This hunt happened last November. My 11 year old and I were out for a few days hopeing to stumble across some nags and the odd boar. Jesse has been coming with me for a couple of seasons now and this year I bought him a Baikal break action single shot in .308. I loaded up some nice mild loads using 125 gn projectiles and he has done well so far. I was using my recently aquired Krieghoff 9.3x74R which I have fallen in love with. Extremely well finished, a beautiful piece of walnut & I find the combi cocker excellent for my style of hunting up here. I can carry her on the quad with loaded chambers when looking for brumbies - no messing about - and when I'm walking its the same.

Anyway we were on our way back to camp to pack up when we spotted this old fella off in the distance. There are heaps of scrubbers around here but this old boy was easily the most impressive I've seen in 20 years. Jesse stayed with the bike and 10 mins later I had got into position for a nice broadside shot. The breeze shifted slightly and he got a whiff of me and swung around to face me at about 100m. I was using my load of 58 gn of RL 15 and a Woodleigh soft point. The shot offered was a frontal chest shot and he did the usual thing and hunched up a bit then ran off with the old stiff front leg thing happening. He pulled up about 50m later and was pretty ill. Gave him the other barrel broadside on the point of the shoulder and he just collapsed.

Had to ride back to camp to get the axe for the messy horn removal job. The winch on my bike came in handy here! He will make a great trophy when cleaned up. I love hunting these old bulls. Jesse can't wait until he's big enough to have a shot out of the 9.3

Marrakai - I really miss my old .400 - and regret selling her to this day - don't know what possessed me. Who redid the engraving I wonder?

Cheers.

GG