I had a exceptional bowhunt once again with the crew from Tsala. This would be my 3rd hunt with Tsala, I contacted Rouan the outfitter and asked if he would be interested in taking a bowhunter with a difficult wish list and he said no problem. On my list were bushbuck, bush pig, a large warthog, civet and honey badger. This was my 17th african bowhunt and I already had taken most of the common plains game. My wife this time wanted to go to Kruger and not hunt so Rouan arranged a excellent trip with the folks from Tsala and my wife loved it, she got to see a leopard which was the last of the dangerous 7 on her photography list. Every thing went smooth at immigration and we breezed right through in about 10 minutes, the fastest I have ever , Rouan was waiting for us when we walked out in the reception area at Tambo and we drove to the lodge. We opted to stay in the new deluxe tented accommodation which was great with in suite bath room.
Day 1 We hunted a natural brush blind and saw a few animals but none on our list then to the lodge for dinner and to get ready to hunt bush pig. Brandon my PH who is Rouan's son had been prebaiting and said there was a big boar coming in with a bunch of sows, a pop up blind had been set up well in advance. I had purchased a night vision monocular for the night hunting and it proved very useful, Brandon could see them coming at a distance and tell me which was the boar. At 7:30 6 pigs came in and the boar was with them but he never gave me a shot and eventually the wind swirled and it was over, it was exciting to see my first bush pigs!
Day 2 We went to permanent hide the next morning and coincidentally was the same hide my wife arrowed her bushbuck from 2 years before, a few animals came and went when Brandon said big bushbuck, by the time I stood and drew he was at the water at 14 yards, he only made it 40 yards and went down. I could hardly believe it as in times past I have spent a lot of time hunting them. He was a old ram with lots of character, the front of his horns were worn down and show the blue look to the horns and the bases were heavy and checked, his teeth very worn down . We saw numerous other animals from the hide that day but nothing on my wish list so back to the lodge for dinner and then back to the pop up for the bush pig. They came again right on time at 7:30 and this time stayed in front of us for a entire hour and never gave me a clear shot, they finally ate all the bait and left, my nerves were shot by then!
Day 3 We went to another property today for warthog as they said there was a lot of very big pigs there. Brandon had set up a pop up blind in advance there as well, we saw hogs and other game but the wind would not cooperate and kept swirling so after a few hours we we decided to go back to the lodge for lunch, on the way out we saw a monster boar but he was running and didn't look as he was going to slow down. At 6:00 we got back in the bush pig blind and at 6:45 the hogs came and this time he offered a broadside shot, I hit him a little high and spined him and went to shoot a finisher shot but heard a loud crack when I shot and arrow went through his hind quarters, completely baffled at what happened until we turned on the light and saw that I had shot through the edge of the blind and clipped one of the poles, OOPS. The pig was dead though and didn't
need another arrow. To say I was elated would be a under statement! The pig was bigger bodied than I expected and thought he might weigh about 275 lbs.
more to follow but right now have to take my 14 year old grand son bowhunting for deer this evening