April 2014, 8 months later than originally planned as I had a large business deal come up that had to be done. Arrived at camp late, well after dark, flight from Joberg to PE was cancelled as it was not very full so we got bumped to the later flight. Crusader Safaris, East Cape RSA, no high fence, pride themselves on being a free range outfit. Booked through James Jeffrey.
We saw several critters on the way in including a nice bush buck (which turned out to be a very challenging animal to get). Woke up the next morning to a quick breakfast of toast and coffee then loaded into the truck the PH has some paperwork and inquires as to what we are hunting. Had a package deal of Kudu, gemsbok and duiker, plus a choice of 2 of blesbuck, impala, bushbuck and springbok. Of which I had chosen the higher priced two, bushbuck and blesbuck... And told him I wanted to add the other two. As well as eland and zebra. And that I would happily add any fine trophies that Africa presented, minus a couple high priced critters i wanted to hunt another time and place, namely lechwe and nyalla. Most everything else was open if it was a great trophy.
So we proceeded to the range, M70 375 was shooting great, the fancy 30-06 I brought was not and Mark, my PH, was wincing at the thought of having it scratched... Also had a Savage plastic stocked 6.5 Creedmoor that Mark was happy about as he had been one of the PH's involved in proving the round in Africa. But he told me to grab the 375 unless he told me to bring the Creedmoor. And we were off...
5 minutes down the trail, heading up some small mountains, Mark stops and looks at me and says "are you serious about shooting anything that is a good trophy?" "yes?" "Well grab your gun and lets go shoot this mountain reedbuck". Hell I did not even know what that was.... But we hiked up the trail a bit, Mark set the sticks up and said shoot that critter on top of that big rock up there. Bang, flop... I saw a white blur as the reedbuck flipped over and off the back side of the rock... Mark was thrilled and I was still wondering what just happened. He sent the trackers up to fetch him and I asked if I should go with in case it was in need of finishing and Mark just ginned and mumbled something about that not being nessasary... Yea, pretty much blew out the heart and most of the off side shoulder....
My first big game animal was a little basket racked 8 point whitetail. 1978, about 3 weeks after I got my drivers licence, 4 months after buying my first pickup truck, a 1978 F150 4x4, bought with a down payment from my 9th grade FFA hog project and what seemed like a huge loan for a 15 year old
I was on a deer drive through a willow swamp with my grandfathers old Winchester 1894 in 32 Winchester Special when I heard a trig break to my right and behind.. That deer was sneeking through the line and I dropped him with a shot to the neck (still not wanting to ruin and meat)... That was in the good old days of great eye sight and iron sites, and the ability to tromp through swamps all day long