Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Africa Let's see your Red Lechwe photos

Trip to the eastern Cape next year will have red lechwe on the menu. This is kind of a pricey trophy, would like to start getting a mental picture of what a really good one looks like.

They are a beautiful animal. Too rich for my taste, but very beautiful. I got a stalk to within about 125 yds of these.





Best of luck. Their body is the size of abig whitetail here in Canada

Bighorn,
What you should be looking for is a nice open spread like the bull in the photo and a nice deep sweep of the horns.That is where the inches will lie, in the depth of the sweep. Unfortunatly the bull in the photo did not give a side view, but seems a decent bull.
All the best on your trip. I have no doubt that you will have a blast

These are certainly a beautiful animal.

I'm almost positive that I'm wrong on this, but is RSA the only country where you can hunt Red Lechwe these days? My understanding is that with the changes affecting the hunting areas in and around the Okavango Delta, Red Lechwe are no longer available there. Please correct me if I have my facts wrong.

Pinotguy,
The red lechwe is also found in Botswana , Zambia and Namibia. The two dominant subspecies are the Red and Kafue Lechwe, differnce being on the Kafue that it has black shade on its shoulders and up the front legs.
I read somewhere that there are some pure Kafue Lechwe running around on some South African properties. Due to cross breeding , the chances of shooting a Red Lechwe in South Africa with the blacks markings of the Kafue, but not as dominant as on the Kafue, are very possible.

Then you can also still add the Black Lechwe to that list, and pretty much also add to the price tag. They are however magnificent animals. The Lechwe in general are not too tough to hunt, but longer shots are often required due to the open floodplains that you will find them in....and it might be a wise idea to pack some gumboots. It gets wet on the retrieval.

All the best,

Marius,

Are Red Lechwe legal to hunt in the three other countries you mentioned? I know they were on license in Botswana but am not sure how the recent changes in their primary habitat there (the Okavango Delta) have affected their availability. Are there some game farms in Namibia that have Lechwe (similar to RSA)? If there are, I've never come across them. I have heard that they can be found in the Caprivi but I've never seen an outfitter that operates there who offers them. Same with Zambia. I've seen the Black and Kafue Lechwe offered there but have never seen Red Lechwe listed.

I've seen red lechwe on a ranch in Namibia. They seemed very out of place in the desert, since the only place I've hunted them is in the swamps of the Okavango, their natural habitat.

You can also shoot lechwe in Texas (and I believe all three kinds) which seems to be about a appropriate as shooting them in Nambia.

Red Lechwe are available in the Kasonso and Busanga blocks in North Kafue. There is a move afoot to re introduce them to some of the Kafue River flood plains.

Here's one that I shot with Johnny Vivier in the Eastern Cape in 2007.

Excellent Lechwe there, buffybr.
Congratulations.