Yesterday I posted a hunt report from my 2011 Eastern Cape hunt with Owen Smith of Jimbah Safaris. This hunt report is just one specific hunt from my 2008 trip with my dad, Brad Miller. A few years ago an article by Jeff Belongia was published in African Hunting Gazette where he described missing a potential SCI top-5 mountain reedbuck. The relevant excerpt:

quote:

If anything else in the way of antelope caught my eye, I felt the rifle/bullet combination would be
satisfactory, assuming I did my part. I must confess that I didn’t practise enough with shooting sticks
prior to the hunt. This was obvious – and ego-deflating – when I missed – twice – the neck of a
mountain reedbuck that would place in the top five in the SCI Trophy Record Book at a distance of 80
yards.

The reedbuck was lying under and behind a bush facing away from me. No excuses. Incredulous at
the second missed shot, I took my eye off the buck to look at my PH as he instructed me to shoot the
‘he-is-up-and-standing-to-the-left-of-the-tree’ ram. I knew this ram was mine as I shot offhand, placing
the bullet behind the last rib and up into the chest cavity.
“You missed again,” stated my frustrated PH.
“I know I hit him. I saw him fall, through the scope,” I said.

After missing a potential Top Five SCI mountain reedbuck - twice at 80
yards - Belongia took his trophy animal, with a little help from his
friend, Spicky - the Jack Russell Terrier. I stoked three new cartridges into the magazine, and we headed up the steep hillside to where the
ram had been lying. We couldn’t find it – or a drop of blood. The PH informed me that he’d had a
hunter the previous season who'd missed the same ram at 100 metres. This reedbuck had magic!
Still, I was incredibly upset with my performance, even after the female reedbuck I’d executed
precisely with a shot behind the last rib.

My Dad and I were PH'd in 2003 by Rowen Smith, Owen's son, while Owen was the manager at a hunting ranch. When we booked with Owen in 2008, he surprised us by inviting his son to hunt with us during part of our trip. On the first day of our hunt we all hunted together, and managed to find two kudu bulls, a bushbuck, and an impala. On the second day we traveled to a new ranch to hunt for mountain reedbuck. We split up, me hunting with Rowen and my Dad with Owen. It was a windy day, which helped cover our sounds as we stalked our animals.

Rowen and I spotted a great mountain reedbuck bedded on a hillside about 600 yards away, and devised a stalk to get around and above him. About a mile of walking later I crawled into position for a neck shot at about 100 yards. My shot just missed the spine, and my animal ran off a short ways where we were able to catch up and finish him. Rowen told me it was an excellent mountain reedbuck and in talking to his dad over the Motorola informed me my Dad had also just shot one.

My mountain reedbuck:


My dad and Owen took off after the mountain reedbuck that Jeff Belongia and another client had previously missed. Either of us could have found him, but Owen had the advantage of having hunted that animal previously. They spotted the animal feeding and stalked up a draw towards him, and got within about 40 yards. The animal fed behind some brush and my dad and Owen waited with the rifle on the shooting sticks for about 30 minutes. When he fed out and presented an open shot my dad dropped him with one round.





The animal green-scored either 1 or 2 in the SCI rifle category. Unfortunately Karoo Taxidermy used some putty around the base of the horn to cover up the skull. When we took him to a SCI scorer in the US to get a final score he told us we'd need to remove the putty so he could get the full measurement. My Dad will take it to our taxidermist some day to have the putty removed, get it scored, and have the mount touched back up.

A couple things I forgot: Rowen was very proud of my mountain reedbuck, and kept telling me how impressive of an animal it was. When we walked up to my dad's much larger animal his mouth fell open and he was pretty much speechless. I'm very happy with mine, and don't think that shooting it within 10 minutes of my dad's record book animal diminishes my experience in any way.

You'll notice a mark on the bridge of my dad's nose. He was scope-bitten in 2003 and in 2008 on his first shots at the range to sight in his .30-06, so he looks like a rookie shooter in most of our Africa pictures.

The rest of our 2008 hunt with Owen and Rowen was equally memorable and successful, so I'll put up a full report sometime. I shot a copper blesbuck with Rowen that was a great hunt and a unique and beautiful animal, my dad shot a bushbuck in a raging windstorm, and we chased some duikers around along the coast with the Indian Ocean in the background. Overall it was a great hunt that shouldn't be overshadowed by our one lucky day with the mountain reedbucks.

Dan

A wonderful report and a sense of humor also. Fine shooting.

Mike

Nice addition!

This is a great add on to your report!

Looks like you guys got some awesome Mountain Reedbuck!

Les

Those are some damn good Mt.reeduck.

Nice trophies. It is great hunt Africa with your father, or you children.

Dan,

This is a great story of you hunt with your father! Thanks for posting.

You guys got a wonderful pair of Mountain Reedbuck!

Owen