Day 6
We had a bit of a sleep in this morning until 6am. Victor had said that we did not have to get up really early as the Klipspringer would wait until the sun was out before they ventured out to warm up.
So we had a leisurely breakfast in the lodge by the fire washed down with a couple of cups of coffee to warm up. I went outside to see all the guys rearing to go waiting around the bakkie's.
As Chris had finished hunting all of the animals he was interested in at this concession he was joining us this morning for the hunt in the mountains.
I was having a wet puppy shiver moment again outside the lodge again this morning. The temperature was below freezing again.
We then hopped into the Bakkie and drove up to the Lost World area where we had seen a lot of Klipspringer the evening before.
Tracker Michael a local from this concession said there was a lot of Klipspringer in this area and it was worth looking again. The sun was almost ready to peak over the mountains when we got ready to leave. In the bakkie was Victor, Mitchel, Michael and myself and Arnold, Chris and Siya in Arnold’s bakkie. My wife was going to stay back at the lodge and relax the morning away reading her book next to the fire.
Getting ready for the hunt after breakfast - Bakkie's, trackers and skinners all ready to rumble
The Lost World - Rugged but beautiful scenery
We parked the bakkies and on the left side of the Lost World. I was carrying the .243 Brno today with a suppressor. The idea was we would use this with the brass solids on the Klipspringer to reduce the chance of damaging the cape. I also had a couple of 100gr soft points in my pocket just in case we needed them.
We started to walk around the perimeter of the lost world gorge. We stopped every now and then to glass and look deep into the hillside and bush below us. We also glassed onto the sunny slopes above as we the sun started to cover the area.
One of the waterfalls created from the melting snow running into the gorge
We found some young waterbuck
Young Waterbuck stopping for a look
I would like to say that we saw a lot of Klipspringer but we did not. There was actually a distinct lack of Klipspringer this morning when compared to the evening before. We changed tactics and walked around the other side of the gorge to start glassing the slopes and rocky outcrops across from the gorge.
More Klipspringer country
We crossed the first waterfall and worked our way along the steep drop off of the Lost World
Arnold, Victor and Michael glassing for Klipspringer on the snow covered slopes
After a couple of hours of hunting and looking for Klipspringer without much success we started to work our way back toward where we started at the beginning of the Lost World gorge.
Victor thought that the Klipspringer may be sunning themselves down in the gorge out of the chilly breeze that was racing up the gorge. Sounded like a good idea.
I walked over to the edge to conduct a bit of glassing myself and nearly had my hat blown off my head from the strength of the cold wind racing up the rock face.
“Burr” I thought to myself. That wind is nasty cold.
That wind could chill a beer in 30 seconds flat.
Enough of my complaining. We worked our way along the edge of the steep drop off glassing the area across and into the gorge looking for Klipspringer.
Trackers Michael and Mitchell were being more daring than the rest of us by climbing down the edge of the rocks a small way and leaning out to get into perfect glassing position to see down to the gorge floor.
A short time later Michael came back into our line of sight with a sense of urgency and motioned to us that they had spotted a nice Klipspringer ram down in the gorge. He had left Mitchell to keep an eye on him so he could alert us of his location.
Suddenly everyone was excited, me included. Victor and Arnold were in front of me as we walked close to the edge. We started to climb down to a flat top rocky outcrop where Mitchell had been keeping an eye on the Klipspringer. Victor and Arnold were both looking through their bino’s.
Victor motioned to me to come to him and to take the shot.
“It’s a nice trophy for you”, Victor said.
I positioned myself on the rock and Victor collapsed the shooting sticks to the sitting position amongst the rocks. I made myself comfortable for the shot.
The Klipspringer was lying on his side like an Egyptian Sphinx in the sun in an open grassy area with his head facing directly in line to our position. His rear end was facing away from us. He was unaware of us sitting high above him.
My Klipspringer was lying in the sun at the position of the yellow arrow below.
I had loaded some solid brass bullets into the .243 magazine earlier that morning as they had worked so well on the Steenbuck a few days ago.
Victor and I had a discussion about the shot placement.
“It’s going to be a tricky shot” Victor said.
“You will have to shoot just to the left of his head into his body to anchor him”.
Ok! I said while nodding my head in agreeance.
So onto the rifle I went to line up my shot.
I had plenty of time so I wound the scope up to maximum magnification.
Oh boy, I thought to myself I only have about 5cm (2”) of area I had to hit, shooting down hill in a strong breeze.
Have I mentioned how strong and cold that breeze was?
Victor was looking at the Klipspringer though his bino's.
He then said, "We should swap out the solid bullets and run a 100gr soft point".
This was so the expanding bullet would anchor the animal better and prevent him from running into the thick thorn vegetation down to the right hand side in the bottom of the gorge.
I agreed and quickly unloaded the solid brass bullet from the chamber and changed it to a soft point.
We were worried the Klipspringer would have enough time to escaper into the gorge below after the shot with the solid brass bullets
I was back on the rifle again taking my time about to take the shot. The klipspringer was still lying in the same position sunning himself.
Victor was to the right hand side behind me. Arnold was behind me to my left and Michael and Mitchel were behind them. Chris and the rest of the guys were up the hill on the track looking on.
You talk about a crowd watching me take the shot.
The strong breeze was racing up the gorge and the gusts were pushing the gun around a bit as I was trying to hold the shot.
The distance was 143 yards.
I was struggling a bit to hold the gun steady as the cold breeze came in gusts. I held my breath ready for the shot, the breeze blew again and the gun moved a bit so I and relaxed.
Then I held my breath again ready to take the shot again and suddenly I felt the gusty breeze stop for just a second or two.
I remember thinking the shot was like shooting through a keyhole in a steel door.
Bang went the little .243 sending the bullet on its way.
Here is a mock-up of the shot that I took below
I quickly reloaded after my first shot and was back on my Klippy again.
Everyone was looking at my Klippy below through their binoculars.
Nothing moved. My Klipspringer did not move.
I stayed on him for a short while to make sure he was out for the count.
He had fallen over to the side I was aiming to so we could not see where I hit him.
Everyone erupted in Afrikaans. Except me of course.
Could not understand a word they were saying. I just said “You little ripper mate”.
I stood up and stretched my legs after being crunched over on a rock in the cold breeze.
The guys congratulated me.
Chris took this image below just after I had just taken the shot at my Klipspringer. The grin on my face told the rest of the story
Victor spoke to Siya and asked him to walk back along the top to a safe spot he had seen earlier to a area where he could climb down and retrieve my Klipspringer. Mitchel decided to go with him so they both took off to collect my little trophy.
I repositioned myself away from the cliff edge while this was going on. These guys had more courage than me at the cliff edge
Siya collecting my Klipspringer
Victor came over to me and asked me how I thought my shot was.
“I thought the shot was good”. I said to him. “He didn’t move”, I mentioned.
He had concerns that I had hit it in the head from the angle we were at.
He mentioned that the fact that my Klippy did not move a muscle at my shot indicated a head shot.
So he said that I may have damaged the cape.
“No worries mate” I said. “Let’s see what the damage is, when he gets back up here”.
This was my way of saying, Oh crap, I think I screwed up the shot.
But it really does not matter. This was an awesome hunt in an awesome location and a tricky shot.
What a challenge these little guys are to hunt.
I was surprised how quickly Mitchell and Siya had climbed down and back up to us with my prize.
What funky little hooves these guys have
Hollow hair follicles with a snow white fur at the base
Finally success on my Klipspringer with the snow-capped mountains in the background
So I did damage the cape with my shot. Not that you would notice in the photo. We spent a bit of time cleaning him up for the photo.
My bullet had gone through the right hand side of his head and exited out the side of his jaw travelled through his neck and shoulder and blown a hole out through the bottom of his chest.
So Victor was right. Dead right there.
We recovered what we could and I would cherish the memory by making a European skull mount with his horns.
Maybe I would shoot another one someday to make a mount.
But for now I had a skull mount and a cool story to tell my hunting buddies back home.
Time to head back down to the lodge for morning tea and a hot cup of coffee.
To Be Continued...