We could see the animal but my son could not because of the venue, very interesting venue, what used to be the garden of an abandoned bungalow, had pecan trees, also a couple of mango and guava trees, more importantly the meadow he was hunting had chest deep grass, like the sarganda in Punjab.
Finally they see the Duiker, but it ducks into the grass, a full hour later they see it again at 20 paces, they quickly aim but it is so close he cannot get a good picture through the scope, finally he finds it, just as it squeezes the trigger it moves and he hits it in the rear thighs:
The Duiker immediately ran and disappeared into a lantana bush, we followed the blood trail, Clayton crawled in after it, saw it duck out the opposite side and run:
Like most animals that we shot there it turned to look back at it, another shot and it was down:
Congratulations and handshakes all around:
Now it was time to get the Duiker for the pictures:
My son was very torn emotionally as I had told them they have to be sure before the shoot, killing an animal is a great responsibility and to do it humanely and safely is a trait that only good hunters have.
Had to explain to him that he had done everything right, the animal had moved as he squeezed the trigger, it happens and wasn’t his fault. Clayton also pitched him, telling him that it was good we had spent time finding the animal and humanely harvesting it as if it had run into the dust, it would have caked its wound and stopped the blood trail and then the animal would have sat down in the grass and become invisible, by finding it and finishing it we had made sure it did not suffer and die.
Hunting and taking a life is a great responsibility, believe the lesson was learnt, on the next hunt he refused to shoot till he was very, very sure.
Sako Finbear 22 – 250, PMC ammo. Next one will be posted tomorrow.
