SDL Custom Firearm Emporium: May 3

Africa!

My wife took this picture while on one of my hunts..(not for Rhino)...she jumped off the Safari Vehicle and started taking pictures...the Rhino was less than 20 yards away. She thought She was safe because I had a gun...misplaced bravery on her part!

Back before computers became ubiquitous and background checks were required to purchase shaving crème I engaged in my great deceit…I lied about my age to get a job.

I was sixteen at the time and I wanted to get a job at Disneyland. Specifically I wanted to get a job as a Jungle Cruise skipper at Disneyland….you had to be eighteen to get that gig so I did what any enterprising young lad would do….I tried my best to look eighteen.

So…I scored the job and began a short career driving a boat around an artificial jungle and shooting a .38 revolver with blanks at charging plastic hippos. From this artificial Petri dish was born a burning desire to some day, some how, get to Africa and shoot something that had less Plexiglas.

Twenty years later My daughter and I were at a Safari Club fundraiser watching a live auction.

These are pretty interesting experiences. For the most part whenever you see habitat restoration projects, biological diversity studies or even game wardens in the wild, the funds to make these things available usually start at these auctions. It works like this…an outfitter donates a hunt to the fundraiser. They hope in doing so they generate interest in their operation, and hopefully the hunter that comes will purchase additional tags beyond what was donated. The hunters at the fundraiser then bid on the hunt creating a “mini” market that sets it’s own price,…sometimes much lower than the published price…sometimes, ironically higher…especially if a bidding war ensues between a couple of hunters that have been spending too much time at the open bar. Regardless,…when the winner is announced they pay the winning amount directly to the fundraiser. Those proceeds then go directly into those wildlife projects I mentioned earlier.

So…back to the live auction. This was my second experience being at one of these things and like a cattle auction they can be pretty intimidating. An African hunt came up and the auctioneer could not get anyone to give an opening bid. I glanced at my daughter and tried to figure out why no one was bothering to bid on this thing. I knew that the cost of a hunt like this was somewhere around $10K and the auctioneer kept going lower trying to get some interest. Finally when it bottomed out at $1K I threw up my hand. Someone raised it to $1200, I countered at $1400…and ended up winning. I looked at my daughter with surprise….holy crap I just got my reason to finally go to Africa! Now....I thought to myself…what the hell do I tell your mother when we get home.

My wife Sandy has always longed to go to Europe, or back to Asia…she had never shown any interest in Africa. When I told her we were going she was less than thrilled. Ever the trooper though she was more that willing to come along.

Since our kids were, in our opinion too young to come with us, Sandy’s folks moved in to baby sit while we were gone. The day came and off we went to the Dark Continent.

I’m not going to lie to you…the flight is brutal…roughly 27 hours of air travel. But man…once you arrive! When you tell a hunter that you are going to Africa for the first time be prepared for a long conversation to ensue. They want to give you advice on everything…and pay attention! Most of it ends up being pretty damn useful. They also…to a hunter…all tell you the same thing: “When you get on the plane to come home, the only thing you will be thinking about is how to arrange a trip back”.

Frankly I didn’t believe all the hype. Don’t get me wrong I was excited…but I didn’t really see it as a life changing experience I was about to embark on. Just a really cool trip that I had wanted to do for years.

Well…they are right.

Even my wife fell in love with the place. We were in KwaZulu Natal…about 3 hours north of Durban in South Africa. Everywhere you look you see animals. Sandy was with me almost everyday scouting from the back of the Safari truck.

When we learned that my guides’ wife was a teacher in a very very small boarding school we decided to arrange donations of books and games. So,…we hauled a ton of stuff half way around the world, and one of the days that my guide and I hunted, his wife and Sandy went to the school to donate the stuff. Without a doubt that experience was Sandy’s favorite.

Would I hunt Africa again? In a heartbeat. Would I put off hunting the Artic, or Mongolia to hunt Africa?....that is a tough one. We have bucket lists for a reason,…and we need to diligently check things off….but I can tell you one thing….I will be going back again!

Sandy took this picture too....ummm...this one is not plastic.