My long and drawn out hunting report

[normbates1]

I’ve finally gotten motivated to write about some of the hunting that I’ve taken part of this year. Now that I have moved to Southern Africa (Lesotho) it is easier for me to get out on “spur of the moment” trips. I had trouble finding a place close to hunt so starting out this year I traveled to Limpopo to hunt for 2 different 10 day trips. I was able to take an Impala and Blesbok on those trips along with getting a nasty case of tick fever. Driving 6 hours with a 104 degree fever sucks when you cannot feel your feet or fingers anymore. I went back up again to Limpopo in March for another 10 days, no ticks, but no animals either. I did have some friends down from Kenya to hunt (gun hunters) and they were able to take 12 animals between them. As they could not take the meat back to Kenya, I brought 700lbs down to an orphanage in my area.

Finally in May I stumbled across a game reserve recently purchased by a family out of Pretoria, and it is only 20 miles away from me. I believe the size is about 1000 hectares. It was already established as a tourist lodge and the previous owners had allowed some hunting. From the reactions of the animals, I believe from the back of a truck. That’s because whenever animals see a vehicle, they go nuts and run, even at distances of a mile or more. I’ve talked with the new owners and told them if they are going to allow hunting, it shouldn’t be from the back of a truck. Many people travel there to see animals and if you cannot get near them in a vehicle it kind of ruins their business model. I told them I was a bow hunter and they had never had any one of us there yet, they said “good luck with that” and cut me loose in the bush. I had some chances but remained unsuccessful on that trip. As the place is not setup to accommodate bowhunters , everything is walk and stalk. With the grass low at this time of the year getting within bow range is tough. I had to travel to the states for 6 weeks to work on my farm so I missed the majority of the best hunting time during the season.

In September, I was able to take a week off of work and hunt there again. I had some really good chances but always seemed to miss that little bit of luck that it takes for a successful hunt. The problem with hunting herd animals, is they like to stay in a herd. So many eyes looking out for you is tough. Every time I was able to approach one animal, another would notice me. But it is a good opportunity to work on my stalking skills. I did have a really good chance at a Blesbok, but she looked pregnant so I didn’t take a shot. I had another great opportunity at a Gemsbok, and I seemed to do everything right, but…. Well, here’s where the luck comes in. The property is shaped like two half moons joined at the ends with cliffs. The other sides are open. The terrain also contains several smaller 10 meter plateaus with small 20ft cliffs with heavy brush on the slopes of the walls leading up to the cliffs. (The photos will make more sense of what I just said) The method I’ve started to employ is to hike to the high ground and then start glassing. When I see something, I’ll make an approach if there is appropriate cover along with not being too many animals. (I try to go after groups of less than 5, but not always) At about 1 mile away I spied a group of 7 Gemsbok feeding across one of the smaller cliff ledges. Though the grass on the area where they were offers no cover, I knew that I could approach using the cover of the bush I was in and then below the ledge. The sun was going down and I knew that I did not have much time to work. I would have about a half hour before the sun went down below the canyon rim and then another 45 minutes to an hour before all shooting light was gone. Working my way down carefully through the bush I finally reached spot where I was below their sight. That took me about 40 minutes and then I started trucking my way to an ambush position. When I say trucking, I mean nearly running. The wind was blowing hard so I knew much of my hurried noise would be covered by it. Moving around the cliff edge, I gauged where they would be at along with a spot that would allow me time to actually climb up. I was lucky and there was a group of tiered ledges. The first, 5ft high, then next 3ft and finally a 4 footer. Carefully using a small tree to help me I placed my bow on the first ledge and pulled myself up. Next I placed my bow up on the next ledge and crawled up on my knees. With the sun setting and the 4ft ledge in front of me, I peeked over the ledge. Whoa!!! At somewhere between 20 to 25 yards was a Gemsbok head down feeding. I would be able to stand and barely exposing myself take a shot. Taking my time and trying to calm my nerves, I withdrew an arrow from my quiver, knocked it and attached my release to my loop. Making sure my footing was good. I risked another peek to make sure he didn’t move too far and to verify the distance. I knew I was on his rear quarter and out of his peripheral vision along with the fact that his head was down feeding. (No use in making an inaccurate shot, take your time and stay cool). My plan was to verify the distance, squat, draw my bow to anchor and slowly rise up and shoot as soon as I was clear of the lip of the 4ft step. Well, things didn’t quite work out as planned. When I poked my head up to verify my distance, another Gemsbok had walked up only 10 ft away and started looking at me strangely. Busted!!!! The other bok still didn’t know I was there and well, the second one let him know his mistake. If only I had a little more luck. But, it was a good stalk and I had all the excitement of a great hunt but without the R3500 bill. So I’m not too upset.

“Ok Norm, this story is fun and all that, but do you ever actually shoot anything, who doesn’t have a story about missed opportunities?”

Well yes I did, thank you. I finally got that little bit of luck I’d been looking for. I had planned to go hunting for another 10 days but work issues made it so I could only go for the weekend. But a weekend in the bush is better than any weekend at home and at only a half hour away, I’m going hunting. I started off Friday morning as usual, a little hung over and waking up late. I wasn’t worried and wanted to scout an area that I had found on my last trip where there was a spring that the lodge got their water from. It was about half way up the side of the slope leading to the cliffs and I wanted to see the water sources in the area. Plus I was hoping to see the trails that the animals were using to get at the high water source. I like hiking and exploring so after retracing my steps several times I found several more springs and finally made my way up to the cliff wall. At that point I could hear some really loud water. Moving along the wall I found possibly the coolest thing I could ever hope to find while out in the bush, (next to 4 lost Swedish bikini models), a small cave/overhang with water gushing out of the rock and disappearing into a small 3x3 pool. At this spot you could see the charred ceiling of the outcrop from fires made in that shelter many years ago. But the coolest part was the marks on the wall where our hunting forefathers had sharpened their spears and arrows. Other sites on the property that have similar marks along with bushman paintings that dates from about 8-9000 years ago. Seeing that along with finding a rock used for skinning/cutting/capeing, made my hunting day. I looked off into the distance at the Maluti mountains I could imagine what those old hunters thought when they sat there nine millennia ago. The spot was perfect. Shelter, water and from that height, you can see where the animals are for food. And that is just what I did. Nearly 2 miles away I saw a large black dot. Pulling up my bios I saw it was lone Wildebeest. Should I make a stalk? It was so far away and there was no telling if he would still be there if I closed the distance. But he was on top of the ridge that I had unsuccessfully gone after the Gemsbok and along with seeing him first, I had great cover on my side. Hell, why not, I took another look at the cave, pondered the Leopard spoor at its mouth and started to move. I had to slowly pick my way down the rocky bolder strewn slope and finally was below any sight angle of the Wildebeest. I guessed at his last position and was able to make good time not worrying about being seen or scented. Moving into the general area I found a spot that would allow me to make an assent and carefully poked my head over and looked around. He was gone…. $h**t, had I screwed up going too quick? I started moving along the edge while looking into the direction of where I had last seen him. But that was nearly 45 minutes ago and I’d need some luck to find him before he found me. That’s when I saw the top of his horns. He was about 80 yards away laying down in a small dip in the ground. He was facing away from me and in order to get a good shot I’d need to move to my right. A large bush about 10 yards away from him offered that opportunity. I was able to stalk up with the bush between us. Every 10 steps I would stop and slightly lean out to see his rump and to make sure he didn’t move. At about 20 yards from the bush, I leaned, looked, then straightened up. I drew my bow and after making a small side step to clear the bush, I let fly judging him at 25 yards. TWHACK!! My arrow was low and had not completely passed through. (I paced it out afterwards and he was at 30 yards, my arrow ended up hitting 3 inches low) But the damage had been done. With his boiler room broken, standing and staggering like a drunk he ran about 10 yards and then stumbled 15 more before dropping. (Kindly falling stiff legged onto the opposite side of my arrow and not breaking it) The knockout punch was a double lung heart shot. Knowing that it was over, I sat down to take in what had happened that day, thinking to myself how many times in history’s past had hunts started from that small cave on the side of the cliff. My “he” that I’ve been writing about turned out to be a “she”. As for the meat, I’m donating it to a blood drive later this month. “Meat for blood” is the theme and everyone that donates a pint gets something to eat grilled up by me.

My equipment used:
Minolta 12x42 bios
PSE TS HF set around 65poundish
Gold Tip arrow
G5 broadheads

If you made it this far, thanks for suffering through the whole thing.

[jcdup]

Great writeup. Well done!

[normbates1]

Are people having problems seeing the photos?

[jcdup]

I can see the pics without problems.

[Karoojager]

Thank you for this very good hunting report. Also my congratulation for you success. This is a story for any hunting journal, try to send this to the Africa Bowhunter & Archer Magazine.

Thank you for sharing