Africa Is the Ultimate

Ronny Hissom’s office at his Circle-H Ranch in Goshen could have doubled as a backdrop for “Marlin Perkins’ Wild Kingdom.” He’s a member of the Shikar Safari Club and boasts kills from Tanzania to Zimbabwe.r

His trophies include an elephant, a lion, leopards, a cape buffalo and a crocodile.r

“You only shoot the oldest and weakest animals that need to be culled, and a lot of people don’t understand that,” Hissom said. r

Hissom, who shoots a pre-1964 model 70 Remington, said an elephant trophy fee alone is $20,000.r

Dr. John Weiss has what is affectionately known in Fayetteville hunting circles as “The Taj” out beside his pool. What amounts to a posh billards and card room with an indoor-outdoor bar is filled with enough African trophies to stock a small museum.r

Weiss said he came from humble beginnings in Pine Bluff and grew up watching other kids pile ducks in their yards for cleaning. Dr. Doyne Williams of Little Rock exposed him to hunting while Weiss was in residency, and he hasn’t been the same since.r

“My wife thinks it’s disgusting,” said Weiss, who’s the former owner of the famed Bayou Meto hunting club Quack Quack.r

“When I went to Africa I didn’t think I’d be that into it … But after the first day, I became a serial killer and got 17 trophies in seven days. All of them are special to me, and I can come out here at the end of the day and look around, and I have a relationship with every one of these animals.”r

Weiss, who now has another trip planned for Africa, boasts mounts of a 1,600-pound Eland, a 1,000-pound Kudu and a warthog that’s his showroom’s star.