Can you remember your first African animal?

[Whisstle]

Like it was yesterday! May 2014, Kubusi Safaris, My son and I doubled on Zebra. My first, his third. Use the photo as my avatar.

 

[ActionBob]

April 2014, 8 months later than originally planned as I had a large business deal come up that had to be done. Arrived at camp late, well after dark, flight from Joberg to PE was cancelled as it was not very full so we got bumped to the later flight. Crusader Safaris, East Cape RSA, no high fence, pride themselves on being a free range outfit. Booked through James Jeffrey.

We saw several critters on the way in including a nice bush buck (which turned out to be a very challenging animal to get). Woke up the next morning to a quick breakfast of toast and coffee then loaded into the truck the PH has some paperwork and inquires as to what we are hunting. Had a package deal of Kudu, gemsbok and duiker, plus a choice of 2 of blesbuck, impala, bushbuck and springbok. Of which I had chosen the higher priced two, bushbuck and blesbuck... And told him I wanted to add the other two. As well as eland and zebra. And that I would happily add any fine trophies that Africa presented, minus a couple high priced critters i wanted to hunt another time and place, namely lechwe and nyalla. Most everything else was open if it was a great trophy.

So we proceeded to the range, M70 375 was shooting great, the fancy 30-06 I brought was not and Mark, my PH, was wincing at the thought of having it scratched... Also had a Savage plastic stocked 6.5 Creedmoor that Mark was happy about as he had been one of the PH's involved in proving the round in Africa. But he told me to grab the 375 unless he told me to bring the Creedmoor. And we were off...

5 minutes down the trail, heading up some small mountains, Mark stops and looks at me and says "are you serious about shooting anything that is a good trophy?" "yes?" "Well grab your gun and lets go shoot this mountain reedbuck". Hell I did not even know what that was.... But we hiked up the trail a bit, Mark set the sticks up and said shoot that critter on top of that big rock up there. Bang, flop... I saw a white blur as the reedbuck flipped over and off the back side of the rock... Mark was thrilled and I was still wondering what just happened. He sent the trackers up to fetch him and I asked if I should go with in case it was in need of finishing and Mark just ginned and mumbled something about that not being nessasary... Yea, pretty much blew out the heart and most of the off side shoulder....

My first big game animal was a little basket racked 8 point whitetail. 1978, about 3 weeks after I got my drivers licence, 4 months after buying my first pickup truck, a 1978 F150 4x4, bought with a down payment from my 9th grade FFA hog project and what seemed like a huge loan for a 15 year old I was on a deer drive through a willow swamp with my grandfathers old Winchester 1894 in 32 Winchester Special when I heard a trig break to my right and behind.. That deer was sneeking through the line and I dropped him with a shot to the neck (still not wanting to ruin and meat)... That was in the good old days of great eye sight and iron sites, and the ability to tromp through swamps all day long

 

[edward]

Jeez how many times have you blokes been over, I'm hoping to just get there once in my lifetime!

Loving all the memories and pics though

youll never go just once,bet on it.

 

[TXhunter65]

Never forget it!

 

[Eventually_Africa_Again]

May 12, 2010. Save Conservancy, Zimbabwe. Day 0 of the hunt (official hunt was to start the next day). We went out and sighted the rifles in; both the 30-'06 and the 375 H&H. Both were shooting right on. My PH says we might as well look around we have about 1 and a half hours of daylight left. We come up over a small hill and the PH stops and puts up his binoculars. Zebra! he says, and they don't know we are here. They were about 3/4 of a mile down a gentle slope through open but broken cover. We hopped out of the truck and the tracker handed me my 30-'06 from the back of the truck. I remember thinking shouldn't I be using my 375 H&H on this zebra? Oh well I'm sure the tracker knows what he is doing. My PH with shooting sticks in hand and me with my rifle start down the hill with a light breeze in our face at a brisk walk moving from cover to cover closing ground on the prey. I could not even tell you how many zebras were in the small group. My focus was the one that we were closing on. They were kind of spread out feeding along very slowly. My PH stops behind a clump of brush about 50 yards from a zebra. He says let me check this one out. Puts up his binoculars and says it is a stallion. He moves the shooting sticks over to the left around the edge of the cover so when I placed my gun on them I would have a clear shot. The zebra was quartering towards me, head down feeding with its large head blocking his vitals. Now on the sticks my PH tells me to take the shot when the zebra turns and I have the shot I want. I was on the sticks safety off, finger on the trigger, waiting for the zebra to turn. Finally the zebra turns, crosshairs are behind the left front shoulder top of the lower third of the body, where is that heart again? I just looked at the diagram on the plane ride yesterday. BOOM! 200 grains of bullet impact the zebra. The zebra wobbles starts to take 1/2 a step and drops right there.....stone dead. the PH is ecstatic. Great shot, well done. We won't have to track that one! Out of nowhere the trackers show up with the truck, congratulations all around and photos. I have my first African animal. I guess I did remember my first!
View attachment 233770

Wow, a Day 0 kill, same as mine! That's a great story!

 

[RBurg44]

A jackel on the run with pawprints Safaris in 2017. My ph jonathan knew that it was going to be a good safari when i got him. Only hr or so after our first morning hunt!

 

[archerman]

Kudu....First Evening , First hunt in South Africa November 2012 .. Shot with Fred Bear Kodiak Take Down Recurve..

I was beside myself with Joy and Shared that moment with my wife Tatyana..

......

 

[BenKK]

I’ve seen your African adventure on an another forum. Super!

My first African animal was an impala with a single-shot Ruger .300H&H. Excitement and a tough trigger caused me to miss the chest at just seventy metres, but we found blood and after a hundred metre trail we found him dead with a neck-shot that was a centimetre away from a complete miss! Then - for punishment - when I sat behind it for a photograph I had to jump straight back up with a backside full of those Eastern Cape thistles. My brother and Dad thought it was hilarious! We spent quite some time pulling spikes out with pliers.

 

[Lee M]

Archerman - Now that is a great way to break the ice. A Kudu with primitive stick and string for a first animal. Awesome!

 

[Erny]

Black Wildebeest.. can remember everything about that day. One of the best days of my life.

 

[AZDAVE]

Diker the first morning of the 2013 safari on the Eastern cape. The PH was excited and told me to shoot. I told him I didn't want to shot that little guy, he says it is a MONSTER so shoot or he will shoot it for himself. I had bad jet lag so I just thought that he wanted to see if I could shoot. 102 yards, 9.3x74 barrel on my TC encore, remember it like it was yesterday. And yes he was right it was a monster.

 

[Hunter101]

Big bull Eland with bow free range

 

[IdaRam]

Female Warthog, 191 yards with 300 gr Accubond from RSM in .375 H&H
ON DAY 5!

Spent the first 4 days, close to 50 hours, in here. Praying. For Mr. Spots.

He refused to cooperate. He did kill an impala right behind the blind while we were in it. Another night, a baboon up on the hill. If we were in the blind he wouldn’t hit the bait. He would however prowl around sawing and huffing. He was one big ass Leopard with a pumpkin head. Pretty sure he is still alive and will die of old age.
I feel privileged to have hunted Leopard and I hope to do it again someday. But I’m not looking forward to it! I suck at sitting still for hours and days at a time!

 

[Philip Glass]

It was 1997 and I was hunting in the Eastern Cape with Barry Burchell and Frontier Safaris. Other than my bag no guns or luggage arrived for our group so I was borrowing a .30-06 which was my gun of choice at the time. We were our climbing hills on a crisp morning and seeing quite a bit of game. I remember bumping into a herd of Nyala and was in awe. High on a hill we spotted a warthog down below and we eased down the hill for a better shot. I spined that pig and I had my first African animal! Since then Africa has been in my blood! Good memories.
Regards,
Philip

 

[adgunner]

My first African animal was a jackal with Marius at KMG in 2013. We were just about to start a stalk for Impala when I asked what happens if we see a jackal and he replied “shoot it but probably won’t see one around here”. A short walk later and up he pops in front of us!

We got the impala a short while later!

About to head back for my sixth hunt with Marius and KMG for spotted hyena and can’t wait! Little did I know at that time I would be addicted to hunting over there and find a great hunting partner in Marius!

 

[Spooksar]

Blue Wildebeest in Limpopo in 2011 with Hunters Rock Safaris. First dear a Mule deer in 1975 2 days after my arm came out of a cast, my physio therapist was angry when he found out.

 

[Witold Krzyżanowski]

My first African trophy: antelope ORYX.

 

[Aaron N]

An old blue wildebeest on day one. Chased the herd around in circles for quite a while before getting on the sticks. One shot from a 270 and dropped in his tracks.

 

[Edge]

One year ago almost to the day, 19 June 2017. Arrived at KMG in the afternoon, met my PH Louw and whacked a waterbuck before the sun had set! The number one animal on my trophy list.

 

[James Sexton]

25 1/4 inch impala with Marius Goosen and KMG Safaris.