. I also want to pass upon my thoughts and prayers to you on the loss of your mother. What a wonderful mom and grandmother I know she was. That is a life well lived, and all of us are so much richer for being part of her world. She raised a beautiful family and we should all strive to be the person she was.
Thank you again for sharing your life with us. May God bless you and your family.

My condolences. Praying for your family

So sorry for your loss. Prayers for you and the rest of your family.

It was no coincidence that you decided to share this hunt with your Aggie Family. This hunting thread has opened doors of friendship, prayer, and support just at the right time that you and your family needed it.

I'm glad you listened to that little voice that prompted you to share your trip. We should all listen and trust that internal voice more.

On Friday, we held Mom's funeral in Stevenson. She's now lying next to Dad. We had all the families in except for one of the Grandkids; he's a Marine Osprey pilot currently deployed in Asia. Good old Cumberland Presbyterian Church fed us all after the short service at the gravesite. Her Dad had been one of the founders of the church and she (and we) went every Sunday; and many Wednesday's; for the rest of her life. The founding pastor had married Mom and Dad.

I introduced everyone and opened up the service. Three of her Granddaughters eulogized her; one from each of her kids families (Carrie, Jenna and Isabella). Her Grandson, The Reverend Aaron Bryant preached the sermon. It was a long service!. The family of course loved it...lots of laughter and the audience talking back to the speaker to add color commentary. We're a loud, unruly, bunch :-).

The funeral procession drove by the house and up the street past the church. You have to love small towns where every car pulls over and turns their lights on as you pass. After dinner at the church, we all went to the house and stayed until about midnight...no one wanted to leave. It is truly the end of an era. The finality of Mom's passing has hit me hard as I assess my current "lead by example" game...not that it hasn't always been on my mind as a Dad, business leaders, friend, etc...but...






Jessie Carolyn Bryant
June 29, 1929 to November 4, 2022

On November 3, 2022, Jessie Carolyn Bryant, aged 93, 4 months and 6 days, passed away peacefully at her home in Brentwood, TN. Mom moved there when she finally admitted she could no longer live alone. Leaving the corner of Kansas Avenue and 3rd Street was a hard pill for her to swallow and one she fought. In 1955 when Mom and Dad moved back to Stevenson after Dad got out of the Army, she told Linny (Linda Carson, her niece) she was never leaving Stevenson again. And for the next 67 years she kept that promise. Well, mostly. Aside from an involuntary-temporary move to TX for her cancer treatments in 2011, there was only one thing that would get her to voluntarily leave Stevenson; her Grandkids.

Mom was delivered by her father, Dr. Jessy Lee Prince, in the old family home just a little further up toward the railroad tracks on Kansas Avenue. She was and remains a Daddies girl. When Dr. Prince died of a stroke when she was 7, the Depression was in full misery. Eight years later, after a long illness, her Mom (Edna Lovelady Prince) also passed. The Depression still on and the added misery of WWII, at 15, she was alone. It left a mark on her that steered the rest of her life.

A good student, responsible, a cheerleader, she worked after schools in the local Pharmacy. In her Sr. year in '46, she was introduced to my Dad on a blind date the week he returned to the States after the War in the fall of 1946. He was set to go into the Alabama State Trooper Academy and was going to be sequestered for 6 months. Before the end of the blind date, he asked Mom if she would wait on him. Obviously, sparks had flown! She said that she would…and that was that (real life beats fiction and the movies any day). One year later they were married; the next 12 years were filled with having babies, law enforcement, another war, domestic and foreign military relocations and eventually settling back down in Stevenson into 303 Kansas Avenue…Home.

It was where she'd planted her flag and she was going to stay. Age, cancer, loss; daughters in law!; it didn't matter. It was the home she and Dad made. And having missed out so much on Family growing up, she was determined we would not. So when family came, her love for it was fierce, protective, loving and all consuming. She made a home for us with the same tenacity and perfection that Neil Armstrong flew spaceships, with the same zeal with which Ronald Regan hated communists and the same determination Gunsmoke's Matt Dylan used avoiding marrying Miss Kitty all those years (her favorite TV show).
She grew up with all sisters and her Mom. When she and Dad married, she was convinced she would have a house full of daughters and forever get to play dolls with them, dress them up, sew clothes for them, and best of all take them to Chattanooga to shop for shoes at Pickets and clothes at Loveman's and Millers; like her and her mother had done. When they told her she had had a son; she cried …. All 3 times.

She said she didn't know anything about being a Mom for boys…she was obviously a fast learner. She was just what the Lord had ordered. Her and Dad agreed on everything to do with raising us. If there ever was a disagreement; we sure never saw it. There was no daylight between those two. Their "no" meant "no" and their "yes" meant "yes". The vision for how we would be raised was communicated clearly and consistently. And given that Dad worked long hours six days a week; most of that task fell to Mom. But, suddenly finding herself raising boys; her transformation was not immediate.

As I said, she liked shopping in Chattanooga better than a Baptist likes potluck dinner. And because she had loved it so much with her mother, she just naturally assumed we'd love it to! So off we would go to Chattanooga for an entire day. Dad and three boys chasing Mom around Chattanooga on a mission to try on everything and apparently buy nothing. Dad would hold her purse for a while; and then it would start getting handed down. We all know who gets left holding the bag in the age hierarchy. Me, standing in the Ladies department holding my Mom's purse; humiliating. I was convinced she hated me. And these were marathon shopping trips…all day and into the evening…no lunch, no breaks…this was professional shopping at the highest level. We'd finally leave Chattanooga when the stores closed. The only redeeming feature of those trips was the stop at Crystal in Tiftonia after 9:00 pm to eat a bag of Crystals…each burger was 5 Cent piece of heaven. Years later she explained that she thought she was doing us a favor just having us with her…doing that with her Mom was what she had imagined heaven being like; so she was sharing a little piece of "heaven" each time she drug us there. But, being a boy, I knew it was really a piece of the "other place".

Mom was also adamant that she wasn't a very good cook. She used to tell the story of when they were newlyweds and living in an apartment in Decatur. They bought a brand new Kelvinator refrigerator-freezer…the latest in modern appliances. One of their friends visited and opened it up; the only thing inside was a bottle of milk and a stick of bologna. So by her own admission she had a lot to learn…like with everything else, she applied herself; and adapted very well. And in the finest traditions of Southern Womanhood, bad mouthed every meal she ever cooked. I personally thought she was amazing cook. We had three very nourishing-squares and were never hungry. She made it, we ate it. I will always see her every Sunday after we'd come home from church at Cumberland Presbyterian. We'd be lined up at the bar. Mom would be standing in the kitchen in front of the stove top. For the next hour she was either flipping pancakes or frying bologna sandwiches or frying chicken and handing it over the bar. After all her boys had eaten, she'd fix her own and finally set down to eat. We came first...always.

The older we all got, the more Mom's pace of adapting had to change. She had been a cheerleader in high school, but her interest had not been in football. She liked the uniforms and dressing up and riding in the back of the hay truck to aways games and in general, being seen. Just about everything about the actual game and boys playing it was alien to her. She thought we were obsessed with it; but it was family so she got all in; but it took some time to learn all the terminology. One Friday when Stan was going back over to the school prior to a game for "Skull Practice". He'd been gone about 15 minutes and Mom ran into the room and said excitedly, "Sanders, Sanders, Stan's gone to school for Skull Practice but he's left his helmet at home!!!"
Every Thursday night when we'd bring uniforms home, she'd wash them, and bleach those uniform pants bright white and polish our cleats…Every game day morning there would be an extra brown bag with cleats on the bottom, pads on top of those, jersey and pants folded neatly to carry to school and then the game. I think we were the only kids that played every game of football, Middle School and High School, with freshly cleaned and polished cleats thanks to Mom.

One particular fall week I was playing Junior High Ball, Bill was playing varsity and we were going to meet Stan in Auburn for a football game. By Sunday night she'd had about all of football she could handle and it bubbled out…she said "If I die in the fall, I hope y'all can at least get me buried at halftime".
Well Mom, you should be proud of your boys; we took the whole day Friday for you!

Nearly 3000 years ago, Lemuel, described Mom by putting the finishing touches on Proverbs:

Proverbs 31: 25 29
25She is clothed with strength and dignity;
she can laugh at the days to come.
26 She speaks with wisdom,
and faithful instruction is on her tongue.
27 She watches over the affairs of her household
and does not eat the bread of idleness.
28 Her children arise and call her blessed;
her husband also, and he praises her:
29 "Many women do noble things,
but you surpass them all."

God bless you, Mom. Give Dad a hug.


She was preceded in death by her husband of 57 years Laburn Sanders Bryant and her son Dr. William Prince Bryant
She is survived by:
Stan Bryant and wife Shay of Brentwood, TN
Aaron Bryant and Wife Amy, Grandchildren Silas, Isaiah and Ellis Joy of Nashville, TN
Carrie Glenn and Gary of Nashville, TN
Konie Clark of Dothan, AL
Justin Bryant and Wife Lindsay, Bentley and Ally of Birmingham, AL
Jessica Sciacca and Ryan, Mary Bryant and Hattie of Homewood, AL
Major Jarod Bryant and Wife Elena, William, Juliana and Lydia of Okinawa, Japan
Jenna Bryant of Los Angeles, CA
Phil Bryant and Wife Teresa of Bee Cave, TX
Isabella Bryant of Austin, TX
1LT Ethan Bryant and wife Nina Flores Bryant of Fort Campbell, KY
Dylan Bryant of Dallas, TX
Her Niece Linda Carson and husband Ron Carson

What a beautiful family. I am sure you can fill the big shoes leading the family.

As info, the trophies shot in South Africa have been picked up by the shippers in SA and are on their way to the port in Africa.

It looks like the Leopard import application has been approved. We are waiting on the USF&W signed document. It shows approved in the system. As soon as we get that, we will send back we will ship back all the Zambia animals, except lion of course. Processing within Zambia is another 2 - 3 months for all their protocols.

Both the Elephant and Lion applications have been accepted by USF&W. Elephant approvals should be done within a year...lion longer.

Official measurements are back on all the animals. A few tidbits:

• Based on what is in the SCI Record book today, the Rhino will be #9 all time...103 6/8" (measurements are not reduced below 1/8)
• The ivory weights on the elephant came in at 71 lbs left and 74 lbs right. 145 lbs. This would be the #106 elephant recorded
• The crocodile came in at 16 ft and 1/2 inch...#24 croc recorded.

That's awesome! Top 10 Rhino, top 25 croc, and dang near top 100 elephant. Thinking of all that have ever been shot and measured, that is really impressive.

If you don't mind me asking- are the costs of all these applications and waiting times significant? You don't have to share amounts, I am just clueless on the whole system. Do you have to pay storage costs while waiting on things in Africa?

I've just seen rackets before where a foreigner is responsible for an ongoing cost, and the local gov has zero incentive to move things along (and kickbacks to stall). Curious if that goes on in hunting too.

JapanTiger, thanks for the update! I can't imagine how excited you are with the official measurements. As Cup said, imagine all of the trophies taken through the years they have been recorded and where yours came in. Congratulations!

cupofjoe04 said:

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That's awesome! Top 10 Rhino, top 25 croc, and dang near top 100 elephant. Thinking of all that have ever been shot and measured, that is really impressive.

If you don't mind me asking- are the costs of all these applications and waiting times significant? You don't have to share amounts, I am just clueless on the whole system. Do you have to pay storage costs while waiting on things in Africa?

I've just seen rackets before where a foreigner is responsible for an ongoing cost, and the local gov has zero incentive to move things along (and kickbacks to stall). Curious if that goes on in hunting too.

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The wait times in country usually run 3 - 6 months. Pretty standard. The long pole on the Elephant and Lion are US Fish and Wildlife import permits. As I said, the leopard is the fastest and is ready. The others are a bit more, uncertain. Should not be an issue...but our bureaucracy is pathetic.
The only thing I've ever paid storage costs on was this rhino horn...and it was for security.

South Africa trophies arrived in Houston yesterday.

USF&W completed processing the leopard permit "officially" and we are waiting to hear from Zambia Dept of Nat Parks and Wildlife to process that paperwork on their end. At that point, we will send back the leopard and Zambia plains game.

Same as before, we expect Elephant relatively quickly and longer time on lion.

A man wakes up and finds a lion looking at him through his window pic.twitter.com/YF4HcCvI6X

— Animal Smackdown (@animalsmack) June 26, 2023

This made me think of this thread.

"I didn't feel like going out today anyways"

Holy crap that's scary

krosch11 said:

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A man wakes up and finds a lion looking at him through his window pic.twitter.com/YF4HcCvI6X

— Animal Smackdown (@animalsmack) June 26, 2023

This made me think of this thread.

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Yeah, F that. Where's the gun? I'll be needing my gun now, methinks.

pretty sure i wouldn't need any coffee after that.

krosch11 said:

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A man wakes up and finds a lion looking at him through his window pic.twitter.com/YF4HcCvI6X

— Animal Smackdown (@animalsmack) June 26, 2023

This made me think of this thread.

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Holy crap...just saw this. I hope that guy was wearing brown pants that morning. Lucky he didn't just blunder out the door into that.

The Zambia trophies are back in the US now. I'm getting an update on everything on the 18th.

Still waiting on USF&W permit approval on Elephant and Lion...and Kudu is still with Elephant.

FSGuide said:

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This thread has inspired me to re-book my group Safari that was supposed to be my 50th Bday celebration in 2020 but we all know what happened that year.

Talked to my outfitter this morning. South Africa here we come, June 2023, 8 people for 7 full days of hunting & 1 day of offshore fishing plus a couple days on each end for tourist stuff in J-burg or Capetown. It won't be 50 days long but I'll enjoy every minute of it.

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Did this happen?

Yes! We just got home from the airport about 2 hours ago.
I spent a total of 17 days in South Africa between my safari in the eastern cape (Grahamstown) and touristy stuff in Cape Town. My wife, our 16 year old son, our 13 year old daughter and my wife's brother came a few days after I got there. We had an unbelievable time.

Body count is
Me:
Kudu
Water Buck
Blesbok
Mountain Reedbuck (HUGE one according my PH and the land owner)
Impala shot but lost in heavy rain

B-I-L
Kudu
Impala
Springbok x2 (I let him kill mine out of my package deal)

We also did a day of fishing in the Indian Ocean and caught a mess of Atlantic Bonita (some species of tuna) and got to see a humpback whale breach 15-20 times from the fishing boat.

FSGuide said:

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Yes! We just got home from the airport about 2 hours ago.
I spent a total of 17 days in South Africa between my safari in the eastern cape (Grahamstown) and touristy stuff in Cape Town. My wife, our 16 year old son, our 13 year old daughter and my wife's brother came a few days after I got there. We had an unbelievable time.

Body count is
Me:
Kudu
Water Buck
Blesbok
Mountain Reedbuck (HUGE one according my PH and the land owner)
Impala shot but lost in heavy rain

B-I-L
Kudu
Impala
Springbok x2 (I let him kill mine out of my package deal)

We also did a day of fishing in the Indian Ocean and caught a mess of Atlantic Bonita (some species of tuna) and got to see a humpback whale breach 15-20 times from the fishing boat.

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Glad to hear it!! Of course, we need photo's....

When I was writing this thread, I don't think I had this game cam photo yet...this was a lion bait on the East end of Nyakolwe only about 100 yds off the Luangwa river.

A croc and two leopards? Insane!