I'm in the process of converting a wee bit of deer hunting property into a pretty cool place, I think. As the picture partially shows, I have a decent fishing pond, a little cabin for me and Sandy and some pretty views. The building on the left is a garage which will have two bedrooms/baths for our guests (Y'all come!) and I'll also have a barn with a little apartment in it.

If you are presumptuous (and I guess I am a bit), you name your farm and the house. I've done that, the farm being "Elimelech" (which comes from the story of Ruth and Naomi and means "my God is King"). The cabin is Sable House for my grandfather and namesake Ernest Black.

So... didn't I need a big ol' coal black sable to go there within?

At this years Dallas safari club, I decided to switch my hunt scheduled for early April from a tuskless on Lake Kariba to a quest for a Sable (with the chance for a bull elephant if one showed up... which it didn't). My long-time friend and P.H. Lou Hallamore thought we should go to Shangani (Michaela Fuldor's place) and we did.

So... here's what happened.

I had a great trip from my local airport in Brunswick, Georgia to Atlanta and then on Delta 200 on to Johannesburg. I had enough frequent flyer points to get a business class seat and really got some good sleep on the way over.

After a night at Afton Guest House (with SAPS and guns being a five minute stop both sides of the R.O.N.), I flew up to Victoria Falls. The new airport is pretty spiffy and Zim customs and the gun permit took all of 10 minutes.

Candy Pieters had arranged a meet/greet for me and I rode in her comfortable van to the Ilala Hotel where I stashed my stuff and walked down to pay homage to the Falls for an hour or so. Boy! There was lots and lots of water with the late rains this year.

After my annual pilgrimage to the Smoke That Thunders I relaxed on the booze cruise and enjoyed the usual magnificent sunset.

Then, the major screw-up!

Always longing for some butternut squash soup at the Victoria Falls Hotel, I walked down the dark street to the Grand Old Lady of Africa and had dinner there (and a nice single malt at Stanley's Bar.

Walking back (boy is that street dark), I tripped on a loose stone in the sidewalk... stumbled a few steps, thought I had arrested my imbalance and then stepped off a curb cut/driveway and fell on my face with my right rib cage impacting the curb. "Crack, crack, crack1e) Three ribs broken.

Son-of-a-biscuit eater! And at 7:00 a.m. I was supposed to be bright-eyed and bushy-tailed and ready for a bumpy ride to Bulawayo and then into the bush.

Somehow, I limped to my room, took an ibuprofen and then lay there for 8 hours, wide awake and trying not to breathe.

But, even with insurance on the trip (medical/evacuation, trip interruption and cancellation), I decided to try to hunt... and, worth it, it was.

I'll skip to the sable, if I may.

Third morning. Up at 5:30, a shower and my usual African breakfast of toast smeared with crunchy peanut butter, some bacon and an egg over medium. We got in the Land Cruiser about 6:30 and decided to drive to the Shangani River where we'd seen some sable late the evening before.

Long before we got to the river, the fellows in the back tapped on the roof and let us know we'd just passed some sable. We continued on for 10 seconds or so and then piled out, leaving the engine running so a tracker could drive on as if we never stopped.

I loaded my Verney-Carron .375 Flanged double rifle with a couple of softs and we headed the 300 yards or so toward the animals. The wind was swirling a bit and the 30 or so sable began to get nervous, not really winding or seeing us yet, but getting pretty skittish.

We couldn't really see much... just shapes and a horn here or there. As predictable, the herd (if that's what you call a bunch of sable?) began to move away, keeping us upwind.

We backed off at Lou's suggestion and went back to the vehicle and made a plan to wait a bit for the sable to clear the area and then for us to backtrack a mile or so and try get downwind and to cut the herd off.

Dang, if it didn't work. About an hour later, we began to spot a sable or three feeding and working there way closer to us. After about 10 minutes, they began to get within range and leading them was a coal-black bull with heavy horns.

Upon Lou's direction, I crawled up a termite mound and got on the shooting sticks. At 70 yards, I made what I thought was a perfect shot (but a review of the video that was being made, showed that the bullet was deflected by a twig... you can see the exit, high and above the spine). "Darn" sure wasn't what I said when the big bull spun to his right and, not following his mates, began a 10.3 mile trek. I measured it on my GPS. 10.3 miles, not kilometers and that was straight line distance. Lord knows how far we went including the jogs here and there. It was 10:00 a.m. when I shot.

At 17:30, after the most unbelievable tracking I've ever seen, he broke cover and in afterburner, ran left to right across my front.

As a complete surprise to me, I rolled him with a right (and missed with the left as he struggled to get up). A hole in one and then missed a gimmie putt. Typical Ernest Gilbert, that!

Anyway, here he is... and also the cabin (still under construction) his new home of honor.






I'm going to build a laupa, braai grill, etc. between the pond and the cabin and (since this picture was taken) a barn is being built just to the right of the dumpster, it too, having a room suitable for an A.R. visitor to the South.

BTW, the ribs still hurt. I sneezed in church this morning and when I expressed more than a little bit of pain, some of the congregation thought I had a charismatic moment or something. Heck, I'll be 70 in September. I don't know how many times I'll make it back to Africa.... just as well grin and bear it since I was already there.

Nice sable, judge. Sorry for your troubles. Hope you have a swift recovery.

Nice one Ernest. Take care and recover fast.

Beautiful set up at the property. Lots of braai action in your future...

Beautiful animal!

Glad you managed to get through all that...ribs are probably the worst fracture to have, as you look fine and nobody thinks you hurt that much!

Bloody hell Judge you are one tough elderly gent. Only those who have experienced broken ribs know the pain. And then to shoot a double on top of it?

Great Sable and he would compliment any home.

Thought you were after Leopard?

Congratulations. Nice Bull.....and Cabin!!

Another view of the future home of the recalcitrant sable.



We did some fishing, too.




Following the sable tracks...



Since Independence Day was forthcoming, I got to shoot a couple of meat wildebeest, too:





Sunset on the evening of the sable:



I'll have a couple of zebra rugs for the cabin, of course:



I'll love this kind of Africana:



There are advantages and disadvantages to an early in the year safari. Beautiful flowers.... and then, the mud:





But, Africa will always call me back

Nice Judge!

What area did you hunt?

I hunted with www.hallamorehunt.com (Lou and Clive Hallamore). We hunted Shangani-South which is 2.5 hours from Bulawayo.

The ranch is 15,000 hectares and also has another leased 10,000 hectares of communal land (or some such arrangement). It is partially fenced, mostly for anti-poaching, along the communal areas, but there is no fencing along the Shangani River (perhaps 12 miles open) and there's not a fence between the Shangani and Hwange Park, maybe 60 miles away.

The camp is very well kept, the food good and the roads are well maintained. It would be a very good first safari location.

We saw (and often heard) leopards, zebra, wildebeest, impala (of which I killed 4 or 5 for communal uses), ostrich, giraffe, warthogs (which I also got to shoot for the pot), wonderful kudu bulls (55"+) and lots of other game. Elephants hadn't yet left Hwange so all we saw were last October's tracks and dung.

Great story (as usual!), Ernest. Hope you are on the mend. Lovely rifle, lovely sable! J

What's a rib or two eh? Great story & a fantastic hunt,great job Judge

One more little vignette.

I got to hunt/shoot for the surrounding villages (four or five antelope, two wildebeest and a warthog) an semi-exciting event occurred... at least to me, it was attention getting. And, it will all be on video, according to Duncan Watson who was on camera.

Being a bit tired of diesel stalking (even though we were just filling the larder for the Independence celebration), we opted to just park and walk for a whole afternoon.

After about an hour of seeing about every animal except our intended (a warthog) we finally saw half-a-dozen down by a marshy little stream that still contain some water. Lou pointed out a suitable boar for the pot and we slipped up to about 60 yards. I put a flat-nosed solid through both lungs and, of course, it continued to march right through the guy, albeit not doing any good in the breathing department.

The sun was bright behind the pig and when the bullet hit the water a few feet further on, an eruption of liquid rainbow showered up about 20 feet.... boy was it cool!

Still, somebody should have told the warthog that he was dead because he took off running a big half-circle and started coming right at me. Red geysers were blowing out of both sides of the fellow and his nose and mouth were a mask of pink froth. I think he was angry or something.

I really don't know if he was charging, but until I see the video, I'll claim the same.

Thank God for doubles. A left piled him up at five yards or so.

And, before too long.... I'll get to deju-vu all over again in front of my T.V. courtesy of Duncan Watson Productions.

Maybe by then, we can have a viewing at the new cabin, huh? A little single malt and some hot roasted ground nuts?

Well done!!

Beutiful Judge, the beautiful trophies, all the pics, and what a beautiful property you have. I also love the names you have picked out. Congrats on a fine adventure, and toughing it out with the broken ribs.

Great story and pics. It must have been great fun toting and shooting a .375 with cracked ribs. Just thinking about it gives me the willys!

Still, you now have a great story to tell to guests while they are admiring your trophies at Sable House.

Good show!

BH63

Actually, it hurt more getting in and out of the vehicle than toting around the rifle. I shot the V-C forty times while hunting and playing around and it just didn't hurt to do so. Don't know why, but it didn't.

Now, coughing, sneezing, reaching over my head, sleeping on my right side.... they still hurt.

quote:

Originally posted by BuffHunter63:
Great story and pics. It must have been great fun toting and shooting a .375 with cracked ribs. Just thinking about it gives me the willys!

BH63

very nice bull...hope your are recovering...

I'm looking forward to getting my 375 Flanged and doing some African hunting with it! I just can't imagine a more sweeter little double to hunt Africa with, after hunting and shooting a number of the big bore doubles for years! Kind of like going to the 28 gauge after all of those years of shooting 12's, 16's and 20's!

Broken ribs - I hate that grating sound I hear in my chest!

Congratulations on your sable. A fitting tribute to "Ernest Black"!

Your pics are spectacular!

Hope you are healed up and fighting off warthog charges again soon!

Best regards, D. Nelson

Very nice Sable Sir.
Hope you are on the mend.

Ernest,

Very nice!

Mark

quote:

Still, somebody should have told the warthog that he was dead because he took off running a big half-circle and started coming right at me. Red geysers were blowing out of both sides of the fellow and his nose and mouth were a mask of pink froth. I think he was angry or something.

'Pig House' just does not have the same ambiance.

A jet black Sable.

Regal

Beautiful sable Judge, well done. One of my absolutely favorite animals in Africa! Looks like he is headed to a great new lodge... congrats.

And hope those ribs are almost mended.

That lodge is going to be fun! Great looking pond that should supply fish and ducks for the table and a deer watering/viewing area.