Stormberg Mountains

Friday: Glassing for Common Reedbuck and Red Lechwe Trophy

We started Friday morning with a full course breakfast before dawn. We were in the land cruiser and heading for the mountains by day break. We parked at the base of the mountains and start hiking up to a vantage point to glass from. Vousei (Robbie’s main tracker) had seen a very large Common Reedbuck in the area we glassed. We spent about 30 minutes. We saw Springbok, a lone Eland, and several female Reedbuck, but not the large male. We continued to glass the plains, which may look like plains from a distance, but are more subtle with rolls, draws, rock outcroppings, etc. that an hold incredible amount of animals without the benefit of any vegetation except for low grasses. We started back towards the buggy. On the way we glassed a canyon that ran from our level up the side of the mountain to the top. At first we didn’t see much, but then after glassing we started picking out a number of Mountain Reedbuck – it’s incredible how they blend in and use the terrain to hide. They make Mule Deer look like amateurs.

The Stormbergs Up Top

Glassing Sides of Mountains

Looking for Reedbucks

As we walked toward the buggy we glassed a grouping of three large watering holes ranging in size from 4 acres to perhaps 12. They were about 3-4 miles away. We spotted a large number of Red Lechwe around the water. Some were standing, some sitting. We decided to put a stalk on them. There was little cover except from some gradual changes in plains and a small number of rock outcroppings.

Water Hole in Distance

Enlarged

We walked down to the buggy and drove to within a mile of the watering hole. We walked up an incline to a rock outcropping and tried to get a shot at the Lechwe. We approached carefully and belly crawled on the top of the rock cropping to get into position. The wind had been in our favor the entire time – blowing across the water hole up to our position. As soon as we got into place the wind changed and blew our scent to the Lechwe – they smelled us, but didn’t see us. They started moving off. The one bull we had been watching never got in range. They sped to a gallup and disappeared over several of the low rolling hills. They don’t stay out all day and eventually make their way back to the base of the mountains to bed down for the evening. They could run, but not hide.

We took a break and approximated where we thought they would go next. There was another large watering hole with some trees surrounding it about a mile away. We started the walk. We were lucky to find an outcropping to climb up. The Lechwe were exactly where we thought, but a bit to far to shoot. We made a new plan. We decided to send Vuseoi around on foot from a different angle and see if they would move towards us. It was a good idea, bad execution. The ran away from us, and ran fast. It was time for a new plan.

Again, we tried to guess where they would be next. We couldn’t see them from our vantage point, but the view of a large relatively flat area was blocked by a very small ridge. Again, things looked flat from a distance, but when we got down into the plains it changed. We started another stalk. Another mile or so. For the mountains it was damn hot. We finally worked our way around and got down wind from the area. They were about a mile in front of us and for all tricky terrain I mentioned, it was as flat as could be between us and them. Great. They were moving a bit, but not a lot. If we spooked them here they could have very well ran back into the mountains which were less than a mile behind them. We sent Vusay in the truck to park between them and the mountains – if startled they wouldn’t run towards the mountains, at least we hoped not.

We decided to start our stalk. We kept it low because they occasionally looked our way. These were antelope, not deer. They saw just fine and there were lots of them. All of the sudden they started to disappear. Were they lying down? Was it not flat? We assumed they were laying down. We moved closer and faster towards them. We soon saw they had moved into a low draw, but we were gaining elevation on them and could see them now. We couldn’t get much closer. We were perhaps 500 yards away at this point. We spotted a small termite mound about 200 yards in front of us. We slowly moved towards it and kept it between us and the Lechwe for cover.

We eventually made it to the mound. The plan was to sit behind it and use it as a rest for the rifle, but it was to low to see the Lechwe. We crawled around to the front of the mound and I slowly worked myself up on to the mound to use it as a seat with my shooting sticks in front. We could see all the animals now. They started to move off slowly. We saw the largest male. He was about 300 yards away. I had my scope set all the way to 5X and I was shooting my 375 H&H – which was at pretty much the extent of its practical range due to ballistics, optics, and the size of game. The wind was also blowing hard to our right. The male was walking right as well. I put my cross hairs on the middle of his body – the bullet would drop and shift to the right and hit is heart lung area based on the distance and wind.

BANG! The big 375 propelled the bullet forward. It seemed like an eternity, but then I saw the bullet hit the big bull – he came up off his front legs and then his rear completely into the air – WOW – I was glad we got this on film. He came down, but didn’t fall. He started walking forward and backward, like he was dizzy, but he did not fall. The herd had started to run off and we were afraid he might run as well. BANG! Another round, aimed at the same point, but it missed. (We found out later he moved back another 50 yards or so to around 350 yards after the first shot.) I chambered another round. I aimed for the top of his back above his rear leg. BANG! He crumpled over. The first shot had hit his kill area, but not taken him down right away, the third shot landed 2 inches away from the first – dropping precisely to the right spot based on distance and windage. The total stalk and hunt had latest five and a half hours. What an incredible stalk! It was very hot. We headed back to the lodge. I showered and took an afternoon siesta after a small snack.

Red Lechwe

I found a tick embedded on me later that night. After I returned home a week later, I developed African tick fever. It wasn’t to bad, but it was not pleasant. It was a like a bad case of the flu. I took my antibiotics and was fine. It is nothing like Lyme Disease or Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever - those are bad and are in the Texas Hill Country now. Give me African ticks any day.