RE: Day 5
We started early this morning before light. We had about an hour drive to hunt an area known to have good Red Lechwe. As first light began to break, my PH told me to keep an eye out as this was excellent Steenbok habitat. No joke, the little fellers were all over the place. Darting across the road and scampering through the fields. I began to see larger game on the plains; Zebra, Gemsbok and the like. Finally, we arrived and met the area Game Manager. He would escort us on the hunt as everything is monitored for quality management. Very nice guy, and he knew the area well, as he lives on it. He said the biggest concern they have are with poachers. I guess they're everywhere no matter where you go. As we drove along a dirt road, we started to see a multitude of game: Eland, Impala, Nyala, Ostrich, Steenbok, Duiker and before we had gone a mile: Red Lechwe! Bedded near a small creek was the first Lechwe I had ever seen alive. I had mounted a number of them when I was a Taxidermist, but never seen a live one before. He was a very good trophy ram, but he cut us no slack. As soon as we stopped the truck, he stood up (range about 150 yards) and turned away from us, put his nose on the ground and as he walked away, began to move his head side to side. It reminded me of a Whitetail Buck following the scent of an estrous Doe. "What's he doing?" I asked my PH, "Following a scent trail?" "No," he replied. "That's what we call the Lechwe sneak." "While your distracted, watching his odd behavior, he's putting distance between you and him; now watch what he does when he goes around those bushes." As soon as this old ram disappeared behind some Acacia bush, we didn't see him again until he popped out on a ridge beyond the creek. At a distance of 300 yards. He stopped once, looked over his shoulder and "I'm outta here!" Gone. About an hour later, I saw another bedded ram on the opposite side of the creek. As I turned to tell the Area Manager (A.M.) my line of sight scanned the ridge out his window (they drive on the wrong side of the road over there...lol). Standing up on the ridge line was a super Impala ram; I mean a great one. I stuck my head out of the window and told my PH. His reply was: "Let's go, NOW!" I uncased my .280 and chambered a round. The Impala ram wasted no time in getting out of there, so the chase was on. Every time we would get within my desired 200 yard range, he would be standing in dense cover: ever watchful. We zigged; he zagged. We went down; he went up. Along the way he picked up four more buddies. All of them very mature trophy class rams, but underlings to him. Now we had five rams; with ten eyes on us. I became winded, frustrated, mad and ready to give up, but my PH urged me on. Finally, they stopped above a creek on a sloping ridgeline. "He's 330 yards" my PH informed me. Just as I was adapting my cross hairs for holdover, off they went again. Now I'm really P*ssed off. "This isn't supposed to be this difficult, the shows on Cable TV make it look like hunting Impala is a breeze." My remarks only returned a grin from my PH, so off we went...again. We crossed another creek, scampered up the hill and through dense brush. Out comes a mature Nyala bull with 3 ewe's. Geez, those are one of the most beautiful of all African antelopes, and it was the main animal I came to hunt. I didn't get time to watch them, as they ran off like scalded dogs. We came into a clearing and could see the Impala standing behind a very large bush. We kept inline with the bush and managed to get up to it. It was difficult to see them but now and then I could see bits and pieces of Impala. They weren't going to hang around for picture taking so as they came around the right side and into view, my PH said: "220 yards, the one leading." He set up his shooting sticks, as I steadied my Ruger. The ram was walking and I let him walk himself right into destiny with a Nosler 160gr Accubond. He lunged forward and fell. This is about as good of a South African Impala as one could ever expect to take. I was overwhelmed; not only with his size, but how hard we hunted this animal, how keen he was and how very clean he was. Looked like he'd been through the car wash.
We returned to our search for Red Lechwe and glassed a number of mature rams. But the first one was the best. So after lunch we decided to go look for big boy. We returned to the area driving along a high ridge overlooking the creek bottom. We saw him feeding along the backside of the ridge he had gone over earlier. We parked the truck and headed down into the creek bottom, hoping the ridge and brush would cover our approach. By the time we arrived close enough to see him, he was gone. Only the stampede of a herd of Eland alerted us to his possible escape direction. We continued to hunt in that direction, but after a good long walk, we abandoned our search. About the time my PH and I headed back, the Area Manager came driving towards us. We loaded up and decided to search elsewhere for another trophy ram. We hadn't gone more than 100 yards when my PH said: "There he is!" He allowed the Area Manager to continue driving and told me the ram mustn't see us stop. He was bedded down on the crest of a ridge within some brush. This old slick had watched us walk right by him, within 250 yards. Once we were clear of his vision, my PH tapped on the truck cab and the A.M. stopped. We exited the truck and started back. The wind was in our face so all we did was sneak from bush to bush, keeping our form out of the ram's line of sight. When we finally got to within range (I had sighted in my .280 at 200 yards. Next trip all guns will be sighted at 300) my PH said: "He's 213 yards," and with those words the Lechwe rose to his feet and began scanning the creek bottom below. The wind was in our face, we had stalked as quietly as possible, but I've found most of the keener African antelopes have a sixth sense: he knew something wasn't right. As I placed the cross hairs on his right shoulder, he swapped ends and I repositioned them on his left shoulder and squeezed the trigger. He jumped into the air and landed solid on three legs, circled, stumbled and fell. Tough animals. Gun: Ruger M-77 w/3x9x40 original Redfield Widefield scope. Federal Vital Shok Premium w/Nosler 160gr Accubond bullets. This is my trophy Red Lechwe ram.
