I bought a Primos ground blind & included with it was a DVD. One segment had them hunting Giraffe in Africa with a bow. The 1st shot was face on in the chest @ 60 yards. They claim this is the shot you want because the ribs on a broadside shot are huge and not great for shot placement. The second shot was broadside @ 50 yards and then claim this was great shot placement. I was a little confused. Besides the broadside shot and the largeness of the ribs they also state the hide is about 1" thick. Can anyone tell me the proper way and what the shot placement is on a giraffe? Does anyone have an experience hunting this animal. They needed to cull this giraffe claiming it crushed some houses & was killing livestock.... I never heard of this ...are they really that aggressive? Thanks for all and any input.

I hunted giraffe to be used as bait on a lion hunt in Africa a few years ago. I can confirm that the hide is at least an inch thick. It took three shots from a .416 and one from a .458 to finally bring it down. They are an extremely tough animal. I cannot comment on the aggresiveness of them as I have never heard it commented on. I do know they can do serious damage by swinging the neck.

By far the best game meat I have ever tasted.

I remember hearing that they have the same number of neck vertebrae as we do. Is that correct?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C7HCIGFdBt8

The big dark spotted stink bulls can be downright mean. And they are tough to kill. Many PH's reccomend a hunter use his plains game rifle but with a shot to the first neck vertebrae where it joins with the skull. I have seen this shot take down very quickly a very big old male girraffe. Yes, they have seven neck vertebrea, just like us and just like a field mouse.

laffin'

I hadn't heard of many giraffe attacks. If you want to hunt giraffe, save the time and expense of going to Africa and just shoot the neighbors milk cow.

I would imagine the sensation would be the same.

And it's spelled with just one "r".

Not likely to make the "dangerous game" list then?

Yeah guys, Giraffe can be quite aggressive. You dont want to be on the end of a kick, otherwise you will be the one off to the taxidermy.
Not difficult to hunt, but shot placement could be tricky, even more so with a bow.

They also use thier strong head/neck area as a lethal weapon. Being on the receiving end of that would be a lights out forever deal as well. Not trying to put them in the DG area, and I have had opportunity to kill hundreds without doing so but they can be dangerous if dealt with carelessly. Big old bulls do have an aggressive and mean side for sure.

I shot one, with a 300 grain Barnes banded solid in a .375. One shot though the base of the neck and it went straight down. It seemed to take forever to die, even with a couple shots to speed up the process. Strange.I had intended to go with a heart/lung shot, but the way it played out there was clear shot at the neck or brush obstructed shot at the neck. Giraffe are different than everything else, the vitals are in front of the shoulder.

I've shot 4 buffalo, elephant, grizzly and a couple hundred assorted critters. Since none were chargeing, and most weren't actively fleeing at the time, I suppose you could say that they all resembled milk cows in that regard.
I'd shoot another, if it were big and black and trophy fees reasonable.

I've seen a couple Giraffe rugs. Covers a lot of space, and looks nice.

Since I expect to kill one for bait in 2012, I intend to tan the hide and use it as a rug in the trophy room.

Just curious - giraffe for bait?

Lioness

how's the neck roasts?

I bet you could make a lot of biltong!
whelennut

Giraffe meat was great! However, all the pieces I got did seem a little long.

Thanks.

Knowing next to nothing about africa, I have to ask:

Does giraffe yield any advantage (prefered meat for lions)?

Seems there would / should be alot more "common" species readily available for bait.

Not flaming here - genuine interest.

IIRC Girafes are the national animal of Tanzania for example.

prolly cause its alot of meat, a bull giraffe will out weight a cape buffalo.....

Exactly

A pride of lions (and the other predators that are attracted to the bait) can put away a lot of meat....

Much more economical and less time consuming to string up quarters and large chunks from large animals (Giraffe, Buff, Hippo, Zebra) than numerous Impala and other small antelopes.

rong,

Long.



John

Exactly right.We got five lion baits out of one giraffe. Thats a lot cheaper than shooting two cow buffalo

Thanks for the explanations. Learn something every day.

There is a book called perfect shots or something like that which has pictures of game animals that show the locations of the vital organs. One for Africa and one for north america.

The Perfect Shot by Kevin Robertson. The pictures are anatomical drawings superposed over actual photos. More interesting to me however, was the anatomical and physiological discussions. The author is a vetrinarian and PH. He is a very pleasant man to spend the evening with over the campfire, and like most of us, quite opinionated.

Buy any of his books, they are worth the read.

Randy

well lets put it this way then....easy to kill? Lions don't hunt them unless they're sick or injured as a general rule! They are very tough and thick skinned. Back in 1977, one kicked the radiator clean outta my land rover having first kicked it into the fan which stopped the engine! I had thought to give it a ankle nudge to get it off the runway! Like a milk cow? not! In places where they're hunted regularly, they become very wary and with their height can be difficult to approach. The heart lung area is much higher in the chest than imagined...check out the African Hunting shot placement book. I found the best place to drop them was on the neck vertebrae with a .375>. That anchored it....they can run forever it seems when wounded! getting a second shot into a poorly wounded giraffe is tough! Nice trophy tho! One client did it as a half mount..like walking thru the wall! very cool!