Ray's mom & dad were waiting for us with supper, as well as another PH named Scotty, then it was straight to bed for four weary travelers. It would only be me, my dad, Bert Hill & his wife Carolyn in camp for the whole hunt. Ray runs a small operation and I think he wanted to be able to stay with me the whole hunt since I was going to be the first disabled hunter they’d ever had.

When we first got to camp, I could see that Ray had been preparing for me. He’d constructed a special "shooting" chair, complete with gun rest, that could swivel 360 degrees, and mounted it onto the back of his safari cruiser. He also had ramps in place leading up to my chalet and the bathroom I found plenty accessible. I must admit, without me there to give any input, Ray did a super job. First thing in the morning, we tested the rig and it shot great. (I’d be shooting 180 gr nosler partition bullets through Ray's silencer equipped Sako 30-06 with for the entire hunt) And after the first two test shots, I knew it was going to be a special trip. That silencer takes almost all the recoil off.

On the ride in from East London, Ray and I had talked about going after a kudu to start my safari. Once he said it would be the hardest trophy to get, I told him kudu was at the top of my list. It didn’t take long to decide.

We woke to a wonderfully frosty morning, clear & sunny. A perfect day to start on.
After an early breakfast and a quick trip to the range, off we went to a concession that held most of mountain country that kudu liked to roam. As soon as we got through the gate, game started showing up all over. Animals I'd only seen on tv shows before now. We saw impala, reedbuck, blesbuck, ostrich & one huge waterbuck as we started our trek up into the hills above a river valley. It was difficult for me to focus on the kudu bull we were after.

A mile later, we spotted a nice one, alone at the bottom slope almost around the first mountain. Ray immediately stopped to glass him as I practiced getting my scope on him. He was a really nice bull, but just not quite big enough to take this early, so we rolled on. Toward the end of that road, Ray picked out another bull on the opposite hillside, a full 300 yds away. He looked good too, they all did to me, but since Ray said he was a younger bull, we decided to practice a stalk, which meant snaking the rover through the acacia trees to gain a little distance before stopping, then seeing how fast I could get a solid shot off. In no time, I found him in the scope and got steady with the crosshairs on him. And that's exactly how we left the boy.

On our drive out, we came across that first kudu we'd passed. This time, though, another bull was with him. A bigger one! As soon as we stopped, he saw us and slipped into a thick draw out of sight. Not in a very big thicket, but he was gone from sight. We weren't going anywhere now though. We could see all his escape routes so we knew exactly where he was. We just couldn't see him.

An hour later, Ray spotted a horn poking out of a bush. The bull was standing in there, watching us as intently as we were trained on him. But he wasn't about to move. So we had to wait on the 'ready' until something happened.

Half hour later, he decided he'd had enough and busted from his hiding spot. Off he went up and around the mountain to our left, and with Ray's help, I swung the chair trying to keep up with him in the scope. He stopped three different times as he moved away, each time behind a piece of brush, or tree or rocks, anything. The fourth time he stopped, though, I could see his shoulder through a narrow opening. (Wary animals these kudu.)