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Thread: When not to shoot at a animal.
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21-07-2019, 22:08 #1
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- Aug 2010
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- Port Elizabeth
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When not to shoot at a animal.
So I went looking for Kudu - it rained it blew it colded ( my new word), bout one inch on the Weiner scale. It was not hunting fishing braaing weather, kinda 9 months later jump in births rate weather. I moped about friends farm trying to look happy to be there and asking weather, hunting questions and hoping for the answers I wanted to hear. Then I did hear , " Dave - if you up to it, why not try the thorns in the valley under the mountain on the wind side - ya know that big crack in the ground thats so thick" - " we have seen kudu there in real bad weather because its so sheltered and dense". I confirmed I knew of place and indicated I wished to go.
It was a miserable desperate affair wet ground slippery clay and 30 seconds rain every 5 minutes, then I stepped over a invisible line under the mountain into the thorns and it was still calm and cold - a steady hard breeze in my face wind, but no gusting, just a constant strong flow in my face no rain.There were walk-able paths in the thorns, but vision was limited 20 m or so. I soooo slowly walked and used binnos to scan ahead between branch's and under, moved 5 meter, glass area repeat. I had never used binno's at 20 m, but hell they do change the game. 2 hrs passed. Slowly Slowly creep stop look.
While watching through binno's I saw a tree shake and the lowest branch's moving - bush pig or warthog. The black trunks/ stumps moved more shaking in same place and I was certain, bush pig digging at roots. I scanned ground between trunks thorns foliage and bol grass, I could not see into thick stuff - just a grey wall under trees to much cloud cover, too much shade.
I tried using rifle scope at 12 x hoping to get a form or anything to work with - suddenly two sort of kinda orange downward poles came into scope circle banded quiet high up - black white ...................thats ? thats ? Kudu ! - cow legs. In a flash the picture changed - my brain figured the pieces out put it together -flash , wap bang boogie, its all so clear.
I was looking slap into the side of a huge plain grey kudu bull, close enough that it looked like a wall of grey gloom under between all the trees, the black stumps were - one of his horns - one of another bulls horns the orange poles were on a cow that walked in front of the bulls. There were five bulls lying down on knees it appeared eating on the ground, they were all in a area the size of a Golf car, on top of each other - two huge grey ghosts were facing opposite directions over lapping so closely that they appeared to be one animal with horn on either end, heads hidden in grass and lowest body on ground. Another brown horned bull tail too me and another head towards me and another with head in melee, all on knees bellies all pretty much touching each other. A cow or 3 and calf materialized around the bulls as brain untangled the whirlpool image.
Looking by naked eye I could now see it all, but ! there were a million twigs and branch's and creeper - I could only see the image behind the net because I knew it was there.
I aimed and weaved and bobbed like Mohamad Ali looking for a gap to shoot through, there was just none, nothing that was clear picture, always a twig branch bunch of leaves.
At one stage I was ready to shoot front bull high to low behind shoulder - I did my thinking and did not believe that a 180 gr bullet could be deflected measurably off course at 20/25 m even through that scrub. Just as I came to this conclusion I came to the conclusion that a 180gr bullet at nearly 3000 fps was not going to stop in the first kudu. Befaggered either which way, wound because of branch's - wound because of over penetration. They were SO SO tight together I could really not find a body shot that would not have a second animal hit. I started to look for a loose head, any loose head would do the big ones or the smaller bodied brown horns - I would still have a decent bull.
I bopped and weaved and craned and searched. I decided it was not going to work - it was just wrong to shoot through that tangle and into that tangle - FORGET IT DAVE ( Davey Good Boy went through my mind sadly). Suddenly a kudu cow tried to kiss me - I shit you not.
I had just stopped weaving and trying to see a head and a moerste head blocked out my whole scope and when I looked past scope the cow had poked her head out from behind the bush that I was behind at length of rifle length. She literally stuck her head out between my silencer and scope. The rest was a thing of Hiroshima proportions, there were a lot more kudu than my little cluster in front of me, I had somehow gotten deep into a very big herd. They came to me away from and across me, I just sat down and watched the circus.
I did not get a bull yesterday, got a fright,I got a story.
I went home and did not have to track wounded animals in the rain.
It was a good day, I knew when not to shoot.
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21-07-2019, 22:39 #2
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- Feb 2016
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Re: When not to shoot at a animal.
Lovely story. Thank You for sharing.
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22-07-2019, 06:08 #3
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- May 2018
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- 48
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Re: When not to shoot at a animal.
Well written. Thank you. I had a MAGNIFICENT 3 turn bull staring at me yesterday from 30m . I too decided not to pull the trigger as it was just too dark, the sun had set about 10min before.
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22-07-2019, 07:19 #4
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- May 2010
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- Right next to the pot that needs stirring.
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Re: When not to shoot at a animal.
Excellent read. Especially the cow kissing part. I just love the expression on their faces and their antics when the two of you are like really close and they still cannot decide what it is in the bush, and then, when realizing what the intruder is...
Damn, what I would give now to get out of the office and go take a walk in the bush.
Your time of hunting in bad weather for Kudu often work, but you must know where to look. If the farmer cannot tell you where their bad weather hiding places are located you will not easily find them. Where I hunt and a cold front with a lot of wind come through we also find them a lot at a few specific areas.
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22-07-2019, 08:08 #5
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- May 2016
- Location
- port elizabeth
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- 60
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- 2,509
Re: When not to shoot at a animal.
Nice experience Treeman.
Besides not having a clear shot,i also consider the ease/difficulty of a carcass recovery.
Well done on having the disipline of not shooting..an important factor of hunting.
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22-07-2019, 08:12 #6
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- Mar 2010
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- Johannesburg
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Re: When not to shoot at a animal.
Thank you for sharing.....I could picture this scenario......and you were one handsome hunter.....
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22-07-2019, 08:43 #7
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- Feb 2015
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- KZN
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Re: When not to shoot at a animal.
Good write-up Treeman!
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22-07-2019, 09:24 #8
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- Jan 2017
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- Finland, 60 degrees north
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Re: When not to shoot at a animal.
Thank you for the story
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22-07-2019, 10:04 #9
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- Aug 2009
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- George - Western Cape
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- 2,180
Re: When not to shoot at a animal.
You need to get a GoPro so that we can live vicariously through your experiences.
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22-07-2019, 10:35 #10
- Join Date
- Nov 2012
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- Johannesburg
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Re: When not to shoot at a animal.
Thoroughly enjoyed reading your post - just what I needed on a Monday morning. Thanks for sharing.
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