JimmyDK
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- Joined
- Jan 19, 2016
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- Roskilde - Denmark
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- Denmark, Sweden, Greenland, South Africa
Finally....... april 03 2016 ... Time to go to the airport heading southwards to catch up with Outfitter/PH Justin Cawood from Arc Africa Hunting Safaris again.. I had a great plains game and giraffe hunt with Justin in 2015 and was really looking forward to hunt with him again --- and this time for my old dream hopefully to come true: A nice mature buffalo bull.
This was my ninth trip to Africa of which I've been hunting on four of them. Do a lot of hunting in Europe, especially in Scandinavia where I live, but The Dark Continent really is something special for me.
Again I headed for the Limpopo Area in South Africa.. I only had seven hunting days this time ( work takes to much time) but had a feeling of confidence that Justin would find me that buff and that I would get the chance greet it with my 375HH loaded with 300gr Barnes TSX and Banded solids.
Arriving in the morning on april 4th after a long nights flying in an overbooked old aircraft - ( I booked my tickets my self and for the first time I should fly South African Airways, not much to say about that, but dont fly them again......) I was feeling quite tired and about 20 years older, but I forgot all about that when I met Justin who stood smiling and ready waiting for me in the OR Tambo Airport in Johannesburg.. Ready to assist me and take me to the hunting area near Vaalwater...
As mentioned I went for the buffalo bull, but I hoped to get time for some other game as well knowing that buffalo hunting can be rather challenging and the chance for leaving empty handed did excist.. The challenge should show it self later on, but ill get back to that... On the earlier three times in SA I've tried to find a nice bushbuck-ram but it seemed that there was a curse hanging over my head on that specific species--- Had many other great experienses and trophys, but still no bushbuck ! But well - that is one of the essences in real hunting for me... Lots of hard work, walking, stalking, changing winds etc etc -- and then finally it pays off.. Justin knew about my wish and I really hoped that we together could make it happen this time...
But.. Now I had two goals ahead of me.. A buffalo bull and a bushbuck ram. The risk of getting disappointed on one of my goals seemed absolutely possible, but I still had a great confidence to Justins skills and remembering how we last year was walking without our boots in the terrain to be as silent as possible and had a great time doing that, ended up shooting a warthog in a very very short distance. I believed that together we could do what it takes !!
After stopping for lunch in a nice local place... Eating venison of course.. we arrived at the game lodge in the early afternoon... A large varied gamefarm with open areas, thick bush, waterholes and great accomodation was intend to be our home while hunting the buffalo.. In best african style we had a direct view to a big clearing and a waterhole with plenty of wildlife from the lodge... This really was the Africa I cant stop coming back to again and again.
I was asked if I would like to go hunting already that afternoon eventhough it was'nt planned..... And of course I said YES please... Had'nt got time to be tired yet so we just changed our clothes quickly, found my hat and some sunscreen.. Maybe vikings are supposed to be tuff, but the african sun aint our best friend ;-)
Then: A quick trip to the shooting range to make sure that the rifle and I still could cooperate, and straight into the bush afterwards.
As always I was excited to see a new hunting ground, and this one really was nice, wildebeests, nyalas, impalas, blesboks, warthogs, zebras and the most beautiful antelope on the continent: Sables... We also met buffalos that afternoon... But seeing a buffalo and getting close to one is definetly not the same. I already knew that.
Now followed 5 days og driving, walking, stalking, having great barbecues, enjoyable drinks next to the fire in the evening.. Smelling, feeling, seeing the nature. More than one time we were close to buffalos but could'nt get a shot to one.... Until my fifth full hunting day about 9 AM where we got close to a group of about 10 buffalos... In the group was two mature bulls and one of them stood a little to the side of the others... looking in our direction... He knew that something was brewing and the herd seemed aware but stood still.... At the time we were about 25 meters from them and I got ready to pull the trigger..... "my" bull was standing quartering towards us with his head low. Not giving me a chance for a good shot.. Standing there, looking thru the scope, waiting for the buffalo to raise its head and turn a little seemed like forever.. I was whispered in my ear a good shotplacement advice and tried too to remember what I've read earlier about the anatomy of the cape buffalo.. Feeling totally ready to let the bullet go.
BOOM - the buff had lifted its head and I fired.. Had a good feeling about the shot and the buff ran away. I couldn't get an extra shot into him, afraid of wounding another animal in the herd.... But gone he was....
Now some of the longest hours in my hunting career had just begun......But at that time I didn't know yet... After 10 minutes or so we went to the spot where the buffalo stood looking at us and we started to follow its tracks... Initially we found a good amount of blood and a little lung tissue in the ground and started to follow... Slowly, VERY aware and with our rifles ready. I expected the buffalo to show up at any moment in the dense bush.
Hours followed... the bloodtracks got fewer but our tracker did an excellent job.. In my many trips to Africa I never has seen skills like his.. Slowly but with an , in my eyes, almost supernatural skill he got us closer to the buffalo and then suddenly. After we had been able to smell him a couple of times the wounded bull jumped up about 25 meters ahead of us and from my position I was able to give him a good bullet which went through both lungs. He started running to the right and I started to run parallell to him to get a new shot free of bushes and trees on which I succeeded with another 300gr solid through his lungs which made him stop... But now that bull was angry... Dead and angry but not quite aware of both facts and still standing on his legs he turned towards me about 20 meters away and started charging me.. I fired my 375 again and now the PH was able to support me with his .458 Lott.. Apparently a .458 hurts more than a .375.. Even in a dead buffalo... so it now turned 90 degrees to the right and charged him instead of me which gave me another chance of a good shot so at the same time as I gave the buff a good bullet the PH gave him another one in the front so he finally stopped... tumbling in the ground 2-3 meters from us.. dead!! Not even the, for buffalos wellknown,final deathmoan he gave... so dead he was.
Whooo... what an adrenalinkick that was... And just happy that no one got hurt... That was the most intense and thrilling thing I ever tried.
Now I was more than interested in seeing where my first bullet hit him... To find out why he ran that far, beacause as I told earlier I actually had a good feeling about that first shot.. It had gone in to the chest.. about in the middle and continuing through the left lung.. A fatal shot, but for a buffalo not hard enough to die fast as I prefer and always intend to.. Well, many factors in that bullet placement. But in the very end it falls back on me... Despite reading, talking and doing all my best preparing I must have misjudged the angle in which he stood, and proably not keeping its head high enough when i took the shot.. Its always a learning process to go hunting and buffalos are for sure a chapter of its own..
Luckily I had ended up shooting the buff close to a small dirt road.. So we were able to get the Land Rover close to the buffalo so the job to load the buffalo and take it to the cooling fascility went quite easy... or easy is maybe not the best word . It still takes some power and work to load a 900 kg buff.. We were all happy to have a winch on the safari truck ;-)
First goal was accomplished so it was time to celebrate.. No more hunting that day. Just telling stories, eating good food, drinking some... wearing flip flops instead of boots and just enjoying the other great part of being on a safaritrip with good people around.
The plan was to go to another area the next morning to try to get my bushbuck and see if some other good opportunities would show.
And so we did.. Travelled about 100 kilometers to the east to a new lovely place with a totally diffrent habitat.. More mountains, a big river.. Warmer but a little more humid too.. And some really good areas with big bushbucks, kudus etc.
Knowing that bushbucks are most active in early morning and very late afternoon we headed out to see if could get a nice impala, zebra or maybe somthing else.. What I know is, that when You get a chance You must take it. You'll never know when it will happen again.. We were walking in the bush... heading for a group of impalas that we saw earlier when we suddenly almost bumped in to a good lone impala ram which were busy schratcing its horns on a little tree.. It was about 30 meters away and now the wind turned towards him in the very same moment where i rested the rifle on the shootingstick.. It raised its head, looking straight at us and about to flee.. But I was a little faster and in the moment the impala took off, the bullet hit his heart.. He ran 15 meters... straight in to a tree.... dead.
African weather showed it self from its best side that day.. Just enjoyed being in the bush, but no more chances to shoot.... So now I had to hope that my last day would give me that bushbuck.. The place we were staying, nearby the river, had a good population of free ranging bushbucks, but a good bushbuck population means good bushbuck habitat and that again means lots of low, dense bush = difficult hunting. So next morning we went out, about 5.45 AM... Still not much light and at that time it wouldn't be possible to see anything in the shades below the branches, but we went slowly through the bush when Justin suddenly spotted the contours of something in the shades... There it was, about 30 meters from us stood a good bushbusk ram. Or, well I couldnt see it in the beginning. The dark coat is good camouflage and it was standing close to a tree.. Some smaller branches were hanging there, but with a .375 it should be no problem to take him standing there in a good position to shoot. I don't think that bushbuck ever found out that we were there. The bullet did a perfect job, and after hours of hours bushbuck hunting I finally got one...A nice mature one. After a short intense morning hunt in the first lights of a new day. Is there a better way to wake up ? I don't think.
Now we just took the buck to the cooling fascility at the neighbouring farm where we could hang it to be skinned later, and then continue hunting now.. The time was about 6.25 AM so we still had some good cool hours ahead before the sun got to much to say. At the neighbours place I met Bruno...... And fell in love.. Bruno is a Rottweiler/dachshund breed ( Dont ask me how) and was for real the most funny looking thing with a nice temper.. If possible I would have taken him home to join my spaniels in Denmark.. Unfortunately, or maybe not, the owner liked Bruno too so it never turned in to a real option
So now we jumped in to the car again and moved about 5 kilometers to the other side of the little mountain ridge to see if we could get me a zebra. Just travelling that short distance took us to a whole diffrent landscape.. More open plains. From the car we spotted a good vareity of animals there. But no zebras, so after driving around for a while we decided to get off and start walking nearby the mountains to see if they had walked up hill. We walked for a while and found the zebra tracks. A good herd walking uphill, so we started to follow. The terrain got more rugged and the temperature was rising but we kept on walking for about an hour. Hearing the herd in the far distance a couple of times, crossing fresh leopardtracks and almost bumped in to a huge waterbuck bull which was faster than I. We had a good feeling of slowly getiing closer to the zebras when suddenly 2 nice warthog males were grazing in front of us. At the time we were heading in to a little canyon so we didnt had any good opportunities to walk around the warthogs to keep up with the zebras. We waited for a while to see if the warthogs would leave but they just moved slowly towards us so i decided to forget about the zebra and take one of them instead. The hogs were so busy eating that they didnt see me move slowly in to a distance of about 20 meters from where I gave the biggest one a good bullet on the shoulder. It just flipped over and was lying there at the spot where it jut had been eating.. That momentum of a 300grains bullet in such a short distance is really effective.
We walked up to the hog to take a closer look and take some photos when we suddenly heard the zebras running towards us. I think that the sound of the shot just spooked them and because of the hills they couldn't hear from which direction it came and they just started running.. We were in the corner of a little clearing and we quickly moved a little so we were staning below a little tree when the first zebra appeared and was standing about 40 meters from us.. That one was a young animal so I just watched through my scope when an old stallion came in to the clearing and placed it selv just 5 meters to the left of the young one.. No doubt that that one really was a shooter so in the same moment it stood still i gave him a shot. A good hit, high on the shoulder and it just turned around, ran about 25 meters and fell over.. While the young zebra still was standing looking in our direction.. Slowly that one started to move away and then we heard the rest of the herd start to run too, and suddenly we saw about 20 zebras on the hills above us.. Running like in slowmotion. That really looked awesome.
Two good animals in 3-4 minutes... and three in 5 hours.. Seemed like the perfect time for me to stop hunting ( I was quite hungry too ;-) ) , so we just took our pictures, loaded the animals on the truck and went home.. Really happy! I got what I came for. It took quite some time and hard work, but I really enjoyed every little minute of that. And I really enjoyed to hunt with Justin again..
The rest of my story is just about beeing in the swimmingpool with an icecold beer, having barbecue under the stars while listening to the jackals and hyenas in the dark, and the transport home again to the ordinary fast moving world.. But a world where I already started planning my next african trip with Justin Cawood and Arc Africa Hunting Safaris.. Dont know excatly what yet. Maybe hippo in the night, maybe some of the many antelopes in other parts of SouthAfrica which I havent seen yet or maybe using some of his good connections in Mozambique... I'm sure that we will do something great in the future again..Hopefully soon
Take Care, thanks for reading
Jimmy Nielsen
This was my ninth trip to Africa of which I've been hunting on four of them. Do a lot of hunting in Europe, especially in Scandinavia where I live, but The Dark Continent really is something special for me.
Again I headed for the Limpopo Area in South Africa.. I only had seven hunting days this time ( work takes to much time) but had a feeling of confidence that Justin would find me that buff and that I would get the chance greet it with my 375HH loaded with 300gr Barnes TSX and Banded solids.
Arriving in the morning on april 4th after a long nights flying in an overbooked old aircraft - ( I booked my tickets my self and for the first time I should fly South African Airways, not much to say about that, but dont fly them again......) I was feeling quite tired and about 20 years older, but I forgot all about that when I met Justin who stood smiling and ready waiting for me in the OR Tambo Airport in Johannesburg.. Ready to assist me and take me to the hunting area near Vaalwater...
As mentioned I went for the buffalo bull, but I hoped to get time for some other game as well knowing that buffalo hunting can be rather challenging and the chance for leaving empty handed did excist.. The challenge should show it self later on, but ill get back to that... On the earlier three times in SA I've tried to find a nice bushbuck-ram but it seemed that there was a curse hanging over my head on that specific species--- Had many other great experienses and trophys, but still no bushbuck ! But well - that is one of the essences in real hunting for me... Lots of hard work, walking, stalking, changing winds etc etc -- and then finally it pays off.. Justin knew about my wish and I really hoped that we together could make it happen this time...
But.. Now I had two goals ahead of me.. A buffalo bull and a bushbuck ram. The risk of getting disappointed on one of my goals seemed absolutely possible, but I still had a great confidence to Justins skills and remembering how we last year was walking without our boots in the terrain to be as silent as possible and had a great time doing that, ended up shooting a warthog in a very very short distance. I believed that together we could do what it takes !!
After stopping for lunch in a nice local place... Eating venison of course.. we arrived at the game lodge in the early afternoon... A large varied gamefarm with open areas, thick bush, waterholes and great accomodation was intend to be our home while hunting the buffalo.. In best african style we had a direct view to a big clearing and a waterhole with plenty of wildlife from the lodge... This really was the Africa I cant stop coming back to again and again.
I was asked if I would like to go hunting already that afternoon eventhough it was'nt planned..... And of course I said YES please... Had'nt got time to be tired yet so we just changed our clothes quickly, found my hat and some sunscreen.. Maybe vikings are supposed to be tuff, but the african sun aint our best friend ;-)
Then: A quick trip to the shooting range to make sure that the rifle and I still could cooperate, and straight into the bush afterwards.
As always I was excited to see a new hunting ground, and this one really was nice, wildebeests, nyalas, impalas, blesboks, warthogs, zebras and the most beautiful antelope on the continent: Sables... We also met buffalos that afternoon... But seeing a buffalo and getting close to one is definetly not the same. I already knew that.
Now followed 5 days og driving, walking, stalking, having great barbecues, enjoyable drinks next to the fire in the evening.. Smelling, feeling, seeing the nature. More than one time we were close to buffalos but could'nt get a shot to one.... Until my fifth full hunting day about 9 AM where we got close to a group of about 10 buffalos... In the group was two mature bulls and one of them stood a little to the side of the others... looking in our direction... He knew that something was brewing and the herd seemed aware but stood still.... At the time we were about 25 meters from them and I got ready to pull the trigger..... "my" bull was standing quartering towards us with his head low. Not giving me a chance for a good shot.. Standing there, looking thru the scope, waiting for the buffalo to raise its head and turn a little seemed like forever.. I was whispered in my ear a good shotplacement advice and tried too to remember what I've read earlier about the anatomy of the cape buffalo.. Feeling totally ready to let the bullet go.
BOOM - the buff had lifted its head and I fired.. Had a good feeling about the shot and the buff ran away. I couldn't get an extra shot into him, afraid of wounding another animal in the herd.... But gone he was....
Now some of the longest hours in my hunting career had just begun......But at that time I didn't know yet... After 10 minutes or so we went to the spot where the buffalo stood looking at us and we started to follow its tracks... Initially we found a good amount of blood and a little lung tissue in the ground and started to follow... Slowly, VERY aware and with our rifles ready. I expected the buffalo to show up at any moment in the dense bush.
Hours followed... the bloodtracks got fewer but our tracker did an excellent job.. In my many trips to Africa I never has seen skills like his.. Slowly but with an , in my eyes, almost supernatural skill he got us closer to the buffalo and then suddenly. After we had been able to smell him a couple of times the wounded bull jumped up about 25 meters ahead of us and from my position I was able to give him a good bullet which went through both lungs. He started running to the right and I started to run parallell to him to get a new shot free of bushes and trees on which I succeeded with another 300gr solid through his lungs which made him stop... But now that bull was angry... Dead and angry but not quite aware of both facts and still standing on his legs he turned towards me about 20 meters away and started charging me.. I fired my 375 again and now the PH was able to support me with his .458 Lott.. Apparently a .458 hurts more than a .375.. Even in a dead buffalo... so it now turned 90 degrees to the right and charged him instead of me which gave me another chance of a good shot so at the same time as I gave the buff a good bullet the PH gave him another one in the front so he finally stopped... tumbling in the ground 2-3 meters from us.. dead!! Not even the, for buffalos wellknown,final deathmoan he gave... so dead he was.
Whooo... what an adrenalinkick that was... And just happy that no one got hurt... That was the most intense and thrilling thing I ever tried.
Now I was more than interested in seeing where my first bullet hit him... To find out why he ran that far, beacause as I told earlier I actually had a good feeling about that first shot.. It had gone in to the chest.. about in the middle and continuing through the left lung.. A fatal shot, but for a buffalo not hard enough to die fast as I prefer and always intend to.. Well, many factors in that bullet placement. But in the very end it falls back on me... Despite reading, talking and doing all my best preparing I must have misjudged the angle in which he stood, and proably not keeping its head high enough when i took the shot.. Its always a learning process to go hunting and buffalos are for sure a chapter of its own..
Luckily I had ended up shooting the buff close to a small dirt road.. So we were able to get the Land Rover close to the buffalo so the job to load the buffalo and take it to the cooling fascility went quite easy... or easy is maybe not the best word . It still takes some power and work to load a 900 kg buff.. We were all happy to have a winch on the safari truck ;-)
First goal was accomplished so it was time to celebrate.. No more hunting that day. Just telling stories, eating good food, drinking some... wearing flip flops instead of boots and just enjoying the other great part of being on a safaritrip with good people around.
The plan was to go to another area the next morning to try to get my bushbuck and see if some other good opportunities would show.
And so we did.. Travelled about 100 kilometers to the east to a new lovely place with a totally diffrent habitat.. More mountains, a big river.. Warmer but a little more humid too.. And some really good areas with big bushbucks, kudus etc.
Knowing that bushbucks are most active in early morning and very late afternoon we headed out to see if could get a nice impala, zebra or maybe somthing else.. What I know is, that when You get a chance You must take it. You'll never know when it will happen again.. We were walking in the bush... heading for a group of impalas that we saw earlier when we suddenly almost bumped in to a good lone impala ram which were busy schratcing its horns on a little tree.. It was about 30 meters away and now the wind turned towards him in the very same moment where i rested the rifle on the shootingstick.. It raised its head, looking straight at us and about to flee.. But I was a little faster and in the moment the impala took off, the bullet hit his heart.. He ran 15 meters... straight in to a tree.... dead.
African weather showed it self from its best side that day.. Just enjoyed being in the bush, but no more chances to shoot.... So now I had to hope that my last day would give me that bushbuck.. The place we were staying, nearby the river, had a good population of free ranging bushbucks, but a good bushbuck population means good bushbuck habitat and that again means lots of low, dense bush = difficult hunting. So next morning we went out, about 5.45 AM... Still not much light and at that time it wouldn't be possible to see anything in the shades below the branches, but we went slowly through the bush when Justin suddenly spotted the contours of something in the shades... There it was, about 30 meters from us stood a good bushbusk ram. Or, well I couldnt see it in the beginning. The dark coat is good camouflage and it was standing close to a tree.. Some smaller branches were hanging there, but with a .375 it should be no problem to take him standing there in a good position to shoot. I don't think that bushbuck ever found out that we were there. The bullet did a perfect job, and after hours of hours bushbuck hunting I finally got one...A nice mature one. After a short intense morning hunt in the first lights of a new day. Is there a better way to wake up ? I don't think.
Now we just took the buck to the cooling fascility at the neighbouring farm where we could hang it to be skinned later, and then continue hunting now.. The time was about 6.25 AM so we still had some good cool hours ahead before the sun got to much to say. At the neighbours place I met Bruno...... And fell in love.. Bruno is a Rottweiler/dachshund breed ( Dont ask me how) and was for real the most funny looking thing with a nice temper.. If possible I would have taken him home to join my spaniels in Denmark.. Unfortunately, or maybe not, the owner liked Bruno too so it never turned in to a real option
So now we jumped in to the car again and moved about 5 kilometers to the other side of the little mountain ridge to see if we could get me a zebra. Just travelling that short distance took us to a whole diffrent landscape.. More open plains. From the car we spotted a good vareity of animals there. But no zebras, so after driving around for a while we decided to get off and start walking nearby the mountains to see if they had walked up hill. We walked for a while and found the zebra tracks. A good herd walking uphill, so we started to follow. The terrain got more rugged and the temperature was rising but we kept on walking for about an hour. Hearing the herd in the far distance a couple of times, crossing fresh leopardtracks and almost bumped in to a huge waterbuck bull which was faster than I. We had a good feeling of slowly getiing closer to the zebras when suddenly 2 nice warthog males were grazing in front of us. At the time we were heading in to a little canyon so we didnt had any good opportunities to walk around the warthogs to keep up with the zebras. We waited for a while to see if the warthogs would leave but they just moved slowly towards us so i decided to forget about the zebra and take one of them instead. The hogs were so busy eating that they didnt see me move slowly in to a distance of about 20 meters from where I gave the biggest one a good bullet on the shoulder. It just flipped over and was lying there at the spot where it jut had been eating.. That momentum of a 300grains bullet in such a short distance is really effective.
We walked up to the hog to take a closer look and take some photos when we suddenly heard the zebras running towards us. I think that the sound of the shot just spooked them and because of the hills they couldn't hear from which direction it came and they just started running.. We were in the corner of a little clearing and we quickly moved a little so we were staning below a little tree when the first zebra appeared and was standing about 40 meters from us.. That one was a young animal so I just watched through my scope when an old stallion came in to the clearing and placed it selv just 5 meters to the left of the young one.. No doubt that that one really was a shooter so in the same moment it stood still i gave him a shot. A good hit, high on the shoulder and it just turned around, ran about 25 meters and fell over.. While the young zebra still was standing looking in our direction.. Slowly that one started to move away and then we heard the rest of the herd start to run too, and suddenly we saw about 20 zebras on the hills above us.. Running like in slowmotion. That really looked awesome.
Two good animals in 3-4 minutes... and three in 5 hours.. Seemed like the perfect time for me to stop hunting ( I was quite hungry too ;-) ) , so we just took our pictures, loaded the animals on the truck and went home.. Really happy! I got what I came for. It took quite some time and hard work, but I really enjoyed every little minute of that. And I really enjoyed to hunt with Justin again..
The rest of my story is just about beeing in the swimmingpool with an icecold beer, having barbecue under the stars while listening to the jackals and hyenas in the dark, and the transport home again to the ordinary fast moving world.. But a world where I already started planning my next african trip with Justin Cawood and Arc Africa Hunting Safaris.. Dont know excatly what yet. Maybe hippo in the night, maybe some of the many antelopes in other parts of SouthAfrica which I havent seen yet or maybe using some of his good connections in Mozambique... I'm sure that we will do something great in the future again..Hopefully soon
Take Care, thanks for reading
Jimmy Nielsen
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