Gentleman hello, and of course hello to our lady members. We arrived yesterday day 9 of the safari after the three hour drive to the Schoenfeld farm. After a very nice lunch of grilled kudu, potatoes and bacon, tomato salad and carrot salad we went out to set up a hay blind 60 yards from the bait. The bait had not been hit the night before so we were hopeful he would continue to come in.
We set the blind up with the wind we had and other then going out to shoot some fresh bait which I did ( female Impala) we were set for the evening sit. Then the bad news...the wind had changed and was blowing directly up river which is the path he has been using. We reluctantly decided not to hunt with that wind fearing we we spook the leopard away. Just seems to be the way my luck is going with the cat.
We also decided to set up a secondary pop up blind with in a different wind placement. We were hopeful the wind would change for the morning sit, but that was not to be. We still had the same wind. I was quite dejected I must admit. But we still had three days left and would set up the pop up later today. Eland was the only plains game animal left I was hoping to take here in Namibia so since they have so skillfully eluded us for the past 9 days we decided if we should have another go at them. Spot and stalk is not easy, they are so shy and elusive for an animal so large.
We set out by truck to an area known to hold several large males and after finding spoor my tracker " ellia " was off with myself and my PH. We had been tracking them for nearly an hour when ellia stopped and pointed into the brush, I saw nothing but my PH did. They were ahead of us about 80 yards. The stalk was on. We worked our way with the wind in our favor for nearly and hour going ever so slowly. Then a problem. There was a kudu bull between us and the eland. A starring match ensued for nearly 30 minutes when the kudu dicieded he had enough and blew wind causing everything to scatter.
We could hear the direction they were going so we followed. We also heard a leopard growl during the stalk and we found very fresh spoor. Awesome. We climbed up some rocks to get a better vantage point to spot the eland, as my PH topped over he quickly motioned for me to come. There 150 yards was a big bull, as I climbed the rocks and placed my hand down to shoot and came up with a handful of thorns. Ouch! My ph quickly ripped the branch of my hand ( thank you very much) I got ready to shoot. The 300 wsm with 180 gr TSX hit him in the shoulder and he was off and running. We got very faint glimpses of him going thru the brush.
We climbed down the rocks in hot pursuit. Several hundred yards later we found him lying down, one more shot to the neck and it was over. I had taken IMO a magnifcent bull. Heavy with no broken tips. Done the right and hard way, spot and stalk. I was thrilled with him. Now we need Mr.Spots......3 days to get it done.
