We were whisked away to an hour outside Capetown. Only an hour and you had the most beautiful open fields running up the side of the mountains. It was raining but our PH had thought of everything, including bringing proper huntin’ raincoats for us.
We had some coffee and tea at the lodge – and then set off to sight in the gun. General Yeager shot a couple of times first – at the paper target set 100 meters away. Right in the sweet spot. Then he got a feel for the sticks as a rest.
My turn. I shot 1 shot – is it on the target? Cirdri said yes. Then I shot a second time. Cirdri walked out to check the shots.
As he walked back, he said: You’ve shot before.
I nodded, A couple times. (And I do mean a couple of times!)
My second shot nicked the hole of the first shot. About an inch to the right, on line with the bullseye.
A little better than my teacher, Gen Yeager. Everyone was so surprised that they forgot to give me a chance to get a feel for the sticks (essentially a tripod with a sling holding the three legs together).
General Yeager, who is a far better shot, especially when it counts, of course, smiled – proud of his wingman (or wingperson or wingpergal. Yikes! :-).
We ditched the open air game viewing truck for the enclosed, warm one. We saw springbok, red hartebeast, wildebeest, and bondebok.
A lynx! The truck stopped. Gen Yeager told me to go so I jumped out and followed the tracker and PH (“Professional Hunter” – basically the huntin’ guide). I wasn’t sure I wanted to shoot. I sure wasn’t sure I wanted to shoot a lynx, pretty cat. I was thinking all this as we tracked this creature.
Really, when you see a lynx, you’d best be ready to shoot and shoot! Otherwise, it’s long gone in a matter of seconds. The PH started telling me about how much havoc a lynx wreaks on livestock – they kill a lamb a day.
Oh. Allrighty then. Where’s that gun and where’s that lynx? The tracker checked a few potential hiding spots. No go. We headed back to the truck and drove a bit farther.
A few bondebok weren’t too far away. Bondebok are unique to not only this area of the world, but this area of South Africa. The PH stopped and started getting out the sticks and the gun. Gen Yeager told me to go shoot.
Oh dear. What if it runs before I’ve set up? What if I miss? Worse – what if I just wound it?
The PH set up the sticks. These had a sort of sling between the sticks. I put the gun on it and it moved too easily – wasn’t steady. The PH told me which animal to shoot. As the gun barrel moved around on that sling, I tried to gauge when it would come around to the right spot on the animal.
Squeeze….thwack! I hit it. But where?
PH: He’s hit.
We walked up to the bondebok. An older male who had seen his share of fights. While he was the one they wanted culled, it turned out he was also one for the record books. I silently said a prayer of thanks.
General Yeager came up and we took some photos. He was rather impressed.
Bondebok-Feisty old bull. (In the foreground.)
We then drove over to the neighboring concession and picked up the Concession manager, Steve. He’s been the conservationist there for 26 years. Loves his work. A knowledgeable, kind, gentle man. We couldn’t get close to any of the animals.
The wildebeest were pretty funny – called the clowns of the Cape. They will hightail it in one direction, perhaps away from you, then turn around and head straight back at you.
It was fun to see all these beautiful animals, red hartebeest, springbok, with an impala who had an identity crisis as it was the only one in a herd of springbok. There were many, many young ones. Sooo cute. The fastest animals in South Africa – they leapt and ran – and leapt – over nothing in particular.
Lots of birds, red & black ones – just the males for 3 months, plovers, eagles, blue cranes…
Lots of flowers – blue, purple, yellow, the national flower: which looks a bit like thistle but it’s stem and leaves are very, very soft. Another plant looked like small cotton – and was also very soft. Loved those flowers.
Towards the end of the day, we were headed home when the PH got me out of the truck to stalk a male springbok in the next draw (or dam for a reservoir). We crouched down and scuddled over rocks almost tripping a few times.
And then we crawled behind this mound and inched our way up. There was not one, but SEVEN bucks. All laying down. Can’t shoot them.
We tried to set up for when they might get up and walk out of the draw. But we daren’t risk standing up with the sticks. Cirdri put the gun’s legs down – still not tall enough. So he put a camera cover under one leg and a binocular under the other and held them. I held steady on where I hoped they would walk out.
Cirdri said: They know something’s up. But they’ll walk up to the ridge and stop.
After all this, again, I hoped I got a good shot off – one that killed one instantly.
The springbok started trotting up the hill. I waited. They weren’t moving fast. I considered a shot on the run. I considered standing up and trying freehand – I knew what to do in theory.
I decided I’d just wait. None of the seven ever stopped and as they started disappearing into the brush, I decided not to take a shot.
The PH was disappointed. I started asking him about shooting on the run or free hand – and told him I had decided I wasn’t sure I could get a good shot doing that yet.
He said: No. Not a good idea. You just have to have some luck – like they stop at the top of the ridge.
I felt a little better then – he also thought I didn’t have a good shot – that it wasn’t my fault or lack of ability. Phew.
Then it was Gen Yeager’s turn. He hiked a bit downwind of some hartebeest. The game manager told him which one needed to be culled. Gen Yeager set up and shot. Thwack! The hartebeest was killed instantly. No over analyzing it like his wife! Just get the job done. Of course, he’s been doing great shots for 81 years!
We loaded it up and set out again. On the way back to leave this ranch, we saw some springbok. Gen Yeager set up, and it took off. Gen Yeager shot it on the run at 300 yards. Again. Perfect shot. Except this time it was in tall grass. The PH and I headed in that direction.
The PH is a lot taller so has a better view for finding game. I have a pretty good eye for where the game was headed. At a certain point, we thought we’d lost it so we started walking in concentric circles. On the first turn…there it was.
So we had three animals – lots of food for the local tribes. They were very happy. And we took animals that would have died of wasting disease or starvation or being kicked out of the herd or killed by a younger bull. So the game manager was very happy, too.
c. GCYI