SkullKeeper
AH elite
Day 8
We were up very early since we wanted to be in the hyena blind before good light. Stu told me if they are on bait at crack of light then good if not we don’t wait, we just leave. Driving in the dark was a bit nerve racking because of all the elephants there... and we had a near miss speaking of that. An ele came from out of nowhere and almost ran into us on my side. I’m not sure he veered at the last second or if Stu hit the breaks (or both), I just know there wasn’t a collision. We made it to the stopping point with it barely getting pink on the horizon and sat in the truck a bit gathering up things while we waited a few more minutes( so we didn’t walk into elephants we couldn’t see!). The men had marked a trail from the road with white toilet paper a few days before, a generous 3-4 squares each in case a pit stop ensued along the way I supposed. We eased up to the backside of the blind and squinted through glass for movement. About 10 minutes went by before we called it a bust. No hyena to be found. Examining the bait it hadn’t been touched in the previous night’s hours. Stu had told Davey a few days ago to keep the 22 magnum in the truck for guinea fowl. We had seen multitudes of these birds all week and it didn’t take but a few minutes driving to run across some. We stopped and Gift handed down the rifle from atop the Hi Lux howdah basket. At the crack of the little rifle all the guineas flew off - and the men laughed gloriously ! Ha!! We drove on... me, my amused embarrassment, and the little rifle searched for more potential misses along the road. Ahoy Cap’m!! - guineas off the port bow ! Stu through out the anchor and I lined up on the 35 yarder standing still. Success ! Gift rolled out and retrieved the prize - A Rowland Ward guinea fowl no doubt. No time for measuring or photos, we sped forward to find more. The next “herd” of guineas was all Davey. His miss wasn’t so elaborated laughed at as mine but Stu poked him a bit for good evened-up fun. Onward to the next gang and this time Gift was at bat. Crack!! No cigar that time either. We were simply going to starve today. We left Secret Valley and hoped that a bushbuck encounter would see better shooting. Driving along hurriedly I saw the rear half of a warthog disappear in the long grass just off the road. It took off fast and I could see glimpses of it - a good male! I pointed saying to Stu “I saw ivory”. He jumped on the breaks and we rolled out, Davey and Gift pointing out the warthog’s direction. We motioned Gift down and took off along the edge of the high grass. Gift was last in line as we walked fast, searching. Gift snapped his fingers and as we turned around he was pointing. Backing up Stu and I spotted the boar at the same time, he was quartering towards, mostly obscured, looking at us. Stu flopped the sticks out and I quickly acquired the target. The dirt and the pig met the ground at the same time. Everyone cheered - we had our warthog. We loaded our first prize of the day and continued toward bushbuck country. About 15 minutes later, as we drove by a small hill, I saw an impala ram running around the base of that hillside. It looked like a decent ram so we pulled over. We made it the 100 yards to the hill and walked up to the crest behind a large tree. As we glassed out over a large grass covered plain Stu spotted a 30+ group of impala with a dandy ram at the back of them. Stu looked at me and said it was a very long shot. Indeed it was...about 400 and some yards. I looked behind us and outward and said to Stu “let’s back up off of this hill to that low spot and hit that depression. You see that tree line 1/3 mile away? We can get in that tree line and ease up to where those impala are. The wind is with us and we should come out right on them” . Stu agreed to try it without hesitation. It took us about 20 minutes to get over there and we snuck our way through the trees towards the impala (that were actually feeding towards us now). We had to be very careful as we closed the distance - the impala were spread out and we had some walk past us about 75 yards away. We were in a few scattered scrub trees then and Stu pointed out a thick patch of tall grass with a bushy tree in it- the best hide ...if we can get to it undetected. We left the men in their places and slowly crept our way towards it watching the impala that had passed us to our far right. With me so tight to Stu I was practically wearing his clothes we made it to the tall grass. Stu eased the sticks up and told me to go ahead and get set. There were impala filtering leisurely by us anywhere from 80 to 100 yards out. Stu saw the ram and told me he was in the back in tall grass just on the other side of some females. They walking past us at 100 yards and the ram came into view. It wasn’t hard to see him as his horns were tall. The ram walked out of the grass and into the open but he was behind two females. He stopped broadside and the ewes continued walking leaving him clear. The crosshairs were already in place by then and I sent one down the tube. It spun him 90 degrees as he fell over, all I could see was two rear legs slowly bicycling in the dirt. It had been the grandest of stalks. Stu’s smile said it all. He shook my hand vigorously telling me “well done!”. The men emerged and did the same. I told Stu that could’ve been a 60” Kudu and I would’nt have felt any happier than now. I told Stu he just learned how to do the Virginia Sneak - He said he liked my plan and we laughed ! We took photos, loaded up everyone and headed for camp to make a drop. We didn’t stay in camp long at all since we had to try the bushbuck before lunch break.
We made it back to the dense and water filled ditch. Speaking of which this was a last ditch effort for this bushbuck. We stealthily walked though and we indeed jumped him. Stu and I stayed on one side of the water filled ditch and sent the men around to see if they could push him back to us. They bumped him and the ram ran back our way but on the far side of the reeds. I caught glimpses of him and trying to intercept his path I shouldered the rifle but the ram never made it to that point. The men walked around in a big circle trying to move him. Billion was in sight of us on the other side and pointed feverishly further down the waterway. Stu and I ran and quickly got across. Billion told us which way the big ram went. We could see Gift moving further in and we made our way towards him. We walked slowly around a big thick group of trees and saw Gift standing stone still. He looked around towards us and slowly pointed into the dense shadows. Stu put his binos up then motioned for me to follow him slowly. With Gift as still as he could be and focused on the mass of brush in front, we circumvented him and Stu put the sticks up and pointed. To me it was like looking into water to find water...I couldn’t pick out anything. Stu is looking through a 10 power bino and I a 3 power scope (my binos were in the truck) . It was only 40 yards but there was a lot going on inside that 40 yards. Stu and I were both in the glass and he asked can i see him turning his head. It took “forever seconds” but I finally picked up the movement. Stu said he was facing from right to left so I brought the crosshairs down to where I thought I could see the rams back line and I shot. I didn’t see anything at first then I saw the ram bolt through a patch of sunlight into the brushy abyss. I should’ve shot where I thought he wasn’t. An extremely disappointing miss but at least a clean miss. Besides the 2 buff I really wanted a kudu and a bushbuck - be careful what you wish for (as it may be too much !), but I had picked up a good warthog and an outstanding-to-me impala.
Back to camp for lunch now.
We were up very early since we wanted to be in the hyena blind before good light. Stu told me if they are on bait at crack of light then good if not we don’t wait, we just leave. Driving in the dark was a bit nerve racking because of all the elephants there... and we had a near miss speaking of that. An ele came from out of nowhere and almost ran into us on my side. I’m not sure he veered at the last second or if Stu hit the breaks (or both), I just know there wasn’t a collision. We made it to the stopping point with it barely getting pink on the horizon and sat in the truck a bit gathering up things while we waited a few more minutes( so we didn’t walk into elephants we couldn’t see!). The men had marked a trail from the road with white toilet paper a few days before, a generous 3-4 squares each in case a pit stop ensued along the way I supposed. We eased up to the backside of the blind and squinted through glass for movement. About 10 minutes went by before we called it a bust. No hyena to be found. Examining the bait it hadn’t been touched in the previous night’s hours. Stu had told Davey a few days ago to keep the 22 magnum in the truck for guinea fowl. We had seen multitudes of these birds all week and it didn’t take but a few minutes driving to run across some. We stopped and Gift handed down the rifle from atop the Hi Lux howdah basket. At the crack of the little rifle all the guineas flew off - and the men laughed gloriously ! Ha!! We drove on... me, my amused embarrassment, and the little rifle searched for more potential misses along the road. Ahoy Cap’m!! - guineas off the port bow ! Stu through out the anchor and I lined up on the 35 yarder standing still. Success ! Gift rolled out and retrieved the prize - A Rowland Ward guinea fowl no doubt. No time for measuring or photos, we sped forward to find more. The next “herd” of guineas was all Davey. His miss wasn’t so elaborated laughed at as mine but Stu poked him a bit for good evened-up fun. Onward to the next gang and this time Gift was at bat. Crack!! No cigar that time either. We were simply going to starve today. We left Secret Valley and hoped that a bushbuck encounter would see better shooting. Driving along hurriedly I saw the rear half of a warthog disappear in the long grass just off the road. It took off fast and I could see glimpses of it - a good male! I pointed saying to Stu “I saw ivory”. He jumped on the breaks and we rolled out, Davey and Gift pointing out the warthog’s direction. We motioned Gift down and took off along the edge of the high grass. Gift was last in line as we walked fast, searching. Gift snapped his fingers and as we turned around he was pointing. Backing up Stu and I spotted the boar at the same time, he was quartering towards, mostly obscured, looking at us. Stu flopped the sticks out and I quickly acquired the target. The dirt and the pig met the ground at the same time. Everyone cheered - we had our warthog. We loaded our first prize of the day and continued toward bushbuck country. About 15 minutes later, as we drove by a small hill, I saw an impala ram running around the base of that hillside. It looked like a decent ram so we pulled over. We made it the 100 yards to the hill and walked up to the crest behind a large tree. As we glassed out over a large grass covered plain Stu spotted a 30+ group of impala with a dandy ram at the back of them. Stu looked at me and said it was a very long shot. Indeed it was...about 400 and some yards. I looked behind us and outward and said to Stu “let’s back up off of this hill to that low spot and hit that depression. You see that tree line 1/3 mile away? We can get in that tree line and ease up to where those impala are. The wind is with us and we should come out right on them” . Stu agreed to try it without hesitation. It took us about 20 minutes to get over there and we snuck our way through the trees towards the impala (that were actually feeding towards us now). We had to be very careful as we closed the distance - the impala were spread out and we had some walk past us about 75 yards away. We were in a few scattered scrub trees then and Stu pointed out a thick patch of tall grass with a bushy tree in it- the best hide ...if we can get to it undetected. We left the men in their places and slowly crept our way towards it watching the impala that had passed us to our far right. With me so tight to Stu I was practically wearing his clothes we made it to the tall grass. Stu eased the sticks up and told me to go ahead and get set. There were impala filtering leisurely by us anywhere from 80 to 100 yards out. Stu saw the ram and told me he was in the back in tall grass just on the other side of some females. They walking past us at 100 yards and the ram came into view. It wasn’t hard to see him as his horns were tall. The ram walked out of the grass and into the open but he was behind two females. He stopped broadside and the ewes continued walking leaving him clear. The crosshairs were already in place by then and I sent one down the tube. It spun him 90 degrees as he fell over, all I could see was two rear legs slowly bicycling in the dirt. It had been the grandest of stalks. Stu’s smile said it all. He shook my hand vigorously telling me “well done!”. The men emerged and did the same. I told Stu that could’ve been a 60” Kudu and I would’nt have felt any happier than now. I told Stu he just learned how to do the Virginia Sneak - He said he liked my plan and we laughed ! We took photos, loaded up everyone and headed for camp to make a drop. We didn’t stay in camp long at all since we had to try the bushbuck before lunch break.
We made it back to the dense and water filled ditch. Speaking of which this was a last ditch effort for this bushbuck. We stealthily walked though and we indeed jumped him. Stu and I stayed on one side of the water filled ditch and sent the men around to see if they could push him back to us. They bumped him and the ram ran back our way but on the far side of the reeds. I caught glimpses of him and trying to intercept his path I shouldered the rifle but the ram never made it to that point. The men walked around in a big circle trying to move him. Billion was in sight of us on the other side and pointed feverishly further down the waterway. Stu and I ran and quickly got across. Billion told us which way the big ram went. We could see Gift moving further in and we made our way towards him. We walked slowly around a big thick group of trees and saw Gift standing stone still. He looked around towards us and slowly pointed into the dense shadows. Stu put his binos up then motioned for me to follow him slowly. With Gift as still as he could be and focused on the mass of brush in front, we circumvented him and Stu put the sticks up and pointed. To me it was like looking into water to find water...I couldn’t pick out anything. Stu is looking through a 10 power bino and I a 3 power scope (my binos were in the truck) . It was only 40 yards but there was a lot going on inside that 40 yards. Stu and I were both in the glass and he asked can i see him turning his head. It took “forever seconds” but I finally picked up the movement. Stu said he was facing from right to left so I brought the crosshairs down to where I thought I could see the rams back line and I shot. I didn’t see anything at first then I saw the ram bolt through a patch of sunlight into the brushy abyss. I should’ve shot where I thought he wasn’t. An extremely disappointing miss but at least a clean miss. Besides the 2 buff I really wanted a kudu and a bushbuck - be careful what you wish for (as it may be too much !), but I had picked up a good warthog and an outstanding-to-me impala.
Back to camp for lunch now.
