Photos
.224 member
Reged: 04/02/03
Posts: 47
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South Africa's Symbol - a Springbok
Steenbok - A little one but a good one!
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mikeh416Rigby
.450 member
Reged: 24/02/03
Posts: 6051
Loc: The beautiful Oley Valley, PA....
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This Springbok was the first animal I took on my first Safari. I learned a very valuable lesson about bullet selection. I was shooting a custom Remington 700 in 300 Weatherby Magnum, with Remington 180 grain Core-lokts. The range was @100 yards, and I was shooting from a prone position. The Springbok was nearly broadside, so I held on the near shoulder. The ram went down immediately, but when we examined the animal, we found that the bullet didn't exit, and in fact, blew up inside the chest cavity. That scared the bejeepers out of me, because I still wanted to take a Kudu, Gemsbuck, and Mt. Zebra. Fortunately, my hunting buddy was shooting the same caliber, and had 180 Barnse X handloads that he shared with me. They shot through everything. I always use premium bullets now. When you factor in the cost of everything involved in a Safari, bullets are the single, least expensive item.
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mikeh416Rigby
.450 member
Reged: 24/02/03
Posts: 6051
Loc: The beautiful Oley Valley, PA....
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The smile I'm showing disquises my disappointment. Only 20 minutes before this picture was taken, I missed an 80 yard shot at a 34"+ Waterbuck. No excuses, I just blew it. Don't ask me how. Any way, we were headed back to camp, and we saw this Steenbok walking away from a small dam where it apparently had come to water. My PH asked if I wanted a Steenbok, and of course I said of course. I only had a walking away shot from 90 yards, but the PH said to take him any way. I was shooting a 375 H&H with 300 grain Swift A-Frames, and he went right down. The bullet entered the left side of the rump, exited the left shoulder, and then went through the jaw. I didn't think the taxidermist would be able to salvage it for the life size mount I wanted, but Zac Zacarro of Life-Form Taxidermy in White River RSA worked his magic, and you can't tell where any of the damage was. It is mounted life size in almost the same position as the photo, on a termite mound.
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