Johnny7604
AH veteran
- Joined
- Apr 29, 2013
- Messages
- 232
- Reaction score
- 207
- Media
- 66
- Member of
- SCI, FMFG
- Hunted
- Canada (BC, AB), RSA (Limpopo), RSA (KwaZulu-Natal)
Hunting Day 1, Part 1– Out of the Deepfreeze and into the Fire
I think I managed to get about 3 hours of sweat soaked sleep the night before making a grand total of 10 hours of sleep in three days. Even with the A/C turned on the heat, humidity and lack of sleep had me feeling like I had a grade “A” hangover for lack of a better term. I had just spent the last three days dealing with crappy flights and long layovers. Leaving my -15 degrees Celsius home in Northern Alberta, I had travelled over 21,000 km to hunt with Chris Troskie Safaris in the +30 degrees Celsius Limpopo province.
No time to feel sorry for myself though I was here to hunt and Chris wanted me up early so we could go meet up with his friend and fellow PH Hannes who would be helping us out for the first couple of days. The land we were hunting on for the first day was owned by Hannes’ family and Chris also wanted to use the opportunity to try and get some new footage for a promo video. Sounded good to me, how often would I get a chance to have a 2 PH hunt?
After meeting with Hannes who is quite possibly the toughest human being I have ever met we headed out to the property near the Botswana border. Our primary target today would be Eland.
It was just after first light and the morning was cool and crisp, not at all what I expected for Africa. The dew that coated everything reminded me of a morning after a good rainfall back home. After transferring all our essential gear into one bakkie we started out looking for spoor.
The amazing animals and scenery that one can see from the back of a slow moving bakkie was incredible. Impala, Red Hartebeest, blesbok and many other incredible species seemed to be everywhere. I did notice right away how thick the bush was, after questioning Chris about this he informed me that the unusually high rainfall had made the veldt extremely thick….. good for the animals, bad for us.
It took us about an hour of driving to find fresh tracks from the huge antelope, We offloaded quickly and started off into the thick bush after the herd of Eland. Hannes was hot on the tracks of the Eland while I was busy collecting specimens of the local thorn bearing plant life…..I think I managed to get several of each and the blood dripping down my hands and forearms was the proof.
The tracks were getting fresher as we pressed on. Back and forth cutting the trail of the Eland. We were closing the gap. At one point we were approximately 80 yards from the herd when they spooked sending up a flock of cow peckers like a flare. I couldn’t believe we were that close with no indication that they were right in front of us…. God this bush was thick!
We continued the pursuit, fueled on by the close encounter with the herd. We came into a small area which had some unusually good visibility, as we skirted the left edge of this small clearing Hannes ducked down and motioned for us to do the same. My heart sped up a little, what was it he saw? He motioned for me to move up next to him. Things were moving quickly now and my sleep deprived mind was trying to keep up.
Hannes whispered “Gemsbok, about 100 yards ahead. There is a nice one bedded down in the shade of that tree” as he pointed through the bushes. I immediately saw the white and black inkblot face of the Gemsbok. She was looking right at us from her resting place. We had several small bushes between us when Hannes set up the sticks for a kneeling shot. “No shot, Hannes” I whispered. “There is to much brush”.
“OK, no problem…what we will need to do is low crawl to that next bush and that should give us a clean shot.”
“We will be crawling through thorns though but there is nothing we can do about that” he added.
“Groovy” is all my mind could muster. We started off crawling though the small thon bearing shrubs. I could feel them stabbing me in all the wrong places. Closer and closer trying to be as quiet as possible while continuing on to the small bush only 20 yards ahead. Finally we made the bush. I held up my left palm to Hannes and motioned for him to remove a two inch thorn protruding from my hand. He chuckled quietly and pulled out the thorn. “Thanks” I whispered.
Hannes gently set up the sticks on the left side of the bush. I set my rifle in the familiar “V” of the trigger stick and peered through the scope. “I can see the right shoulder, neck and head I whispered”.
“OK, good” he replied as he finished looking through his binoculars. He traced his finger in the sand drawing how she was laying in front of the tree. “She is laying like this with her head on this end.” He was indicating a steep quartering towards shot with her head on the right. “From her left ear go 6 inches left and 12 inches down….that’s where I want you to shoot.” I got back on the scope and knew exactly where he wanted it. Inside the right front shoulder for a heart shot.
I was locked on the spot. “6 inches left and 12 inches down from the left ear” I confirmed.
“Yes”….BOOOOOMMMMMM! The .338 Lapua barked. All I could see after the recoil was what appeared to be a leg kick twice.
“She’s down” Hannes whooped “congratulations”. The shot had anchored her where she laid. As I looked on the rest of the herd stood up and didn’t seem to know what to do. They were looking around dumfounded. Then they one at a time filed out of the clearing.
Hannes face became suddenly serious as he brought his binoculars back up. “Shit will you look at that one” he whispered.
I leaned over and saw what he was talking about. Out of nowhere an ancient female cleared the brush and stepped out into the open. Her horns swept way back. The curve and mass reminded me more of the pictures of the males I had seen.
Quickly Hannes turned around to face Chris , “Chris can he take another”? Chris nodded.
“John, I will give you an excellent deal, you must take this one”. I could see he was excited about the old girl. If there was one thing I learned from the forums was when your PH gets excited don’t question it.
Things moved fast, I put the rifle back on the sticks…..she was steeply quartering away and ever so slowly putting distance between us. I dropped the crosshairs on her and fired. BOOOOM the rifle barked for a second time in 30 seconds.
“She’s hit” Hannes exclaimed. She quickly darted left into the bush. “Stand up and put another one in her”.
I stood up and aimed but through the brush there wasn’t much of a shot. I rushed the shot and missed clean. At the same moment myself an Hannes noticed an opening in the brush that she would have to pass through if she continued on her present course. Hannes pointed to the opening as I was dropping to one knee. I settled the crosshair on the opening and watched her move towards it with my non shooting eye.
The old gal moved into the opening and as if on queue stopped perfectly broadside. It seemed like time stopped. The noise faded away as I moved the crosshairs slightly to the spot I learned off the shot placement guide and squeezed the trigger. BOOOOM! When my sight picture came back from recoil she was gone……What just happened? All the sounds and sights outside the scope started to come back. I could hear Hannes and Chris laughing in celebration.
“Is she down”? I asked.
“Yes, she’s down” Hannes replied half laughing.
I sighed a breath of relief and lowered my head towards the ground. Had that really just happened? Had my first successful harvest of an animal in Africa really turned into a double of one of my favorite African species?
Hannes reached down and grabbed me by my shoulders lifting me up to my feet like a child. Patting me on the back “let’s go take a look”.
I believe I was in shock for the next few minutes as we walked over to the first Gemsbok and looked her over. Then moving to the next one about 50 yards away. The two could not be in more stark contrast as far as age. The first one was young and healthy, the second was ancient. Her muscle tone was gone and she had barely any teeth left. Chris and Hannes estimated her to be over 20 years old and probably on her last year.
I was still in a little bit of shock when they set the animals up and we took the pictures. It was shaping up to be one of the most amazing days of my life. When all the work was done they cleaned and covered the Gemsbok up.
“Now let’s go get your Eland” Hannes barked.
Apparently today wasn’t over. If I only knew what was in store for me. Stay tuned for Day 1, Part 2.
I think I managed to get about 3 hours of sweat soaked sleep the night before making a grand total of 10 hours of sleep in three days. Even with the A/C turned on the heat, humidity and lack of sleep had me feeling like I had a grade “A” hangover for lack of a better term. I had just spent the last three days dealing with crappy flights and long layovers. Leaving my -15 degrees Celsius home in Northern Alberta, I had travelled over 21,000 km to hunt with Chris Troskie Safaris in the +30 degrees Celsius Limpopo province.
No time to feel sorry for myself though I was here to hunt and Chris wanted me up early so we could go meet up with his friend and fellow PH Hannes who would be helping us out for the first couple of days. The land we were hunting on for the first day was owned by Hannes’ family and Chris also wanted to use the opportunity to try and get some new footage for a promo video. Sounded good to me, how often would I get a chance to have a 2 PH hunt?
After meeting with Hannes who is quite possibly the toughest human being I have ever met we headed out to the property near the Botswana border. Our primary target today would be Eland.
It was just after first light and the morning was cool and crisp, not at all what I expected for Africa. The dew that coated everything reminded me of a morning after a good rainfall back home. After transferring all our essential gear into one bakkie we started out looking for spoor.
The amazing animals and scenery that one can see from the back of a slow moving bakkie was incredible. Impala, Red Hartebeest, blesbok and many other incredible species seemed to be everywhere. I did notice right away how thick the bush was, after questioning Chris about this he informed me that the unusually high rainfall had made the veldt extremely thick….. good for the animals, bad for us.
It took us about an hour of driving to find fresh tracks from the huge antelope, We offloaded quickly and started off into the thick bush after the herd of Eland. Hannes was hot on the tracks of the Eland while I was busy collecting specimens of the local thorn bearing plant life…..I think I managed to get several of each and the blood dripping down my hands and forearms was the proof.
The tracks were getting fresher as we pressed on. Back and forth cutting the trail of the Eland. We were closing the gap. At one point we were approximately 80 yards from the herd when they spooked sending up a flock of cow peckers like a flare. I couldn’t believe we were that close with no indication that they were right in front of us…. God this bush was thick!
We continued the pursuit, fueled on by the close encounter with the herd. We came into a small area which had some unusually good visibility, as we skirted the left edge of this small clearing Hannes ducked down and motioned for us to do the same. My heart sped up a little, what was it he saw? He motioned for me to move up next to him. Things were moving quickly now and my sleep deprived mind was trying to keep up.
Hannes whispered “Gemsbok, about 100 yards ahead. There is a nice one bedded down in the shade of that tree” as he pointed through the bushes. I immediately saw the white and black inkblot face of the Gemsbok. She was looking right at us from her resting place. We had several small bushes between us when Hannes set up the sticks for a kneeling shot. “No shot, Hannes” I whispered. “There is to much brush”.
“OK, no problem…what we will need to do is low crawl to that next bush and that should give us a clean shot.”
“We will be crawling through thorns though but there is nothing we can do about that” he added.
“Groovy” is all my mind could muster. We started off crawling though the small thon bearing shrubs. I could feel them stabbing me in all the wrong places. Closer and closer trying to be as quiet as possible while continuing on to the small bush only 20 yards ahead. Finally we made the bush. I held up my left palm to Hannes and motioned for him to remove a two inch thorn protruding from my hand. He chuckled quietly and pulled out the thorn. “Thanks” I whispered.
Hannes gently set up the sticks on the left side of the bush. I set my rifle in the familiar “V” of the trigger stick and peered through the scope. “I can see the right shoulder, neck and head I whispered”.
“OK, good” he replied as he finished looking through his binoculars. He traced his finger in the sand drawing how she was laying in front of the tree. “She is laying like this with her head on this end.” He was indicating a steep quartering towards shot with her head on the right. “From her left ear go 6 inches left and 12 inches down….that’s where I want you to shoot.” I got back on the scope and knew exactly where he wanted it. Inside the right front shoulder for a heart shot.
I was locked on the spot. “6 inches left and 12 inches down from the left ear” I confirmed.
“Yes”….BOOOOOMMMMMM! The .338 Lapua barked. All I could see after the recoil was what appeared to be a leg kick twice.
“She’s down” Hannes whooped “congratulations”. The shot had anchored her where she laid. As I looked on the rest of the herd stood up and didn’t seem to know what to do. They were looking around dumfounded. Then they one at a time filed out of the clearing.
Hannes face became suddenly serious as he brought his binoculars back up. “Shit will you look at that one” he whispered.
I leaned over and saw what he was talking about. Out of nowhere an ancient female cleared the brush and stepped out into the open. Her horns swept way back. The curve and mass reminded me more of the pictures of the males I had seen.
Quickly Hannes turned around to face Chris , “Chris can he take another”? Chris nodded.
“John, I will give you an excellent deal, you must take this one”. I could see he was excited about the old girl. If there was one thing I learned from the forums was when your PH gets excited don’t question it.
Things moved fast, I put the rifle back on the sticks…..she was steeply quartering away and ever so slowly putting distance between us. I dropped the crosshairs on her and fired. BOOOOM the rifle barked for a second time in 30 seconds.
“She’s hit” Hannes exclaimed. She quickly darted left into the bush. “Stand up and put another one in her”.
I stood up and aimed but through the brush there wasn’t much of a shot. I rushed the shot and missed clean. At the same moment myself an Hannes noticed an opening in the brush that she would have to pass through if she continued on her present course. Hannes pointed to the opening as I was dropping to one knee. I settled the crosshair on the opening and watched her move towards it with my non shooting eye.
The old gal moved into the opening and as if on queue stopped perfectly broadside. It seemed like time stopped. The noise faded away as I moved the crosshairs slightly to the spot I learned off the shot placement guide and squeezed the trigger. BOOOOM! When my sight picture came back from recoil she was gone……What just happened? All the sounds and sights outside the scope started to come back. I could hear Hannes and Chris laughing in celebration.
“Is she down”? I asked.
“Yes, she’s down” Hannes replied half laughing.
I sighed a breath of relief and lowered my head towards the ground. Had that really just happened? Had my first successful harvest of an animal in Africa really turned into a double of one of my favorite African species?
Hannes reached down and grabbed me by my shoulders lifting me up to my feet like a child. Patting me on the back “let’s go take a look”.
I believe I was in shock for the next few minutes as we walked over to the first Gemsbok and looked her over. Then moving to the next one about 50 yards away. The two could not be in more stark contrast as far as age. The first one was young and healthy, the second was ancient. Her muscle tone was gone and she had barely any teeth left. Chris and Hannes estimated her to be over 20 years old and probably on her last year.
I was still in a little bit of shock when they set the animals up and we took the pictures. It was shaping up to be one of the most amazing days of my life. When all the work was done they cleaned and covered the Gemsbok up.
“Now let’s go get your Eland” Hannes barked.
Apparently today wasn’t over. If I only knew what was in store for me. Stay tuned for Day 1, Part 2.
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