The one shot Headshot

For the sake of this article let’s just define the heading

The one shot: Hunting any animal successfully by using only one bullet
Brain shot: Aiming for the animal’s brain and hitting it
headshot: Hunting any animal aiming at any part of the animal and after pulling the trigger it hits the head of the hunter

The headshot is a very dangerous thing it has given guys bragging rights for the rest of their lives. But it has also driven guys to insanity. You only get two types of hunters my Grandpa always said the ones that have shot a headshot and those that still have to.

On many occasions have I heard and seen that guys on their first hunting trip shoots a monster trophy. You see them then brag about it for the rest of their lives and all of a sudden he can give you the most intimate details of how to hunt this animal. Then there is old Joe soap who can’t hit a garage door with a shotgun at 15m who goes on a springbuck hunt with the local darts team. And with his old open sighted Lee Metford hits a springbuck in the brain at 200m with inflation it is now 500m. - I don’t know if it was the wind or the whiskey.

The headshot that drives hunters insane is that hunt where you stalk up to the animal of a lifetime and you miss, wound or don’t have a round in the chamber and you hear that famous click sound of a dry firing rifle

Here is my story:

May 2005 I get a phone call from one of my farmer friends asking if I can organize some guys for a hunt that weekend, as he had a sudden cancellation and we could get a 10% discount on his price list. The biggest carrot was his Eland price. I was renovating at my shop and quickly I had some of my contractor friends all motivated and lined up for our hunt. Thursday morning at first light we left for our weekend away it was me, the englishman ,Piet pipe,small Piet pipe, Andre Car and Old Daan.

We arrived on the farm and went to check zero the rifles everyone had a rifle except Daan and I. Due to our new firearms law we where still waiting so I took my 50 cal muzzle loader and we borrowed a rifle from the farmer for old Daan.

Friday morning at 6am we had everybody on the parade ground and guides were allocated. As there was only 4 trackers, I took a backseat (being a good host) and everyone left for their hunting area.

The guys had a very successful morning 2 impalas and a kudu cow and my mouth started to water with anticipation, but I knew I had to be patient because if they enjoyed their hunt it will make things a lot easier on site. By Saturday I couldn’t contain myself any longer and I told ou Daan that we will go out together. He wanted a warthog and I wanted an Eland. We hunted block 4 where there are some monster blue bulls. The adrenalin pumped like a matric boy going to the Stormvoel ballet (Teasers) for the first time. Luckily working through the ouland calmed the nerves a little bit. We moved onto the eland trails and into thicker bush and eventually we crawled right up to their bedding places, and although they were close enough to smell, we just couldn’t see them. After about 3 hrs of hard but fruitless hunting, we reached the road. The breeze was still constant and quite firm. Very despondent from not even seeing an eland for all our efforts we sat down in the road, lit a smoke and drank some of Daan’s water. All of a sudden the first Eland cow jumped the road about 150m from us or so we thought, then the second I scanned the bush next to the road and saw a huge blue bull. He looked like a dried hardekool stump but because he was quartering towards us and looking straight at us we could not move. To our advantage we were sitting, and I slowly raised the borrowed 30 06 and placed it on the guides shoulder (1st mistake) I placed the cross hair nice and low on the front leg. I estimated the distance in a long straight road to be 150m (2nd mistake) so I kept my aim dead on with an unfamiliar rifle (3rd mistake) and pulled the trigger. We heard the bullet make that thubb sound.

The Eland reared up, and as it hit the ground again, he started running. Old Daan ‘said you’ve got him and he’ll be laying down 10m into the bush’ (famous last words) so we lit another smoke to give him time to stiffen up. Half an hour later we got up and walked down the road to find the tracks, with Daan counting every step. We eventually found the tracks 227 big steps further on. The tracker took the spoor but we didn’t find a single drop of blood .Daan’s 10m became 100m and later 1km, and the Eland only stopped running after 3km. Despite searching till Sunday afternoon, we never saw him again, and then the biggest embarrassment was to have to pay for a trophy of a lifetime, and not even have a photo or a piece of meat.

The road home was very long and not a word was spoken, but that is not where it ends. Explaining to your wife the big cheque you wrote for fresh air is not something they understand very easily.

The biggest punishment is watching that movie replay in your head over and over again. I’ve seen it more times now than my wife has watched Dirty Dancing and my mother has watched Gone with the wind combined.

I used to laugh at my friend who had a similar experience with a wildebeest some years ago. At the time, we shared a house together and I well remember how he almost paced the passages looking for that wildebeest. But never again. – Now I know how it feels.

My wife even suggested I see a shrink and to put the cherry on the top of the cake, she gave me a cartoon drawing of me and the eland (smiling at me) for my birthday.

I must say I am rehabilitated now and only think of the Eland every second week but at least I can handle the emotions now I am thinking of starting a support group but here are the key lessons I have learned

1. NEVER SHOOT OFF ANYONE’S SHOULDER
2. ALWAYS GET AS CLOSE AS YOU CAN
3. KNOW YOUR RIFLE, AND IF IT’S BORROWED GET TO KNOW IT
4. NEVER TELL YOUR WIFE THE WHOLE STORY
5. WHAT HAPPENS ON A HUNTING TRIP, STAYS ON A HUNTING TRIP

Grandpa was right a Headshot is not a good thing

Ouch ! Been there and got the tee shirt. If there was not a drop of blood .. how is it that you had to pay for the trophy ???

Mine was a couple of weeks ago in Spain...

A borrowed gun also,though I think the fault mine alone...

It has given me pause this deer season at home....


Dan

Done it. Eland...twice; second time with a borrowed rifle (the second eland, 2 years after the first, was of course, bigger, "blue", etc.) Both times heard the solid "whack". Thanks ever so much for posting this and dredging all of it up for me! And on the eve of me leaving for a mule deer hunt. I remember every animal I've wounded in my life and thank God there's only a very few, but the elands, they haunt me regularly.