My Son's Birthday Elephant A Weekend To Remember

[NYAMAZANA SAFARIS]

This has been a great weekend spent with family not often accomplished this time of the year. My son who will be 16 in July had a early birthday gift presented to him in the way of a PAC Elephant that I had to attend to in one of my areas. It was a perfect scenario with the moon being pretty full so viability was good. With crop raiding Bulls you never know exactly which field they will be in or at what time. We were in one spot when the drums were being beaten and whips cracked in another area when we arrived at the field in question the villages had chased the raiding bulls out of their field even though it was explained that they were defeating the object. Anyway we could hear them breaking branches not too far off from where we were so I decided to follow the sound and look for them in the moon light. We approached the closest Bull to within 30yards after studying it a little and comparing it to other bulls nearby I decided it was the right Bull as it had broken and very worn Ivory compared to the others that were carrying decent Ivory which I would prefer my clients to harvest.I wanted my son take 1st shot , basically I backed him up instantly for insurance purposes as I did not want him to deal with a wounded and possibly lost Elephant on his very first opportunity for a Elephant which possibly he may never get again . I need not have worried too much as his shot was good but with Elephant and most big game a insurance shot regardless from who is not a bad thing especially in the moon light. I have attached several pictures of interest pertaining to this hunt, I hope the readers will enjoy this as much as I did.
Happy Easter to you all.
Wayne

 

[bcarper]

Great photos Wayne, congrats to your son, looks like a lot of protein for the locals! Well done! Brian

 

[Nyati]

Congratulations to your son Wayne, Ok, also to the proud father :thumb:

That s a fantastic birthday present !

 

[NYAMAZANA SAFARIS]

Thanks Guys , it is not very often that a teenager gets these opportunities, and trust me he is very aware of how fortunate he is. I am also very proud of him, not once was he nervous walking up to the Bull with me, at least I never noticed and he was pretty calm through the whole deal which I was surprised about, because I remember my 1st Elephant many moons ago so I am indeed proud of Davey. I hope that in a few years to come my other son will have the same experience.:thumb:

 

[Bobpuckett]

Congrats to your son thats a fantastic early Bday Gift. Great pics as well.

 

[Balabala Boy]

Well done Davey, not many sixteen year olds in this day and age will ever have the oportunity to hunt an Ely.Congats Wayne, Davey has a good teacher! Memory will last forever for both of you.

 

[Buff-Buster]

Congrat's to you and Davey! Wow, what a great gift for a young mans 16th birthday! Looks like you might have a couple of future PH's following in Dad's footsteps!......By the way, am I too old for you to adopt???

 

[Cliffy]

Congrats to the "kid"! What a present! BTW, what did he shoot ?

 

[Uintaelkhunter]

Congrats Wayne and Davey! Is he planing on becoming a PH as well? Good to hear there is a future hunter there I'm sure he is hooked after that if he was not already.

 

[NYAMAZANA SAFARIS]

My son used a 375 CZ Brno. Oh he is very much hooked on hunting as far back as most of us were when we were youngsters . I am sure he would love to be a PH, and hopefully one day if that is what he wants to do he can , but first I would want both my boys to get some sort of trade or profession that they could always fall back on because I really do not know for sure how many more years hunting as we know it will be around...

 

[BRICKBURN]

Great job to you both.

That is an Easter he will not soon forget.

Congratulations.

 

[Cliffy]

Smart idea for a fall back position. Any young person needs to realize that their first choice may not be their last option. Make it something he enjoys though. I'm very proud of how my 2 sons turned out and you should/will be too. Congrats again!

 

[Jay Kelley]

I'm only slightly jealous....

Seriously, there are some great pictures and I hope your son has many great years of hunting and achieves his desire to be a PH. Thanks for sharing.

 

[TexasBlueDevil]

This is got to be the coolest 16th birthday present ever!!!!

 

[Wheels]

Wayne,

I just read Davey's article in "African Hunting" regarding this hunt. Besides being an elephant hunter he is a published author as well. Congratulations to both of you.