Not to hijack the thread, so feel free to respond via PM if you want, but is the tuskless hunt really that dangerous? I have one booked for june, they told me that when I booked it, because that was what I wanted, excitement and also I didn't think I could afford a bull. Later came up with cash for a bull but they talked me into staying with tuskless since it is my first trip and for the price difference I could shoot a tuskless, buffalo, and hippo on land for same price as a bull. I thought they were just over selling the adrenaline factor perhaps because they thought that was what I wanted to hear. Either way I am really looking forward to it!
It depends on the situation and the density of the cover. But yeah, it can be very dangerous.
If a bull is shot in a group of bulls, the bulls scatter. Generally away from the noise. Generally bulls are in smaller groups or just a lead and his askari. Manageable. Bulls are also peaceable unless in musth.
But then we go to cows. They generally are in big groups. They are often surrounding you on several sides because the larger groups browse around. You generally don’t know where they all are. Then they usually have calves. They are pissy. The odds of your scent getting to them is a lot higher because there are more of them. When they panic from the scent, the run off in various directions and they may be nearly circling you and now running to you to get to the matriarch. Bad luck or a bad decision can end up with a forced standoff and a lot of dead elephants. Add to that, you’re messing with big groups and “culling” from them. That’s not good. A game parks professional cull would never go that way, they would kill them all to manage numbers and thus none are left alive to remember what occurred. But with a cow hunt, you’re removing one cow from a group that will remember that situation and become more hostile in the future. I’ve never hunted cow elephant nor do I ever intend to, but I’ve been engulfed and surrounded by them on many occasions and things were very edgy. Compare that to being out in the bush with three bulls feeding and we just sat on a rock at 10 yards and admired them, they saw us, they kept doing their thing, we enjoyed an experience for ten minutes. (They saw us, but didn’t wind us, so they were chill)
Now you want to do tuskless. You take all that piss and vinegar of a cow elephant and the danger of more of them, plus the chance there are calves around, and you’ve selected for the most obnoxious angry-at-the-world elephant of them all, the elephant that doesn’t have tusks to feed or forage and has spent its entire life harassing and abusing the other elephants to steal their food or shove them off the tree they just used their tusk to bring down. Yeah, they are extra moody.
Then you add the probability factor. You’re going into the lions den to mess with cow elephants which I covered above how tricky and unnerving that can be. But you’re not doing it just once. You’re doing it over, and over, and over again trying to find a tuskless in a herd. What are the odds and distribution of tuskless cows? Depends on the area. I believe the Zambezi valley has higher ratios but its still maybe 10%? (Don’t quote me on that, don’t have the actual stats) Lots of screwing around with angry women looking for a needle in a haystack.
Last is the tuskless sales pitch. You’re paying a little trophy fee because the operator is earning their profit on the daily rate. If you don’t get one, what did you save, $4000? What was it going to cost the operator for the government permit? $4000? So they really don’t have a profit motive if you get one or not, it adds little to zero net profit to the overall business. What did you really save by doing this other than increasing the chances of a dangerous and unsuccessful hunt potentially?
Exportable elephant bull trophy fees are going for $8000-$13,000 in Many areas. Entire exportable bull hunts are going for $15,500 trophy/daily all-in on this forum in fact. High quality animals with big ivory are being offered all-in for $20k-$25k.
Anything elephant related is a sensitive topic amongst all people. I’m sure many hunters will have much different opinions than mine.
This isn’t some national park. These animals are poached, harassed, F’d with, and people looking for tuskless have intruded on them dozens of times entering and withdrawing, sometimes clumsily. It’s just not a great situation when you piss off 20 cows in THEIR living room.