CHIZZLER REVENGE . . .

I found this news article and thought it a reasonable warning for people traveling through chizzler infested areas of our country. Be warned ISIS isn't the only danger out there.

PONDERING THE FUTURE AND REMEMBERING THE PAST

I am just worn out. Been working way too hard for such an old man.  Tearing out the  carport for my son and then will build a garage to protect him and the little rascals from the snow and cold in the coming winter months.  Had a great meal (thanks to my dear daughter-in-law), welcome shower, and resting of course my mind wonders off to hunting.  I am going to elk camp this weekend with my grandson.  He has the tag, his dad and I have the "fever" so we must take him and help him find an elk on the special youth hunt tag he drew.  The fall season in the quakies at 8,000+ feet elevation and the cool air is just invigorating.  Then when you hear an elk bugle it all turns to magic in the mountains.

I also am thinking about hunting chizzlers in Iron County, Utah.  I found a photo of Fred and Mabel Chizzler as they have their last kiss before the long winter's nap.  I wonder which will be the first to come out in the early spring and smile at me in my cross-haired viewfinder.  You know what I mean. . . .

LAST HUNTING DAY IN NAMIBIA 2016

Up at 6:40 a.m. -- breakfast of scrambled eggs (the chickens are no longer on strike), 5 pound bread, banana and out to hunt with Hans Peter my dear old friend.  He is a great guide and he is even better friend.  Sigi the primary P.H. has to repair an electric water pump so he had his other Guide/P.H./Father-In-Law go with us today.  I love it.

We make a big circle around the farm in the truck looking for any thing we might have missed in days earlier.  We cover lots of pastures and camps and pans and watering areas and see a multitude of game.  I am still in the mood to take a warthog and/or an oryx.  Dax is ready for almost anything we can find.  Hans Peter takes us to a high point where we can see some oryx and kudu grazing in the distance with our binoculars. They are about 2 kilometers away in a lower part of the hilly section we are in.  We calculate a stalk and work our way to within reasonable range.  The kudu have grazed off and are out of sight.  The oryx are grazing back and forth across a two track road. 

The oryx have trees on both sides of the two track and can easily get invisible in the dense brush and trees within one step from either side of the road way.  There is a fence on the right hand side of the road way as we look down the semi-"tunnel" in the trees concurrent with the two track road.  Peter says we can set up on the sticks here and wait for a good meat oryx to come out.  The wind is cross wise and I worry it will change or swirl and poof -- the oryx are gone.  I am in position on the sticks and watching as oryx come under the fence and across the two track road.  They seem to move quickly across the road.  I laser the distance and it is 180 yards to the place where the oryx are most actively moving.  The oryx seem to cross the road from the fence to the cover of the brush in about one to two seconds.  I tell Hans Peter I need to know in advance if the oryx coming is going to be a shooter.  He says he will tell me and is watching from a different angle behind me to my right as the oryx come one by one up to the fence and go under.  He tells me wait not this one too small, not this one, and finally after 5 or 6 oryx come and go so quickly he says the next one is a strong one.  I am ready and I see the beautiful multicolored head and horns come into the road way.  The bull oryx is walking briskly to my left across the road.  I take aim at his heart and press the trigger on the .338 Win. Mag.  The boom of the rifle going off is magnified by the tunnel effect of the trees.  The oryx jumps and disappears in the trees on the left side of the road.  Dax says did you hit him?  I say lets go see.  I really had such a short window of aim and trigger control I have my doubts.  I do remember hearing the slap of the bullet hit something though.  I have Dax go up 35 yards or so on the small hill to the left so he can see if the oryx is wounded and limping away from a higher vantage point.  Dax can finish him if he is trying to get away.

Tobis and I go down the road quickly to where the oryx disappeared into the thick brush and trees and we find blood.  A very good sign.  I walk about 10 yards to the left of where we found blood and there he is -- almost dead.  I shoot another round through his lungs and it is over.  Dax comes to us at the shot.  Dax pays me a big compliment and says "I don't think I could have made that first shot dad."  I am more than please with this whole oryx adventure.   We take some photos and congratulate each other on another successful hunt.  Waidmannsheil, etc.  Peter is really a pal. 

Location 23º05.211 S 17º38.104 E

Darth Maul and Dax's rifle both Ruger .338 Win. Mag.

Where it all happened

We load up the oryx and head back to the main farm house to eat lunch.  Lunch is a springbok roast in pan sauce gravy, baked potatoes, broccoli, cauliflower, and tossed salad.  Chocolate pudding for dessert.  Food is excellent as usual.  After lunch I go for a 50 minute nap.

After the nap and the coffee break we head over to the Valley of Death area.  We see some oryx, springbok, and two kudu bulls.  Nothing to shoot at though as they are all younger animals.  We drive to various locales and Dax with Hans Peter go on a kudu stalk but don't find a suitable animal.  We travel more to the east and see what we think are wildebeest.  Craig and Tobis go for a stalk on them as the sun is going down.  It gets dark real fast in Namibia.  As Tobis and I get close to the wildebeest the darkness has enveloped us all, maybe 250 yards.  Dax and Hans Peter can see us due to their angle and Dax is using his laser range finder to calculate how close we get to the wildebeest before we shoot.  Tobis and I get very close, like 100 yards, and Tobis says can you shoot now.  I look through my scope and can't pick out an aiming point on the larger of the two wildebeest it is so dark.  Tobis and I take note of the wind and stalk even closer.  I try to see to shoot and it is just so dark all I can see is black with hints of light in the upper half in my scope.  Tobis is not mad just sincere in his desire to get me a shot so we stalk even closer.  I laser the animals and we are 38.7 yards from the wildebeest and I still cannot get a sight picture on the game.  I tell Tobis it is just too dark and I don't want to wound one.  I respect the game too much to try a blind shot.  There is no heavenly light due to hardly any moon light and significant cloud cover.  I have to use my flash light to walk safely back to Dax and Hans Peter.  Dax and Hans Peter had watched the whole stalk from about 1000 yards and were surprised I didn't shoot.  We got a big laugh together when I didn't shoot.  I guess I am getting very old.  I think Tobis could see well enough, I however was "in the dark".

We head back to the farm house for dinner.  Dinner is sausages, ham, cheeses, great breads, water, olives, and lots of jokes.  We sit around the fire and tell jokes for some time.

Frauke is back at Farm Garib and we all get together at the main house to watch Germany play France in the Eurocup soccer tournament.  I meet Heinrick and Uma the son and daughter-in-law of Hans Peter and Frauke.  They are really nice people too.  I go off to bed at half time.

Wed. 8 July 2016 we are to head home.  In the morning Dax and I offer to make chocolate eclairs for the host group before we leave to the airport.  They have never had eclairs so we get after it and make a fine batch of eclairs with home made custard filling and chocolate topping fabricated from chocolate chips and yogurt and a small shot of Tabasco.

Work in progress

All in all I have had another wonderful trip to Namibia.  Great friends, great food, and lots of game.  I am totally satisfied.  I wonder when I will be back to hunt on Farm Garib or with Sigi again?  Soon I hope.  These are great people.

LOTS OF HUNTING, NO HARVESTING . . . THEN A PARTY

We get up early as usual.  Breakfast at 7 a.m. is a banana, 4 pieces of toast and out to hunt.  No scrambled eggs today as Farm Garib is all out.  The chickens are not obliging.  There is not a store within 20 kilometers to buy some, so we eat what we have available.  Sigi is not big on breakfast anyway.  He usually just has coffee while we eat.  He has so much energy -- great for a P.H. 

We are looking for the broken horned kudu with the bad leg.  We journey through the farm to where we saw it last, in the Valley of Death.  I have taken a trophy springbok over there, and Dax has taken a blue wildebeest as well.  We set up on the different hill sides and watch the entire valley for possible animals.  Dax, Sigi, and Tobis go on a marathon stalk  clear across the valley to the mountains on the other side.  I watch for anything that kicks out in front of them in the veld.  Some springbok and oryx are running around but I don't see any kudu or wildebeest.  I was kind of hoping to see a blue wildebeest and I would go after it.

Dax and Sigi get on to a trophy kudu bull.  They chase it back and forth between the tall brush, short trees, and various swells in the ground with little hideout ravines.  The bull makes its way to the boundary fence of Farm Garib and jumps on to the next farm southwards.  Sigi has no hunting rights on that particular farm so the trio turns around and head back toward me.  I think they are at least two miles away. 

Out of nowhere a reasonable oryx bull starts to run.  He must have been excited by the kudu bull running and jumping the fence so he starts to run with fervor yet no real reason.  He runs directly toward Dax and Sigi.  Sigi says to Dax to take him for meat and Dax is happy to agree.  The oryx runs almost directly toward Dax and he later says he shot it in "self-defense."  One .338 Win. Mag. round and it is down.  The hunters are so far away I don't even hear the shot while watching for animals on my assigned hill top.  They photo the event and clean and quarter the animal.  Oryx is extremely good meat and we are all excited to have more of it.  It is a nice representative bull but not really a mountable trophy.

Approx. location 23º12.748 S 17º37.874 E

Tobis is sent to get me and the truck and hikes all the way back.  Too bad we didn't have radios and I could have driven over with a lat. and long. directions to go for.  Even with four of us it is lots of hot work to get the meat out.  On the hike out with the meat Dax finds some juvenile kudu horns and skull.  It is of an animal that was killed or died in the same canyon as the oryx a long time before.

Leopard or Cheetah lunch horns

Back to main farm house late as we have been packing out oryx meat.  Lunch is rice and springbok straganoff.  Delicious.  I know we are working pretty hard to get the game and pack it out.  We are very hungry most afternoons and the food is really first rate here.  I am way impressed with how good it all tastes and how it is prepared using local and natural ingredients.  {I could really get used to being around here and living like this.}  We all go for a short nap then back to the patio for coffee at 4 p.m.

We go pick up the trail camera from the leopard kill on the calf.  The photos reveal a female cat.   Dang, if it were a male Sigi could get a tag from the local national biologist and charge some hunter $10,000 for the opportunity to hunt a big tom.  We go back to Farm Garib and prep to visit the other P.H.'s and have the "hunter's campfire" we were invited to.  Leaving as the sunsets we travel across Farm Garib and the main road then enter the other farm.  It takes us about 20 minutes to get there.

When we arrive at the other farm, Farm Girib (jackal) I am introduced to several fellows.  The are all really kind to me and Dax.  My son and I are the only non-professionals there.  I will list their names with the photos below. 

Volker Ahrens, Herman Jonker, Gernot Ahrens, Dax, Ronnie Roland, Sigi Hess

These guys stay up late, have a few toasts, and joke and relate stories of hunting from the perspective of a P.H.  I am just amazed at the years of experience seated around the table.  We are eating warthog chops cooked over a bar-b-que grill.  The food is great and the conversation is fabulous.  Ronnie Roland* takes a shine to me and starts to give me advice on hunting, women, and politics.  He goes on and on for over an hour.  I am totally entertained.  He is really a character.  You can't help but like the guy.  We mount up in the pickup truck and start for the bunkhouse, Sigi has ask me to drive.  I say, "OK, if you tell me where to go."  It is now quite dark and we are 20 minutes from the comfort of my bed through a variety of fences on dirt roads.  I drive very carefully and we arrive back home again jiggity, jigg.  Great evening!

*Ronnie was the president of the Professional Hunter's Association.  He is a publish author and really a hoot.  Google his name and check out some of his links.