DAY 10
I woke up feeling GOOD! After our bad luck in the middle of the hunt I was expecting to get only 2 of the 4 spiral horns, and here I was sitting on 3!
At breakfast, KP was in a very good mood. For the past few days he had been working on getting us on a concession right on the Botswana border, and the night before he’d received confirmation it was a go! The British guy that owned the land said he had some excellent eland and with how severe the drought was, he needed to take some animals off.
As we made the long drive to the concession, KP told me the owner had mentioned he has a big Livingston bull he’s not using as a breeding bull anymore and he would let us take that bull for the same price if we got the opportunity. Awesome!
A couple hours of driving and we were pulling up to the property. I couldn’t believe how poor the feed was. There was NOTHING for grazers. No grass at all. KP told me the drought was affecting this area a lot worse than down south.
KP and the owner spoke for a few minutes and then we jumped in the truck. As we drove through the property to where we would be hunting, KP was filling me in on the plan.
We were going to get set up in the garage of an old house (Hmmm. Interesting.) while the ranch hands brought out some feed, which ended up being mostly some kind of squash and a little hay.
After the hands left, I spent some time listening to a book in our unconventional “blind” before KP nudged me and pointed at his ears. I took out the ear buds and sure enough, I could hear the clicking of eland hoofs coming in!
We stayed perfectly still, waiting to see if they were bulls. Sure enough, the first eland to come in was a bull. Then another, and another, and there, standing in the trees was the Livingston! My adrenaline spiked as he slowly walked in. He was a huge bodied old bruiser of a bull. But as we evaluated the 4 or 5 bulls in front of us, we realized he wasn’t the biggest, or best looking bull. In fact, two of the others, one in particular, were just as tall bodied as the Livingston, but had heavier horns that looked incredibly long.
This particular bull was taller than his other companions so maybe some Livingston blood? Son maybe? I don’t know enough about it but as I was admiring him, KP whispered he was the best bull and if we got the opportunity, to take him.
As KP got the video camera ready, I put the knock on my bow string and got ready to draw. We had to wait several minutes as the bulls were moving around quite a bit, jockeying for position, and reminding each other of the pecking order. Eventually the bull turned broadside and gave me a great opportunity at 30 yards.
I took the shot. The bull jumped and ran behind a screen of trees and just stood there. The other bulls followed him and stood looking around, wondering what had just happened.
After the kudu episode my confidence wasn’t great, so I was really stressing the shot placement. The arrow seemed like it hit high to me but KP told me it was a great shot. We reviewed the footage and KP confirmed it was a lung shot, so we continued to glass the bull. We could only see part of his legs and his head, which began to droop lower and lower. At this point, I figured I had just gotten my Spiral Slam!!!!
Sure enough, a few minutes later the bull bedded down and 10 minutes after that, we snuck around and found him expired.
My arrow had gotten great penetration, although it didn’t pass through. In fact, as we got him into position for pictures, we noticed the broadhead pushing agains the skin on the off shoulder.
I’m super happy with this bull. He would have been incredible with a few more years on him but I couldn’t be happier to have gotten him and he will look fantastic mounted alongside my kudu.
The last day and a half things got slow again and I didn’t get the blesbok I was hoping to take. On the last morning, just as we were getting ready to leave the elevated blind and head to the lodge so I could shower up and hit the road for the airport, this huge vervet monkey I had been watching all morning strolled in and I was able to take him as he drank water at 20 yards.
Great end to a great hunt! Hope you enjoyed.
Matt
