Thursday: In the end when this adventure came to it's conclusion, I would see that I had walked 9.5 miles and taken 24,414 steps through brush and sand. I had carried the Ruger Guide Gun the first day, but then opted to carry the NULA due to it's lightweight and the fact that all shots would be close thus maximizing the effect of the Barnes TTSX.
We picked up fresh tracks in the morning of a bachelor group of six bulls. The death march began.
We would catch up to the Eland and they would spook. Everything that I had heard of Eland hunts being incredibly easy or like the most arduous Cape Buffalo hunt proved true. I kept waiting for the easy part, though. It never came. We came to a clearing with the Eland on the other side of the brush. While kneeling and unprepared, I observed two bulls walk past a gap in the brush. Jaco urged me to shoot. I stupidly lined up on the silhouette of an Eland's head, guestimated the location of his vitals through the brush and shot. The shot did not penetrate the brush. No blood. I should have remembered rule #1 "If you don't have a clear target, don't shoot". This only gave the Eland another reason to run and added at least two more hours of tracking.
Upon catching up to the Eland again, I had a clear view of the Eland's hindquarters. Jaco urged me to get a round into the bull quickly. I mounted the sticks which due to expediency we did not spread. The first round dropped the Eland in place, but only because I took out his back legs. The bull was down, but was now facing away from me. I maneuvered to a better position and sent a round into the left side of the neck. I attempted to put a third round behind the left shoulder, but struck three inches behind the other neck shot.
I had hoped for an old blue bull and he was. After pictures, we hiked out to a dirt farm road. We returned to Jan's farm to get a trailer and more guys to help recover the bull.
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