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Here I am hanging over the edge of a flat rock, blood rushing to my head and my PH is howling like a baboon. We had never hunted this way in Namibia. Maybe they did things different in RSA, as this was my first hunting trip here.

We, my wife, PH Lochi Lochner and I are in Free State province of South Africa hunting for plains game. I had already taken a good black wildebeest and was now chasing mountain reedbuck around two plateaus that formed the distinctive central feature of this beautiful ranch near Senekal. Mountain reedbuck are naturally occurring game in these parts of RSA. In other words these beautiful little creatures are not stocked in the traditional way of ranch hunting in many parts of RSA., they are just there. Lochi said that some of the best mountain reedbuck hunting could be found on established sheep ranches that were never hunted for traditional plains game and the mountain reedbuck were happy to live in these rocky, mountainous areas that the sheep (and hunters) stayed away from.

My plan for this May 2004 trip was to hunt four days in Free State, four days in Limpopo followed by two and a half days touring in Kruger National park and the Blyde River canyon. Through our travels we found South Africa to be a beautiful country, full of varied and breath taking scenery. The Free State province is wide open spaces with very little forest growth, agricultural land, and a big sky. Limpopo province was thick in areas we hunted, warmer and more humid. In Free State you could literally see game a mile away, in Limpopo we had impala 25 yards ahead, on our hands and knees we could see their legs but could not see their heads. Such is the strong distinction between the two places. And Kruger NP, awesome! We had elephants a little too close and two matured maned lions a stones throw away, their chests and mouths blood stained feeding on the mornings kill. White rhinos, impala, and cape buffalo were seen. Overall, just a great trip.

This was our second day in the Free State province. The previous day we hunted hard up and down the larger of the two plateaus, but we caught only glimpse of the elusive mountain reedbuck and most were females. We did catch a ram about 600 yards away, bedded down. We put on a long circle of a stalk, but we had to go through one last opening before we could be in position to make a shot. Unfortunately this was our undoing and the ram caught sight of us and was off across the open plain in the distinctive rocking horse gait. It was 1000 yards away when he finally disappeared into the thickets of the adjacent plateau.

The mountain reedbuck are in thicker, higher areas of the mountains during the day, but at night descend to the lower elevations to feed and drink. So we were up dressed and out the door, before the first light of dawn. We climbed to the top of the smaller plateau this day, just as the sun was beginning to dawn. We would try to get above them, then spot them as they were coming back up the hill after the morning feeding. Hopefully we would be in a good position for a stalk.

So, Lochi has located a small group of mountain reedbuck as my wife and I are atop the plateau looking in the opposite direction. He motions to us and we follow, slowly, hunched over. We get to the edge of the first drop off and look down over the edge, but no reedbuck. But there is a very good duiker feeding, unaware of our presence. I ask Lochi if I should take him, and he says we’ll come back to him if we don’t find the reedbuck. They had just been there five minutes earlier. We drop down to the next table and peer over the rocks and there is our group of five mountain reedbuck between 175 and 200 yards below us. One of them is a good ram and four ewes. I find a nice flat rock, tilting down over the edge and with my Springfield 1903, 35 Whelen rifle in front of me, shimmy to the edge of the and get ready to shoot. As I do, the group of reedbuck decides its time for a siesta and lie up in a large round bush and are completely out of sight. We are going to have to wait them out.

Now the rock I am lying on is tilting forward with my head somewhat lower then my feet, it feels like I just might slide over the edge and Lochi is asking me if he should hold my feet. Though I have a rock steady prone position hold, we can’t see the game. So Lochi, knowing that I can’t stay there very long and not wanting to lose a client over the edge, starts howling like a baboon, I suppose in order to scare the reedbuck out of their morning slumbers, though now I’m wondering about this guy. After a few minutes of the baboon thing and no reedbuck, Lochi tries the jackal yodeling. Still the reedbuck are not coming out of the bush. Then barking like a dog, and finally giving a manly shout. That got them going, as the reedbuck scatter out of the bush in all directions like a covey of quail. The ram came charging out the left side of the bush at something like 60 mph and my first thought he is gone, but he gets about 10 yards out of the brush and stops, I see that he is a good one and shoot. The ram goes right down. I did not realize that Lochi could not see the ram from his position as he was behind and to my right side. And I was very happy until Lochi said, “did that one have horns”, well of course it did, but now I am questioning myself. Though the shot was under 200 yards, it was long circuitous trail down as I am second guessing myself, and reedbuck has fallen with his nose in the air and the top of his head in the dirt so we can’t see if in fact there are horns there.

We make it to the reedbuck and am relieved to find I had shot the ram and he was a good one, not a spectacular but RW standards, but quite nice and I was very happy with him. Once we got to the ram, and the happiness and relief was released, we just laughed and laughed at with ourselves and circumstances of this very memorable hunt.

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"But I have always held it little short of criminality to anticipate evils, I will allow it to be a good, comfortable road until I am compelled to believe otherwise." William Clark May 1805

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