South African Republic. Warthog hunting

It's a very interesting hunt. Not only because you are waiting for a warthog, but also because you can see different animals while you are waiting. It is very difficult to take a decent trophy of a warthog from an approach for several reasons. The animal is very cautious and you're lucky to get within 100 metres of it. At the same time, you have to make sure that the male's trophies are worthy of attention. There will be little time to do this. The animal can retreat quickly. As in Russia, the best way to hunt a trophy wild boar is hunting from an ambush, so I had to set up a shelter for a warthog just before the hunt in a good place for this purpose. It took about 40 minutes. The shelter was set up near a pond where the animals come during the day. Then we waited a long time. Two young male warthogs appeared first, about 60-70 metres away. Then older males, but not of trophy quality, appeared at the other end of the pond. It took about two hours. During this time I was able to observe a graceful male Seibl antelope with a fine trophy. Kudu (the grey ghosts of Africa) came out of the bush. They came within 15 metres of us with their young. Another one came out 40 metres from us. It was breathtaking to see these beautiful animals so close.  By this time my PH was fidgeting in his chair. He admitted that he didn't like to sit in a hiding place for too long. Finally, after 4 hours of waiting, the warthog we needed came out. The distance was about 120 metres. Having satisfied himself of the quality of the trophy, PH gave me permission to shoot.  I took aim and squeezed the trigger. The Remington I got that day was probably not well maintained and the trigger was very hard to pull. But I pulled it anyway to fire. And the bullet hit the warthog. It squealed and fell into the mud at the water's edge. We thought the animal was taken, but suddenly it got up and ran into the bush to our left. We looked at each other and froze in anticipation. A few seconds later we heard a noise in the bush.  I was a bit disappointed. I was sure that the 375 calibre and heavy bullet would do the job. But the animal ran away. Now the most interesting part began and it was a matter of hunter's honour to get the shot. After consulting with PH, we followed the trail. There was almost no blood. We took the direction that the animal had run and began to move slowly through thorns, hooks and dry branches of dense bush. We walked about 300 metres and did not find the animal.  We thought we would have to get a dog. Then we changed tactics and, remembering the approximate spot from where we had heard the bush noise, we split up a little and started to search the area. The tactic paid off and under one of the bushes we found the trophy of honour. The boar had literally burrowed itself into the thick bush and stayed there. Now we had to get the trophy out of the dense, chain-linked bush. We grabbed it by the upper tusks and dragged it to our spot by the reservoir to take pictures to remember this interesting hunt. It must be said that despite its small size compared to our boars, the warthog's body was very heavy. It was worth a lot of effort to drag it to the pond. These were the most vivid and pleasant impressions I captured on camera! Merging with nature, seeing so many beautiful animals and taking a beautiful warthog trophy - that's what I'll always remember about this hunt.