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I would have to say that the two animals I'm most proud of would by my Nyala, and Cape Bushbuck.

The Nyala had given my PH and me the slip for several days, always splitting away from a group of younger bulls when they sensed we were there. Finally, after we had spooked them again, and the younger bulls headed down the mountain, my PH and I ran about half a mile around the mountain, and caught the big guy coming out of the thick cover with his head down, just like a Whitetail Buck on the trail of a doe in heat. In spite of my heart pounding like crazy, and being seemingly unable to fill my lungs with air, I was able to get off an offhand shot from almost 200 yards, and put it down in its tracks with one shot. I've said it before, and I'll say it again: I'd rather be lucky than good.

The Cape Bushbuck was another animal that had been giving my PH and me fits. We were either seeing or hearing them too late for a shot, or we were running into females or young rams. The evening I shot it, my PH, a friend of his, my best friend, our tracker, and myself were spread out on top of a canyon wall looking down into the river bottom. Whoever spotted a good ram first, would have the tracker come get the PH and me, and hopefully the Bushbuck would still be visible when we got set up. As fate would have it, my PH was just coming down the trail toward me, at last shooting light, when I looked down and spotted the Bushbuck ram about 100 yards straight down in the riverbottom. I whispered to my PH.,"I see a good Bushbuck", and my PH. just said, "well shoot him then". I shot, and the ram died on the spot, shot right between the shoulders, through the spine. Even though the Bushbuck died only 100 yards from us, it took us almost 2 hours in the dark to work our way down to it, and get it back to the baakie.

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