SOUTH AFRICA: Two Weeks With Tootabi Hunting Safaris The Time Of My Life

Day 6:

Saturday morning was to be spent in search of an animal that had quickly worked its way through the hierarchy of my list, the bushbuck. Up to this point, we had seen a buck two different times from the main highway behind the lodge as we drove to other locations, so we were going to search quickly for him. This ram was a phenomenal dark color with good horns, so we were very hopeful that he would be in the back of the truck very soon.

Our usual route past the cattle gate along the main highway revealed that he was in his usual spot, so we drove on and turned around and entered from the hill above him. Once through the cattle gate we gathered our stuff and proceeded down the hill. Unfortunately we had to get to within 30 yards before we could get a clear view of the opening where he was at and by the time we reached that point, he was gone. Anticipating him moving away from the road we moved through the brush to the left and walked within 10 yards of him. Needless to say, he quickly let us know he was there and left the hillside with only a glimpse of him having been viewed.

Loodt did not want to push the bushbuck ram from the area, so we got back in the truck and continued along the farm roads looking for another ram. The next bushbuck we saw was only a female, but would have been an easy stalk from our viewing point. As we worked our way up the valley toward the East, Attie and Deon tapped the top of the truck, their usual signal for having spotted our quarry. “Bosbok ramme”. Although they could see the ram clearly from atop the truck, we were unable to get high enough on our feet to see over the brush and down into the valley. Carefully we slipped down the road in efforts to find a spot that would allow us to find a good vantage point. Just before reaching the perfect spot, a herd of kudu spotted us from across the valley. As they began their slow jog up the hill, we received signal that they had alerted our bushbuck. Once in position, we waited several minutes in an attempt to hopefully catch a glimpse of our boy. It must have been 10 minutes later when I caught a glimpse of the bushbuck. He moved through an opening only about 6’ across and did not allow for good evaluation, but I could clearly see that he was even darker than our previous ram: almost black. After approximately a half an hour we decided that the ram must have given us the slip and we continued on. In the pasture atop the hill were warthogs, zebra, gemsbok and impala. As it was now after 0900, we decided that the bushbuck hunting was almost over and began to head out to another area where we were to search for baboons. Just before leaving the pasture a nice bushbuck ram ran out from the opposite side of the pasture almost toward us to a grouping of trees that were probably 5-7 acres in size. As there was no time for a shot and the ram would probably be in that group of trees if left alone, we opted to move on and come back to size him up later that afternoon.

Later I found out that this part of South Africa is much like my home state of KY – everybody knows everybody, because everybody is kin……………… lol, no pun intended. We would be pursuing baboons on a friend and uncle of Loodt’s as they were constantly complaining of the “expletive, expletive, expletive baboons”. As we drove down the access road into the Bend River area, the road was littered with baboon scat, but I was yet to see a baboon except from the main highway. At the landowner’s home we were quickly given the Intel on where the baboons liked to frequent and began our search. Unfortunately our efforts proved fruitless, but I was able to see some absolutely beautiful country.

Later we found a group of baboons from over a mile away and attempted to get closer with the vehicle before beginning our stalk. Although they did not run from the sight of the truck at this distance, by the time we had driven to within a half mile out of sight and stalked to where we had seen them, they were long gone. Then we spotted them moving away in the distance and began a very fast approach. They had crossed an open field and into a very thick prickly pear thicket ahead of us. We moved out into the field just enough to get past the rise so that we could see the other side and we stopped there and put the sticks down. Loodt began calling with his mouth and within moments one appeared on the other side. The baboon was there only for a split second and I took a moment too long trying to ensure it was a male. As I squeezed the trigger, I watched the baboon turn to run the other direction, but it was too late as the trigger pull was already too far in motion. I actually thought I might have gotten lucky as the baboon made a weird commotion at the shot, but as it was later discovered, it was only because it had been standing on the prickly pear and not on the ground and I had quite literally scared the crap out of it. That’s enough in the miss department!!

We had a late lunch at the lodge and put together a plan for the bushbuck that afternoon. Even though the ram we had seen was running across the field we were able to see that he was definitely a shooter and appeared lighter in color than the other two we had seen.

It was still early, just barely before 4pm, but we had decided that we wanted to get in early and possibly position ourselves so that we could wait for the bushbuck to present himself. That was the plan, but the bushbuck had other ideas. As we began to circle the cover through the sparse vegetation to the south, we spotted him. The ram was already out feeding and had not seen us approaching. Had I known that this would be the case, I would have definitely packed the bow, but instead had Loodt’s .308 in my hands. Once we saw how long the horns were on this guy, I wouldn’t have cared if I had been shooting a Gatling gun from a helicopter – HE WAS A MONSTER! We threw the sticks up and I made the 80 yard shot count and boy was I ever happy.

His age was very evident with the wiry hair on his body that had been bleached with his age. The neck, while often having a bald spot on the back, was almost barren of any hair from the brisket and top of shoulders to the throat. His belly was mostly bare and his face had no hair above the nose to the base of the horn and the chevron was non-existent. He had several battle scars which included a badly scarred and formerly broken leg that had healed with large calcification. Only flattened spots showed for his lower incisors and his molars were down to the gums. This was truly an old Monarch. 15 ¾ inches of monarch!
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Another fine trophy, I never get sick of bushbuck hunting...it's the best.
 
Well done. Great looking Bushbuck. One of my favorites also. Good ones can be tough to find. Congrats. Bruce
 
Day 7:

As there is no hunting on Sundays with Tootabi, we had planned for an outing at Addo Elephant National Park. I had still to see rhino, buffalo or elephant outside of a zoo and was very hopeful. The day was filled with wildlife including hartebeest, zebra, eland, kudu, warthog, elephant, buffalo, flightless dung beetle, large land tortoises and several others. Unfortunately, no rhinos.
 

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Day 8:

I had originally had a white blesbok on my list of animals, but had removed it after a sanity check. Unknowingly, Lammie had mentioned to me on Thursday of a rancher who was looking to eliminate his white blesbok from his herd and had a killer deal on them. As this was on our way to the springbok concession, Loodt had said that if I wanted one, then he would be happy to oblige!

It’s amazing to me how much different each farm is and this one was no different. The land was a mixture of brush and open country that reminded me more of Botswana, without the sand. The first animal we spotted was a VERY nice blue wildebeest that had the attention of both Loodt and I. As Loodt is always open for a change of plans, he asked me what I thought and I was very impressed with the wildebeest but declined the opportunity as I did not need to add any other animals at this point.

We quickly found a herd of blesbok that had a white individual, but it was a ewe, so we elected to move on. Attie had said he knew of where there was an absolute giant that had been there the week prior and never really seemed to be out of the area. 20 minutes later found us in the right spot, but apparently at the wrong time. We searched and searched, but was unable to find him. Attie was very sure that he was dead and that we needed to find another. He knew of only 3 white rams on the property and directed us to where we could find another.

As usual, Attie was correct and we quickly found a white ram. While he was mature, Attie said it was the smallest of the three so we continued on to find the other. With the white color being quite easy to spot, we found the other without much serious effort. Although finding him was easy, getting close was another story. We accidently bumped him with the truck and once that happened, he was very much on the alert.

The first stalk let us get to within 80 yards and the only shot I had was through the brush. I should have just mowed through the brush with the big gun, but that is the whitetail hunter coming out in me. The second stalk we honestly just misjudged where he would be as he had doubled back to our left and when he bolted out, he came directly in front of us from left to right at about 60 yards. I threw up the gun and was waiting for the signal, but hearing nothing I just watched him run. I’m typically not one to have others tell me when or what to shoot, so I was trying to pay respect to the PH in this case, but Loodt was confident in my abilities and was waiting for me to take him. After a regroup, Loodt said that so long as I was comfortable on him and they were clear, he was fine with me shooting.

The next time we located him it wasn’t quite as easy. He had crossed an incredibly steep and wide valley and was going out the other side close to a mile away. We went back to the truck to drive around to where we thought he might be headed to try him again. About a half an hour later we located him and began our stalk. There was a clearing approximately 40 yards wide that had been cleared with a dozer for as far as the eye could see and all throughout the clearing was signs of bushpig. (I will admit that my mind wandered in awe of the sign)

Either the good Lord was smiling down on me or I was using every last bit of magical juju we had, because when we got to within 400 yards of him, we saw that he had joined another larger ram. This was our big boy we wanted originally. Watching the two it was easy to see the difference in color. The smaller ram that we had been after had much more red hidden within his coat and the bigger male was much whiter. As they moved over the hill we hurried our pace so as to use the hillside to block our approach. Once we reached the top, I think we were all shocked to see they were well over 200 yards ahead of us. We quickly put the sticks up and waited for our boy to turn broadside. It seemed as though an eternity passed before he finally turned, but when he finally did…………..BOOM and he went straight to the ground! Great mass and 15 3/4''.
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After skinning out my blesbok, we quickly got on the road for our 1-2 hour drive to the springbok concession. The trip was absolutely beautiful with a lot of terrain change along the way.
 

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When we entered the concession, we picked up a local worker for the farmer so that he could show us around and provide better insight into the most recent sightings of the springbok. I was actually quite excited to hear the plan of how we were to hunt these little critters. As this was a working cattle ranch, there were cattle fences throughout the property and while springbok can easily jump these fences, they tend to only do so when really pressured. So our plan was to work our way to a general corner of the cattle fencing with an opening and find cover within some trees and Loodt and I would wait while the others went off to another area and would alarm the springbok from the truck. This was to work much like deer drives do in the Northern and Eastern parts of the US.

It didn’t take long until we had springbok coming in. Some springbok were of the common color variety and some were black. Black springbok were on the menu here so we waited patiently. The nice thing with this method of hunting is that the springbok are so flighty that the truck bumps them quite easily to another direction and can well over a mile away, holding its position and the springbok will be back to a moderate pace when they are in front of the shooter.

We passed several younger rams and the females until a nice old ram came over the hill. It was neat to watch him as he was lip-curling much like a whitetail buck in the states will do during the rut. His only mind was paid to the female that he continued to follow. This buck wasn’t long in the horn, but was very massive and had a weird curl on his left horn so the decision was made to take him. He advanced within 200 yards and we continued to wait patiently for the best shot opportunity and insurance that there wasn’t something else behind him that we would rather shoot. Once he reached about 140 yards I decided to take him. Amazingly, even at that range, those little guys are extremely small. I waited until he was broadside and past a tree that had continually blocked his vitals. The .308 did its job well and dropped him cleanly. SUPER STOKED!
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Very nice trophy!
 
Like always, Loodt knows where to find some good deals and apparently this landowner wanted a number of Springbok taken and offered to us an unbelievable deal, to which I was happy to oblige. With one Springbok on the ground, we moved for another one. With several blown opportunities, we finally found a couple of nice springbok rams that were to our liking. One of the rams was a bit smaller in horn, like my original ram, but massive, while the other had some very nice length and was a very light gray color. The lighter colored ram was a bit younger and just coming into maturity, but I chose to take him based on the color. One “Texas Heart Shot” later and I had my second ram.
 

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The pictures are amazing!
 
The pictures really make me miss Africa, people that have not been there have zero clue why us AH addicts can't let go the desire to hunt Africa. The food is great, pricing is affordable and the hunting is incredible.
 
Jason Don't know how I missed this one! Congrats on a Great hunt love the lion skull!
 

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