I can still visualize the shot, and I'm quite certain I wasn't aiming that high on the kudu. I'm also certain the rifle wasn't at fault. So I either flubbed the shot completely--which is certainly possible--or, more likely, that little bit of brush that I dropped the hold into sent the bullet skipping a bit high. Either way, that wasn't the conclusion I had envisioned, and I probably shouldn't have taken that shot.

Life would be wonderful if all shot presentations were in the open at close range, but that isn't always the way things work. The author photographed these two wonderful bulls an hour before the debacle but says, "Of course I was looking for that extra inch or two of horn!"

Unfortunately, I did, and I have to live with it. I hope the kudu recovered, and I believe this was the case since another safari followed immediately in the same area and no gathering of vultures was ever seen. Of course, in Africa the rules are very clear: If a single drop of blood is found, that's your animal. It counts on your license, and you must pay the trophy fee. I did.

Are there lessons here? I'm sure there are, but let's make sure we don't learn the wrong ones. Obviously, no one should take a shot on game without reasonable certainty of good shot placement, and last-day desperation is no excuse for a chancy shot. Brush is always a problem, and we all know there are great risks any time there's brush in the way.

A big, heavy bullet is no better at "bucking brush" than a light, fast bullet, but having plenty of gun for the job at hand does sometimes help--but not if the bullet goes into a totally non-vital area. I wouldn't have taken that shot at all had I been carrying a 7x57 or .30-06. That said, it looked good and felt good--not perfect but good enough. The fact that it went awry isn't de facto proof that I shouldn't have tried it.

Realistically, it isn't a perfect world, although there are plenty of writing and video pundits who make it appear so. You do the best you can, but sometimes shots go wrong, and this can happen with easy shots as well as difficult ones. If it hasn't happened to you, stick around. It shouldn't happen often, but it's going to happen. I've missed hard shots and I've missed easy shots, and I will again.

Far worse than a pure miss, of course, is a wounded animal. Unfortunately, if you hunt long enough this, too, will happen to you. That kudu isn't my first lost animal, although it is the first in perhaps a dozen years. I hope it's my last, but, realistically, that's a tragedy that all hunters must deal with.

If you don't feel really bad about it, then you're in the wrong game. But you have to deal with it, get past it and go forward. And, hopefully, learn from your mistakes. I'm still trying to learn from mine.