It is a Saturday night at 18:30, we are just starting to enjoy a gourmet tomato soup that we had spent the afternoon preparing. After my fifth sip my phone rings. I answer; it is Frits one of my good mates but also one of my surgeons (His farm neighbours Sabrisa Ranch). 'Are you available tomorrow?' he asks. My mind starts whirling, what on earth does he of all people want to operate on a Sunday, must be something nasty... Meekly I mutter a 'Yes' into the phone, I hadn't really planned an anaesthetic for Sunday.

Then he says 'I am with Chris, he has a giraffe that needs to be shot before Monday, can you come?' Immediately I realise that I should pass the phone to the boss, this is a question she should answer. My wife takes the phone, listens for a minute and says 'how late should we be there, I will shoot the giraffe'. She puts the phone down and says we need to be there at 07:00 and she wants to shoot it with her 500 Nitro if close or her 416 Rigby if farther.

Chaos descends; where are the cartridge belts, are there any solids loaded, what about the children? Like a whirlwind I rush to get guns, Camelbaks, GPS, binos, toys, food, cold drinks for the kids. Fortunately the Hilux has got enough diesel aboard. The kids are dressed for tomorrow and rushed to bed.

02:45 my alarm clock goes of, when I wake little Michelle she shouts: 'we have to shoot a giraffe today', her excitement is infectious. As the Hilux starts eating the tar to Ellisras the kids fall silent as the drone of the diesel hums them to sleep. Three and a half hours later we pull up at Frits, a quick cup of coffee and we leave to meet up with Chris and Sammy who is already scouting.

Meeting up with them, they have already laid eyes on the bull, guns are prepared and the kids are lectured to stay at the car at all times whatever happens.

As we move to where they had sighted the bull we are met with emptiness and tracks of a giraffe. Sammy starts tracking and we all think he will be around the next corner. It is a beautiful morning to be out and we see impala, kudu and klipspringer. An hour and 4 kilometres later we are 20 yards from the bull in thick cover, no shot is possible and then suddenly a warthog spooks the giraffe. Sammy gets up, picks up the tracks and says he think we should push the giraffe a bit. I think to myself this can become a long day, giraffes are good at walking... As usual Sammy is right, 20 minutes and 3 kilometres later the bull walks into a clearing.

We had been swopping guns the whole morning as the bush became denser or more open, I had just passed the 416 to my wife. I throw up the sticks, she settles and gets off a frontal chest shot at 120 yards, I back her up immediately with the 500 as the giraffe turns and both of us gets of another shot into the running bull. He collapses into a cloud of dust and we walk up. Like all big animals giraffe don't die quickly and she finishes him off with a shot in the back of the neck.

It is a wonderful bull with a skin in excellent condition for his age, the emotion of success brings back a flood of memories of other big bore days; of elephant, buffalo, giraffe and eland, of heat and thirst, of the Lowveld and the Zambezi Valley. It is good to be alive!

Should we have worried about the skinning (I HATE skinning giraffe!!!!), it was unnecesarry, we were under the capable supervision of the children.

By 16:00 the skinners have progressed well and we rudely excuse ourselves, we still have homework and a school project to finish before Monday.

Sabina sees us off with enough food for an army, she is always ready to have any need fulfilled before it is there!

I unlock the front door at 19:30 - 25 hours from organising to getting back home, it is a new record for us. The kids stumble exhausted to the bath, they were the real stars of the hunt, not a single complaint was aired the whole day.

Heck of a day trip! Congratulations.

Wow,
Talk about an interesting day,great 25 hours.

Congratulations.
I love to see hunting pics with kids involved.
Very nice.
Cal

Great story and pics, thanks for sharing

I cant wait to get back Zim next July and try for a big Black stink bull!!

Well done to Lorinda and as Cal says so nice to see the kids there also Martinus! Congrats

I really enjoy a South African hunt report by a South African! It’s rare to see and the ones I have read have been great!

Great hunt and best of all the family was involved. Well Done!

Congrats! Thanks for posting.

Lorinda is the real deal . . . a women that shoots a .500 NE single shot is a rare treat. Well done Martinus and Lorinda. By the way, you tell a pretty good story . . . for a doctor.

Thank you for all the kind words.

Having the kids along was a treat, it was interesting seeing the 5 year old twins exploring everything about the carcass, touching the organs, fingers in bullet holes, swishing the tail and looking at the hooves.

What was heartening was to see the insight they displayed in where the meat that we consume come from, better than some adults 10x their age!

Simply outstanding!

quote:

Originally posted by MJines:
Lorinda is the real deal . . . a women that shoots a .500 NE single shot is a rare treat. Well done Martinus and Lorinda. By the way, you tell a pretty good story . . . for a doctor.

She is indeed! She might be small in stature but I'll tell ya - she has no fear of big guns!

quote:

Originally posted by Balule:
Thank you for all the kind words.

Having the kids along was a treat, it was interesting seeing the 5 year old twins exploring everything about the carcass, touching the organs, fingers in bullet holes, swishing the tail and looking at the hooves.

What was heartening was to see the insight they displayed in where the meat that we consume come from, better than some adults 10x their age!

These kids are great!




Doing the autopsy


Skinner in training

Proper!

won't be any slowing those two down.

Enjoyed the reading too.
.500NE? Woman's rifle, right??

George

Really enjoyed the story, and having the kids involved is priceless. My favorite picture is your son with the skinning knife at work.

quote:

Originally posted by georgeld:
won't be any slowing those two down.

Enjoyed the reading too.
.500NE? Woman's rifle, right??

George

Yes, started off as Ruger no1 458WM and ended up as a gorgeous custom in 500NE.
Weighs in at 8lb, we shoot 500gr at 2200fps in it to tame recoil, not a plinker..

We have a set of 5 year old twin grandkids (boy and girl), and they would be in seventh heaven doing what these two 5 year olds are doing. Hunter (boy's name) is all about animals, especially African animals. Addison is not far behind! Love it!