Apologies on the delay with the report, Unfortunately my workload has been hectic

My hunt for the wildeebeest was actually tied up with a cull for the ranch owners,I found this hunt advertised in one of our local publications called the Lusaka Lowdown, it is not a hunting mag but has a few small ads at the back.

The hunt was at a game ranch called Chamunika, the ranch is about 10,000Ha making it the biggest game ranch in Zambia.
We were guided by a PH named Andrew Baldry, a fantastic person and patient with idiots like my group. I must add at this stage that none of us have ever hunted with a PH and must admit that there are a lot of advantages to hunting with these old hands, Andrew is probably the same age as my Dad buthis level of fitness did put us to shame, I really do need to join a gym
We sighted the herd from a long distance, luckily we were in a tree line and the herd had not sensed us. I just heard Andrew saying that he had seen a good bull, how he saw that at the distance we were I don't know. I tried to make out the bull but couldnt tell the differance.
Andrew told me that the bull was the darkest looking animal in the herd, I am sure he has super vision as I could not see the differance.
The herd was in a small plain so Andrew told me to follow him, we started the stalk away from the herd in a circular way, we were trying to head off the herds path of travel.
Being the wet season the grass was tall and was to our advantage, My calf muscles wanted to give up on me and I had to slow down, meanwhile Andrew carried on like he was taking a stroll in his garden.
Once I caught up with Andrew, we made a beeline for a clump of trees that were growing on an ant hill, by this time I could not see the herd and had no idea on their position.
We slowly entered the clump of trees and peeped over the ant hill.
And lo behold there was the herd grazing, the only problem was that the were grazing away from us. Andrew whispered to me that the bull was the third animal to my left, it was only then I could make out that he did look darker and noticably differant to the rest of the herd.
Andrew set up the shooting sticks and I tried to take aim, but with the long crouching/waddling/painful walk to the ant hill, my crosshairs were dancing all over the animal.
My panting was also not helping because by this stage my bad habit of smoking a pack a day was taking its revenge.
Has any of you smokers experienced this as by now my tongue had been replaced by some sort of dry object in my mouth.
I think Andrew could see the end of my barrel doing figure eights so he told me to relax and wait, the wildeebeest still had no clue that we were there and were peacefully grazing.
I finally did recover to a degree and tried again, but by this time some females had moved alongside and behind the bull, I waited for an opening and once the bull was clear, I took my shot thankfully despite my "bull in a china shop"
act the wildeebeest bull dropped on the spot.
We ran up to where he had dropped and found him still kicking so I put a finisher in and I had my first Wildeebeest bull.
I was extremely pleased and the bull did have an astonishing coat, we did find a wound that was maggoty but Andrew mentioned that the bull most probably got that wound fighting off other bulls as he was the dominant bull.
We did manage to recover the bullet and it had behaved strangely but that was another topic on the forums.

The tree line at the left of the picture is where we were when the stalk started.
The big tree on the right was where the clump of trees on the anthill was.

HI,


Nothing to do with topic, I wish I had a BUFF like GEORGES, it is just plain nice,Kev

zambian ----- Thanks for a good story. Please explain the seasons in Africa. I hear people talk of the wet season and dry season, what months are wet and which are dry. Just trying to get a handle on the prime times. Good shooting.

phurley,
here in Zambia our wet season is basically the rains which start in towards the end of October and carry on upto the end of March, the rest of the year is bone dry.
Also our winter is sort of from may to july. I reckon the best times for hunting are about then as the summer months are hot and a hurdle for hunters not used to our heat.
Cheers

Nice mature wildebeest! Glad to see you got one with little trouble. I found them hard to stalk and nearly bulletproof.

Regards,

Mark

Thanks for the information. That helps put the seasons into better perspective for me. Good shooting.