Day 2.
So after a good meal the evening before washed down with one or two beers and some great company, I had slept very well and was eager to get out for some stalking.
The ground is made up of a good number of large valleys with good deep sides and plenty of cover for animals to hide in. I wanted to spend as much time as possible stalking through this terrain rather than driving from one place to the next. So the guys made a plan for a short drive out to the bottom of such a valley.
This would give us all day if required to spend stalking and spotting from points along the valley side.
No sooner had we arrived at the start we glassed across to find Nyala in the thicket way off. The wind was all wrong for these lower in the valley so we continued upward into the wind. We had no specific target animal or species, we just wanted to stalk, spot and decide if it was an animal we could take and more importantly for me an animal or group which would provide a challenging approach and the need to put some leg work in.
I had no intention to shoot anything which just wandered out and presented a shot. I came all this way to make the hunt as enjoyable and challenging as possible.
A little way up we stopped to glass only to find directly in front of us at 30yds or so were some Zebra. They had no idea we were there to begin with, and although they were not in my initial package they were available as an extra. Mark was keen that I should shoot one of these as they were often fairly hard to stalk into close range and would make a great start to the day. I however wanted to take more time to stalk and didn't want to shatter the peace or end the morning so early.
So we sat for a while after skirting the zebra without bumping them and looked for other animals. We soon spotted a group of Eland and a pair of Kudu. The kudu had clocked us and were too young to shoot. The eland however were a good distance off but would make a great stalk along the valley top to try and get a shot from above them. An hour later we were in position and the group were moving up the hill into a shootable and more importantly a place where we could extract them from.
I got set up on my bag as they walked across my position making their way up the valley.
The target animal was identified and was coming along nicely in the middle of the line, when Marks dog decided it would get up and wander out into the open. The eland immediately saw this movement and began to trot up the bank. I could not get a good shot on the moving animal so had to watch as they all disappeared over the hill.
We caught up with them a while later only to find them back down in the valley bottom where they could not be extracted from.
Kudu.
Eland just down in front of us between the tree on left and the light grey rock on right.
An ideal cull animal. Older animal, with a kink in its right horn. But no in a place where we could extract. 260yds from shooting position in picture above.
Still the morning was not to be for nothing and over on the far hill I (again my eagle eye) spotted a lone kudu bull in the bushes.
He is down below the lone lolipop tree seen in this picture below the red arrow. The kudu was 100 yds below this.
The Green arrow shows the shooting point which we stalked into. Distance was 250 odd yards.
It was fairly easy to get into a shootable position and the Kudu obliged when eventually he wandered from behind some bushes out into the open. However due to my earlier micky taking of K who had missed one of these huge antelope at 250 yds the day before, I think the Kudu fever had been contracted by me too and although holing a steady shot from leaning on a tree, I missed! How the hell can I have missed a bloody great thing like that, I was not convinced so we went and looked at the shot site, found no blood, pins or anything other than its tracks (spore as they call it). We could see exactly where it set off from after the shot, where it pushed itself up the bank and out onto the top. In the grass it was far harder to see the tracks as the ground is hard and the grass springy so no clear path. We had seen where it ran to with no obvious sign of injury or a hit. Matt had been watching the shot through his bins and was adamant that I had missed and pulled the shot. We spent a good hour checking for the tiniest amount of blood but could find none. The dog was not indicating a strong track either, so eventually I conceded that the kudu fever had got the better of me. It was a nice animal.
I though the morning was going to end on a bit of a low, that was until Mark decided there were still Wildebeest on the tops and we should have a try for one of them.
After a couple of stalks and belly crawls into the group with no suckcess we eventually got into a position where they were within range. An animal was selected which luckily was a lighter grey compared to the chocolate brown ones. Only one of two with this colouration so easy to follow in the ever moving heard. A brief window of chance arose with the animal stood broadside on without another behind. The 185gr Lapua Mega sent on its way hit the beast, which jumped a little and ran like the wind with the rest of them. Upto the top of the hill then turned and ran back. Probably best part of a kilometer each way. As they ran past our position behind the only bush for 100's of metres I could clearly see blood coming from the exit wound so put another rounds into the beast. It still ran another 200 metres before falling. Tough old buggers they are and not to be shot with a 243 I'd say. (There's a good discussion starter!)
Down the bank he fell, just to give the guys a little work out before lunch.
A great looking beast (IMO). the trees in the back ground show where we were when photographing the Eland.
So a great morning with some exciting moments, a little deflation then a great result. A strange looking beast but very exciting and boy do they cover some ground.
Hope you are enjoying the story so far, I am. I'll continue later.
So after a good meal the evening before washed down with one or two beers and some great company, I had slept very well and was eager to get out for some stalking.
The ground is made up of a good number of large valleys with good deep sides and plenty of cover for animals to hide in. I wanted to spend as much time as possible stalking through this terrain rather than driving from one place to the next. So the guys made a plan for a short drive out to the bottom of such a valley.
This would give us all day if required to spend stalking and spotting from points along the valley side.
No sooner had we arrived at the start we glassed across to find Nyala in the thicket way off. The wind was all wrong for these lower in the valley so we continued upward into the wind. We had no specific target animal or species, we just wanted to stalk, spot and decide if it was an animal we could take and more importantly for me an animal or group which would provide a challenging approach and the need to put some leg work in.
I had no intention to shoot anything which just wandered out and presented a shot. I came all this way to make the hunt as enjoyable and challenging as possible.
A little way up we stopped to glass only to find directly in front of us at 30yds or so were some Zebra. They had no idea we were there to begin with, and although they were not in my initial package they were available as an extra. Mark was keen that I should shoot one of these as they were often fairly hard to stalk into close range and would make a great start to the day. I however wanted to take more time to stalk and didn't want to shatter the peace or end the morning so early.
So we sat for a while after skirting the zebra without bumping them and looked for other animals. We soon spotted a group of Eland and a pair of Kudu. The kudu had clocked us and were too young to shoot. The eland however were a good distance off but would make a great stalk along the valley top to try and get a shot from above them. An hour later we were in position and the group were moving up the hill into a shootable and more importantly a place where we could extract them from.
I got set up on my bag as they walked across my position making their way up the valley.
The target animal was identified and was coming along nicely in the middle of the line, when Marks dog decided it would get up and wander out into the open. The eland immediately saw this movement and began to trot up the bank. I could not get a good shot on the moving animal so had to watch as they all disappeared over the hill.
We caught up with them a while later only to find them back down in the valley bottom where they could not be extracted from.
Kudu. Eland just down in front of us between the tree on left and the light grey rock on right. An ideal cull animal. Older animal, with a kink in its right horn. But no in a place where we could extract. 260yds from shooting position in picture above.Still the morning was not to be for nothing and over on the far hill I (again my eagle eye) spotted a lone kudu bull in the bushes.
He is down below the lone lolipop tree seen in this picture below the red arrow. The kudu was 100 yds below this.
The Green arrow shows the shooting point which we stalked into. Distance was 250 odd yards.
It was fairly easy to get into a shootable position and the Kudu obliged when eventually he wandered from behind some bushes out into the open. However due to my earlier micky taking of K who had missed one of these huge antelope at 250 yds the day before, I think the Kudu fever had been contracted by me too and although holing a steady shot from leaning on a tree, I missed! How the hell can I have missed a bloody great thing like that, I was not convinced so we went and looked at the shot site, found no blood, pins or anything other than its tracks (spore as they call it). We could see exactly where it set off from after the shot, where it pushed itself up the bank and out onto the top. In the grass it was far harder to see the tracks as the ground is hard and the grass springy so no clear path. We had seen where it ran to with no obvious sign of injury or a hit. Matt had been watching the shot through his bins and was adamant that I had missed and pulled the shot. We spent a good hour checking for the tiniest amount of blood but could find none. The dog was not indicating a strong track either, so eventually I conceded that the kudu fever had got the better of me. It was a nice animal.
I though the morning was going to end on a bit of a low, that was until Mark decided there were still Wildebeest on the tops and we should have a try for one of them.
After a couple of stalks and belly crawls into the group with no suckcess we eventually got into a position where they were within range. An animal was selected which luckily was a lighter grey compared to the chocolate brown ones. Only one of two with this colouration so easy to follow in the ever moving heard. A brief window of chance arose with the animal stood broadside on without another behind. The 185gr Lapua Mega sent on its way hit the beast, which jumped a little and ran like the wind with the rest of them. Upto the top of the hill then turned and ran back. Probably best part of a kilometer each way. As they ran past our position behind the only bush for 100's of metres I could clearly see blood coming from the exit wound so put another rounds into the beast. It still ran another 200 metres before falling. Tough old buggers they are and not to be shot with a 243 I'd say. (There's a good discussion starter!)
Down the bank he fell, just to give the guys a little work out before lunch. A great looking beast (IMO). the trees in the back ground show where we were when photographing the Eland. So a great morning with some exciting moments, a little deflation then a great result. A strange looking beast but very exciting and boy do they cover some ground.
Hope you are enjoying the story so far, I am. I'll continue later.
