The Hunting Times

Nary a dove flew today.  We bagged 50% of what we saw flying - and that was not many. We ended up with 18 total, but only 17 came inside to be washed and cooked.  Seems that Apollo helped himself to one. It was also hotter today.  We quit by 10:30 am.  Sweating just sitting out there. We had elk gravy for breakfast again.  Then for lunch we had elk stew, doves wrapped in bacon, doves in a wine reduction sauce, and more elk gravy.  No one went away hungry. 9 total shooters today.  Not many shots taken. A beautiful sunrise for hunting doves Michael, Riley, and Davey Alex and the Snellenbarger's posting at the edge Aaron and RePhil, son and papa Nick, Eric, and Zach posting along the corn - and missing doves The gang and our haul (minus Krueger - who's taking the picture)

A breakfast of elk gravy and biscuits was served at 6:30 am on Saturday, 05 SEP.  There are no doves on the Seager Ranch, so we had to bail and hit Burkhalter's S of Mulberry.  It was slow, but an okay performance.  We ended up with somewhere around 30 birds total, which we promptly processed, wrapped in bacon, and cooked on the grill. Lunch was at 12 noon - elk stew.  A successful day no matter how you look at it. We will need to plant sunflowers next year if we want to draw the birds in though. Ozzy Osbourne impression! Sykes with his ONE bird for the day The Martin Clan - who have the distinct honor of "most shots fired with the fewest birds bagged." Part of the pile of shells for the day.  Quadruple that. Saturday's gang and the haul. Someone replied on FB already - "lot of ducks you have there."

My original thought was to put these three items in separate blog posts so they would be easier to search.  On second thought, who will ever be searching my blog?  Right-o, one post... The flight we took to SA and back, Delta 200, is the Longest Flight in the World.  Look it up.  No other flight is in the air continuously more hours than this one.  Total - 16 Hours!  Prepare yourself mentally.  I looked at it as a challenge.  The only way I get to hunt Africa is by taking the plane.  So, it's part of the trip.  We did upgrade to Economy Plus - and at a minimum, I suggest you do the same.  It was only $200 more.  Total flight costs were $2,000.  Indy to Atlanta to Johannesburg & reverse.  The drinks, food, movies, and WIFI are "free."  Yeah, you paid for them already.  There is just no extra charge for them on the plane.  Again, Google (TM) Delta 200.  There are folks who have already written ...

Today is Sunday, our departure day.  But since RePhil does not have his wildebeest yet, we got up early and went out for a hunt. We jumped the boogers early, but they were on to us.  We stalked for about 2 hours before finding them feeding on the ridge line - where we promptly got busted by a herd of blesbok.  We circled around and found a herd of zebras.  Jan called a 50% discount on the spot - normally zebras are $1,800; and this morning, RePhil could shoot one for $900. After a quick consultation, I convinced RePhil that he would regret not doing it.  The price was NEVER going to be any cheaper and he was there now - do it!  Easier said than done. The herd milled around together, so getting a clean shot on a stallion was tedious to say the least.  Once a male finally came open, they were 300 yards out and RePhil had been on the sticks, looking through his scope, for almost 5 minutes straight.  Fatigue was setting in.  The shot went w...

Up again this morning at 5:30 am.  Breakfast at 6.  Started stalking at 6:15, before the sun was up.  We did all walking today, no truck.  We crept around the back side of a draw where a protected field also housed a pond.  Exactly the place grazers like wildebeests would like to be.  Sure enough, we found a herd. Stalking wildebeest as the sun comes up.  Awesome! It took a while to get into a position that I was open enough to shoot, but not been seen.  Jan called out the one animal I should shoot and gave me the range of 192 yards.  The wildebeest was quartering away, so I shot a little back on purpose.  Dropped it on the spot.  This photo was taken before 7 am.  That's a good way to start the day. Blue Wildebeest down before 7 am.  Still have my jacket on this morning. Now for those of you playing the home game, that's three animals each for RePhil and me.  The difference?  I have only fired 3...

Rolled out early again this morning - 4:30 wake time, 5:00 am leave time.  Scarfed some fruit, yogurt and coffee and drove one hour west to the mountains.  This concession was 22,000 acres (or 35 square miles) and included the highest peak on the mountain range.  The neighboring ranch also housed lions and elephants.  Our goal this morning was to tag a warthog and baboon for me. After meeting the owner, James (nice fellow), we drove around the plains and made one stalk on a warthog.  Next we cross the mt range and parked to make another stalk.  We came upon a family of warthogs - two mamas and several piglets.  As we were watching them, big daddy comes trotting in.  I set up to make a shot.  It took a while because the other pigs were in the way, and then mr hog was eating.  Finally, I put a 300 win mag in his chest - game over. The plains we are stalking in the foreground. The mountains we are about to climb in the background. ...

Per usual, we got up at 5:30 this morning.  We ate breakfast and took it easy while waiting on permission from another concession.  Around 8 am or so, we took off on foot to chase blue wildebeest on Woodstock. We came back to the lodge for lunch and relaxed until about 3 pm.  Then we went back out after wildebeest.  We chased them all over the place but never got a shot we could take. Back to the lodge for showers and dinner.  All the other hunters/guests have left for the week.  We now have the entire facility to ourselves. Today was very relaxing.  We sat around a lot and only walked about 3 miles.  Fine with us.  We have been busting our butts the last couple of days.  A little down time was graciously accepted, welcomed, and greeted with open arms. We spent the lazy afternoon discussing religion, politics, the history of SA, previous hunts, and life in general.  Nothing died today, but it was time well spent. My drink ...