bolted downhill. I reloaded again, but not quickly enough to get a second round in him. It didn’t matter this time. My shot placement was perfectly through the heart and lungs. We found him about 100 yards away with the bullet under the skin of his left shoulder. While we found zero blood and TJ tracked his hoofprints, the ribs on the floor of the bakkie bed were filled with blood by the time we got him to the skinning shed that night.
Being the neophyte hunter, TJ had to instruct me on the oryx’ trophy qualities. His bases were very large and thick, with secondary ridges indicating marked age. The stocky horns were very thick with well-defined ridges. His teeth were worn even with the palate, also showing he had just about had his run of the course. He was extremely well fed – almost pudgy, so it seems I caught him prior to the old age downhill slide. If you expand/blow up the photo, the side of his right horn by my rifle shows the shredded fiber of the horn sticking out from a recent fight.
Now some work began. The boulder and termite mound field was too thick to permit bringing the bakkie the 200 yards downhill from the road. TJ produced his rubberized canvas litter with seatbelt webbing straps and we rolled my wonderful oryx onto it. Five of us (Me, TJ, Nico, Jock, and Nico’s property manager grabbed onto the litter. Robert had to sit this one out. He is still undergoing physical therapy for a back surgery back home, so this was beyond his current capacity. We then sweat, stumbled, wheezed, and cussed a bit as we clawed up the slight incline, trying to not break any ankles on the softball to rugby ball sized rocks, and attempting to dodge the termite mounds. We took it in three or four sessions. I was very glad we had 40% humidity vs. the normal 80-90% here in Missouri! However, the altitude of 4-5,000 feet told on this guy, who is used to 900 feet of elevation in Missouri! I was thankful that Nico’s property manager had stayed along for the hunt in spite of being on Jock’s ranch. Just one more example of the intense effort TJ, and Nico were exerting to try and get us the animals on our list. I really think he just wanted to watch the newbie on his first safari get his animals to share in the excitement.
With 60% of my animals now in the salt (zebra, impala, oryx down – kudu and blue wildebeest still roaming), we went back to seeking the kudu bull as we had 2 more hours of daylight. While TJ and I stalked the oryx bull, the bakkie had moved to try and pick us up. They had spotted a group of mature kudu bulls across a fenceline on another portion of Jock’s ranch. Off we went to find them. After searching some 20 minutes in the adjacent area, we rounded a corner to find a mature bull tucked under a tree. He faced 4 O’clock towards us, right shoulder exposed, 50 yards from the truck. TJ said to get the rifle off the rack, and I waited for his next instructions. The bull looked rather puny from the light and angle I had to see him. Meanwhile, TJ was having kittens, as he had whispered for me to fire, but my tanker ears had not heard him. Finally, I asked, “Do you want me to shoot?”
“YES – QUICKLY!” (“YOU EFFING MORON!”, Is what I am sure he was thinking)
I thought, “man, he looks kinda stubby, but TJ said to shoot, so here goes”.
The round transited his boiler room. I felt no recoil, ran the bolt and prepared to send another round. I asked TJ if I should shoot again (not wanting to blow out his ears). TJ replied “No, he is already staggering and going down.” He staggered only 30 yards before he did go horizontal.
This old bull was headed downhill in his health. His hips were emaciated from spending time with the ladies this season. His teeth were worn to the palette as well. His coat was shedding winter hair. He had grown a very prominent ridge on the curl of his horns. The last 1/2” of his horns were ivory colored. Several days later, we stopped by the skinning shed and quickly put a tape to the horns to satisfy my curiosity. He was a strong 52”. As it turned out, it was very fortunate I suffered this curiosity pang. A very wonderful specimen!
Odd how the bush serves up animals in a manner and/or location one doesn’t expect. As the 2nd full day of my hunt closed, I had 80% of my animal list taken care of. 60% of the safari animals were harvested in one day of hunting! The most elusive, the grey ghost was in the salt.
18SEP21
The next morning Robert elected to sleep in. My Lovely Spousal Unit left with Natalie for the horse riding overnight trip that she had scheduled. TJ, Nico (driving), and I headed out at first light. This was the first day it was cool enough to wear the long-sleeved shirt layer, as well as the wool vest. After searching for about 20 minutes, we spooked a very nice red hartebeest that ran away from the road and stopped. TJ asked me if I wanted to pursue him, as he was a gold medal level animal. I have just never been able to get excited about hartebeest, but thought through TJ being excited about it meaning it was exceptional. I eventually said we should try for him. When the truck stopped for us to dismount, he ran farther off. When we began to stalk him on foot he lit out for the next county. This hartebeest had learned what the bakkie meant and was having none of it! We re-mounted the bakkie and I was actually relieved we had blown the chance when TJ told me the trophy fee was $1,200.
About a quarter mile down the road we ran into a nursery herd of wildebeest. Neat to see the 50 or so animals, but no mature males there, so we drove on. About another ¼ mile down the road we stumbled upon the bachelor herd. TJ and Nico both lit up. There was a bull both of them had tried to get Clients onto repeatedly, and he had always given them the slip. Nico had hunted the old man himself and he had bested him several times. He stood at the far right side of the herd, facing 3:30, about 70 yards away. I put the dot on him and squeezed – CLICK! I had failed to chamber a round coming out of the camp! (Each time we got back to camp TJ had us press the cartridges in the magazine down and run the bolt over them, so empty chamber, full magazine.) I instantly ran the bolt, settled the dot and fired again. Perfect hit, and the hand grenade of wildebeest was a perfect example of chaos. We all three dismounted for the follow-up. TJ led, I stayed right on his 6, and Nico re-tracked to back up TJ about 50 yards behind us. We found their standing position where I hit the bull. No blood was to be found anywhere. I was confident of my shot, and more importantly, my prior shooting had convinced Nico and TJ that I was competent. The tracking began.
TJ worked the hoofprints, detecting when the bull veered out of the herd in a loop to the right, then back into the herd. A bit further on he stumbled out of the herd to the left, and then rejoined again. Suddenly, TJ lost his tracks. Nico had concurred that TJ stayed on the correct set of tracks. Still, not a drop of blood. They stood in the bush running through Afrikaans like machineguns, while I stood beside them like a third arm. As I surveyed the bush around us to our left, 15 yards away laid the wildebeest. “There he is!” Their heads snapped around and we all laughed so hard we nearly cried. Here, the smoke was rolling out of their heads from the exertion of intensely tracking this old bull, and the rookie looks to the side and finds him!
The bull had pulled a tight button hook and apparently, as he collapsed, coughed hard. We finally found lung tissue 3’ from where he finally fell. He traveled 200 yards before he succumbed to the shot. I am sure that in another moment or two TJ and Nico would have back tracked and found the button hook, and then the bull. The way it unfolded was priceless though.
This old-timer had very pronounced bosses, a deep black face, very nice brindling, a great mane – just a superb specimen. TJ & Nico were both tickled pink that they had been able to put me onto him and finally someone had bested him. I finally had the presence of mind to shoot a version of the trophy photo with TJ, feeling like a moron for not having though of this on my previous animals.
