James Vee
07-05-2004, 01:17 PM
I've shot a couple animals since I've been here in Africa. Today marks my 48th day. I'm sure that some of you have been wondering how things have been going for me, and I'm sure that some of you could give a shit less too. But for those of you who care, things are going great here. Anyways, on to the hunt.
When things here at the lodge aren't busy, and when there aren't hunters in camp I have been going on self-guided hunts. My latest attempts have been to get myself an impala. Those suckers sure are fast. I've been having trouble getting one impala in particular, that I was after. He was usually hanging with around 30 females. So when he did stand around long enough for a shot, females would always be either in front of him or behind him. So I decided it was time to move on. I came to an field where I could see some females feeding and noticed there was a nice ram in there as well. But of course, by the time I got my gun up they were already starting to take off. They were headed for heavy cover...but I could see an opening in the brush they would come through that would hopefully give me a shot opportunity so I readied my gun. Just like clockwork it happened. First a female came out, ran towards me 10 yards then headed off in the other direction. The ram came second. He was 195 yards, I ranged it after, and facing towards me. Not my first choice of shots, but this just happened to be my only choice. He stopped for one half second and I pulled the trigger on my Browning .338. I could hear a definate thud when the bullet reached the impala. I figured he was for sure dead. I watched the rest of the impala file out of the opposite side of the brush and saw he wasn't in the group anymore..so I assumed his dead. Upon further inspection, I found a lot of blood but no impala. I took up the blood trail and found him 50 yards away. Apparently he had just started to turn when I shot because my bullet entered just in front of his left hip and went right out his asshole. I took one follow up shot on him and it was done. My first impala. He measures 22.5 inches and has 5.5" bases.
http://community.webshots.com/s/image12/6/5/9/159660509BshJOY_ph.jpg
You can check out some of my other African pictures at
http://community.webshots.com/user/notorious_vee
When things here at the lodge aren't busy, and when there aren't hunters in camp I have been going on self-guided hunts. My latest attempts have been to get myself an impala. Those suckers sure are fast. I've been having trouble getting one impala in particular, that I was after. He was usually hanging with around 30 females. So when he did stand around long enough for a shot, females would always be either in front of him or behind him. So I decided it was time to move on. I came to an field where I could see some females feeding and noticed there was a nice ram in there as well. But of course, by the time I got my gun up they were already starting to take off. They were headed for heavy cover...but I could see an opening in the brush they would come through that would hopefully give me a shot opportunity so I readied my gun. Just like clockwork it happened. First a female came out, ran towards me 10 yards then headed off in the other direction. The ram came second. He was 195 yards, I ranged it after, and facing towards me. Not my first choice of shots, but this just happened to be my only choice. He stopped for one half second and I pulled the trigger on my Browning .338. I could hear a definate thud when the bullet reached the impala. I figured he was for sure dead. I watched the rest of the impala file out of the opposite side of the brush and saw he wasn't in the group anymore..so I assumed his dead. Upon further inspection, I found a lot of blood but no impala. I took up the blood trail and found him 50 yards away. Apparently he had just started to turn when I shot because my bullet entered just in front of his left hip and went right out his asshole. I took one follow up shot on him and it was done. My first impala. He measures 22.5 inches and has 5.5" bases.
http://community.webshots.com/s/image12/6/5/9/159660509BshJOY_ph.jpg
You can check out some of my other African pictures at
http://community.webshots.com/user/notorious_vee