Day Five
One day I was hunting near the beach and sand and the next I’m hunting in the mountains and rocks. It went from easy walking to rather tough. The rocks and brush hold a special place in my heart though as I grew up spending much time in the Texas Hill Country. The “Kudu Camp” really reminded me of the hill country, except bigger. Acacia instead of mesquite, but the prickly pear cactus looks similar. The cactus is taller in Africa too, but the palms look the same. Somehow I’m not sure that I got a single good picture of the cactus. Oops…
Luck did turn for the better again. And in the early morning Attie spotted a nice Duiker bedded down. We could only see his head through the grass. I decide I could make the shot though and took it. I still haven’t learned how to compensate for the grass properly and shot over his back. He just stood up and moved maybe five yards to the right instead of running though. I guess he was still sleepy. Big, big mistake on his part. If I didn’t learn anything else at SAAM it was to always be ready for another shot, and I was.
The morning wasn’t over either as we found the Steenbok next. I’m not sure how long the shot was, maybe just over 100 yards, but regardless I pulled it and hit the Steenbok low. $^$&*$%!!! We jumped him again and I took two running shots that missed, although the second one looked like it went between his horns. Attie saw the brush that he bedded down in though and had a plan. They had me circle around and get ready and then Attie and Lammie flushed him out like quail. Another running shot, but this time I didn’t miss.
I always try to be honest with myself and everyone else about what I do wrong and try and learn from it. This time I overcompensated for my belief that I’d been too slow on the sticks several times the day before. Well, this time I was too fast and made a poor shot due to it. Frankly, I’d rather be too slow. There is fine line in there and I struggle to hit it.
So it is now 9:30 in the morning and we are looking for Kudu as we came to the camp to do. We see some, but not a lot according to Lammie. He expects more, but they just aren’t moving for whatever reason. This continues for the rest of the day. Cow and young bulls, which they call “stutostut” (I’m sure I just butchered that…), which translates to “motorbike” referring to the ape hanger handlebars on a Harley Davidson. I think the term fits perfectly for those young bulls that point out!
Mid-day we do see one mature bull that is very wide for the area, but he isn’t what I’m looking for. Lammie had me take a picture of him because of the width and estimated him at 45 inches. When I showed Loodt the picture that night he gave me a bit of a hard time telling me that I should have taken him and that he would have and that he would go back and take the bull himself. He just wasn’t what I wanted and I had no remorse in passing on him. To me that is the great thing about Kudu, the shape and spread can be so personal and different even if the inches are close to the same.
We finished the evening with a still hunt at a spot Lammie has hunted many times before. Lammie was disappointed because we “only” saw roughly 15 Kudu and the one decent bull we saw never came close enough to stalk. But here was the exciting part for me. Lammie told me beforehand what they would do, where they would come from, how they would come, and where they would go. It was really neat watching them do it. Where I hunt most of the time you just don’t get to see that. Very cool.
So that was it for the day and we drove out after dark and man was it pitch black. Well. If I haven’t learned anything else in two trips to Africa it is that when you think it is all over something else amazing will happen. So there on that dirt road is a porcupine. Bakkie comes to a quick stop and out we jump. I always carry a little Streamlight flashlight in my pocket and it came in handy as it was the only one we had. Off into the bush Attie and I go chasing after that porcupine. I felt like a teenager! He zigs and zags and I’m trying to get pictures and get closer and Attie runs by him as well. Not too long ago there was a thread here asking about the appropriate caliber for a porcupine. I can now tell you what it is - .rock! Attie hit him right in the head and that was that. Quick and clean, he never even fell over. Before that happened though I did get to hear him shake those quills. What a sound they make!!! Sound just like a really loud rattlesnake, but just a little slower on the rattling. Great day again.
A Kudu bull that we found dead. If you look on the flank you can see where he was gored in a fight with another bull. Nature is so peaceful and all animals get along unless we come to hunt them. Yeah right...
And finally, if anyone ever wondered about what kind of an impact over grazing could have in the bush, here you go. Good management on one side and bad on the other.
Unfortunately it gets worse. 
Then you die!
