Mountain Reedbuck in Port Elizabeth

I shot my very first mountain reedbuck yesterday with Tollies African Safaris! I'm on a ladies hunt in South Africa with 7 very accomplished females within the hunting industry organized by SHE Expeditions. At the close of day two everyone had at killed at least one animal and some had already killed two! I was one of only two women in the group that had ever been to Africa before so while everyone else was killing springbok, wildebeest or impala I had decided to go for something a little different and a little more difficult to spot. I had to skip the 8am breakfast and head out at 6 to get up the mountain before the reedbuck would be up and alert. We drove about an hour up the side of a dark mountain before the light finally caught up to us and we decided to get out and climb up the rest of the way. About half way up the slope of a medium sized mountain we spotted a group of mountain reedbuck bedded down in the grass. We crawled up to a small group of rocks to glassand see if there was a male amongst them. Sure enough in a group of nine there was one great looking male reed-buck. He got up slowly not really startled but a tad bit weary and the rest of them started to stand up around him, they obviously knew something was up but they were not sure what... I got steady laying prone with my rifle on a rock and took him right on the shoulder. He tumbled about six feet down the mountainside and stopped dead. I was so excited, he was exactly what I wanted! His fur is like that of a rabbit it is so soft and his horns almost reach seven inches! He was an old fighter and a great trophy, I couldn't be happier!

---