Mhimbi Safari

I was picked up at the airport by Cobus Roos the PH. We meet on a hunter's chat line. And I bought a hunt package from him last October 2008.

We stays at a chalet in photo safari property in the Gauteng Province. We spent 2 days sight seeing. The diamond mine and the lion park. We went to a local bar and watched a rugby game on television. The Bulls!!! We didn't start hunt even though I paid for 4 individual days because someone else was using the property. We went in on the 19th of May and had to shoot 3 animals in the one day :eek::eek:. I was not happy to say the least! That is a ton of pressure. Cobus and his son Wikus use Tasco binoculars that would be best shot up with a 375 H&H...you can't see anything with them.

The hunt gets off slow because we have to see if the gun is on. It isn't...the cracked stock from the East Cape hunt is coming back to haunt me, from last weeks hunt. The paperwork goes slow too. Neil is a little drunk too. He's suppose to show us around.

We head out and look for game. We see a nice warthog and waterbuck but they move off pretty fast. Then we see a tsessebe on a grass hill side. I take a look and can see he is pretty massive. The guides are like he's short let's go look for something else. I jump off the truck and take my sticks. I set up quickly and shoot the tsessebe at 150 yards. He runs and falls over pretty quick...it's 9:30 am. The guides are shocked...boy I'm glad we didn't pass this one. He scores around 47.5 on the SCI scale...he has 14.5 inch long horn.

We head out and see a monster Waterbuck. They can't judge the horns. I wonder why? We chase but he runs off. We see zebra but they can't determine the size at all. It's 11:15 am...I say lets have brunch. It take forever to make lunch. Finally we eat and head out. We have 2 animals to go and it's 2 pm....it's dark by 6 pm. We drive around see a monster warthog. But I don't act quick enough..I should have shot and showed the guides the 12 inch tusks when he was on the ground.

We pick up the guy who runs the ranch at 3:30 p.m. We head for the thicker cover and all of a sudden we see 3 waterbucks and one is very nice. We moves closer to use. I shoot him at 60 yds. and he doesn't go far. The 28 3/4 inch waterbuck had moved out of cover because of the white rhinos in the 10 foot tall grass :eek:. It's 4:30 pm and a zebra to go!

We head to the high hills on the property and the zebra are all bunched up in the tall grass. It was a 1500 Rand penalty to shoot a mare. The owner can't make the decision, it's too dark and the grass too high. I pick the biggest one and try to shoot. Darn gun won't fire:mad:. I grab Neil's gun a 338 Win Mag Sako and fire 250 Nosler Partition at the Burchell zebra at 50 yards. I hit the top of the heart and blood flies everywhere. The zebra piles up less than 100 yds. away. Wh rush to take picturees and load him up for the skinning shed :cool:. Three nice animals is one day!

The next day we pack up and head to the Limpopo Province to hunt on SS Pro Safari's Property. I know Scott Van Zyl from the SCI conventions in Wisconsin. Scott Van Zyl runs a first class operation!

We go out hunting for impala and warthog on the 21st of May. It is cloudy, cold and windy. A bad combination. We actually see some nice warthogs and impala. But the guides have a hard time see anything in the bushes. We are using a 2 wheel drive truck with no 4X4 we have to let parts of ranch untouched because it's sandy and we'll get stuck :footinmouth:.

My last day the 22nd of May. The hunt gets off slow. Because of who knows what reason :mad: ???? We head out at 9am. We see some nice impala but they are in the brush and with Tascos..you can forget about it. Finally at 9:30 am I see a nice impala at 150 yds. He's broadside. I should have shot and measured later. The Ph's can't see him...big suprise. Then he runs out to 300 yards...quartering to use..he is pretty big. I take a shot but hit him high. We search for over 4 hours but it is hopeless. I pay the penalty. I'm mad at misself for taking the shot but even madder at my guides because that impala was wide open at 150 yds. You have to call the shot !!!!

And then I move on to try for a Kudu. Scott Van Zyl has some dandy's on this ranch. A guy in camp has 60 in Kudu and 15 warhog. We start to drive The hills and the brush. It's 4:30 pm and I see a nice kudu bull. I yell stop the truck. I can see the dark gray coat and the long, dark horns in the trees. I want to shoot now but the guides are in the way! They can't see him. Finally the kudu gets out of the tree and starts running. We take off on foot. I catch him in the trees one last time. Wikus grabs my gun, don't shoot that is a small one. He moves out the trees...It was the monster kudu. This time he runs for parts unknown. I could have killed the guide :samurai:. I'm totally pissed.

We get on the truck and see more kudu way up ahead! We get over there and I see another nice Kudu in the trees. I look at the massive bases, the turns, and see finished tops. Boom!!! I hit him in the shoulder at 50 yards. I don't wait for the Ph's...I shoot in less than 5 seconds. The guides are like you shot a 46-47 incher. I'm like the hell I did...he's a very nice mature kudu. He measured 55 3/8 on the one horn and 53 1/2 on the other. The final score was 130 7/8 :D. I was happy with the kudu.

The next day I pay my bill and find out I have to pay the daily's for my PH :mad::mad:. We drive to the airport and I go home on the 23rd of May 2009.

What did I learn? You can get great animals without the PH's seeing any of the animal, until they were down on the ground dead! Look for my photo in "photos and video" under individual member pictures, under enysse.

Good reports, sorry everything did not go right.

One day I will hunt South Africa and will depend on help from guys like you that have been there.

I am pouring some scotch thinking about Africa.

Congratulations on your successes.

Sorry to hear the hunt was so poorly run. Thanks for letting us know though!

Enysse

Sorry to read all that mis managed hunt & hush hush hunting session you had, but you got your trophies , congrats on that , certainly lesson to learn and outfit to choose.

Happy Hunting

Monish