IN 1997 I became a fulltime journalist with Man Magnum, hence moved to Durban where the magazine was then based. I was keen to hunt in my new province and the first animal I shot was a reedbuck ram, taken with my .375H&H.
Shortly after moving to Natal, I met Erik Egeland, a farmer in Ixopo, who invited me to hunt reedbuck. I’d grown up in Namibia and had never seen a reedbuck, so before leaving, I read everything I could find about hunting this antelope.
My last-minute decision to use my synthetic-stocked .375 was due to a weather forecast predicting rain for the weekend – I was not keen to get any water on my wooden-stocked rifles. My .375 is a custom job on a standard length Mauser action and at the time it was fitted with a home-made ghost-ring sight. I’d hand-loaded 300gr PMP bullets for a velocity of 2 250fps.
I arrived at Erik’s farm in miserable weather – cold and drizzling – but despite this I was eager to get out into the veld. The farm stretched up a hill
