the Hunter heard as he saw the professional point left. As the rifle bonded with the sticks a male Puku filled the scope standing broadside left. The shot was fast but true and down he went. Johnny gave a bellow of laughter. “You got both Bwana. You’re damn lucky”. The hunter thought, “Luck? I practiced”. His wife, known in camp as Madam, came up to the scene. “I thought hunting was supposed to be hard,” she said aiming the jab at the PH. He just smiled instead of answering. The morning yielded a Crocodile and two Hippo, the afternoon an Impala and Puku. Either hunting in the Luangwa was easy or Johnny was right the hunter was Bwana Freaking Lucky.
The long time dream came true The skinny blond haired boy of nine reread the article again. Outdoor Life provided escape for the youngster and brought daydreams of hunting the tall grass of Africa. Stories of Black Death, the Big Five, Fred Bear and the game that submitted to his arrows consumed every extra minute. The lad was already quite good with his 30# longbow passed down from his older Brother. Oddly enough, except for one cousin, no one in his family hunted. He knew someday he
would. The opportunity came at sixteen. He traveled to a Pennsylvania Deer camp with a group of men known from work. The archery season preceded rifle and the men used the excuse, escaping their wives and families, to half-heartedly hunt deer. None in camp, save the young man, could shoot a bow accurately. He had his deer at dawn the first morning. This brought not praise but ridicule. “It’s a doe (legal)”, he heard from one. “That thing is small enough to still have spots”, he heard from another. The archer ignored the comments. He did what he came to do. 25 years later he was living in the Alaskan Bush and filling the freezer with Moose and Caribou. Rifles replaced his archery equipment. The dreams created with the reading of magazines may have faded but they didn’t disappear. The thought of hunting Africa and Cape buffalo in particular did not reemerge until the hunter moved to Anchorage. His new employer has hunted the world, including Africa many times. The seeds planted long ago began to germinate. One look at the Natural History Museum his boss called home, with all the full body dioramas, only fanned the fires of past dreams. The planning began.
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