How to kill a springbok Namibian style
 

I was going through some photos and reliving some past hunts when I came across this photo of my buddy's springbok.

After the shot, we walked up to this springbok only to find it very much still alive. Before we knew it, our PH handed his knife to the tracker then grabbed to springbok by the horns. The tracker then inserted the blade to administer to coup de grace.

Bobby B.

Looks like a good way to lose an eye....

Nice!

Here I was going to congratulate the guy on a great throw! :)

I've broke the blade off 3 Leatherman doing that.

hahaha...ill just throw some more lead i think . :lol:

Depends on whether you want to keep the cape.

I hope that springbok was worth it! You must have got an extra fiesty one.

Bobby B.

No, sorry, never on a springbok. Once on an arapawa ram, another on a bull elk and lastly a buck deer.
Didn't mean I broke three on one critter.

Only tried the knife finish on a mulie doe once after I lost my leather spare cartridge case in the field. My son thought it was gross but it got the job done.

I wrestled a spine-shot 4x4 mulie once....never again. That was too much adrenaline

I made a post here on the forum a couple of years ago about the same type "experience" if that's what you want to call it....I remember it VIVIDLY to this day.

Here's the post....

"Many years ago...probably 15 or so.... I was out hunting some Coulies by my self and came across a nice heavy 4x4 Mule deer laying in some brush near the bottom, about 200 yds away! AWESOME! Put the crosshairs on em' and squeezed one off. His head fell over and he never budged an inch...I knew it must have been a spine or low neck hit from the way his head hit the dirt (NOT where I was aiming). So I watched him for about 10 minutes to make sure he was down for good. No movement AT ALL. So far, so good! So I look at the sky....look at my watch...Ive got about an hour before its blind ***** dark out! Ive got a sheet load of work ahead of me to get this Buck to the base of the coulie where I can tie a rope onto him and drag him up the side with my truck!! Better start movin' fast...grab what I need real quick...NAH...I shouldn't take my rifle, it'll just slow me down while I'm draggin' him through the brush!! BIG MISTAKE!!
I get down into the bottom of the coulie and head into the brush pile I know he's in...THERE HE IS! Right where he should have been! I got to about 10 feet from him and he ERUPTED WITH LIFE!!! CAME UP ON HIS FRONT LEGS AND WAS SNORTING AT ME AND TRYING TO RAKE ME WITH HIS ANTLERS!! I JUST ABOUT SH!T MYSELF RIGHT THERE!!! AND I DON'T HAVE A RIFLE WITH ME!!!! Turns out I'd hit him right across the top of his spine and broken his back, knocked him out cold and paralized him but did little other damage! I look back up the side of the coulie...at the speck that is my truck. Ive got about a half hour, maybe 45 minutes till it's dark out. No way do I have time to go back and get my rifle!! WHAT THE HELL AM I GONNA DO!?!? I finally decide that the quickest solution would be to jump on him and cut his throat!! YA RIGHT!! I would have LOVED to be a spectator to THAT ONE!! Watching my fool ***** trying to get on top of this Buck...jumping back and forth with a knife in my hand while he's trying to KILL me with his antlers! I must have looked like a fool....Finally after jumping around like some kind of crazy ***** for about a minute, I found an In and grabbed an antler and jumped on top of him!! Now, I ain't a big guy...bout a buck 60 soaking wet...but....You have NO IDEA how strong HALF a mule deer Buck is!! He thrashed around with me attached to him as I held on for DEAR LIFE trying to cut his throat! I'm amazed I didn't cut my OWN throat while he threw me around! Finally I managed to do "the deed" and then layed on top of him as he...expired.
I bet I layed on top of him for another 5 minutes because I thought I was gonna have a STROKE from the adrenaline rush!

There was a reason my dad told me when I was younger...don't EVER approach a downed deer without a rifle in your hands!!

Lesson learned"

Our PH in S.A. carried a small, home made .22 zip gun for this purpose. Kudu, gemsbuck, wildebeest - didn't matter. He'd grab a horn and deke in and shoot them point blank at the back of the neck. Instant bang-flop.

Tony S your story is very similar to mine. One handing a set of antlers with a buck trying to gore me was one of the stupidest things I've ever done.

I was pretty sure you didn't break all of them on one critter. It's fun when it's more than one.

Bobby B.

Did you buy a fourth Leatherboy? Looks like a good plug for Swiss Army:) but did he use the corkscrew, the awl, the philips or the...........

No, Leatherman is real good at replacing the tools. No questions asked. I've finished nearly 20 critters this way and it is only when I use the marginally sized Leatherman and need to give it a twist to finish the job that things break.

Wow....you mean no on else dispatches an animal this way?? This same technique works well for caribou, sheep and I assume deer although I've never done it. This causes instant paralysis and the main artery runs right along the side of it....been doing this for years :)

It is amazingly simple and I'm sure that Bobby B. can attest that it "slips" in there without almost any effort....kinda freaky actually. The long sleep is only 30 seconds away at most.

tm

Yup, my go to method for sure. Done several that way.