Well, up to this point I've been 5 shots, 5 animals down. We went back to the lodge for lunch, and we were treated with Eland burgers for lunch. I don't know about you guys, but for me, I'll have to say that Eland is one of the, and if not the best wild game in Africa. The burgers were amazing, and I could have eaten another one, but I knew I'd be too full to keep up with Don, so I only ate one.
We hang out at the lodge until around 3 PM, and of course we have enough time for a cigar, so we decided to sit at my usual place and watch the Bush TV, while smoking a cigar.
Three O'clock rolls around and we get our things together and we head out looking for a cull Impala for my grandbaby Haper. We look and look, and we found a nice group with two cull Impalas, and Don instruct me to which one to take. Unfortunately, they never stop moving, the one ram goes behind a bush, and when he comes out has another young ewe in front and I had no shot. They somehow sense something was not right, and they moved on.
We regroup, and decided to go look at the fields they have, and with all the rain and irrigation they are doing, this is a wonderful food for source for animals. So, off we went, and again, we approach from the above, and there are 3 Impalas on the bottom, Don instructs me which one to take and I get set up. The sun is a bit on my face, but I have a clear shot, but again, for some reason the sticks don't feel right, but I press on the Impala turns and I take the shot. The Impala runs and drops and it's kicking. We are happy, high fives, but then all of a sudden, the Impala regains her strengths and runs off. What the??? We all look at each other in disbelief and we are searching for answer. X goes down, and we see this Impala running and I can't take a shot.
We go down, and X and another tracker go looking for the Impala, we position ourselves in the position we believe he'll come out. Nope, this Impala comes from behind us, and I try to take a running shot, but miss and shot behind him. I am upset, and disappointed that I had made a bad shot, and now this animal was out there suffering. We get Rocky, and off we go looking for this wounded Impala. We track him down all the way down in front of the lodge, and he gets into some thick stuff, and it's already dark. We make the decision to let lay and we'll regroup in the morning and search again.
I was upset with myself, and I felt I had let my PH down by missing the easiest shot of the hunt. I'm a hard hunter and try to give the animal the respect they deserve and knowing that this Impala was out there suffering was eating me up inside. I did not sleep very well that night but was hopeful that we would find him.
23 Jun 2025.
Out we went early in the morning, and went up to advantage point to look and see if we could see this Impala moving. I relived the shot over and over in my head and where the dot was when the shot broke, and I knew this Impala was mortally wounded, and would eventually die from blood loss. But couldn't figure out why he ran this far. All I could think was that when the shot broke, he moved a bit, and me not being comfortable on the stick made a bad shot. I still don't know and will never know. We looked for several hours, and Don and I made the decision to call it a day. Don said to me that they will look for crows and hopefully find him in the next day or two. I apologize to Don several times and felt I had let him down. Don assured me that things like this happen, and that they are out of our control, and I understood what he was saying, but then again, it was my mistake, and I had to own it.
