That is a hell of a bull and while I get that they want him to breed to spread his genes, and I respect that they told you before your hunt to me though I feel unless it is a pay by the inch hunt the PH should hunt to get the client the BEST trophy POSSIBLE. Now to one client that could mean a non typical animal with weird horns, but I feel if the client is after a trophy the PH needs to hunt the biggest animal available. If not then the outfitter should and needs to be upfront with the client. I think this is why some people are afraid and maybe even feel like unless they are a big paying client then the PH will not take getting the best animal possible seriously.
But then it comes to what classifies as a "trophy" to me the trophy is the hunt, however if I really think about a "trophy" and how we label trophies and if it makes books or not. It makes me wonder if it is really a "trophy" (in the sense of how we label it) if it doesn't make the books?
I've explained this before but it is appropriate here again; On my first African hunt, it w as in RSA but with an outfitter who prides himself in only hunting free range areas... There are low fences, and the manage the numbers of animals and by that trophy quality by setting self imposed quotas... They have very large "conservancies" or blocks where the land owners agree to a management plan, I believe they have soem government involvement, Nature Conservation or something like that. I think they really only have an interest in certain protected species. So the Outfitter meets with the landowners and sets quota. (he and his family also own a large amount)
I'm sure the land owner gets paid when an animals is shot on his land, but the animals are free to range as widely as they wish, unless a cattle or sheep fence stops them. As I said earlier, zebra where off limits in the home conservancy because they felt they had taken too many. However we went another area for that and got a true trophy stallion. The Outfitter had also came to agreement on additional areas for kudu because as he put it, every client wants a kudu. This was East Cape....
Another topic that relates to
@huntinlabs points; The hunt I'm referencing was 9 days, we passed on a kudu and the PH explained he might take it if we were on short days, but as we had plenty of time, he would strive to find a better one. That is the best as far as experience on larger PG that I have had in South Africa.... Now I've gone with the intent of taking smaller critters, night critters and small predators and to me South Africa is a great place for that... Lots of all the above, and for the most part non of those are contained by a fence
Really those experiences were very similar to hunting the farm country at home in MN.
But yea, get out the high fence, managed breeding to avoid encountering the scenarios mentioned by
@buck wild
