Saturday the 15th - This could be called snake day or perhaps something else
We started the morning with both Okie and Jacques as the PH's in the truck. Somewhat soon the driver/tracker spotted a fairly long black snake in the road. Jacques dispatched this snake with a shot or two from Donna's -06. Turned out to be a mole snake which isn't poisonous.
On we go when both Okie and Jacques get excited about a bull in a group of Eland. On the stalk we go and we're going to have Donna take the shot. As we close the distance, Okie and I take a seat in the sand and let Jacques and Donna move forward. They're about 20 yards in front of us and we just sit back and watch as Jacques sets up Donna on the sticks but sitting down. We wait and then we wait some more. After doing this we wait again, Donna behind the scope all this time. Turns out she was on the bull and was ready to take the shot, just waiting for another bull that was between the bull we wanted and Donna. Despite being well hidden and a nice consistent breeze in our face, the eland suddenly bolt. We are perplexed as to why.
We head back to the truck. As we are walking with Okie and Jacques a bit in front of us, the boys get excited. They've now found a cape cobra...definitely poisonous. Jacques once again dispatches the issue with a shot from Donna's -06.
Back at the truck, still wondering what went wrong on this Eland hunt. We start to move forward in the truck, but barely move at all when we figure it out.
Sometime around Thursday after hearing the lions roar a few times and seeing how this all works at Serapa, I asked Jacques about hunting a lioness. I knew there were 4 lions out on the ranch. Two lions and two lionesses. 3 of the cats were spoken for that week, the remaining one was a lioness that had been released about two months prior to my arrival.
The eland hunt was busted because the lioness we set out for this morning were being pursued by the cat. We just had started to move forward in the truck when the tracker sitting on the hood spotted her tracks and then subsequently spotted the cat back and to our right laying under a tree. She was winded from her chase of the eland and moved into the shade to cool off.
We pulled away in the truck to circle back on the lion and she never knew we had been there. Eventually we stopped and started the stalk. She stayed right in under that shade tree and was at one point asleep. We got to within about 60 yards of her without her knowing. With a good breeze again in our face, she however became aware of our presence. Jacques wanted to close another 20 yards before taking a shot, but she bolted and I mean she ran fast. Something very different about being that close to a top predator.
So back to the truck we go to pick up her track. It didn't take long as she crossed a road heading away and to our left from us. We crawled along in the truck getting one more brief glimpse of her. She was still moving quickly away from us. Up ahead we take a left, again hoping to see her tracks and that she had slowed down. Well she had not only slowed up, she took up refuge within a very large thorn bush just off to the side of the road. It was so thick in there that nobody had spotted her and we were about 20-30 yards away. No matter, she decided with a mock charge and a very angry growl to announce her presence. This inspired the tracker riding on the hood to make a very hasty retreat to the back of the truck.
Jacques surveyed the situation. The particular bush she holed up in was surrounded by other thorn bushes, there was just no way to approach without having to get very close to see her. This cat with the heat of the day coming on was not happy and without question getting that close would initiate a charge. So we decided to leave her be for the time being and let her both physically and emotionally cool off.
We pull away and head in for lunch. Before doing so, we spotted another group of eland and decide to make a stalk for Donna. Somewhere in the middle of this, a nice gemsbok bull presents himself. Donna unfortunately misses with her shot.
On we go again and get close to some black wildebeest. At this point I had announced after having missed 3 of them, that I'm not shooting one, but Donna should. She connects on a fairly long shot, but not well. The bull takes off with the herd. We pursue in the truck to see where they're going. They went a long ways and I'm actually glad we didn't have Jacques' dogs with us as the heat of the day would've really been hard on them. Eventually we catch up to the herd and the bull is now acting sick. We are able to finish him off and Donna had what would be her final animal of the hunt.
In for lunch we go. Now having worked with and spent a lot of time with Jacques over that past several years, I knew this lioness was not following the normal pattern. Jacques is pretty evenly keeled and generally only gives subtle cues when he's bothered by something. Having spent enough time with him however, I can read him and I know he's a bit concerned with this cat. I don't need to ask him if he's concerned and as such I don't. Nor do I mention this to Donna, but she can also read me. So the post lunch nap resulted in no sleep at all.
We had quite a blow of wind midday and I didn't think we'd go back out, but it died down. So we head back to the lioness later in the day to see if she is still in the same bush and she is. She may have physically cooled off, but she's still not in a very good mood. But she does move off at the sight of the truck, but not very far. We get off the truck and move towards her. We are not as close as Jacques prefers to get on these hunts, but she is ready to charge. I get on the sticks but am not comfortable with the amount of brush just in front of her and she moves a bit. Jacques tells me I should have shot and I feel I've let him down.
We move again and at this point I'm going into a zone where all I'm thinking about is getting on the sticks quickly and finding that white spot under the cat's chin. Jacques tells me later that the cat initiated another mock charge as we're setting up. Honestly I did not notice, I was focused more on Jacques and the sticks. He sets up the sticks......and I know exactly where the cat is......up on the sticks with my .458B&M and find her immediately in the scope laying down, looking directly at us with her head up.......put the cross hairs immediately on that white spot and pull the trigger......immediate thwap sound of the bullet impacting is heard.
We move again keeping a close eye on the lioness who hasn't moved since the first shot. We get broadside to her and I put another one in her thru the chest. I did not hear a bullet impact and saw dust fly up behind her, though I'd missed. The cat still hasn't moved. At this point we feel confident that she was dead and approach. She was in fact stone cold dead. The first shot from the .458B&M with that 260gr CEB SOCOM had done its job. Her head was up when I shot, but immediately went down at the shot. Her only movement that Jacques saw was her tail twitched a couple of times.
My second shot hit her square in the middle of the chest broadside and exited, this is why I saw the dust fly up. I'm guessing we didn't here the impact as she had a big leaking hole in the front of her chest.
I cannot fully explain my feelings at this point. This was not a hoorah moment. My feelings on this were more solemn but also one of relief. I had shot poorly on this safari so I was quite relieved that my shots were true and no one was hurt by this very angry cat. But the taking of a top line predator.....well I just can't explain it. This is not to say I didn't enjoy the hunt, just that I wouldn't describe it as enjoyment. I am glad I did this hunt and will never forget it. But it is a different feeling than taking a large kudu or a trophy sized elk here in the U.S. I guess I still haven't wrapped my head around it. I just know after it was done, I was shaking a bit. The adrenaline during the hunt had I guess went to my brain and caused me to focus like I'd never focused on a hunt before, but it was now going to the muscles in my body and giving me the shakes. An amazing experience.
