The author bagged this kudu bull with an Assirian- style recurve.

The author posing with his Remington-style rolling lock muzzle-loader and impala ewe.

The author with Minieke his daughter and the impala he shot with the Scythian-style recurve.

The blesbuck was shot with a round ball from a Kentucky .50 black powder rifle.

The kudu was bagged at Moselesele.

This impala was killed with an arrow shot from a Mathews Drenalin.

By Rean Steenkamp

This year went by like a 100-metre sprint, don’t you agree? It has to be a new record – fastest year so far this millennium.

The same can be said of the 2008 hunting season. It was over far too quickly. And here we are at the end of yet another year – a time when one tends to look back on what you’ve accomplished over the past 12 months. Hunting-wise I cannot complain, as I had many opportunities to hunt and many a chance to sit around a campfire with friends and family. But I will only tell you of the times I hunted successfully and skip the stories of the big-one-that-got-away.

My first hunt this year was with my Kentucky muzzle-loader. It was at the start of winter and my good friend, Johan Smit and I drove to Oom Diedericks’ farm in Lichtenburg to hunt blesbuck. We arrived early on a Saturday morning. It was to be my first true hunt with a black powder rifle.

After a fairly short walk in the veld Johan and I spotted some blesbuck lying in a hollow about 150 yards away from us. I walked closer, taking cover behind bushes, and got down on my knees at about 110 yards. I leopard-crawled closer until there was no more cover to hide behind. Unfortunately, I lost my rangefinder while doing this and had to judge the distance. I estimated the blesbuck at 75 yards.
Selecting the animal showing the most of its torso, I aimed, pulled back the hammer and slowly pressed the trigger. The muzzle-loader pushed hard against my shoulder and when the smoke cleared I saw the blesbuck was down – on the spot. It was lying on its side, but it moved its head. I knew I had shot it in the spine and reloaded quickly. I walked closer and gave it a mercy shot.

Later, when I retrieved my rangefinder and measured the distance, I found it to be only 55 yards. I had my excuse for the high shot. Whew! Apart from the fact that it might not have been a well-aimed shot, the fact that the animal was not standing, but lying, might have fooled me into aiming higher than I should have.

The second hunt this year was at Moselesele, where I hunt twice annually. On this particular weekend I armed myself with my Mathews Drenalin, a compound I have become quite fond of.
I left for Moselesele on the Thursday and was already in the blind early the Friday morning. Pieter McCord, the owner of Moselesele, has two farms adjacent to each other, Moselesele and Ibhala Bhala. The hunter’s camp is at Moselesele, but on this morning I was hunting at Ibhala Bhala.
As usually happens on Pieter’s ranch, the animals came in fairly quickly. I was hoping for blue wildebeest and as I hunt for meat I wanted to shoot a cow. The difference in price between a cow and a bull, especially a trophy bull, also had a fairly large influence on my decision to go for cows.
I wasn’t in the blind for longer than a half hour when a whole bunch of blue wildebeest arrived – but they were all bulls and their horns were sticking well past their ears – which meant they certainly did not fit my budget.

The zebra that came in a little later were also pretty safe, as I am not big on horse meat and my bank balance certainly does not allow for fancy carpets or an Ottoman.

Quite a few warthog came in and left again. I wasn’t interested in pigs either. I wanted blue wildebeest, impala or kudu.

Suddenly a lone impala ram walked in. I would rather have gone for a ewe, but none had come and the ram was there. I waited for the initial rush of buck fever to subside to an acceptable level before taking my bow from the hook. Then I waited for the animal, which was standing at 15 yards, to relax and stand broadside.

I nocked a Carbon Impact Stealth XLT 6000 arrow, tipped with a 125 grain Steelhead, concentrated on a spot just above the animal’s front elbow and allowed my finger to relax. I use a Free Flight mechanical release that works in the opposite way to a normal mechanical trigger, which means instead of squeezing the trigger I let go. The arrow flew true, struck the animal and continued its flight until it embedded itself in the middle of the waterhole.

When Pieter arrived about 35 minutes later we found the animal about 20 yards from the blind. It was a heart shot.

I stayed behind at the blind, still hoping for a blue wildebeest or a kudu. The blue wildebeest came back and soon after a few warthog. After about half an hour a big kudu bull walked in. It stayed around for quite a while and I was tempted to shoot it. However, I wanted steaks and chops, not big horns, so I continued to wait.

A little later a big cow walked in and stood at 17 yards. Again I waited for the buck fever to subside before taking my bow of the hook. I allowed her to feed for a while and waited until she turned perfectly broadside. The arrow struck just above the elbow of the right leg and exited a little higher on the opposite side. Of course, I only saw this when we picked her up a little later. She ran about 30 yards.

My next hunt was at Jan Overbeeck’s ranch, Senwane. My friend, Johan Lottering from Big Five, won a hunt there and invited me along. He bagged a fine gemsbuck that weekend and his son, Hardus killed his first warthog.

I took my daughter, Minieke, along and left my compound at home, deciding that the weekend would be one of traditional bowhunting. When Jan took Minieke and me to the blind that morning, he looked a little concerned about the ability of the Scythian recurve I was carrying in my hand. Up until then, all animals on Senwane had been hunted with compounds and none with a regular bow.

Jan has excellent blinds and I was sitting in a fine blind built by Johan Lottering. Before long a duiker walked in and a little later a few impala. They were standing on the opposite side of the waterhole at about 27 yards. Minieke was very excited and wanted me to take the shot. However, shooting over that distance is no problem with a compound, but I refrain from shooting at game standing further than 15 yards with my recurve. What can I say, except that my name isn’t Howard Hill.

As usual, some warthog came in, sows with piglets. They soon left. Time ticked by and Minieke fell asleep. Then suddenly they were there – a whole squad of impala, swarming all over the place. One was standing at no more than eight yards. I grabbed my bow and nocked an arrow, but by the time I had the shooting port open, all the impala had left. I don’t know what scared them off, but I prayed they would come back and stand in the same position. I also left the port open and kept the arrow nocked.
About five minutes later the crowd was back and a fine ram stood perfectly quartering away at, believe it if you will, only eight yards. I know, I know, I said I was hunting for meat, but shooting a fine ram like this with my recurve was mighty tempting. I wanted to shoot immediately, but I waited for the worst of the buck fever to subside. Then I drew the string back, focussed on a spot in the middle of the kill zone and relaxed my hand. The arrow from my 45-pound Scythian recurve built by Johnny Snyman, hit the animal and penetrated up to the fletch.

When Jan arrived we followed the blood trail and quickly found half my arrow, a Carbon Impact Titan XLT 55/65 tipped with a 175-grain Zwickey Delta (screw on insert included). It weighed 540 grains in total. A little further on we found the front part of the arrow and yet a few yards further the impala ram. It did not run more than 60 yards. I was elated. This was my first traditional bow kill this year and the first traditional kill on Senwane. Yup, I showed ol’ Jan that the stick and string isn’t all bad.

Two weeks later we were hunting at Johan Pont’s farm near Sterkrivier. I have hunted twice a year on this farm for the last four years, always with a traditional bow. Johan Pont’s place is blue wildebeest-heaven and you rarely leave his ranch without bagging one. This year, however, with the late rains, things were not working as we hoped. No animals came to the blinds and only one of the four hunters managed to shoot something.

Thus, on the last day of the hunt I decided to try my luck with my new Pedersoli Remington-style Rolling Block muzzle­loader. I loaded the rifle with 90 grains of black powder and a 360 grain conical and off we went. My good friend and hunting mentor Henk du Plessis was playing PH. Henk has hunted more than 100 animals with longbows he made himself and I don’t know how many with rifle, revolver and compound. I was in such good company, the hunt was bound to be successful. With Henk in the lead we walked-and-stalked for about an hour before noticing a group of impala standing high up on a hill.

As fast and as silently as we could, and out of the animals’ sight, we descended the hill. From the top we started to stalk the impala until we were about 20 yards away from them. The small herd was standing down hill and down wind. I raised my rifle, pulled back the hammer and hoped it would not misfire. The muzzle-loader spat fire and smoke and the 360 grains of lead ended the impala ewe’s life.
My next hunt was again at Moselesele. I was using my 60 pound Assyrian style recurve made by Gregg Coffey from Java Man Archery. I arrived a day later than the other hunters. By that time most of them had already hunted an animal or two.

I got into a blind fairly early and was again hoping for a blue wildebeest. A duiker arrived and soon afterwards a warthog sow and piglets. A little later a group of zebra entered the waterhole area and soon after were joined by a couple of blue wildebeest bulls. Some of them were huge. I wanted a cow, however, and did not take a shot – none was standing close enough anyway, and every time one did, another animal was behind him. Something scared them off and I was alone again.

When three kudu bulls walked in my heart started to race, but I did not nock an arrow, as I was hunting for meat and not trophies – I wanted a cow. However, the kudu stayed quite a while and only left when the wildebeest bulls returned.

Time ticked by and another kudu bull walked in. I had never taken a kudu bull with a longbow or recurve, but a kudu bull is much more expensive than a cow – and the price goes up quite dramatically if the horns exceed 40 inches. This one had a good body and I judged the horns at less than 40 inches, but I wasn’t sure. Another 15 minutes passed and the kudu lingered.

What can a man do? The bull was obviously taunting me and one can only resist temptation for so long… I nocked an arrow, aimed for the middle of the kill zone and released. The arrow whispered over the 14 yards in no time and struck the animal – a little higher than I expected, but still a good shot. I could see the arrow hanging by its fletches on the opposite side of entry as the kudu ran off.
We found it later about 70 yards from the blind. The Carbon Express, tipped with a 125 grain Big Five two-blader, had penetrated both lungs. The arrow had broken in two when the kudu rushed through the bushes, but the broadhead was still intact and sharp enough to use again.

I had a great hunting season, although the six animals I hunted do not add up, considering the many times I stalked in the veld or sat in a blind or around a hunting fire this year. I should have bagged twice as many, if I were a more skilled hunter. Nevertheless, I have enough venison to last me most of the summer and many memories that will last me a lifetime. Hunting is not only about killing. It is mostly about spending time in the veld, about sitting around the campfire at night telling tall tales about the ones that got away. And, of course, hunting is about friendship – bonding with the brothers.