Being told you could not shoot an animal or were targeting only one animal

Recently I was provided a trail cam photo of a Kudu that has been made known to me is off limits BEFORE my hunt. I understand the reason and it is likely a 64+ " bull and at least I know ahead of time.

That is a hell of a bull and while I get that they want him to breed to spread his genes, and I respect that they told you before your hunt to me though I feel unless it is a pay by the inch hunt the PH should hunt to get the client the BEST trophy POSSIBLE. Now to one client that could mean a non typical animal with weird horns, but I feel if the client is after a trophy the PH needs to hunt the biggest animal available. If not then the outfitter should and needs to be upfront with the client. I think this is why some people are afraid and maybe even feel like unless they are a big paying client then the PH will not take getting the best animal possible seriously.

But then it comes to what classifies as a "trophy" to me the trophy is the hunt, however if I really think about a "trophy" and how we label trophies and if it makes books or not. It makes me wonder if it is really a "trophy" (in the sense of how we label it) if it doesn't make the books?
 
That is a hell of a bull and while I get that they want him to breed to spread his genes, and I respect that they told you before your hunt to me though I feel unless it is a pay by the inch hunt the PH should hunt to get the client the BEST trophy POSSIBLE. Now to one client that could mean a non typical animal with weird horns, but I feel if the client is after a trophy the PH needs to hunt the biggest animal available. If not then the outfitter should and needs to be upfront with the client. I think this is why some people are afraid and maybe even feel like unless they are a big paying client then the PH will not take getting the best animal possible seriously.

But then it comes to what classifies as a "trophy" to me the trophy is the hunt, however if I really think about a "trophy" and how we label trophies and if it makes books or not. It makes me wonder if it is really a "trophy" (in the sense of how we label it) if it doesn't make the books?
I've explained this before but it is appropriate here again; On my first African hunt, it w as in RSA but with an outfitter who prides himself in only hunting free range areas... There are low fences, and the manage the numbers of animals and by that trophy quality by setting self imposed quotas... They have very large "conservancies" or blocks where the land owners agree to a management plan, I believe they have soem government involvement, Nature Conservation or something like that. I think they really only have an interest in certain protected species. So the Outfitter meets with the landowners and sets quota. (he and his family also own a large amount)

I'm sure the land owner gets paid when an animals is shot on his land, but the animals are free to range as widely as they wish, unless a cattle or sheep fence stops them. As I said earlier, zebra where off limits in the home conservancy because they felt they had taken too many. However we went another area for that and got a true trophy stallion. The Outfitter had also came to agreement on additional areas for kudu because as he put it, every client wants a kudu. This was East Cape....

Another topic that relates to @huntinlabs points; The hunt I'm referencing was 9 days, we passed on a kudu and the PH explained he might take it if we were on short days, but as we had plenty of time, he would strive to find a better one. That is the best as far as experience on larger PG that I have had in South Africa.... Now I've gone with the intent of taking smaller critters, night critters and small predators and to me South Africa is a great place for that... Lots of all the above, and for the most part non of those are contained by a fence;)

Really those experiences were very similar to hunting the farm country at home in MN.

But yea, get out the high fence, managed breeding to avoid encountering the scenarios mentioned by @buck wild
 
On a free range highly managed whitetail hunt here at home i was shown a picture of a young buck named "corkscrew" because of his 12" brow tines. He was off limits because he was only a 2 yr old deer and looked like a spindly teenager with a 160 inch rack. Guess who came rolling into camp with the deer? The camp manager who showed me the picture. The other guides raked him hard for years over that one, he was nearly fired, and they all said, never again. Nothing "off limits". I have seen spectacular animals but most of the "off limits" was because they were breeding or still too young.
 
This is why i chose to hunt free range namibia !
Anything goes and not even the PH new what was around the next corner .
Any and every good animal we saw was shootable , it was up to me .
Love it !
 
It depends on the why it was done. If it is because it was a young prime breeding male it can happen. Has nothing to do with size but doing what is best for that ranch. I have passed on animals I would have taken but because they were young the ph had me pass. Could also be an animal that was stocked for breeding and off limits because it is a new animal on the farm.

Places that have self sustain herds can not always just take what they would like and may pass on certain animals for a reason. To many hunters because of a lot of the bs people say about SA think all animals are ok to take and that is not true if the place is run right.

The landowner could also put certain animals off limits no matter what the outfitter thinks.

Good point
 
And their lies the problem of hunting on fenced areas in SA. Next time you want to hunt Africa try Namibia where most hunting will be found in true fair chase areas. Yes you can hunt in fenced areas too but most PH's will have access to unfenced hunting.
 
does not matter were you hunt a good Ph and one who has long term goals for his area may have you pass animals. I passed on kudu in Namibia also because of age. Could I have maybe forced the issue and taken one of them maybe. For the record glad I did not because I took a mature bull later that week. But when the PH looks at you and tells you it is young we will let him walk you do that. That is in SA or Namibia or zim for that matter.

If we hunt for all the reason we say we do it does not matter what country it is in. Size is only one factor and how mature the animal is counts also.
 
On a free range highly managed whitetail hunt here at home i was shown a picture of a young buck named "corkscrew" because of his 12" brow tines. He was off limits because he was only a 2 yr old deer and looked like a spindly teenager with a 160 inch rack. Guess who came rolling into camp with the deer? The camp manager who showed me the picture. The other guides raked him hard for years over that one, he was nearly fired, and they all said, never again. Nothing "off limits". I have seen spectacular animals but most of the "off limits" was because they were breeding or still too young.

One of the reason high fences started ! So if I understand this, a buck with exceptional quality genes was killed at least 2-3 years before his prime because he had bigger than normal antlers (see exceptional quality comment earlier); therefore, it's a free for all of all good young bucks in the future? Not to mention the loss of this one exceptional buck at an early age ?? There would have been no "almost fired" where I come from. Absent it being the landowner themselves, they would have been shown the gate immediately!
 
when the PH looks at you and tells you it is young we will let him walk you do that. That is in SA or Namibia or zim for that matter.

If we hunt for all the reason we say we do it does not matter what country it is in. Size is only one factor and how mature the animal is counts also.

This!! This is the most important part of managing any wildlife, whether behind a fence or not.
Even on a free range area a large “trophy” that is too young is not a trophy to be hunted!
 

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