Hartebeest
This critter was the last on the list of big game for the trip for me. I had up to this point taken 9 of the 10 animals in my package plus several bonus jackals. A Hartebeest was the first animal we tried to stalk and ended up the last animal standing. We hunted them the entire time and I'll tell you what, they are a damned difficult critter to get the drop on. We had many unsuccessful stalks and were outsmarted IDK how many times. We at one point managed to get within 100 yards of a big group of them with two tremendous bulls in it yet still had no luck. Hartebeest are crafty critters and in the very limited experience I have with them rarely make mistakes.
During the entire hunt while I respected them immensely I just couldn't and still cant figure them out. I don't know what makes them tick. I've seen them, mounted them, and read a little about them but the Hartebeest is one that I just don't know that much about. They were the "unknown" on this adventure and even after hunting them I still don't quite understand them. They are deceivingly beautiful, weary, crafty, and incredibly fast. They belong to the same family of antelope the Topi does, which to my understanding, is the fastest of all antelope in Africa. We tried to hunt them pretty much every day we were there and for me, they just seemed out of reach.
Carrie took a tremendous bull early on and she and Corey seemed to have a bit of a different experience with them than I did.
To put it plainly, well, they just confuse me.
That however didn't stop me from appreciating them and wanting to hunt them. While the Hartman's Zebra was the hardest hunt I'd say the Hartebeest was the most difficult hunt if that makes any sense.
It finally came down to this, we went out one morning to look for Hartebeest and finish up the big game portion of the hunt. We found a lone bull pretty early on. As was the drill we hopped out and started stalking him. I could tell he was a nice bull by the way Philip and Hendrick were acting but I would only catch a glimpse here and there. Any time I am the client I don't worry about size as the PH/trackers's are going to be far better at field judging animals than I am so I just roll with it. That dude outsmarted us at every turn and after I don't know how many miles we finally accepted defeat and looped back around to the cruiser. I was beginning to wonder if I would take one this trip. While one always hopes they do it is hunting after all and sometimes it just doesn't work out and there will always be a next time.
We hop back in the cruiser and continue on looking for another beest as has happened so many times up to this point on this trip. We come around the corner and hey, look who is there. Now there is enough distance between us that he feels more comfortable sticking around. I decide that I am going to give it a whirl and it was getting late in the hunt and the number of hunting days left were pretty few.
He's semi in some brush at about 470 yards I think it was, Philip correct me on that if I am off, but at any rate it was a heckava poke out there. I decide to take the shot off of the front of the cruiser. I was pretty steady and had a good line of sight. There was virtually no wind and the only unknown was what the bullet drop would be that far. I settled the crosshairs in and gave it my best educated guess as to what my hold over would be and let her rip. I followed the vapor trail of the bullet in my scope and heard the whack. I knew I'd hit him but he didnt go down. He kind of stumbled around and we lost sight of him. The shot felt good, they are tough, etc.... so we watched and gave him some time. We went to where we last saw him and didn't find anything. I know that I hit him and there was absolutely no doubt about that so we should find something I'd have thought but nope. We look around for a bit and Hendrick went to where he was standing and started following the track. No blood for the longest time but eventually we found a drop here and there in the exact opposite direction of where we had last saw him. I'm pretty bumfuzzled at this point and doubting myself now. Hendrick lost and found the track several more times until we just damn near stepped on him. We got up to a matter of feet from him when he suddenly jumped up and tried to escape. He was having extreme difficulty standing up and running so I shot him again. He goes down and we shake hands and start to visit about what all had just happened. I'll be damned if after about 2 minutes (or so it seemed) he didn't lift his head up. I shot him again and instead of going over he tries to get up. At this point I run over to him and put one in his spine. He was down for the count then. Holly smokes what a tough animal they are.
Once we got to looking at him we discovered that my first bullet had gone through and broken both of his front knees. It had dropped quite a bit more than I figured it would have, though given my tendancy to shoot high I had second guessed myself at the last moment.
He was down now and I was able to get my hands on him. Philip and Hendrick went to go get the bakkie and I stayed with my Hartebeest. I thank God for this wonderful animal and thanked him for the oppurtunity to come and hunt such a wonderful place with such wonderful people.
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