If hunting animals with ear tags doesn’t bother you I don’t know how to argue back. I cannot understand being proud of a trophy that was raised and handled as livestock previously. You are also trying to compare eastern cape to Limpopo where the degree and intensity of game farming is very different.
If it's a difficult hunt, why should it bother me? The hunt is about seeing new places, meeting new people, and a challenging chase. For the East Cape it's often the best use of the land, keeps people working, keeps them fed, provides stability. That's a win win all the way around. In these times I'm happy to help keep people from killing each other. I suppose if they just killed each other, it wouldn't bother me so much. But you don't have to look very far to see what unrest does to the natural environment. A piece of plastic in an animal's ear is a very small thing in the larger context. You just have to have an open mind to see it.
I never tied hunting animals with ear tags and saving the world together but OK. As far as open mind, I think you need to see areas outside the eastern cape and South Africa. You could apply the same thinking to gemsbok in Namibia or Botswana except they won’t have an ear tag and are native to that area. Gemsbok are not native to eastern cape.
Yes, well I'm packing up now for a month's hunting pheasants in Montana. I'm not going to China to hunt them just to have some pompous claim to authenticity. I'm quite sure pheasants are just as hard to hunt in either locale.
You don’t but the scope of African hunting you’ve seen is very narrow and you don’t seem to recognize Africa and even just South Africa is a big place.
Yes, and it is an expensive place to visit and hunt. I don't have an endless supply of financial resources and at my age physical resources are definitely finite. I also have enough experience DIY hunting in North America to know finding new places to hunt is always a roll of the dice (to put it mildly) that can take years of trial and error before something satisfactory is found. At my small lodge in the Eastern Cape I get challenging hunting surrounded by fantastic scenery and wonderful people. And at a great price. Why should I roll the dice, especially when the financial stakes are so high? I will say, I think I was lucky. I have read some reports of other operations that are not very glowing. However, things are changing there and I'm keeping an ear to the ground. If/when I return, I may need to reassess. At least now I have enough contacts to make an assessment based on onsite knowledge. Would I go outside the East Cape? Possibly. But that country is hard to beat. Frankly, the flat thickly covered Limpopo hunting I have seen in the YouTube videos doesn't do a thing for me. I could care less about self sustaining herds. It's all managed resources no matter where you go or how you look at it. Except maybe in areas where law and order has broken down completely. However, I have no interest in hunting with guards armed with machine guns.
Tundra tiger can feel honored. I think that is the only time I have punched the "love" button ... ever.
Only partial truths to present something a certain way are definitely better
Only putting part of the information out there is a partial truth, especially when you have first hand experience there. You said you never should have said you saw ear tags because you don’t like the discussion that follows.
I'm probably not as much help as my wife went out with me pretty much every day. However, I understand there are spas and other activities for non-hunting guests.
If I were bringing a spouse or non-hunting guest on any hunt I’d have some very specific questions for the outfitter, and make sure we had a detailed plan in place. It’s been stated Koos runs a larger operation, more moving pieces means a higher chance something slips through the cracks. Make sure you and Koos are on the same page with each day planned to minimize this, and enjoy your time in Africa.
Yes, and it was very frustrating. The details were communicated with Eagle Eye shipping. Communicating with Koos was difficult... He had no idea what was going on with our taxidermy, how it was packaged, timeline, any of it. I will not recommend Kuche to anyone. Anyone.
