Hogpatrol
AH ambassador
- Joined
- Apr 13, 2013
- Messages
- 8,765
- Reaction score
- 28,436
- Location
- Delaware, USA
- Media
- 96
- Articles
- 5
- Member of
- Atglen Sportsmen's Club, NRA, SCI
- Hunted
- RSA, DE, NJ, PA, KS, TX, ME
Thinking back on the hunt, a memorable stalk on a mountain reedbuck sticks in my mind. We were heading back to the ranch when Nick spots two on a hillside laying perpendicular to the lane and facing away from the direction we were heading. Nick asks me if I want to give them a go and I quickly reply yes. Driving away from them and up over a rise in the road, we were able to get out of the truck, remain out of sight, hop the fence and start up the hillside so as to be fairly parallel with their position. I followed Nick as we weaved bush to bush, ducking down when in the open. We could not see them and hoped they'd still be there when we got close enough for a shot. Daylight was dimming fast and thinking to myself I'm going to be shooting in low light, I turned the knob on the scope to illuminate the crosshairs on low green. As we neared their spot, we could see them still laying with their heads on the left and facing away from us. Ranged at a little over 100 meters, we were partially hidden adjacent to an acacia bush, Nick said let's set up here. Fortunately, the wind was in our favor and not enough for them to wind us or to drift the shot. I quickly check for any cactus, clear away a couple small rocks and plop down on my butt. I pull the legs of the bipod down in to position, extend the legs and get comfortable. Nick glasses them and says, the one on the right is the ram. Can you see him? I have the scope set on the lowest power, five, and can see the neck, heads and horns but no body. Nick asks if I can take the shot. I reply in the affirmative. I put the bottom of my left shoe against the left leg of the bipod, left hand at the top of the same leg and preload the bipod in to my shoulder. Steady as a rock, I have the crosshairs on the middle of the neck, I slowly take up the slack in the two stage trigger, keep squeezing until the gun fires. Maintaining cheek weld, the recoil obscures the hit and then I hear Nick say, you got him. When I do look, the other one is long gone and running up the hillside and I see a little bit of white where the ram laid. The shot hit him a little off center but the kill was quick and clean. Nick radios the trackers and within a few minutes were even with us and preparing to retrieve the animal. My buddy Mark says, "Man, you guys walked a long ways". I said "Yeah, I thought we'd never get there". A ballpark estimate on my part, I figured we walked at least a half mile. Even though this was primarily a cull hunt, Nick did his best to make it an exciting and satisfying one and this kill ticked both of those boxes.
