SA Hunt - Day 3

I was extremely lucky and won some money in a March Madness basketball pool this year.  Right about the time that I learned of my bonanza, Joan mentioned that she might like to have a zebra skin. I looked into the trophy fee for adding a zebra to my hunting package and, what a coincidence, it almost matched my winnings.  Upon arrival, we let Kerneels know that we were considering adding a zebra and before for we knew it, we were scheduled to hunt one on our third day.

The property chosen to hunt zebra was right at the base of the mountains, about 30 minutes from the lodge.  Here we are pulled up at the owner's house where my PH is checking in and picking up the owner's tracker.  We turned around, went back down the driveway a short way, turned off the driveway on another dirt road, drove a short way, and then Arnold, the tracker, Jack (Arnold's dog) and I got out on foot.

We walked awhile and could see a large group of impala moving about 300 yards in front of us.  We could just see glimpses of them thru the bush.  We got the wind right and worked our way closer since the tracker said the zebras normally were with the impala. We got to a point where we had a window thru the bush and we could see the impala walking/running from right to left.  We stopped to watch and zebras came into view too.  Arnold set up the sticks and pointed out which one to take.  I made the shot and everything was gone in a flash.  We got to the spot of the shot and found blood trail.  We started tracking including using Arnold's dog Jack. 

We didn't find the animal and the blood trail dried up.  Jack kept following the direction of the running herd.  At one point we were all split up looking and I thought I was lost out there alone.  Eventually we all reconvened at the last blood and were starting to worry.  I took a circular walk around from last blood and found this piled up under a log 20' from where we had been standing. 

The entry wound is on the top of the chevron right above the shoulder.  I'm now feeling pretty good about Arnold's gun and my shooting.  Three animals killed with good shots and no misses or woundings since the gun change.  I no longer ask Arnold about range but these last three shots all felt to me like they were inside 200 yards. Maybe this one was the longest.

Now the hard part begins.  This is a large animal and we have to get the truck close.  The cover is substantial and we're some distance from the nearest dirt road. Arnold talks on the radio with Jerry who is still at the truck with Joan. Eventually they walk in to meet us at the animal.

First step is brute force to set up the photo op.  Jack (the dog) is a big help. 

This is a Burchell's zebra and she is a mare.  Trophy's are both male and female in zebra.   

Joan is actually sitting on her. 

In order to lighten the load for the recovery, Jerry goes to work to remove the digestive tract. 

It is a substantial collection of organs. 

Heart, lungs, etc are still in there.  That's just the guts below the diaphragm.

Now the trackers and Arnold start cutting a path to get the vehicle back to the animal.  Everything has thorns and spikes.  They use machetes and bow saws to clear the way. 

After more than an hour of hard work, the truck makes it thru the bush and crosses two drainages. 

Joan is in the passenger seat - right hand steering. 

Once clear of the last drainage, there were more openings to get the truck close. 

Arnold has a large heavy rubber mat in the truck.  We rolled the zebra on it, attached straps to the mat, and pulled it out a ways by hand. 

Then we hooked it to the truck and skidded it out into the open.

Using winch and manpower, we got the zebra into the truck bed. 

Joan enjoyed the sun on this cool morning and had a ring side seat to view the whole event. 

Sometimes we left her sitting on her log alone while we went off trying to get the truck in. 

This was another truck hazard - porcupine holes. 

Eventually we got the zebra back to the farmhouse and strung it up on a chainfall. 

Jerry and the owners tracker did the skinning. 

This animal pretty much used up all of the travel for this hoist. 

Lower leg and hooves were recovered to be made into lamps.  The owner wanted only the tenderloins from the zebra.  I guess that many people don't eat zebra.  The balance of the meat was delivered to the cheetah rescue farm for food for the cats. 

I'm feeling pretty good about that shot.  This animal still ran 150 yards or so before going down under that log. 

Jerry did recover the bullet against an opposite side rib. 

 

We got back to the lodge at about 2:00 and ate a late lunch.  We took a walk around the lodge property with Arnold that evening.  I brought the rifle in case there was a cull animal that needed removed.  We saw lots of animals but nothing that we wanted to shoot.  We had lamb for dinner.  It might have been our only dinner meal that wasn't local game.