SO YOU WANT A CHARGE?
By Dave Fulson • Nov 18, 2025
Human beings are, by nature, attracted to, or better said, addicted to situations where bodily harm or even death could be the result of error, lack of skill, or just bad judgment. Some want to experience that thrill from the comfort of the couch or sidelines, just as happy to watch others risk life and limb, cage fighting, racing cars, free-climbing vertical peaks, jumping motorcycles, or diving with white sharks without a cage.
Yet there are folks driven by a variety of reasons that want, or think they want, to put themselves to the ultimate test, whatever their definition of that may be.
They call themselves thrill seekers, adrenaline junkies( I hate that overused word bye the way) and a variety of other terms that paint them as always on the cutting edge of danger. Indeed, some find the personal satisfaction-or fame, if that’s what they seek, from facing either the danger or their personal demons.
And regrettably, some find an early grave.
Certain sports can offer up lethal doses of hurt, and hunting dangerous game certainly fits that profile. In my career, I have hunted with, guided, or filmed people of almost every possible age, gender, race, and personality type. Some have been stinking rich (while others were just stinking). I have seen everything from humble to horrible. I have seen the cautious, and the coward. Most people who make their living in the hunting world will relate to my experience. Hunting is a people game first and foremost, and when people are involved, you are going to get all types.
Thankfully, serious sportsmen and women are folks who love the outdoors, respect the game, and relish the enjoyment of the hunting lifestyle. Certainly, many, exactly like yours truly, have or have desired to experience the challenge, and accept the risk of hunting truly dangerous game.
Please understand, I am not talking about a dangerous hunting situation. A sheep hunter inching along an icy outcrop of frozen rock 500 feet above a vertical drop is indeed on a dangerous hunt... but it is not hunting dangerous game. For our discussion, "dangerous game" will be an animal that possesses the strength, size, speed, tusk, teeth, horn, or claws and temperament that, combined in any variation, can result in your death if everything goes wrong and you find yourself in physical contact with the beast.
But you have unwisely entered into a self-inflicted danger zone when your acceptance of risk is replaced by the pursuit of risk. Obviously, Africa, with its unmatched list of bad actors, is where the majority of today's dangerous game hunting takes place. But the big bears of the world, and some of the larger bovine species in Australia and South America, certainly belong on our list.
Disaster while hunting any dangerous game species can appear unexpectedly, and it can come in a variety of forms. When filming a buffalo hunt in Tanzania many years ago, I quietly veered away from the hunting party to set up a shot of them from a side angle slowly working along the tracks in thick bush. All was fine until I damned near brushed up against some cow elephants that were sleeping off the mid-day heat.
In my career, I have only dropped the camera once, and that was the day! I ran, while she spun, screamed, and chased. Only a blind dash to and leap off a vertical lip of a korongo, or dry wash, where she could not follow saved my life. I was running around trees-she was running through trees! Dangerous? Yes, it is still my closest brush with death in Africa. Sought after? Not hardly. But that's how the reaper sometimes comes for you.
Blunder into a sow grizzly with cubs, a cape buffalo nursing lion-inflicted damage, or a mating pair of lions and you can expect, and often receive a bluff, or possibly the real deal-a full-on charge. Those are unexpected and thoroughly dangerous encounters.
There is that word again-charge. No other single word is more used at trade shows, in certain magazines, in DVDs, on TV, and around African campfires than the iconic phrase-charge. The only place it's used more might be in war movies!
Genuine charges are actually rare events. But they happen, and of course generate exciting storytelling if survived. Over the years, due to the unprecedented amount of filming dangerous game hunts on our "Tracks Across Africa," "Dark and Dangerous," and "World Of Sports Afield TV," we have indeed captured some dramatic footage of actual, and deadly serious charges by a variety of big game.
At the annual Hunting Conventions, it is entertaining to see folks walking by our booth, glancing at the big screen TV, then freezing in their tracks-all else forgotten as they stare, bug-eyed at something playing on the screen. I don't have to see what they are looking at-I know what they are looking at! Some big ugly just got shot in our hunter's lap-in a real "By God Ethel! Did you see that?" charge.
Another thing about charges-they are usually preceded by a mistake. Poor shooting that creates a wounded animal and dangerous follow-up is the sad introduction to the vast majority of actual charges. Don't take my word for it-ask your PH. It happens, and it has damned sure happened to me! It is never on purpose, but when you wound a card-carrying member of the DG CLUB, a follow-up is a reality-one that you may not be ready for.
I have actually had clients state that they are "hoping for a charge" during their safari. I have lived through charges, and I can assure you that I want my next charge on safari to be for the daily rate only!
I have actually had clients state that they are "hoping for a charge" during their safari. I have lived through charges, and I can assure you that I want my next charge on safari to be for the daily rate only! A charge comes damned fast, from close range, is scary as hell, and usually loud. If you come away from a serious charge without fear, and several highly descriptive curse words quickly followed by prayer, you are mentally far tougher than most, or too dimwitted to know what you survived.
To hope for a charge is utter nonsense. Pro-tip: if you are leaning that way pre-safari, DO NOT share your feelings with your PH or an experienced guide, unless of course you are OK with being called an idiot to your face, or most likely behind your back. But rest assured it will get said and shared within the hunting camp.
Finally, let's play out the dreaded scenario of following up some big beast into cover. Here, on many levels, it gets tricky. You have dreamed of the perfect scenario in your head for months. The elephant, leopard, brown bear ... whatever, turns perfectly, you are steady, and he drops to your shot. The PH is slapping you on the back, the trackers are looking relieved, and you will soon be posing for pictures. Sounds great, doesn't it? Do it right, and that's exactly the way it can go.
But, for whatever reason, if your shot fails to stop your quarry before thick cover swallows it. A follow-up has now entered the planning stage-and you will not be making the plan. Several things must be considered by your PH at this point. How badly is the animal wounded? Where was it hit? What is the cover it went into like? And what is the light situation? Once your pro has a grip on these factors, they will now decide how to come to grips with the animal, and who will go in after it. Here is where feelings, or worse, bodies get hurt.
The professional now has their hands full. It is their legal and ethical duty to prevent both the escape and suffering of the wounded animal. The cover and danger factor of the follow-up may dictate that he decides to go in alone, or with just one tracker whose life will be in his hands. Trust me, that is enough to keep him occupied. There simply may not be enough room in there for you, the client. Your safety has also been considered as he got ready for battle. Perhaps because you gut-shot the stationary and broadside leopard at 60 yards off a dead rest, he might not have confidence that you could nail the inbound fury coming at Mach 5 for your throat at 10 feet? Who could!
It may be that he quietly explains that he needs, for everyone in the hunting party's safety(his included) to go in alone. Let him. It is his license at risk if you get hammered, and the reality is that it is not the beast to his front that is always his greatest fear, but the nervous client holding a loaded rifle to his back!
Egos can get dented here, but better an ego than a lost life. Those who know me understand that I have lost several professional hunter friends/brothers to dangerous game over the last several years, and my respect for these men and those who do what they do on a daily basis only grows with time. You pay them that big daily rate, in part, for their experience. Listen to them and give them your respect and compliance in these times.
However, many times the man in charge will explain the situation, spell out the exact protocol he wants followed, and invite you into the little nightmare waiting in the gloom at the end of your gun barrel. You, my thrill-seeking friend, are about to bathe in adrenaline! At this point, you will, or damn sure better get Capstick and Ruark out of your head, and get ready. This is not a DVD, or an exciting passage from a book. This is the pure, white-knuckle essence of hunting dangerous game on its own terms...not yours.
When somewhere in the thick stuff, your prize is stretched out, lights out, you will have earned the thrill, believe me. On the other hand, the bass grunt of a buffalo, the deep, terrifying coughing roar of your lion, or the heart-stopping, indescribable curse that an inbound bull elephant will deliver may be, to some, exactly what they were hoping to experience ... the charge. If this is you, I hope you survive it. But I guarantee that you will only want to experience that once.
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