I have to agree with you totally about the Mountain Reedbuck. I just wish I had been able to hunt Mt. Reedbuck on flat ground like those guys above.

I did my once in a lifetime African Plains game package hunt in 2002 and 6 weeks after knee surgery. It was a great hunt, one I will never forget. The Mountain Reedbuck is the most memorable animal I took on that trip. I took the Mountain Reedbuck as an extra animal outside the package.

I had seen Mountain Reedbuck several times while we were out looking for other animals. They are a smaller animal. They were extremely weary and when we went after them they always eluded us. The last day, I had all the animals in the package so we spent the entire day looking for a Mountain Reedbuck.

We spent a lot of time glassing and finally found one high up on a mountain side. We had experienced sleet and snow the day before and had low clouds threatening snow, covering the peaks on this day. This herd of animals was moving in an out of the cloud cover on the steep near cliff like mountainside at what we learned later was 800 feet above us. We made a stalk that took 2 1/2 hours to get up near the animals. When we got to where we wanted to be, we couldn't find them. The PH, who was about 10 feet above me, finally spotted them. He signaled he could see them and for me to come up. I got up to him and he whispered he could see the animal moving down towards us. He said they would pass through an opening about 25 yards away. The PH was moving out of the way for me, when the small herd started through the opening. The PH sat back and told me to put the rifle over his shoulders and shoot. Then he put his fingers in his ears which was his signal to shoot. The buck stepped into the opening and stopped broadside. I shot. I saw the bullet hit the rocks behind the animal. The animal just stood there. I worked the bolt and started to shoot again and the PH said wait you got him. The animal turned toward us and watched us. We sat there and stared him down. After what seemed like a lifetime he turned walked about ten yards and lay down under a bush and went to sleep.

I told the PH it was a good thing we got the animal when we did as my knee would not have let me climb another step up the mountain side. The PH took about 20 minutes to pack the animal back down the hill. We had not brought a tracker up with us. But when the PH got to the truck, he sent the tracker up to help me. When the tracker got to me he wanted to take my rifle and day pack but I wouldn't let him. I packed it up, I pack it back. It took me 45 minutes to limp down off the hill. We went back to Farm and I sat in easy chair the rest of the day. To me that Mountain Reedbuck was the toughest hardest animal I hunted over there.

I hope to make another once in a lifetime trip in few years to Namibia. I don't intend to hunt animals I have already taken, unless they have Mountain Reedbuck...