A great time in Zimbabwe - 04/29/13
My brother in law and I had a great time in Zimbabwe, hunting with John Sharp.
Shot the zebra at maybe 80 or 90 yards. He was looking right at me and I hit him dead center of the chest, maybe 6 inches above shooting right under him. He did not react at all to shot, simply ran off with the rest of them. While I felt good about the shot, this was the first animal I shot at and John looked at me like I whiffed him. The guys in the back of the truck didn't even know which animal I shot at. I felt pretty low for a few minutes until we found him dead as a hammer about 75 or 100 yards away.
This guy was maybe 75 yards away, quartering towards me pretty hard, (he was not quite facing me head on). I hit him on the right hand side of his chest, right where I was told to, and he buckled and ran 30 yards. A jackal ran up to him, while the dust was still floating, licked him and then went and laid under a bush about 10 yards away, waiting for something to come help him unwrap his delivery supper. Jackal didn't make it to supper.
shot this through both shoulders and it made it about 30 or 40 yards.
I wanted to shoot my rifle, rather than borrow something larger, so I had to shoot this guy in his neck or head. I was told to shoot him right under the mane if I didn't have a straight on shot at his neck. I got too excited and shot it right dead center on the neck, from the side. He turned and ran directly away from him and I shot him in the right side of the back of his head. I had my scope on 1.5 and saw the impact and him fall like a ton of bricks. I was busy patting myself on the back, when John said you might want to shoot him again. I look up and he is up and off to the races. Third shot goes right next to the first one, middle of the neck, from the side. I pause to load another shell (I failed to replace the wildebeest shot) and the fourth one caught him about an inch below his ear. Fortunately, this was the most excitement we had.
The buffalo was pleasantly uneventful.
I was shooting my 35 Whelen that Sterling Davenport built, loaded with 200 grain triple shocks over 60 grains of Reloader 15. The guys found one bullet, the wildebeest shot. This bullet did not hit any substantial bone and managed to retain about 60% of its weight.
[img]http://i746.photobucket.com/al...-8f8d-bbd144afbb97_zps61f548dd.jpg[/img]
All in all, I don't think that I could have had any more fun. I will be saving my pennies until I can get back over there and hunt buffalo or lioness with John. The Bubye Valley Conservancy is a remarkable place and I consider mice elf fortunate to have been able to spent some time there. We saw 4 of the Big 5 while hunting, no leopard.
Shot the zebra at maybe 80 or 90 yards. He was looking right at me and I hit him dead center of the chest, maybe 6 inches above shooting right under him. He did not react at all to shot, simply ran off with the rest of them. While I felt good about the shot, this was the first animal I shot at and John looked at me like I whiffed him. The guys in the back of the truck didn't even know which animal I shot at. I felt pretty low for a few minutes until we found him dead as a hammer about 75 or 100 yards away.
This guy was maybe 75 yards away, quartering towards me pretty hard, (he was not quite facing me head on). I hit him on the right hand side of his chest, right where I was told to, and he buckled and ran 30 yards. A jackal ran up to him, while the dust was still floating, licked him and then went and laid under a bush about 10 yards away, waiting for something to come help him unwrap his delivery supper. Jackal didn't make it to supper.
shot this through both shoulders and it made it about 30 or 40 yards.
I wanted to shoot my rifle, rather than borrow something larger, so I had to shoot this guy in his neck or head. I was told to shoot him right under the mane if I didn't have a straight on shot at his neck. I got too excited and shot it right dead center on the neck, from the side. He turned and ran directly away from him and I shot him in the right side of the back of his head. I had my scope on 1.5 and saw the impact and him fall like a ton of bricks. I was busy patting myself on the back, when John said you might want to shoot him again. I look up and he is up and off to the races. Third shot goes right next to the first one, middle of the neck, from the side. I pause to load another shell (I failed to replace the wildebeest shot) and the fourth one caught him about an inch below his ear. Fortunately, this was the most excitement we had.
The buffalo was pleasantly uneventful.
I was shooting my 35 Whelen that Sterling Davenport built, loaded with 200 grain triple shocks over 60 grains of Reloader 15. The guys found one bullet, the wildebeest shot. This bullet did not hit any substantial bone and managed to retain about 60% of its weight.
[img]http://i746.photobucket.com/al...
All in all, I don't think that I could have had any more fun. I will be saving my pennies until I can get back over there and hunt buffalo or lioness with John. The Bubye Valley Conservancy is a remarkable place and I consider mice elf fortunate to have been able to spent some time there. We saw 4 of the Big 5 while hunting, no leopard.