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The President of Weatherby Firearms Company Ed Weatherby, will tell you he has been very blessed. He can point to a number of things to reflect those blessings, one being the many hunting trips with his father when he was a young man. But, one mistake on a hunting trip to Africa could have cost him or one of the members of the hunting party their very lives. Ed had hunted deer, antelope, and elk in his home of the USA and pursued plains’ game on the Dark Continent as well. The time of this Blunder he and his dad were after lions in the country of Kenya.
Now early on that July day, which by the way is the winter on that side of the planet earth, the trackers came upon some lion tracks; they tracked them for a distance when the Land Rover rounded a bend and there, less than one hundred feet away, were two lions crouched down, with their full attention on the intruders.
Ed remembers, “My initial reaction (or instinct) as I’ve always done was to bail out of the vehicle and chamber a round in my rifle. I was going to shoot the lion, because of course that’s what we were there for. Just about the time I was about to pull the trigger, I heard all this commotion behind me.” The professional hunter had assessed the situation instantly and reacted as quickly. He scrambled to the top of the Land Rover, rifle in had, while Ed squeezed off a shot to down one of the big cats. The second beast was hit almost before the young Ed Weatherby could pull the trigger on the lion he had set his sights on. Immediately Ed’s thoughts were, “This is rather odd!”
What Ed in his young years and lack of experience with this dangerous of a quarry did not realize, is that the two lions were less than two seconds, or in other words, just two quick leaps away from attacking either Ed or the group. Shares Ed, “I was outside the vehicle which, number one, I was not supposed to do. Number two, the trackers were now in the rear of the vehicle which was open completely, exposing them, and the lions could have attacked them. So, I felt pretty stupid as a 17 year old kid in how I hunted.” Therefore, to protect the entire hunting party, the professional hunter had to dispatch the accompanying lion before it had time to react to Ed’s mistake.
Ed Weatherby may have “jumped the gun” so to speak on that hunt for lion, but one place he did not jump too quickly was his personal relationship with the Savior Jesus Christ. God’s Word says Satan is like a roaring lion seeking whom ever he can devour. Why not defeat the enemy’s plan and be assured of everlasting life with the Creator God? For a free booklet to help you called, “The Ultimate Hunt,” by Charlie Alsheimer, contact us here at God’s Great Outdoors by phone, mail, or e-mail and we’ll get one to you. In fact, we will also send “The Greatest Hunt of All,” by Dwight Schuh along.
For more "blunders" and "one's that got away", go to the God's Great Outdoors
web store and order a copy of Gerry Caillouet's book Hunting Blunders and
The One That Got Away!.
Do you have a hunting blunder or a mishap that allowed one to get away?
Then why don't you write it up and mail it to us here at God's Great Outdoors.
If it gets selected for use in the next edition of Hunting Blunders and The One That Got Away!
you will receive a free copy of the first edition. Send your blunders and goofs to:
Blunders and Goofs, c/o God's Great Outdoors, 8193 Emerick Road, West Milton, OH 45383.
Send a letter to the editor, or submit your own story, photos, or poetry for publication in a future issue.
Have something you want our resident wildlife biologist to look into, then drop him a note.
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