15 November 2012

south africa: hunting springbok – part two

we drove over the hill and found our next arena. as soon as we came down the hill, dunc was able to see some kudu hanging out on hill. (how does he see these things?) but wasn’t the season for kudu. we parked near the windmill and saw a few on the hill. more wandering around in the trenches. this time, we ended up moving far enough above them that it gave us a bit of an advantage.

they seemed to spot us…but they didn’t bolt. i moved slowly to a couple of different trees to get a good shot. this field was harder because it left me a bit more exposed from one spot to another.

i scoped one in the distance just looking at me. she was standing perfectly lined up for a kill. i didn’t look back for duncan this time. closed the bolt, BOOM!

the jolt of the rifle cause me to lose my sight of the animal for a moment. i tried to find them, but they had all moved at the sound. having made noise enough to scare, i took the other three shots. nothing hit. but oddly, after a short run they all started moving back into the field. not too bright these animals. i asked dunc for another four bullets. i quickly reloaded and looked around. i don’t remember if i spent a bullet from that four first, but as they continued to walk back into view i picked another doe and fired. i didn’t believe i hit her, but then i saw her jump funny.

“she’s down!” duncan yelled. “let’s go!”

we ran down the hill to make sure she wasn’t still alive. as ran, we passed a dead springbok. “there’s your first shot,” dunc said as we kept running.

“i hit two?” i asked.

“ja, that was your first shot.”

we got to the other doe. she was indeed dead. dunc cut the throat anyway to be certain. we lugged this beast back up the hill to the first. we then gut them, leaving behind the stomach, intestines, bladders, etc. i told him i wasn’t going to eat the liver raw, despite having all my shots. we packed up all the good stuff and headed to the bukkie.

i really didn’t have a probably pulling the trigger. i think some prethought about that had already brought me to a conclusion in my head. we would eat these, and it helped david keep his springbok population in check.




bloody hands

the first hit was a clean one. the second one hit the stomach emptying the contents all over the inside. that was quite a mess.

we took them back, cleaned them up, removed the edible organs, and hung them up to dry overnight.

the next day, we would skin them and cut the meat off them. i was surprised how easy this was. the eating would come later.




got two

next >> south africa: post-hunt