D5CAV wrote:BDK wrote:Former French colonies prohibit 308 and 30-06, and I think some Latin countries. Military calibers are prohibited in pistols in much of Latin America.
Those would be some real corner cases.
I'm trying to think of former French colonies in Africa that allow hunting. I think Cameroon was a German colony that became French after WW1. The only reason to go there is to hunt bongo antelope; a hunt that would make a lion hunt in Tanzania look cheap in comparison. I don't remember what my friends used on their hunts, but for what they spent, they could buy a dedicated rifle for the hunt, leave it with the outfitter, and it would represent a small tip on top of all the other tips they passed out.
As for Latin America, I've been invited by friends to hunt in Mexico. They told me they hadn't been to their properties in a few years because of the danger of narco-terrorists in those areas, but "they heard it was better now." I said I'd think about it.
When I asked about what weapons I could bring, they told me to forget about it. They had plenty of appropriate weapons to loan me. They said that, even with their political connections, getting permits to bring rifles into Mexico was too much of a PITA.
The only other Latin America country I've hunted is Argentina, and that was paying an exorbitant amount of money to provide pest control services to Argentinian farmers. Really. It's as if someone organized hunts for crazy Chinese to hunt rats in New York City sewers and charged them $10k plus $10 per rat.
After I commented on the wanton slaughter that occurred that day, I was told by one of our hosts, in a moment of rare candor, and perhaps a little too much Argentinian wine, that he figures he loses between 10% and 20% of his crop every year to doves. He said we barely made a dent in the population. He bemoaned the greediness of the hunting outfitters who charged us "too much" for the dove hunts, and that lower prices would attract more shooters.
Oh yeah. Guns in Argentina. I really don't know. Two of the other shooters in the group were experienced hands in Argentina, like for the past 30 years or so. One of them had a pair of doubles disappear in transit. The other had a nice pair of English doubles stuck in customs in Argentina for almost 20 years, presumably until the customs official who lusted for them either died or retired. He did get them back, eventually. Needless to say, they strongly recommended I use the "house guns."
The outfitters had plenty of well used Beretta and Benelli autos that were a testament to their construction. We put thousands of rounds of filthy Argentinian 20ga and 12ga ammo through them, and they kept on ticking.
Maybe this would get me out in the regular season.
