While hunting in Namibia last October I was offered the opportunity to hunt giraffe. I had previously had no interest in hunting giraffe, ever. But I was there, and the opportunity was there, so I started asking questions. The giraffe on this property were descendants of individuals that moved in on their own a couple decades ago when the property was converted from cattle ranch to game. They had flourished, unlike giraffe in many "unregulated" areas of their African range where poaching is a problem. Soon the herd increased to the point where the property was able to offer trophy bull giraffe hunts. A few clients took them up on that, and the giraffe trophy fees helped make the property profitable, paid some of the staff wages, and helped the entire operation become more viable. Then more recently a terrible drought occurred, the worst in recorded history. There were about 85-90 giraffe on land that could only support 25-30 of them long term, and maybe not even that many in the drought. So many giraffe had to be culled. Culled carcasses were being sold by the landowner to a local butcher for meat, mostly sausage and biltong. It was under this circumstance that I was offered a cull giraffe hunt for a low fee. So we went giraffe hunting. I got a surprise right off the start. It was quite easy to find some giraffe, they stood out in the thin bushland if you searched with binoculars from a high hill. But finding the right old barren cow or young bull and then stalking into sure range for my scope equipped .450-400 3" Nitro express double rifle was not at all easy. We hunted from early morning to late afternoon, and tried about 5 or 6 unsuccessful stalks. The small groups of giraffe were very skilled at spotting us approach, and once alerted, we found it impossible to close the gap as they moved off. I eventually swapped my big double for a more precise 9.3x62 that I was confident shooting at 200 M or more. In late afternoon, we tried another unsuccessful stalk on a very old cow. Busted. Again. As they moved off, a young bull just moving between locations happened to come up behind us. "Bird in the hand, better than one in the bush" and all that, I quickly got on him and made a good shot at about 170M. It was a interesting and satisfying experience. I helped out the game managers, and took nothing home but the memories, which was good enough for me. Whether a giraffe is a "trophy" or not is in the eye of the beholder. But I enjoyed my hunt and would recommend you consider hunting giraffe with an open mind. Depending on the situation, a giraffe hunt may or may not be for you.
