Up at 430 , fire lit , kettle on , say good morning to the dogs that would camp on the couch with us most nights . Beats spending the night in a kennel . Debs decided to have a sleep in this morning so I left her to it and started getting my gear ready for the day as breakie is at 6 every morning . A minute later she is up asking for two bags in her cup of tea ? No, she said , she could not let us go hunting without her , she might miss out on something . Good girl !
630 am , truck loaded and we start heading out the gate . Zebra johnnie states ! Not today , lets hunt something else for a change . We had seen some really outstanding lady oryx while we had been here and one to go with my male would be great .We kept seeing blue wildebeest during the morning with some nice bulls . Geez they were tempting but I had oryx on the brain . Followed some tracks for a while but no luck , we were in an area where the scrub was a bit lower and at ground level you could not see to far making stalking bloody hard . Back on the truck and change areas to try and cut some fresh oryx tracks .
Coming around a corner Johnnie bangs the cab and starts pointing down the road . Whats he pointing at , buggered if I can see anything .Even debs who has become an expert at seeing game from the truck cant see anything . Johnnie whispers zebra .
Shit , where ! For anyone who has not hunted zebra in scrub and bush country and thinks that their stripes would stand out like the proverbable pair of dog nuts , think again . They blend in like you would not believe . Until the larger stallion moved I just could not see them . No one shoots animals from the truck at johnnies and that suited me good ,,,,, untilll now!
We had spent the whole trip so far starting everyday chasing zebra , And at times that was all we were doing , chase them round in circles . I had lost more blood in the thorns than is medically possible hunting these buggers and they had outsmarted us on numerous occasions . Infact I was starting to wonder if I was ever going to shot one on this trip ? This might be our only chance . Now johnnie knew how much Debbie had really wanted to take some skins home .
Then he whispers , take the big stallion . Now be honest with your self , what would you do ????
At about 200 plus yards at an uncomfortable angle , and with the adrenalin levels running at about 98 percent and the memory of missing one a few days ago , this was not as easy as it looked .
I can still see the stallion in the scope now as I write this and was amazed at the time how steady the crosshairs were on its shoulder . I cant remember squeezing the trigger , but I can remember the immense relief at the resounding whack and seeing him react with the shock of the impact . He bolted instantly into a full gallop taking the younger stallion and the mare with him on a death run for about a hundred yards before he just collapsed dead in his tracks . The other two came to an instant holt to see what had happen to their mate . At three hundred yards but side on , Johnnie instructed me to take the other younger stallion . I remember being as calm as I have ever been by now and laid the crosshairs on the base of his neck and squeezed off once more . Because of the range and the depth of field the Vortex scope has I was able to watch trough the scope as the bullet stuck him at the base of the neck . His back legs gave way instantly and he was dead before he hit the ground . The mare bolted , but she was safe , Debbie finally had her prized zebra that she had wanted so much , and I had finally shot my two Hartmann Zebra stallions that I thought would be one of the easier animals I would hunt in Africa , but had turned into the hardest .
The emotions in me and Debs while walking up to these two amazing animals are impossible to write . Before coming to Africa , I never thought I could actually shoot a zebra and feel good about it . But the more i researched hunting them the more the passion grew to hunt them , for me and for Deb .
They were amazing looking animals , one an old warrior by his scars and the other a beautiful young colt with hardly a blemish on him . Awesome !
Another radio call and half the population of Ongariwanda seemed to be on there way to help us .
There is one thing that we will never forget about the morning . After everyone arrived to help us recover the animals , Johnnies father came over to us and told us that in the morning after we had left , himself and the workers had prayed for us . They had asked that we would have good luck hunting Zebras today . Makes you think a bit really . Me and Debs thanked him , as our luck had definitely changed for the good .
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