JACKALS ARE CHEEKY BUGGERS

Tuesday 21 august 2012  Farm Garib, Namibia, Africa

Up at 6:00 a.m. Breakfast of 5-lbs. bread, cumquat marmalade and off to hunt.  It is my turn first to hunt and I am looking for a 40 inch oryx.

40" oryx cow

three young kudu bulls

Sigi Hess, the P.H., told me the oryx I had already harvested was about as big a  bull gets around that particular hunting concession.  I asked if it would be OK for me to take a cow to harvest a trophy of more horn length.   Sigi  agreed to take a cow if she is without calf, old, and skinny.  Sounds like my type of girl, I told him.  We found a group of three oryx cows that filled the requirements of being old, without a calf, and skinny up on a hillside of Look-Out-Mountain.  We watched them from the base of the mountain for about 10 minutes.  I could have fired from near the truck at any time for a kill shot, they were less than 350 yards away.  Sigi didn't want to shoot from the truck area as the animals get "truck shy" and run away when they see a truck coming. We all drove away around the base of the mountain to the east and tried for a stalk on foot.  We were quiet and slow.  As we neared the area where the oryx were holding I told Sigi to go up over the top of a small saddle and come down on the oryx girls from above as the wind was bad for blowing our scent toward the oryx otherwise.  He said let's try the sidehill approach and we did as he, the P.H. had suggested.  In our final stalk we rounded a ravine and three juvenile kudu bulls busted us.  The kudu took off away from us at light speed to the northeast for about 2 - 3 kilometers.  The old oryx girls followed and headed for Botswana in the kudu vapor trail.  A small herd of hartebeest stood up a kilometer away below us to the southwest and readied to run. We had definitely made an impression on all the animals for a long way around the saddle and the mountain.

We walked another 1.5 kilometers toward the northeast always watching to
see if any oryx doubled back, alas no.  Hans Peter Luhl was there at a cross road in the truck to pick us up.  I was tired, hot, and thirsty from the stalk.
After mounting the truck and traveling a short distance a jackal ran across the road in front of us from left to right.  Hans Peter stopped the truck with the appropriate knock on the roof from us riding in the back.  I had the best shot so I stood up and took aim when the jackal had turned to sneer at us.  He was a mangie beast with some type of disease.  I shot him at about 55 yards with a .338 Win. Mag.  Needless to say -- he more or less exploded when hit by 4,000 pounds of kinetic energy.  We took some photos but didn't touch him out of respect for the disease he carried.  As we drove off in the truck someone asked "Wasn't that shot left handed?"  I said, "Sure, I practice that all the time."  We all had a good laugh.

Location:  South  23º05.802  East  017º41.502  elevation 4,756 feet