My hosts, Peter Tinkler and Vaughan Humphrey of Fast
and Fresh Logistics had kindly invited me to join them for a weeks hunting at
Sand River Safaris in the Limpopo Valley in the Northern Province of South
Africa.
It was thus with much anticipation that I commenced
preparations for this, which included a decision to take along my 7x57 mm and
375 H&H rifles built on Mauser actions.
A few hours drive from my home near Pretoria had us
well ensconced in the bushveldt, without a doubt my favourite part of the world!
After introductions to the camp staff, selecting rooms and unpacking we
were off to the range to check the rifle’s zero’s. Much advice was given and
received while we observed each other’s groups.
We returned to the base camp, cleaned and stowed the
rifles before relocating to the dining area for pre-dinner drinks. Following a
significant dinner and more than a few cocktails around the fire listening to
the bush’s melodious refrains we all turned in for a welcome night’s rest.
We were woken up in pitch-black darkness to the
tinkling of the coffee tray and the “mornings” of the very friendly camp
staff and PH. After a few cups of coffee and some rusks we piled onto the backs
of the shooting cars and undertook a fairly chilly drive to the drop off points.
Each hunter was dropped off with an experienced tracker and assigned a sector to
work. My tracker and I took off across a flat area of savannah towards the far
kopjes (hills) slopes which were just starting to bake in the early morning sun,
just the kind of place that kudu love to bask off the chill of the previous
night.
We moved at leisurely pace, stopping every so often to
check the wind and cast for spoor. I passed up a very nice Nyala bull as he
moved along with his cows… a quick stalk showed him to have one magnificent
horn whilst the other drooped straight down. A trophy not to my liking.
Once we got into the Mopani shrub we slowed down to
snails pace and stopped every few minutes to listen. This is a good time to
squat down and look through and under the bush as opposed to staring straight
into the thick stuff and wonder how the hell I’m going to spot anything. In
the process, we crossed quite a bit of spoor made a lone elephant, probably the
grumpy cow we had been warned about. I kept a sharp lookout once the spoor got
fresh as she has a reputation for being very cantankerous and charges on sight.
Fortunately she had opted to move out of the area we hunted,
and we were able to focus on a kudu trophy.
We opted to move up a dry streambed that tracked up
the side of a large kopje and still allowed us the benefit of the wind in our
face. On reaching the top of the kopje, which just happened to feel like
climbing one of the fabled seven peaks in terms of steepness, I took time out to
glass the surrounding hillsides and plains below. I saw a few zebra, eland, blue
wildebeest, herds of impala but no kudu.
This was repeated every half hour for the next four
hours while we attempted to set a local record for kopje clambering but turned
up no kudu at all. Somewhat
despondent, I held a short conference with the tracker and decided to take a
wildebeest. Thus agreed, we set forth with renewed enthusiasm for the chase and
closed on two herds after some dallying about with a wind that was now starting
to swirl unexpectedly.
One herd had a very nice bull that showed promise of
running way into the 30” category. He was however not inclined to stay put nor
show himself for clear shot in the very very thick bush. Not wanting to risk a
shot being deflected by the bush, despite having my 375 loaded with 300gr Barnes
X’s, I passed up the bull and broke off the stalk.
At this point the sun had started its turn to a
downward path and it was time to start the ten-mile walk back to the pick up
points. A short radio conversation
with the PH had us set to be picked up and returned to camp and reunited with
some very frosty Castles, lone survivors of the night before.
After the pick and while driving slowly back along the
dirt track in a now much relaxed frame of mind and chatting to tracker that the
Kudu bull made his appearance. We stopped dead in our tracks and watched in
amazement as this very large bull broke cover and, with a bark, loped casually
across the track from left to right and ran up the kopje.
Needless to say my tracker and I bailed over the side of the truck and took off after the Kudu bull up the kopje like scaled cats. I vividly recall trying to estimate his horn length while recharging the rifle already made safe for travel while at the same trying to watch my footing across some treacherous lose rock and anticipating which way he would break.
Given we were making enough noise to be heard in Cape
Town, it must have prevailed on the bull that he best stop to see what had put
him to flight. The bull thus turned on his tracks on the leeward side of the
kopje and ran back straight over and into us. Again all came to a grinding halt
while we stared at each other head on for a split second. I threw up my 375 and
got my breathing to stop for but a moment while the cross hairs settled on the
neck … I caught a glimpsed of the bull going down at the boom while I worked
the bolt again. The second shot was not needed and my tracker and I moved
forward to claim the trophy.
I stood staring at this regal animal thinking how
lucky I had really been and that on day one. Not much later, the truck came
grinding and bouncing it’s way up the hill with some of the other trackers
chopping out a trail in front of it while we did a quick post-mortem of events.
The bullet had taken him smack in the middle of the neck, somehow missing the
vertebrae and exiting to the right side without as much as touching the body.
He measured 55 inches with three full curls all the way up to those
lovely ivory points.
After much backslapping and all round congratulations
we took the necessary photos, loaded up the bull and made our merry way back to
the base camp.
A few points to bear in mind for kudu hunting is that
they are real “skelm” or sneaky, it is not for nothing that they are called
the “grey ghosts of the bush”. A nice bull can be surprised like mine which
can be capitalized on by running after the bull as nine time out of ten they
will stop and look back over their shoulders to see what spooked them, quick
shooting and good bullet placement will get you a trophy. Kudu are also very
fond of sunning themselves early in the morning, thus glassing the surrounding
countryside will often show up a nice bull, the stalking of which you can now
plan from your vantage point.
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Last updated July 19th, 2000