It seemed a lot like an evening whitetail hunt. The day was nearly over when I stole a few hours from my writing chores to squeeze in an hour or so at the blind. I took along my Bear Truth 2 and an African Bowhunter Magazine to help pass the time. I didn’t take a PH but I did take a tripod and my camera. I’m hunting the new Namibia property that Dries Visser and Riaan Alberts have set up in the Erongo Mountains. It’s called Kanona West after the river that weaves through the property. After settling in, I set up the camera so it would be easy to push record, surveyed the waterhole and sat down to do some relaxing reading.

Blind hunting, in contrast to treestand hunting, is best for folks who can be happy looking at 25% of the land around them. I am usually only happy if I have plenty to look at… like a 360 view. When in a blind I get claustrophobic and nervous if I can’t see around me. I do best if I read something and glance through the portal every 30 seconds. The plan in place I got into a great story about a bowhunt in the Erongo Mountains, which are just north of here. Then found myself waking up every paragraph or so. How is it that that we always remember falling asleep but we can’t remember falling asleep?

As an alternate strategy I decided to stand next to the shooting port and peek out. I seldom fall asleep when standing up and things were working out. Doves were streaming into the waterhole like someone was handing out ten dollar bills. They sound like roughed grouse flushing when they leave and with a steady stream of fluttering noise I was stimulated and finally awake. The magazine story would have to wait.

Then in the distance I saw a potential victim approaching from the river bed. The warthog had a pair of very visible tusks, even at 60 yards. This was show time and I cranked up the camera and reached for my bow. I had the shooting port open and now I became concerned about scent as the wind was drifting toward the waterhole. I may have to make this quick because one fact I’m sure of is that a warthogs nose is legendary. The warty approached from the opposite side and disappeared for a short while. In a flash his knees were bent and he was sucking up a long drink.

At this point I knew that my long range strategy concerning scent suppression was paying off. Both Robert Hogue and I have been taking NULLO, which is an internal body deodorant, for about two years. The non-prescription Chlorophyll Copper complex pills have been used in the health care industry for about 50 years and were only recently made available to hunters. They are just amazing and in that they are internally attacking BO they fix breath as well as body odor. I really believe that these little green pills, when used with other scent suppression strategies, make a huge difference.

With the camera running I drifted toward the shooting port, bow ready and got a look at the angle. It was bad. The pig was quartering toward me and would have to turn for this to work. Warthogs move like they are from the movie set of “The Matrix”. This one was no different. In a blur he wheeled and was facing the opposite direction. All with no particular reason, as he was not alarmed, he moved again, as if alarmed, toward the salt block. Now he was broadside and I wasted no time launching an arrow his way.

There is always an animated discussion when shot placement is discussed and rather than get technical let me say that there is a simple solution when selecting “the spot” on African game. It is always forward of where you would shoot a whitetail. With a deer we typically instruct the shooter to come up the front leg and move back 4 inches. While that will give you a double lung shot on a buck it will give you an opportunity to track all night with a bushman in Africa. That shot is just too far back on most African game.

The secret here is to look at the book “The Perfect Shot” by Kevin Robertson and take note of the configuration of the front leg bones and shoulder blade of African animals. There is a big forward facing open “V” that opens to the lungs and heart. This means that you raise your pin directly up the leg and 1/3 into the body. This will put your arrow into the boiler room. If you move your aiming point back you will get diaphragm and guts.

The arrow disappeared into his side. The Warthog spun and like most shot animals, left by his arrival route.

He used up only 4-seconds of his escape plan when the lights went out. The grass behind the waterhole began to wiggle and I knew that the “Reaper” had “X”ed his heart. I used the last moments of light to locate him and called Johan on the radio, “Wart down at the first hide”, I announced, and after a little static I had arranged a ride back to the safari camp. The sky was still blushing when I loaded my prize into the Land Rover. Instead of reading a story about a bowhunt in Namibia’s Erongo Mountains… I had gotten my own.

Wade Nolan with his Warthog.