Steve Knight

Flint's Mark Mueller just wanted to go hunting in South Africa.

He ended up on a family vacation.

"I asked my wife, Neysa, three times and she said she didn't want to go," Mueller recalled of his efforts in organizing the trip. "So I asked my youngest daughter Alaina. She wants to shoot everything in sight."

Mueller called the Texas A&M student to ask if she wanted to go, and before he was able to give her a date she said yes. Fortunately, her final exams ended a week in advance.

"When Neysa found out Alaina was going to go she said, 'If you are going to go I am going to go," Mueller said.

That meant he had to ask his other daughter, Meaghan, and her husband Jerry Kenny. Although they are working with the Peace Corps in Armenia and aren't hunters, they also decided to make the 10-day hunt.

After arriving in Johannesburg, the family traveled by van to Select Safaris Lodge near Ellisras in the Limpopo. The lodge is located near the Limpopo River, close to the South African border with Botswana.

Hunting in South Africa is on game ranches. The Muellers moved from concession to concession each day, hunting on areas as small as 4,000 acres and as large as 30,000.

Much of the hunting is done riding until a herd is spotted, and then directed by a professional hunter and tracker, the hunter stalks into position for a trophy.

"We would hunt all day. We got up about 5:30 and had breakfast and by 6 we were either hunting or going to where we were going to hunt. We hunted hard. Some days we would stop for lunch at noon and sometimes we wouldn't eat until about 3," Mueller explained.

Among the dozen animals taken by the family, Mueller took a gemsbuck, blue wildebeest, nyala, blesbuk and a kudu. He found the gemsbuck to be the most difficult.

"We were driving and saw a herd at about 800 yards. We had to crawl to get a shot at about 200 yards. After crawling on my hands and knees, my heart was beating pretty hard. It was challenging," he said.

Alaina Mueller is enthusiastic about hunting, but there are some holes in her resume. Her dad started her blinking with a .22 when she was just old enough to hold the rifle. However, besides an occasional wild hog around the family's rural home, the A&M senior-to-be's first big hunting trip was two years ago to hunt dove in Argentina. Her next outing was every hunter's dream trip to Africa.

"I knew it was going to be a trip of a lifetime. I have traveled with my parents a lot, and just visiting other cultures (in Africa) excited me a lot. It was an experience I would have the rest of my life that I know others would not be blessed with, getting to go to another country and hunt along the way," she said.

Alaina, who took a zebra, warthog and impala among other game, got her big-game hunting baptism quickly on the second day of the trip.

After her dad had taken the nyala the first afternoon, Alaina was ready for her first shot on day two. However, the PH spotted a good blue wildebeest that was on her father's list and the hunting party quickly began a stalk. Alaina said she at first sat in the vehicle, then had a second thought.

"I said I better follow them. If they see one of my animals, he would shoot it. That is Mark Mueller," she recalled.

Alaina left her 7mm magnum rifle in the truck and caught up to the group. It wasn't long before a zebra, her biggest trophy of the hunt appeared.

"We saw the zebra and they asked if I wanted to shoot it. My dad said 'If it is an easy shot you can have it. If it is running I am going to take the shot," she said.

Fortunately the zebra eased out into a clearing. The professional hunter set up his shooting sticks and Alaina took over her dad's .375-caliber rifle, a gun she had never shot. That may have been a good thing because she was able to squeeze off the shot without knowing what kind of recoil she was about to experience. She made a clean shot and the trackers found the zebra about 300 yards away.

Later that afternoon, with the more comfortable 7mm magnum, she took her impala.

After Mueller and Alaina's success, Neysa decided she didn't want to be left out of the action and eventually took a red hartebeest.

Even though most of the animals taken would qualify for the Safari Club record book, Mueller said having his wife and children along is what made the hunt special.

"My family being there, that was a big part of it. I wanted to go with somebody," he said.

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Contact Outdoor Editor Steve Knight at 903-596-6277 or by e-mail at outdoor@tylerpaper.com

STEVE KNIGHT
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