You all are welcome, I am just trying to return the favor. I have gotten a lot of entertainment from reading about others hunts on here. Now where did we leave off? Oh ya, I had just got the Kudu.That afternoon after getting the Kudu loaded in the truck and seeing some Eland cows we moved to a different blind on the same property still looking for Zebra and now possibly Gemsbuck. By the end of the day there were still no Zebra sightings and only 1 Gemsbuck that just didn't trust that funny looking termite mound with the black squares on it. She was a smart cookie.
Day 9 - On the road again at 0600 going back to the place I had shot my Kudu still in hopes of seeing a Zebra. This morning a bunch of Eland cows came in and had been there for probably 30 minutes when I start hearing this click, click, click, click sound. Antonie looks at me and says the bulls are coming. I wasn't planning on shooting one so I pick up my video camera and get ready to do a little videography. All of those thoughts lasted for about 3 seconds after I laid eyes upon that first bull that walked in. Then it was drop the camera, grab the bow, and load up one of my special arrows. A footed Hexpine 90-95 pound spine with a 200 gr Doug Campbell Damascus trade point. The PH was looking at me a little funny and finally asked me if I was going to shoot this Eland. I'm sure that this was because of my earlier statement about not wanting to get one. I replied in the affirmative and said he better get the camera on quick. It was 15 more minutes before I got a nice, clear 12 yard shot and for once I wasn't fighting the shakes as I drew my bow. I was tuned in to that little spot on his shoulder and that is right where the arrow went. The Eland scatter, he runs roughly forty yards and then stops and starts looking around like he is wondering what just happened. When he first took off there was about 10 inches of arrow sticking out of the near side shoulder, now there is nothing but a little trickle of blod coming from the entrance wound. He just stood there for a couple of minutes while I was holding my breath then he did a big whole body shudder and went over on to his side!
The cows started coming back in almost as soon as he fell and since we knew he was down and out we called the truck right away
Notice the spiffy attire I was wearing for the photo session. The shot hit on the midline of the body about 2 inches in front of the crease of the shoulder and while it was very effective and my best shot yet we were wondering why there wasn't any blood coming out of his nose. He had conveniently fell down on the side of a road which helped with the loading. After he was caped out (which was done with the caping knife that came with the St. Judes quiver/bracer combo) and opened up it was dicovered that the arrow had gone through the meaty part of the shoulder, the near side ribs, the heart, the far side ribs, and into the oppisite shoulder for about 18 inches of total penetration. This is the only animal I shot where I didn't have an exit wound. The rest of the afternoon passed uneventfully a we returnd to the Citadel about 2000. Just to give you and idea of the size of this critter, I am 6' tall and wiegh 300 pounds. The arrows in my quiver are 32 inches from the bottom of the string groove to the tip of the BH, and my bow is 58" long. The carcass weight hanging on the rail was just shy of 700# and they told me that they have have gotten them as big as 980# carcass hanging on the rail. They estimated mine at 1500# live weight. Joseph