My first kudu on my first hunt in the Eastern Cape.
I wasn't fixed on shooting one but it was on my list. The first few days we saw some but never a shooter, so as we went I filled my other animals on my list. Then we got down to the last few days. My PH was busting his rear trying to get me one but again no shooters were found.
We headed to a couple different properties and all we managed to do on the first one was to break the starters mount on his vehicle. On the other property we took a very long walk, again no shooters were seen, but we were seeing some. Then the tracker found one down in a small valley, as all of us tried to get into a shooting position some noise was made and off he went. I also has a warthog on my list and on our way out of that area we spotted a very nice one, he headed into some brush but we never saw him again.
The last day came and off we went to another property. We hiked into a area and again only saw small ones. We took a short drive and hiked into another area with a second PH and tracker. We saw a nicer one but my PH said that we could do better, the other PH wanted me to shoot it, but on we went. We then spotted one up in some trees. We crawled the last 50 yards to get into position. The only trouble was that all I could see was his body and I wasn't going to shoot until I saw his horns. I was in a sitting position with my rifle on the sticks watching him through the scope. This went on for a good 45 minutes, then he moved to where I could see his head but not his body. A hour later nothing was happening but we noticed some cows in the valley below him and figured that he would stand up for them. The cows came up the hill and picked up another bull, there was no question that this bull was larger than the one laying down but he was moving through the brush so no shot. Then the cows came out into the open and stopped. He was right behind them and as soon as he stopped I pulled the trigger. I recovered from the recoil and the second PH said to shoot him again, but as soon as I got the scope onto him he was down.
While I wasn't after a kudu I had a very nice one on the ground. All the hiking, sweat, and glassing paid off on that morning of the last day. It is one that I'll remember the rest of my life when I look at the mount on my wall.