Hunting Diaries - David Morris
Monday, September 26, 2011
The Bucks of Tecomate Hunt – African Edition - Day 1 and Day 2
Date: August 28-Sept. 9, 2011
Where: Sentinel Limpopo Safaris in southern Zimbabwe
Booking agent: Burnt Pine Travel, Marietta, GA
Game: African antelope most like whitetails – bushbuck, nyala, kudu and eland – the spiral horns
Basic Gear:
Rifle – Sako A7 Tecomate in .300 WSM.
Ammo – Winchester Elite 180-grain XP3
Scope – Leupold VX-3L 4.5-14x50mm CDS (Custom Dial System)
Binoculars – Leupold 10x42 Mojave
Rangefinder – Leupold RX-1000 TBR
Shooting Sticks – Bog-Pod Red-Legged Devil Tripod
Clothing – Hunter’s Haven Apparel – Tecomate-Branded Custom Safari
Scent Control – Code Blue EliminiX
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Thursday, September 08, 2011
The Bucks of Tecomate Hunt – African Edition Day 9 and Day 10 – Pye River Shootout
Day 9: Sept. 8 – Back to the Pye for kudu. More walking and looking, always dodging impala. A couple of young kudu bulls and an hour later, Willie pointed into a thicket. Using binoculars to focus out the intervening brush, Terry and I were able to make out a big kudu bull. He was feeding away from us. Too thick to go after him. We slipped downwind and looped around the acacia thicket and waited … and waited. He never came out. Terry figured he had moved off in another direction. He sent Willie and Mulalazee in to find tracks to follow. Within minutes, we were on the tracks of four bull kudu.
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Tuesday, September 06, 2011
The Bucks of Tecomate Hunt – African Edition Day 7 and Day 8 - Pye River Kudu
Day 7: Sept. 6 – Coasting a bit now. Four days left and only kudu on my must have list. I saved kudu for last because they are my favorite. Like whitetails, I never grow tired of hunting them. Smart, wary, supremely equipped with excellent sight, hearing and smell. They are quick to put distance or cover between themselves and danger. Above all, they are big, beautiful, majestic animals adorned with the greatest horns of any antelope in Africa. Indeed, with an upper limit topping 60 inches, they have the longest horns of any horned animal in the world.
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Sunday, September 04, 2011
The Bucks of Tecomate Hunt – African Edition Day 5 and Day 6 - The Elusive Eland
Day 5: Sept. 4 – Kudu next … at least that was the plan, but this is Africa. Almost as an afterthought, Terry wanted to check a waterhole for eland tracks before going after kudu. Bull eland often drink at daybreak. Fresh tracks mean the animal is likely nearby and can be tracked. Once at the waterhole, we indeed found fresh big bull tracks immediately. Willie and Mulalazee began casting about like bird dogs. Like we’d read a newspaper, they had it all worked out 30 minutes later. Four bull eland, one very big, had watered there before heading northwest, feeding as they moved. Terry’s passion for eland hunting showed in his excitement. “We need to go after them. I think we can catch them within a couple of hours.” That was that. We took off posthaste.
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Friday, September 02, 2011
The Bucks of Tecomate Hunt – African Edition Day 3 and Day 4 - My First Nyala
Day 3: Sept. 2, 2011 – Another day in the riverine chasing nyala. Same story – close but no cigar. We’re seeing them but mostly after they’ve seen us and are running with white tails flagging (yes, they have a white tail like a whitetail, as do kudu and bushbucks!). Sometimes, it’s just too thick for a clear look or shot. Then there are times when an otherwise good stalk is blown by the snort of an impala or kudu … or Mulalazee’s size 14 feet! He has eyes like a vulture and can track a lizard over solid rock, but he walks like he’s stomping out a fire.
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Monday, October 19, 2009
1st Trip of 2009 in North-central Idaho
Well, our first trip of 2009 is behind us. Debbie and I traveled to beautiful north-central Idaho and hunted with Chuck, Lana and Anderson Melgin on their South Fork River Ranch near Grangeville. What a wonderful week we had with them! The ranch lies along the South Fork of the Clearwater River, one of the best steelhead fishing rivers in the U.S.. It was, in Debbie’s words, “Spectacular!”
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