22SEP21
We drove 2 hours each way to Palinsburg to play tourist and look at animals. It did add rhino, elephant, hippo, steenbok, and klipspringer to my “animal sited” list. Scored more points with the Lovely Spousal Unit. It was not the same as hunting though.
23SEP21
TJ & I headed out to check a bait station for Robert. He was up late at night trying to snag a bush pig. As we drove into the bait station a flood of baboons ran from the station. Having learned from my zebra, I looked for the last one out. By size I could tell he was the troop leader. Seeing the growing distance, I turned the scope up to 200. As TJ got the truck stopped, I waited for the nose to dip and come back, then settled the dot on the baboon’s chest. (Just like at tank gunnery!) When I squeezed the round off, I put the round through his right hip and out his left chest. I have taken deer running in MO perfectly by putting the crosshair on the front edge of their chest. Not sure why I was experiencing the mental block to leading animals in Africa, but I got the job done.
Later that night Robert shot a jackal and a porcupine. When he later saw a full body mount of one at Rupert’s (the taxidermist), he and his wife decided they wanted that work done on his quill pig.
24SEP21
TJ set me in a blind with the skinner, Trymore, overlooking a pond. As we had driven up to the site, baboons ran off. 20 minutes after we settled in, one returned. He was 35 yards from us drinking his fill of the water. I whispered over to Trymore to confirm he was indeed a good baboon to shoot. The baboon heard the whispering and bolted over the embankment of the pond. Trymore had declared him to be “very good”. I think TJ was really expecting me to be able to collect a decent warthog from the waterhole. However, about 30 seconds later, the troop leader cautiously climbed to a seated position about 50 yards away on the dike. Curiosity killed the baboon. I watched him slowly fall out of the scope as the round went through his chest. He was another very fine specimen with razor sharp teeth. Apparently, he had not gotten his morning drink when we drove up and scared them off, so he was the first one back.
I have been teasing my Lovely Spousal Unit that I had the hides of these two baboons tanned and had them leave the tail on the largest one. When I craft a vest for her with the back of the pelt and that tail, I have been telling her she will look like a flying monkey from the Wizard of Oz.
This afternoon, I began to feel like I was coming down with the flu. Just aching and feeling bad all over. The day I took the giraffe, I had pulled a tick from the back of my left knee. That wound
