KMG Canada
CGN Regular
- Location
- Alfred, Ontario
Post Lioness Hunt
https://www.canadiangunnutz.com/forum/showthread.php/1601006-Lioness-Hunt-2017?highlight=lioness
As there is no rest for the wicked we immediately piled into the truck after skinning out the lioness and saying our goodbyes, headed for the East Cape of South Africa. The drive being a long one we arrived to find the lights on at the lodge but all the hunters fast asleep dreaming about tomorrows hunt.
The next day there would be no hunting as I was off to visit the taxidermist regarding last years hunt and would join Marius in order to look after a few things back in Port Elizabeth. With this as our days goal we got up early and I went into the main lodge to pour myself a coffee. Two of our American clients were in the lodge and we began talking and getting to know each other over a cup of coffee. I mentioned that I was still in the Canadian Army and he replies that he used to be an officer in the U.S. Army, and once did an exchange program with the Canadian Army for a couple of years. I asked him where he was stationed and he replies "Chatham, New Brunswick." I then asked him when and he says "1990-1992." It immediately dawned on me that he was indeed one of my instructors as an exchange Officer. Here we were, bumping into each other in the middle of Africa, 25 years later! Just goes to show you how small a world we live in.
The next day saw us up early as Marius and I headed out to look for a Fallow deer or perhaps a Mountain Reedbuck. At this point I traded the.375 H&H in from the recent lioness hunt and picked up Marius’s .308. A quick confirmation shoot and we were on our way.
As we climbed higher and higher up the hills with Marius’s Toyota we caught a glimpse of my first Mountain Reedbuck. The binos came out and we had a good hard look at a Ram and just as quickly Marius declared we could do better. Back into the bakkie and we continued to climb when Marius stops abruptly and has a quick look with his binos and says how about a Fallow Deer, he’s a good one. Just like that the Mountain Reedbuck hunt becomes a Fallow Deer stalk.
Marius indicates that the Fallow deer is working its way across the face of an adjacent hill just inside the shade. We start to carefully close the gap between us and eventually we can go no further and slide forward as far as we can in the prone position. Marius pushes across his fleece as a rifle rest and I settle in behind the rifle and peering through the scope discover that he is quartering to hard away for a shot. I hold the position for an eternity as the buck continues to feed and finally he steps forward to continue feeding and I realize his vitals are now completely covered by scrub. I start to shake a bit from maintaining my hold on a steep uphill shot and rest my head on the stock for a split second. Marius whispers he is moving into the clear and I am instantly back on the rifle and acquire his vitals and squeeze the trigger. The buck jumps at the shot and runs quickly forward and up into a circle. I fire again but the shot sails harmlessly over his back. As I work the bolt he drops and we realize that the first shot had done its job.
As we await help to arrive in order to proceed down off the hill with the buck, my wife snaps a photo of where we had started our accent prior to stalking the buck.
After a long trudge with the buck we reach the road and load him into the bakkie and proceed to quickly devour some sandwiches and cold drinks before we continue our ascent in search of Mountain reedbuck. We reach the top of the hill and glass for some time before spotting a group of five reedbucks moving below us.
Marius says if he can see the horns from here then he is definitely worth a look and we are off. We know that this group is moving left to right paralleling the high ground we are glassing from and we move off to the right descending as we go until we run into a fairly high cliff and put on the brakes to once again resume glassing on the flats below us. It seems they have given us the slip when Marius spots them much closer than we thought, almost directly below us. They are standing and bedding in the shade when Marius directs me onto the ram and I attempt to line up a shot. I can’t seem to see exactly where I would like to shoot from the shadows of the cliff and decide to wait him out. We lay up on the ridge for a long while and then the ram decides to stand up and follow some of the other ewes walking away. I get onto the ram and just as I was thinking of squeezing the trigger the rams turns away and walks directly away quickly putting distance between us. I’ll never know if I made the right call or not taking the shot earlier, but this day is over and we will be back out tomorrow chasing Mountain Reedbuck.
The next day we headed out in the afternoon after a quick morning break for some Toyota maintenance time. We were headed for an area where Marius had seen a nice Mountain Reedbuck previously. We spotted the ram shortly after commencing our stalk and true to form he was on the edge of a sloping ridge with a large flat open area gently descending towards us. We slipped into a dry river cut and worked our ways parallel and away from the ram and in doing so gained the wind. We ran out of cover and had to wait patiently until the ram and his ewes were looking away and we started to cautiously make our move from piece of cover to piece of cover as we gently angled up the hill towards him. At one point I stepped on a dry twig and a snap echoed out, Marius turned towards me and whispered “I’ll take your boots away if I have to” We moved ever so slowly picking our way towards him and unbelievably a duiker walked right past angling downhill at about 30 yards away, evidence of how cautiously we were making our approach. We closed the distance and Marius got us behind some decent cover and after a quick look at the horns I slid into position on the sticks. I squeezed the trigger and fired and quickly Marius says shoot again (the hit was a bit too far back for comfort) he dropped immediately at the report of the second shot. As we walked towards the ram Marius commented “now that was a proper stalk!”
That wrapped up this year’s hunt with Marius at KMG Hunting Safaris in South Africa. I am already counting the days until I get a chance to get back next year!
https://www.canadiangunnutz.com/forum/showthread.php/1601006-Lioness-Hunt-2017?highlight=lioness
As there is no rest for the wicked we immediately piled into the truck after skinning out the lioness and saying our goodbyes, headed for the East Cape of South Africa. The drive being a long one we arrived to find the lights on at the lodge but all the hunters fast asleep dreaming about tomorrows hunt.
The next day there would be no hunting as I was off to visit the taxidermist regarding last years hunt and would join Marius in order to look after a few things back in Port Elizabeth. With this as our days goal we got up early and I went into the main lodge to pour myself a coffee. Two of our American clients were in the lodge and we began talking and getting to know each other over a cup of coffee. I mentioned that I was still in the Canadian Army and he replies that he used to be an officer in the U.S. Army, and once did an exchange program with the Canadian Army for a couple of years. I asked him where he was stationed and he replies "Chatham, New Brunswick." I then asked him when and he says "1990-1992." It immediately dawned on me that he was indeed one of my instructors as an exchange Officer. Here we were, bumping into each other in the middle of Africa, 25 years later! Just goes to show you how small a world we live in.
The next day saw us up early as Marius and I headed out to look for a Fallow deer or perhaps a Mountain Reedbuck. At this point I traded the.375 H&H in from the recent lioness hunt and picked up Marius’s .308. A quick confirmation shoot and we were on our way.
As we climbed higher and higher up the hills with Marius’s Toyota we caught a glimpse of my first Mountain Reedbuck. The binos came out and we had a good hard look at a Ram and just as quickly Marius declared we could do better. Back into the bakkie and we continued to climb when Marius stops abruptly and has a quick look with his binos and says how about a Fallow Deer, he’s a good one. Just like that the Mountain Reedbuck hunt becomes a Fallow Deer stalk.
Marius indicates that the Fallow deer is working its way across the face of an adjacent hill just inside the shade. We start to carefully close the gap between us and eventually we can go no further and slide forward as far as we can in the prone position. Marius pushes across his fleece as a rifle rest and I settle in behind the rifle and peering through the scope discover that he is quartering to hard away for a shot. I hold the position for an eternity as the buck continues to feed and finally he steps forward to continue feeding and I realize his vitals are now completely covered by scrub. I start to shake a bit from maintaining my hold on a steep uphill shot and rest my head on the stock for a split second. Marius whispers he is moving into the clear and I am instantly back on the rifle and acquire his vitals and squeeze the trigger. The buck jumps at the shot and runs quickly forward and up into a circle. I fire again but the shot sails harmlessly over his back. As I work the bolt he drops and we realize that the first shot had done its job.
As we await help to arrive in order to proceed down off the hill with the buck, my wife snaps a photo of where we had started our accent prior to stalking the buck.
After a long trudge with the buck we reach the road and load him into the bakkie and proceed to quickly devour some sandwiches and cold drinks before we continue our ascent in search of Mountain reedbuck. We reach the top of the hill and glass for some time before spotting a group of five reedbucks moving below us.
Marius says if he can see the horns from here then he is definitely worth a look and we are off. We know that this group is moving left to right paralleling the high ground we are glassing from and we move off to the right descending as we go until we run into a fairly high cliff and put on the brakes to once again resume glassing on the flats below us. It seems they have given us the slip when Marius spots them much closer than we thought, almost directly below us. They are standing and bedding in the shade when Marius directs me onto the ram and I attempt to line up a shot. I can’t seem to see exactly where I would like to shoot from the shadows of the cliff and decide to wait him out. We lay up on the ridge for a long while and then the ram decides to stand up and follow some of the other ewes walking away. I get onto the ram and just as I was thinking of squeezing the trigger the rams turns away and walks directly away quickly putting distance between us. I’ll never know if I made the right call or not taking the shot earlier, but this day is over and we will be back out tomorrow chasing Mountain Reedbuck.
The next day we headed out in the afternoon after a quick morning break for some Toyota maintenance time. We were headed for an area where Marius had seen a nice Mountain Reedbuck previously. We spotted the ram shortly after commencing our stalk and true to form he was on the edge of a sloping ridge with a large flat open area gently descending towards us. We slipped into a dry river cut and worked our ways parallel and away from the ram and in doing so gained the wind. We ran out of cover and had to wait patiently until the ram and his ewes were looking away and we started to cautiously make our move from piece of cover to piece of cover as we gently angled up the hill towards him. At one point I stepped on a dry twig and a snap echoed out, Marius turned towards me and whispered “I’ll take your boots away if I have to” We moved ever so slowly picking our way towards him and unbelievably a duiker walked right past angling downhill at about 30 yards away, evidence of how cautiously we were making our approach. We closed the distance and Marius got us behind some decent cover and after a quick look at the horns I slid into position on the sticks. I squeezed the trigger and fired and quickly Marius says shoot again (the hit was a bit too far back for comfort) he dropped immediately at the report of the second shot. As we walked towards the ram Marius commented “now that was a proper stalk!”
That wrapped up this year’s hunt with Marius at KMG Hunting Safaris in South Africa. I am already counting the days until I get a chance to get back next year!
