SOUTH AFRICA: Day One & Two &...

Day One: Morning
Arrived in camp after 10:00 PM the night before. I met my PH, Werner and another named Francois. The next morning I woke up about 6:00 AM and went outside to watch the sun come up and see what I could hear, see, and smell. It was in the low 50's and bluebird clear which turned out to be the case in the mornings on all 10 days I was there. Heard lots of birds singing and some warthogs raising hell outside the compounds stockade type walls. About 6:30 I met Maxine, the mother of the other hunter Gary I was sharing camp with. What a character she was, 80 some years old and full of piss and vinegar. Gary popped out a few minutes later and introduced himself. About 7:00 the two PH's showed up and they explained some of the rules about the camp and what to expect. The owners wife, Ananja showed up a short time later to start making breakfast. After some eggs, warthog bacon, and blesbuck sausage and all the fixings Ananja sat down with me, my wife, and dad and went through all the details and rules about the camp and hunting. Werner took me out to the range and we checked the zero on my rifle. It survived the trip without any damage and was on zero. Werner took me out in a truck and I got my first look at the hunting area. He is the ranch manager in addition to being the number 1 PH in camp. I rode on top of the truck with Werner and we had my tracker Abram driving. Since we only had an hour or two before lunch we went out and dropped feed at numerous sites with ground level bow hides and water holes. I saw baboons, vervet monkeys, a bunch of small warthogs, one big bull Blue Wildebeest which offered no shot as he vacated the scene, a nice Kudu bull which was a year or two from being fully mature. No shots , but got a real good look and explanation of the day to day operations on the ranch.

Afternoon:
My Dad and wife wanted to come along so we opted for the truck so they could ride along. We covered many miles looking for my first victim. It was slow for the first hour or two but as it cooled off from the mid 70's we started seeing game. I saw 7 nice Gemsbuk all running, 3 nice Elands bulls all shooters with 5 cows, and 10 Kudu, 7 bulls all to young to shoot, 2 cows and a yearling from last year. It was a great day despite no shots. I saw many new things and my wife took some pictures. Lamb stew for supper, Yummy!!!!

Day Two: Morning.
Got my first shot shortly after we went out. We spotted two Common Blesbuck walking together. I took a 100 yard shot at the bigger of the two and it dropped in its tracks from a heart and lung shot. My wife and dad both saw it drop. I am not sure how many inches it is but that's not my bag anyway. Werner was excited about it and says it was a mature old bull with good sized bases and length. I compared it to some of the mounts in the lodge and horns in the salt room and it had them all beat with room to spare.
Saw some nice Sable(not on my list), numerous young Kudu bulls and cows, and my first Impalas(no shooters). Headed in for some pictures and lunch.

Afternoon:
We went out to a different area in the afternoon. A 15,000 acre parcel the was very rugged and mountainous. Werner was hoping we would get a look at some Zebras here. As it turned out we did get to see a few zebras but had no shots. One nice stallion was standing with its rear end facing us. I got the rifle on it but it ran straight away after a short time without offering a shot. Saw some nice Eland bulls and one Livingston Eland which was half again as big as the others. We drove up on top of a plateau and checked out some water holes and lakes and came across a very nice Blue Wildbeest bull that was all by himself. He piled up after about an 80 yard run from a double lung shot. The three of us tried to load him into the truck by hand, but we could not do it. Out came the winch and rollers. We saw many other nice animals including one Gold class Mountain Reedbuck( not on my list) and some Cape buffalo. Those guys look at you like you owe them money. Black death is an appropriate name for them.

great start kirky boy ,
id rekon your dad would of love being in Africa .
that nice wood on your riffle ,mate

Nice report with pictures.

Blesbuck looks to be in the 16" to 17" range.

Looks like you are having a good time.

What does "not on my list" mean?

Is your Safari a package deal?

I know that i would have looked hard at the Mountain Reedbuck if it was deemed a shooter.

James.Grage said:

Nice report with pictures.

Blesbuck looks to be in the 16" to 17" range.

Looks like you are having a good time.

What does "not on my list" mean?

Is your Safari a package deal?

I know that i would have looked hard at the Mountain Reedbuck if it was deemed a shooter.

Click to expand...

I did not do a package deal. I am a working stiff and had to really watch my budget on this hunt. The Reedbuck was a dandy but unfortunately was not in my wheelhouse price-wise. If it would have been later in the hunt and animals were not coming I might have considered shooting it.

Thanks for sharing. What province were you hunting?

Good start Kirk and good trophies.........we wait for more mate......!!!!!

Day 3: Morning
Saw my first shooter Kudu today. He was with 2 other younger bulls and Werner spent a bit of time looking him over because his head was partially obscured by thorn brush. Just he gave me the shoot order the Kudu turned and walked back into the brush deeper which took away my shot. We worked our way forward a bit but the Kudu would have none of that and trotted off with his two buddies in tow. We moved on and saw several Zebras and a couple of nice Impalas but we could not get a shot at any of them. Morning was a bust.

Afternoon:
We saw several groups of Impala with nice rams but with all the extra eyes it was impossible to put a good sneak on them. About when we would sort through the group and pick out a shooter they would move off and we would have to start the process all over again. After an hour or two of this we spotted a group of 7 Eland bulls and some Blue Wildebeests with a lone Gemsbuck in tow. We worked our way to the side a bit and got an opening through the group and I took a shot at the Gemsbuck at about 130 yards. At the shot the Eland and Wildebeests exploded in every direction and the Gemsbuck came running straight at us. Werner said hit him again so I took a straight on running shot as soon as it cleared the crowd. Poof a big cloud of red mist goes off and down it goes liked it was sledge hammered. At first I thought "Oh crap" I hit it in the face, but as it turned out it was a perfect shot in the chest and spine. It turned out that I missed with the first shot and got damn lucky with the second. Any way I got my Gemsbuck.


Day 4: Morning
We went back to the 15000 acre parcel where I shot my Wildebeest to look for a zebra. We did not see any but I did get my chance at a nice mature Kudu bull. He was quartering away a bit and I hit him hard. He bolted down through a ravine and up the other side making for one of the mountains. Werner and I take off down the ravine and up the other side and spot the bull right at the base of the ridge. A second shot in the shoulder put him down. That was one tough animal. We had to machete and clear a trail to him so we could use the winch on the truck to load him. We took our pictures on an earthen dam by a lake. We reloaded it back into the truck and I sat up top to look for anothe animal as we drove out. I spotted a lone Impala which turned out to be a nice ram. It stopped in an opening an presented a nice 50 yard broadside shot. I line up on him and pull the trigger and snap.....with no bang. I hung my head as he ran away realizing I had forgotten to put a round up the spout after taking the Kudu pictures. First time in 40 plus years of hunting I pulled that stunt. Werner says... "It was not his day to die"
I put a round in the chamber and we head up the road about 400 yards and out pops a herd of Impalas with 3 nice rams among them. We singled one out and bag an 80 yard shot and it burns out of there. Nice Impala that it was it runs in an arc and die about 10 feet off the road. I hit him back a bit and punched both lungs but he covered a couple of hundred yards before he went down. More pictures and we head in for the day. What a banner day it was.

nice animals kirky boy .

Great days 3 & 4 thanks for sharing!

Always better to have luck on your side.
Congratulations.

Can you just imagine hauling that Kudu out without the aid if a winch? Sheesh.

Very nice trophies, I look forward to the rest of the report.

Days 5:
Morning:

We drove around all morning trying to cut a fresh trail on some Zebras. Saw many nice animals, wildebeests, kudus, impalas, giraffes, eland ,but no zebras.

Afternoon:
Went back to searching for zebras. As we are driving along suddenly the brakes go on and Werner sticks his arm out the window and points off to our left and hisses Zebra. it took me a few seconds to find it as there was a lot of thick thorn brush. I spot the zebra standing broadside about 100 yards away. All I could see was the middle of the animal as both ends were obscured by trees. I stared at the zebra for a couple of minutes and finally see a tail swish to the left. I swung the rifle over to the right and tucked the shot in as tightly to the right tree as I could. At the shot the whole place exploded with zebras. It turns out there were 30 or so in the group and i never had a clue they were there. We tracked that zebra for 3 or 4 miles before it got to dark to continue. The amount of blood we were seeing had me concerned. Just not enough to indicate a good hit. We found a spot where they crossed the dirt road into a new block of brush and marked that spot to return to the next morning. The wounded zebra appeared to be staying with the herd.

Days 6 and 7 were spent looking for that herd of zebras which we never saw again. We walked and drove all over the place and did not cut any spore at all. They seemed to have vanished. It is a hard thing to lose an animal but I am convinced that zebra will survive its wound. $1250 dollar lesson learned.

Day eight:
Morning:

We went out looking for a warthog since it was the last animal on my list. If a baboon presented itself that was a possibility too. The baboons were a puzzle to me. I saw a few the first day we went out but not a single one after that. I was seeing plenty of warthogs but no shooters.

Evening:
We decided to sit in a hide to see if a warthog would make an appearance. we spotted one nice boar coming in bet he veered off at the last minute and vanished. About 20 minutes later a nice Red Hartebeest comes in and offers up a nice 80 yard broadside shot. Werner and I had discussed shooting another zebra if the opportunity arose and the hartebeest was the same cost. It got the best of me and I decided to take the shot. The hartebeest ran about a hundred yards and went down from a double lung shot. I hit him just a bit high and missed the heart. Light was fading fast and by the time we got the truck in it was dark. Pictures would have to wait till the next day. Tilmo the skinner made a small incision and removed the entrails. They pre-posed the animal in the walk in cooler and it stiffened up nicely all set for the hero shots. We threw him on a trailer the next morning and ran him out to "Hollywood" where they took many of my animal pictures.

First, I'd like to say thank you. Thanks for the great report and pictures.

Second, I'm sorry...I kinda laughed out loud when I read you forgot to reload.

And lastly, wish me luck in two weeks when I get to take my first safari.

Cheers!

Congrats for a great hunt and nice trophies !

Sorry for the zebra, they are really tough.

DAY 9
Morning:
I had just about reached the limits of my budget animal wise. I wanted to finish my last day of hunting trying for the baboon or warthog. Werner suggested we sit in a blind that was nit used anymore for hunting, but had an active waterhole by it. There were many young sable bulls and calves in the area milling about. After a short time we started seeing some baboons darting back and forth in the distance. They were gradually working our way. some of the baboons were big and it took some time for one to offer a shot. The only problem was that there were several sables in close to the water too. At 10 grand a pop I could not afford to wing one of them. I took the shot and the baboon leaps into the water hole and dies right there. I must say that baboons are not the best smelling animals in the world and they are especially stinky when you dunk them in water, but they do have a mean looking set of chompers in there mouths. the only bad thing about the shot was the cloud of dust it set off in that old hide. Werner and I were both choking and had to get out as quickly as we could.

We decided that that would be the last animal I would take and opted to go out and just take some pictures of animals during the evening hunt. I brought my rifle along just in case a respectable warthog made an appearance. As usual this did not happen but I really did not care. Werner took me by a lake where they had some crocodiles and we got to see a few of those. He also showed me a White Kudu and a Golden wildebeest that they were trying to breed.

Sounds like a great safari.

Thank you for sharing.

Freezing that Hartebeest in position has to be one of those creative moments I won't forget. Damn, thats good.

Ouch on the Zebra. Damn things are tough, certainly not when hit perfectly.
Hard lesson and that just sucks.

You have E's Warthog curse.

Good trophies and good hunting. Thanks for sharing the story.

Thank you for sharing, it looks like you had a great trip!

Well done!! Congrats!!