What is your most memorable African Hunting moment?

[CAustin]

There are so many great memories but setting up my pop up blind and three days later at 14 yards watching my home made cedar arrow bury to the feathers tight to the shoulder and low on the kudu in my avatar is forever etched in my mind!

Amazing! You made your arrow? Cool!

 

[CAustin]

@BRICKBURN , did you get the reedbuck?

Ditto......don't keep us hanging Wayne!

 

[jeff]

Amazing! You made your arrow? Cool!

Yes I make a lot of my equipment, bow strings, arrows, feathers, and long bows and recurves.

 

[CAustin]

I would say you are hooked on bow hunting Jeff. Do you rifle hunt as well or is it all bow?

 

[Rob404]

Having never left the USA with the exception of a side trip to a Strip bar in Windsor Ontario while in Detroit, my whole trip to Africa was an experience. Strange people Strange Language (kind of like going to North Minneapolis) coupled with my fear of flying, I stopped hunting when my hunting buddy died,we often talked about Africa but it just never happened. So I found this Website and started to think why not!. To pick one thing that made my trip memorable would be difficult petting a Cheetah, riding an Elephant certainly qualify. Sitting down to dinner with My PH Chris and his wife Sabina and swap stories tell jokes and feeling like family is right up there. We hunted Impala Bliesbuck and of course Kudu, Which after a lot of hard work on Chris and his tracker Sampson's part I was blessed by the Gods of the hunt, I was maybe 500-600 feet up and about 150yds away when after 4-5 females followed by the male walked thru a small clearing. I don't know if any of you guys ever had this happen to you but it seemed that everything got quiet and time slowed I set the cross hairs just behind the shoulder, squeezed the trigger I saw the dust rise and heard a Wap and heard Chris say Great Hit you got him and it was done My CZ550 Mannlicher stocked 308 did the job. So to me I'd really have to say It was my entire trip to Africa that was memorable

 

[sestoppelman]

Memorable can cut both ways of course, some good, some not so much. Who wants to brag about the not so much? Now for happy times, probably when after spending several days in a makoro in the Okavango in search of sitatunga, I was finally able to connect with one. Shooting from the makoro with just me and two native polers so far out into the delta I would never make it back on my own, the polers spotted a shooter bull, and without too much trouble we had him. Hard earned trophy and my most prized animal. Somewhere on this site is a story I wrote about it, but I don't know where it is.

 

[jeff]

I would say you are hooked on bow hunting Jeff. Do you rifle hunt as well or is it all bow?

I have taken a few elk with a muzzleloader and a handful of critters with a rifle and even a couple of big game animals with a pistol but 99% of my hunting has been archery only. Until about 8 years ago I shot traditional equipment exclusively but after my first trip to Africa I bought a compound and I hunt about 50/50 now with the two types of bows.

 

[jeff]

This thread idea was a great one, it's so nice to read of others memorable times and of their adventures!!

 

[Josh Neal]

I'm making TONS of memories before my SA safari even begins (July 17').
From surprising my wife with the idea for our 5 year anniversary, to talking my mother and father into booking with us as well, to all the friends I've meet along this journey and just the excitement I've got boiling over as I await my journey to SA.

Great Post CAustin

 

[PaulT]

My eye lids bounced semi-open, drowsy from the effects anti-malaria medication I was taking, in time to see a fully grown Sable collide with the drivers side front panel of the land-cruiser.
The truck reared up on the drivers side and came smashing back down to earth with a thud, whilst the trackers in the back were flung wildly in the scrub from the back of the cruiser.

I was still struggling with what had happened, and trying desperately to regain full consciousness when several shots rang out nearby.
I instantly reached for my 30/06 and noticed it was gone.
I jumped out of the truck and saw the P.H standing in the middle of the track working the action of my rifle. He ran back towards me, reloaded the rifle and said "Don't shoot the trackers, but if anyone else shows and they're carrying guns, or you see any more of those small yellow dogs, shoot them".

The words were still sinking in when I noticed to limp bodies of two small yellow dogs laying on the side of the road with a fresh trickle of blood leaking from them. Still not fully comprehending the situation before us I managed to shoot two dogs and the P/H got another two which I later found out he was paid a $50 U.S bounty for.

As it transpired, the Sable we had collided with had a muzzle loaded wound in his arm-pit and, as we happed on the scene, was being trailed by poachers and their dogs hoping to collect him.

I had a LOT of memorable moments during my visit to Zimbabwe in 2000 but this incident, magnifying the basic elements of life and it's worth in Africa left a profound effect on me.

Yes. I detest the poaching but no way in the world could I bring myself to shoot someone (it was shoot on site for poaching where we were) who's main intent is gathering food, but it sure brought it all home to me in a very graphic manner.

 

[Pheroze]

My eye lids bounced semi-open, drowsy from the effects anti-malaria medication I was taking, in time to see a fully grown Sable collide with the drivers side front panel of the land-cruiser.
The truck reared up on the drivers side and came smashing back down to earth with a thud, whilst the trackers in the back were flung wildly in the scrub from the back of the cruiser.

I was still struggling with what had happened, and trying desperately to regain full consciousness when several shots rang out nearby.
I instantly reached for my 30/06 and noticed it was gone.
I jumped out of the truck and saw the P.H standing in the middle of the track working the action of my rifle. He ran back towards me, reloaded the rifle and said "Don't shoot the trackers, but if anyone else shows and they're carrying guns, or you see any more of those small yellow dogs, shoot them".

The words were still sinking in when I noticed to limp bodies of two small yellow dogs laying on the side of the road with a fresh trickle of blood leaking from them. Still not fully comprehending the situation before us I managed to shoot two dogs and the P/H got another two which I later found out he was paid a $50 U.S bounty for.

As it transpired, the Sable we had collided with had a muzzle loaded wound in his arm-pit and, as we happed on the scene, was being trailed by poachers and their dogs hoping to collect him.

I had a LOT of memorable moments during my visit to Zimbabwe in 2000 but this incident, magnifying the basic elements of life and it's worth in Africa left a profound effect on me.

Yes. I detest the poaching but no way in the world could I bring myself to shoot someone (it was shoot on site for poaching where we were) who's main intent is gathering food, but it sure brought it all home to me in a very graphic manner.

Holy moly! What a surreal experience.

 

[G Skinner]

When the plane touched down till the time we lifted off !
Glen

 

[lcq]

My first cull hunt in 2014 we had been looking for a pig all day. Finally the only one cull size was standing next to 4 rhino and my PH said shoot. I said you're joking with those monsters there. No problem they don't give a shit, shoot. Well I shot and one rhino horned the pig about 15' in the air before his 3 friends turned to guard the pig. That was Dion's turn to look surprised

 

[KMG Hunting Safaris]

Having to back up a wounded Leopard, with a scoped .270 Win at night. My only source of light was the tracker next to me, holding a 2x AA battery Mag-light.
You feel alive and dead at the same time.

 

[Pheroze]

@Pheroze you need to tell us more on the tooth brushes sir!

Oh man I was looking for something to bring and my dentist friend,whose daughter just came back from working with a charity in Kenya, suggested them. He got me a box and off I went....nothing, and I mean nothing, is a display of ignorance like turning up in PE South Africa with 100 toothbrushes.  I haven't taken my friend, or his daughter, to task on this yet.

 

[CAustin]

My eye lids bounced semi-open, drowsy from the effects anti-malaria medication I was taking, in time to see a fully grown Sable collide with the drivers side front panel of the land-cruiser.
The truck reared up on the drivers side and came smashing back down to earth with a thud, whilst the trackers in the back were flung wildly in the scrub from the back of the cruiser.

I was still struggling with what had happened, and trying desperately to regain full consciousness when several shots rang out nearby.
I instantly reached for my 30/06 and noticed it was gone.
I jumped out of the truck and saw the P.H standing in the middle of the track working the action of my rifle. He ran back towards me, reloaded the rifle and said "Don't shoot the trackers, but if anyone else shows and they're carrying guns, or you see any more of those small yellow dogs, shoot them".

The words were still sinking in when I noticed to limp bodies of two small yellow dogs laying on the side of the road with a fresh trickle of blood leaking from them. Still not fully comprehending the situation before us I managed to shoot two dogs and the P/H got another two which I later found out he was paid a $50 U.S bounty for.

As it transpired, the Sable we had collided with had a muzzle loaded wound in his arm-pit and, as we happed on the scene, was being trailed by poachers and their dogs hoping to collect him.

I had a LOT of memorable moments during my visit to Zimbabwe in 2000 but this incident, magnifying the basic elements of life and it's worth in Africa left a profound effect on me.

Yes. I detest the poaching but no way in the world could I bring myself to shoot someone (it was shoot on site for poaching where we were) who's main intent is gathering food, but it sure brought it all home to me in a very graphic manner.

Intense!

 

[CAustin]

My first cull hunt in 2014 we had been looking for a pig all day. Finally the only one cull size was standing next to 4 rhino and my PH said shoot. I said you're joking with those monsters there. No problem they don't give a shit, shoot. Well I shot and one rhino horned the pig about 15' in the air before his 3 friends turned to guard the pig. That was Dion's turn to look surprised

Wish I had been there to see that one.

 

[CAustin]

I'm making TONS of memories before my SA safari even begins (July 17').
From surprising my wife with the idea for our 5 year anniversary, to talking my mother and father into booking with us as well, to all the friends I've meet along this journey and just the excitement I've got boiling over as I await my journey to SA.

Great Post CAustin

And just wait until you get there the memories will be a flood!

 

[thriller]

It's split between following up my buffalo and it standing up to face me at 15 yards, and getting my kudu in the last 10 minutes of light on the last day at almost 400 yards. Both are situations that were stressful, exciting and unforgettable. Though both were things that were unintended I will never forget these moments.

 

[thi9elsp]

First day, an hour from camp we were on to a Kudu bull. He got away. The next nine days saw me take a nice buffalo, bushbuck and impala. Finally on day 10 we found another Kudu bull. Yup, buck fever, not the best shot up hill just under his brisket and took out the far shoulder. As we started tracking through the thick stuff I told the PH if he has to shoot, don't let it get away waiting to get me up front. Five hours of tracking later, my head is down just looking at Owain's feet and next thing I realize, in one smooth motion he's pushing the tracker out of the way, raising his 458 lott and shooting the bull as it's trying to get up about 25 yards away. The relief, and I'll admit tears is something I'll never forget. The entire team was exhausted and exhilarated that we got him. Each time I look at him on the wall I think of that day. And, when work is tough, I think work's nothing compared to that hike.