Doug: There are always stories, way too many to tell here, but I will tell one. I came very near getting a shot at an Eland, here's how it happened.
I was setting in the Impala stand very North end of the property, Don't know how it got it's name the Impala stand, but I did shoot my Impala there 3 days earlier. We were in the middle of a cold front, still cant get used to having cold wind blow from the South, and the game had been moving very late in the evening as the wind would lay some. It was a good evening sit, had several Wart Hogs in as usual, they always help you pass the day, and will definitely let you know when the wind switches. Had one small group on Impala in at about 5:00 pm, then things started to pick up, 2 Gemsbok and a lone Kudu cow came in around 5:30, it was gettin dark around 6:00 so if a shooter was coming in it would be soon. I was in a tower blind overlooking the water hole, these stands have been here for a very long time and the animals are very much aware that smetimes bad things happen from them, so any noise at all and everything is gone before you can even look up. So, knowing this I knocked an arrow and stood up in a shooting position facing the opening in the blind, all I had to do was draw and shoot. A Geraffe came from my left and started eating leaves from a tree just 20 yards from me. Good decoy, I thought. Then I saw it, huge animal coming from my right, I said to myself, Lord be with me on this shot, I don't know if I can make it by myself. It's definitely an Eland, 5:45 plenty of shooting light, then I remember Antonie had said that the Bulls made a clicking sound when they walked, no noise. A cow, she came in, non stop, stood broadside at 15 yds. and drank for about 5 min., she was huge, very large horns, but straight up and down not in the V shape of a bull and not as heavy as the pair that Antonie had hanging in the logde. She walks off, wow was that close. Then I heard it, the clicking sound and it was steadily heading in my direction. The bull was following the cow, now that she had came in and drank, the coast was clear. I was going to get a shot at a Bull Eland, then there he was, standing at the very edge of the clearing, 40 yards, looks around here he comes, 30 yards, 25 yards, Lord guide my arrow, 20 yards, then all hell breaks loose. Tem Big Blue Wildebeest come storming into the water hole, right in fromt of the bull. He just stands there, by now it's gettin very late, just a few min. of shooting light left. The Wildebeest drink, play with each other and then it's dark. A few min. later Antonie pulls up, I told him the same story.
Even without an Eland, by far the best hunting trip of my lifetime, if there is anyway any of you can ever go, do it. You will never be dissapointed. Roy
Topic: 10 days at Makalaan added a few more pics. (Read 4038 times)
