Gary Reeder
not necessarily. I have seen herds of animals feeding in the
Tuesday, March 18, 2025, 12:18

old dried up "pans" or lake beds. I have videos of 800 to 1000 animals in a large herd of assorted species. The herds are still there just not as large as in years past.
We watched several of these large herds while picking out the old bull of the group. I laid on my stomach while John Abraham, our PH, laid in the tall grass to my left to pick out the big boy of the group of probably 350 to 400 Gemsbok. It took him 30 minutes or more to pick out the big bull of the group, then another 10 minutes or more to point him out to me.

When I finally found the herd bull and took the shot the herd disappeared in a cloud of dust, thankfully not in our direction. I figured we would never find the bull but John took his Jack Russell over to where the bull was standing at the shot. The dog sniffed a bit and then took off after the herd. He took us right to where the wounded bull was standing and the finishing shot put him down.
I saw that same Jack find a wounded Blue Wildebeest the same way, out of a smaller herd of maybe 250 or 300. All the PHs in Africa that I have hunted with use Jack Russells.
Two of the Jacks chased a wounded lion into a large briar thicket and they never came out. Lions normally hang out in the briar patches and usually in groups of 8 or 10. The Jacks will follow a dangerous animal without hesitation and in some cases that is their final mistake. The Jack at my feet here is a pure blooded Jack and have no fear. In the second pic down the 2 Jacks in the truck are good dogs but not what is considered true lion dogs. They still will go after any wounded animal but the true Jacks won't stop until either they are dead or the Lion or Leopard is dead.



One bite from this and it's all over. This is the skull from the African lion I took for the preliminary measurement.

An African lion will weigh near 500 lbs and it took 4 big guys to put mine in the Land Cruiser.

I ramble on about Lion hunting but that is my absolute favorite hunt ever. If I live long enough I want to do one more lion hunt. With handguns we are very limited on what we can use in Africa, With a single action revolver it has to be at least 8"and they like it to have a scope but I took my scope off the day we got to the camp. For this lion hunt it was my 5 shot 510 GNR. Good Lord willing I hope to do one more and again with the 510 GNR.