Report by: Leon Lamprecht
Location: Lake Natron
Date: 03 October 2006
Client: Neil Summers
Hunting the plains of East Africa with Bow and Arrow is easier said than done. This time of the year at the end of the dry season, the vegetation is scarce and it does not leave a lot of cover for stalking the species on the open plains. My client is Neil Summers from Eugene, Oregon. Neil has three days before he goes to the Selous on a buffalo hunt. His quest in Maasailand…hunting the gazelle species (Thompson’s and Grant’s), with Bow and Arrow.
1 October – Day 1
We discovered today what the easiest way is to hunt the gazelle with a bow. From our Kiseriani camp in the east of the Lake Natron South Concession, we went west to the plains at the foot of Mount Kitumbeini looking for either Thompson’s or Grant’s gazelle. Access to the plains is the easiest by taking a drive down a dry river bed from camp to the mountain. Yesterday, coming back from a village meeting at Kitumbeini, I saw a very nice bachelor herd of Grant’s in this same river. Unfortunately it was not until we got to the end of the river that we found a herd of Grant’s and it was already on the open plains. We decided to take whatever comes along first be it Tommy or Grant. We drove past the herd and left the vehicle under some nice acacia trees for a bit of shade. We managed to get close to a nice Grant ram when we spotted a herd of Tommy mixed in with the Grant females. They spotted us however and gone went the lot, Grant included. After some driving on the plane we spotted some more Grant in the tree line towards the foot of the mountain. Again we left the car under some acacias and tried to stalk on foot. This time it was more difficult. It had heated up considerably by now and there were some giraffe with the gazelle under the trees. We eventually managed to get within 40 yards from some Grant females using the trees as cover, but no males were within shooting distance. Eventually the rest of the herd to our left got our scent and they moved off.
Now was time for plan B. We would try walking like the Maasai past them, complete with robes and all. The group of females had now grown in size with the addition of a bachelor group of seven males. The females would not let us get close, but they eventually split up from the males who were a lot calmer. We approached at an angle as if we were going to walk past them. The males kept moving at the same speed we were approaching, but not letting us within their comfort zone. In this case, the comfort zone was about a 100 yards. We were already past mid morning and the open plain was heating up nicely. The Grant males started slowing down and showed some interest in a couple of small acacias. There were two very nice rams in the group with a third one that was acceptable. The rest however were still a little too young. Lady luck smiled on us, and the first one to stop under the tree and stay was the one big ram. We kept walking as if we were going to walk past him. By now the rest of the rams had moved off about another 20 yards. I stopped when I thought we were in range and using Neil’s rangefinder ranged us at 70.4 yards. Neil heard 74 yards but by the time we had sorted out the misunderstanding the ram had joined his friends. Trying to walk them down kept us busy another hour at least, but we could never make it within 75 yards, which was Neil’s goal. The rams split up at some stage and we followed two, but they would not have anything to do with us penetrating that comfort zone.
Eventually we sent a tracker back to fetch the car and we walked back to the treeline to look up the shade ourselves. At the edge of the trees we spotted a single Grant ram feeding away from us and we immediately stalked him. He was however, more wide awake than what we thought and spotted us. Back to plan B and walking in the open. Several times we got within that magical 75 yards but as soon as we stopped he would walk off. The car arrived and we decided to look for better trees for a nice lunch spot. Our ram had not gone 200 yards so we jumped off the car and let the car drive along. Again we tried to stalk, but again he was way too wide awake for us.
After lunch we drove to the far side of the tree line and started working our way back along the trees. The trackers spotted a single Grant male and we drove past and decided to sneak back and try stalking again. The stalk worked very well and we got within 40 yards of various females but no ram. It was hot by now and they did not feel like moving. Eventually they got our wind and moved away from the trees to a single tree about 200 yards away. The ram had joined them by now and they were all walking in a bunch. Back to plan B and we just walked at an angle past them. The females were very relaxed and obviously did not like leaving the shade at this time of the day. With the females in the lead and heading straight for the big tree, the ram was forced to stop under a smaller tree closer to us. As soon as we passed some branches that were in the way, Neil knocked an arrow. I ranged as soon as we stopped and this time we were only 66 yards away. Neil aimed and released a perfect arrow. The ram was calm but started turning away as soon as Neil had released the arrow. 
At this range even the slightest movement makes a big difference. By the time the arrow reached the animal he had turned away from us. The arrow hit him on the back leg but exited just behind the opposite shoulder. In less than 100 yards we saw a pile of dust and had one very nice Grant’s gazelle trophy. Our patience eventually paid off. After some photographs of Neil’s trophy we went back to camp to get the trophy skinned. Late afternoon saw us going for a very successful game drive seeing lots of the other East African species occurring in the area, including some magnificent gerenuk and one exceptionally big Lesser Kudu bull.
2 October - Day 2
The Lake Natron South Concession comprises the western shores of the Lake and a wide stretch to the Arusha – Kenya road. Getting to the southern shores of the lake from our eastern camp takes about five hours. The previous day, while fly camping in this area, PH John Greeff and his client Tom Waller saw lots of Tommy in the acacia south of the Lake. This area is to the east of Oldonyo Lengai the only active volcano in East Africa. Because of the volcano, the area is scarred with gullies and little outcrops which makes stalking with bow and arrow easier. Unknown to us, some armed poachers moved into the area after John and Tom moved out and were skinning some zebra for the hide market when we arrived. We forgot about Tommy hunting for a while and ended up with two poachers, one Land Rover and 14 zebra hides instead. Not what we came for but quite a catch. Neil, having hunted in Africa numerous times and knowing what it was all about, did not have a problem with the change of events and understood when I had to send our Game Scout back to Arusha with the poachers and confiscated car and hides.
We tackled the long road back to camp after lunch in high spirits. As Mr. Murphy and his law would have it, we had two potential easy opportunities at Thompson’s gazelle on the way home but with no Game Scout, we were not able to cash in on the situation.
3 October - Day 3
Neil has to catch a flight to the Selous for a buffalo hunt in our Madaba area tomorrow and today was our last day in Maasailand. The easiest was to go back to where we were two days ago at the end of the dry river bed on the way to Kitumbeini mountain. After searching the acacia shrub at the end of the plains we eventually spotted a single Tommy ram with three Grant’s females in the center of a big open plain. The day had heated up by now and the gazelle were seeking the shade of three small umbrella thorns. This was going to be a difficult stalk but it looked like it was our only chance. We managed to crouch down and walk up to about 250 yards from them. One Grant female must have seen some movement and kept on staring in our direction. This left us with no other choice but to get on our hands and knees. On a hot day like today the soil gets quite hot. Eventually we crawled like this for about 120 yards stopping every now and then to rest the knees, see what the animals are doing and remove some paper thorns from our tender hands. We had some small brush on the plain within shooting range from the Tommy male but getting there meant from here on we had to get on our bellies. Eventually after loosing the skin on my elbows and removing more paper thorns than I thought possible, we reached the last brush. The Grant’s females decided to move further along the plain and the Tommy stayed behind on his own. I rose slowly and ranged the Tommy at 55 yards. Neil was comfortable with the shot but even though the Tommy was standing broadside he was facing in our direction. Eventually he turned with his body facing us but his head turned away. Even though he could not see us this is not a good shot on a small animal like a Tommy. As luck would have it the Tommy went lying down in this position still facing us. His advantage was that he was in the shade and we were lying in the scorching heat. Neil knocked an arrow and we did the only thing we could, play the waiting game. Contrary to what we thought, the Tommy got up and started walking to our left. I whistled and Neil got ready to shoot. On my second whistle the Tommy stopped perfectly broadside but with his head facing us. Neil released the arrow but even at 55 yards the Tommy was long gone by the time the arrow reached its intended target. The placement was perfect, but by now the Tommy was already nine feet to the right on his way to greener pastures.
After lunch we tried all the tricks in our book that we tried two days ago on the Grant’s but with no success. Eventually we called it a day and decided to let the Thompson’s Gazelle win this round.
Tomorrow morning Neil is leaving for the Selous and John Greeff, his PH in that area, will keep you up to date on how that hunt is going.