Our first mourning dawned clear. It was our only one. After that first sunny, hot day(low 90's) the rains came and kept the temps cool with highs around 70. My clients were gun hunters so we won't discuss it here except to say they took many fine animals. With heavy rains, blind hunting near waterholes was difficult at best. I was able to hunt a total of 2 1/2 days out of the 8 I was there. The rest was taking care of my clients.
Our first sunrise
(http://i257.photobucket.com/albums/hh236/Prairiedrifter/Africa%202016%20Sept/20170219_053857.jpg) (http://s257.photobucket.com/user/Prairiedrifter/media/Africa%202016%20Sept/20170219_053857.jpg.html)
My first day in the blind I saw only waterbucks. First a small one, then a very nice trophy quality bull stood at 9 yards.
(http://i257.photobucket.com/albums/hh236/Prairiedrifter/Africa%202016%20Sept/IMG_0004.jpg) (http://s257.photobucket.com/user/Prairiedrifter/media/Africa%202016%20Sept/IMG_0004.jpg.html)
(http://i257.photobucket.com/albums/hh236/Prairiedrifter/Africa%202016%20Sept/IMG_0009.jpg) (http://s257.photobucket.com/user/Prairiedrifter/media/Africa%202016%20Sept/IMG_0009.jpg.html)
(http://i257.photobucket.com/albums/hh236/Prairiedrifter/Africa%202016%20Sept/IMG_0011.jpg) (http://s257.photobucket.com/user/Prairiedrifter/media/Africa%202016%20Sept/IMG_0011.jpg.html)
I even got a little sun burned
(http://i257.photobucket.com/albums/hh236/Prairiedrifter/Africa%202016%20Sept/20170220_204412.jpg) (http://s257.photobucket.com/user/Prairiedrifter/media/Africa%202016%20Sept/20170220_204412.jpg.html)
Beautiful animals!!!!
Would love the chance to do this someday. Looks like a lot of fun.
Great pictures!
No gnus is not good gnus.
QuoteOriginally posted by highlow:
No gnus is not good gnus.
I see what you did there!!! :laughing: :laughing:
Bisch
Wow , thanks for sharing .
:campfire:
Some beautiful scenery
(http://i257.photobucket.com/albums/hh236/Prairiedrifter/Africa%202016%20Sept/20170220_110446.jpg) (http://s257.photobucket.com/user/Prairiedrifter/media/Africa%202016%20Sept/20170220_110446.jpg.html)
Termite mound built around a tree
(http://i257.photobucket.com/albums/hh236/Prairiedrifter/Africa%202016%20Sept/20170220_062229.jpg) (http://s257.photobucket.com/user/Prairiedrifter/media/Africa%202016%20Sept/20170220_062229.jpg.html)
Wildebeest in the bush
(http://i257.photobucket.com/albums/hh236/Prairiedrifter/Africa%202016%20Sept/20170224_165912.jpg) (http://s257.photobucket.com/user/Prairiedrifter/media/Africa%202016%20Sept/20170224_165912.jpg.html)
Got stuck from the heavy rains
(http://i257.photobucket.com/albums/hh236/Prairiedrifter/Africa%202016%20Sept/20170226_084211.jpg) (http://s257.photobucket.com/user/Prairiedrifter/media/Africa%202016%20Sept/20170226_084211.jpg.html)
Yep, that truck is stuuuuuuuck!!!!
Bisch
Please keep it coming?
One ranch we hunted had breeding programs for special colored animals
Golden gemsbuck
(http://i257.photobucket.com/albums/hh236/Prairiedrifter/Africa%202016%20Sept/20170226_091754.jpg) (http://s257.photobucket.com/user/Prairiedrifter/media/Africa%202016%20Sept/20170226_091754.jpg.html)
Golden wildebeest
(http://i257.photobucket.com/albums/hh236/Prairiedrifter/Africa%202016%20Sept/20170226_074327.jpg) (http://s257.photobucket.com/user/Prairiedrifter/media/Africa%202016%20Sept/20170226_074327.jpg.html)
Saddle back or piebald Impala
(http://i257.photobucket.com/albums/hh236/Prairiedrifter/Africa%202016%20Sept/20170226_092009.jpg) (http://s257.photobucket.com/user/Prairiedrifter/media/Africa%202016%20Sept/20170226_092009.jpg.html)
Also a nice herd of Cape buffalo
(http://i257.photobucket.com/albums/hh236/Prairiedrifter/Africa%202016%20Sept/20170224_180651.jpg) (http://s257.photobucket.com/user/Prairiedrifter/media/Africa%202016%20Sept/20170224_180651.jpg.html)
Awesome animals, and great pics with dialogue! :campfire:
I hunted with my clients for a few days. They had a blast. Father and teenage son making lifetime memories. On our next to last day I sat in a blind on a bow hunting only property. I watched many animals visit the blind that morning. Baboons, vervet monkeys, blesbok and nyala. Saw a few blue wildebeest too far off for a shot. Then a herd of blesbok came in with a very large wildebeest trailing them. The tracker says to me " very big bull". No kidding, he looks like a truck standing broadside at 11 yards........
:coffee: What part of Africa were you in Mike?
QuoteOriginally posted by rastaman:
:coffee: What part of Africa were you in Mike?
Limpopo Province, South Africa
I thought it looked vaguely familiar! Looking forward to the rest of your story.
This is gonna be good.
:campfire:
.....trying to concentrate, pick a spot, pick a spot, god he's a huge bodied bull......
Next thing I know all hell is breaking loose. The bull was knocked into the water tank. He gets up and stagger/runs 60 yards then cuts into the bush.
My heart sank as I saw I hit too high. I lost focus and blew it. The tracker confirmed a high hit. When my PH showed up he took up the track w/ two trackers. Four and a half hours later they showed up. The bull had stayed ahead of them, never giving him a chance to put him down. They lost the track when he joined up w/ a large herd of wildebeest.
We finished our hunt the next day and returned to the USA. I still couldn't believe that I blew an easy shot on an animal the size of small pick up.
I contacted my PH the day after we got back to let him know we arrived home, he tells me, "I have a surprise for you". Seems the landowner found the bull acting sick. He called my PH to come out where he finished him off. Made my day !!!!
(http://i257.photobucket.com/albums/hh236/Prairiedrifter/Africa%202016%20Sept/received_1693453110947610.jpeg) (http://s257.photobucket.com/user/Prairiedrifter/media/Africa%202016%20Sept/received_1693453110947610.jpeg.html)
I was using my Sierra Blanca 48" bow, 46@26". Arrow was a GT trad 500 w/ 325grs up front. FOC was just under 28%. Arrow weight was 620grs.
(http://i257.photobucket.com/albums/hh236/Prairiedrifter/bows/DSC_0012_1.jpg) (http://s257.photobucket.com/user/Prairiedrifter/media/bows/DSC_0012_1.jpg.html)
I was impressed w/ the power of the combo. On impact, he was knocked over. A 600lb + animal rocked by a 46# bow. Impressive to me.
So ends my first African trip of 2017. More to come later this summer.
Thank you for sharing..... fantastic!!!
The reality of a hunt's possible outcome is great food in accepting the always existing possibility.
The wonderful sharing of your gifted African experience is gracsiously appreciated and later successful recovery is the primacy of respect due the magnificent quarry.
Excellent...
I'm still trying to decipher your post Scott. You speak a language with which I am unfamiliar.
Now to PD's hunt. I'll probably be in the minority but here goes. First and foremost, glad that the animal was recovered. But I doubt that an animal of that size would be dropped like you said from a 46# bow shooting a 620gr arrow. It most likely was reacting so quickly to the shot that in it's haste to exit the scene lost its footing and stumbled in to the water tank. This is an assumption on my part so please don't take it as criticism. I have no doubt you saw it drop.
A beautiful animal and I'm genuinely envious of your being able to hunt the Dark Continent. Would love to do it some day but being well into the "autumn of my years", more like the "winter", that possibility is very remote. Do like to read these stories though.
QuoteOriginally posted by highlow:
I'll probably be in the minority but here goes. First and foremost, glad that the animal was recovered. But I doubt that an animal of that size would be dropped like you said from a 46# bow shooting a 620gr arrow. It most likely was reacting so quickly to the shot that in it's haste to exit the scene lost its footing and stumbled in to the water tank. This is an assumption on my part so please don't take it as criticism. I have no doubt you saw it drop.
A beautiful animal and I'm genuinely envious of your being able to hunt the Dark Continent. Would love to do it some day but being well into the "autumn of my years", more like the "winter", that possibility is very remote. Do like to read these stories though.
While things happened quickly, he did not react until the arrow hit him. I attribute it to the heavy arrow impacting so close to the spine. It hit with a bone crunching "crack" and he fell over. Interpret it as you want.
Awesome Mike! The Wildebeest and Warthog are my two favorite African animals! They do have incredible endurance!
Way to go on that wildebeest. That animal has proven to be my African nemesis!!!!
Bisch
QuoteOriginally posted by Bisch:
Way to go on that wildebeest. That animal has proven to be my African nemesis!!!!
Bisch
Mine too. If you recall I lost one in 2011.
I don't want to be irrespecfull nor start any controversy and all bowhunters including myself have had and will have some bad days, but sometimes it is hard to keep the "politically correct" policy on air.
As a bowhunter I don't really feel comfortable with that story.
What's the rationale to use a 46# bow at short draw for mature blue wildebeest? Not for the "better accuracy with light bow argument" I guess.
I am sorry PD but I don't see anything here to support any "impressive" power of your bow as you stated nor something to be proud of in that killing. Despite the "bone crushing noise" you told us you have heard,the fact is you didn't get any penetration at all and lost the game.
Something "impressive" or at least effective would have rather been an arrow powered enough to brake the spine or those ribs close under and cutting the big artery running just below the spine, leading to a quick true bow kill. Would more bow have help on that shot? We will never know.
60+#bows allowed me to go through the blue wildebeest nemesis though. 7 times.
From my limited experience with Wildebeests and African game in general, a high lung shot even with a pass thru can result in a long trailing job. I didn't see where Mike said what kind of penetration he got or if he got the high back of the lungs or just behind the lungs. If just behind the lungs, a complete pass thru would have still resulted in a looong tracking job. Maybe I'm missing something, but I don't think a more powerful bow would have helped. What do you think Mike? Your set up sounds pretty efficient with almost 13.5 gpi and loaded up front. A bad shot whether with a longbow, compound, or gun is still just that...just my two cents for whatever that is worth..no disrespect intended to you Laurent. :wavey:
It was a bad shot. I hit above the spine in the hump area. Penetration was more than sufficient, but when you don't hit the chest cavity......
It did enough damage to the spine that the bull was gimped up.
And yes, it broke bone and had an exit hole.
QuoteOriginally posted by hybridbow hunter:
I don't want to be irrespecfull nor start any controversy and all bowhunters including myself have had and will have some bad days, but sometimes it is hard to keep the "politically correct" policy on air.
As a bowhunter I don't really feel comfortable with that story.
What's the rationale to use a 46# bow at short draw for mature blue wildebeest? Not for the "better accuracy with light bow argument" I guess.
I am sorry PD but I don't see anything here to support any "impressive" power of your bow as you stated nor something to be proud of in that killing. Despite the "bone crushing noise" you told us you have heard,the fact is you didn't get any penetration at all and lost the game.
Something "impressive" or at least effective would have rather been an arrow powered enough to brake the spine or those ribs close under and cutting the big artery running just below the spine, leading to a quick true bow kill. Would more bow have help on that shot? We will never know.
60+#bows allowed me to go through the blue wildebeest nemesis though. 7 times.
Well, I'm glad you can shoot a 60# bow well. Some of us can not. A bad shot is a bad shot. None of us are proud of it when we make them, but it happens from time to time. If you have never made a bad shot on an animal, then you are an exception to the rule. I shoot 50# at my DL, and have absolutely no doubt that my 50# bow will kill a wildebeest as quick as your 60# will, if the arrow is put in the right place.
PD, I'm glad they were able to recover him for you!
Bisch
Crap happens. That's why we call it hunting. We shoot hundreds if not thousands of arrows to prepare for that one shot.No sights, no scopes, no rangefinders and usually in a rush. I still think back on the buck I shot in Colorado. I hit him high at 15 yards and then watched him run two miles. It hurts to the core.
Congratulations on your Wildebeest, Mike.
I recall you providing me some nice advice back in 2014 about African hunting which paid off for myself.
Add one more factor - It would seem these animals have a will to live quite unlike some North American species.
:thumbsup: