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Kudu hunt Jul 07

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8shots View Drop Down
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    Posted: July/08/2007 at 13:40

I have just returned from my second hunt this season and took a beautifull bull. Herewith a pic to drool over. When I have a chance I will show more pics and tell the story.

 

See story at end of comments received.

 



Edited by 8shots
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote pyro6999 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: July/08/2007 at 13:43
looks like a dandy did you use your hand loads??? if so,did it make you feel like you accomplished something good??
They call me "Boots"
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343 we will never forget

God Bless Chris Ledoux
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Dale Clifford Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: July/08/2007 at 16:32
lets hear the rest of the story
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote silver Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: July/08/2007 at 17:30

 

 

You are "evil." We are all so jealous...

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote cheaptrick Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: July/08/2007 at 18:52

Tagged.

 

Nice animal!! 

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote RifleDude Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: July/09/2007 at 17:56

Beautiful kudu, 8shots!  I'm envious!  I've always thought kudu are the most handsome of the horned African game animals!

 

Congratulations on a fine bull!

Ted


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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Urimaginaryfrnd Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: July/09/2007 at 22:14

Boy I wish I had a high fence and some of those running around my farm.

 


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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote 8shots Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: July/11/2007 at 15:24

Thanks for all your responses. Herewith the hunt:

 

Hunting the elusive grey ghost of Africa Jul 2007

One moment the veldt is empty and the mind wanders whilst the soul drinks deep on the peace and quite of the Karoo expanses, and the next moment he is there! The mind clears, the adrenalin rush begins. Frantically mental calculations are made, is he shootable, what is the distance, what is the wind doing?

That morning we left our campsite near Willowmore in the Eastern Cape, South Africa. The terrain is mountainous with thickly wooded kloofs. The mountains slope down to long flat plains, ideal springbuck country. Kudu again thrive in the mountainous area and wooded kloofs.

Spekboom, gwarrie and wild olive trees make up most of the vegetation. The  eastern and southern slopes can be so thickly wooded that a person struggles to walk through it, whilst the western and northern slopes are more sparsely covered. These more open slopes are ideal areas to cover whilst waiting for kudu to appear.

I took a short hike over the mountain and found a nice vantage spot to lie in wait. The view was breathtaking, with the valley stretched out far below me. I was wearing new Sniper 3D camo, and was confident I would not be seen by game coming over the ridge in front of me.

I was thinking of the days of preparation that lead to this moment. My rifle, a 300 H&H was loaded with the new load I had developed. A 200gr Nossler Part was sitting on top of 68gr of S385 powder, to give a velocity of 2850fps. The Leupold 3,5-10x40 was zeroed at 200m and should be about 8inches low at 300m. The area I covered was going to leave me with shots from 200m to 400m at a stretch.

And then he appeared. I could see from the curls that he is the one I had been hoping for! Unfortunately I had left my rangefinder behind, so I guessed the distance at 350m. The first shot went just over the top. He turned to look at me, but the camo did its job. In vain he stared in my direction. I quickly ejected brass and took the second shot.  This time the bullet took him in the chest. (I later discovered I was just off centre and the Nosler went through his left shoulder, breaking bone). He got up and struggled down the steep slope. I could see he was not going to go anywhere, so I allowed him come right down to the bottom of the kloof, where it was easy to finish him off with a final shot, rather then risking a poorly placed shot through the shrub.

 

 The black arrow indicates where the bull stood when I took my first shot. Hardly noticeable, just above the point of the arrow is a person in a red overall!!

 Beautiful 45” Kudu bull

As the veldt reclaimed its silence a kudu cow appeared higher up then the bull. She started walking in my direction. I could see from the path she was following that she was going to come very close to me.

Again I sat quietly and allowed the camo do the work. When she was about 75m away, I gave her a full frontal chest shot. She dropped on the spot, or so I thought!

I called in the recovery crew and directed them to the cow first, which was nowhere to be found. The search area became wider and wider, and I became more concerned. Did the bullet fail, did she get up and did I mark the wrong spot? As the situation became more hopeless, with not even a bloodspoor, one of the recovery crew members looked down and called out. The cow, unseen by me, had dropped in its tracks and tumbled about 50m down the slope! The bull and the cow were now close to the bottom, making final recovery a lot easier.

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote RifleDude Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: July/11/2007 at 21:29

Great story and nice pics... but if I'm ever able to hunt in Africa, would it be considered poor form if I elected to skip the time-honored testicle swallowing ritual?

 

BTW -- what is a "kloof?"  Not familiar with that term.

Ted


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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote 8shots Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: July/12/2007 at 05:24

Rifledude, you will not escape the "testicle ritual"! Specially if you come hunting with me!

The truth be told, this is the first time I saw the guys swallowing it! The ritual in South Africa is generally smearing a bit of blood on the fore-head and swallowing a small peace of raw liver, which is a lot more acceptable. Some guys dump the testicle into the drinking glass afterwards, which the first time hunter has to drink from all night. People normally joke about swallowing the testicle, but as these pictures show, are actually done by some!

The ritual of blooding has come under a lot of discussion lately. Is it barbaric, is it a serious induction into the brotherhood of hunters or is it just some fun we are having with the greenhorns? These questions remains largely unanswered.

 

A kloof is a ravine. It is an Afrikaans word that has been adopted even by the English speaking. It is pronounced like "hoove" but beginning with a "CL" sound. Below is a typical kloof. Do not be fooled by the bush, it is a lot denser then it looks. If you shoot a kudu in that and you do not mark it correctly, you will have a long search on your hands for the carcass.

 

Herewith  picks of the more standard "blooding". Do you do something similiar in The USA?

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote pyro6999 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: July/12/2007 at 06:32
uh when i kill something we drink beer, if somebody else kills something we drink beer
They call me "Boots"
375H&H Mag: Yeah, it kills stuff "extra dead"

343 we will never forget

God Bless Chris Ledoux
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote 8shots Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: July/12/2007 at 06:46

Pyro, I like beer a whole lot better too!

The ritual you see here is only done once in a lifetime, that is when a hunter kills his first animal. I think the rite of passage is a fairly universal concept, even on this forum where a person start off as an Optic Grasshopper and then have to earn the rights to become an Optics Master. This ritual is never forced on any-one and if the hunter decides he does not want to do it, we respect that. (he just does not get invited along on the next hunt! (Jokes )

A little bit like Fear Factor stuff.

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Bigdaddy0381 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: July/12/2007 at 07:34

8shots
 very good hunt for you .Nice game.great story I'm Jealous.Do you need an american son?We can do it like adopt a child for hunting season....Sound good?

 

Big

 

 

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote RifleDude Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: July/12/2007 at 18:13
Originally posted by 8shots 8shots wrote:

Pyro, I like beer a whole lot better too!

The ritual you see here is only done once in a lifetime, that is when a hunter kills his first animal. I think the rite of passage is a fairly universal concept, even on this forum where a person start off as an Optic Grasshopper and then have to earn the rights to become an Optics Master. This ritual is never forced on any-one and if the hunter decides he does not want to do it, we respect that. (he just does not get invited along on the next hunt! (Jokes )

A little bit like Fear Factor stuff.

 

O.K., good.  I'm anything but a greenhorn when it comes to hunting, just never been to Africa.  Would that disqualify me from having to take part in any perverse, twisted ritual involving a testicle?  Don't mind having blood smeared all over me -- pretty much happens every time I field dress/skin/quarter/bone out a game animal anyway, so I would choose that option.  If forced, I would reluctantly eat a piece of raw flesh from most regions of the carcass if that's what was required to shoot a kudu as nice as yours, but I'd have to draw the line at eating the male sex organs of any beast.

 

I pretty much adhere to the beer ritual Pyro advocates!

 

Thanks for the explanation of a kloof.  Now I can impress friends at parties with my newfound knowledge of obscure Afrikaans vernacular.



Edited by RifleDude
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote pyro6999 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: July/12/2007 at 21:42

beer is good beer is good lets go drink some beer!!! my dad took a nut sack off a pronghorn and wrapped it on the gear shift knob in his pickup and when it dried it was like a leather cover.

 

the whole testicle thing sounds like a challenge for edgar hanson deck boss on the northwestern!!



Edited by pyro6999
They call me "Boots"
375H&H Mag: Yeah, it kills stuff "extra dead"

343 we will never forget

God Bless Chris Ledoux
"good ride cowboy"
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote 8shots Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: July/13/2007 at 02:45

Rifledude, having made your first kill you are pretty safe from further abuse. You can safely come to Africa as we recognise The International Codes of Induction to the Brotherhood of Hunters (Known as ICBH). I think this treaty was signed in the 1800 when the Alabama visited the African coast.

 

 

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote RifleDude Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: July/13/2007 at 13:12

WHEW!!!.... thanks!  Glad to know you have an induction reciprocity policy.

 

Now, I just need to find a way to come up with the funds to go!

 

Pyro, we need to find an excuse to meet up, kill something, and drink some beer!



Edited by RifleDude
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote RifleDude Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: July/13/2007 at 13:15
Originally posted by pyro6999 pyro6999 wrote:

the whole testicle thing sounds like a challenge for edgar hanson deck boss on the northwestern!!

 

Ah, a fellow fan of the "Deadliest Catch" show!...

Ted


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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote pyro6999 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: July/13/2007 at 18:01
Originally posted by RifleDude RifleDude wrote:

Originally posted by pyro6999 pyro6999 wrote:

the whole testicle thing sounds like a challenge for edgar hanson deck boss on the northwestern!!

 

Ah, a fellow fan of the "Deadliest Catch" show!...

 

hell ya i wanna go try that just once

They call me "Boots"
375H&H Mag: Yeah, it kills stuff "extra dead"

343 we will never forget

God Bless Chris Ledoux
"good ride cowboy"
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote pyro6999 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: July/13/2007 at 18:02
Originally posted by RifleDude RifleDude wrote:

WHEW!!!.... thanks!  Glad to know you have an induction reciprocity policy.

 

Now, I just need to find a way to come up with the funds to go!

 

Pyro, we need to find an excuse to meet up, kill something, and drink some beer!

im telling ya man you ought to come up here in the fall then maybe you could take me out for some varmints

They call me "Boots"
375H&H Mag: Yeah, it kills stuff "extra dead"

343 we will never forget

God Bless Chris Ledoux
"good ride cowboy"
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