Rock veteran Ted Nugent told a horrifying story during a recent appearance on his new show named ‘The Nightly Nuge.’ The musician recalled the terrifying moment when a gemsbok attached him on his property, and two of his dogs caught its calf.
Nugent has been a massive supporter of hunting and has a long list of hunted animals to prove that. The musician previously stated that hunting is a spiritual process that connects him to this world and the animals he’s killing are just means of meat, skin, and bone.
Just like many other statements of his, the rocker has strict opinions on hunting and animal rights that caused him quite the trouble in the past. According to Nugent, training himself as a proficient hunter is something he’s very proud of and a skill set that can come in handy for protection.
Nugent has a perfect story where his training saved his life from a mother gemsbok trying to protect its calf. When the musician was checking out the traps on his property with his dogs, he heard the dogs howl, signaling that they had caught a squirrel. However, Nugent saw a calf when he approached his dogs and realized that the mother antelope was near.
Soon after, a giant gemsbok attached Nugent, and he used his gun while trying to escape behind the fences. After the animal showed his horns to his side, from which he luckily got away, Nugent somehow managed to kill the enormous antelope when he got the opportunity. His training and God’s love saved him that day if you ask him.
Nugent’s story of survival follows:
“One morning, I’m out doing my chores, checking the traps, and my dogs, happy Sadie and Coco, they’re the world’s greatest squirrel hunters. They give a certain howl when they’re on a squirrel, and I can tell the difference between a squirrel or a rabbit since they make a different sound.
When I train every day, I train from concealment; I train from clearing my gun and coming to target as smooth and accurately as I can. So, I train with a 10 millimeter; I trade out my hearing aids to hearing protectors. Well, I’m checking a trap down in the southeast corner of our property. I heard the howl of a squirrel. I went, ‘Alright, they got a squirrel’ and went after what I thought was going to be a squirrel shot for the dogs.”
He continued:
“Well, that squirrel howling erupted into an unfamiliar intense cadence of dog speak; it was really intense. I went over the edge of the fence and looked. They’ve got a calf, a calf antelope. We got exotic animals all across texas, and you never know what kind of animal you might run into. We have gemsbok, an African giant antelope with long horns that are notorious in Africa for being the number one killer of lions. They’re very aggressive. I was aware of our gemsbok being very aggressive; we never approached him to avoid any confrontation.
So I crawled under the fence and went to grab Happy, who’s really got a hold of this calf. I could tell there’s some locomotive coming, and it’s the huge gemsbok with this ain’t horns. I immediately pivoted and went for my Glock. It was already out when her horns went on either side of me. I still have the shirt that the horns went through. They kill lions; I’m just a guitar player. I’m old, I have new knees, but I was Bruce Lee for about six seconds.
Before I hit the ground, the 10 millimeter was up; I got off two or three rounds. They all went towards the gemsbok’s head and throat area, which buckled her temporarily. She swung those horns again, and I remember dodging them. Now the dogs have got this giant and 600-pound gemsbok, but she’s still raking me and pushing me on the ground. I’m frantically showing my body backward. It was life and death. There’s no way this old guitar player can survive an attack by a mother protecting her calf.
Now I can see her neck is swinging because I busted some stuff inside. She finally turned to get the dogs which gave me a shot at the side. I gave one, and she buckled to the ground. I’m looking for holes and blood. The number one reason I’m alive today is that I carry a 10 millimeter instead of a nine; number two, I know what gemsboks are capable of, so I immediately went into defense mode, and number three, my training allowed all my shots to register, and number four, God loves me.”
You can watch the mentioned video below.
