5TH APRIL - JOSHUA SPIES
We’ve had a hectic few days, we stopped the other morning for a look at some bull tracks and after measuring them and seeing that they were a full 20 inches along the back foot, (for the Valley that’s great) we decided to follow.
It wasn’t long before we all knew this could be good, there were lots of dig holes where the bulls (two of them) had been getting at the roots of the Prince of Wales Feathers trees, with the heavy dew the tracking was pretty simple.Sure enough, after just an hour of tracking there was a crackle in front of us and a low grumble… I cant even tell you how excited we were! Josh had my .450 Heym and the bull was close, of course we still hadn’t seen his tusks so it wasn’t over by any means.
As we moved in all I saw was a great long tusk, buck fever, or should I say elephant fever can sometimes make a tusk look bigger than it is. I will say that when you have walked the miles we had walked and spent the time we had spent just looking over all these animals, it’s quite a moment when you see that tusk for the first time!!!
As soon as I saw that he did in fact have two tusks it was game on…we walked towards him and as soon as he sensed that we were nearby, which was as we got to about 15 yards, he simply turned and came in. Josh shot low on his first shot but that stopped the charge and the bullet went right through and into the heart/lung area. As he turned Josh put in his second barrel and it was over. WOW! What a fantastic bull taken in such a great traditional manner ….this just proves that it’s not about the shot, it’s about the hunt with the trophy simply as a reminder of great hunting moments …