In June 1997 I started my professional hunting career at the age of 21 in Sichifulo, Zambia a Zambia Safaris camp. As a Zambian PH I took one of the last legal black rhino in Zambia's Luangwa Valley in November 1979.
After my 1980 Zambian Season, I moved down to Natal in the Republic of South Africa and I hunted with Limpopo Safaris through the 1981, 1982, and 1983 seasons. The number on my PH license is 001, it was the first PH license issued in the province of Natal, RSA.
In 1983, I joined Hunters Africa, with concessions in Botswana and Tanzania, and Zambia. I hunted Tanzania for Hunters Africa in 1983 and first part of 1984, before moving to Botswana, where I would hunt for 30 consecutive years.
In 1985, I started Rann Safaris and have operated under that name and that of Safari South, which I bought in 1997.
I live to hunt dangerous game and have tried to specialize in dangerous game from day one. I was lucky enough to hunt Botswana, Zambia and Tanzania in the golden years of the late 1970s through the 1990s.
The best dangerous-game hunt in my opinion was tracking lion in the sandy conditions of Botswana. It was a hunt that I soon specialized in - hours of tracking big-maned lion, creeping along, often covering only a few kilometers in as many hours, sometimes having to back up to shoot a lion lying less than 5 yards away in thick cover.
It is said that a PH goes through a series of progressions during his career. As an apprentice he absorbs everything good and bad. After having hunted dangerous game for a while and achieving success, he gets bolder, taking a few short cuts. It is never one mistake, it is often a series of small mistakes. If he survives, he learns from those mistakes and does not repeat them. In his golden years, his body needs to keep up with his experience. I have always said that the ideal PH is 30 years old with 50 years of experience!
As a PH, I have been fortunate to have taken the number 1 SCI lion twice - once in 1987 and again in 1995 (currently number 12 and number 3) - as well as a number 2 SCI lion in 1997 (currently number 7), and received the Botswana PH of the Year Award in 1987. Furthermore, I took the number 1 SCI leopard (currently number 1) and received the SCI international professional Hunters Award in 1998. I also took a number 1 SCI white rhino (currently number 3), the third largest elephant (95 x 90 lbs) taken in Botswana since it reopened for elephant (I was awarded the APHA Dangerous Game Award in 2011), and many big buffalo. My biggest buffalo measured 48", shot the same day as taking my biggest kudu (60") as the PH with the same client.
Early in my career as a PH I started carrying a Holland & Holland .500/465. I shoot left-handed as I am left-eye dominant even though I am right-handed. The advantage of this has been that my strong arm holds and controls the heavy double rifle as it does not take strength to pull the trigger. I carried my H&H.500/465 for 20 years before retiring it in favor of a H&H .577.
I started carrying a purposely-built double-trigger side-by-side 12 gauge 3" shotgun with copper plated OOBuck shells; this shotgun has express rifle sights 20" barrels, when following wounded leopard. The key is letting the leopard get close on the charge and not shooting too quickly.
A safari is a journey and, taken with the right people, a remarkable and soul-satisfying experience for everyone involved. I have formed lifelong bonds with many of my clients who are now my closest friends. Sharing a dangerous-game experience with someone creates a bond that can last a lifetime.
I have a tracker who has saved my life more times that I can remember. He has seen things seconds before I have and has always stayed by my side. He is a loyal friend and companion with whom I have shared many laughs and kilometers. I have spent more hours, days, and years with him than I have with any member of my family.
My career highlights are many but one that I am proud of is that I started at the absolute bottom and learned the industry from the ground up. I was fortunate to apprentice and hunt for some of the finest PHs and companies ever to hunt Africa. What I learned from them was all different but it prepared me to achieve success in the world of professional hunting, and I thank them for that. I also thank all those PHs who said I would not make it - they only made me try harder.
As a company, we have been awarded concessions by the various governments, bringing millions of dollars into that country's economy, supporting community development through community-based sustainable hunting and supporting African wildlife by placing a value on that wildlife.
Rann Force is a sustainable conservation project for the African lion, in conjunction with John Jackson's Conservation Force. Rann Force was founded in honor of my father, Jerry Rann, and $10,000 was donated to Conservation Force through Rann Force for every lion taken by my company during the 2000s until the Botswana government closed lion hunting. This money was used to fund research and lion counts, proving a stable population that was sustainable through hunting with minimal quotas.
I filmed most of my safaris during my years as a PH. I first filmed with Peter Capstick in 1986 (these were the first African hunting videos produced), then with my own production company, African Adventure Videos, and the last seven years with the Federal Premium's Dangerous Game Series, now renamed Federal Premium's Deadliest Hunts on the Outdoor Channel.
I have had the privilege of hunting many of the great safari areas of Africa; Botswana, Zambia, Tanzania, South Africa, and the Cameroon and I have had the honor of hunting with my great wildlife conservationists; we have shared many camp fires and stories and I want to thank them all for sharing those memories.