ABOUT THE EXHIBITION

Hunting Giraffe is becoming a very popular African hunt, a few ranks behind hunting spiral horn antelope such as Kudu, Eland, Bushbuck and Nyala. Not only do old bull giraffes make exceptional trophies, but the hunt itself is full of action.

One of the biggest challenges when Giraffe hunting is processing the carcass. If the team of skinners takes too long to process in hot temperatures, the Giraffe trophy can be ruined due to “hair loss”.

We hunted this Giraffe about two hundred miles from Pretoria in the North West Province of South Africa. Unfortunately shot placement was not perfect and the vitals were missed by a few inches. Luckily, a .458 was used which has huge stopping power, but it took a few more “messy and untidy” shots to bring down this enormous animal. The hunting safari quickly changed from a relaxed and focused first shot, to a mile sprint through thick brush and woodlands.

Giraffe, due to their thick skin do not “throw blood”, meaning that when there are so many tracks around, that you cannot lose site of the Giraffe. Game hunting always has a way of humbling the hunter for which we are always grateful.

On this hunt, Tamlyn also harvested a superb Eland cow, with a well-placed bullet into the heart. No drama like with the Giraffe hunt.

Hunting these animals is a unique experience and we actually have another Giraffe hunting safari for later in 2024.

Avoid head shots as the trophy will be ruined and the target is small. When debating Giraffe shot placement it is to be noted that the heart sits a little nearer to the chest than the traditional “1/3 of the way up” when hunting large plains game antelope.

If you are planning a hunting safari, be sure to consider adding this incredible animal to the target list of trophies.