I read every possible publication on the topic and have followed with interest the debates around ethical hunting, culling, etc. At first, I was very impressed with the stories of the “Great Old Hunters”, the John “Pondoro” Taylor’s, Hemingways, Rooseveldt and others of the same ilk. Their calibers and experiences have become legend. Inglorious indeed are my own experiences compared to theirs! I do own a 7×57 Mannlicher Schonauer handed down from my Father, but that is where all possibility of being termed a glorious hunter ends. Their stories have become well published with few new stories being added, with the possible exception of Peter Flack. The chances of me ever going on a buffalo or elephant hunt, replicating their exploits, is virtually zero, and neither do have a want to be charged by a buffalo, leopard or anything in that vein of potential bodily harm. So how does my own path as a hunter compare?
From the onset, let me explain that to date I have hunted from a pick-up, walked-and-stalked (more walking than stalking!) and culled. I have progressed through my own moral conflicts about either method and have concluded that my “ingloriousness” compared to the hunting greats stems from public perception and discord amongst hunters around what is ethical and what not.
My first hunt since the warthog of my youth, was a Kudu bull. Nervousness and uncertainty with the old 7×57 led to me and my friend driving the farm roads of Jannie Louw’s farm in the Kamanjab district for 2 days. It took 2 days, not because of the scarcity of shootable game as we saw literally hundreds of kudu and Gemsbuck. When at last I was able and confident enough to take a shot, the kudu disappeared from view behind some mopanie trees. Nervous and uncertain silence led to the sound of something falling reaching the onlookers on the pick-up. On closer inspection, we found the kudu bull lying on its side with a perfect heart-shot! So perfect was the shot that the bullet actually entered between 2 ribs and exited between 2 ribs with no meat-loss and a heart shot into 2 pieces!
This hunt led to 4 further hunts on the same farm, this time with the quarry being Gemsbuck. All were done from a pick-up and all were one-shot kills, with none of the hair-raising experiences we read about from the hunters long past. All of these were processed and eaten I might add. Even the tail of the Gemsbuck ended up being a very good “party trick” hairpiece later that night!
My walk-and-stalk experience came about through an intense desire to experience this “thing” that they call hunting on foot and my personal want to hunt an Eland Bull. I happened across a farmer’s contact details by chance, phoned Nico from the farm Eldoret, made a booking and set off on the 600km journey to the farm in the north-east of Namibia. What an experience it turned out to be! A change in scenery in terms of everything I have experienced thus far in Namibia. Tall trees in dunes alternating with “streets” in between with acacia veld. And of course walking in soft sand, and many kilometres at that! The first hunt was uneventful, apart from a kudu cow that had to be shot for farm rations. I ended up taking this kudu home, it was the only thing I had a shot at. What made me go back for the next 4 years was a first encounter of being on the spoor of 2 eland bulls that ended up getting into a fight 40 metres ahead of the farmer (acting as guide and tracker) and myself and running off just as the sun set. Disappointment was intermixed with excitement and the next year’s hunt was booked before we left the farm! I eventually managed to get 2 eland cows, a kudu bull and 2 gemsbuck in the following years. But the elusive eland bull will make me go back year after year!
This method of hunting brought me into contact with the art (it cannot be called anything else) of bushmen tracking skills. And the fickleness/gullibility of modern humans when it comes to things like camouflage. The skills of these bushman trackers are nothing short of amazing. They know their way around the bush better than I do my own city’s streets. Another difference is their ability to “feel” the bush and its living creatures in a way that I cannot even begin to “feel” my own environment. We are our so out of touch with our own environment that to compare with them, we would need to know every crack in the tar of every street we drive on!
There I was, all kitted out in my latest (brand new) walk-and-stalk camouflage, head to toe! What did my trackers wear? Well, the one wore an old overcoat in black and a hat that can best be described as a tartan lampshade. The other tracker was very fond of his Manchester United cap with glittery gold embroidery! I was initially scared that we will stand out like a Greenpeace member in an abattoir. I learned a little of the skills required for this type of hunting; Reading the wind, knowing your quarry, knowing your territory and moving slowly. Camouflage came a rank last in terms of importance. I still own and wear my camouflage but I am less picky about matching patterns of shirts and pants!
Of all the forms of hunting I have done, this remains my favourite.
My culling experience is limited to springbuck. This is done for fun and camaraderie and out of necessity. My feelings of respect for the animals I hunt remain the same as for any other form of hunting. This extends to trying to avoid wounding animals, and if we do, we follow up without exception until the animal is downed. Also, I eat whatever I shoot and I have respect and appreciation for where it comes from.
Learning things “ballistic” was another step on my inglorious path! From early in this inglorious career of mine, the reloading of my own ammunition became an obsession. At first it was intimidating to read of the various calibers that have graced the shoulders of the hunting giants! I never even knew that something like a 404 Jeffery, 505 Gibbs and 470 NE existed, not to mention that they had all the right rifles in Mauser, Holland & Holland and Westley Richards. I started off by reloading for the 7×57. With the rifle, I received a good stock of old PMP rounds (probably of their first ever runs). These were loaded with 170gr softpoints. Although it worked very well in killing my first Kudu, I pulled all the bullets, destroyed the old ball powder and started developing loads with S365.
My second rifle was an equally unglamorous 30-06 Tikka Hunter. Here I initially started off loading 168gr soft-points at 2700fps. After shooting a gemsbuck at around 100m on the shoulder with this load, the meat damage, lack of penetration and the fact that I was lucky to get sufficient lung damage on the animal for it to expire, started me thinking. As with anything in life nowadays, caliber speed is everything and in some circles, the only thing. Don’t we all want the fastest cellphone, car, internet connection speed, computer? The motto is “the faster it is, the better it is”. Ironically, with cars, the more safety features and better technology are built in, the faster and more irresponsible we are inclined to drive! The same goes for calibers and ammunition. Slow calibers are “inferior”, faster calibers allow us to take longer shots, go for raking shots, headshots, bragging rights about the longest shot, etc.
For my first eland cow, I loaded my 30-06 with 200gr bonded bullets at a sedate 2350fps. This has proven itself to be an excellent load! Slowly (pardon the pun) but surely, I became a convert to the “slow and heavy” school. When I upgraded to a 375 Ruger, my obvious choice fell on a 300gr bullet at 2380fps. I have tried a 260gr at 2700fps, but will keep this load on the shelve until I have an opportunity to exploit its full potential over longer distances. Of the 6 animals shot with the 375 Ruger, I have been able to recover only one bullet and that was on a frontal neck shot on a big eland cow from around 40 metres.
So, I may not one day feature in the pages of this publication as the “big hunter” of Namibia, but my inglorious hunting career has taught me a few things:
- There is always an ethical way of hunting, regardless of your style
- There are always people that know the bush and its inhabitants far better than yourself. If you take the time to learn, you will have a life-long opportunity of learning
- Slow is cool, at least when it comes to rifles and bullets on its way to an animal
- Camouflage sells, but it cannot replace ancient skills of tracking, stalking and being in tune with your surroundings
- All the people I have met that allow hunting of animals on their property, are some of the best people I have ever met and probably will meet. I have yet to meet a game or farm owner that is not trustworthy, hospitable and someone that will not remain a life-long friend
All of this may move me to consider that my hunting career has all probability of becoming glorious! Not in the number and size of animals I have shot, but in what I have learned and the people I have met.