It was an exceptional Safari,
@sowhitematt lit it up like a Christmas tree!
I loved every bit, and it was amazing to see old friends and make new friends - I brought two guys from my world and they still can’t stop talking about it.
It was my first Cape Buffalo hunt, had to do some serious terrain work over two days to get to this smallish bachelor herd - first stalk we were ready to pull the trigger, wind shifted, herd bolted, odd set up as we were above them, sort of low risk, not what I had set out to have as an experience so other than the tough climb it was all for the best, but the climb out in the dark was brutal, especially empty handed - last attempt was equally brutal climbing down a sheer face and then around a mountain front longitudinally, got to 59 yards and level to the herd, stared this bull right in the eye, definitely a Mano-et-Mano moment, fucking exhilarating, buffalo stomping its hoof and snorting, in the end prevailed - first shot right behind the shoulder and got a steady stream of pink oxygen enriched blood (ie. Lung) spewing out, and it took a handful more to bring the whole affair to closure.
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All in I spent 3 of my dozen hunting windows on that herd, and wouldn’t change a thing. In addition: I took two spectacular Fallow Deer, one at 552 yards at twilight; a great Kudu; my first WartHog, which will pair well with all the Cali-boar I’ve shot; I stalked 14 Lechwe bulls filtering for something special and was certainly rewarded for that effort; I “put a hole in a rug”, ie. shot a Zebra; smashed an old and excellent Mountain Reedbuck; and then attained my first “spiral slam” with a 582 yard take of a great BushBuck.
Ran many night ops missions at camp putting various bumper stickers on the rigs and installing other forms of fuckery wherever possible.
Yep, all smiles here.
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