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Thankfully this wasn't and indication that we would have a bad day. Jacob took a good nap this morning allowing me to get most of the house cleaned and some laundry done!!!
Yesterday we made a big trip out to the apple orchard with my mom and grandpa. Jacob loved being outside, trying to get the leaves off the tress and taking in all the new sights. It didn't take us very long to pick apples but it was a beautiful morning warm but not so hot as it gets in the afternoon. We also had lunch out at the orchard, the food was great. We brought home daddy some cider and doughnuts. He loves cider!! Hopefully we will go back with daddy some night next week.
Leopard - We hunted for 5 days and nights for this big cat. We spent 4 nights sleeping in a tent a hour away from camp with elephants and lions running around which was quite an experience. I can't say I slept a whole lot as we there area lot of noises in the bush that I had never heard before.
One Big Cat - Measures 7 feet from nose to tail and wighed 140 Lbs. We would take turns listening to a microphone that was placed by the bait about 250 yards away for the sounds of an animal crunching bones and eating the meat that we hung in the tree. We had a couple false alarms with one female Leopard and a couple of Honey Badgers throughout the night. The microphone is sensitive enough that at 20 feet away from the bait it picks up fly's buzzing on the bait, and you can hear a leopard walking down the road and breathing when it is feeding on the bait.
Family Success - Eric had shot his Leopard the night before so we knew the pressure was on. Dad made it into our camp from his elephant hunt just in time to see both of the big cats. We tryed having a party on both of these nights but everyone was too tired to stay up too late.
Nice Claws - This is what does the damage when they attack you. Their claws retract just like your house cat and they get real dirty and full of bacteria. When they cut you open with them the bacteria gets into the wound and you get one serious infection. The guides told us not to worry though, Leopards just scratch and bite you, Lions kill and eat you.
Pretty White Teeth - When these things are eating impala (slightly smaller than our deer) they break and eat the ribs like we would eat smarties. Feeling the muscle they have makes you quickly realize the damage they could do in a few seconds on top of you.
Home Sweet Home - We spent a total of 56 hours in the leopard blind in 5 nights of hunting. We built 3 different blinds and this is the one that I shot the cat out of. The gun is in position and lined up with just the barrel and scope sticking through the mat. We heard the noise about an hour after dark and hit the light when everyone was ready to see what was there. We shot him and he pretty much dropped straight out of the tree. We could not see him from the blind because of a slight rise in the dirt so we called the trackers in and everyone suited up. We all put our pants and long sleeve shirts on and the PH put his thick winter overalls on. All of the rifles were loaded and the PH loaded his shotgun with slugs and buckshot. When we drove the truck towards the bait tree he was already laying dead on the ground.
Cape Buffalo - We had a good time hunting the buffalo, we were pretty fortunate and had several good stalks in a couple of days. Our first couple of encounters did not produce any shooter bulls but we were able to get into shooting position if there was one in the group of Dugga Boys. We started tracking this group from a water hole and caught up to them in about 30 minutes. We followed them for the next 1.5 hours as they worked their way along a small dried up river. Fortunately we were in the river bed and would climb the bank and look out every 100 yards to see where they were going as we tryed to get in front of them. We eventually did as when we climbed out to look they had turned and were coming straight at us. This bull was the 4th one back and was quartering towards me when I shot. The first shot about knocked him down and I followed with a few more as he ran away. He did not go too far, 75 yards maybe to where we found him.
Wildebeest - On our way back from one of our walks after Eland we ran into a herd of Wildebeest that were feeding just over a rise in front of us as it was getting dark. We snuck up behind a big Baobab tree and found a good one to shoot just as they spotted us. I had to shoot through a thick bush like 95% of all our shots in Africa. I hit him square and he turned and ran and I hit him again with a solid and rolled him over a couple of times.
Eland - This was also a great stalk and a little bit of a walk to get him. We spotted a herd of about 50 Eland with several nice bulls. We started following them in the morning and assumed they were going to one of the larger rivers to drink. The problem was the river was about 6 miles away, so we started walking following their spoor. We did catch up to them in some thick brush a couple of times but could not get a shot, they had joined up with a herd of Zebra who were ultra spooky on this farm. The guide knew there was an exceptional bull in the herd and told me would would not leave them for the whole day, I was thinking oh great. When we made it too the river and got on the downwind side we could see them about .5 mile down already drinking. We started towards them in a half run and cut across a point we thought they were beyond. But when we looked back we had overshot them and they were now moving out of the river away from us on the other side. We were now running down the bank and up a washout on the other side. We made it to the top of the wash out just as the last Eland were walking by about 150 yards away. This bull stopped and looked at us just as we were getting the shooting sticks in position and I fired a shot. It hit him good and we started running after him but he did not go far. His horns are good, he is a nice old mature bull with a big dark face and brown ruff coming down to his nose. His body though is exceptional, the thought this was the biggest Eland ever shot on the farm, it weighed 2,200 lbs.
Wart Hog - Not too much to say about these things besides that they sure are ugly, I can't believe Martha is going to let me put it in the living room. We were out shooting Leopard bait one morning and saw him, we made a short stalk and shot him at about 60 yards.
Zebra - These were a pretty common sight but they sure were spooky. The owner had been in camp for the 6 weeks before we got here and had shot 25 for Leopard bait as they were trying to get one on video. We found this herd when we were on one of our river walks and shot it from a high bank with them below us. It is amazing how something black and white can blend into their surroundings so good. Definitely makes you realize that everything is created with a purpose in mind.
Bushbuck - The good thing about sleeping in a tent out in the bush is that you don't have to go far to the good hunting area. One morning as we were on our way to an anti-poaching camp for hot water to make coffee and tea we ran into this guy. A short stalk was made and a 75 yard shot was made as he stepped out from behind a thick bush. This is a nice ram with an exceptionally clean hide.
Kudu - We had not seen a lot of Kudu on this trip. We had a few other close encounters but nothing that presented any good shots or followup stalking opportunities. We had seen a group of Kudu a couple of days before while waling the Macory river so we decided to give it another try. We spotted 2 bulls 800 yards away, one good and one young and decided to make a stalk and see if we could get close enough. We sneaked out to the edge of the river bank from the opposite side to where we thought they should be. They were down a bit further yet but we decided to try and make the 210 yards shot off the shooting sticks. The shot was a little low and an excellent tracking job by the team allowed a follow up shot to be made within 200 yards of the first.
Giraffe - This was probably the toughest physical hunt I have been on. The Leopard was tough but it was more mental than physical trying to stay awake staring into the darkness. It was the second to last day of the hunt and we were looking for Giraffe in the morning and afternoon when the temperatures were cooler. Giraffe have skin about 1 inch thick and the hair slips easily if shot in the heat of the day. We spotted some female and thought a male should be close by so we drove off the trail through the bush. We found one not too far away that was an old bull nice and dark. Giraffe are not scared of vehicles but once you stop and get out they are gone. We stopped behind a big bush and got out as the truck drove away, he was now looking at us and knew that something was there. We slowly crept out to try and get an angle for a shot but he spotted us and started walking straight away. He was now 120 yards away behind some thick thorn trees. He took several steps sideways to try and get a better look at us and stopped in enough of a clearing to get a shot. I shot and the chase was on, we took off sprinting after him to try and hit him a few more times. Well we ran about 600 yards but never caught up to him. We went back to the beginning and started following the exact tracks to make sure we were following the right Giraffe. We did not find one drop of blood but the one track had a slight cup to it like he was favoring it. Long story short we first shot him at 9:00 in the morning and started walking within 30 minutes. We tracked him through thick bush, deserted wasteland, a Mopani forest and finally caught up to him in a dried up water pan. It was now 4:00 in the afternoon and we had logged about 16 miles on foot through the heat of the day. We would walk for a big hour and then take a 10 minute break for rest and water. One of the trackers would stay with the truck and drive up to whatever road we had marked when we crossed it and ten wait to hear from us. When we caught up to him we put 2 more rounds into him and he fell over within 30 yards. We had now accomplished a great hunt. While skinngin him out we found my first round, it appears it had hit one of the shoulder bones perfectly square in the joint area where the bone is the biggest. It penetrated up to the ribcage but no further, the PH's decision is that they are going to shoot Giraffe with solids now and tell hunters to aim a little further behind the shoulder than straight up the leg like I did. If we had not found him, which I did not think we would, I think I could have quit hunting for the rest of the trip. My shins hurt for 2 days and I had a good case of sunburn on half my body. Once again without the trackers we would not have found this Giraffe, following a single set of tracks for 16 miles takes some real skill and determination.
Waterbuck - On the last day of the hunt we had 2 animals left on our list. Waterbuck and Bushpig. We were doing one last river walk, against my will after chasing the Giraffe the day before, but we spotted a nice bull and cow. They were walking out of the river so we went in the direction they were going. We eventually found their tracks and followed them for a couple hundred yards and one of the trackers spotted him looking at us from the far side of a thick bush. We quickly set up the sticks and just as he turned broadside to run away I fired and hit him good. He went down probably 100 yards away and we had another quality trophy.
