Just when you thought it was safe to stop following this thread…

So from a trophy standpoint, what are you shipping back? Are you doing full body mounts, head and shoulders, depends on the animal, what are you planning?

Bregxit said:

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Courtesy Flush said:

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I came to ask that same question. JapanTiger may need to build a new home or ranch house just to have a place to put all these trophies on display.

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Go back in the thread. He has a trophy house, not a trophy room.

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Does he have a trophy wife?

Thanks for letting us tag along. If you need an Aggie veterinarian to come make sure they're dead next time I'm in. Also just down Bee Cave road if there is a gathering.

May be a stupid question, but did you get a picture of the claws on the lion and leopard. Curious what they look like.

That Rhino was especially impressive. Following this thread has just reconfirmed an African safari (or 2) on the bucket list! I'll be just down the road as well (Spicewood) once our house is completed.

Kudu, Eland, Nyala, Bushbuck

Those are all monsters. That bush buck is crazy

Kudu is my favorite. Love the curl in the horns. Great pics and welcome home.

Kudu is beautiful. Antlers are insane.

Roan, Sable, Tsessebbe
e

1000

Couldn't help myself

Standard, White, Black, Copper Springbok

I am blown away by that wildebeest every time I see it.

Is anyone else curious as to what JapanTiger's blue star count was before this thread? He is at 15K+ now. 14K of those have to be from this thread, ha ha!!!

Well, here is another

CowtownAg06 said:

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Went back and noticed you didn't give us a story on the croc. Thing that big can't be on a line can it?

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Croc hunt was before I started recording these hunts....so here it goes....

Croc hunting was in Limpopo (North Eastern SA) N of Pretoria near the Batswana border. Lot of water; flood plains, washes, etc., and ponds are created as the water recedes. Hippos and Croc bulls go to the ponds to get away from the river and stake out their own territory. The hunting is drive close to the ponds; and then stalk in looking to catch a Croc sunning on the bank of the pond. The shot window on a Croc is a little smaller than it is on a hippo...brain shot into a space a little bigger than a golf ball.

We had gone in on a couple of ponds and the Croc's had moved back into the water as we got close enough to try a shot. Even staying in cover they were moving back into water once we got anywhere between 50 - 70 yds out. But on all these ponds, there was a lot of space between the tree lines and waters edge. So it was hard to get close.

We came into another pond from the W and saw the Croc sunning with just a portion of its tail in the water. But as we tried to get into position for a shot, it got nervous and started wiggling back down in the water. We stopped and backed into the brush. Where he was positioned his head was still well out of the water, but he was facing away from us and there was just no window or angle to get something into his brain. We needed to be on the other end of the pond (the pond was about 150yds across...a little oblong running W to E.

We moved back into the tree line about 50 yds and moved around to the pond to the E and tried to come out about 100 yds past where the Croc was. We were able to get back to the edge of the tree line well down on the other side and had a much better view; and a shooting view if we could get closer. We weren't in an elevated position, so it was going to be a shot off the sticks; not prone.

We just inched our way up the tree line...very slowly. At about 70 yds the Croc started backing toward the water so we just stopped. The top half of his body was exposed and his head was turned so that we had a good line for a shot. I got up into the sticks to see if I thought I was steady enough to make the shot. He wasn't moving; so I took my time and got my breathing well under control. On my pauses I felt pretty steady and was holding just behind the eye.

So I told him I was ready; paused; fired. The shot went right where it needed to go. The Croc bucked and barely moved. Which was a very good thing. As I tried to pull the bolt, it wouldn't come to the rear. Typically you want to put a shot behind the shoulder (break the shoulder) if you can so the Croc can't slither back out in the water if the shot doesn't hit exactly where it needs to. I was doing everything to diagnose the malfunction and wound up with a swollen hand from pulling to the rear and trying to jam the bolt forward to loosen it up. I'm not sure which of those movements caused it to finally open; but the cartridge wouldn't eject; was hung up. Reached in and pulled it out finally loaded another round.

The croc's shoulder and head were still out of the water and it wasn't moving. The PH said shoot it behind the shoulder now. So I did. It moved involuntarily a little toward us but the head was still out of the water and it didn't move otherwise. At that point we approached it. There was no movement but we gave it about 5 minutes before we got close enough to ensure it was dead. The good news is we could just drag it out of the water. It took all of us...it weighed well over a thousand pounds. We used a wench to get it on the truck.

I was still pretty troubled on the malfunction. Never had the bolt just completely freeze like that. The Blaser system is a straight pull action. So to eject and load is just a flip of the wrist. You don't have to move your arm or elbow up and back to reload. Getting multiple shots on an animal is much easier relative to operating a a standard bolt. Easy to stay on the target and in the scope as body movement is minimal...usually. I've shot a few thousand rounds in all my training with the gun and as this was the 1st shot on an animal in the hunt; I had to understand what happened. When I zeroed, there had been no issue.

About all I could think was I "short stroked" the bolt when I loaded the round and the bolt was never fully seated; but the round had fired and I had top loaded that round...the bolt wasn't pulled all the way back when I loaded it. I had the cartridge in my pocket and looked at it. I had never seen one of those Barnes rounds look like that after firing. The base of the cartridge was black streaked; and the primer plate was gone. I'm not sure I know what that means....the PH and others were all all puzzled by it as well. The round had found its mark; but something wasn't right about the way that round had fired.

I immediately went back to the range, top loaded a couple of rounds and fired them without issue...rapid fired a couple as well without issue. Never had a repeat on the trip.

Almost seems like maybe that round was too hot and seized the chamber.

Over pressurized maybe?

From what you just described sounds like a hot round that caused the heavy bolt sticking as well as the spent round!