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Either Blue Wildebeest or Giraffe - I think I vote the Wildebeest.

Both were taken on my recent (first) safari trip to Zimbabwe's Kwe-Kwe area.
The Wildebeest I have never been the least bit interested in, but upon seeing them I immediately wanted to take one. As they were still on quota, we started to hunt them. And a challenging hunt it was! Zebra sometimes you catch with their pants down, and Eland was not easy to approach, either; but the Wildebeest... Once we got real close, we were but 22 meters from them as they lay chewing the cud. But the PH was not able to tell which one is the bull, so we waited - for an hour and ten minutes we waited, half sitting, half lying on the kopje. Finally, we gave up on them deciding to come back in the afternoon.
We backed off, walked maybe 50 meters and the PH and tracker had a discussion in Shona and then the PH started to take off his "tool"belt. I was a standing question mark when the PH informed me: "I CANNOT - we HAVE to go back and have a try!" By then, I should have known the dude.... So off we went - crawling once again which seemed to be the PH's preferred method of covering distance on the Zimbabwean savanna. We approached very carefully, very close - and then they got our scent and flew off! Dang!
The following day (or was it the same; I cannot recollect anymore!) we found the herd again, and made an equally careful approach. Now, this herd had fooled us twice already so we were starting to get pretty adamant to get one. We again got behind a small kopje, and the PH glassed the animals making sure the closest one was the bull. There was no use of the sticks, so he turned to me to ask if I was comfortable shooting sitting or kneeling. Sure I was, having practiced all summer for this kind of situation. So he gave me the coordinates, I sneaked to the side of the kopje and noticed the animals lying down. Knowing that an animal lying down is difficult to shoot, i.e. it's difficult to place the shot correctly I asked if he is sure I should shoot. "Shoot, shoot!" he goes. And then the animal gets up. We were bloody sure he'd fly off, but he only took but a few steps and then looked at us. "Shoot, shoot!" go the PH and tracker. "No shot", I said as there was a tree lined up precisely along his leg. "Shoot, shoot!" they went so I decided to shoot a bit back. The PH was already sure I wouldn't fire, so he took his fingers out his ears and started to back off when I fired. The bull jumped and took off like a bolt of lightning. The shrub kept me of shooting again, and as the PH and tracker were next to me on my left in which direction the bull ran I decided safety first, we can track him.
Knowing the bullet-proof reputation of the Wildebeest and me shooting a .30-06 I was pretty frightened as we run after him. We came to a small clearing but didn't see the bull. At this point the PH chambered a round in his .416 and I thought "Uh-oh!". It's never good news when your PH decides to load up....
He asked me where I thought I hit him, and we started to track. Well, sorry to disappoint you with an anticlimax, but we found him lying dead under a tree perhaps 50 meters away. The shot perforated both lungs and was, indeed, well placed.
We just found him at last light which made me doubly happy: a very long hunt after the animals, a well placed shot in all the excitement, and not having to track a wounded wildebeest in dark!

Of course my first moose brought me extreme satisfaction, as did my latest as I shot her with a customized Winchester rifle that has been built specifically for me in accordance with my own ideas as can be seen here. But they don't really count, do they, as this was a question of safari animals!

- Lars/Finland

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A.k.a. Bwana One-Shot

Edited by Schauckis (10/11/09 07:07 AM)

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