Many people think that professional hunters get to hunt all the time. This is partly true but the final part of the hunt, the shooting is normally done by the client. Don’t get me wrong, we do get to hunt for ourselves but rarely on the ground that we take clients to.
The game on these concessions are managed and controlled to produce the best quality trophies for the overseas market, but I have fortunately been given the opportunity to hunt one of these concessions on my own without a client over the past 5 weeks.
As usual when I hunt for myself everything which I get to hunt I class as a trophy. Whether it is a big kudu bull or a cull springbok ewe, the hunt is the important thing for me.
On this occasion I was pretty much given an open list of animals to go after. Meat was needed so it was necessary to cull larger animals ideally. With being in Africa pretty much everything is eaten. Zebra (Equus quagga burchelli) is also on this list as the meat is processed and very little of any carcass is thrown away.
I arrived at the property early, ready for a full day of hunting. The weather was quite warm for the time of year with the snap of winter not arriving yet. The terrain is very varied. From high mountains with steep slopes to the open plains. We would be mainly be concentrating on the plains and the foothills of the property. This being for a speedier recovery of the animals.
My usual equipment for the hunt would be the same but I was making one change. This would be a new bullet, which I had not tried before. It is a South African produced monolithic copper hollow point made by Kriek bullets. My choice is 155gr as that seems to be what my 308win likes.
Myself and Mandla, one of the trackers on the property would go out and then radio through if we needed anything recovered. The plan was to drive to areas and then glass with our binoculars for suitable animals and then stalk in from there once a plan had been put together.
We headed out, myself driving and Mandla on the back keeping a visual as we drove to our lookout spots.
At our first glassing spot, we could see a herd of gemsbok (Oryx gazelle) down below in the thickets but they were not on the list of animals which we could take so we kept searching. Suddenly about 2km’s away I could see a herd of zebra moving out onto an open plateau. It would make for a good stalk and we would have to get everything right as on this property the zebra are very skittish due to being hunted. They will take flight for any unknown reason and head for the high ground. Giving them the advantage of being able to see any approaching threat.
We quickly put a plan together and started to drive down to where we would begin our stalk in on them. The next thing, the herd of gemsbok which we were nowhere near started to run. Unfortunately straight through the open plateau and therefore spooking the zebra which took off as though a pride of lions were after them.
They headed off the plateau and out of site. Presuming that that was over we drove on to see what else we could find.
We stopped again to glass and quickly picked up a bachelor herd of impala (Aepyceros melampus). Though not a target specie for this hunt we could take out rams with broken horns. We looked through them and noticed that there was one such animal in the group. He was a bigger male from the herd who had probably broken a horn fighting another ram in the rut. These rams are taken out as they often hill other rams in the fights as is often the case with many other deer species.
We left the vehicle and started our approach. Using the contours of the ground and the small thickets of acacia bush we would be able to get into shooting range quite easily.
As we reached the edge of the last thicket we caught a glimpse of the ram just disappearing over the ridge onto the open plateau where the zebra had previously been. This would make it nice and easy. We could slowly stalk up to a position undetected and have an open shooting area to look over for him unobscured by trees.
As we approached the ridge where we planned looking from I noticed about 400 meters to our left on the edge of some bush stood a herd of zebra completely unaware of our presence.
The plan quickly changed. The target would now be the zebra as we knew that the bachelor herd of impala would stay in the area as they are reasonably territorial.
It was not going to be easy to get close to the zebra as the cover was sparse between us and them. A couple of trees and that was it. We would have to give it a go though. The wind and the sun were in our favour though so we could give it a go.
Keeping the trees between us and them we slowly moved forward. As we closed the distance it got more difficult as the herd was slightly spread out. So where we were obscured from one another was in view. Only moving when we could see nothing was looking in our direction we eventually got in to 200 meters.
Staying in the shadow of the last tree we slowly prepared the shooting sticks.
Suddenly the zebra sensed there was something wrong. A couple starting to slowly move around while a couple of others looked in our direction. We stood dead still, knowing that they would bolt if they made us out.
The rifle was on the sticks and I just needed one to stand broadside for me to take a shot. Looking through the herd I could see that there were a few foals so really had to be careful as not to shoot a mare. Looking through my scope I saw an individual which was noticeably bigger in body than the others and with closer inspection it was obvious that this was the stallion. I had him in the scope but just needed him to turn for a better shot and for the one behind him to move. Slowly the one behind moved to give a safe shot but the angle was slightly quartering away.
I would have to readjust the shot for the angle. Keeping the horizontal line with the top of the triangle on his shoulder I aimed so that the bullet would be passing through for the opposite shoulder.
He took a step forward and I knew the time had come. Squeezing the trigger the shot went off and the Zebra lunged forward. Chambering another round I readied myself for a second shot. He ran in a circle obviously hit hard and then his front legs gave way. He was on the ground in a cloud of dust.
The others bolted at the shot but realising that the lead stallion was not fleeing stopped. All standing on the ridge looking down at where he lay. Motionlessly where he fell.
We approached him and with this the rest of the herd moved on with a thunder of hooves and the unmistakable braying of an alarmed zebra.
He was a beauty, my first zebra which I have hunted for myself. A new specie for me to tick off my wish list and certainly an African icon.
On closer inspection the bullet had performed perfectly. It had hit where I had aimed and penetrated the entire animal exiting the opposite shoulder. Leaving a clover shaped hole in the skin identifying that the bullet had mushroomed perfectly and done its job well.
Since this I have taken a number of different animals with these bullets and have only recovered two. All the others have passed through and they have all been one shot kills. The two I have recovered have both been from cape eland cows weighing in at around 400kg’s. The bullets have mushroomed perfectly and maintained well over 90% of their original weight. I think I’ve found the perfect combination for my hunting rifle now.
Hunting and Outdoor Adventures 