Following up from Part 1 of the adventure:

After the crew loaded the bull and took it back to camp, we decided to go on a drive the “long way” back to the lodge for lunch. Halfway back we spotted a herd of impala that had a black ram among them. Johan said he would like to get him out of the group since he is an old ram and keeps running off the younger breeding rams. I grabbed the 30-06 Ackley and we headed after him. Playing cat and mouse with the group for about an hour put us in some very thick brush. We could see parts of them, but not enough for a clear shot. There was an opening in the direction that they were feeding so Quintin and I decided to cut them off there and just wait for them. We beat them to the opening which was about 250yds long. I setup on the shooting sticks and started to wait. Quintin ranged a bush where they should come out if they kept their current course at 190yds. I dialed the scope for 200yds and waited. A common ram appeared first, right at the bush. Quintin said the black ram was following him. We waited a few more minutes and the black ram stepped out behind the common ram. Waiting for him to clear he decided to throw us for a loop. The black ram turned and started walking away, as I continued to follow him, he turned slightly to a quartering away angle. He was still at a slow walk when my competition training kicked in. Aiming at his offside shoulder I tracked him and squeezed off the shot. He jumped at the shot and fell in a pile when he came back down. The 175 Barnes LRX exiting on his offside shoulder just as I had aimed. I spent a lot of time admiring him. His markings are beautiful, and his age was showing with white hairs on his muzzle and base of his horns. After some quick photos and we loaded him up to head in for lunch. After lunch and a little nap, we headed back out again for a game drive and maybe another impala. Brenda rode along with me in the back of the truck again as we took photos. A little before sunset we saw a couple of older impala rams. We started the stalk on them. Finally, after several failed attempts we had one of them in the open feeding at around 100yds. At the shot he dropped on the spot with the Barnes bullet sailing clear through both front shoulders. This was a special one for me since Brenda had never been with me on a hunt before and had never seen an animal harvested. She accompanied me up to the ram while Quintin and Johan lagged. We thanked him for his sacrifice and admired his beauty.

The next morning we bid Johan and his staff farewell and made our way to Quintin’s home in Lephalale. This allowed us to see a little more of the countryside during the 2.5 hr drive and see lots of monkeys and baboons that use the road as a leisure area LOL. The country looked completely different as we neared the Botswana border, with more dense brush and mountains. We had set a couple days aside to hunt Kudu on some neighboring properties. We weren’t looking for just a representative Kudu, we wanted a BIG Kudu. Honestly, anything else was just icing on the cake since I’d already gotten my buffalo. I was prepared to wait until we found a giant. After a couple days chasing a few potential bulls around we decided to give it a rest and try a change of scenery and game. The next morning we were up early and Brenda was joining us today as well. After a quick breakfast we loaded into the truck and headed for parts unknown (unknown to us LOL). Quintin’s friends Marc and Luce have a spectacular farm on the Botswana border, we know this because our phones said “welcome to Botswana”…, we got a kick out of that for some reason. I don’t even want to guess or insult our new friends on the size of their farm at Maluma Lodge, but it is measured in miles, not acres. After a quick “hello” to Marc and Luce, we headed out in search of Gemsbuck. The amount of game and how healthy they were was astounding. It’s really a tribute to proper management by Marc and his team. It didn’t take us long to find a small group of Gemsbuck lounging in the sun. I learned quickly that they do not stand still long, and I think they have 20X vision. While we watched them take off, we decided to admire a very nice eland bull and his cows, who didn’t seem to care much about us at all. This was the case with all the eland we saw on this trip, and we saw hundreds of them. Something else to note, it seems like there is always a nice sable bull hanging out with the herds of Eland for some reason. Near as I could tell he is always acting like a sentry for them, it was just something interesting I noticed with each group. Not that an eland, who is roughly the size of a moose, needs much protection.
Finally, after looking over quite a bit of country, we found a group that looked like we could get in on them. For those that do not know, Gemsbuck bulls and cows both have horns, and it is acceptable to shoot either one. The cow’s horns are usually longer and slightly thinner, with the bulls being heavier. As we approached this group, we noticed a couple that were outstanding animals. I might add, a Gemsbuck is a stunning animal and was probably the most beautiful animal I harvested on the trip. I had told Quintin that I preferred to shoot a bull if possible before we started the day. No particular reason for this decision other than it is just what I wanted to do. As the group of 10-15 animals milled around together, we tried to determine what sex each animal was. Really the only way to do this was to look at them from behind and see if they had “male” parts hanging down. We both swore this one was a bull as it had heavy long horns, yet low and behold it moved its tail aside and it was not a bull. BUT, the one next to it was! He was almost as heavy, but maybe slightly shorter in length. He became my focus. As I kept track of him feeding, I waited for a clear shot. Quintin had ranged him 286 yds but he had fed a little further. I dialed the scope for my 300yd dope and got ready. They were feeding away from us and I was just waiting for him to quarter towards me slightly so I could take out his offside shoulder. After a few minutes he did just that, showing me a little of his facing shoulder. The 30-06 Ackley immediately went off and the Barnes 175 LRX was in route. Upon impact the bull’s legs folded up and he hit the ground. I stayed on him for a little bit to make sure he wasn’t getting up and he was silent. A couple of well deserved “whoops” and we all headed to look at him. Again, one of the most beautiful animals that I have ever seen, and I was able to share the experience with my wife and good friends. It is something that I will always remember. The shot entered behind his last rib, went through lungs, heart and shoulder. When we skinned him the bullet fell out onto the ground and retained 75% of its weight. Pretty impressive for traveling through over 30” of animal and bone. After some photos and admiring the bull we got him loaded up. On the way back to the lodge we ran across a herd of springbok. For those that do not know, the springbok is the national animal of South Africa. They do an interesting thing called “pronking”, which I’m certain is a superpower. You should really look at a youtube video of them doing this, but I’m pretty sure they can clear 50-60 ft in a jump and might go just as high. When they crossed the road there was an uproar from the cab of the truck from Brenda and Franz. Brenda has an infectious laugh and she thought the springbok were hilarious, which caused Franz to burst out in laughter as well. Marc and Luce met us at the skinning shed and congratulations were given all around. Then it was time for lunch. I have to say this was spoiling at its best. Marc and Luce are very gracious hosts and both Brenda and I are happy to be able to call them friends now. After an indulgent lunch with fantastic wine, we headed back to Quintin’s lodge to relax. On the way back we were treated to a huge male giraffe that was almost black alongside the road. We watched him for some time and he was one of the most impressive things I have seen. He wasn’t bothered at all with us while he was relaxing in the shade. We knew my gemsbuck was a good bull but had no idea how good it was until we threw the tape on him at the lodge. He is right at 40” and a quick scoring puts him in the “gold” classification for the SCI record books!