We saw sable almost every day we were in Zimbabwe, but all the bulls were either young, or around 35-36 inches.
Roy kept saying "where are we we going to get a decent sable?" And I kept saying "We always got our sable!"
We were driving along when we saw a herd of sable on a facing hill side, and a mature bull was with them.
We decided to stalk them, and see if we can get a chance at a shot at him.
They were coming down the hillside to a water hole at the bottom, but seem to be taking their time.
We went to the other side of the hill and got downwind and about level with them. We could not see any sable at all, as they have decided to go down to the water quicker than we thought they would! Goes to show that one should not try to second guess African animals!
I think they probably saw us, as they left that water hole and headed to another one a few hundred yards away.
We had to wait for them to get quite far before we started to follow them, as we were exposed to them on the hillside.
As soon as they disappeared from our view, we made a dashing run to catch them at the second water hole.
We got to about 80 yards from the water, but could only see a few impalas staring straight at us!
We kept as still as we could, with mopane bees trying their damnest to get into our eyes!
We must have done a good job of it, as the impalas decided we were no threat to them and started to walk off up the hill side.
Soon some of the sable cows appeared to follow the impalas. Roy put up the shooting sticks, and told me to get ready for the bull to come up the hill side, following the cows.
It was not long before he appeared. He seemed to sense our presence, as he turned towards us just before he was going to disappear behind a bush. He was at a slight angle to us, but I could see the point of his shoulder very clearly from about 100 yards. As soon as the crosshairs setled on his houlder, I pulled the trigger. He turned around, ran about 30 yards and dropped down.
His horns measured just over 40 inches each.
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saeed@ emirates.net.ae
www.accuratereloading.com
Canuck