MMAL
AH fanatic
- Joined
- Jan 5, 2016
- Messages
- 771
- Reaction score
- 1,475
- Location
- New Jersey
- Media
- 52
- Hunted
- New Jersey, New York, Wyoming, Colorado, Mexico, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Zimbabwe, South Africa, Northwest Territories, Newfoundland, Namibia
Thursday August 4th, 2016
I had gotten everything on my free-roaming animal “list” but we had another day of hunting planned. Impala are the quintessential African safari animal in my mind. I wanted one regardless of the free-roaming/high fence issue. Quite frankly I had been spoiled up to this point with hunting right out of camp. John has access to a property with Impala, blesbok etc but it was a good 1 ½ away. We had discussed skipping it prior in the week but last night both Gideon and John informed me that they knew of a place much closer that had both animals. The last two on my list.
We headed northwest out of camp about 40 minutes to the farm. This was a high-fence of @ 10,000 acres. The farm was owned by one of the happiest farmers I ever met. He came out smiling and happy and gave me and my son a big hug. You couldn’t help but laugh when around him. He asked my son if he was going to shoot anything and my son, having already shot three animals already, stated not today. He then stated “ok you shoot any warthogs you see then, I hate warthogs”. You could not help but like the guy.
The farmer got into the driver’s seat and started driving us around; it wasn’t long until we saw a variety of animals. We got out of the truck and started on stalk on a group of blesbok only to be thwarted by a crazy group of wildebeest, charging by for no real reason at all. We circled around, came across a group of springbok that had an absolute monster in it, I changed my list immediately to go after the springbok, only again to be stopped and busted by a group of waterbuck. It was as dizzying then as it is now to write and read this.
We settled down, took a breath and again began a big swing downwind of the blesbok and were able to stalk to within 125 yards where I was able to drop a nice bull.
Brought him to the farmers skinning shed and started to cape him out. The farmer as I said was telling jokes and laughing the whole time. He decided to take the testicle of the bull and create an African face, complete with hair style, eyes, nose and mouth. I was beginning to believe at this point that he was a couple of slices short of a full loaf, but I say that smiling because he had all of us rolling with laughter at the time.
We next headed out for impala and for the life of me could not see them even after Gideon pointed them out. We had stalked to within 90 yards of a group of them. We were on our bellies, crawling left more than straight ahead. The impala were in really thick vegetation and the only way I was seeing them was through a tunnel of bushes and small trees while laying on my stomach. I had the 30-06 and had attached a bipod to it. Gideon pointed out the mature bull. I am not sure how he knew; I could not see the head or the horns. I was looking done a 90 yard tunnel, the top and sides were all thin branches from the bushes but there were a lot of them. The impala’s head was behind a trunk of one of the bushes and he was quartering away from me with his spine covered by the top of the tunnel. Once again I was aiming for the last rib and opposite shoulder. It was a very small window I had to place this bullet but as it shouldn’t be, but was here, time was an issue. I wanted to get back to the family for an afternoon event and this was the last day of the hunt, otherwise I might have passed on the shot. I could have spent 5 minutes looking at the individual branches and factoring in the height above my sightline the bullet would travel but I didn’t. I let the bullet fly and the sound it made when it hit was not normal. It wasn’t the normal thump you hear when a bullet strikes an animal, it was more like slap. The impala ran off with its hind leg trailing, at least that was what Gideon told me. After the shot I didn’t see a thing. We were worried enough that the impala might run to a thick spot only to die without us finding him that the farmer took out his .308 with a big silencer on it and we formed a long skirmish line to search for him. About 10 minutes later, as we all searched through the thick grass and vegetation, of course Gideon found him, hit hard and struggling to get up. I came up from the side and from 20 yards let another shot fly through the brush. With the wicked sound of a ricochet the bullet went god knows where because it did not hit the impala. After another quick relocation and I finished him. I can’t even say I was perfect from 20 yards on this trip anymore.
As you can see from the bullet we recovered, I would assume the first shot deflected off a branch, starting tumbling and entered into his back hip sideways traveling up through the body and settling a little behind his front opposite shoulder. He was quartering away from me that much. Going in sideways like it did and at that angle I am surprised it didn’t bounce off the hip bone.
A fun last hunt and a unique story to end my first safari.
The afternoon event I wanted to attend so badly was the cheetah interaction located close to camp. I think I wanted to be there more to protect my four year old than to actually be a part of it but nevertheless it was crazy!
I had gotten everything on my free-roaming animal “list” but we had another day of hunting planned. Impala are the quintessential African safari animal in my mind. I wanted one regardless of the free-roaming/high fence issue. Quite frankly I had been spoiled up to this point with hunting right out of camp. John has access to a property with Impala, blesbok etc but it was a good 1 ½ away. We had discussed skipping it prior in the week but last night both Gideon and John informed me that they knew of a place much closer that had both animals. The last two on my list.
We headed northwest out of camp about 40 minutes to the farm. This was a high-fence of @ 10,000 acres. The farm was owned by one of the happiest farmers I ever met. He came out smiling and happy and gave me and my son a big hug. You couldn’t help but laugh when around him. He asked my son if he was going to shoot anything and my son, having already shot three animals already, stated not today. He then stated “ok you shoot any warthogs you see then, I hate warthogs”. You could not help but like the guy.
The farmer got into the driver’s seat and started driving us around; it wasn’t long until we saw a variety of animals. We got out of the truck and started on stalk on a group of blesbok only to be thwarted by a crazy group of wildebeest, charging by for no real reason at all. We circled around, came across a group of springbok that had an absolute monster in it, I changed my list immediately to go after the springbok, only again to be stopped and busted by a group of waterbuck. It was as dizzying then as it is now to write and read this.
We settled down, took a breath and again began a big swing downwind of the blesbok and were able to stalk to within 125 yards where I was able to drop a nice bull.
Brought him to the farmers skinning shed and started to cape him out. The farmer as I said was telling jokes and laughing the whole time. He decided to take the testicle of the bull and create an African face, complete with hair style, eyes, nose and mouth. I was beginning to believe at this point that he was a couple of slices short of a full loaf, but I say that smiling because he had all of us rolling with laughter at the time.
We next headed out for impala and for the life of me could not see them even after Gideon pointed them out. We had stalked to within 90 yards of a group of them. We were on our bellies, crawling left more than straight ahead. The impala were in really thick vegetation and the only way I was seeing them was through a tunnel of bushes and small trees while laying on my stomach. I had the 30-06 and had attached a bipod to it. Gideon pointed out the mature bull. I am not sure how he knew; I could not see the head or the horns. I was looking done a 90 yard tunnel, the top and sides were all thin branches from the bushes but there were a lot of them. The impala’s head was behind a trunk of one of the bushes and he was quartering away from me with his spine covered by the top of the tunnel. Once again I was aiming for the last rib and opposite shoulder. It was a very small window I had to place this bullet but as it shouldn’t be, but was here, time was an issue. I wanted to get back to the family for an afternoon event and this was the last day of the hunt, otherwise I might have passed on the shot. I could have spent 5 minutes looking at the individual branches and factoring in the height above my sightline the bullet would travel but I didn’t. I let the bullet fly and the sound it made when it hit was not normal. It wasn’t the normal thump you hear when a bullet strikes an animal, it was more like slap. The impala ran off with its hind leg trailing, at least that was what Gideon told me. After the shot I didn’t see a thing. We were worried enough that the impala might run to a thick spot only to die without us finding him that the farmer took out his .308 with a big silencer on it and we formed a long skirmish line to search for him. About 10 minutes later, as we all searched through the thick grass and vegetation, of course Gideon found him, hit hard and struggling to get up. I came up from the side and from 20 yards let another shot fly through the brush. With the wicked sound of a ricochet the bullet went god knows where because it did not hit the impala. After another quick relocation and I finished him. I can’t even say I was perfect from 20 yards on this trip anymore.
As you can see from the bullet we recovered, I would assume the first shot deflected off a branch, starting tumbling and entered into his back hip sideways traveling up through the body and settling a little behind his front opposite shoulder. He was quartering away from me that much. Going in sideways like it did and at that angle I am surprised it didn’t bounce off the hip bone.
A fun last hunt and a unique story to end my first safari.
The afternoon event I wanted to attend so badly was the cheetah interaction located close to camp. I think I wanted to be there more to protect my four year old than to actually be a part of it but nevertheless it was crazy!
