Recent content by ranger92xi

The last morning, the dogs barked. Through the thick bush we traversed, the sound of the dogs grew louder as we approached the handlers. In the tree sat the largest caracal I have ever seen. One shot and he fell, dogs were based, and we approached. I have hunted caracal before but not with dogs...

As the sun began to shine over the last two days of our hunt, packs of hunting dogs were dispatched after caracal, with tracks showing well and scent lingering after the rains. We were confident we would get one. I had shot caracal with Juan previously, but never with dogs, so I was looking...

Very heavy rain the next morning meant we went into town, instead of into the bush, having breakfast at Lauren's restaurant in Kenton. By midday, it had cleared slightly, though still still drizzling and overcast, but we decided to hunt a couple of the open areas which were still easily...

Early the next morning, we were greeted with cold winds, drizzling rain, and waterlogged ground, far from ideal conditions. The day that followed is one I will remember. Every now and then there is an animal that makes an impression, for a number of reasons, and for me it was a black impala I...

I'm on my way home after another successful hunt with LJ Safaris. Despite bad weather, heavy rain in parts, and a short time-frame, we had another extremely successful hunt. Our first afternoon was spent looking for common reedbuck. As mentioned previously, we had passed on a few decent rams on...

Congratulations on a great hunt and some excellent trophies. The duiker and steenbok are really nice!

I live in England, and you can shoot a trophy muntjac and CWD, with outing fees, for around £3000 ($4000). We also have great sika, roe, red and fallow. Happy to put you in touch with some outfitters. Here are a few of mine from England.

This is the exact sort of response I was looking for. How to be supportive but also educate where we can, so that in future, the hunter can be a bit more autonomous and avoid getting into the same situation again. I try and illustrate the measurement, and then laugh when they come back and say...

Thanks everyone for your stories and feedback. Just to bring this back round to the core points: 1. Every hunter has the right to decide what is/is not a trophy in their eyes, and noone can or should tell them otherwise. 2. Some hunters care about measurements and others do not. 3. They key...

I'm glad I was able to clarify things, reading back, that OP could have been clearer, but hopefully people see where the thread is heading, towards a constructive discussion.

This is a perfect way to frame things. Mistakes happen, anyone who hunts enough will misjudge something eventually, but as you say, transparency and honesty is the way forward.

That is awesome! Congrats on your first trip, and you should be proud of every single one of your animals. My question is really around those who think they've got big trophies and I end up having to tell them that their 'gold medal nyala' measures 25in, or their 'record book blue wildebeest'...

Thanks - you've got it right. They come expecting gold medals because their PH told them they would be, and then you have to break the news that it is nowhere near that. By then, they've paid for taxidermy etc on top so it is a tough pill to swallow!

Thanks @K-man and I should have clarified this in the OP, but I am specifically talking about situations where hunters ask me for my opinion on their trophies, or to physically score them, especially when they have a preconception based on the outfitter.

Please see my comment above - when people come to me with an expectation that their trophies will score X, when in reality, it's X-20%, I have to tell them the truth, but I wanted thoughts on how to do it kindly, whilst also asking what can be done about outfitters who mislead clients on trophy...