Hunting In Africa

A hunt story - I had the privilege of going hunting with a fellow missionary, Robert Fortenberry, the day before thanksgiving and had a blast. I am not a hunter, never had taken anything in the States, but here in Botswana we have been eating a ton of game meat and loving it. This was a chance to stock up my freezer and I took it.

Hunting in Africa is very different than hunting in the States. There are no tree stands and its a very proactive hunting style. We were in my truck and we spooked a group of male impalas. We waited about 20 minutes and then put on full camo and started to stalk. We walked up a very rocky hill and started to come down, Robert had a feeling that he knew where they might be and sure enough we saw a little movement in the bushes. It took about 1 hour and 15 minutes before we were in place and then set up our shooting sticks and tried to be as still as we could. There were 5 males total, the biggest was laying down and others feeding. The brush only gave an open shot of about 5 feet, we were up the hill about 130 yards away and we just had to wait for one to come into the clear. One by one they passed the open area on the wrong side and there was never a clear shot. We waited another 15 minutes until all were in thick bush except one so Robert made a sound and sure enough he stopped, but he stopped right behind a tree, no shot. The biggest male however woke up hearing the sound giving me about 1/2 his body. I was told to take him through the shoulder and with a Winchester 375, I hit the mark.

The Impala had horns about 22 inches and weighed about 135 to 145 pounds. We had our first meat from him today and wow, it was great! It did not taste like game meat at all but a wonderful steak. There was so much meat, we were able to load our freezer and pass along some meat to my pastor and 2 church members and they were so thankful. This impala will keep our family fed for quite a while. I’m hooked!