As I mentioned, it was a very hot day. After the shot, we moved to an area where there was some signal in order to call for some help, hopefully to load.
Just for insurance I asked them to bring a few dogs in order to hopefully find the animal as fast as possible. On my bow hunts, I leave my hounds at home. Since a bow hunting day can be long, and the way we do it with back packs, it could mean that my truck stands unattended for the entire day, and hardly something that I want to do. Yet, every time I shoot, I wish that they were there. They make retrieving so effortless.
Those who have used blood tracking hounds will know how much heat has an effect on the scent. Scent tends to stick to cold, moist surfaces a lot longer, where you can clearly see the hounds struggling on hot days, as the fresh scent just burns up.
As we entered the canopy where the bull was standing, roughly 30min after the shot, we found some scuff marks where the bull pushed off. We followed the tracks for a short while and found the first drop of blood. It was indeed the only drop of blood that we could find. Dry. We could see two bulls clearing the ridge, which obviously meant that the 3rd bull had broken off. We put the dogs down on the tracks and they were off. It was clearly evident that they were struggling. Not just from finding any scent, but just the heat. They would work in a direction, and stop under the shade of the tree to have a rest. Hardly ideal.
We spent roughly 30 minutes circling, following the dogs, trying to help them as much as we could. Eventually, we cleared the ridge on the opposite side. As I turned to start working my way back in the opposite direction, we got called that they had indeed found a speck of blood in the road. This was only the second drop of blood which was probably around 100 yards away from the first drop that we had found. We followed the physical tracks of the bull on the worn out footpath that offered some dust where we could see the tracks pretty clearly.
We were now starting to find blood on a more regular basis. The dogs started working much better, noses to the ground and you could clearly see their body language had changed.
The tracks winded across the road a couple of times, and we were now starting to find areas where the bull stood for a bit, leaving behind a big pool of blood. The blood was still sticky, and with the current temperatures, I was estimating that he was hearing us, and that we could not be too far behind him. Even more, the blood splatter started to increase, as I tried to stay with the dog, in order to keep him motivated.
As we came around a big acacia, I could see the white from the rump of the bull sticking out.
He was completely done, but must have gone 200 yards from where he was shot.
The arrow was hanging from his chest, only by the broadhead.
Upon inspection, I had total penetration on the arrow, and as the bull ran, the arrow started cutting its way back out, causing immense damage on the inside.
Sable antelope are very tough animals, and can take a lot of punishment. When hunting them with some of our guests in the past, even on good shots, I have found that they can take a long time to expire. From a double lung with calibers such as 300 Mags, I have often gotten to them, and found them still fighting with the dogs, so his fight did not surprise me at all.
As I'm typing this, he has already been processed into hamburger and sausage that will feed my family for months, cape and skull dropped off at the taxidermist. He will be honored and displayed at the lodge with his story told for years to come. The prince of Africa.
