Great ideas for fun things to do before and after your safari in South Africa.

In the past when a non-hunter went on safari, there usually wasn’t much for the companion, or observer, to do except trail along with the hunter, sit in camp with a good book, or, where available, go with a camp employee to visit villages or shop.

 
Times have changed, though, and these days there is a wealth of opportunities for adventure in Africa. This article will take a good look at some of them. South Africa is a common destination for hunters, so we’ll start there and cover some of the side trips, mini-vacations, and travel destinations in that country. We will also discuss how hunting lodges have changed over the past decade or so.

 
Then and Now: Hunting Lodges I went on my first African safari in 1995. I stayed in a tent in the bush where the shower was operated by a young boy filling a five-gallon bucket with water that had been heated over an open fire. To wash, you called “shower” and the bucket was lowered down by rope and pulley, then filled with water that smelled of the wood in the fire. The bucket had a shower head attached to the bottom, and you showered by turning on the valve, getting wet, shutting off the shower head, soaping, and then turning the valve back on to rinse off. The tents were tastefully furnished with a bed, a dresser, and that’s about it. Mine was additionally adorned with a bright blue spider that lived up high where the sides joined the roof. My wife didn’t care much for this decoration, but I managed to calm her nerves by saying, “Don’t worry about him living up there. ‘Course you might want to be a little concerned when he’s gone.” For some reason, it got very cold in the tent that night.

 
Meals were cooked on a 3’x3’ steel plate placed over one corner of the fire pit. The cook could do anything from fresh bread to kudu steaks on that plate – and it all tasted wonderful. The food’s taste wasn’t harmed at all by the few ashes that managed to collect on whatever was on the menu.

 
These days, things have changed. Bathroom facilities are much improved. Safari camps are more likely to be lodges, and have much more for a non-hunter to enjoy. There are guided day trips to local villages and towns, animal viewing and photography, dancers around the campfire, swimming pools, and the food service is excellent – even the steel plate is gone. South Africa South Africa offers something for everyone. It’s modern cities have excellent dining and a thriving art scene. There are diamond mines to visit, vineyards to sample, mountains to climb, and huge game reserves like 7,523 square mile Kruger National Park (3.5 times larger than Delaware.). There are seventeen different regions in South Africa, and we’ll see what each one has to offer. We’ll look at half of them in this post, and then cover the remainder in a later one.

Cape of Good Hope

The Cape of Good Hope is a rocky headland on the Atlantic coast of the Cape Peninsula. It’s a 19,000-acre section of Table Mountain National Park. Contrary to common thinking, the Cape is not the southernmost point on the African continent. That honor belongs to Cape Agulhas, 90 miles southeast. The Cape of Good Hope is home to numerous animals, including the bontebok, red hartebeest and eland. Chacma baboons are the animals most associated with the Cape, and are a major tourist attraction. There are miles of hiking trails and many beautiful deserted beaches. The Cape is the legendary sailing waters of the Flying Dutchman, a storied 17th-century ghost ship crewed by long-dead sailors. It is cursed to sail the ocean forever.

 
Cape Peninsula

When in Cape Town a round-trip drive down Cape Peninsula makes a great side excursion. The trip takes you along the False Bay coast where you can visit Kalk Bay, a small fishing village, and Boulders Beach, a sheltered beach between granite boulders near Simon’s Town. The beach is home to jackass penguins that live on the protected beach. The rugged coastline along the peninsula is one of the most scenic in Africa. Take a drive along the Misty Cliffs, located between Scarborough and Witsands, where you can windsurf or kite surf. Don’t forget the sunblock.
Horses and camels can be rented at Noordhoek Beach. Sometimes whales are visible, and seals and otters are common. There are many cottages and B&Bs to stay at, and there are a number of cottages available inside the Cape Point Nature Reserve on Olifantsbos Beach. While there, hike the shipwreck trail in company with the local bonteboks. Checkout the remains of a Dutch coaster that wrecked there in 1963.

 
Dolphin Coast

The Dolphin Coast (North Coast) on the northern coast of South Africa is located less than one hour north of Durban in KwaZulu-Natal Provence. It’s on the Indian Ocean, and is bordered by the Tongaat River near Ballito and the Umhlali River. It’s known for its large pods of bottlenose dolphin right offshore.

 
Durban and KwaZulu-Natal

Durban has some of the most beautiful beaches in the world. They extend all the way to the Dolphin Coast to the north, and down the Sapphire Coast into the Eastern Cape. KwaZulu-Natal has two World Heritage Sites – the uKhahlamba-Drakensberg Park and iSimangaliso Wetlands Park. It’s also the location of the battlefields of the Anglo-Zulu and Anglo-Boer wars. Historical sites include Isandlwana, Blood River, and Rorke’s Drift.

 
Mpumalanga and Kruger National Park

Mpumalanga (where the sun rises) is South Africa’s wildest province. It consists of both Highveld and Lowveld. The southern half of Kruger National Park is in the latter region. Other major tourist attractions include the Sudwala Caves and the Blyde River Canyon. Kruger National Park and surrounding private game reserves are home to all of the Big Five – Cape buffalo, elephant, leopard, lion, and rhino. Stay at one of the game reserves and you are guaranteed luxury accommodations, excellent service, and lots of African animals just outside your door.

 
Noordhoek

This area is a suburb of Cape Town approximately 22 miles to the south of the city. It can be reached from the spectacular coast road, Chapman’s Peak. It has a picturesque shoreline and a long pristine white beach. The century-old wreck of the steamship Kakapo is on the southern end of the beach.

 
South Coast

The South Coast area of KwaZulu-Natal is a popular destination that stretches all the way from Amanzimtoti beach just outside Durban down to Port Edward. Its 125-mile length encompasses the vacation towns of Margate, Palm Beach, Ramsgate, Scottburg, and Trafalgar. The area has some of the country’s finest beaches backed by natural jungle and palm trees. There are numerous nature reserves, trails, swimming activities, including snorkeling and diving, and two of the country’s best golf courses.

 
Setting up Side Excursions while in South Africa

Because most hunters on a South African safari aren’t really familiar with the country other than some of the hunting camps or game ranches, it best that anyone seeking side trips use the services of a hunt broker who is knowledgeable about what’s available. The broker should have references, and a comprehensive web site that answers all your questions. I’ve been working with John Martins at Discount African Hunts: www.discountafricanhunts.com for more than two years. He, and his web site, will provide you with all the information you need for a hunting or camera safari, and can tailor a safari and side trips to your personal requirements.

Below: Bathroom facilities on safari sure have changed over the years! At top, a well-appointed bathroom at a modern safari lodge. Below, a traditional shower setup with a five-gallon bucket.

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What you need to know before you head to Argentina’s Cordoba region with your own shotguns.

In June 2016 and again in May 2017 I flew to Buenos Aires for a bird hunt. A lot of confusion has surrounded gun importation into Argentina since the rules changed in early 2015. I thought readers might like to hear from somebody who walked the walk.

My booking agent had filled out the required RENAR (Argentina police) forms in PDF format and sent them via email to me before the trip. I printed out a few copies, and when I checked in with American Airlines these helped because the agent could find nothing in her computer about importing guns into Argentina, and if you can present an official-looking form it tends to put airline agents at ease. Some reports say you need a consular permit from the nearest Argentina embassy or consulate, but on my trip no such form was required or asked for. You do need a consular permit in order to bring a semi-automatic firearm into the country. Make sure you have this or your gun will be held back as you enter Argentina. I learned this from a fellow hunter who did not have this permit—his gun was returned to him when he exited the country.

I connected via Dallas to Buenos Aires without a problem and my guns came out with the regular luggage once I landed at the Ezeisa Airport (EZE). I went to the RENAR (police) office, which is after immigration but before you get to customs, and had my paperwork processed quickly and efficiently in twenty minutes. However, I then went to Argentine Customs and there a second set of papers had to be generated, and this took nearly two hours. I then had to wait for two more hunters in our party to come in via another flight.

Before they cleared Customs, it was too late to make the connecting flight with Areolinas Argentinas (AAR) from Newbery airport (AEP) to Cordoba airport (COR) since AEP is at the other side of Buenos Aires and it can take two hours to travel between the two via car. A change of ticket was not too bad ($100) but there was more bureaucracy required to get the guns on the internal flight. During this process we were assisted by a ground agent, Sandra, who was arranged for us by our booking agent. The ground agent also arranged a shuttle for us between the airports, although you can easily take a taxi or van. Once in Cordoba, the guns arrived quickly and we were off to the lodge.

On the way back we had to check the guns in with police at COR and had to get them through another police check after we arrived in AEP. We traveled via car back to EZE where we first checked the baggage in with the airlines (minus the guns) then got our gun cases sealed at RENAR and Customs (allow one hour) and then the guns get delivered back to the airline and get put on the conveyor belt. When you pass immigration on the way out you need to present your RENAR form, which has been stamped to verify the guns left Argentina.

All in all the process is pretty bureaucratic, but if you have some patience it can be done easily. I recommend you use a booking agent for your hunt if you bring your own guns and that you engage one of the services that helps you clear the guns at EZE, arrange transport between EZE and AEP, get your guns on the plane at AEP, and do the same on your trip back.

Things to remember:

1) Allow at least five hours from the time you land at EZE and your departure time at AEP when traveling with guns.

2) In 2017 the RENAR forms came to me in editable PDF format which means you can fill in the information on line, save the form, and send it back. There was, however, a flaw in the PDF set up and the forms (8.5×14 inches) would not “auto shrink” to an 8.5×11 when printed, so be careful and load your printer with the right paper, or the bottom part of the form is cut off.

3) Before you leave the RENAR offices in EZE make sure that your RENAR copies have original stamps and signatures (they make at least four copies and not all copies have original stamps/sigs) and keep these papers with you till the end when you hand one copy clearly stamped by RENAR to immigration, as you leave the country. You get this copy by having your guns inspected and sealed as you check in for your flight. You will not be able to leave the country unless you have this stamped copy as Immigration has in its computer records that you entered the country with a gun.

4) Ask your agent about taking flights from EZE to COR; this saves three hours and cost. AAR domestic schedules from EZE are not always convenient but on the way back from COR we could have taken a direct flight to EZE and saved time. Ask your agent to check the schedules back from COR to AEP or EZE; if you can land directly at EZE it will save time. In 2017 we took the direct flight COR-EZE and it was much better and quicker.

5) Have two copies of your RENAR papers and passport with you at all times, especially when hunting; you could be stopped by a police check (which are routine).

6) As you enter the country you will also get a paper from Argentine customs with your guns registered on them. You will need this paper as you check out of Argentina just like the RENAR form. So do not lose it and, again, have it on you at all times.

7) Finally, I have heard from several Argentina-bound hunters that the connections between the USA and Santiago, Chile, or Lima, Peru, are excellent. From there LATAM airlines flies regular flights to Cordoba. All accounts have that entering and departing with guns via Cordoba is much easier than Buenos Aires. I am going to try it myself next year. Make sure your airline will transfer guns to LATAM before booking, or book entirely with LATAM.

Argentine police, security, and customs officials are courteous and helpful. Obviously, the customs agents at EZE could learn to process paperwork faster!—Henry van den Broecke

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This interesting old photo from 1909 was sent to us by Sports Afield reader Richard Propsom. He wrote, “Ran across an old photo of my grandfather in 1909 on a canoe trip from Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin, to New Orleans via the Fox River and Mississippi River.  One of the photos shows them with the St. Lawrence canoe and emblazoned on the side it says “Read Sports Afield.”  A local paper indicates they may have been promoting the magazine along the way.  The picture shows Edward Ollinger on the left and Henry (Happy) Propsom on the right. Not sure where picture was taken, but based on the clean pots and pans and gear, maybe at the start of the trip. Interesting  how some camping gear has changed and others not so much. We still have the canoe paddle and the Dutch oven.”

In search of the world’s most exotic wild turkeys.

The wild turkey is probably the second-most popular game in the United States, following deer. I tend to think of all turkeys as “big-game birds.” We call them, not much different from rattling in a buck or bugling in an elk; and we pattern them, and sometimes stalk them. Usually we take them on the ground, so we deliberately aim at them, focusing on shot placement (head and neck), which is different from all other bird hunting.

Part of the popularity is the spring season, the most exciting time to hunt gobblers and a time when most seasons are closed. Part, too, is the availability. In my lifetime turkeys have increased from remnants into millions, now returned to all former range, and found in many areas that never had them. As with deer, most turkey hunters hunt close to home, but there is a growing group of traveling turkey fanatics who set goals to hunt different varieties in different areas.

There are four distinct subspecies of turkeys in the United States, with distinct plumage. In the days when turkeys were scarce, game managers weren’t always careful about which turkeys were introduced where—California, for example, had no turkeys but now has three varieties (and a lot of hybrids). The Eastern wild turkey is the probably the most widespread, native to the eastern half of the country. Merriam’s turkey is the bird of the Rockies, now spilling over on both sides. When turkeys were nearly gone Rio Grande turkeys remained primarily in Texas, but now are widespread from the Gulf Coast up through much of the Great Plains.

Within the U.S. the rare bird is the Osceola gobbler, found only from central Florida southward. For Florida hunters this is their bird, but for turkey hunters elsewhere getting an Osceola gobbler can be tough. I concede that I’m not a very good turkey hunter: The Osceola gobbler gave me fits! It’s a tropical bird with an early mating season. I found them much less vocal than the others, and thus the very Devil to hunt. Of course, the Osceola isn’t “my bird,” so I had to travel across the continent to hunt them. This made failures extra-painful.

The Osceola turkey of Florida proved Boddington’s most difficult. The climate is very tropical, and he found these birds to be less vocal than other varieties. For him it’s a long trip to Florida to hunt them and he had multiple failures before being successful.

Hunting your own backyard birds is one thing, but most of us have only type of turkey within easy striking distance. Hunting somebody else’s turkeys, the “other” turkeys, usually takes planning, effort, and travel.

For quite some time many hunters have focused on taking one each of all four U.S. turkeys—but in fact there are two more native North American turkeys. The colorful ocellated turkey, quite different from all the rest, is found in southernmost Mexico and on into Central America. The tall, rangy Gould’s turkey is concentrated in Mexico’s Sierra Madre Mountains, now with a small population established on the U.S. side. Recognizing there is a growing group of avid, adventurous, and traveling turkey hunters, the National Wild Turkey Federation (NWTF) has compiled listings of fully six different “turkey slams.” Their Grand Slam is one each of the four U.S. turkeys. The Royal Slam adds a Gould’s turkey. The Canadian Slam is Merriam’s and Eastern in southern Canada only, and the Mexican Slam, similarly, is Rio Grande, Gould’s, and ocellated taken in Mexico only. Then there’s the World Slam, one each of all races of wild turkeys.

You can check out these listings by going to www.nwtf.org/hunt/records/slams, where links will lead you to their listings of registered slams. I was shocked to learn that more than three hundred hunters have registered World Slams with NWTF. Quite a few of these avid turkey hunters have registered multiple World Slams—the highest number I saw was eight, credited to bowhunter Michael Jefferson. Oh, one more slam: The U.S. Super Slam requires taking one turkey in every U.S. state except Alaska (our only state that has no turkeys). Six hunters are known to have accomplished this amazing feat!

This last lies far beyond my wildest aspirations and, honestly, sounds like work. But at least one each of all six is a worthy goal that will take you to some interesting places—even if, like me, you’re not a particularly avid turkey hunter. In the course of a long hunting career the four U.S. birds sort of came along although, having been beaten pretty badly twice, I admit the Osceola turkey became a mission. The two Mexican birds, however, require specific expeditions for almost everyone.

The ocellated turkey is hunted primarily in Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula, with some opportunity in adjacent Guatemala and Belize. The ocellated turkey is smaller and brightly colored, so different that it was once thought a separate genus, now considered a separate species of the turkey’s Meleagris genus. This is jungle hunting, hot and thick. These birds don’t exactly gobble; down there they call it singing, primarily done on the roost in mornings and evenings. Although occasionally taken by ambush or stalking, the primary hunting technique is to roost birds by sound in the evening, then stalk just at first light. Interestingly, this is exactly the way the big capercaillie grouse is hunted in Europe!

They are not easy; in four hunts in Mexico’s Yucatan I’ve shot exactly one! However, hunting ocellated turkeys in good country isn’t as unsuccessful as that sounds. Most of the time I was also hunting other jungle game such as brocket deer, devoting only part of the time to turkey hunting. My own interests aside, the turkey hunting market is avid and active; down there the ocellated turkey is the outfitters’ big draw. Success is not assured, but the local guides know how and where to look for turkeys; most hunters who really concentrate on the ocellated turkey will be successful.

While all the other races are subspecies the ocellated turkey of the Yucatan Peninsula is a unique species, smaller and more brightly colored. Hunting this turkey in its jungle habitat is a real adventure.

Until the spring of 2017 the one turkey I’d never hunted was the Gould’s turkey. Gould’s isn’t the heaviest, probably because of diet…but they are definitely the tallest, big birds with large heads and a huge tail fan. Some permits are now available in Arizona, but the Gould’s turkey is readily hunted in Sonora’s Sierra Madres.

In years gone by I’ve done a number of Coues deer hunts in Gould’s turkey range. I saw turkeys only once or twice, so I had the impression that hunting them might be extremely difficult, sort of a post-graduate turkey hunt. In the right place definitely not! I hunted with the Mossberg folks with Tall Tine Outfitters, not much more than an hour south of Nogales on Mababi Ranch. This was a very special place, where wildlife had clearly been looked after. It wasn’t just a great hunt for Gould’s turkeys…it was one of my very best turkey hunts! The only times I’ve ever seen more turkeys were Rio Grande turkeys on carefully-managed Texas ranches.

I had no idea what to anticipate, but I suppose I was expecting non-vocal birds, not like ocellated turkeys, but more like Osceola turkeys. Not so! These Gould’s turkeys acted like plain old wild turkeys caught at the peak of their springtime ritual. They gobbled, they strutted, they came to calls…and there were lots of them!

We had a full five days to hunt, but by the end of the third day four of us had seven nice gobblers between us, astonishing. Mossberg’s Linda Powell was the only holdout, and she opted to not take a second bird—her gobbler completed her fourth world slam! This is another feat beyond my wildest aspirations, but I’m glad that I now have at least passing experience with all six of our big-game birds. Who knows, maybe someday I’ll become a real turkey hunter!

This Gould’s turkey is about to give a decoy a drubbing. Although mature this gobbler had a scraggly beard so the hunters didn’t shoot him…but they eventually had to chase him away to keep him from ruining the decoy!

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Increase your awareness of your surroundings by consciously training yourself to see what you’re missing.

Elspeth Huxley, author of The Flame Trees of Thika and other worthy books on Africa, once recalled a family picnic in Kenya, an hour of eating and children playing in an open area bordered by a circle of brush. Only after photos of the outing were developed did the picnickers see two lions hunkered rather plainly in the thicket, watching from no more than thirty yards away. Huxley, who grew up in rural Kenya, thought this a good lesson on the need for more rigorous awareness, especially in Africa, where potential dangers can abound.

Psychologists call not seeing what’s in front of us “inattentional blindness,” and warn that it is more common than most people realize. Sometimes the extent of perceptive failure can almost defy belief, as in the famous Gorilla Experiment at Harvard. Here student subjects were divided into two teams—white shirts and black shirts—and told to toss two orange basketballs back and forth. Forty-five seconds into the game, a woman in full gorilla costume walks directly through the scene. Amazingly, 56 percent of the players, intent on their basketball tosses, failed to see the gorilla. In another version, the gorilla comes in, pounds her chest and walks off, in view for a full nine seconds. Yet—again, hard to believe—only 50 percent of the players noticed the intruding ape.

The experiment is a startling example of how blind to our environment we can be at times, especially when we are focused on specific tasks, or when we have a lapse in general attentiveness. Perceptual limitation tends to worsen even more during emergencies, when narrowed vision is a common reaction. We sometimes literally cannot see (or hear) anything other than the immediate threat or focus of our attention. Countless people have died or become gravely injured when a simple and easy escape from danger was obvious to onlookers but went unnoticed by the oblivious victims.

This can occur in non-emergency situations, as well. A common problem for hunters is tunnel vision—being so focused on a game animal or a track line that we can’t or don’t see anything else but the target of our desire. My bear-biologist friends often complain about hunters who simply don’t see obvious tracks, rubs, scats, and other signs of nearby grizzlies because they are so locked in and focused on the elk, deer, or moose they are after. Worse still are the (thankfully uncommon) hunters who are so hyped for game they “see” an antlered animal where one doesn’t exist. Horses, people, and even vehicles have been shot by hunters who swore they shooting at a buck or bull. Some of these cases defy plausibility, yet they do occur.

The antidote to all of these perceptual failures, and a good way to become both a better hunter and a more effective survivor, is to first become aware of your awareness by making it a subject of mindful concern. How well and fully are you paying attention in a given moment? How well have you been paying attention in the last few minutes or quarter-hour? Asking yourself these questions on a periodic basis can be educational, and can also help you tune back in to the present with renewed and sharpened clarity.

Situational awareness. Military, law enforcement, and an increasing number of wilderness survival schools now emphasize this concept as primary and essential. Situational awareness is a conscious taking in and evaluating of the immediate environment, with an eye both for what’s actually there, and also what might ensue, good or bad. Some people assume that such a view must entail a negative or even paranoiac view of life, but that’s a misunderstanding. The idea is to do what is usually termed a “situation scan” or “environmental survey” that (again, consciously and intentionally) looks at more than just the central claim on ordinary attention. One simple technique is the survival sweep, a usually brief but focused scanning from side to side, bottom to top, while looking for potential trouble, or ways out of trouble should something go wrong. Do this periodically as you move along, and especially when entering a new or changed environment, whether it is a narrow, rocky canyon or a jetliner taking you to Africa. As you get on the jet (or into any confined space, for that matter) scan for the nearest exit or way out in case of an emergency.

Inferential awareness. Last year while hunting elk in remote western Montana backcountry I suddenly caught a whiff of something unpleasant. I was on a narrow game trail, approaching a stand of thick timber, with a slight breeze in my face. The smell deepened and intensified into the heavy stink of carrion. I didn’t investigate, but turned around and quickly got out of there. This was prime grizzly country, and I wasn’t about to risk walking into a griz bedded down atop a cached elk or mule deer. I hadn’t seen much bear sign in the last two days, but there was no point in taking a risk. The smell was enough of a warning in that situation. Similarly, the alarm calls of a gray jay or Clark’s nutcracker, or raven, or the chattering hysteria of a spooked pine squirrel, can tell the aware hunter that something is up. Sometimes you can follow the alarm noises to track whatever is on the move—maybe a bear or a mountain lion or an elk, or another hunter. Other times, the lack or sudden cessation of a sound— birds stop chirping, frogs quit croaking—can be of equal inferential value.

Awareness tips and tricks. One key to “seeing” better outdoors (more fully, with less inattentional blindness) is to recognize visual patterns such as the predominant verticality of a forest or swath of tall grass and then scan and inspect for anything that breaks or alters that pattern, which in this example would mean anything approximately horizontal. In a mostly still habitat, look for motion, however small. Many times I’ve spotted a bedded animal because a slight ear flicker gave it away. Tail flicks and twitches are another common giveaway. It’s also helpful to note color and shade contrasts. A glistening black eyeball might be all you see (at first) of a bear in the brush or a snake blending with fallen leaves on a trail. Here’s a counterintuitive tactic that can make it easier to pick up motion, however small, within a larger setting: Relax your eyes and let them unfocus slightly so that you are taking in the larger view as though through a soft wide-angle lens. By not focusing on any particular area, your eyes are more able to pick up movement in the entire field of vision. Once movement is detected, you can zero in on it with renewed focus. Most people don’t use their peripheral vision to its full ability and range. For instance, in dim light or at night it’s often easier to make out objects by shifting from a straight-on stare to peripheral scanning.

In many advanced martial arts systems a standard posture for multiple-attacker encounters (with attackers coming from both sides) is standing sideways to the assailants while looking slightly downward and ahead, maintaining soft, open focus (that is, not focusing on the ground or any other object). This expands your peripheral-vision range, letting you pick up any motion that occurs on either side, in front and well behind (though not directly in back of) your position. In effect it allows you to see in several directions at once. The same technique can be used in many danger, emergency, and survival situations and is worth experimenting with and practicing until you can use it at will.

Awareness training: The best survival schools these days include both conceptual and practical teaching in “awareness expansion” and ability. Most hunters probably aren’t going to put themselves through formal training, but there are a number of fairly simple tips that can help anyone develop better awareness. Step one is to become aware of your awareness. This means also becoming aware of your unaware lapses and tendencies. It’s very easy for the modern technologized human mind to drop into daydreams, frettings, distractions, and other semi-trancelike states. Catching yourself and shifting back into awareness mode is an essential training exercise. Another is consciously observing, which means timed periods of looking at small, even minute details that would be overlooked in normal unaware mode. An aid to this exercise is framing, wherein you impose an artificial (or actual) limiting frame on a section of reality and then examine it with slow and deliberate care, noticing things usually neglected such as textures, shade contrasts, color variations, patterns within patterns, and so on. Also try changing points-of-view periodically. Outdoors, we tend to mainly view the world from standing head-height, so alterations in physical perspective, such as getting lower and closer to the ground, or changing angles relative to the light source, can be surprisingly revealing (especially when tracking or trailing game, for instance), allowing you to see important details that might otherwise be missed.

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The fate of the rhino may rest on the decision of whether or not to allow commercial trade in rhino horn.

In the early twentieth century, there were an estimated half million rhinos on Earth. By 1970, there were approximately 70,000 and, today, only about 28,000 rhinos survive in the wild. All five species of rhinoceros are listed on the International Union for the Conservation of Nature’s (IUCN) Redlist, with three out of five species listed as “critically endangered.” Although these animals have roamed the earth for 40 million years, their fate is now inextricably tied to global trade decisions, one more indication of how much their world and the world of wildlife conservation itself have changed.

Humans, for medicinal and aesthetic reasons, have coveted rhinoceros horn for thousands of years; a lust for rhino horn is nothing new. In Greek mythology, rhino horn was believed to facilitate water purification. In the fifth century AD, ancient Persians believed the horn could be used to detect poisoned drinks. This belief found favor in the royal courts of Europe and persisted among Europe’s elite into the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. In China, the ornamental use of rhino horn dates back to at least the seventh century. In the sixteenth century, Chinese pharmacists prescribed dissolved rhino horn powder for snake bites, hallucinations, typhoid, headaches, vomiting, and “devil possession.” Of course, we now know these claims of medicinal powers for rhino horn are completely false. Currently, it is illegal to trade in rhino horn, though it remains more valuable per ounce than gold. According to IUCN’s African Rhino Specialist Group, since 2008, poachers have killed at least 5,940 African rhinos for their horns—nearly two animals per day on average. Despite intensified enforcement efforts, public awareness campaigns, global petitions, celebrity advocacy, increasing media attention, and political pressure, the situation with rhino poaching has reached a crisis point. It is likely that somewhere, as you read this, a dead or dying rhino is being defaced with a chainsaw for its horn.

Rhino horns are made of keratin, the same material found in human hair and fingernails. The center consists of dense calcium deposits and melanin that strengthen and protect the horn against sun exposure. While extensive testing has determined there is no medicinal value associated with its consumption, rhino horn remains a common and prized ingredient in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), which is now practiced in seventy countries outside China and Southeast Asia. In TCM, rhino horn is used in combination with Chinese herbs to reduce “hot blood,” balance body temperature, eliminate toxins, and reduce fevers. In 1993, the Chinese government banned trade in rhino horn as part of an ongoing effort to end the use of endangered species in traditional Chinese medicine. Taiwan and South Korea followed suit and also implemented bans. Despite this, many traditionalists continue to use rhino horn because their ancestors used it and reported success.

Cultural practices die hard, don’t they? However, even ancient Chinese medical texts suggest botanical substitutes for rhino horn in the manufacture of traditional remedies. To leverage this cultural alternative, partnerships between TCM practitioners and international conservation communities have grown in recent years. Many representatives are now working together to educate practitioners and consumers about the availability of acceptable substitutes for rhino horn. At the same time, they work to inform people of the conservation impacts of poaching and illegal trafficking of endangered animals.

While this strategy offers some hope for a decline in the use of rhino horn in traditional Chinese medicine, two new markets have recently emerged to reinvigorate demand, and both are concentrated in Vietnam. Just ten years ago, there was no evidence of rhino horn use in that country. However, in the last decade, the nation has experienced rapid economic growth, an increase in disposable income, and a rapid increase in cancer rates. Vietnam now appears to be the leading destination for illegal rhino horn, which is being promoted in that country as a cure for cancer. IUCN’s Wildlife Trade Monitoring Network, TRAFFIC, refers to this as a “sensational urban myth.” Rhino horn has also been popularized in Vietnam as a “hangover cure” for the nouveau riche, increasing its value as a status-conferring gift or bribe among Vietnam’s elite. While TRAFFIC does report arrests of Vietnamese nationals involved in illegal trade and pseudo-hunting of rhino in South Africa, no seizures of illegal rhino horn have been made in Vietnam itself since 2008, suggesting the country is doing little to police the illegal trade within its own borders. To emphasize this point, in 2010, the Javan rhino became extinct in Vietnam, the last known animal having been shot and its horn removed presumably to feed the illegal market flourishing there.

With a great international demand fueling a thriving black market, many have asked the question, “Why not make rhino horn trade legal? Regulate it, and render poachers and their illegal trade irrelevant.” After all, you don’t actually have to kill or even harm a rhinoceros to harvest its horn. It typically takes less than ten minutes to safely dehorn a tranquilized rhino and the horn grows back and can then be trimmed or harvested regularly, typically every twelve to twenty-four months. Furthermore, dehorning is, in itself, an effective disincentive to poachers. So, legal horn trade and rhino conservation would seem to make perfect partners.

International trade in rhino horn was a hot topic at this year’s CITES Convention of the Parties (CoP). CITES is the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Flora and Fauna. Established in 1975, it represents a binding international agreement established between 175 countries whose aim is to ensure that international trade in wild animals and plants remains sustainable and does not threaten their survival. CITES imposed its first global ban on international trade in rhino horn in 1977.

In October this year, at CITES CoP17, Swaziland, a small and financially strapped African nation, proposed reopening its trade in rhino horn. The country presented a plan that included the immediate sale of 700 pounds of its stockpiled rhino horn, which would generate an estimated income of $10 million USD, followed by subsequent sales of 44 pounds per year during each year to follow. According to the plan, 44 pounds per year could easily be harvested from live rhinoceroses as part of ongoing antipoaching (dehorning) efforts. Without monetizing its rhino horn stocks, Swaziland pointed out, it might soon be unable to continue its antipoaching measures.

Despite the fact that most rhino range countries, like South Africa, Namibia, and Zimbabwe were in support, many wildlife advocates condemned the idea and a strong majority rejected Swaziland’s proposal. Moreover, CITES members voted to reject all proposals to sell rhino horn (and elephant ivory), whether seized from poachers, obtained through natural deaths, euthanasia of problem animals, or harvesting from live animals. Why? Because many conservation groups share the view that any legal trade would stimulate demand, allow legal trade in horn to provide cover for illicit trade and thus complicate law enforcement efforts. They further point to well-known political corruption in a number of selling and buying countries, and express strong doubts that legal regulation is even possible.
Advocates for legal trade argue differently, insisting that rhino horn is a renewable resource. They believe legalizing international trade would entirely undermine the black market, establish legitimate use and trade, promote economic growth, and positively impact human livelihoods in some of the world’s poorest countries, and do all this without negative conservation consequences. If the sale of horn were legal, advocates argue, rhino ranching would yield more profit per hectare than any other form of agriculture, thus safeguarding wildlife habitat, while simultaneously producing incentives and funding for conservation efforts. Those who are pro-trade also cite advances in DNA technology, which now make it possible to track a horn or its parts from rhino to consumer, thus increasing the likelihood of effective monitoring and trade regulation.

Both sides make compelling arguments.  And while both sides also agree that more law enforcement is needed, both agree that enforcement alone is not enough. We need something more and that something is an incentive to keep living rhinos with us; not incentives to poach them. Sustainable use and legal trade have proven manageable and effective incentives globally for conserving many wildlife species. Why not for rhinos?  Trading their horn legally may be a tough choice for some, but may well be our only hope. Losing our fight to save rhinos is no choice of all.

It’s hard to go wrong when you choose between America’s most beloved cartridges.

Yes, it’s absolutely true that I’m a magnum sort of guy, what you might call a “magniac”—at least in certain applications. In the big, open mountains of Asia you will frequently find me carrying a fast .30-caliber. In open country I might make the same choice for the full run of African plains game. On the other hand, for most whitetail hunting you’ll probably find me carrying a 7×57, and recommending its modern equivalent, the mild-mannered 7mm-08 Remington, to my kids and yours.

Among American deer hunters the 6mms and .25s have strong followings, and thanks to the 6.5mm Creedmoor’s sudden popularity, the 6.5mms (.264-caliber) are gaining ground. But if you wrap together the dozens of deer-size game animals and include the occasional elk and black bear, then the most sensible cartridge spectrum probably lies between the 7mm-08 and the magnum .30s. Within that broad range there are two time-honored cartridges that remain among our most popular. This is not just tradition: It’s because they work. They are, of course, the .270 Winchester and the .30-06 Springfield.

Lasting popularity has its benefits. Everybody loads both .270 Winchester and .30-06 ammo, so there is a wide selection of bullets and loads, available in most retail outlets.

Introduced in 1925, the .270 is 92 years old; the ’06 is 111. Despite the many cartridges that have come (and gone) both remain among our most popular sporting cartridges. Sheer popularity is an asset: All manufacturers load both cartridges, any outlet that sells ammo will have them on the shelves, and both are offered in a wide array of bullet weights and designs. But which one should you have? Legendary gunwriter Jack O’Connor was the great champion of the .270, to such an extent that it’s widely believed today that it was the only cartridge he used. That’s far from the truth; he used a lot of cartridges—and he was also a fan of the .30-06. From 1925 until the end of his life he generally had both. He loved his sheep hunting and the .270 became his personal talisman. He would never admit it in print, but in a letter to Ken Elliott he conceded that the .30-06 was a more versatile cartridge. I agree with that. Since 1976 I’ve usually had at least one of each, and although the .270 is only a .30-06 case necked down to take a .277-inch bullet, I see them as having distinct differences and applications.

Both are excellent deer cartridges. The .270 has adequate power for any deer that walks, and the .30-06 probably carries some overkill. The .270 shoots flatter and has quite a bit less recoil. The .30-06 carries heavier bullets of greater frontal area, and packs significantly greater punch. So, much as I hate to admit it, the older I get the more I think Professor O’Connor was right all along: The .270 is an ideal cartridge for sheep hunting. Wild sheep are not extremely tough creatures; the .270 is plenty powerful, shoots flat, and because its lighter bullets develop less recoil, it can be built into a lighter rifle without punishing its owner. We can all agree the .270 is a great cartridge for deer and mountain game. When I was much younger I questioned its suitability for elk, but that was silly. Of course you can take elk with a .270. O’Connor did, and my wife, Donna, and I both have. You can also take moose with a .270, and in a pinch, good-size bears. In his heart of hearts I don’t think even O’Connor considered the .270 an ideal choice for grizzlies, but over the years he took several grizzlies with his .270s because they were incidental to sheep hunting and that’s what he was carrying. I was hunting with my buddy Mike Satran in Yukon in 1999. He was hunting sheep with his .270 and used it to take a fine grizzly. It charged the horses and he stopped it. Elk, moose, bears: The .30-06 with heavier bullets is an even better tool.

Jack O’Connor with one of his rams, taken with his pet “Number Two” .270. While it’s true he used a .270 for most of his wild sheep, it’s also true that most of his early rams were taken with a .30-06. He owned and used several .30-06s throughout his career.

In Africa the .270 isn’t nearly as popular as it is over here. It is an excellent cartridge for, let’s say, “medium plains game” up to perhaps zebra. Donna has used hers quite a bit, and I’ve carried a .270 as the “light rifle” on several safaris. It accounted for one of my sitatungas in Zambia, and it’s been useful on open plains and floodplains where a bit of reach is handy. However, because of Africa’s great variety the .30-06 is a better plains game cartridge. It made its bones on the Roosevelt safari with 220-grain round-nose bullets. It was Hemingway’s preference in 1933, and was Ruark’s light rifle on the Horn of the Hunter safari in 1952. Today we have much better bullets. The 220-grain load is almost obsolete, and there isn’t much one can’t do with a .30-06 and a good 180-grain bullet.

In the 1950s Grancel Fitz became the first person to take all North American species. A generation later my friend J.Y. Jones accomplished the feat, documented in One Man, One Rifle, One Land. Both used .30-06 rifles across the board. This means not only the big bears and bison, but our four North American wild sheep and the Rocky Mountain goat are also included. The .270 shoots flatter, but in these days of fast magnums it’s important to point out that the .30-06 is not just a powerful cartridge; with the right bullets and loads it shoots flat enough for most hunting applications. With carefully developed handloads or “extra-fast” loads like Hornady’s Superformance, the .30-06 can exceed 3,000 feet per second (fps) with 150-grain bullets; 2,900 fps with 165-grain bullets; and 2,800 fps with 180-grain bullets. These speeds almost reach the territory of the .30-caliber short magnums (RCM, RSAUM, WSM), and aren’t all that far behind the .300 Winchester Magnum. As our second magnum era progresses—along with the current fascination for long-range shooting—these are facts we (including me) need to remember.

I will go along with O’Connor’s private summation that the .30-06 is more versatile than the .270: Better for larger North American game and better for the full run of African plains game. On the other hand, the .270 is probably a better all-round deer cartridge, better for sheep and goats, and probably the most perfect pronghorn cartridge. So it depends on your needs; for my purposes I can’t imagine not having at least one of each on hand.

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Sports Afield once had an official “Liar’s Club!”

In the 1930s and 1940s, the Sports Afield “Liar’s Club” was an enormously popular part of the magazine. On the back page of every issue, readers would share the most outlandish tall tales they could come up with. The readers whose stories were chosen received an official “membership” in the Liar’s Club, complete with membership card and official letter. This official member of the Liar’s Club was inducted in 1942, according to the postmark on the envelope.

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A rural African community struggles to maintain its wildlife in the wake of a hunting ban.

What happens to rural African communities, and the wildlife that surrounds them, when safari hunting goes away? For many years, the hunting sector has supported wildlife initiatives in rural Africa with anti poaching efforts, schools, clinics, and village development programs. Without this support, communities often flounder and resort to poaching wildlife to supply their nutritional needs and sell for income.

One example of a community struggling with such a transition is the Xhauxhwatubi Development Trust (XDT), based in Phuduhudu Village in Botswana. For years, this community has held the lease for the Phuduhudu Concession, an area of more than 1,000 square kilometers, which has a small hunting quota. Through this, they were able to generate revenue from the sale of the hunting quota, providing funds for community and village development.

But in 2013, the Botswana government imposed a hunting moratorium on state land, which is still effective in 2017, and the main source of income to Phuduhudu Village was cut off. The community, along with many like it, continues to lobby the Botswana government to bring back a hunting quota for key species, including elephants. Human/elephant conflict in the region has reached an all-time high, with many rural communities calling on the government to reintroduce elephant hunting to provide compensation for crop damage and loss of human life, to provide protein for the village, and to generate funds for the community.

So far, this hasn’t happened, so the communities are working on ways to initiate their own commitment to managing their concession areas and implement small-scale conservation efforts. Funding for the efforts isn’t coming from the government, so the communities are looking to outside sources. If funds can be found relatively quickly, the community hopes to be able to continue its conservation efforts and maintain the wildlife diversity in the area. The most crucial part of this is the need to develop and maintain water sources for wildlife–something that the hunting operators used to do and that has been neglected since hunting was stopped.

The elephants in the Phuduhudu concession are part of the migratory system between key elephant habitats in the Chobe, the Okavango, and Zimbabwe. Development of water sources would not only help wildlife, it would help validate the communities’ future role in conservation and management in the coming years. Without these infrastructure developments, communities are more likely to lose their concessions to private tourism-sector developments, or, worse, resort to other land uses, such as mining and cattle farming, which will displace the wildlife entirely.

The villager of Phuduhudu are appealing to the international hunting community, especially the many clients who were fortunate enough to have hunted elephants in Botswana when it was still open. They’re asking for emergency funding to provide water and other management infrastructure such as road networks and anti poaching camps within the concession to maintain wildlife diversity, restore habitat, and ensure continued community ownership of concessions where safari hunting was, and still is, an appropriate conservation practice.

The donations needed range from $1,800, which buys a water tank and stand, to $2,000, which buys a solar panel and submersible pump. Well-known Botswana trophy expeditor Debbie Peake is working with the Xhauxhwatubi Development Trust to help facilitate this initiative. Hunters who would like to help should contact her at [email protected] for information.

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Famous female hunters have long walked the game trails of the world.

Surveys by the National Shooting Sports Foundation and the National Sporting Goods Association show that 3.3 million women hunted in 2012, compared to just over 3 million in 2008. That growth of nearly 300,000 represents a 10 percent increase in just four years. This continues a decade-long trend–from 2006 to 2011, the percentage of female hunters jumped from 9.6 percent of all hunters to 11 percent. Programs to introduce women to hunting and shooting deserve part of the credit, as do more and more manufacturers who are designing products especially for women.

This is great news, but the fact is women hunters are not a new phenomenon. There is a long and proud tradition of female hunters and shooters, both in the United States and elsewhere, who have held their own and often exceeded the accomplishments of their male counterparts.

Most of us know the story of the great sharpshooter Annie Oakley. Born into poverty in 1860 in western Ohio, Annie began trapping before the age of seven, and she was shooting and hunting by age eight to support her siblings and her widowed mother. She sold the game she killed to local shopkeepers and to restaurants and hotels in Cincinnati and northern Ohio. At age fifteen, the revenues from her shooting skills paid off the mortgage on her mother’s farm.

Her prowess was well known in the region, and in 1875 a local hotelier arranged a shooting match between Annie and the traveling show marksman Frank Butler when Butler bet him $100 ($2,155 in today’s dollars) that he could beat any local shooter. Butler lost the match and the bet, married Annie, and the rest is history.

Paulina Brandreth, a deer hunter, naturalist, and photographer from the Adirondacks, held her own with the finest deer hunters and outdoor writers of the late 1800s and early 1900s. She began writing for Forest and Stream magazine in 1894, at the tender age of nine. Her articles were credited to “Camp Good Enough, Brandreth Lake,” which was a deer camp owned by her grandfather. Later, she wrote under the pen name Paul Brandreth, and in 1930 published one of the first major books on white-tailed deer hunting, Trails of Enchantment. Paulina was a passionate and skilled still-hunter of whitetail bucks, and she often went afield with other well-known nimrods of the day, including Roy Chapman Andrews, General “Black Jack” Pershing, and Reuben Cary.

Across the Atlantic, a number of adventurous and well-heeled women of the Edwardian period were pursuing the most exotic of worldwide hunting adventures. An amazing Englishwoman named Lady Catherine Minna Jenkins, who was married to a judge in Bombay, had already taken five tigers in India and a variety of game in Somalia when she decided to hunt in Tibet in 1906. Her husband was too busy to accompany her, so she went alone. During her solo shaker in some of the most difficult mountains in the world, she shot seventeen game animals, including blue sheep, Tibetan argali, gazelles, urial, barasingha, ibex, and marcher. She recounted her adventures in Sport and Travel in Both Tibets, published in 1909.

Two cousins, Englishwomen Agnes and Cecily Herbert, undertook fantastic hunting adventures that took them to Alaska, the Caucasus, and Africa in the years between 1906 and 1911. They formed and organized their own expeditions, some of them solo and others with companions, and Agnes, a journalist, wrote a book about each excursion. Agnes’s comment at the beginning of her book Two Dianas in Alaska is classic: “My friend shudders at my slaying a rhinoceros, but manages to eat part of an unfortunate sheep immediately afterwards. I wonder if the good lady’s words ring true. She may be right, and books on sport and adventure are only for men and boys, the sterner sex. If, therefore, you, reader o’ mine, should regard all forms of taking life as unwomanly, read no more… We went to Alaska to shoot, and–we shot.”

When it comes to guts, though, it’s hard to match the famous Osa Johnson. As she and her husband, Martin, filmed groundbreaking footage of Africa’s wildlife in the 1920s and 1930s, essentially inventing the wildlife documentary, it often fell to Osa to fearlessly stop charging lions and elephants with her 9.3×62 Mauser. Her autobiography, I Married Adventure, was the bestselling nonfiction book of 1940, and three-quarters of a century later, it’s still an exciting read.

Women have a long and proud tradition in the world of hunting, and there’s no doubt all of these adventurous women would be pleased to know that it continues today.

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