I promise I won't bite...

Today we are at a new camp by Vryburg and we’ve had a really special day. The goal of today was lion hunting. Here is Jamie’s story:

Danie asked the property owner, Johnny, how aggressive the particular lion was that we were after and Johnny’s response was, “Well, you never really know.” The first thing I thought when I saw him was that the lion was not afraid and concluded he must either be really tame…or not tame at all!

We spotted him at one gate and went into another gate so we could get around him. We drove to where we thought we should get out to walk and intercept where he was. Danie and Johnny both had their 458’s and I had my 375 RUM as we went to look where he was, stopping to glass into the bush every few paces. When we got to where we could see he had been lying, he wasn’t lying there anymore! We continued on figuring we’d pick up his track where he went into the bush and continued to stop and glass every few paces. We came to the edge of a small clearing and Danie and I both stopped to glass the opposite side of the clearing. After going about another two paces, the other guy exclaimed, “There he is!” He was where Danie and I had just glassed, stalking us from behind. The lion was 60-70 yards away with only some small brush between him and us. We quickly discussed whether we should try to get closer and I said we should wait and see if he lays down, thinking that if we tried to get closer while he was still standing then he would likely charge. The lion crept forward to the edge of the bush on his side of the clearing and did eventually lay down. We decided not to try to get closer presuming he would charge if we did. Looking thought the scope I found a small opening in the bush directly into his chest.  Danie, the other guy with us and I were all trying to get the shooting sticks up in front of me. We got the gun on the sticks and my first shot was good but a few more shots were fired for good measure. When we walked up to him, we threw rocks at him every few feet. The other guy with us could really throw rocks! He was throwing them starting at 40 yards and continued to do so every few yards. At about 7-8 yards from the lion he was going to throw one more under the brush and it ended up hitting Danie’s rifle barrel.

After the hunt Johnny told me that he hadn’t said anything before this since different people take things differently, but he said he had been nervous going out to hunt because he knew this lion was quite aggressive and a fighter. This was only the second time in his history of hunting 300 lions that he had ever been stalked. Just after the hunt Johnny called his mom whom he said had been down on her knees until after this hunt was over. His wife’s dad also called from a funeral he was attending of a family member to check in. Glasses of champagne were all around as we concluded the hunt with photos and memories for a lifetime.

When I first saw the lion I honestly thought it was a huge rock at my first glance. Whenever I think about a lion, I have always concluded that they really aren’t as big as I think they are, but seeing this one up close and personal gave me a new permanent appreciation for their size. I had Jamie take this photo for posterity of that realization.