Pheroze
AH ambassador
Wow great one too!I saved my two favorite stalks for last. I showed up for last years Val rehbok hunt in good shape expecting a fair bit of climbing and the vallie/Marius deliver on my expectations. So this year I was in better shape expecting Marius to find a way to incorporate some steep uphill on one of the hunts, or my wife paid him extra to make sure I got to climb a few cliffs. Not sure which and neither of them will admit to anything
The copper springbok is the last we need for the slam. My wife has shot all of the others and is looking forward to this one. A couple hours drive to the area with some very nice springbok and the hunt is on. A lot of glassing and a nice copper is spotted and a plan is worked for a stalk. We get to about 250yards and it is down onto the belly for a low crawl session. My wife is a veteran and this isn't the first time she has low crawled, and springbok seem to have great fun at making her crawl. Marius get her to within 210 yards and sets up his rifle for her to take a shot (A couple problems occur that I had never trained her on and is my final observations will bring up) she has to move the rifle a bit to one side and it tips off the bipod and falls on its side, so we are at the not sure if it will hit where expected. So he passes his rifle back to me and I hand him my little howa, (My wife has shot it but very little) I tell her where to hold based on yardage and she fires. Misses right in front of the ram. (Final observation on wind drift, I messed up and didn't account for the wind when I gave her where to hold) . So everyone is now a bit bummed. My wife gets up and basically says I shouldn't have tried the low crawl as her back is now screaming. She then says we didn't come this far to leave it on the mountain so go shoot it. we walk back up to the bakkie and have a quick snack and some water and back to the bino's. A shooter is spotted and is about a mile away on the opposite side of a steep sided canyon, (Remember my observation on Marius finding a way to get me climbing) a plan is made and off we go down and up and up. Stop right before we get top to let the heart rate come back down. Have Marius's jacket on the ridge and have a nice 190 yard shot just waiting for the smaller rams and ewes to clear for a shot. As usual the heard takes off and the rams are just having fun chasing each other around. Up goes the small set of bipod sticks and tracking to get a shot and they are running towards us. They go right and start down a goat path the takes them to the valley floor. Hop up and try to get in position for a shot. I now almost fall getting up when one foot slides out. (Yes I left cool points and several bad words on the mountain) We now scramble back to rim and look down to get a shot. Look and look and look and when we finally see them they are like a kilometer down the valley. Marius and I just look at each other and the unspoken comment of how the heck did they get there that fast?
Plan D- Climb back to the top and circle down the backside to get in a nice position above them for a shot. The plan almost works, as we get in place and find the shooter they take off , not sure if they smelled us or ???? The now start up the goat path on the opposite side valley. When they get level with us it is 345 yards across. I setup for a shot and knew the drops out to 300. So I am doing the mental math on the drop. Let one go and Marius said it went right over his back. (Final observations will address this one too) they take off and heard up through a couple bowls and are making a big circle headed back to where they were to start our stalk. So go to Plan E and head back over the ridgeline and haul a$$ back up the hill to try and get there before they do. Get into position and see that they have picked up another bunch of mixed common and copper's. So it is now a waiting game as they are splitting with most going down to the valley floor and several headed our direction. Wind is in our faces and we are above about 250 ft higer up the mountian than the trail the are following. The good news is a copper that is even better than the one we have been after is in the small group headed our way. Patience is called for and give me time to get heart rate for climbs back down. I get a nice broad side shot presented at 250 and know the exact hold and fire. Yea again a bit high ( back to wind observations) and for some reason they spring towards us and 167 yards the scond shot is a perfect heart shot. The only hard one is instead of coming up the trail he takes off straight down hill. I have to walk back and pickup my hat and then go down to meet Marius where the ram dropped. I know he is a good ram but when I get there there is no ground shrinkage, he is the biggest springbok I have seen period. Now we have the you grab the legs and I get the horns and up we go, several stops to switch horns and rear leg carry position and we have him back at the top a bit before the bakkie with my much better half and the tracker get there with the truck. to say this one was earned with a fair bit of sweat is an understatement.View attachment 482774
