Big Uncle

This past summer I traveled to hunt in a couple of countries in Africa. Botswana has closed all of it's public lands to hunting thanks to heavy influence (bribes) from the Chinese desire for eco-tourism. I understand the head man in Botswana became suddenly very wealthy.

Fortunately there are vast areas of privately held lands that still have fantastic hunting. The main area that I hunted was many miles across in every direction. I saw elephant and lion on a few days, and even leopard twice. I will not shoot from, or near, a vehicle so the day a huge male lion bluff charged to within about 15 yards was very exciting indeed. There are some stretches of high fence but mostly just cattle fence, and the elephants simply walk through the high fence daily and leave huge holes for game to freely travel. After being outwitted by big old eland for a few years I finally found a great old bull with worn horns that hesitated long enough for a shot.

I like to hunt in Namibia also. They have very reasonable views on game and still have great dangerous game hunting in some areas. Other than the Caprivi strip, the Namibia hunts are normally conducted on huge pieces of property that are often fenced just by cattle fence that does not influence game movement very much.

We stayed for a few days in a very nice B&B in South Africa but I absolutely refuse to hunt in that country. In SA almost all property is high fenced and the PH's that I know tell me that probably 80% of the game taken in SA is shot from the back of a truck. Not my cup of tea.

I carried a .375 H&H M70 SE with a VX6 on most days and used a M70 .30-06 as a light rifle. The travel is really getting tougher on me every year. Traveling abroad with rifles is becoming such a pain that I may leave the rifles at home next time and rent one from the PH.

Maybe next time I will finally meet my leopard under the right circumstances.