I've been surrounded by a pack of coyotes on a pig kill, by myself, in the dark while my wife went to the truck to come pick up me and the pig. Only had 5 rounds, no pistol. Seriously dicey. They moved in several times, but couldn't decide if they wanted me or the pig. I was loud and aggressive, but never fired a shot. I was sure glad to see the headlights coming my way!
On another hunt, dropped a black tail in Mendicino county, ca. got dark, wife retrieving the truck. Got surrounded by a sounder of wild hogs. They were more aggressive than the coyotes! They just moved in and ate the deer in front of, caring less that I was even there!
In Tanzania, wife dropped a Cape buffalo. There are 8 of us there. We had seen a young male lion pride on the edge of a tiny village. Went back and alerted the villagers. The were aware and said to be careful because they were all 'teenage' males with no adult supervision - and no manners. They hated them and asked if we'd shoot them for the village's safety. Government observer went nuts on them, told my wife and not to even think about it, and commanded us to leave. We do. This right at noon. We hunt our way from the village. After about 2 hours and maybe 15 miles, wifey bags a really nice buff - her first - with 1 shot. No Followup required (375 H&H with the old blue 400g Barnes). Big moment, big celebration, lots of whooping and hollering. The 3 trackers/skinners finally get to work. It starts getting dark. Wife needs to pee. You don't pee in lion country by yourself - ever. I grab the Rigby and we go pee. On the way back to the truck, wifey sees a moving shape in the bush on her side. Says it's a lion. Red alert time. We stop and look hard. Light is fading. We're 100 yds from truck, help, and dead buffalo. Wifey has her 375. We whistle and talk our way back to the truck unchallenged. I grab the ph and tell him that the 5 teenage lions from the village were stalking us back to the truck. He calls BS. Tells wifey to get on the truck and keep an eye out. 15 minutes later, the skinners are still thrashing on the buff. Wife softly calls me from the skinners to the truck and tells me to have a look. There they were - all 5. Licking their chops and drooling. I loudly call the ph over, point out the visitors, and he promptly apologizes. He tells the skinners in Swahili that they need to finish things up quickly. They coomplain. He points out the 5 new visitors. They are now turbocharged! Govt observer hears "lion". He is terrified of lions. He comes back to the truck to see what we're going to do. Sees the 5 lions, freaks out. Grabs his 458 and starts shooting wildly. Then he hops into the truck, rolls up the windows and locks the doors! Fires 4 rounds at the lions. Lions don't even blink in the torchlight. Scared the everything out of the skinners. One skinner is dragging a hind quarter to the truck. The lions slowly and casually move out of the brush towards the buff and the skinner with the quarter. All safeties are off. The bolder of the 5 lions literally brushes past the poor skinner, licks the quarter and proceeds to sit in front of the other 2 skinners, who were working on the back straps. Skinner to ph "what do you want us to do?" At this point there is a lion between them and the truck. Ph tells him not to move and that we have things under control. Right then the other 4 lions ease out of the bush and surround the buff and 2 skinners. Dicey??
The lions are very calm, but all are drooling. Ph tells the skinners to bring the meat to the truck. They are terrified - but they do it. As the 2 skinners move from the carcass with 1 quarter still left, the 5 lions moved in and claimed the buff and started eating! Let's just say - the boys were not happy! Big discussion about retrieving the last hind quarter vs a donation to the troublemakers. Good judgement prevailed. The lions are well. A few beers smoothed things over with the skinners. The 1st lion had actually rubbed himself on the skinner with the quarter that he licked.
It was an incredible show that I desperately wanted to film - even in the bad light. But the situation was So desperate it would have been unthinkable to not have both hands on the 416! I can say it is a searing memory at the top of my hunting resume….
I think it's why we hunt. It is refreshing to change the paradigm and see what the wild, the bush, and Mother Nature have to say. Situations like this have a way of peeling back the veneer of your personality - and showing yourself who you really are.
