Beast of a eland ... love to see and hear more!
The eland hunt was special, and tough. We traveled to the flat land near Okahandja to hunt the property of a friend of George's. The first day, we tracked a small group of eland through the thorn, tracking for several miles to no avail. We ended the day at a large waterhole where I shot a very old Impala ram.
Day 2 was much the same as the first day. We cut eland tracks immediately in the morning. It is amazing how much ground these animals can chew up. We tracked these animals for 6 miles (per my iPhone), never seeing or jumping them once. We broke for lunch at 2 pm, then immediately got back on the trail. After 10 minutes, Dahous's (tracker) body language started to change as he could sense we were closing in on the herd. Within 5 minutes, several eland erupted from the thick thorn along the edge of a dry river bed. George immediately set the sticks, but before I could get on the bull the herd was gone. We all took off running and found the eland waiting to see what was following. Again, by the time I could get on the bull, the animals were on the move. We tracked these animals until darkness fell. Even though we didn't get a shot, it was extremely satisfying to be hunting these animals on foot, the right way.
Day 3 on eland landed us in another area closer to George's property where he knew there were several mature Bulls. This area was more "hilly", so we did much glassing trying to locate a good bull. We had extra eyes as well since George's son, Hans Jurgen, was with us. He is incredible with his ability to spot game. At about 10 am we spotted a cow and nice bull slowly feeding on a hillside. I set up for the shot and identified a small opening in the brush that the eland were moving toward. The cow crossed first, then the bull stepped into the opening. My first shot missed. The shot caused the eland to reverse and start running down hill. The second shot I could hear hit, but the bull never slowed.
When we got to the spot, we immediately found blood. We tracked this animal for about an hour, finally catching him under an acacia tree in a dry river bank. My second shot anchored him immediately. The first shot was too far back, but we were able to track him with no problem. After some pics, we loaded the bull for skinning and butchering.
