African Bowhunt With Tony Dukes
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DAY FIVE: 

We arrived a the hide earlier than usual today, this was the fourth location and yesterday's lesson had made us eager to clean the noisy rocks from the floor and try to figure out better shooting windows. Still cramped and in tight quarters with one shooting window, we managed new confidence and more excitement than ever. Today we would stay all day in the hide.

10:35 You guessed it warthogs, four of them file in and begin to drink in their peculiar kneeling fashion. Another starts out of the brush, woah, this one is a big fella. Riaan tells me to get ready, he whispers this ol' boy could have 12 inch tusks. To shoot I had to half stand, half crouch, half bend over and try and shoot through a hole about the size of a half  gallon milk container.

The 60lb. pull of the Alpine Stealth Force seemed more like 80 from my compromised position. I brought the 20 yd. pin up the leg of the boar and release. A roostertail of water splattered a ten foot circle around the water as the boar was dumped in the water. The white feathers disappeared right behind the shoulder. The water hole was again quiet, with the stain of water and blood on the dry dirt.

We found the passed through arrow, covered with bright red blood with lots of tiny bubbles in it. He would be dead in a few yards I felt sure. Once again I'd failed to give credit to the incredible durability and strength of these Affrican critters. We tracked the hog and found it with still enough energy to cross the land barrier and die yards from our approved area.

In Africa boundaries are respected and enforced intensely by the law. To go onto land without proper permission can result in penalties greater than manslaughter. My hog was lost due to the laws of the land. One more lesson learned hard in the Limpopo valley.

The only thing that would cure my blues was another opportunity and it would come shortly after returning to the blind. Another warthog boar, as big as the first, but once again he was where I couldn't get an arrow. Two more nice boars, same story.

Something unexpected and exciting has happened all through this hunt and it wasn't over yet. 

A gemsbok, a giant gemsbok, and this had Riaan about crawling out the little port. The monster antelope grazed at 79 yards, Riaan motioned to the 7mm. mag and suggested I take it. I told him I came to hunt with the bow, he told me I'd never see a gemsbok this big, conservatively estimated at 46". I took a little video of the gemsbok as he disappeared as only these critters can. Riaan looked on with mixed appreciation, disgust and a new curiosity about bowhunters.

The dusky red of sundown settled on another warthog boar, too dark against the ground and shadows. When I started my walk out a I saw a waterbuck munching on cornstalks we'd left out the day before. A stunning bull of maybe 30 inches. I eased up to within 25 yards. As my finger reached for my release trigger the bull bolted. Wildebeest were approaching downwind and had snorted my presence. Bowhunting, bowhunting, bowhunting!

Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3 | Day 4 | Day 5 | Day 6 | Day 7 | Day 8 | Hunt Info | Hunt Equipment |

Sponsors For The 2003 African Bowhunt
A note of appreciation to the sponsors that backed me on my first African bowhunt. (TonyDukes):
 Alpine Archery (bow), Magnus Broadheads (broadheads), Sims Vibration Laboratory (limb savers), Pro Release (release aid), Eze-Eye (arrow wraps), Montana Black Gold (bow sight), Bododle (arrow rests), LaCross Boots (rubber boots), Nikon (binoculars), Robinson Outdoors (Scent Shield) , Game Tracker (arrows) and Freddie Bear Sports (Sticks N' Limbs camouflage) and Bowhunting.net.