CRS,
I just received an e-mail from Kevin Thomas, who was the PH on the springbok cull Chub and I and several other guys went on in 2002. In fact Chub helped organize the hunt, which was offered by a booking-agent friend of his in Oregon. He mentioned it to me at the SHOT Show that winter, and was such a good deal that I said yes.
The hunt took place on a huge ranch in the Karoo region of RSA, and we could take trophies as well as cull animals--though had to pay the regular fee for the trophies. (I eventually took my biggest springbok for a surprisingly modest trophy fee.)
The first day was successful, and everybody was celebrating somewhat--though Chub didn't shoot, because his rifle hadn't shown up at the airport in Johannesburg. Somebody else had brought a spare .270, and offered it to Chub until his rifle was delivered to the ranch. He said not just no, but hell no. One of his early jobs in the business was working for a sporting goods store in Lewiston, Idaho, where O'Connor was a customer--and he did not like Jack. (Don't know if Chub ever tried a .270, but do know he loved both the .280 and .280 AI--and in fact gave me some good advice on handloading the .280 when I got my first, a custom rifle made by the late Dave Gentry, who Chub knew too.)
Now for the rest of the story: Chub's rifle never did show up during the week-long Karoo hunt, because it had taken the wrong flight out of Washington, D.C., though it made it to Joberg some days later, it was held there by SAPS until the mess was straightened out, arriving home three weeks after Chub did. In the meantime I'd done all the field-testing I needed to with one of the two rifles I'd brought, a Ruger No. 1 .375 H&H--which was the main reason Chub asked me if I wanted to go on the hunt, to field-test some new Nosler .375 bullets. I did--but also brought a .30-06 which afterward needed to be tested for various reasons. So Chub took over my .375 in preference to using the "damned .270" for the rest of the week.
The other thing that happened was Kevin Thomas and I really hit it off. Plus, he was just starting a brand-new safari business in RSA, where he had some relatives, after Kevin and his wife Brenda decided to get the hell out of Zimbabwe--where they'd been living and running a safari business for years. Kevin didn't have another safari booked after the Karoo cull, so invited me to spend another week with him and Brenda in their home in Bathurst, near Port Elizabeth--and we could do some hunting on local ranches for the typical array of Eastern Cape animals, including Cape kudu. I didn't have anything pressing at home, so contacted Eileen and said it was another great deal, and she said sure. (This sort of thing has happened a few other times during our 40 years, and she's always understood.)
So Kevin and I hunted some more, and I got a good Cape kudu and bushbuck. We also did some touristing, and when a rifle company wanted to do a similar (but longer) cull-type hunt a few years later, I asked Kevin if he could arrange it. He did, a 3-week deal on the big family ranch of an old friend near Grahamstown, which was a success. (Eileen got to go on that one.)
But a few years ago Kevin and Brenda decided to semi-retire, as the future in RSA didn't look all that great either. (He's 71, a year older than I am.) They moved to England, for a couple of reasons. First, one of their sons grew up to be a top-notch custom gunmaker, working for one of the major, old-time British companies for a while before establishing his own shop. Second, Brenda was born and raised in Malawi, the daughter of a British missionary, and had dual citizenship. They bought one of the "canal boats" quite a few people live on over there, and Kevin continues to write some, as well as paint wildlife-type stuff. (He was painting--and selling his paintings--when I met him, which is why we have a couple on our walls.)
Hopefully in our semi-retirements we'll all get together again sometime, either over there or here. He's actually been to my part of Montana before, while attending the big winter hunting shows over here, and is also acquainted with a local rancher.
