tarbe
AH legend
- Joined
- Jan 26, 2014
- Messages
- 4,734
- Reaction score
- 8,934
- Location
- Romance, MO
- Media
- 121
- Articles
- 1
- Member of
- NRA Life, Handloaders Anonymous
- Hunted
- USA, South Africa, Zimbabwe
So I was in RSA all last week, at the global HQ.
In typical annual meeting fashion, there were gatherings and workshops all day, punctuated by late dinners, for 5 days straight. This, on top of all the time in airplanes and airports, and the 8 hour time difference, made for a pretty grueling week!
One session made the trip worth it, for me. It was a session discussing "The Golden Circle".
The basic idea was that whether we are buying or selling, at the most rudimentary level, we all understand the "what" of the product/service we are buying or selling.
Using our example of a safari, we might say "I am buying a buffalo hunt".
The next level of understanding requires us to examine the "how". Are we going to drive around a farm and shoot a buffalo (who is habituated to humans) from the back of a truck, or do we want to track a wild buffalo on foot in a very large area (to paint a picture of two extremes). Both hunts can conceivably be the ideal hunt for an individual...we must figure out which is right for us.
What sort of instrument do we wish to hunt with? Will we wear safari clothes, or hunt in a loincloth like @Bullthrower338?
Then finally, if we get this far, we might examine the "why". What do I hope to personally learn from this venture, how might this hunt change my view of hunting in general, Africa, conservation, the world, the politics of land use, dangerous game?
What do I hope to learn from the team I will be hunting with? How will their ethics, skills and beliefs impact my hunt? How will my presence there, and the money I leave behind, change the people, habitat and animals in the area I will be hunting?
Do the people I am about to hunt with share my views and beliefs at some basic level? Will they challenge me to reassess my views and beliefs? Will we all grow from having been together for 10 or 12 days or will we be glad to say goodbye?
I started out by realizing that not only did I want to hunt buffalo, but the desire to hunt buffalo had been with me for about 50 years and would likely never leave!
Then I started comparing prices and found that there was a huge difference from outfit to outfit, country to country, and amongst the different types of hunts.
I read hunt reports and watched YouTube videos of hunts. I saw PHs who immediately backed-up client's shots without regard to necessity, and I saw PHs who never took their rifles off their shoulder as they coached their client to a successful bag.
I saw outfits who focused on numbers and sizes of animals and I found outfits who focused on sustainable off-take, intangible qualities of the hunt, anti-poaching activities, research, community outreach, etc.
The more I thought about the Golden Circle and choosing an Outfitter, the more I realized that a lot of the folks here on AH spend a fair bit of time thinking about the why...not just the what and the how.
I also think the quality of our experience will often be directly related to the amount of time we spend on the why. The more we understand and set ourselves up for the why, the more likely we will derive maximum fulfillment of the what and the how - regardless of how that might be measured by others.
In typical annual meeting fashion, there were gatherings and workshops all day, punctuated by late dinners, for 5 days straight. This, on top of all the time in airplanes and airports, and the 8 hour time difference, made for a pretty grueling week!
One session made the trip worth it, for me. It was a session discussing "The Golden Circle".
The basic idea was that whether we are buying or selling, at the most rudimentary level, we all understand the "what" of the product/service we are buying or selling.
Using our example of a safari, we might say "I am buying a buffalo hunt".
The next level of understanding requires us to examine the "how". Are we going to drive around a farm and shoot a buffalo (who is habituated to humans) from the back of a truck, or do we want to track a wild buffalo on foot in a very large area (to paint a picture of two extremes). Both hunts can conceivably be the ideal hunt for an individual...we must figure out which is right for us.
What sort of instrument do we wish to hunt with? Will we wear safari clothes, or hunt in a loincloth like @Bullthrower338?
Then finally, if we get this far, we might examine the "why". What do I hope to personally learn from this venture, how might this hunt change my view of hunting in general, Africa, conservation, the world, the politics of land use, dangerous game?
What do I hope to learn from the team I will be hunting with? How will their ethics, skills and beliefs impact my hunt? How will my presence there, and the money I leave behind, change the people, habitat and animals in the area I will be hunting?
Do the people I am about to hunt with share my views and beliefs at some basic level? Will they challenge me to reassess my views and beliefs? Will we all grow from having been together for 10 or 12 days or will we be glad to say goodbye?
I started out by realizing that not only did I want to hunt buffalo, but the desire to hunt buffalo had been with me for about 50 years and would likely never leave!
Then I started comparing prices and found that there was a huge difference from outfit to outfit, country to country, and amongst the different types of hunts.
I read hunt reports and watched YouTube videos of hunts. I saw PHs who immediately backed-up client's shots without regard to necessity, and I saw PHs who never took their rifles off their shoulder as they coached their client to a successful bag.
I saw outfits who focused on numbers and sizes of animals and I found outfits who focused on sustainable off-take, intangible qualities of the hunt, anti-poaching activities, research, community outreach, etc.
The more I thought about the Golden Circle and choosing an Outfitter, the more I realized that a lot of the folks here on AH spend a fair bit of time thinking about the why...not just the what and the how.
I also think the quality of our experience will often be directly related to the amount of time we spend on the why. The more we understand and set ourselves up for the why, the more likely we will derive maximum fulfillment of the what and the how - regardless of how that might be measured by others.