Gloucester
AH member
I don't consider myself a particularly good shot, I believe I am "adequate for purpose" when it comes to African hunting, by which I mean I can usually hit what I am aiming at and I stand my ground if things go wrong and the situation get hairy.
However, if you hunt long enough, everyone pulls off an extraordinary shot where the memory stays with them. Mine came hunting Red Hartebeest in the Kalahari in Namibia a couple of years ago.
Now, I don't know how many people reading this have hunted Red Hartebeest but I found these animals very difficult to get close to. No sooner would I start to approach a reasonable shooting range when off they would go, over the next sand dune - I swear I could hear them laughing as they disappeared.
Kevin Robertson writes in 'The Perfect Shot' that "...it is usually not difficult to get within 200 paces or so of Red Hartebeest." I am jealous of his experience because I couldn't get within 500 paces.
One day, as we stood in the hot, hot, hot sun, swearing because the small herd had just romped away again, we saw them stop along a ridge and stand in line astern, with their heads swivelled sideways to watch us, laughing no doubt. I had range-finding binoculars (useful in the Kalahari where a lot of the shooting is quite far) and I clocked the distance at 550 yards.
We talked for a bit and compared opinions and calculations. My hunting partner was an ex-Marine sniper and he had an instinctive feel for windage and drop. We picked out a target and the consensus was that if I shot 4 feet above the point of the left horn, the bullet should drop and drift into a kill.
I lay down and made a steady rest with my backpack, sighted in carefully and... bang. The Hartebeest dropped like a stone. We all whooped and cheered: I am sure they could hear us in Windhoek!
It's not the best shot ever achieved, I've heard of a lot better - but it's the best of mine, and it'll do.
I was shooting a Steyr Mannlicher 8 x 68 (S), using 196 grain bullets. My scope was a 6x42 IOR.
However, if you hunt long enough, everyone pulls off an extraordinary shot where the memory stays with them. Mine came hunting Red Hartebeest in the Kalahari in Namibia a couple of years ago.
Now, I don't know how many people reading this have hunted Red Hartebeest but I found these animals very difficult to get close to. No sooner would I start to approach a reasonable shooting range when off they would go, over the next sand dune - I swear I could hear them laughing as they disappeared.
Kevin Robertson writes in 'The Perfect Shot' that "...it is usually not difficult to get within 200 paces or so of Red Hartebeest." I am jealous of his experience because I couldn't get within 500 paces.
One day, as we stood in the hot, hot, hot sun, swearing because the small herd had just romped away again, we saw them stop along a ridge and stand in line astern, with their heads swivelled sideways to watch us, laughing no doubt. I had range-finding binoculars (useful in the Kalahari where a lot of the shooting is quite far) and I clocked the distance at 550 yards.
We talked for a bit and compared opinions and calculations. My hunting partner was an ex-Marine sniper and he had an instinctive feel for windage and drop. We picked out a target and the consensus was that if I shot 4 feet above the point of the left horn, the bullet should drop and drift into a kill.
I lay down and made a steady rest with my backpack, sighted in carefully and... bang. The Hartebeest dropped like a stone. We all whooped and cheered: I am sure they could hear us in Windhoek!
It's not the best shot ever achieved, I've heard of a lot better - but it's the best of mine, and it'll do.
I was shooting a Steyr Mannlicher 8 x 68 (S), using 196 grain bullets. My scope was a 6x42 IOR.