Richard:
�Does this mean you've never heard of any such case or you don't have the name to the case?�
I have heard of several second, third and fourth hand �stories� of US guys getting caught violating RSA and NAM firearm caliber hunting limits. To the tellers� knowledge they just resulted in local fines or bribes and local confiscation of the trophy and meat. The tellers� didn�t relate if there was any US prosecution or not. Still doesn�t remove the �possibility� of it as remote or unlikely as it might seem. Just like I�ve heard �stories� of guys bribing game scouts in Zim because they shot and wounded buffalo and elephant and other assorted game that where never recovered so they could still fill their tag. Can I personally �verify� any of those stories, no.
Or a story about a PH that offered 100% guaranteed success on leopard hunts. His racket supposedly was that he would live trap leopard for the local cattle ranchers and moved them to holding pens. When a �client� showed up he�d make a big show of baiting and sitting in blinds for a few days and then near the end of the �hunt� he would tell his workers to go drug a cat and have it laying in the sun high up on a kopje or tree limb they had been baiting at a specific time. PH and �client� would just happen to drive by this area a little bit after this specified time and the PH would just happen to �spot the cat asleep� and the client should shoot it right away. How the �cat got out of the bag� so to speak was the PH got drunk at a public event and started bragging about how stupid his last �client� (American) was. He said the cat was set up high on a kopje with his head and front quarters showing. They drive by, he tells the client to hurry up and shoot before his leopard gets away. The client cleanly misses the cat with his first two shots, one over his head and the other the rock directly under and he finally hits it with his third. Did I see this actual event happen? No. Did I hear this first hand from the PH�s mouth? No. Did it actually truly happen? You decide.
Just above a poster says he was in ZIM and was offered the game rangers 338 for a PAC elephant and was recently in Namibia and hunters were shooting eland with a 25-06 camp rifle. Did I personally see it, no. Does that mean it didn�t happen just as he describes? No. Are either of these examples in compliance with the respective countries published game laws? I don�t believe so. Do I personally care what they did or didn�t do? No. Their choices and actions are their responsibility and none of my concern.
To your second question regarding ethics and 60� kudu and bongo me holding a .243. Short answer is no. Primary reason is I've already taken a 60" kudu in 100% compliance with the Namibian game laws. PM me with your email address and I'll email you a photo along with a copy of the Namibian Fields Gold Medal cert with the measurement. Second, you might think I splitting hairs and that is fine, but you didn�t say what country I was in and while it may not make a difference to others it does to me. So, kudu � IF I was in NAM, ZIM, or RSA me personally no. Other countries maybe depending on distance and shot angle and bullet type (cup & core or TSX). Bongo � Since you didn�t specify the county and since they are normally �found� in central African countries and the only ones I have info on I�ve posted above, my response would be ETH yes, and I don�t know into which class they specifically fall in CAR and I have no idea what the hunting laws are in DRC or any of the other countries they �normally� are found. In those, if I was going to hunt in those countries I would try to do some research on the laws before hand and hopefully have the conversation/email exchange with my PH regarding the laws before I got there. Last though on the point � I�m not sure I would personally take a .243 at all. If there is a possibility of any kind of DG in the area I personally would take a rifle of .375 larger anyway so the odds of me personally even having a .243 in my hands is nil.
I posted my opinion, I provided a summery sheet of the various countries that I had info on and I provided a hard link directly to the Namibian MET web site so everyone could read the laws directly for themselves. I can also prove a copy of the current RSA Norms & Standards for hunting in pdf format and probably find the link directly to the RSA govt website I pulled them from when they were officially published in 2011. I have those documents and links to those two countries because that is where I have hunted in the past and intend to continue hunting in the future.
I�ve posted the info for those whom may not even be aware regulations even exist. What �actually goes on� in each country, I really don�t care nor have any control over. My hunting ethics are mine and mine alone. I don�t really care if anybody else agrees with me or not. I really don�t care if anybody else makes a personal choice to follow the laws of a foreign country they are hunting in or not. For those that might opine that a foreign countries hunting laws are inconsequential and can be either complied with or disregarded as they themselves or their PH see fit � fine. I would hope those same individuals will have the same views regarding foreign hunters coming here with the same attitude about personally deciding which of our hunting/game laws they decide to follow or not.
Last two comments I intend to make on this thread. My grandfather once told me when he first took me hunting at age 10. He said, �always remember, everything you have in your life can be taken away from you except one thing, your integrity. That you and you alone chose to loose.� The last is the old axiom that the definition of �character� is doing the right thing even when nobody is looking. Have I always lived up to those, no. Do I still try, yes. What everyone else does and the choices they make are on them.
To all, good hunting wherever you go and however you decide to it.
