Butler says he developed a medical problem on the hunt and had to go home early without taking an ibex. However, he gives the whole experience high marks. In a phone interview, he called his hunt in the Red Sea Hills of northern Sudan exotic and interesting. Camel caravans, encounters with nomads and stops several times a day for Muslim prayers made this a very different experience from anything he had found in southern Africa, he said, going on to note that the trip was more like a sheep hunt than a standard African hunt, as the hunt area was composed of rugged desert mountains. The hunting was at elevations between 6,000 and 7,000 feet.
Because the Sudanese army has shot so many Nubian ibex for meat, Butler said the animals are found nowadays only at the higher altitudes, and even there they are exceedingly wary. Butler said Dacey had trackers drive ibex toward him, but the animals had an uncanny ability to stay out of shooting range. Bottom line is, he never even saw an ibex before he had to leave the hunt early. However, he said a Russian client before him succeeded in taking one. He feels certain that he would have taken one as well had he not cut his hunt short.
As for overall conditions in Sudan, Butler said he had no problems. No one expressed any anti-American feelings toward him, he said. Gun import was a breeze. His agent for the trip Beverly Wunderlich of J & B Adventures Safaris.
Butler says he intends........(continued)
