Fwd: Lay of the land

> Springbok remind me of our pronghorn antelope back in the states. They are a bit more springy in their gate, especially as they flee from hunters. They have terrific eyesight and don't hang around long.
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> They can jump a bit when they are "pronking" or prancing as they demonstrate their prowess, but they cannot jump a normal 4 ft cattle fence. They an work through or underfences, much like the pronghorn. Their coloring and behavior is a lot the same. They are beautiful animals.
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> We spent the morning walking a lot trying to get close to the beautiful rams. We seldom got much closer than 300 yards, and Sam threw some lead, but to no avail. We walked more than 2 miles today as we attempted to sneak up on one particularly nice ram. We came across dozens of lesser rams and ewes, and often they would alert our ram, but he kept on teasing us; he kept hanging back giving us reasons to keep on trying.
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> I'll bet he kept saying to himself, "I wonder how long I can keep jerking these guys around.". I'll bet he had a bet with his friends...
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> In the end, he eluded us and we broke for lunch.
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> After lunch, we tried a new tactic: we sat next to a bush, and waited for a nice ram to come by. A few came, but not close enough.
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> Then, Braun spotted a very nice mature male coming our direction. As he got about 250 yards, Braun told Sam to wait until he comes past us, as there was a fence line that would force the ram to come within 150 yards or so.
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> Sam hears him, and Braun and I put down our Bino's and got situated as the bok kept approaching.
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> Sam and Braun were sitting on lawn chairs, and I was on the ground. I was moving my bottom trying to get more comfortable, BOOOM!!!!
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> What the? Braun and I were both surprised, I looked up and Braun said, "You nicked him.". I got my glasses up and saw the bok jumping up and running with difficulty, like his back legs were injured. He jumped around a bit, bit never moved very far. He went nose down and flipped around a bit, making like he was injured. Then, he kept moving all together, it took about 4 or 5 seconds.
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> Braun gave Sam a hard time for shooting so quickly. He also was not ready for the shot. He later said he was texting Neville, trying to find his location when the gun went off. Sam said, "I had a clear shot, and he wasn't moving, so I took the shot."
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> Sam felt bad for shooting too early, but I told him it was OK. As we got to the animal, we saw it was a perfect shot, right through the shoulders. The range was about 225 yards. The picture above was taken a few minutes before the shot; the springbok was about in the same direction Sam is aiming.