Tales From Los Cazadores: July 2008
Article by: Larry Weishuhn
July in normally a month when I want to be in Africa, pursuing greater kudu, one of the few big game animals I've hunted that I love hunting nearly as much as I do hunting whitetail deer. A sizeable greater kudu, body size about the same as spike bull elk, but with truly magnificant, tall, wide spreading twisting horns over 50 inches or more, his neck swelled due to the annual breeding season is truly a great sight to behold. It's a sight, when seen for the first time will surely take your breath away and cause rapidly increasing pulse rates. I remember the sight of my first wild bull kudu, seen while hunting with Burchell (Frontier) Safaris in the eastern Cape of South Africa. I can't remember suffering a worse case of "buck or kudu fever" as I raised my rifle to shoot. Shaking badly, I jerked the trigger and made a bad shot, the only one made on that sojurn to Africa where I shot many different antelope speices. It took some serious tracking, but I finally got a finishing shot into the bull.
Prior to my first trip to Africa I had read much about greater kudu, from the adventures by Ernest Hemingway to Robert Ruark, to Jack O'Connor and Craig Boddington. By the time I headed to Africa I was so keen on taking a greater kudu, I scarcely throught of anything else. That probably had something to do with my first botched shot.
Then there was the time in Zimbabwe on the Save Conservancy with Jonathan Hume. We spotted a big kudu bull cross an open area headed to the river. Hurriedly we followed. We caught up with bull just as he was about half way across the river. The sight of that bull kudu walking away short circuited everything I knew about hunting, guns and shooting. I was totally "disconbooberated"! The camaraman was saying "Don't shoot!", Jonathan we loudly whispering, "Shoot, Shoot!". I quickly set up the shooting sticks and when I pulled the trigger the bullet hit the water about 30 feet to the left of the kudu which was only about 75 yards away. Thankfully I quickly reloaded the single-shot T/C Encore in .416 Rigby and shot the fast departing kudu with a quartering shot. At the end of the blood trail we found the most magnificant greater kudu bull I've ever seen. Later that night after we crossed the crocodile infested river, in the dark, dripping blood from cape, horns and meat, we measured the bull. His horns were 58 inches long and 57 inches wide and he was extremely massive. I've seen a couple of bulls with longer horns, but none come close to the overall beauty of those long Save River kudu horns.
Since that fateful bull I hunted and taken numerous other bulls, primarily in Namibia hunting with Burchell (Frontier) Safaris, including an ancient bull that had 56 1/2 inch long horns from which at least 4 inches had been broken or broomed. Prior to such breakage the bull would have likely been 60 inches long...my goal at this point.
I will return, the good Lord willing, again to Africa to hunt greater kudu. They are never far if ever out of my thoughts when it comes to hunting. Thus, when the temperatures rise and the winds blow hot in July, my thought drift to Africa in search of their "grey ghost".
But this year I'll not be in Africa. We've been too busy at Los Cazadores with our new expansion, finishing the LOS CAZADORES annual and finishing the last episode of our new "Winchester's World of Whitetails with Larry Weishuhn" television show which deputs the tail end of this month on Versus. Our show times will be on Friday at 10:30 am in the monring and 6:30 pm in the evening. The show will run both 3rd and 4th quarters, finishing the last weekend of December.
Many of the shows this year will be based in Texas, particularly South Texas. I hope you'll tune it to watch.
That said, we're just about completed with our new store addition and madly getting ready for the Los Cazadores Awards on Saturday July 19th. We'll have all sorts of things going on throughout the day including the Los Cazadores Carne Guisada Cook-Off (which incidentally we still have a couple of opening of the limit to 10 total teams), and also as in the past we'll have many of the best whitetails taken in Texas and Mexico on display. Too, wildlife artist extraordinnaire Don Keller will be on hand with his art, Red Wood our old friend and one of the best custom knife makers will be there as well. Then too we'll have numerous other guests, plus as mention in the past throught the graciousness of the Texas Wildlife Association we'll have the Laser Shot set up as well to be enjoyed by youth and grown-ups. Too we'll have food and freshments available on site.
To me, personally, one of the great things about our Los Cazadores Awards is the opportunity to visit with a lot of old friends and quite a few new ones as well.
If you have not already done so, please mark you calendar to be at the Los Cazadores Awards on Saturday, July 19th at the Los Cazadores Hunting Headquarters, 490 South IH 35, Pearsall, Texas. If you have any questions please go our www.loscazadores.com website or call the store at 830-334-5959.
We truly hope you'll join us at the Los Cazadores Awards on July 19th....See you there!
