I can say why I don’t want to hunt a 2nd elephant. I’m in full support of hunting elephant, but taking an elephant bull wasn’t the pinnacle of hunting to me. There is something different about taking an elephant compared to other animals, but it wasn’t a more important trophy to me than an eland or a buffalo. I’ll leave hunting elephants to those who put a higher value on them. I think they deserve that.
I have not hunted elephant yet, but will this year. I can’t say whether I will hunt another one, but I doubt I will. Now buffalo cows get me more excited and adrenaline pumped than bulls do.
My ph and I had a looooooong conversation about such things.
He put forth the concept of a spectrum where animals of different types fall between "pets and food" for different people.
I thought it was brilliant.
My wife gives me a hard time because I want to hunt crocodile and she says "Are you going to eat it?!"
I ask her about cockroaches when she kills them. "Are you going to eat it?"
"That's different".
Right. Naturally
I think everyone has a different spectrum of appreciation for various critters. I have no desire to hunt bears because I have no interest in eating them. Same with cats. But moose, hippo, and caribou are on the list.
Elephant? I have no issues with people hunting them but it's not for me. Too much Disney Jungle Book cartoons as a kid I guess.
I have a friend that has pet spiders.
For me, there's not enough napalm in the world for 8 legs and teeth. Pure concentrated evil.
I have not hunted elephant yet, but will this year. I can’t say whether I will hunt another one, but I doubt I will. Now buffalo cows get me more excited and adrenaline pumped than bulls do.
I felt I needed to experience an elephant hunt. To me, I hunted a proper area with the right PH and took an old bull on his last set of teeth. I enjoyed watching community come in and get the meat. I’m glad I did my one elephant hunt, but I’m good with only one elephant.
It was extremely emotional for me even though the PAC elephant I took had killed someone. It was raiding crops and the poor old lady tried to scare it off by banging pans together, sad story all the way around. It had been shot in the left tusk socket and was full of puss.
I would love to do a tracking hunt for a bull but I don’t know if I ever will.
@Datchew , your missing out by not eating a berry fattened black bear.
In many areas Elephants have become a serious problem and hunting them will be the only way to
control the numbers and the damage they cause. Many places I've hunted in Africa have horrible tree, crop and human conflict and destruction is hard to imagine until you see it firsthand. They are amazing animals but if numbers are not better controlled, there will be areas of wild Africa that will suffer!
For most of my life elephant has not been of interest. That's changed in the last year or so, though in my case it will likely be a one and done, simply from a financial standpoint, if it happens at all. But I really enjoy planning things and right now I am trying to decide on the right gun, if I decide to commit to an elephant hunt.
I have been around a lot of elephants in Namibia and Mozambique. One bull in the Caprivi with his ears flared and trunk down was maybe 20 yards away. My PH said he was 60-65 a side. I was hunting buffalo at the time. It was exhilarating, and my rifle felt rather puny at the time as we waited to see if he turned or came. But I have never felt the desire to deliberately hunt one. That is no criticism of those who do. I have the same feeling about giraffe and several other animals.
1. I've got the buffalo (in Mozambique)
2. Would like to go after lion, but I believe that import into the US is a problem now.
3. Elephant - Given the right opportunity, I would take it.
4. I have spent 2 nights in a leopard blind trying to get a hyena. To me, that was miserable. I think I'm done with trying to stay awake all night, unless a safari company owner contacts me about a REALLY good opportunity.
5. IMO, a white rhino is about as wild as a milk cow. If it were ever possible to take a black rhino under sporting conditions, at anywhere close to a price that I could afford, I would probably take it.
I have already "taken" a black rhino and mature male lion in the wild. The first was in Namibia and the second in Mozambique. The first we tracked and the second we stumbled upon. In both cases, I was carrying a .375 with a 300 gr TSX up the snout. However, the weapon I used was a camera. In both instances I was in pistol range. Like the elephant, I have no compulsion to actually shoot either.
I have been around elephant most of my life and see them as something very different to any other game. They are intelligent, sometimes arrogant, always deserving respect at every level. I simply have no desire to kill one in his prime, but knowing how they meet their end in the wild, usually with the intervention of hyena, I would be willing, nay happy to take an old chap in his last year. I have no gripe with those who would take a prime ele, it is their hunt.
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