Avoiding Shooting Your Professional Hunter in the Back

[Jfet]

Could this technique be applied to DG hunting as well?

 

[Tokoloshe Safaris]

Do what y

 

[Tokoloshe Safaris]

Sorry sent in error meant to send.

Discuss this video with your PH and do as your PH tells you to do. Remember he is going to have shooting sticks sent up exactly where he wants you.

 

[Tally-Ho HUNTING SAFARIS]

Listen to your ph and no one will shoot each other!!!
U think you know better, someone will get hurt.

 

[PARA45]

Watch the muzzle of your rifle at all times.

 

[Jfet]

Discuss this video with your PH and do as your PH tells you to do. Remember he is going to have shooting sticks sent up exactly where he wants you.

Thanks for your response. I should have given more detail. I was envisioning the situation where the DG charges unexpectedly. The client has several options. They can stand and watch. They can turn and run or they can assist in stopping the charge. In my DG hunting experience, though my PH’s are some of the best, what is expected of me during a charge has never been discussed. If a charge occurs, what do you want me to do I will do it. What do PH’s want their clients to do on a charge? How and when does a PH discuss and practice their plan?

1st Rule in a DG Hunt: Everyone comes back alive. The PH is in absolute charge. Hunter must follow all directions without question or hesitation.

 

[AimSmall]

Might work if everyone took the same class. Likely, the PH and his team have trained together for years. Do as the PH says.

 

[Inline6]

I'm not a PH and I'm not SF, have done some training with both.

As someone who has watched a lot of film, their are to many variables to know. Is it a mock charge and we as clients get trigger happy? So many things to go wrong, personally I would hope I could read the situation. PH says what needs to happen, if the PH were to be the one attacked. I hope and pray I would have the mindset and reflexes to do something about it.

At the end of the day the PH is accountable for every bullet fired along with everyones safety. The person pulling the trigger is accountable for where each bullet goes.

 

[Ontario Hunter]

There are scores if not hundreds of African hunting videos on YouTube with scary examples of how not to do things. There's a few buffalo shows with the same clown dinging a bull and then taking off running after it leaving PH and cameraman behind. More than once ... with same PH! Client should have been lined out ... or laid out with the butt end of PH's double rifle.

I always stay immediately behind my PH during a stalk so only one profile is presented to game. Typically, my rifle has an empty chamber (though my PH doesn't insist on it ... but he knows I've been hunting for almost sixty years). For buffalo it is loaded on a stalk when we are close, but the muzzle is always down and away, whatever I'm stalking. Very careful. Many videos show hunters gun in hand following PH with gun pointed at his back. Empty chamber or not, that doesn't cut it! Cameraman should have said something and then edited it out.

Never move up till PH tells you to. That's kinda common sense. Keep movement to a minimum and stay out of the way so PH can do his job. In North America I almost always hunt alone and find my own game. Africa is not North America and I respect that the PH has a job to do. Respecting him is, of course, primarily a safety issue, but also I feel obligated to help him provide for his family. Or at least avoid causing problems that can hurt his professional advancement.

 

[channelkat]

Interesting subject and appreciate reading the responses of professionals/ veterans. All I have seen of Africa has been on television/ youtube. I expect no problem with my muzzle discipline or following my PH's instructions when I finally make it to Africa.

I have to say though from my limited observations (again TV) I developed a perception that muzzle control in the bush was not near as strict as how I was brought up. I have even seen PH's I know are well respected have very sloppy rifle handling (flagging) that made me cringe. Is my perception off?

 

[mark-hunter]

Could this technique be applied to DG hunting as well?

In most cases in Africa, stick is being used as rifle rest.
Untrained person, using cqb technique does not sound good to me.
And even if trained: I know a swat guy, whose buddy fired a 308 win shot during training - arm to arm beside him, just little bit back, and deafened him for a week.
Hunting is not cqb.

Keep muzzle away from all persons in the team during hunt.

Basically, hunters with home hunting experience and safety habits go hunting to Africa.
Dont change your good safety habits, to cqb, just because going to Africa.
All you need to do, is keep your safety habits, and train for shooting from sticks.

 

[Ontario Hunter]

Not to derail, but you fellas need to know that unlike every North American jurisdiction I know of, people with NO experience whatsoever can obtain a hunting license in Africa (South Africa anyway). On this side of the pond, even when hunting nonresident, individuals must provide proof of a hunters safety course somewhere, whether they are guided or not. In the old days nonresidents only had to provide proof of a license in another jurisdiction but that has, I believe, been updated just about everywhere. And the reason inexperienced or nonexperienced can hunt in Africa is because there is always a Professional Hunter standing beside them. It is not uncommon to see videos with PHs reloading and unloading the rifle while novice is on the sticks. I am not the least bit irritated when my PH tells me to "Reload! Reload!" after each shot and "Safety on!" before the gun comes off the sticks. Yeah, I've been hunting twice as long as that young fella has been living. I know when to reload and engage the safety. But his routine is automatic ... and I find that very reassuring. Not so much for me, but for his lovely wife and two little kids.