OK, heres the deal. What is the most amount of days on an African hunt regardless the duration, that you did not fire on an animal, bow or rifle? Talking about not shooting at all, not misses. Total days not shooting and consecutive days. I'll start; the most days total not shooting is sadly, 8 (10 day hunt). Consecutive days without shooting is 5, twice. Seems inconceivable, but there it is. Surely someone on here can break my sad record.
I have to ask, why..? Inexperienced PH ? No game in area ? Bad trophy quality ? Bad weather ? Gun or vehicle shy game on over-hunted area ? Recent bush fires ? Too many hunters in area ? ..or did you just keep forgetting to pack your ammo..? :biggrin2:
The reasons dont matter. Just curious. There can be any number of reasons. For me personally its mostly a matter of being perhaps overly selective. Not so much over size issues but not caring to continue to shoot the same species more than a couple of times. For instance I have taken only 3 impala, 2 hogs, 1 zebra, 1 each white-bearded and blue wildebeest etc. More interested in critters I dont have. Your scenarios above have applied to my hunts to varying degrees as they have for most I am sure. But you didnt answer the question, so lets have it.:tongue:
Only been once to SA & the last 2 days had no shots fired for me. We spent those days looking for a good shooter warthog. Did enough the 5 days prior that it was no big deal to me.
Personal record is 12 consecutive days without a shot. Jungles of Cameroon looking for bongo. In the 14 day hunt fired my gun three times at two animals.
I hunted 9 days and fired shots on 4 of them. "Gave" my father, an observer, a couple days to get his animal, and we just plain hunted hard and had a heckuva lot of fun tracking animals, watching them, and seeing things I'd never seen before. Best hunt of my life so far. I didn't arrive with a shopping list and I left with a dream fulfilled.
2nd hunt was 3 days as suitable game (Springbok) had migrated out of the area I was hunting. (Yes, free range areas do exist in RSA) 3rd hunt was 2.5 days. I was looking for (any) Impala with express sites and wanted to get close.
Im certainly not going to top anyone here. My 1st safari out of 10 days no shots were fired 3 consecutive days in the rain and snow. Still hard to complain since we walkedaway with 9 animals and passed many other great trophies. 2nd time around was 12 days with no shots fired on 3 consecutive days while dedicated to pursuing a monster Kudu bull that gave us the slip. That time 14 animals (13 for me and a birthday Springbok for Chris) were taken including 4 double header days and a triple header day and of course many other great trophies passed up. Africa has a way of spoiling a guy!
Seven out of a eight day safari in the Eastern Cape, outfitter was not set up for reasonable bowhunting.
On my first trip to Africa, I went 6 days with no shooting. However, I got sick and was laid up for most of that time.
I think mine would be measured in hours. Nathan shot at about 10am and I fired around 1pm, so within 20 hrs of arriving at Willems there were two beasties in the salt. That and the rest of there trip was like a dream....
I guess my all time record was 2 days but to be honest I think one of those days was because it was Deb's day to hunt. Also the reason I very seldom have a lot of days with out shooting is I really never lock myself into just the list animals as for the reason of having a Porcupine a Steenbok and a Vervet Monkey added to my list this last hunt.
