Wednesday 12 Aug ‘26,
Day 11 hunt
day 8- morning
The weather had definitely turned- overcast at night so it didn’t cool off near as much as before. Increased humidity as well. The days were not as warm though and the cloud cover would block the Sun’s rays.
We drove out as usual. The bait by tamarind camp had a cool video of a lioness chasing that female leopard up the tree! A lioness will climb pretty high up.
A herd of buffalo crossed in front of us by one of the pans, nothing of size or age. Just nice to see a herd of wild buff.
Then we spotted impala! That had become a joke since every time we saw movement it was always a group of impala . They were everywhere.
But this was no ordinary impala- it looked like the one we had seen the first day there. Johnny got excited and we got out. And tried to set up- too many impala and no safe shot without risking wounding another.
We kept after the herd. They would jump and spook like impala do. We kept after them, scanning for the big one. They would calm down and we would close the distance, but thick bush was always in the way.
Multiple times it happened, and the winds were unreliable. But we kept after it. It would seem the herd would split and go different directions but somehow we stayed with them. We had been at it for over an hour- pretty dedicated since normally we wouldn’t spend so much time on an impala! I had been on the sticks a few times with no clear shots and moving impala.
We came out to a semi opening and Johnny confirmed which was the shooter- I quickly got on sticks and saw him moving. Johnny had stepped to the side and apparently lost the ram. I had him in my crosshairs moving from right to left. I followed and when I saw as at his shoulder touched the light trigger.
Boom! -Johnny wasn’t ready for the shot and I apologized for the muzzle brake (I didn’t have time to sight in with out it, and Zim doesn’t allow suppressors) with his ears ringings he looked a bit perplexed and asked what I saw to shoot at? The impala! I was done chasing them and willing to take a higher risk shot!
Neither of us had seen the impact. So we made our way up to he last was. Half way there I saw the telltale white belly hair and pointed. Johnny wondered what I was pointing at- it quickly became apparent as we got up there!
No ground shrinkage! The ram was beautiful and unique in its shape! Long curvy horns!
I did hit a bit back with the movement of the impala at 100 yds but it was also slight quarter away. Needless to say it was very effective and quite an impressive animal.
I didn’t think this safari would result in my first 2 ever impala, and one that turns out to be Johnnys best ever at 25.5”
Chiedza and Luke did carry it out part way til they could get the cruiser in. We had tracked the impala almost a kilometer in. Sooo much more satisfying to work for a trophy of this caliber than to just shoot it from the truck! Johnny really likes to do it the proper way!