Since I guess I'm sharing all over the place, thought I better share here where 'it all began'!!!

After a little remberance, and planning for my next trip in 07... I coudn't help but relive the hunt from last fall in RSA along the Limpop River... here is a snippet from my journal... Please post your stories and pictures as well!

Day 6 Saturday, September 10th

After a good nights rest and a much needed boost of confidence, I hopped right out of bed this morning. Little did I know that this was probably going to be one of he pinnacle points in my hunting career thus far...

...It was now close to 11am and starting to get rather warm out. We once again made the trek back out to the cliffy point where we had spotted the bull from earlier that morning. But this time we were going to have Brighton and Maxwell (the trackers) drive way up around the bull and drop in on him from above. The idea was that he would be forced to come straight for us and the easiest way for him to escape would be to cross though a small draw that from rim to rim was probably 350 yards wide, the bottom had few trees in it and that would offer me a shot at about 150 yards if he came through the middle. After about half an hour the trackers found the bull bedded in the shade of a big rock. The bull saw them but didn’t want to move to quickly to get away from them since it was so warm out. This was going to be to our advantage. He would most likely come straight for us, but at a saunter rather than running. The plan worked perfectly other than the fact that instead of coming right down the middle of the draw he crossed on the far side along the rocks which was close to 225-250 yards away. Quinton studied his horns and determined that he was a decent bull but nothing exceptional he figured 51â€- 52†at most. He told me it was up to me if I wanted him or not. I said, “we’ve been hunting these suckers for 4 days straight and this is the first time we've had one in range and that was in a position to get a shot off at.†In the back of my mind I was also thinking that we only had 4 more days and 4 more animals to find. It was going to have to be now, he looked very impressive to me!

I was quite glad that I had swapped the 2.5x scope out on my 375 and put the 6x luepy on it! I nestled myself into the red sandstone rocks into what felt like a decent shooting position and readied myslef for what could be some long range shooting. He sauntered out of the bush and across a small opening and stopped. I lined up the cross hairs behind his shoulder and squeezed the trigger. At the shot he jumped straight up in the air and took off running down the hill slightly quartering away from us. I hurriedly “jacked another one in†and lined him up again for another shot. He ran about 40 yards and stopped, at this point he was probably getting close to 250-275 yards away. As soon as the crosshairs where steady I pulled the trigger. That sickening sound of bullet breaking bone and tearing through tissue echoed back up to us on the cliff, with that definite thwacking sound that says oooh you're screwed. The bull lunged and took off running in one swift motiong, with his neck out stretched exactly like an elk does. I fired once again, missing him high, just over his back. He ran behind a bush and stopped we couldn’t see him well at all and this offered me a chance to reload!

He made a few steps and presented himself once again, but only a portion of him was showing from behind the bush. I knew that I had at least one in him and really didn’t care if the next shot was going to be perfect or not through the bush, I shoot until the animal is dead if they have lead in em… but just as I lined up his shadowy outline for the shot he took off running directly away from us. He was now getting out to close to 300-325 yards and I was starting to get a little worried about having to adjust for drastic“Arkansas elevationâ€â€¦ I put the cross hair about 4" above his tail and squeezed… Again the sickening whack! He ran probably 15-20 yards and stopped behind one of three fully leafed out trees on the property, completely hiding him from our view.

We waited for probably 5 minuets to see if was going to come out, while in the mean time the trackers had found the spoor and had tracked him up. They radioed us and told us that they had found him lying down, and very sick, but not quite dead.

We carefully picked our way through the boulders and rockslides and clambered down off the ridge to make our way where we last saw him. When we got to him we could see that he was moments from expiring, but not wanting to let an animal suffer any longer than necessary, I put another one in his heart. His body went ridged, his eyes bulged, and then all was still and silent.

We were all amazed that this “nothing special†bull had grown to something quite a bit bigger than anyone had thought. He had exceptional mass and the length was much more than either Maxwell or Quinton (PH) had previously thought, the depth and length of the spirals was deceiving to them and he was actually about 6+†longer than they thought. His longest horn is 58†long, the shorter is 56-1/2 and he has 12†bases.

I was at a loss of words. I had come half way around the world, dreamed of this day for years and had this grand specimen at my feet!

We situated him for photos and then called in the support team to drag him up to where we could get him loaded. I’m not sure just how much he weighed but I’m guessing probably on the hoof close to 650-700 pounds maybe a little more, right up there along the lines of a decent elk. The thing that seemed out of place was the fact that his legs were much too long for his body or so it appeared. We finally had him loaded and back to the camp around 12:30. We had quite a hunt that morning and one that I will not soon forget!

Ivan,

Great animal...I look at all kudu bases and I see your horns are just about grown together... That is how mine was...massive bases...
Fine shooting...

Mike

That is a great story and a magnificent animal which you earned. That's why the Kudu is King! You rekindle the memories of my own bull, and another fatefull morning... 57 1/2 - 57, 10 1/2 x 10 1/2... Not to shabby either, Congratulations and good hunting.