10.6-10.9

No words can describe this weekend. Unbelievable, surreal, mind-boggling come close. To inform you on what took place during this time is going to be tough but ill try. I'm here in Swaziland and I get the invitation to join up with Rob Hoskins in South Africa to go hunting. Hunting in Africa on its own is an image hard to imagine. Four weeks ago I'm sitting in class taking notes now I'm going to go hunting large game animals on a game lodge in South Africa. Everyone tries to imagine what something is going to be like, in my mind I'm picturing us going out on Saturday for a short hunting/gazing tour and the rest of the weekend just hanging out with Rob. I couldn’t have been more wrong. I arrived at the game lodge and it was hunter’s mentality from then on. Literally with in 30 min. upon arriving, bags still in the car, I find myself starring down the scope of a .303 rifle. We scoped in the rifles and we were off.
We jumped in the buggy and headed out to stalk a trophy kill. The routine was to drive and site animals, the guide and hunter jump out of the car and stalk these animals from the ground. There was no shooting off the buggy. No less than 30 to 45 min from scoping the rifles I find myself hopping out of the buggy, rifle in hand stalking blue wildebeast. First off I have never even seen wildebeast; now I'm tracking one to shoot, talk about anxiety. So the guide and I attempt to sneak up on the animal and get a clean shot. At first we startle them and they run off a ways. The guide takes off running after them. Rifle in hand I'm on his heals; heart beat ecstatic breathing became second rate. Adrenaline rate so high I wanted to black out from excitement. We had to circle around them because at that point we were upwind and they would be able to smell us. After about 1 kilometer were circled back up on them lining up the perfect shot. With the wildebeast’s silhouette in site I rested the rifle on my guides shoulder and lined up the shot about 75 yards out. Now imagine trying to thread a needle after running a mile with your life on the stake. That’s what it felt like trying to get the animals shoulder (African animals vitals are along the shoulder) into my cross-airs. And even though the guide has you rest the rifle on his shoulder to stabilize the gun it’s very tough to keep it still. I took a deep breath, let part off it out and let the wildebeest have it. At first I was very skeptical of the shot while the entire herd scattered. I was thinking to myself,” Man how did I miss that, its such a huge animal,” but remembering being told that the wildebeest is one of the toughest animals so I still had hope. The guide had me stay in the place where I shot for tracking purposes, but just as he got to the point where the animal was shot we heard the wildebeast stirring off to the left and he had me come to where it was. A wounded wildebeast is very dangerous and aggressive. I had shot it straight through the heart and the lungs, exactly what you want but it was still fighting to stay alive. So the guide had me shoot it again, dead on shot from 15 yards, still breathing. The guide shot it once again in the head still alive finally he had to put the gun to its head and put it out of its misery. So finally after four vital shots it died. At the age of 19 I had shot my first large game animal. Man was I pumped, walked at least 6 inches taller after that. I had been on the farm for no more than 2-3 hours and I already shot something. So the guide, Rob and I loaded the carcass on to the truck and headed to the slaughter house. At first I felt bad because Rob had invited me and I felt like all the time was spent on me because I figured we weren’t going to hunt much more, little did I know. From the time I got there till the night before we left we were in the Bush hunting. That night just before dinner we decided to run by the slaughter house to see my kill-bad idea. At first we just admired the wildebeast and saw where I shot it and everyone congratulated me then it was initiation. Being my first large animal kill the two guides decided to create a lasting memory and be initiated into the big game world. So without any warning my guide reached down with a few fingers and swiped blood from the wildebeast and wiped it on my face. The second guide seeing that it was not adequate dunk his hand in the blood and smeared it all on my face. The stench alone was stomach turning. But what’s got to be done needs to be done. Bloody face and all the day was full of fun highlights and excitement. Little did I know again the adventure had only begun. We started from 6 in the morning and didn’t come in till after 6 at night.
The nights were just as enjoyable as the day. Hunting tends to bring in some mishaps and some very interesting stories. Anywhere from having the perfect shot and shooting without a bullet loaded to a bloody eye from a scope to having the guide ask the clients if they had packed the bullets. Hunting just seems to pull in some interesting stories. We would sit around and talk about everyone’s day and all the interesting stuff that went on.
One animal down and Saturday rolls around. We set out at the crack of dawn bound to find Rob a zebra or a horned trophy kill. Long story short Rob shot at a zebra thought he missed and couldn’t find it, shot a giant gemsbuck (pronounced hemsbuck) in the heart and dropped it. We saw a herd of zebra right before lunch, and since Rob got his kill the guide and I went after it. We did a very good job at stalking it setting up a clean shot so I prepared myself. For some reason I was very nervous, even more nervous than the wildebeast. Just the thought of shooting a zebra and having that under my belt kept my shot very shaky. I aimed and yanked the trigger, which any hunter and I know you’re supposed to squeeze the trigger slowly to steady the shot. And although it was a semi-clear shot and a decently close shot I had missed. Hunting has the highest of the highs and the lowest of the lows. I was in the lows, man what a story that would have been to tell people that I had shot a zebra in Africa but I had jerked the trigger.
We stopped for lunch and headed back out, trying to find another zebra for Rob and I because we had both missed ours. And it seemed like the more we looked the less we saw. I don’t think we even saw another zebra that entire afternoon. We were making one last drive around the outskirts of the farm, and sure enough we saw a zebra laying there. We got out to take a look at it. It was still breathing and after looking closely at it we figured out that it was the one Rob had shot by the angle of the bullet wound. Our guide didn’t want to damage the skin of the zebra but needed to kill it so he took out his knife to stab it in the throat. Sorry about the gruesome details but the more details I write down the better I remember it. Just as the guide was bending down to kill it the zebra jumped up. There were five of us surrounding this zebra when it jumped up and we all booked it out of there. The guide grabbed the gun and took aim so we wouldn’t have to track it too far. Being close to the edge of the farm we were right along the fence. The zebra in its panic slammed against the fence, jumped up and turned back to where we were standing. In the pandemonium while everyone is trying to scatter the zebra turns and the guide is following it with the rifle. Just as the guide swung the gun around Chad a 6’5 250lb man was running right in the line of fire and dropped faster than a ton of sand to avoid being shot. When I say dropped I mean skidded on the rocks and bit it hard, but when you’re panicking you’ll do what it takes. There are some things you wish were video taped and that was one of them. Seeing the five of us fleeing and the sliding and the looks on our faces would have been priceless to go back and see. The guide later on said that he saw Chad the entire time but Chad didn’t know that so he was diving down for his life. The rest of the day was pretty quiet, didn’t see much. Chad did get a wildebeast that night too. I'm content I got my large game animal and had a ton of fun doing it, but in the back of my mind I was thinking man I could have taken a zebra. That night we did get to eat some of the wildebeast that I had shot that was really cool. Some of the best meat I had ever had, don’t know if it was just the fact that it was something that I had shot or the way it was cooked but it was mouth-watering. Monday comes around and that day all eyes were on my zebra and maybe a trophy wildebeast for Rob but he passed up a few so I could go after my zebra. (Thanks again Rob, I had such a blast) The hunting speculation of what you’re looking for you, you’re most likely not to see it was proving true. Long story short we drove around from 6 to 4 without getting a good enough shot to take.
By 4 Yohan, my new guide looked at me and asked me if I was fit, he had had enough driving around and wanted to head out on foot, I said yes seeing it was my only option and I would of done anything at that point to get that zebra back. When he asked if I was fit or not he was seriously asking because we stalked and we stalked for miles. If you have never gone hunting before the stalk walk is not the same as your normal walk. Knees bent, light footsteps and crouching is the general stance. Now try doing this for hours up and down hills, makes for a very aching person the next day. We walked for an hour without seeing much of anything, but we were stealthy the entire time, constantly on edge searching for the elusive zebra. Finally we come upon a small heard of 3 or 4 zebra. We were within range but the angle of the animal was all wrong. An ideal stance of the animal is a side view but in this instance the zebra was facing us making for a smaller target and after last mishap that’s the last thing I needed so I told the guide I couldn’t take the shot. Shortly after doing so the zebra were spooked. The hunting lows were hitting me once again. It was now five, it gets dark very close to 6 so that was my best chance if any. The next morning we leave, it’s about to be dark, and the zebra had been very scarce today so my odds were not looking good.
We decided to keep walking. As we get towards the top of the hill we spot a different herd of zebra up on the next hill. So as a last push we decided to go for it. The valley between the two hills was very steep and we had to almost climb down the side of the hill. The zebra stay about where we saw them and we can sneak up on them rather easily. We wait a minute or two and take aim. Thoughts flood my head from the missed shot to this is my last chance, when am I ever going to be aiming at a zebra with a rifle in South Africa, the pressure was on. I almost got mad thinking about missing. I grinded my teeth took a deep breath in let part out and squeezed the trigger. I had missed the entire herd takes off; not knowing where the shot came from began running in our direction nearly 25 yards from us. I reloaded the gun and took a shot with the zebra on the run. The entire herd continues running back down the steep hill and up the other side. Yohan looks at me and says two misses. My heart could not have sunk any lower, I was devastated. If the guide instantly says you missed all hope of maybe hitting the zebra went out the window. Either way we went to the place where the animal was first shot at to see if there just so happened to be any blood. And of course there wasn’t any. Yohan decides to follow their tracks anyways. I follow him dragging my feet into the ground, head down, embarrassed that I had missed three times now. I walk off and Yohan says to me “Scott, Scott,” and I'm thinking to myself all man here it comes he’s going to rag on me for missing. I turn around and he has his hand out I grabbed it confused and he looks me in the eyes, says to me congratulations and points at my zebra up on the opposite hill. The lowest of the lows hit the highest of the high faster than the bullet pierced the zebra’s vitals. I couldn’t believe it, going from weeks before in Accounting class to taking down a zebra was an extraordinarily surreal moment. Man did we work for that zebra though. I looked at my watch it was exactly 6. Later Yohan told me that we had hiked over 4 miles up and down those hills. Long story short by the time the truck came and picked us up it was very dark. It took 6 guys and a giant stretcher to carry this 500lb plus zebra up the rugged hill. I couldn’t decide what was harder, the hiking or the carrying of the zebra. It was incredibly heavy. But we finally got it in the buggy and headed back. All in all it was one of the most memorable experiences I have ever had. I'm indebted to Rob for inviting me. I'm going to do a shoulder mount for the wildebeast being my first big game kill and I'm going to get the skin of the zebra. It may take awhile but it will be well worth the wait. I mean not a lot of people my age can say that they were on a South African hunting trip and took down a wildebeast and a zebra.
Sorry it was so long just wanted to write it all down so I can always remember this. Now I'm just trying to come down from the hunting high and get back to helping out. I'm going to spend three weeks here at Hawane; Kevin says he’s got something for me to do. So at least I won’t have to be moving my stuff all around. Well hope you could get some insight into how my hunting expedition was and how much of a blast I had. I tired to take pictures but I was in the hunting mode the entire time but we did get a few.