The Hunt of a Lifetime

I have just returned from the trip of a lifetime. An African hunting safari.

It all began when I was invited by a friend to a Friends of the NRA charity banquet and auction. One of the sponsors of the event was Authentic African Adventures, a hunting safari outfitter in South Africa. I won a Safari for two.

So a year later, I boarded an airplane with a friend of mine and we went to see what it was like to hunt African game.

We were greeted at the airport by Kyne, my guide for the week. Unfortunately, due to a paperwork foul up, we were unable to get our guns through customs. Kyne assured us not to worry, they would take good care of us, and they did.

After a four hour trek across the countryside, we arrived at Authentic African Adventure's hunting camp. It was a beautifully remodeled farm facility that would be our home for the next week. The rooms were beautiful--decorated the way you would expect, with mouth watering trophies all over the walls. The dining room is a room in the home of Hanno, the owner. We ate some dinner and relaxed around a warm campfire. The next morning, the hunt would begin.

Each day began with breakfast at 6 and then we loaded up in the truck to head out to the bush to see what we could find.

The hunting area (called a camp) is teeming with animals--more game animals than I have ever been around.

There were three ways we found the game we were looking for.

Drive and Stalk

The first way we hunted was to drive through the hunting area until we saw one of the animals we were looking for. We would stop the vehicle and begin sneaking up on the animal.

The very first day we saw a herd of impala and jumped off the truck to investigate. We snuck closer to the herd until we could clearly see them. We watched them for quite a while. Two males began to fight and Kyne leaned over and whispered, "The one on the left is a monster."

The animals were around 200 yards out. I began to watch them through my scope, and when they separated, I shot. I didn't realize just how far they were or how small the body of an impala is. When I shot, I put the cross hairs in the lower third of the impala's body right below the shoulder as my guide had instructed me. I didn't compensate for the distance and the bullet hit just a bit low and only wounded him.

Not a good way to begin, but it showed me what kind of professionals these guys were. Immediately we began tracking the buck. We tracked that guy for four hours! They read the ground like it was a map and slowly and steadily we closed in on him. You can see, with their skill and a bit of luck, I shot him at about 160 yards. I learned my lesson.

Walk and Stalk

The second way we hunted was good, old fashioned walk and stalk. We put dozens of miles on our boots and got very close to some beautiful game!

Believe it or not, Wendy told me to bring her back a zebra. Being a good husband, I did as I was told. Kyne and I walked miles and miles for this zebra. A lot of people don't know it, but zebra are notoriously difficult to hunt. They are smart, very alert and aware of everything, and they are very fast. We followed tracks and tracks over the course of two days. Three times we got very close. One time I had a very long shot, but it was through too much brush and I opted not to risk it. Another time, the wind shifted just as we were setting up for the shot. But the last time, we followed a group of three zebras for a couple miles. We had great tracks, but we hadn't even seen a single zebra. We crossed a road and walked about 200 yards and heard the distinctive call of a zebra. We slowed down and made our steps as quiet as we possibly could. Then through the brush we caught sight of one. I quickly brought my gun up, laid it across the shooting sticks, and put the cross hairs behind the shoulder and squeezed the trigger.

The massive zebra shot off. My heart sunk.

Kyne asked me how sure I was about the shot. I knew, like shooters know, it was good. So we carefully made our way to follow the trail. Blood. We followed the trail for about 5 minutes and then we spotted him. The shot was perfectly placed, and had done its job.

Sit and Stalk

The third way we hunted was in a blind. The outfitter already had blinds set up around the hunting camp so all we had to do was watch how the animals were moving, check the tracks around the blind and settle in.

I wanted to bring back a warthog. I'd don't know exactly why, other than they are so thoroughly African. We had seen dozens of them running around, but they were always just a blaze of fur and tusk. There was never a good shot because they were so fast. So we decided to hunt in a blind.

The blind was constructed of thatched walls with tiny openings through which you could see out. We gathered dried zebra dung, lit it, and let is smolder in the blind to cover our scent. We sat for about 45 minutes in silence. First a sow and her babies came through and then, a big boar began circling the area. He sniffed and snorted for several minutes before he came into an area where I could get a shot at him. One shot and he was down. He was huge. The tusks were 13 inches long—a full 5 inches longer than the normal ones they see around there.

Each day, the bounty of the hunt was taken back to camp, dressed out and the meat was used to feed the hunters and all of the staff of the outfitter. Any excess meat is given away to a local school.

I was absolutely thrilled with the hunt. Authentic African Adventures were gracious hosts and excellent guides on the hunt. If you ever go to Africa for a hunt, you couldn’t find a better outfitter to use. Tell them I sent you. :)