I'm headed for the Karoo in May. I've heard the Vall Rhebuck is a great trophy. I am concidering adding him to my want list. Thoughts??

Bob

He's on my wish list for next year!

It is my second favorite animal to hunt in Africa next to elephant. You will really enjoy the hunt.

465H&H

Very challenging trophy and the scenery is spectacular. Happy Hunting!

venda axe,

The Vall Rhebuk is found in open hilly country with very little cover. Shots can be long and very long by African standards plus the Vall Rhebuk is a pretty small target. I hunted them twice and found the hunt very challenging particularly in the windy conditions I found.

If I did it again I would have a long range rifle set up just for the Vallie and a very good rangefinder. Your standard PG rig is not adequate for this hunt.

Enjoy the hunt. The Vall Rhebuk offers a unique experience and is found nowhere else but RSA.

Mark

A very worthy trophy, Vaalies are widely spread but endemic to SA and nowhere overly abundant.
It is not as if every outfitter has got access to good trophy quality Vaalies.
They are extremely wary with excellent eyesight, I shot mine at 365yds and my wife hers at a whopping by African standards of 635yds.
As a general guideline your rifle, scope and rangefinder combination needs to be able to make sure first shot hits on a 5" target out to 500yds. That said the wind can howl through the Karoo making it very difficult. We hunted Barabary sheep last year in gale force winds in the Karoo.
Bullet choice is another consideration, Vaalies are quite furry by African standards and can leave a poor blood trail with solid hits. There is a case to make for a bullet with a decent BC and explosive expansion like a Nosler Ballistic Tip or Berger Hunting VLD to get a DRT with a decent hit on this 50 to 60lb animal. A Vaalie can be lost through simply not being able to find the dead buck after a short death run and a long shot. A Vaalie hunt taught me to spend more time with my tracking dog to find a dead buck by simply approaching from down wind and let the dog follow the scent upwind to the source.

Definitely worth hunting. A challenging hunt, in both open and hill/mountain terain. Really enjoyed hunting them in the Eastern Cape 2/3 times.

Hunting them this year.
They are a very worthy trophy and certainly worth hunting. If you get a chance add them to your list.

One of my most special trophies. I shot a tremendous trophy with Blaauwkrantz. Definitely an animal worthy of a life size mount. Highly recommend. I believe the Vaal Rhebok is the only antelope with fur; like a rabbit.

Here is an article I wrote for African Hunter magazine a couple of years ago.

465H&H


Gray Ghosts of the Great Karoo
By Walt Bodie

After a few years, a new hunter begins to find favorites among the many species of animals available for hunting. A certain species seems to make a perfect fit to the hunter’s psyche. These are species that in one way or another provide something very special to his/her hunting experience. Although he may desire to sample the thrill and new experiences associated with the chase of a new species, he finds himself constantly returning to his favorites. Those species provide something special to his all too short time in the field. It may be the gaudy coloration and cackling flush of a ring-necked pheasant rising form tall grass in the morning sun, the roar of a rutting European red deer, the ominous soul searching stare of a cape buffalo or maybe the honking of Canada geese as they do a Klingon slip in the wind as they take air out from under their wings to rapidly drop to his decoys. Possibly it is a specific type of habitat that turns his psychological crank. Maybe it is the smell of a wet marsh in the morning, the darkness of the European forest or the deep dark Jesse of the Zambezi Valley where one never knows what will turn up around the next turn in the trail. Whichever, these are the hunting experiences that he longs to relive again and again and as often as possible.

Although I have hunted widely in North America and spent many seasons chasing big game, primarily elk and mule deer I now do little big game hunting in the US. I do try to make a trip every year or two to hunt a new species of deer. These trips have included hunts for Coues deer in the mountain deserts of Mexico, whitetails on the plains and forests of Alberta and Sitka black-tail deer on the shores of Baranoff Island in Alaska. Most of my hunting time now revolves around following my Small Munsterlander pointer chasing the many species of upland game that we are blessed with in the western part of the USA or enjoying the enthusiastic retrieves of ducks and geese by my Labrador retriever on the rivers and marshes of Idaho and Montana.

Most of my big game hunting now involves a couple of African animals that are very special to me. I particularly enjoy tracking elephants in the thick stuff. The sight of those huge animals gives me a thrill that no other animal can match. What other animal is so big and so likely to approach you to near touching distances for a better look from their little myopic eyes rather than high-tailing it for distant horizons on their first hint that you are near. As they approach you never know whether they will be satisfied and then rush off, give you a mock charge or all too frequently charge you until one of you is dead.

But this story is a tribute to my second favorite African animal. The vaal rhebok (Pelea capreolus) is that animal. In Afrikaans it is called Vaalribbok. It is probably one that is least likely to be found in a trophy collection but I surely don’t know why not. It isn’t because of its rarity in the wild. They are not as imposing a trophy as a kudu or sable but a really large one is at least to me a very grand and beautiful trophy. Lets take a quick look at its distribution and biology.



Distribution

If you wish to hunt these animals, your only choice is to hunt in South Africa (SA). Some mammalogists believe that it may have once been found in southern Botswana but if so it no longer exists there. It is well distributed through out eastern, southern and central SA. Its distribution also includes the inland mountain ranges of western SA, specifically the Great Karoo.

Description

It is a small antelope with an average shoulder height of 28 inches (71-76 cm) and weights average 40-45 lbs (18-20 kg) for females to 45-50 lbs (20-23 kg) for males. One of the most striking aspects on first sight is the very long neck in relation to its body size. It reminds one of the gerenuk of eastern Africa. Another unusual feature is its thick soft gray wooly coat. The underbelly and the under part of the short bushy tail are white in color. Another of a long list of unusual features is the nose. It is large and bulbous and houses some glandular tissue. The ears are long, narrow and pointed. They are a very good key to estimating horn length. The ears on a large male typically measure right at 6 inches (15 cm). If the horns extend two inches (5 cm) above the ear tips, then you can expect it to make the minimum length for inclusion in Rowland Ward, which is 8 inches (20 cm). It is much easier to reach the SCI minimum of 16 points. A trophy with horns 6 inches (15 cm) long and two inch (5 cm) bases will make the minimum. The horns are extremely thin and ringed for half to ¾ of their length. Females are hornless.

Behavior

Vaal rhebok are gregarious, living most commonly in small groups of 3 to 12. A dominant male usually leads the herds. Young males often form bachelor groups. Occasionally you may find a really old male that is living on his own. These are most often exceptional trophies. The males are very territorial and will defend their territory vigorously, sometimes even to the death of a rival. They are very aggressive and are known to kill mountain reedbuck and some of the smaller predators. The typical life span in the wild is 8 to 10 years.

Habitat

The vaal rhebok is found on rocky mountain slopes, grassy plateaus and in the brush filled flats between hills. It lives at altitudes that exceed 5,500 feet (1,800 meters). The Karoo is a high brush desert habitat type very similar in form, geological history and rain fall amounts to much of the high desert in the American west. Hunters that have hunted the sage brush deserts of northern Nevada, south western Idaho or eastern Oregon, will feel right at home in the Karoo. The low growing brush species of the Karoo are the same shape and color as the plants found in sagebrush grass habitat types of the western US. The major difference in brush plants is that almost all in the Karoo have spines, while few do in the US. I showed some pictures I took in the Karoo to several wildlife biologists in Idaho and asked them where they thought I took them and they all said “Down in Owyhee County of course.” Owyhee County is in the southwestern corner of Idaho. Where we have mule deer, big horn sheep, pronghorn antelope, coyotes and mountain lions the Karoo has vaal rhebok, springbuck, gemsbuck, klipspringer, jackals and a few leopards amongst other species. The good news is that few of the ranches in the Karoo have high fences so in most cases a hunt there will be for free ranging antelope.

Hunting Techniques

Here is where the Vaal rhebok really turns my crank and makes me rank him on the top of my African “want to hunt list”. Its eyesight is on par with the best of animals. It is easily as good as a pronghorn antelope or bighorn sheep if not even better. It is a very swift runner and can climb and negotiate rock cliffs with ease. It is very wary and one of the herd is always on the alert for danger. It will run for the high country at the least suspicion of danger. No road hunting for these animals. If you wish to be successful you will have to get out and climb to the high places and use your very best stalking skills. All too often you will find that your best effort is not nearly good enough.

Perhaps the best way to describe how difficult they can be to hunt is to take you on a couple of my hunts for this beautiful and elusive creature. One was an unsuccessful hunt and one in which we finally won the contest between man and trophy.

The first hunt started during a banquet conversation in northern Washington State with Peter Thormahlen, a PH and safari operator out of Kimberley, South Africa. I had expressed my interest in hunting a Vaal rhebok. He said that he had just the animal for me. “Come to SA and we will go and hunt for Freddy.” “Freddy? Who is Freddy?” I retorted. Peter explained that Freddy was a local legend in the Great Karoo. He was supposed to be huge, estimated to carry between 10 ½ and 11 ½ inch horns. “He has been missed by at least 4 clients that I know of.” Peter stated. A couple of them were very well known American hunters. He explained that Freddy lives on a couple of sheep ranches owned by the Bothma brothers out of the small town of Leliefontein in the Great Karoo. Well, that is just the type of challenge that gets my blood racing so we made plans for me to stop in SA after my next elephant hunt in Zimbabwe for a week of “Freddy chasing”.

After the long all day drive from Johannesburg to the Bothma Ranch, we sighted our rifles and after an excellent home cooked Boer dinner hit the sheets. The first morning found us climbing a kopje where Freddy was known to hang out. Once over the top we settled down to glass the slopes and flat areas between the next hill and us. One of the trackers pointed out a couple of vaal rhebok in a draw about 200 yards below us. We glassed them and could see that one was a male but in the brush it was hard to see how long his horns were. The next moment they spooked and ran out of the draw and across a small flat, stopping at a ranged distance of 520 yards. I don’t know what spooked them as no one moved quickly or made any noise and the wind was not a factor. “My goodness” Peter exclaimed, “its Freddy, SHOOT!” Although I had him in my scope sight I was not confident of a sure hit at that range especially from an unsupported sitting position so I declined the chancy shot.

We followed him and made several stalks after spotting him at a mile or more distance. Each time we crawled on our bellies to a ridge top and peeked around a bush to spot him and each time we found him looking right at us at ranges fro 600 to 800 yards. To say I was impressed at his eyesight and alertness is an understatement. It was obvious that this would be one of the most challenging hunts I had ever attempted. We hunted him for the next four days and found him several times but each time we tried a stalk he made us out at long range and buggered off before we got anywhere close enough for a shot. Peter had also explained that in the past when he was shot at he disappeared for several weeks to some unknown location so we would only get one try at him and we had better make it a good one. On our next to last day we found him from a range of about a mile feeding alone on the slope of the highest hill on the ranch. It didn’t look like we had any possibility of an approach. I suggested that we skirt around the kopje and climb it from the rear. There was a saddle on the south side that we could reach without being seen. Once we were in position the trackers could walk toward him and spook him toward the saddle. I hoped with a little luck we could take him by surprise with a mini drive.

Our walking distance was long and it took us almost two hours to get to our hoped for shooting position. We waved to the trackers and they ambled towards Freddy hoping to get him to slowly move away. No luck, as soon as Freddy saw them at close to a mile he took off at high speed but luckily right toward us. He came around the slope at full run but stopped facing us at 265 yards. We were lying down with me resting my rifle across Peter’s back. It looked like Freddy’s luck had finally run out. I have complete confidence in that rifle. It is one of the early Ruger MK IIs in 270 Winchester. It was custom stocked for me by Al Biesen of Spokane Washington and has never failed to bring to bag any animal that I have shot at with it. At that range it should have been a sure thing. But Freddy’s luck was destined to hold out as in the excitement. In my excitement I failed to account for a 30 mph wind blowing up the saddle from right to left. On such a small antelope a frontal shot gives you less than 3 inches of vital zone. My bullet hit several inches to the left and Freddy was gone. To say we were dejected would be an understatement. It was now clients 0, Freddy 5 or 6. Needless to say we could not find him again on this hunt.

As a postscript I hunted Freddy again the next year but we never saw him again. He disappeared. No one took him and we can only suppose that he died of old age. Some may consider that a sad fate but for me it is nice to know that occasionally a super wary animal can survive to live out his natural life. I salute you Freddy!

On the last day of the first hunt we decided to try for a buck that we had seen several times, again at long range. Although we never got a really good look at him, he wasn’t in the same class as Freddy but he appeared to be a very good trophy nonetheless.


Since the drive worked well on Freddy, we decided to try it again on this buck. We dropped the trackers off and drove around the hill that he lived on and approached it from the back side. We gain waited in the prone position for the trackers to try to drive the small herd in our direction. The herd appeared on the crest of the hill ¾ of a mile away and angled down towards us at a run. They stopped at 258 yards and the 270 took the buck down with ease. Luckily there was no wind on this day. To my joy he was a much better buck than we realized and the long horn went 9 6/8 inches placing him well up in the SCI and Rowland ward record books. The ranches Peter hunts all have excellent vaal rhebok. I saw several in the 8 to 9 inch range each year. Peter can be reached at peter@africatrophyhunting.com.


Equipment Suggestions

You will be climbing in some fairly rough terrain so boots with good gripping soles and good ankle support are advantageous. For hunting this species camouflage is probably a very good idea. Their ability to pick out stationary objects that don’t belong in their habitat is uncanny. Carry water as you are hunting desert terrain and free water is just not available. A pair of good quality binoculars and a spotting scope are darn near more important than your rifle. You will spend a lot of time trying to pick out an animal that blends in perfectly with the vegetation found in their habitat. A range finder will be a big help, especially one of the new models that correct for up hill or down hill trajectory.

Your rifle choice is also important. You want a very flat shooting rifle that can buck the wind as well as possible. This is one big game species where one of the high velocity 22 caliber center-fires can be put to good use. A 22/250 or 220 Swift have a place here but don’t use one of the exploding varmint bullets. Use one designed for heavier game such as the Nosler Partition or Barnes X. Since you will most likely be hunting other species as well such as springbuck, blesbok or klipspringer a larger caliber is really a better choice. Anything from 243 Winchester on up is appropriate. In my opinion, the three calibers that will shine for vaal rhebok are the 25/06, 270 Winchester and 257 Weatherby. Expect shots from 250 to 400 yards. Since shot distances can be long and your kill zone is small (4 to 5 inches for a heart lung shot) you need a very accurate rifle. If you are good at doping wind and know your rifles trajectory you might even stretch that range out a bit.

In any case, I think you will find chasing “Vallies” across the Karoo a challenging and hopefully rewarding hunt.

Great story! I have a hunt scheduled for one in June with Infinito.

Weve just taken a nice 8 1/4" Ram 2 weeks ago @ 150yds, still have 2 on quota. Great hunt !!
but be ready for the 300-400yd shots.
have fun !!