Got a Bushbuck.

With this year's hunting season coming to a close, I decided to go for one old bushbuck ram, on my father in law's cattle farm. Bushbuck eat mainly browse but supplement their diet with any other plant matter they can reach. They are active around 24 hours a day but tend to be nocturnal near human habitations. Bushbuck tend to be solitary, though some live in pairs. All bushbucks live within a "home" area. Normally they will not leave this area, which is usually around 50 000 square meters on the savannah and much larger in the forest. These areas usually overlap other bushbuck "home areas". Bushbucks are basically solitary animals. I am not much of a hunter although I own a beautiful Brno rifle in the .270 calibre. 15 to 20 years ago, I used to hunt quite a lot but nowadays flying is my top hobby. I like my .270 very much and I am very confident with it. I prefer shots at 200-300m. This time around I had to shoot over a small stream full of impenetrable vegetation. I did aim for the upper left side chest area. The bullet exited further back on the other side, as you can see in the picture. The 130gr bullet did considerable damage to the left lung and liver. The buck died within a minute although I took almost a hour to reach it.

While dragging the carcase thru the bush with the help of my son and brother-in-law, I thought the buck weighs in at over 70KG. However,back home the scale showed only a modest 64Kg. Nevertheless a big animal, with horns pointing straight up, at just over 15in.

Here is my son Michael with one of the helpers in the background.