Day 5 continued....
I have since went through 2-3 cycles of being ridiculously excited/nervous, and back to quiet calm while looking over the croc. All this time however I have been able to look at him through the scope and can clearly see the spot on his neck that I need to aim for. Strang and I have talked about this a few times this week of where to shoot, then to reload and be ready immediately. Also the fact that I have asked him to be on the ready for insurance as well in case my shot doesn't anchor him.
After 5-10 minutes, Strang has had a good chance to look him over. He says he has a big head, just not quit as big body wise as the other lurking close by in the water. I ask him if this is a pretty good one for this area, he says yes he will probably go 12 foot. We had previously talked about the crocs in this area, and the face that an 11-11.5 footer is good for this area, anything above is gravy. He judges this on at 12' plus. He said we can wait to see if the other one comes out, or try to sit on bait again this afternoon. To this point in the hunt, we have not had any of the big boys come to dine on the baits.
All that info in my head, I make the call that if Strang is happy with him then I will be. I say lets take him! Ok now back to a racing heartbeat! The croc is completely calm and the wind is still in our favor, so don't be stupid and make any noise or rush yourself. Calm down for a minute!! Strang also tells me to relax and catch my breathe, I rally appreciate a good PH who also talks you through things and reminds your to not shoot until your calm.
He readies his rifle, I ready mine, he says when your ready take him. One more series of breathing in and out, in and out, third time its a go...... I take aim for the center of the neck between the smile and where the shoulder area starts. Squeeze the trigger of the .375, bang, get him back in the scope asap.... Not moving! What happened? Strang says good shot! The croc is not moving one bit, no tail flutter, no thrashing, nothing.
I am one who wants to make sure of insurance shots on something like this, especially with the fear of losing a croc to the river. He says take another neck shot, so I do. Again no movement. I want to be sure and I ask Strang if we need to shoot in the heart or lungs. The croc is done but I imagine Strang wants to appease my mind so he instructs me on where to shoot the croc in the lungs, take steady aim and squeeze, another good hit! No movement, my mid is finally at ease!!! This is perhaps the most nervous I've ever been on a hunt simply due to the fact of not making a great shot and potentially losing him. So happy I was able to get my breathing in control, take steady aim, make a good shot, and anchor him first shot.
Now for the recovery, which is interesting to say the least. Where he's at, we have to go about 800 yards downstream where the bluff flattens out to meet the river. When we get down, there is a series of small sandbars intermingled with a deep channel here and there, along with several shallow channels as well. The tracker (Jason, Darryson, and Obvi) must wade through the river some 500 yards plus with a rope to retrieve the beast!!!! At this point I am very concerned for obvious reasons. These guys have done this before, I'm assuming at least a few times because nobody really pitched a fit or argued about having to do it. So they go in and one of them has a stick to measure depth along the way, and begin to find the shallowest areas to walk through.
