1st african animal

Just got my 1st african animal ever the evening of day 1, a blesbok at about 40 yards with my 30-378 wby shooting 199gr hammer stone hammers, the bull went straight down with the shot. Talk about a whirlwind of emotions as I had dreamed of this day ever since I learned to read.

Congratulations on your first! I’ve had trouble with the blesboks for some reason. I missed the first one I ever saw then hit him poorly a couple times before I got him down. Then years later I missed a chip shot at one on camera. I just got the mount back last week and I like it much more than I thought I would.
Great ram, keep up the good work!

Congrats! At 40 yds, that is pretty good on a blesbok. I will bet that bullet is still flying!

Congrats! Blesbok was my first as well!

CO_mtnman said:

Just got my 1st african animal ever the evening of day 1, a blesbok at about 40 yards with my 30-378 wby shooting 199gr hammer stone hammers, the bull went straight down with the shot. Talk about a whirlwind of emotions as I had dreamed of this day ever since I learned to read.View attachment 774659

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Very cool to experience that first one!

Congratulations. The first African animal is always a very special one. I still vividly remember shooting my first African animal and sobbing like a 5 years old. It’s is the one in my Avatar.

Hope there is more to come.

Beautiful animal!

Thank you all, there is more to come. I am hunting with my uncle and my wife as an observer and so far this has just been such an awesome experience.

Very nice! Congratulations. My first Africa Animal was also a Blesbok. I think they are a beautiful animal…

You never forget your first! Congratulations and may this be the first of many!

Well done Sir - excellent on the Brai !

That’s awesome! Keep us updated for the rest of the hunt.

Congratulations!

I hope your bank account understands that you've taken on financial burden of the African addiction, which will drain it dry faster than a hard drug habit.

Congrats on your first African animal. Blesbok is a great start.

Great first animal. My first time was booked 14 months out. Every day of those 14 months I wondered what my first African animal would be. Guys at work even had a pool going. Ends up my first one was a zebra. Second one was a zebra too!

Congratulations, as others have stated. You will always remember and cherish your first African animal.

So now that i am back in the states and done with all the traveling I can do a proper day by day update.
So day 1 was a whirlwind as I said earlier I was hunting with my uncle in a 2x1 package, the day started with going after kudu for my uncle and ending with my blesbok.
Day 2 started with going after impala and warthog with the hopes of wildebeest in the evening but as we got to the 1st property the owner informed us that he had a leopard on camera at 5 am which initially I thought was super cool but as we started driving it dawned on me that there was going to very little animal movement due to the spotted predator which turned out to be true as we could only cut sign of a herd of impala that didn't have a mature male so we then change our plans to the left.
We went off after wildebeest and gemsbok (my dream animal) during the course of day 2 we had multiple failed stalks on impala, wildebeest but no sign of a gemsbok so for lunch our ph took us to a blind over looking a water hole. As we got situated and started to break into our lunch a herd of water buck came in to the water which was amazing to see how that many big animals can just appear and have so much grace about them. Anyways they drank and moved out then after sitting for another hour we had a herd of giraffe come in to the water which was an experience of a lifetime just seeing wild giraffe!!!! I had never seen a giraffe drink water but after this experience I can say I have. I also had no idea how fast they can move as the wind shifted and the lead cow did a complete 180 in a blink of an eye.
The ph called for the truck and we started to gather our things, the ph moved out to an intersecting road to glass and he came hurried back and informed me that there where gemsbok feeding at the end of the road!!!! My heart immediately started racing as he was asking me if I was ok with taking an older cow and I informed him that age is how I determine the value of my animals instead of inches. With the tracker now with us, we started our stalk down the road hugging the thick limpopo bush, the ph peeking out every now and then to see if they where still there or if they had moved off, by the time we got to their location they had moved off so we followed their sign into the bush until the wind started to get bad so we decided to pull out and not spook them.
As we were back on the road and heading back to the truck my sling had broken sending the rifle barrel into the ground but I had caught it before the entire rifle had fallen, embarrassed now I quickly checked to make sure everything was in working order and it was but now I am walking with my head a little sheepishly low as I feel bad for making so much noise but just then the tracker had turned around and noticed the gemsbok where back on the road feeding about 1000 yards further so we moved to the side of the road covered by brush and we RAN for about 500 yards, by now my heart was in overdrive with the excitement, exercise and the fact we where moving towards an animal that was the highest priority of mine for this trip, we slowed the stalk until we made it to a tree at 236 yards and up went the sticks so I slid my rifle onto the sticks and the ph told me the range and asked if I was steady which i was and I then started my shot process until the trigger broke resulting in gemsbok going everywhere, we make it to where the old cow was standing and we could find no blood and after 15 minutes of searching the ph made the call I was most dreaded to hear, miss! It about broke my heart as I had practiced so much for this safari and we had worked really hard as a team on this stalk just for me to blow it.
On the way to the truck my head was hanging low, but the ph got my head back into the game as we started back after the wildebeest and impala which where starting to kick our butt until about last light when the ph decided to check the same area where the gemsbok where and then we spotted a lone wildebeest bull with his head feeding into the bush! So we quickly jumped out of the truck and moved to a better angle on the lone bull and up went to the sticks and once again I slid my rifle into the cradle and feeling solid but confidence was shaken, the ph whispered we don't have much time take him if you can so at about 100 yards. I started my shot process until the trigger broke sending a 199gr stone hammer down my barrel at 3120 fps directly into the wildebeest! As I recovered from the shot I saw the bull jump up with shoulder pulled in tight showing the sign of a good hit but then running into the bush as I was running the bolt like it owed me money trying to get another cartridge into the chamber as these are tough animals and I wanted to be ready for anything, as I closed the bolt. He then reappeared but only for a brief moment as he decided the bush on the left was better. The ph said it was a good shot so I felt a little better but still not getting excited just yet as I wanted my hands on him before I would allow myself to fully celebrate. We moved to the spot he was standing and immediately the ph picked up a nickle sized piece of lung and said that my bull was hit good!! We started off after him but with the scope turned down to the lowest power ready for anything but we hadn't made it 20 yards before the ph stood up from his crouch and threw his hands up and started proclaiming there he is, way to go, that's a old bull! He turned towards me with a big smile on his face extending his arm which immediately sent me to the moon, I was soaring now that my bull was down and the excitement from the ph and tracker was only adding to the experience, hand shakes and hugs went all around. I was speechless as I ran my hands across his bosses and through his mane and feeling every part of this bull as I wanted to soak it in as much as possible.
With the now fading light began the process of cutting a road for the truck and getting ready for pictures, once that was completed we made our way back to camp for a great dinner of kudu back stap and a lion lager around the camp fire ending our day 2. More to come

Congrats and thanks for sharing! The first one in Africa is special

Better pictures of my uncles kudu

CO_mtnman said:

Just got my 1st african animal ever the evening of day 1, a blesbok at about 40 yards with my 30-378 wby shooting 199gr hammer stone hammers, the bull went straight down with the shot. Talk about a whirlwind of emotions as I had dreamed of this day ever since I learned to read.View attachment 774659

Click to expand...

Congratulations! One down, 3 more walls to fill! Well done!