Crossbow, 35 yards, and the interesting thing - he tracked him down and put an arrow in him - not from a stand. These guys are master trackers - “hunting proper” as they call it - they are not too big on waterhole hunting where they come from. A little spot and stalk - but their favorite is track them down and shoot them.
These guys are amazing at seeing game. We took them on a duck hunt, which they had not been on before - and they commonly spotted the ducks as specks in the sky before we did - and some of us been duck hunting for 60 years.
Was interesting to listen to some of the phone calls they got while they were here - calls about going on a depredation elephant shoot when they got home, another was a pride of lions attacking some cattle on the edge of their concession and them trying to keep the folks back home from killing the male lions because they had lion hunts sold in that area for this year, more calls negotiating quota for number of animals that could be killed this year on their concessions.
They are amazed at the amount of “stuff” sitting out in people’s yards here. Tractors, 4 wheelers, sxs’s, lawn mowers - all manner of stuff. They said that stuff would be gone first night where they were from. Their houses in town where their family lives is surrounded by 8 ft tall concrete walls with razorwire on top. They all have big dogs patrolling their yards. They talked about the increase of elephants in some areas and I asked what was the reason and they replied “shoot to kill” on the poachers. Their safari company employees 46 folks on the anti poaching units. He said locals would kill the last one of everything if it wasnt for employment opportunities with the safari company and anti poaching units. Interesting to talk to.
