My operation in Africa is in it's 15th year, Your a very rude person to say that "An Ex black bear guide" as if that is some how meaningless. My wildlife management job for the largest tree farm and land owner in the state of Washington was for black bear and lions, My 20 years of seasonal guiding in Alasaka for almost all the big game species is appearantly unknown to you? I lived in South Africa and went to school there. You seem to pull little tid bits of information out of things and then post comments as if you have the whole story of my experience and back ground?
My consessions in RSA are not exclusive to plains game, We hunt every species, I've been involved in the harvest of every single one of them many times over. On one consession alone we have taken over 25 buffalo bulls in the last 5 years, that's just one single property that is 37000 acres in size, just about 50 square miles. With the other properties and the parks permits we have probably done 35-40 in the last five years. Does that help you? Over the last 15 years I'll guess it's been more in the area of 100-125. We shoot more now then we did in the beginning becuase the desire for RSA buffalo is growing every year with the stress and problems of hunting in Zimbabwe. It's one reason the RSA bufflao fetch such a premium price compared to the Zim bulls.
I'm quite frankly stunned that some guy with minimual knowldge of who I am comes onto a forum like this posting as if he has my resume sitting in front of him. What's that about? It seems each time you post the hole gets deeper where your credibility is concerned.
Like saying that Carmichael has killed more DG then almost anyone alive today..............Are you kidding? Maybe more then anyone you know, but he certainly does not rate in the top 100 or probably even the top 1000. He just writes about it, where many others are doing it as labor and sport but don't have the magazine stories to go with the effort.
Mike Lagrage has killed over 6000 elephants alone, not even counting other speices, Paul Grobler has likely killed 10,000 bufflao and Elephant, these are just two off the top of my head, one poor farmer who's land we used for years killed hundreds of elephant, bufflao and lion on his orchard lands until Kruger put up a few hundred miles of fence to keep them out. You won't read about these guys and their fancy exploits but they exist in huge numbers. Saeed AlMaktoom and his hunting associates have killed many hundreds of DG and probably many hundreds of Buffalo alone. It's really hard to keep track of the numbers after so many years of this.
Maybe your bold statement should have read something like Carmichael has killed more DG then anyother popular gun writer, because he's certainly not in the big leagues where african game managers and landowners are concerned. Or for that matter Middle Eastern Arab hunters or the Spaniards are concerned! America does not have a monopoly on those who like to shoot dangerous game, and they certainly don't have a monopoly on those who can afford to do it!
When we hunt with these folks they don't shoot a five animal package and count pennies. They shoot four or five buffalo in an afternoon of hunting, then maybe a sable or two and then the next day we look for elephant and Rhino. maybe a lion should a nice one be seen. Yeah they shoot 150K worth of game on a single 10-14 day hunt. We have these same hunters return year after year too..........how many anmals is that?
But it's not published in a glossy magazine to sell guns and equipment they promote for a kickback from the manufacturer, or the cost of the hunt to be able to go over and do it by the Manufacturer. These foreign guys will wackem and stackem with the best most experienced hunters I have ever seen in my life. which has been involved professionally with hunting for pushing 30 years now. I've had Spanish hunters just like most other PH's who have had to take the ammo away from them to prevent over shooting some populations of game. Money is not a thought, just pure shooting and hunting. These guys will just shoot til there are no more bullets left. We had several Spanish hunters that came to us wanting warthogs only during a particular safari. They shot over 100 in a week, then they loaded all the meat onto thier jet and took it back to spain. Americans are not the apex culture of big game hunting. Lots of other countries have an enormous interest in big game hunting. The Belgum people right now and the Portugese are buying up hunting land in RSA as fast as they can.
There is a whole lot more then you seem to realize going on with this business and on this planet. It's a much bigger operation then the limited glossy print American media you reference. I'll say this in closing. Having lived outside the USA for a portion of my life has been the most eye opening experience I could have ever had. Americans, myself included up til that point really think the whole world is about America, and that America is the core of the earths existance. I was one of those people. However having lived abroad and having been educated abroad I came back knowing that there are hugely successful businesses and operations and wealth far exceeding anything I knew of in the USA. Something I never expected or realized at that point in my life.
What you hear from American writers pertains to other Americans in general, but does not really show the whole world wide perspective on Big game hunting. Especially in Africa, Live there for almost 4 years and meet the people in this business, learn the trade and work in it across the country. It's an eye opening experience to meet people whom nobody has ever heard of that have killed thousands of big and dangerous game, who have had firneds and family gored and stomped or envenomated and killed, or lost limbs. Live with these people for a few years.
Then come back and ask me about what experience I have!
