Hunting report continued from Part 1:
For the sake of brevity, I’ll cut many of the next few days short, highlighting some of the better hunts and showing some hero shots of hunts during the week.
After Wimpie and Gerhard left, Andrew and I tried for some guinea fowl, but were thwarted by their sharp eyes and lack of additional shotguns. I was also outsmarted by a rock hyrax (dassie) that I’d tried to sneak up on. Late in the evening though, we returned to the small pond and jumped up a few ducks – one red-headed teal and four yellowbills. Not to brag /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif, but I managed three ducks with three shots from Andrew's old Winchester pump gun.
The next morning found us hunting blesbok on a nearby farm. We tried several stalks and drives, but the sharp-eyed blesbok were difficult to close the distance on in the open country this late in the hunting season. As we left the farm for lunch, I shot a couple of fat ground squirrels. On the way to Mervilla, we stopped at the farm where the dassie had gotten the best of me the day before. Today was the hunter’s day, and I managed to take out two of the little buggers.
After lunch, Andrew had some paperwork to take care of, so I laid out in an open field and shot a meerkat – a large male - at 221 yards.
As we returned to the farm to hunt blesbok, I shot a guinea and a francolin (African pheasant).
We moved back into the large pasture in which the blesbok hung out and set up for another drive. After several hours and some near misses, the herd approached my position and began milling around at about 300 yards. Most of the animals were bunched up, but one cream-colored old ram was on the outskirts of the herd in the open. Though he wasn’t the largest male in the group, his uniquely colored hide made him a trophy with character (I like interesting trophies more than large horns). When he turned broadside, I dropped him with a single shot from my .338 at a lasered 303 yards. After the meat was tended to and dinner was eaten, we made a few night-time jackal stands, but with no results.
The next day started with a very long and nearly productive stalk on a nice steenbok (nearly because the wind foiled me at the last moment). In the middle of the day we traveled to Soutpan for salt (Soutpan = Salt Pan) and visited a local museum at Florisbad, the site of research on one of the oldest human skulls found. Later in the evening I finally connected on a fine steenbok ram.
Wednesday was dedicated to hunting black wildebeest. I was very fortunate to take a wonderful old bull early in the day, so that afternoon we got to hunt guinea fowl again.
Go to the final installment of the hunt report
For the sake of brevity, I’ll cut many of the next few days short, highlighting some of the better hunts and showing some hero shots of hunts during the week.
After Wimpie and Gerhard left, Andrew and I tried for some guinea fowl, but were thwarted by their sharp eyes and lack of additional shotguns. I was also outsmarted by a rock hyrax (dassie) that I’d tried to sneak up on. Late in the evening though, we returned to the small pond and jumped up a few ducks – one red-headed teal and four yellowbills. Not to brag /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif, but I managed three ducks with three shots from Andrew's old Winchester pump gun.
The next morning found us hunting blesbok on a nearby farm. We tried several stalks and drives, but the sharp-eyed blesbok were difficult to close the distance on in the open country this late in the hunting season. As we left the farm for lunch, I shot a couple of fat ground squirrels. On the way to Mervilla, we stopped at the farm where the dassie had gotten the best of me the day before. Today was the hunter’s day, and I managed to take out two of the little buggers.
After lunch, Andrew had some paperwork to take care of, so I laid out in an open field and shot a meerkat – a large male - at 221 yards.
As we returned to the farm to hunt blesbok, I shot a guinea and a francolin (African pheasant).
We moved back into the large pasture in which the blesbok hung out and set up for another drive. After several hours and some near misses, the herd approached my position and began milling around at about 300 yards. Most of the animals were bunched up, but one cream-colored old ram was on the outskirts of the herd in the open. Though he wasn’t the largest male in the group, his uniquely colored hide made him a trophy with character (I like interesting trophies more than large horns). When he turned broadside, I dropped him with a single shot from my .338 at a lasered 303 yards. After the meat was tended to and dinner was eaten, we made a few night-time jackal stands, but with no results.
The next day started with a very long and nearly productive stalk on a nice steenbok (nearly because the wind foiled me at the last moment). In the middle of the day we traveled to Soutpan for salt (Soutpan = Salt Pan) and visited a local museum at Florisbad, the site of research on one of the oldest human skulls found. Later in the evening I finally connected on a fine steenbok ram.
Wednesday was dedicated to hunting black wildebeest. I was very fortunate to take a wonderful old bull early in the day, so that afternoon we got to hunt guinea fowl again.
Go to the final installment of the hunt report
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