“Hemingway and wife die in plane crash in Uganda on banks of Nile near Murchison Falls” read headlines throughout much of the world several years ago. I suspect this caused quite a stir for a few days but it was far from totally true. “Papa” and his wife at the time, Mary’s plane did indeed crash into the banks of the Nile, but both survived. One must suspect if possibly he paraphrased the words of Mark Twain, “The reports of my death are a bit premature…”

Hemingway, like Theodore Roosevelt visited and hunted in Uganda, which Winston Churchill had several years previous described as “The Gem of Africa”. Both apparently loved their time spent chasing dangerous and plains game and it was in Uganda, that the likes of such movie greats, as Humphrey Bogart and Katherine Hepburn filmed their epic movie, “African Queen” and where Stewart Granger starred in several fabulous movies about “White Hunters” and adventurers back when Hollywood had a great appreciation and admiration for hunting and hunters. Let us not forget it was in Uganda where W.D.M. “Karamojo” Bell hunted elephants.

Once the destination for the serious safari hunters, things changed when Idi Amin took over the Uganda government, with and after him came several changes. For a long time Uganda was essentially closed to outsiders and hunting, then relatively recently hunting reopened. One of those who hunted Uganda shortly after it again re-opened was Mark Hampton, likely the world’s greatest handgun hunter, who also happens to be a friend. Upon his return, Mark called to say his safari with Uganda Wildlife Safaris had been nothing short of fabulous, the best hunting trip he’d experienced in all of Africa and that piqued my interest.

It was partly on Mark’s recommendation and my search for adventure that caused me and my hunting partner, Tim Fallon, to get in touch with Patty Curnutte at The Global Sportsman to quickly set up a hunt for the two of us, to film for my “DSC’s Trailing the Hunter’s Moon” television series on The Sportsman Channel. The Global Sportsman had recently worked an agency agreement with Uganda Wildlife Safaris.

Prior to reaching our third and final camp in Uganda, near Murchison Falls, Tim and I visited some of the same places of those who had come before us. The first several days had been filled with hunting Nile buffalo and East African defassa waterbuck in the Karamojo region, then East African sitatunga, Nile bushbuck and other species on and alongside the Kafu River. With those animals “in the salt” in preparation to being sent to The Wildlife Gallery, we were after two more species. Tim still wanted a Jackson’s hartebeest and Uganda kob and I hoped to take a good representative kob.

We set off on our drive from Uganda’s Wildlife Safaris’ sitatunga camp, on the Kafu, to camp near Murchison Falls. Here lived kob, hartebeest and other species, including Nile buffalo and elephants.

Sharing the vehicle with PH Scotty Guthrie and the legendary PH Dougie Stephenson, along with the safari company’s general manager and PH, Christian Weth was great fun. Tim and I were regaled with story after story of “daring and do” and were provided with many answers to questions about the local vegetation, animals and people that lived there.

We arrived late, too late to hunt that afternoon but driving into camp we saw no less than 100 kob, as well as a few Jackson hartebeest, elephants and Nile buffalo. “There’s not a tremendous number of elephants in the area but enough so that we’ll need to be careful when hunting. Same with the buffalo, although there are a few more buffalo than elephants and both can be a bit cheeky. We’ll do our best to avoid them. If we encounter them while hunting kob and hartebeest, we’ll go the other way,” said Christian.

“We have some wonderful kob in this area. I have no doubt there are some that will measure 30 inches or more. I saw two that were at least that long while driving along the paved road into camp, right next to our concession. I suspect they’ll wonder back and forth across our boundary. I’d suggest tomorrow morning we start by looking for them and if we don’t find them, we’ll head to another area,” mentioned Dougie, as their safari staff carried our bags to the appropriate chalet.

That evening over a couple of “sundowners”, Dougie and Christian explained the camp we were in was one they used occasionally but did not belong to them. “We are in the process of building our own camp about two miles from here and should have it completed by the time you both return,” said Dougie with a smile. He knew both Tim and I had already made plans to return to hunt Uganda in the future, even before our current safari was complete.

Throughout the hunt the food had been nothing short of fantastic. The first evening meal in the camp was no exception and included a fillet from a previously taken kob. It was delicious.

I fell asleep listening to the night sounds of Africa. As usual it didn’t take long to spend the night in hunting camp.

We had hardly left camp before we started seeing kob. “You and Tim have hunted kob in Benin,” said Dougie. “Our Uganda kob are not only more handsome but they’re certainly bigger in body and horns and I love their golden color,” said Dougie. “He’s a bit over 20 or so inches but still needs to do a lot of growing. We’ll look hard for something that is at least 24 or so inches, but only after we go look for those I think will go close to 30.” This sounded like an excellent plan to Tim and I.

I felt Christian nudge me, then point at a distant herd of Jackson hartebeest. “As soon as we go check out that area where Dougie saw the big kob, we’ll come back here and try and find a big bull for Tim.”

Less than a mile down the road we stopped. “We’ll go on foot from here. We’ll need to drop into that low area, go around the bottom of the slope and into the next valley. Remember to be mindful of buffalo and elephants, as they seem to like this area. As you probably saw, there were several elephant dung piles that looked really fresh, as did the tracks. Dougie and Scotty will wait with the vehicles, while we check out the valley and if we don’t find the big kob, we’ll head back to those hartebeest.”

Tim and I, along with a couple of trackers followed Christian. We saw kob in the distance, looked at them through our Zeiss binoculars but told by Christian they were “too small and too young.” While neither Tim or I hunt for “inches” we do hunt for mature animals.

Christian stopped, pointed at the ground, “buffalo, fresh tracks,” so we proceeded with added caution. Ahead we could see a relatively open area and no sooner than we stepped into the clearing, we spotted three buffalo staring at us with great interest. We stopped and stood absolutely still. Just then a breeze which had been in our face shifted to our back, immediately the three buffalo spooked and thankfully ran away. Once they were gone, we moved to our left along the brush edge. Off in the distance we spotted many Uganda kob, but also a scattering of several small herds of Jackson hartebeest. After glassing both species Christian suggested we move on.

For the next hour or so we glassed many kob and hartebeest, but all were proclaimed lesser than what we were looking for. While I dearly love to shoot, I also dearly love looking at critters and turning them down.

We made a huge circle and walked back to where Dougie and Scotty waited. As soon as we got close, both start pointing at a distant, and unseen to us, animal. “That’s a really good old hartebeest. Tim, I think this is one you might like” said Scotty, as Dougie agreed.

After a quick drink of water, we headed in the direction of the hartebeest, which were on a distant brushy hillside. I followed Tim and Christian for a while, but then told them I’d stay behind to keep an eye on the hartebeest and direct them with hand signals should the herd or the bull move.

Some 20 minutes later, I saw Tim get into a prone position on a mound, I saw the bull on the backside of the herd flinch and run, then heard the shot. No sooner had I heard the shot, the bull went down.

Several minutes later stood by Tim’s side, by the hartebeest, he was indeed the most interesting animal, typical in the essential look of other hartebeest, particularly Cookson’s hartebeest, but without their “white spectacles”. I was tickled for Tim. After photos and the appropriate TV “things”, we headed in a round about way to the skinning shed.

Driving a two track we spotted a bachelor herd of kob in the distance and stopped to glass them. “The one in the center of the herd looks good, likely 24 or more inches. I suggest one of you try to take him,” I heard Dougie say.

I looked at Tim and he at me, “We got at least two more days in this camp and I’m wanting to get as much footage as possible for the show before shooting. You take him if you want to,” I suggested to Tim. He smiled started to argue about it being my turn, but I guess the look on my face convinced him it would do no good to argue.

This time I stayed on the vehicle where I could watch Tim stalk and shot. Christian, Tim and two trackers took off into the brush. We were easily 800 yards away from the herd. The hunters disappeared into the brush and I could occasionally catch a glimpse of them as they cut the distance. I again spotted them when they had cut the distance to about 150 yards. There I watched Tim set up his shooting sticks, rest his 375 Ruger and looked through his scope. Mere seconds later I watched one of the trackers set up my shootings sticks, so that the crux was firmly rested under Tim’s right arm pit, something that is taught when attending the FTW S.A.A.M. shooting school to help make accurate shots whether near or far.

As I watched, the biggest kob in the bunch pitched forward. I heard Tim’s shot and his animal was down, but in true to S.A.A.M. training fashion, Tim quickly bolted in a fresh round without taking his eye from his scope and kept his rifle trained on the downed animal. A few moments later Tim, Christian and the trackers started toward the kob.

I took that as a sign to head in their direction. A few minutes later I laid my hand on my hunting partner’s Ugandan kob, I ran my hands over its horns and this increased my resolve to take one for myself. After a hearty congratulations and photos, we loaded Tim’s kob and headed to the skinning shed.

On our way back to camp we saw numerous kob, as well as hartebeest. We stopped to look at three, but decided not to stalk them.

That afternoon, after a delicious meal we looked at lots of kob, they seemed to simply pop up out of the ground everywhere after a rain shower. We did stalk a truly big ram which the PHs guessed was 28 inches or so long but unfortunately there were simply too many kob and it was almost like a falling domino effect. Spooked kob, spooked more kob, and more and more, there were simply too many animals. Even though I failed to pull the trigger, I had a fabulous afternoon. It was easy to see why Hemingway, Roosevelt and others loved Uganda and why this region is known as “the green hills of Africa”.

We were a bit slow starting the next morning due to rain but it made no difference. No sooner had we left camp that we spotted kob. Our first attempt was thwarted by nearly walking into an elephant. Thankfully the wind was in our favor and we were able to back out without him knowing we were ever there.

Back at the vehicles we decided to hunt a broad valley. We stopped on the crest and started glassing. “There’s a big ram in a bachelor group about two-thirds the way up the opposite slope, let’s go” came the instructions from Christian. In less than a minute we were on the stalk.

It took a bit of moving from bush to bush, walking bent at the waist, quickly moving forward when none of the rams were looking, to cut the distance to about 125 yards. There I set up my shooting sticks and rested my 375 Ruger and asked the tracker to set up the second set of shooting sticks under my right arm. “Shoot when ready” I placed the Zeiss crosshairs firmly on the kob’s shoulder. I moved the Ruger’s safety to fire, let out all the air in my lungs and started pulling the trigger.

The kob simply dropped where he had stood. I quickly bolted in another Hornady 250 gr GMX Superformance round and watched. There was no more movement.

We approached my kob. I marveled at his sleek golden coat and gorgeous massive, ribbed, long horns. I had already learned early in the hunt how delicious their meat was and wished I could take some home with me to share with family and friends, but I knew all the meat from the animals Tim and I had taken would be distributed to those in need in the areas where we hunted.

After many congratulations and photos, we loaded my Uganda “Gold” and headed back to camp. With my kob down, there would be time to do a little fishing for Nile perch just below the historic Murchison Falls… I can’t wait for my return to Uganda!

Photo credit: Larry Weishuhn Outdoors