Contributors to this thread:
US fish and wildlife just announced no sport hunted Ivory or any elephant part will be allowed to be imported into the US from Zimbabwe and Tanzania during the 2014 safari season. This is due to rampant poaching and poisoning of elephants in both countries. Botswana officially closed elephant hunting last fall to appeal to photo safaris over hunting safaris. In spite of the fact that 1 elephant hunter contributed 10-20 times the money to game management and the local villages than a photographer, and the fact that hunters were only taking surplus old bulls from the herd.
The hunting of elephants and the huge amount of money that goes to proper game management and support of the villages loses out to bunny huggers and poachers.
That just makes my plan of opening up an elephant farm here in WV sound like the way to go....
Shooting elephants on my 10 acre spread, how awesome would that be?
And to raise them for meat too, oh yeah...I can see the $$$$$ now..
LOL
You better give Walt a call and get some Ag assistance with that fence. Maybe gobbler will let you graze them on his food plots. I hear elephant dung makes great fertilizer. Win, win for both of you.
James
On my first trip to Zimbabwe I saw guys walking along a road near my pit blind. They had AK 47's. When I got back to camp I asked the PH what they were doing. He said they were looking for poachers. I asked them what they did to them. He said they shoot them and let they. He said they make good Lion bait. NO lie. They don't mess with poachers.
They're not allowed to do that anymore. When Mugabe started killing off the white landowners, his crony poacher friends started killing the game out of helicopters with AK-47s to take to meat markets in Harare.
They were allowed to kill poachers the last time I was in Zimbabwe. This June will mark 20 years since my first African hunt. A lot of things have changed since then. A few for the better, most though for the worst as far as hunting and the benefit for wildlife.
When my wife and I hunted in Zimbabwe in 1999, we were on a 21 day safari 1 had permits for Lion, elephant, leopard, and Cape buffalo , as well as kudu,sable, and a klipspringer.
I got every thing except an elephant and the only thing my wife wanted was a kudu and she got a great bull.
We saw elephants every day, but the biggest bull we saw was about a 30 pounder and I couldn't justify a 10,000.00 trophy fee for a 30 pounder. If it had been a 50 pounder or better I might have had an elephant too.
Great trip, I broke my left knee cap and had a cut down to the bone from tripping and falling on a rock running from a big herd of elephants. We sat in stone silence hardly breathing during the middle of one night in a stick and brush made leopard blind, while a big herd of elephants fed by us at less than 10 feet. I was praying the wind didn't change so they wouldn't smell us. Thinking the whole time I was going to get crushed by an elephant foot. Killed my leopard later that night.
We were hunting a 60 thousand private ranch that had an open border with Hwange National park for about 30 miles. Game would wander in and out of the park all the time. Down closer to the main road there was some old cattle fence in some places because at one time they tried to run cattle, but the Lions kept moving in and killing the cattle so they gave it up. Besides the fencing didn't last too long with herds of elephants roaming thru.
Now, Hwange park which is huge and borders Botswana is over run with poachers. In fact, one of the reasons they shut down the hunting is because they found over 300 dead elephants in the park that had been poisoned. I guess the poachers decided it was easier to poison waterholes than try to shoot a bull. This way they can just wait until they all die then sort thru them to see which ones they can cut any ivory out of, while the rest of them just died for no reason.
It really is a sad state of affairs. It's sad for the future of elephants and the rest of the game in Africa. It sad because somebody may not be able to experience a trip of a lifetime that they have been dreaming about their whole life. It's sad for Africa and it's people.
BTW, I cleaned my knee out with potable water, poured some kinda whiskey they had in camp in it a couple times then closed the wound with duct tape, then wrapped my knee with a couple wraps of duct tape. Took some antibiotics that I had with me and it healed up good. I got a tetanus shot before I went over there. Which is a good idea for anyone going on a hunting trip if they're not up to date. I didn't find out that I had busted my kneecap up until after I got back home and got an x-ray of it. But by then the wound had healed and didn't have any infection. I never go anywhere without duct tape.
If you ever get the chance to go to Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe it's worth it. Niagra Falls doesn't hold a candle to it. Plus you can bungee jump off the bridge over the Zambezi river between Zimbabwe and Zambia. You can also white water raft on the Zambezi River which is a lot like the upper new or Gauley. You just don't want to fall or get knocked out of the raft because of the crocodiles waiting on the banks. The Zambezi has lots of tiger fish for a superb fighting fish.
I killed an elephant on a old xbox game a couple years ago does that count for anything? I hope so cause I will never have the kind of money it takes to even go take pictures let along hunt one lol
Well, you've done better than I have. I don't even know how to use an x-box. I've heard of them, but never seen one that I know of.
Victoria falls is great. I had elephants near camp one not in Zimbabwe also. They had wire around camp that the elephants triggered. It turned on generator and lights. I remember hearing them when I was awakened just waiting for them to trip the lights. I remember sitting in a pit blind with elephants around. They strategically had placed the pit blinds between trees that you could climb up in. They told me if I saw them to immediately get in the tree because they would smash the pit blind. I took a guy from Pa once that had the great idea that he was going to bring a popup blind despite being told he didn't need it. He thought he was smarter than the PH. They told him not to put it up but he did. When he came back the next day the elephants had smashed it. It was too funny. Americans thing they know everything. I also remember two young bulls fighting in front of me and they were breaking off trees as big around as my body while fighting. I was in a treestand and was afraid they would break off my tree. I radioed the PH and he came out and ran them off with the truck .Needless to say I was nervous.
Victoria falls is great. I had elephants near camp one not in Zimbabwe also. They had wire around camp that the elephants triggered. It turned on generator and lights. I remember hearing them when I was awakened just waiting for them to trip the lights. I remember sitting in a pit blind with elephants around. They strategically had placed the pit blinds between trees that you could climb up in. They told me if I saw them to immediately get in the tree because they would smash the pit blind. I took a guy from Pa once that had the great idea that he was going to bring a popup blind despite being told he didn't need it. He thought he was smarter than the PH. They told him not to put it up but he did. When he came back the next day the elephants had smashed it. It was too funny. Americans thing they know everything. I also remember two young bulls fighting in front of me and they were breaking off trees as big around as my body while fighting. I was in a treestand and was afraid they would break off my tree. I radioed the PH and he came out and ran them off with the truck .Needless to say I was nervous.
They're like live bulldozers. When a big group feeds thru a place it looks like a tornado went thru. Amazing animals.
And they poop big balls that look like brown basketballs. LOL Good for stump shooting.
