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John, thanks for posting these for me. The Impala was taken this past June near Thabazimbi. I was booked with Jan Swart, www.janswartsafaris.co.za who runs a great hunting operation. My PH was a young chap by the name of Harry Fourie. I say this for clarity, as there is a seasoned veteran PH who goes by the same name. My PH was 25 years old, but my oh my was he good. Anyway, we were looking for a very good Impala, and after several unsuccessful stalks we decided to head over to the edge of a large field to break for lunch. As we came out of the bush, we looked out into the field, and there were 2 Impala rams fighting at 143 yards(thank God for Bushnell Rangefinders). They were both of equal size. I got down out of the truck and set up in a sitting position with a tight sling, and after a couple of minutes both Impala turned to face me straight on. Harry said to take the one on the left, so I held high on the center of the chest and dropped him with one shot. I was using a Mod.70 Classic Stainless(I spray painted the barrel with black engine paint), in 375 Ackley Improved shooting 250 grain Swift A-Frames at 3000 fps. This impala was just shy of 27 inches.
The Nyala was taken near Bambatha's Kraal, in Kwa Zulu-Natal 5 years ago. I was hunting with Allen Hallett (phone 033-3975202). We had been hunting Nyala for 3 days, but as usual, the big boys always gave us the slip. The morning of the 4th day we saw this one slip into some thick bush high up on a hillside, while he was traversing sidehill. Allen and I started making our way up the steep hill, and after we had covered perhaps 300 yards, this beautiful beast stepped out of the cover, and started walking perpindicular to us at @ 190 yards. Allen told me to take him if I could, as the grass and brush height required an off hand shot. Somewhere between the wobbles of the rifle, and my shaking, the sights crossed his shoulder and I squeezed of a shot from my Remington African Plains Rifle in 300 Winchester Mag, shooting 180 grain Fail Safes. The shot was a bit high, and hit the spine, dropping it on the spot. His horns were 29 6/8". It is one of my most treasured trophies because of the way we hunted him, as well as his beauty.