Black
My lion hunt
Monday, September 27, 2021, 13:40

Gary got his big lion today. It was maneless like the man eaters of Tsavo. A true monster of a lion. But, That is his story to tell.
My story is of the third lion taken. It was the morning of our second day hunting. The bright clear African morning was crisp with a light breeze. I got a slight chill from riding in the open air high up in the safari truck. It reminded me of a cold morning in the mountains of Colorado during the summer. You would enjoy the chill, knowing how hot it would be by the afternoon. We slowly drove the sandy roads of the Kalahari, this game persevere is only a few miles from the border with Botswana on the northern edge of South Africa. In the sand are the tracks of everything that passed in the night, we are on the lookout for lion tracks. It’s not long before we spot where a lion was lying in the road. We soon found the tracks leading in to the tall grass and and thick brush called black monkey claw. That stuff will stop a lion from getting through it. I know because the day before I saw Michael’s lion try to escape through it and got hung up for bit and several try’s later finally pushed through! The trackers spread out looking for the tracks and soon found two sets of lion tracks! John Abraham Gary’s friend and PH lead the way.
The tracks lead through the grass and monkey claw them back to the road. John had a hunch the lion was about a half mile ahead because a small group of red Hartebeest where complaining about something down the road ahead of us before sounding the alarm and scattering.
As we got close to that area we slowed down and where on high alert.
John’s right hand man Yelony (Spelling?) spotted the huge mail lion to our left just off the road in a thicket of monkey claw. He was just 30 yards away. He had been laying down facing away from us and heard our silent approach. He had just sat up and turned to look at us. John set the shooting sticks up for me and as I cocked the 476GNR Encore pistol and set it on the rest, steady the pistol on the near shoulder and squeeze of the round. The big lion dropped instantly. I automatically popped another of the big rounds in the chamber and hurried after John as he grabbed the sticks and flanked the lion to our left.
We where now 20 yards broad side to the lion and as John was setting the sticks up for a second shot, the lion picked his head up. We darted back around to the right trying to get behind the big lion. John set the sticks down just 20 yards from the lion, and as I leveled the Encore on the sticks , I see the lion on his feet facing me with his head up just seconds from charging us. The cross hairs of the 2 power Burris where dead center on his chest just below the massive head. I squeezed the trigger and he jumped over backwards from the 500gr DGX slug. Again John and I flanked him to the left. This time he was laying on his back head stretched it flat just roaring. The guys a half mile back at the truck said the herd the roar. John said to put him out with a shot through the hart and I was able to do just at at 20 yards. I could be mistaken but it seemed to me that the time between the first shot and the third was less than 2 minutes. For me personally it was everything an African lion hunt could be in this day and age and my most memorable hunt of a lifetime.
Most thanks to John And his team
And to Gary for everything he does, and his friendship.
My first shot was just close enough to the spine to knock the big male
out but not kill him. The second shot was the kill shot the third was a mercy shot. I only recovered the second shot it passed through most of the lion and was found in the rear quarter.