Timbavati Buffalo with Chris Troskie

Hello,

I recently had a great hunt with my friend and excellent Professional Hunter and Outfitter,Chris Troskie of CT Safaris. We hunted cape buffalo in Timbavati, which is a private game the Greater Kruger that opens into Kruger Park in Mpumalanga, South Africa in mid March of 2014. I took a custom .458 Lott on a left handed Weatherby Mark V action made by Les Wild in Cheyenne, Wyoming using a 2.5x Leupold Ultralight scope for 500 grain Barnes TSX and Banded Solids and a 1.5-5x Leupold for 295 grain CEB bullets for plains game hunted later in Limpopo.

Chris and his lovely wife Sabina, his tracker Charles and a young PH who would film the hunt, Zander Bierman, picked me up at the airport in J'burg after I cleared customs and then got my rifle from the SAPS. Then we drove part way to Mpumalanga and spent the night at a nice lodge the departed the next day for Timbavati (picking up another tracker Samson on the way as well) where were met by Paul White, Assistant Warden and Professional Hunter of the property. We verified all of our rifle were on target and begun to hunt! South Africa in its late summer was green and thick with an abundance of water due to heavy rains and flooding, including standing water and nearly impassable rivers in places! It was warm to a little hot (coming from a cold, windy Wyoming winter!) but comfortable at night with fewer bugs than expected (DEET and permathrin probably helped with that).We then hunted for buffalo and were eventually able to spot one that turned out to be at the edge of a large herd of several hundred. We circled them for wind and stalked and sat watching them for several hours until we saw a suitable bull without being surrounded by other buff and I was able to kill a very nice old bull with a broadside shot. The .458 Lott hits very hard!


Other old buffalo bulls were seen that would also have been very nice to shoot as I had another bull on license but I did not want the hunt to end on the 1st day!

Sabina had prepared a wonderful feast for that evening and we dined and visited until late around a nice fire at a very comfortable camp.

Sabina


A nice fire and G&T's waiting...



We heard lions, hyena, and hippo off and on all night as hyena tracks though the camp!

We spent the next morning setting up a leopard bait for the next hunter and stalked 2 large herds of 300 or so buffalo off and on all day. We saw elephants, white rhino, impala, giraffe, wildebeest, waterbuck, wart hogs, and especially cape buffalo! It is very exciting to get close to buffalo in the bush veldt to look for the right bull then back out only to re-approach time and again for hours, looking through the thick brush, working the wind, watching thunderstorm clouds raining and storming in the distance! What a way to live out a day!





baby hippo sleeping on momma's back








We had another wonderful meal that night and listened to the lions and hippos and hyenas talk.

The next day we hunted hard and saw a blunt horned old dugga boy and followed him into a thick Mopani forest, almost walking into a sleeping bull, and played cat and mouse several hours until we were in the middle of a large herd in which he became lost to us. It is exciting to have buffalo on 3 sides, see them become aware that something (us) was there with them, mill around but be unable to scent us so not bolt! In that big herd Paul estimated to be 300 or so we saw several shootable bulls but could not get a clear shot through the Mopani or the other buffalo so backed out to get water and lunch and while at the bakie the buffalo crossed the road in front where we were parked so thoughts of water and food left us and the hunt was back on! This time I was able to get a frontal chest shot at another old buff and soon had my trophy!



We spent the last day at Timbavati camera hunting and I got to learn quite a bit about the conservation and anti-poaching efforts at Timbavati and Kruger. Paul White, as Assistant Warden of Timbavati, was educated as a conservationist as well as a professional hunter and was a wealth of information and very passionate about the great work he is a part of. Plus, he is an excellent hunter! All of the hunting is a part of their conservation strategy and only old, mature animals are hunted. Detailed records are kept. It is an impressive organization and to me, what I saw was very encouraging so that future generations will get to share in this part of wild Africa! The people involve in Timbavati work hard to the goal of conservation. Hunting on the property, as well as non-blood sport safaris, pay to make this happen. It was a privilege to hunt there. Thank you Chris!

We then left Timbavati and drove across northern South Africa crossing vast plains and steep mountains to arrive near Lephalale which had been suffering record floods.






Sabrisa, the Troskie's ranch on the Mogol River, had been inaccessible to even 4WD (as had the town of Lephalale) until a few days before we arrived. The property we had been to hunt giraffe, zebra, gemsbok, was still not accessible so Chris was able to make arrangements to hunt another property away from the severe flooding and we hunted a nice zebra stallion, an old gemsbok, and a big giraffe over the next several days with his friend Hannes Lamprecht, also an excellent PH. A 500 grain TSX in a .458 Lott does work well for plains game hunting , at least out to 125- 150 yards. The 295 grain CES bullets at 2770 fps, which I used on the zebra, are as flat shooting as a .30-06 to about 250 yards. The gemsbok was my longest shot this trip at about 125 yards and the only animal not taken with the 500 grain Barnes TSX.







We also spent a lot of time hunting bushbuck on Sabrisa, saw several, but never got a shot a one.

Then, an uneventful trip to Johannesburg and back home to snow in Wyoming.

It was a wonderful hunting trip with my good friends, Chris and Sabina Troskie. I made new friends, hunted great country for mature, old animals and had a great adventure that I relive parts of daily in my mind! I learned a lot about how responsible hunting and stewardship can help dedicated people preserve habitat and game in a wild, unspoiled part of Africa. I wait with great anticipation for the next time I am able to travel to South Africa!

Best,

jpj3

I really enjoyed your photos and write-up. Congratulations on some excellent trophies and memories.

great buffalos,mate
great trip all round
chriss must just have one hunt back straight up to another , way to go !

Congrats, thanks for the great pictures and stories!

Congrats for this fantastic hunt, two very nice dagga boys ! And you even got to hunt with my old friend Hannes.

Thanks for sharing.

Thanks for the congrats. I enjoyed posting as it was fun to relive the hunt in my mind as I wrote the report.

Chris is having a good year so far. He does a good job and consistently delivers.

Hannes is quite a character! He is a lot of fun and a good hunter as well!

best,

jpj3

Add another congrats jpj3, great buffalo. The Timbavati is a very cool place.

Nice hard Boss bull...

Looks like you had a great time

thank you for sharing with us

I have been hunting there last year, in May. It is just a great place and the buffaloes are big....
Well done...

Hello jpj3,

Excellent post and photos.

Thanks for sharing.

Some people whimper that South Africa is all small parcels, enclosed by high fences and containing pen-raised/hand fed animals.

If they would actually visit South Africa, under the guidance of a Proper PH, such nay-sayers would discover that those huge concessions bordering The Kruger Park like Timbavati, or Maruli or others, are actually more likely places to bump into free range lion or have a chance to see a 47" buffalo outside the parks, than many places in Africa they'd care to name.

Such park border concessions may be fenced along the road, (primarily to keep villagers from grazing cattle through) but, being open to the park, they are some of the highest success rate concessions for DG hunting in all of Africa, something like hunting elk on one of the ranches that border Yellowstone Park in The Western USA.

Cheers,
Velo Dog.

Could any one tell me a bit more about the Timbivati. I watch Tony Makris hunt there with the NRA show, but wondered if anyone else has hunted there, and other countries for buffalo, and how does it compare? The Timbivati is beautiful, and I wondered how it compares with Zimbabwe or Mozambique?

Edward Wright said:

Could any one tell me a bit more about the Timbivati. I watch Tony Makris hunt there with the NRA show, but wondered if anyone else has hunted there, and other countries for buffalo, and how does it compare? The Timbivati is beautiful, and I wondered how it compares with Zimbabwe or Mozambique?

Click to expand...

If nobody within this forum hunts there or, guides there or, volunteers their information on this concession, do send your inquiry to:
big5game@worldonline.co.za
Tell Hannes Swanepoel that Paul Ard sent you.
He can answer your Timbivati questions, as he was born and raised in that general area, and is a PH there.

Nice Buff's. Sounds like a great hunt. Bruce

Velo Dog said:

Hello jpj3,

Excellent post and photos.

Thanks for sharing.

Some people whimper that South Africa is all small parcels, enclosed by high fences and containing pen-raised/hand fed animals.

If they would actually visit South Africa, under the guidance of a Proper PH, such nay-sayers would discover that those huge concessions bordering The Kruger Park like Timbavati, or Maruli or others, are actually more likely places to bump into free range lion or have a chance to see a 47" buffalo outside the parks, than many places in Africa they'd care to name.

Such park border concessions may be fenced along the road, (primarily to keep villagers from grazing cattle through) but, being open to the park, they are some of the highest success rate concessions for DG hunting in all of Africa, something like hunting elk on one of the ranches that border Yellowstone Park in The Western USA.

Cheers,
Velo Dog.

Click to expand...

I have hunted the greater Kruger area and can confirm that Velo Dog is correct. You will run into lion and buff in the bush. The amount of game in the area is amazing.