Here is another trophy animal that I had no intention of hunting before I arrived at Fort Richmond Safaris. It is a red hartebeest. Frankly, looking at pictures of them, I thought it looked kind of stupid. However, I was present when Linda Powell took her hartebeest and had the chance to examine it up closely. The hide is beautiful and the horns are impressive. Grilled hartebeest backstrap is mighty appealing, too.

We looked over several herds of hartebeest and I realized that my shot, if I took one, was going to be on the long side…”Way out past Fort Mudge” as Col. Cooper used to say. These rascals stay out on the wide open prairie and change zip codes whenever they see anything remotely suspicious.

My PH, Leon du Plessis, studied the hartebeest as they milled about and finally showed me the best bull in the herd. “When he steps out from behind that termite mound, hold on the top of his back and shoot him.”

I did just that and punched his shoulders, breaking the off shoulder. The rifle used was an old BRNO 7×57 with a Leupold 3×9 scope. Ammo was a handload, using Sierra bullets…162 gr softpoint, as I recall.

This is an old bull with a truly massive set of horns. I’d say that he must weight about 450 pounds. These critters are tough to hunt and tough to put down. Oh, and they no longer look stupid to me.