10 days in South Africa

[grayghost]

July 20th. We started our day after first light, again searching for Kudu. We spotted a good Gray Duiker but those little speed demons would cut me no slack. Off into the bush, not to be seen again. We glassed the deep kloofs and ridges all morning but didn't see but one large bull Kudu and he was a long way off and heading into the bush. Too far to follow. I saw a number of Impala, young Warthog's, Ostrich, Zebra, Hartebeast and the like, but no large Cape Kudu bulls. We decided to go look for Blesbok out on the plains and maybe come back that afternoon if we found any worth pursuing. We saw several herds of Blesbok, Springbok and Wildebeast. One lone Blesbok ram looked very good, but he didn't give me much time to study him before he ran off across the plains. We found a suitable area that had some sparse cover, so we decided we would come back after lunch and set up a possible ambush point. We found a nice shady area on top of a ridge and ate our lunch in the noon time breeze. It can get fairly windy during this time of year so take that into consideration when sighting in your guns for longer ranges. You may need to estimate windage from time to time. After eating our lunch, we discussed our plans for the afternoon and my PH really wanted to take a little time and search for a good Warthog. Boars had been scarce all week, but with the Sun warming up the ridges, Meyrick told me this would be a great time to look for them. We headed out driving the top of a long high ridge and found a place to scan the surrounding area. It didn't take him but a minute to find a BIG hog. I took a look through his spotting scope and it looked like a hog with two cavalry sabers sticking out of his mouth. This hog was grazing on top of a ridge in a clearing, all by himself. We decided to approach the area on foot, not wanting to spook other game by vehicle, so we left Jackson (my tracker) with the truck and off we went. We closed what I guess was several thousand yards without incident. Stopping on occasion to glass the flat to insure the hog was still there. When we got to within 250 yards, a lone Hartebeast that had been hidden by the bush, trotted out onto the flat and spooked the Warthog. He wasted no time in running off into the bush. With all hope of getting a shot gone, my PH yelled for Jackson to bring the truck. He called out several times and waived his arms, feeling sure that Jackson would be observing us through his binoculars. When Jackson didn't come, Meyrick started back up the ridge for him. About this time I spotted another hog entering the flat from our left. I turned to tell Meyrick and saw Jackson walking towards us, pointing. He had already seen several hogs making their way onto the flat. Evidently, the big hog didn't like company. And with his exit, the other hogs grabbed their opportunity to feed. Meyrick found one nice boar so we began our stalk. We made our way to within 110 yards of the boar and set up the shooting sticks. I was pondering in my mind where to hold on the hog as previously mentioning; my point of impact with my .280 was 200 yards, and I had already missed two Kudu at longer ranges. The hog turned broadside and raised his head in suspicion. I lined up a little low behind his shoulder and fired. "You shot over his back" Meyrick said with disappointment on his face. As the hog spun around and took off running like a Greyhound, I racked another round into the chamber and said; "Let me..." Meyrick cut off my sentence with: "If you think you can hit him..." Bam! At the recoil of my .280 the hog rolled in the dust. I caught him behind the right shoulder. The Accubond gave complete penetration and exited behind the left shoulder, killing him instantly. Not even a squeal out of the pig. "Nice shot" Meyrick said. "I'm going to have you shoot everything running from now on." He was kidding of course but I generally do better on running game if I shoot by instinct as opposed to studying the shot. Range was 125 yards. No feat by any means, just my lucky day. For some reason, I was very proud of taking that hog. Years ago I had been a guide for wild boar hunts. I had 300 clients take a pig with me and I have never killed any type of hog. This was my first pig; and I was thrilled! Nice tusks, with a little brooming on one side. Character, I think they call it on TV nowadays. Just a cool looking critter to me! Continued.....