@TwoTracks @KMG Hunting Safaris
Now that Marius has posted the caracal pic, I will tell a little of the story…….
Marius, I’ve had a few glasses of Scotch since this happened, so feel free to correct any of the info that may be wrong/missing.
Before the hunt, I had told Marius that I was interested in a caracal, but it really wasn’t a priority on this trip. However, if someone was running dogs and happened to tree one, I would be happy to take it.
That particular day, the weather was not great. The wind had to be blowing a steady 20-25 mph with gusts up to 40 mph or so and it looked like it could start raining at any time.
We were there to hunt blue duiker and had sat in the blind that morning with no luck. After lunch, we returned and not too long after getting settled in, we heard a bushbuck bark several times. With the direction of the wind, we knew there was no way it could’ve winded us. Marius whispered to me that there was likely a caracal in the area that had spooked it.
A little while later, (if I remember correctly) we were both looking at something on Marius’s phone. I was focused on what he was showing me and not really paying attention to what was going on outside. Out of the blue, he started whispering “shoot it, shoot it, shoot it”. I glanced up and saw a cat basically belly crawling from left to right. I slowly got on the gun, and it stopped right behind the small waterhole we were watching and got a drink of water. After drinking it sat up facing us and stared at the blind for a second or two and then looked to its left, and Marius whispered to take the shot. I settled the crosshairs on the center of the chest and squeezed the trigger….bam!
After the shot, we were both convinced that it had ran to our right, where there was a small valley. So, after getting out of the blind, that’s the direction we went and after searching for a few minutes and finding nothing, Marius called in the tracker to bring the dogs in to hopefully find it. He walked out to the road to meet the tracker and I stayed behind and continued to look. I walked back to where it was sitting at the shot and spotted it lying in some brush about 4-5 yards behind the waterhole. Marius arrived shortly after and saw that I had found the cat and immediately grabbed the dogs and told me to grab the cat and follow him. At the time, I was confused on why he seemed to be in such a hurry and asked me to bring the cat with me? Well, when I got to the road, I was informed that we would snap a few quick pics and then get back in the blind to continue to hunt duiker. Since I had just shot and probably spooked everything in the area, I honestly thought it was a waste of time, but I didn’t question the decision.
So, back in the blind, we sat for a few hours not seeing anything (confirming my opinion that we were wasting our time). Then somewhere around 5:45PM-6:00PM, we started seeing movement. I believe we had 3 different animals come in, but no shooters. A little after 6:00, Marius spotted one coming in and immediately told me to get ready and shoot when I had a shot. The animal was facing us and slightly quartering to our right, so I settled the crosshairs just inside of the right shoulder and squeezed the trigger…bam! I watched through the scope, but saw no reaction to the shot?? It just stood there and stared as us for a split second and then turned and ran straight away from us. Did I miss? Marius asked how the shot felt and everything felt fine. I just couldn’t see any way I could’ve missed at that distance. Well, we called in the dogs and as Flex ran right to it. It had gone maybe 20 yards straight away and fell.
In all my trips over, I had seen exactly one other caracal and that was in a trap that we came across one day several years ago while out hunting. So, I feel very fortunate to have had one come in like that. Now, if I could just get a bushpig to do that…….
