Ladies and Gentlemen,

I have received the following message, and I am posting it here as requested.

====================
Dear Saeed.

I have been away for a while and as a result only recently became aware of the discussion on the web re the Lion Charge etc etc.

I tried, but possibly due to our "brilliant Botswana" telephone sysytem, do not seem to be able to get to reply on the website. Due apparently to "Microsoft Line error"

Be that as it may, Gerhard Damm has suggested I contact you directly with both the original Man/Magnum arcticle as it was sent to the (not as it was published, )and my written response to the discussion.

It would be great if you could air that or not, your decision. Please note though that I have not seen a copy of the video.

Many thanks for your time and assitance.

Yours truly
Ron Crous

Lion charge.



After the ban on Lion hunting in Botswana was lifted in 2005, the Dept of Wildlife and National Parks allocated a lion per concession for the hunting season. This was good news for various reasons and gave a new lease on life for some of the smaller outfitters.

We, as a result, were allocated a number of lion and all were sold out quite soon, all the ph’s were looking forward to hunting lion as there are some monster cats in the areas that we hunt. The season proved to be great, some truly great Elephant and buffalo trophy’s were collected and the lion, well that is another story.

All ph’s have at some time in their careers given thought to how they would handle a charging lion, leopard or pretty much any of the dangerous game. Much like any pilot worthy of the title, having run through the possible scenario of an engine failure on take off.

For many years the debate has gone on over which rifle to use when following up on wounded dangerous game, this is a debate that will continue for as long as man hunts dangerous game and possibly even longer. Does one follow a wounded lion with a shotgun loaded with 1 ounce slugs, a bolt action rifle with soft nose bullets or a double gun? ( if you were lucky enough to own one)

All of the above have been done, and in some cases are sworn to be the only weapon of choice each professional hunter would take into a wounded dangerous game situation. For obvious reasons, every situation would call for special considerations due to the type of animal, vegetation and numerous other factors that are far too lengthy to consider in depth in this story. The situation I happen to find myself in was as follows………

I had been hunting lion and buffalo with a client from Houston, there were two clients in camp, old friends who wanted to hunt together, the second client was hunting elephant with Johan Calitz, owner and professional hunter of the largest hunting company in Botswana. Johan and I had finished hunting in one area, my client having taken a majestic lion after some 4 hrs of tracking on day 6. Johan had successfully guided his client onto a huge elephant and it was time for us to move camps for another elephant with the same client. On the morning of the Friday, Johan got his client onto yet another great elephant which was cleanly dispatched with a single frontal brain shot, we were celebrating when we received a radio call from PH Garth Robinson that in another of our concessions a lion had been wounded by Garth’s client, and that it had gone into some seriously dense mopane forest.

Although we all had full faith in Garths ability, Johan opted for he and I to go and assist in the recovery, hopefully thereby keeping the client and her husband out of harms way. We arrived in camp fairly late the Friday afternoon, had a brief look at the video footage of the hunt and came to the conclusion that it appeared to have taken the bullet in the right shoulder. ( The lion had faced the client, given a mock charge and stopped 20 feet away in reasonably dense shrub when she shot, using the fabled “lion load†in .375 caliber) we tracked the lions, as there were two males together, for about an hour and aborted due to bad light. The mood in camp that night was somber and Johan took ample care in informing the client that the chances are 99% that it would only be resolved after a charge was put down, hopefully soon after first light.

Johan and I shared a tent for the night and at 1.00 am I woke up to attend to natures call. I lay in bed and, for the wont of a better word, “sensed†that the day was going to be different and I had a premonition that the lion was going to come for me, or in my direction. Slightly unsettled, I tried going back to sleep, but that was a state I found difficult to achieve until shortly before dawn.

We all got together at camp, had some coffee and left for the place we last left the spoor. Once again, with Johan in charge, we set about following the spoor, hoping to somehow split the two lion. We needed to concentrate on the wounded cat only and thankfully, during the next hour and a half they did split and all signs were indicating that we were putting pressure on the lion. The tracks were now circling and on three occasions we crossed our own tracks of not more than 10 minutes earlier. We were three guns up front with Johan in the middle, Garth on his left and myself on the right point. Behind us were the tracker, the client and another PH, Henk, who was carrying her rifle and looking out for her and her husband, also armed. At this point the “vibe†was unbelievably tense, we all knew that dust was soon going to fly. Your concern is that when it all goes down, you will not allow a client , your trackers or another PH to be hurt or worse, you simply pray that when the chips are down, you will be able to do your bit.

Johan was the first to see the lion break cover and cross a short open area, he ran forward to get a shot, I was with him but neither of us managed to get a shot off before it was once again in dense cover. At this point I did not see any blood on his shoulder even as he ran from my left to right. We regrouped and once again formed a line to follow up, when the most feared and respected sounds of the African bush came to us from right in the middle of the dense mopane in front of us. This is a sound that has been captured by many film-makers and it will never sound as crisp, clear and unmistakable as it did that Saturday morning. This is surely the only “positive†aspect of lion hunting, they do tend to growl before the charge!

Immediately I went to my knees, thereby giving me a better target to shoot at as he will simply increase in size as he gets closer. One often tends to misjudge the speed, and therefore shoot over the animal charging. If the vegetation allows, get low and stay focussed.

The sound came from directly ahead, I was vaguely aware of Johan warning everyone to get ready as the charge was imminent. Blood pulsing through every vein, your vision clears and narrows down to that single lane along which you know the charge must surely come, time stands still and you hear everything around you in absolute clarity, this is the moment you do not want in a million years, yet you crave.

Johan calls for the trackers to throw sticks into the bush as the lion is growling, yet seems half reluctant to show himself. The trackers obey and a salvo of sticks and clods of soil is hurled in the direction of the growling. All I see is the tail flash above the low mopane bush and then two yellow eyes as he charges, twice the eyes appear above the bush and disappear, I know I must wait….wait for the one shot I will be able to get off. I become aware of a shot from somewhere and the lion bursts from the bush not 30 meters away! I fire my 450 watt with all the confidence one can, expecting him to crumble and roll in the sand, yet nothing happens!! Absolutely nothing…..more shots are fired, I am aware of them but time now stands still as I know that the 450 pounds of massed fury is boring down onto me as surely as the sun rises in the morning. I am going to take the hit, but not without trying again. I am totally aware that there is a less than 1% chance of getting a second shot off, I have forgotten all my colleagues who are also desperately trying to kill this lion before it gets to me, Johan is running in to shoot the lion off me as he knows the only chance is to get close and kill it before, hopefully too much damage is done.

With every bound I can hear the lion grunt as he lands, his eyes are huge and focused on mine, I can feel every millimeter of the bolt slowly flying back and then being punched forward to chamber a round, please pick up the round, please give me the chance to close the bolt! At three paces the lion is dropping his head to scoop, I can feel the bolt close, the stock is in my hip, noway will I get it to my shoulder. As I look into the lions eyes at 2 paces I pull the trigger, not aware that I have leapt back at the same time. The lion hits me at full speed with his face onto my right knee, half knocking me around again. I look down at my feet and there is the lion with his face in the sand, his neck twisted down and to the right, and I am praying that everyone will stop shooting and at the same time exuberant over the fact I managed to get a second shot off. ( silly the things that will then cross your mind )

A moment of absolute stunned silence as we all look around, not quite believing that it is over, much back slapping and congratulations, the trackers are beside themselves, everyone looks deeply at the person next to him knowing that never again will they share that moment. Nobody is hurt and after closer inspection we find that my first shot creased the right cheek, someone managed to put a shot in behind the right shoulder which exited through the left ribcage. I swear that shot did not make the lion so much as blink! My final shot entered the flat area between the eyes and smashed through the brain, neck and part of the spine, effectively shutting down all mobility other than the enormous momentum he had built up over the 50 meters he covered in a fraction over 2 seconds.

I walk up to the client and in a voice I hope did not quiver, congratulated her on a magnificent lion.



To me what became so important is that one must never give up even under the bleakest of moments and a few lessons I learnt are

1. that in the event I find myself ( or any other PH ever finds himself ) in this position, always assume that you will be the one the lion targets, as this gives you that bit of an edge when it does come at you rather than another member of your party. Any fraction of a second can and will save your life.
2. Be familiar with your fire-arm as much as possible.
3. If the vegetation allows, get down low as the target is then easier to hit.
4. When you pull back the bolt, don’t be gentle, slam it back to ensure that it is far back enough to pick up the new cartridge. These rifles are designed to take the full impact of a discharge, so no need to be gentle. After a recent dangerous game hunting course presented here in Botswana to the Department of Wildlife and National Parks, it was obvious that under stressful situations a very high percentage of the problems occur in that guys “short stroke†the bolt, SLAM THAT BOLT BACK!


My response to some of the constructive quotes recently read.

I also attach here a full unrevised version of the article as sent to the South African publication Man/magnum.


Mark Young is correct in his statement, I did have the great pleasure of hunting with him and his wife recently and my rifle then was a 450 Watt, which is basically similar to 450 Lott, but I am right handed and shoot that way. During the lion incident I was using my 450 watt. We in Botswana unfortunately do have a major problem in acquiring rifles, and the .458 is a caliber readily available in Botswana.

During the actual charge, which was later paced off to be a total distance of 52 paces, we were all unsighted for most of the way, as indicated in the article, I waited for my one shot opportunity, which presented itself at an estimated distance of 25 – 30 yards. From where I was at that stage one shot had been fired, I fired the second shot ( my first ) and 2 or three more shots were fired. One of which was a normally well placed shot which entered just behind the shoulder blade and exited behind the rib cage. This shot did not effect the lion, during the charge, in the slightest, although ultimately would have killed it. With the adrenaline level nothing short of a brain or spine shot would stop him. My first shot cut the skin on the check bone for about 4 inches and continued harmlessly into the shrub behind.

The timing from when the charge first started to when it ended, I would hope can be estimated from the video footage, but to my mind it was not longer than 1.5 – 1.7 seconds. The time from when the lion appeared and I took my first shot was at best 1 second from me away. To this day and to the day I take my last breath, I will admit to being unbelievably lucky, fortunate or blessed, not only to have experienced such a charge, but to have walked away, not a hero, but humbled but the experience!

It is my belief that in the circumstance that we all found ourselves in at that moment, instinct and training does take over, and what I did was what I felt was right and “comfortable†for me.

Why did I not chamber a second round with the stock in my shoulder? As I had never practiced that action, I did what to me at the time was the “natural†action. I can see that with practice it could and may well work and be quicker. The entire action though is worth thinking about, many thanks.

If one were able to do everything correctly every time, relying on all the experience, training and advice you may have received over the years, I still would enjoy the company of “lady luck†in any of these situations.

It easy for one to sit and make comments and suggestions, but as Mark Young says, when the proverbial hits the fan, NOBODY can know for definite how we will respond. In this case NOBODY was injured, so something was done correctly…..Luck? that’s fine by me.

The article that I wrote for the South African publication was written with the intension of hopefully assisting someone else who may well find themselves in that same or a similar position.

My going down onto my knee was as a result of a passing remark by a very experienced PH, this struck me as “useful information†at the time and on occasion one gets into a situation where this posture seemed as if it would be the safest way to face a potential charge. I believe that having practiced this, did play a role in that it was an automatic reaction at the time. That day I know it carried me through a tight spot. I also felt that the premonition I had was helpful, it served to merely confirm the charge was coming my way rather than the charge coming as a surprise. Hence my stating that the mental state you as a PH going into that situation must be positively that YOU are the target, sort it out! Don’t think that as there are 3 or 4 guys the risk is minimized, ASSUME 100% the cat is coming YOUR way….no surprise, smoother reaction time.

A wounded lion in thick brush will focus the mind!

Quick thinking, steel nerves and fast action!

Bravo!

quote:

...you know the charge must surely come, time stands still and you hear everything around you in absolute clarity, this is the moment you do not want in a million years, yet you crave.

Great post, Saeed! I enjoyed the entire post immensely; however, the quote above summarizes why I want to hunt DG. It is the question every man needs to have answered for himself: "do I have what it takes?" No one can answer that question except for themselves by experience. I would rather be dead than go through life with that question unanswered. In the rather mundane things of life it is partially answered: it is only in an instantaneous flash of danger that I believe it can be fully answered...no time to think or reason, just the question and a yes or no answer.

This story will be in the back of my mind when I go to Zambia this August for my lion. Great write up!

Ron

Hell of a story! You had me right there with you facing the lion with a very dry mouth. You can write. Glad you could come on and clear up all the details, conjecture and assumptions. Sorry about the left hand thing but Sadie and I were sure you were a southpaw. We also are very glad you are all in one piece.

Regards,

Mark

quote:

Originally posted by ACRecurve:

quote:

...you know the charge must surely come, time stands still and you hear everything around you in absolute clarity, this is the moment you do not want in a million years, yet you crave.

Great post, Saeed! I enjoyed the entire post immensely; however, the quote above summarizes why I want to hunt DG. It is the question every man needs to have answered for himself: "do I have what it takes?" No one can answer that question except for themselves by experience. I would rather be dead than go through life with that question unanswered. In the rather mundane things of life it is partially answered: it is only in an instantaneous flash of danger that I believe it can be fully answered...no time to think or reason, just the question and a yes or no answer.

AC..excellent post..thank you

Superb write up! It almost felt I was there with you. Great job! jorge
PS: where's the video?

Thanks, Saeed.

I can only pray that I handle myself half as well as Ron Crous if my time ever comes.

My heartfelt congratulations to Mr Crous and all participants for masterful handling of a difficult situation.

Damn that was intense. This is why AR is the spot to be for African Hunting.

Congrats on a job well done.

That is an excellent account of a charge!!

REading that story caused my butt to pinch the buttons off my seat cushion. Darn, that was close. Selous could not have told it better.
Thanks for sharing and I will be practicing the fast reload while kneeling.

Terrific adventure. Thank you for sharing.
Frank

Great story and a reminder of why we hunt dangerous game.

Great write up!!!!!

Well Done

I'll never get to hunt lions.....but reading about the hunt is indeed an exciting time.

Thanks for a great story.

Great story. This is what I visit AR to read.

Bill

Anybody got a copy of the video????

wow that was awesome...
thank you for sharing that
i was hooked on every word


where can i view the footage

all I can say is that I'm glad it wasn't me or I'd still be cleaning out my pants

quote:

Originally posted by butchloc:
all I can say is that I'm glad it wasn't me or I'd still be cleaning out my pants

You and me both!

Holy Smokes!! What An Experience!! Well Told And Well Executed Mr. Crous!!

Saeed, thanks for posting and please pass on our thanks to Mr. Crous for sharing his story...raised the hair on the back of my neck!

Fantasic read!!!!!!!!!!!!!

All I can say is "Wow!"

I'll have a beer, no, make that several!!

Well done Ron!

John

Let's hear it for Simba! Outnumbered and outgunned...but he came anyway!
Peter.

What a riveting narrative, it took me right there with you Ron. I am glad it ended the way it did. Also gives me a good reason why I need to practice more to chamber a round with the rifle stock on the shoulder.

Regards
Aziz

My palms are sweating. Great post!

Fantastic story and results. My hat is off to Mr Ron Crous.

JPK

What a fantastic story! I got goose bumps reading it! Now I would love to see the video footage!

Thanks for sharing the story Saeed! Ron Crous has nerves of steel and is a great recanteur. My lion was a walk in the park compared to that experience and if kneeling down for the shot gave him an added advantage, I would not have make the cut, with my knees. Hope this video makes it to market as it is sure to be a winner. The upcoming magazine story sure will be.

Dak

Great Story! Any pics?

Ron,

You faced your nightmare and did what you had to do, make the shot.......
Superb account of a terrifying encounter...

Regards,

Mike

Lucky shot, eh?

This is once again what makes AR the very best; first hand reports, vivid and riviting action and the taste of dust still hanging in the air. Thank you Ron Crous, and Saeed.
well done.

When I shot my first Buffalo PH A.J. Van Heerden turned to me and asked how I got two shots off so fast. I had not removed the rifle from my shoulder. I had practiced that several times a week for 6 months. I recomend this to all bolt action fans.

Awesome!! Well done!

Very exciting!
I've heard that taking a knee in a lion charge was the right thing to do. This proves it.
Thanks for the clarification.

I don't remember being so tense while reading a story. Thank you so much for sharing

the chef

I have here a .wmv file here about 3MB in size. It is showing a client after a big black maned lion. Client takes a shot, then shows the lion charging and knocking down the client. The PH is down on his knees slightly to the clients right. The lion seems to take 2 shots in the space of a 50m run, knocks down the client, jumps up and goes back in the direction he came from. PH gets up and shoots the lion in the ass, client recovers, gets up and also caps him.

It is a very hectic video, and very well captured.

The end of the video has a flash screen

"Lion video
Hunters Unlimited of South Africa
Lammie Potgieter & Randy Westraadt
big5@PGA.dorea.co.za
phone: 01127731579686
Fax: 01127344133102

Colorado Hunting Expedtions (sic)
World Wide Adventures
Bob Luna
Phone 970-882-5400
PO Box 893
Dolores Co 81323
www.coloradohunter.com"

Is this the same event we are talking about?

(Edited: Actually it cannot be, in the video the client is a GUY. in the statement above, he is congratulating HER. Also not in Botswana, there are telephone poles all over the place, a road, no black trackers, and 6 people in the video, including the cameraman. Looks a bit "canned" but could not say for sure. And if you look carefully, with everyone shooting, it looks like one of the observers takes a stray bullet!)

Cheers

pete

worth another read or three. damn fine writing, felt like I was looking through Mr. Crous' eyes. as T.R. would say "bully!" bravo. Kurt.

Bravo!!

well done!