After spending 10-11 days trying to get a cape buffalo and finally succeeding, it was time to hunt some plains game.
Actually I took my Nyala on the 8th or 9th day as I wanted to get something in the salt and raise spirits a bit as we were all getting quite dejected and a bit cranky at the buff as they kept evading us.
We were just poking along early one morning and seen him standing behind some thick bushes. My PH said he was a nice mature male and to take him if I wanted. I was a bit hesitant as we had seen some really magnificent Nyala bulls during the past week. But I figured bugger it, he was there, he was a nice bull so I swung the big .460 towards him. I did have the .257 Roy on the rack in front of me and I wish I could have used it on him, but I didn't think I'd have enough time to swap them over. Anyway, He was hard to make out in the dark thicket. I was confident I was on his shoulder and squeezed the trigger. It came as a surprise that he bolted off seemingly uninjured! The trackers went to work and found him piled after a 80 yard dash. My shot was either off or deflected off a branch and just ripped the front of his neck open. Photos were taken and he was taken to the shed to be skinned out for a full body mount.
The Impala was taken pretty easy as it walked directly away from me at around 40m. I hit him with a rear end racking shot with a 115grn TSX from the .257 Bee. It entered his back leg and came out near the front shoulder. He fell over, rolled down the hill and sat there not dead yet. So I gave him another one.
We seen the Bushbuck as we were literally driving along the Zimbabwe/South African border and he ran off before I could get a shot. We knew he was a good looking buck so tried following him. After weaving our way thru the bush he was spotted standing in the thick bush on top of a small rise about 50m away. I swung the custom seat and found his shoulder was the only part exposed thru a small gap in the thorn bush. After the shot he jumped at the impact, bolted 10m and collapsed! He too is destined for a full body mount.
Getting a Duiker was going to be hard on this place as the bush is just so thick and the little buggers are that flighty I never even came close to getting a shot at one. But we were set up in one of the permanent blinds hoping to get my girlfriend Jas a nice Impala when out of nowhere the little fella walked out. It was a mad scramble to quietly take the rifle from the rest it was set up on to another window for the shot. I could only just see out of the window but managed to hit him behind the shoulder with the .257 and he stumbled forward and into the dry creek bed. And so yep he too is being full body mounted.
I then took a few baboons from the front deck of our tent as they moved about across the river.
For Jas's Impala we were again set up at a blind waiting for either an Impala for her or a Eland for me. It was the 2nd last day and getting late when this cull Impala came in so Peet said to take him so she at least has one and we will hopefully find a trophy one the next day. So she smacked him behind the shoulder and he ran off but dropped not far out of sight. She was over the moon withit! She even said she liked it more than a normal trophy Impala as it was different.
On the last day we went up the river to set up and see if a nice Female Nyala would come out for Jas to take. We were there barely 10 minutes and several started coming down to drink. The most visible ones were too young or had babies with them. But one mature girl with no offspring stood back in the bush with only her head and neck showing. Jas had a steady rest and took her cleanly with a neck shot. We now had a matching pair of Male & Female Nyalas destined to both be full body mounted side by side.
Overall it was one awesome trip! My rifles worked perfectly, however I feel for the smaller of the plains game I took the 100 grain TSX or even a standard SP would of worked better. But I went with the 115 grain in case I got a shot at big Kudu, Gemsbok or Zebra.
Anyway sorry for the long story but it's hard to fit over 2 weeks of hunting into a short story.
Cheers guys,
Brett
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