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Day 4,5 and 6

When I last left off I had wrestles night because of the wildebeest I had hit that night and we were unable to continue the track job that night. We got up the morning and headed out to pick up where we had last blood. All the stories of the trackers in Africa were on full display that day. We jumped the wildebeest 5 times but were unable to get a shot. He ended up joining up with a big herd and after 8 hours on the track we lost it. I was completely bummed out and confidence was shaken! All the thoughts that a hunter feels when we lose an animal we wound was now full throttle in my head. Day 4 We headed to what I called the mote blind. It was a blind situated in the middle of water hole. As soon as we got settled in we had hartebeest come in followed by impala, kudu and blesbok. Then it was wildebeest hour. We had herd after herd of wildebeest come to water it was mostly cows and young bulls then my PH said get your bow. There was a big bull coming in. By the time I got set up and ranged the bull he was moving out. I though opportunity lost. My PH said he might come back in as there was plenty of animals still at the water hole. The big bull circled to the other side and I ranged some cows as they were walking past a good shooting lane. As he stepped in he stopped perfectly at 28 yards. My pin settled and the arrow was on its way. As soon as the fletchings disappeared into the shoulder I could see blood. He bucked and took off and as he was running away I could see blood coming from both sides. After the dust settled my Ph went out to see if he could find the arrow and see any sign, he comes back with the arrow and tells me he doesn't see any sign and looks like maybe I hit too far back. Well he lets me stew in those juices for about ten seconds and proceeds to tell me he seen my bull done about 50 yards from the water!! What a wave of relief and overwhelming thanks for a quick and humane kill. After the day before I wanted to redeem myself and make a good shot. We run over to where the bull is down and I am in utter amazement at how big he really is. The one thing I found in Africa was there was no ground shrinkage everything is soooo much bigger when you walk up to them! We spent the rest of the day in the blind in hopes the last thing on my list would show up. Well the striped beast never showed. Day 5. It was an all day sit with the wind swirling and blowing to the water hole. Anything that approached would catch our wind and off they went. We did have kudu and some impala come in to drink but no zebra Day 6. We set up on a different concession in hopes the zebra would come in. It was cold, windy and cloudy. We sat with the only thing coming in we're some blesbok and nyala. Beings this was our last time out as we were leaving the next morning I decided to take the rifle and go look for the zebra beings they weren't coming to us. I know we were bowhunting and up till this point everything we had taken was 30 yards or less but I don't know when or if ever I will return to the dark continent. It took us a little over two hours to get in position for shot. It went about 50 yards and was down. I had taken a beautiful zebra and to be honest it was just as exciting doing it the traditional safari way. We loaded it up and were off to the skinning shed to get it taken care of. We spent our last night in camp feasting on impala and blesbok stir fry talking about how amazing our time spent was and of coarse how we make the return trip to hunt the other animals we had seen. Africa was more than I could have ever dreamed it to be. Now we wait for our trophies to be processed and can't wait to get my hands on the critters we took.

Congrats !!

Some good stories and some great trophies there. Gorgeous zebra. What style mount will you do? What concession were you hunting with?

You collected some very nice animals on this hunt sled. Looks like a perfect shot on the wildebeast. Beautiful zebra too ! Congrats Sir !

Beautiful Trophies. Forrest

Thanks everyone. They are all amazing trophies. I'm getting a rug from the zebra (one of the best eating animal we had) and will figure out what I'm going to do with the rest. Wall pedistals are my favorite thing to do. They show off so much more of the animal so most will get that. The kudu is the one I'm not sure about. They are so big and not sure where I wil put him. Although not a bad problem to have.

Congrats on your safari. Beautiful animals. Zebra make great pedestal wall mounts because it shows off not only the zebra pattern on the shoulder but you can see the how the mane sticks up like a broom all down it's neck which I had never realized until I laid hands on my first zebra. The rug will be wonderful too but don't count out a shoulder wall pedestal for the zebra too if you like them.

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