A Dark Continent Cast Bullet Revolver Hunt, Part 2
My friend Dick showed his confidence with cast bullets and big revolvers by using it on an out of country hunt — not an inexpensive proposition.
Let’s review the rest of Dick’s Africa handgun experience here in part two.
The Grey Ghost, or Kudu, is one of Africa’s most coveted trophies!
Here’s Dick with his! One shot and dow
Kudu
Dick relates, “I was so torn between Kudu and Sable for months; I just couldn’t make up my mind. The Kudu was a bedtime dream animal for many years growing up with BB guns, pellet guns, 22s, 30/30s, an old model 8A Remington 30 Remington my dad had, model 70s, many, many Ruger #1s and then dialing it back down to TC single shots and finally, about 25 years ago, pretty much revolvers only. What a ride it has been.
“It was cool at 5:30 a.m. when someone softly tapped on my door and said, ‘Good morning, sir,’” handing me a tall glass of juice and fading into the dark. Man, it’s going to be a great day, I think. Cristo, an older professional hunter (PH) was taking me for Kudu, the animal of my dreams and I was on Cloud 9. I had been seeing the “Gray Ghost” of Africa for several days, and I was wound up pretty tight wanting to get after them. Cristo said he knew where some bulls liked to hang out.
“Cristo and the tracker were talking a bit in Afrikaans, not to keep anything from me, but because the tracker did not speak English. This particular tracker could snap his fingers as loud as a bullwhip. It was amazing. He was on the back of the truck while Cristo and I were in the truck. Even being almost deaf, I could hear him snap those fingers when he spotted something.
“Anyway, we travel a few miles and Snappy goes off in the back of the Land Cruiser and it’s game on — we’ve got Kudu somewhere in sight. Cristo looks at me, smiling. We slow down, then ‘Snappy’ jumps off, looking at 500 tracks, pointing off through the brush. We take off and sure enough, we bump into two Kudu bulls, and they are running.
“This chess match goes on for an hour. Snappy somehow keeps sorting out those tracks — it doesn’t seem possible. Finally, we drop off the tracker. Cristo says we will circle, getting the wind, and the tracker will work back towards us. Twenty minutes go by, and we see the bulls sneaking up to the edge of the cover.
“Now they have a decision to make, break out in front of us, or turn back towards Snappy. Cristo whispers, ‘Shoot the back one, it’s 82 yards.’ I thumb back the hammer on the Bisley, sending a 282-grain HP through both front shoulders. He never takes a step. After 70 years, those dreams have come true. The old rooster from Idaho just got his Kudu!”
Dick and his Gemsbok taken with the FA .41 Magnum. Again, one shot and Dick had his trophy!
Dick’s FA .41 Magnum with Leupold 2.5X8 scope.
Gemsbok
“The Kudu is known as the Grey Ghost, the Cape Buffalo is nicknamed Black Death, but I’m not sure of a nickname for the Gemsbok. Over a five-day period, I came up with a few names for them, but I can’t repeat them here, sorry. All I can say is I saw lots and lots of them and they just don’t stop running.
“I re-zeroed my Freedom Arms .41 Magnum three times, hoping to get the right load in there in case one of them stopped in the same zip code.
“The 255-grain WFN bullets were shooting great out to 100 yards, but not beyond. The PH had me re-zero to 150 yards with the Hornady 210-grain XTPs. When we got down to the very last day, he decided we had better switch gears again and go back to the heavy bullets and hunt from a blind, something I really was trying to avoid. Nothing against blind hunting, I’ve done it before and I’ll do it again. I just wanted to hammer one while we were looking at each other. They owed me!
“We got set up and had some Waterbucks come in, then a big Impala ram, then two Blue Wildebeest, then two Gemsbok. Hey look, they can stand still but oh baby, were they wired. It was a bull, a cow, and the cow had super long horns. She was also pregnant. Then some Golden Wildebeest came in.
“My PH for the day was Bila, pronounced Beala. He leaned right up against my ear and whispered, ‘Shoot the bull.’ It almost sounded like a joke. I love to shoot the bull ….
“The shot was broadside at 54 yards, and I did the high shoulder shot. It ‘brosted’ him pretty good, he never took a single step! Thanks, Kelly!”
Dick had used cast bullets sent to him by Kelly Brost, previous owner of Cast Performance.
Here’s Dick’s 282-grain HP bullet recovered from his Zebra.
It’s from an MP Molds copy of RCBS 270 SAA.
The recovered slug weighed 160 grains from the Zebra.
Dick’s LBT 308-grain slug, before and after, with 100% weight retention.
Notice how the slug just riveted itself?
Here’s the nose of the 308-grain slug.
Here’s a slug from Dick’s buddy which almost traveled the full length of
a Kudu, ending just in front of the hip. The humble cast lead bullet does the job!
Dick’s custom .45 Colt Bisley with 8.5" barrel and red dot sight.
Epilogue
My buddy Dick got it done and done well! All with a couple revolvers with homegrown cast bullets/handloads. You couldn’t expect better performance from the guns, loads, or hunter. This isn’t to say cast bullets are the best bullet to use, but shows they are very capable when a cool-headed shooter places his bullets where they need to go.
