dailordasailor
AH enthusiast
I'm long winded so I apologize in advance. In short, my wife (Marrah) and I hunted with Rich at Comre for our first time in SA. Highly recommend them.
5/11 we fly out of DFW on Turkish Airlines. This flight connects through Istanbul. 10 hour layover in Istanbul so we bought passes to the lounge so we could shower and laydown. Long layover…Finally on flight to SA.I stayed up staring at the map on the seat in front of me until we passed over Africa finally. It may have been lack of sleep, but was a big feeling finally being at least over the continent we have thought about for 5 years and was delayed twice with Covid.
5/13 We finally make it to East London and meet Sashal at the front door and take the couple hour drive to the camp. I catch up on a hour of sleep but get to see Baboons on roadside and upon entering the property we see Eland and Wildebeest which made us really feel like we were actually in South Africa. We settle into the lodge, meet Rich our PH/Outfitter (Sashal’s husband.)
5/14 Up early for a 7am breakfast then we meet our tracker Thomas and hop in the truck. We are out looking for a Kudu for me and Thomas spots a couple buffalo on the wrong side of the fence. Rich radios back to his guys and over to Hunters Hill for help with the helicopter. We continue hunting when he gets the call that helicopter is coming. We head back over and get to see the fun chase of trying to heard two uncooperative buffalo. Rich ends up hopping in chopper to shoot around the buffalo and help push them in the hole in fence they left through. They finally get them back through and the ranch hands reinforce the fence. We head back to lunch for fantastic eland burgers, and take a couple hour break where the misses sleeps and I watch movies on my tablet.
We head out for the evening hunt chasing Impala for the wife. We get set up on some great impala twice but they don’t cooperate. It started getting darker so we planned to slowly head towards camp. The wind picked up and we see an Impala standing behind some bushes that appears to think hes hidden. My wife and PH hop up on the high rack. She takes her shot and the Impala looks like when you hit a deer well, so I get excited. He runs about 20 yards behind some other bushes and lays down. Rich cuts the tracking dog (Lulu) loose and once she gets to the Impala it stands up but is hurting bad. This little 10 lb dog proceeds to “tackle” this impala down a couple yards away and Marrah puts another shot into it to put it down. Marrah seems a little uneasy about the animal suffering and questions her shooting but the first shot was right where it needed to be. First animal down in Africa! Wildebeest steaks for dinner and then we sleep like we’re dead until the 6am alarm goes off.
5/15 – 7am breakfast then in the Rover. We are driving up high into the mountains. We get to a good lookout point to look for Kudu and can see for miles. Truly beautiful country. Thomas spots a giant warthog moving across the valley. I get set up with Rich’s long range set up (6.5 Swede Howa) shooting prone. Rich adjust the scope after ranging. I shoot, he tells me I’m an inch behind its ass. I find him again in the scope and shoot over his back. That was enough for the pig so he took off at full speed. Rich then tells me the pig was at 540 yards, which was by far my farthest shot I’ve taken on animal. He also tells me how big that pig truly was. We take back off to continue Kudu search. We see a group of small kudu bulls with cows but no big ones, we drive over another mountain on rugged roads and see a big group of Kudu. Rich and Thomas start talking and I can tell something goods happening. We grab the 6.5 again and hike/run up a hill that was steeper/longer then it looked. I get set up prone again and see the Kudu under a shade tree. The angel up the mountain side is so steep I struggle to get my eye in the scope on the bipod. I relay this to Rich and he says “it doesn’t really recoil, you’ll be fine”. With butt of gun resting on the ground I get comfortable enough and take my shot at 400yds. The Kudu sprints left downhill and rest of heard heads up hill. We all move left 20 yds and set up again. This time shooting little down hill. Shot at ~100 yds and the kudu goes down behind a tree. Rich cuts Lulu loose and after she stares at the Kudu for a second, she gathers her courage and goes in to get the Kudu on its feet. I shoot again free hand and hear the bullet ting off the rocks and rich says “you missed”. Then through the scope I watch this little dog tackle a kudu to the ground and never moved again… What had actually happened was that last shot went through the heart clean and the pass through hit the rock and when Lulu grabbed its leg it had already taken its last step. My view was more fun then what truly happened… One of the two animals that scream Africa to me was down and this trip felt like a great success. We head back for lunch.
Afternoon we head out and alongside the road Thomas sees a warthog. They are walking dead away from us and Rich says “shoot it in the ass”, I miss left at around 100yds and they’re gone. No other animals seen that we were after that evening but another beautiful sunset.
5/16 Morning hunt traveling through low country looking for warthogs. Had a trophy and a cull on the list. Thomas spots a few small hogs a couple hundred yards out so we get out of the truck. We walk within about 100 yards of what we though were four young hogs. We stalk closer and Rich directs me to which hog. He then says “wait” and we see a sow that was hidden by brush. She’s facing right at us and he says when she picks her head up, shoot her in the chest. She picks her head up, bang-flop. Was a great feeling after missing a relatively easy shot the day before. Photos and then Thomas guts it so we can keep hunting for a male. About an hour later on a hill side Thomas spots 4 hogs going across low part of hill. Im on back of truck and Thomas points me to the male in the back of group. I’m using the 300WM and Rich says “aim one-pig high”. I feel steady and take a shot on it walking at 375yds. It slows him down but he still keeps moving. I set back up and Rich says “hold at top of back”, this shot drops the pig with what turned out to be a spine shot. We aren’t sure if its dead as it fell behind a bush so Thomas and Lulu take the trek up the hill. They find the hog dead where it fell. Rich and I carry the tarp up to help drag this hog down this rocky hill/mountain side. Rich is wearing smooth bottom boots so Thomas and I tag team the drag down. This is a humbling experience as Thomas is a man among boys when it comes to hard work. After he drags me into a pricker bush I catch my breath and we finish the drag to base of the hill. This is the second animal I think of when I think of Africa so I am ecstatic to have two warthogs in the salt. We head back for lunch.
We decided to add a couple cull wildebeest so that afternoon we went after them. They didn’t cooperate. We chased a herd of black wildebeest around the mountains but they didn’t want to stop. We run into a blue wildebeest herd and after some chasing, they spread out enough for Marrah to get set up on the high rack with Rich. She gets lined up on a cow at 250yds and hits it in front left knee. Rich grabs the gun and puts a round in its rear to keep it from taking off. We take off in the truck and get 50yds from it where Marrah puts a shot in the vitals. Doesn’t end the wildebeest as quickly as desired so she shoots once more in the neck and its done. She makes a death bellow which doesn’t sit well with her but the suffering was over. We were both surprised how beautiful her coat was up close. I wasn’t interested in wildebeest at first but they are truly beautiful critters.
On drive back to camp Tom sees a calf black wildebeest stuck in some vines in bottom of ravine. To me looks dead as hell. Tom gets down there and grabs the vine and it picks up its head. Tom cuts him loose then we all get a good laugh as it immediately charges Tom. The calf gets its bearing and slowly walks off looking dehydrated but otherwise healthy.
We continue our drive back and not far from camp Thomas spots a Duiker along the road heading up a small hill. Rich gets excited and tells me to get out, grab gun, and shoot off the hood. In the excitement I short stroke the bolt so when I shoot at a perfectly broadside Duiker at 120yds it just goes click. I hear Rich say “you have to put a bullet in it” as he laughs and I re-run the bolt. The duiker is walking dead away and again I get “shoot it in the ass” so I send a 300wm lengthwise through this little guy. It falls immediately but goes out of site in the tall grass. Thomas goes up with Lulu. Lulu takes off full speed and grabs this Duiker, which isn’t completely dead, by the neck and the Duiker lets out an awful cry until Thomas can pull her off. Thomas brains it with his knife and its over. I tell Rich I’m a euro guy and he says “this one you may want to shoulder mount” once I get my hands on it and he tells me again that he would mount it, I agree and I’m happy as a pig in shit. I have 3 euro Muntjac in my office and now have an African tiny 10 to go with them. Eventful day and we get back to eat a fantastic dinner.
5/17- I tell Rich at breakfast I now want a Steenbok after shooting that Duiker. Thomas sees a large Steenbok on drive from camp. By time we all get out for stalk and get into the brush its long gone. We then head to other side of property where we saw some Steenbok before. When we arrive there’s baboons everywhere. They take off like they’ve been shot at before… We get out and set up and I send a magazine worth of 300wm shots at running baboons to no avail from 200-300 yds. Was fun but not fruitful. After shooting up the valley we take back off to backside of the property. As we are glassing we hear talking/yelling and Rich/Thomas start talking to each other. Rich says there should be no one out here, then we get in truck to try to get better look. We get where we can see over the river and the fence line. Rich and Thomas talk again and rich shoots three times at opposite hillside. We wait and then see a man in a blue coveralls walk up the hill. Turns out it’s the neighbors sheep herders who I’m sure shit themselves. We head out for lunch.
We head out for evening hunt in search of Steenbok. Thomas spots a narrow kudu at 100yds so we stop and glass it. Rich then asks if we want a half price Kudu as they want it out of the gene pool. I look to my wife as I don’t need another and she says she doesn’t want it. Rich then counters with lower price and she still says no. I harass her a little bit but she holds fast. Rich drives off a few hundred yards then she says “I feel like I will regret not shooting it”. That was enough for me so we turn around after the Kudu. The kudu walks through the tree line out of site. Rich and Marrah hop in back and Thomas drives towards where we last saw him. He had crossed a dry Creek bed and was standing maybe 70yds from us. I turn on my phone video and wait for her to shoot. She shoots, I see what I think is a good shot and the Kudu bucks and runs but I never see it hit the hillside in front of us. Rich talks to Tom and Tom says he thinks she hit in neck. Everyone hops out and Rich asks me to drive the truck around to the other end of field to see if they jump it so I can put another shot in it. The three of them walk too me and we never see anything. I can see on Marrah’s face she feels terrible about it and we hop in truck to check the next field over. We cover a lot of land by truck and even see some females that look unfrighten standing in the bush. The whole thing doesn’t feel right to me as a Kudu isn’t small yet we never saw it leave the field it was shot in. The sun sets and we make the drive back to the lodge with Marrah going through the emotions most of us have after not finding an animal at last light. Rich and I try our best to say it happens and we’ll find it in the morning but its not helping, I’ve been in her shoes before so I understand. Rich says in morning we will get 4 more guys and grid the area until we find it. Marrah goes back to the room to clean up for dinner and I remember I filmed the shot with my iPhone. Shat video with it zoomed in but when I zoom in further in slow Mo I can see the dirt fly off the Kudu right in the vitals. I show the video to Rich and he says “that’s a dead Kudu”. I show Marrah, doesn’t really seem to help as she assumes we are both just trying to make her feel better.. We have a couple beers with dinner and I sleep pretty soundly.
5/18- In the morning Rich radios his assistant manager to bring the guys and meet us at 7:30. The guys spread out and within 300yds of the shot the Kudu is laying dead in the field in the tall grass. As we walk up I can smell its guts and our fear is realized that the Jackals tore it up. The highlight to this was Rich trying not to vomit while Thomas and the ranch hands gutted what was left. Everyone, especially Marrah got a great laugh as he was behind the truck coughing. We then found out Rich cant gut any animals or he will throw up… Was a fun lesson to learn. We take “not great” photos of Marrah with what’s left of the Kudu and drive back to camp. We head back out for Steenbok with no luck. Lunch time.
I decided to add a springbok after Sashal had told us it’s the South African animal. We head out to the flat land and run into a big herd of springbok. They immediately notice us and sprint across the valley. We follow and they spread out in the next clearing. I get set up on the truck with Thomas and he directs me onto the big male of the group. I talk to Rich in the cab and he says hold on the vitals, it ends up being a 220 yard shot and went under its belly. No excuses because I felt solid. The springbok doesn’t seem phased, 2nd shot a little back with him quartered towards us. He’s not in good shape so we close the distance and one more shot ends it. Tom was kind enough after first shot to say “think the wind got you”, Rich of course said “you missed”. Once got up on it Rich tells me their scent gland smells like cotton-candy. After our time together, I call bullshit but hes persistent. I look to Tom and he’s smiling so again I call bullshit. After some convincing I smell it after I make sure no one is within range to shove my head in it. There was definitely a sweet sugar smell which was interesting.
On our drive back we see a aardwolf along the road. Rich says “try to stalk up on it and see if you can touch it”, again I look to Tom who doesn’t understand what I am asking him but also doesn’t look worried. The “stalk” was very brief as I am not that stealthy and the aardwolf takes off. Neat looking animal for sure. Dale tried to creep up to it but no luck. Back to camp we go.
5/19-At breakfast Rich says “we need to accept the fact we aren’t getting a bushpig” as we were slated for torrential rain that night. We discuss options on substitutions and Rich says he has an old yellow blesbok that is on his own that used to be a breeder and that we can add a common blesbok. The idea of two animals gets my interest and we agree to go after the only male yellow blesbok left at Comre. We drive drive way up into the mountains where he was seen a couple weeks ago. We stop to glass at the top and no one sees him anywhere. We do see a herd of buffalo working their way up the mountain which I definitely didn’t expect. Rich then says “we will never shoot one back here” in reference to trying to recover the animal. We discuss that the blesbok may have been jackal food and head down the hill. We talk about going after a gemsbuck instead when Tom taps on the roof. Tom had spotted the yellow blesbok in the basin all by itself. We turn the truck around and I hop in the back and get on the gun. Again Rich says hold on vitals and wait for him to stop walking. The blesbok stops at 212 yards, I shoot and he he’s hurting. He death runs behind some brush and doesn’t come out the other side. After previous shooting experiences, I ask Tom how the shot looked and he smiles. Rich says from the cab “you love gut shots don’t you” and my heart sinks. We drive towards the bush and spot it laying dead. Turns out was a perfect shot (finally) and that Rich was an asshole… Once we put hands on it Rich and Tom both say its much bigger then they thought and I’m a happy man.
Tom guts it and we head off after a large common blesbok we had seen by itself the day before. Like the animal had agreed to our plan, he’s exactly where we saw him before, 50yds from the road. We hop out to “stalk” up and shoot off the sticks. One shot at 70yds and he crumbles. Originally I didn’t care about blesbok but after seeing these two up close, they are truly beautiful critters. The notable thing to me was that we shot the exact 2 blesbok we discussed at breakfast as they were standouts on the ranch. Both had almost no teeth left were living the lone old man life. We head back for lunch and I’m feeling confident on how great my shooting has evolved, even if was at close range..
After nap time we are happy to see the skies were still clear so we went looking for a cull black wildebeest. The blacks seem more turned on then the blues and yet again don’t want us getting close. We chase the herd for a while until they finally calm down in an open field. Back on the high rack and waiting for Tom and Rich to agree on which female. Tom directs me to the right one and I shoot what felt great at 230yds. The group scatters and I don’t see a single wildebeest limping or lagging behind and I feel like crap again. I ask Tom and he points to the wildebeest at the front of a small group heading to our right. I say it cant be and he reiterates it’s the one in front of the group. I’ve never seen a wounded animal lead a herd but that was her in front and through the scope couldn’t see blood or limp or anything. We follow in truck then they finally slow down and I take another shot at 150yds that hit the heart. I’ve seen plenty of animals bleed, especially in the snow, but this was like a horror film amount of blood. She rears up and falls over backwards dead. We drive up to her and looks like someone tried to paint a room by just swinging a gallon around their head with the lid off. We take photos and can see the weather coming in the distance. We load up and head back after what would be our final time in the field for our first African Safari.
Up to this point we had been alone in camp all week. This evening two parties join the camp from NC and CA. We have some good conversations and watch some awkward conversations about politics that evening and into the next day which was rained out. Was actually kind of nice to lounge around and relax before starting the long days of travel back home. The three guides that joined the camp from Hunters Hill all seemed like great guys and we had a great time BSing.
View attachment Marrah Rich Tom Pano.jpg
Note: We had bushpig on camera at a feeder near camp. Bushpig was the #1 animal on my list. We spent a couple hours after lunch one day clearing brush and setting up a “blind” behind an old rock wall that once served as a fighting fort in the 1800’s if I remember correctly. The blind was about 100yds from the feeder and up hill. First night we hear the pigs on our walk in and then feel the wind switch to our backs. We sat until midnight and the pigs never came to the feeder. Next night wind looks good again but swirls all night. Pretty early on we have a sow come in that gets the adrenaline flowing. We watch her eat, run off, come back and eat some more for about an hour. She walks off finally and we see nothing else for rest of night. Unfortunately the weather report was wrong about the wind two nights in a row and was showing flooding/rain for the next two (final two nights) of our trip. I at least got to watch that sow through binoculars which was cool to see.
This trip was planned for 5 years and was canceled twice with covid. It was everything we hoped and more. “Unfortunately” I didn’t get the bushpig I wanted so we have to go back…
5/11 we fly out of DFW on Turkish Airlines. This flight connects through Istanbul. 10 hour layover in Istanbul so we bought passes to the lounge so we could shower and laydown. Long layover…Finally on flight to SA.I stayed up staring at the map on the seat in front of me until we passed over Africa finally. It may have been lack of sleep, but was a big feeling finally being at least over the continent we have thought about for 5 years and was delayed twice with Covid.
5/13 We finally make it to East London and meet Sashal at the front door and take the couple hour drive to the camp. I catch up on a hour of sleep but get to see Baboons on roadside and upon entering the property we see Eland and Wildebeest which made us really feel like we were actually in South Africa. We settle into the lodge, meet Rich our PH/Outfitter (Sashal’s husband.)
5/14 Up early for a 7am breakfast then we meet our tracker Thomas and hop in the truck. We are out looking for a Kudu for me and Thomas spots a couple buffalo on the wrong side of the fence. Rich radios back to his guys and over to Hunters Hill for help with the helicopter. We continue hunting when he gets the call that helicopter is coming. We head back over and get to see the fun chase of trying to heard two uncooperative buffalo. Rich ends up hopping in chopper to shoot around the buffalo and help push them in the hole in fence they left through. They finally get them back through and the ranch hands reinforce the fence. We head back to lunch for fantastic eland burgers, and take a couple hour break where the misses sleeps and I watch movies on my tablet.
We head out for the evening hunt chasing Impala for the wife. We get set up on some great impala twice but they don’t cooperate. It started getting darker so we planned to slowly head towards camp. The wind picked up and we see an Impala standing behind some bushes that appears to think hes hidden. My wife and PH hop up on the high rack. She takes her shot and the Impala looks like when you hit a deer well, so I get excited. He runs about 20 yards behind some other bushes and lays down. Rich cuts the tracking dog (Lulu) loose and once she gets to the Impala it stands up but is hurting bad. This little 10 lb dog proceeds to “tackle” this impala down a couple yards away and Marrah puts another shot into it to put it down. Marrah seems a little uneasy about the animal suffering and questions her shooting but the first shot was right where it needed to be. First animal down in Africa! Wildebeest steaks for dinner and then we sleep like we’re dead until the 6am alarm goes off.
5/15 – 7am breakfast then in the Rover. We are driving up high into the mountains. We get to a good lookout point to look for Kudu and can see for miles. Truly beautiful country. Thomas spots a giant warthog moving across the valley. I get set up with Rich’s long range set up (6.5 Swede Howa) shooting prone. Rich adjust the scope after ranging. I shoot, he tells me I’m an inch behind its ass. I find him again in the scope and shoot over his back. That was enough for the pig so he took off at full speed. Rich then tells me the pig was at 540 yards, which was by far my farthest shot I’ve taken on animal. He also tells me how big that pig truly was. We take back off to continue Kudu search. We see a group of small kudu bulls with cows but no big ones, we drive over another mountain on rugged roads and see a big group of Kudu. Rich and Thomas start talking and I can tell something goods happening. We grab the 6.5 again and hike/run up a hill that was steeper/longer then it looked. I get set up prone again and see the Kudu under a shade tree. The angel up the mountain side is so steep I struggle to get my eye in the scope on the bipod. I relay this to Rich and he says “it doesn’t really recoil, you’ll be fine”. With butt of gun resting on the ground I get comfortable enough and take my shot at 400yds. The Kudu sprints left downhill and rest of heard heads up hill. We all move left 20 yds and set up again. This time shooting little down hill. Shot at ~100 yds and the kudu goes down behind a tree. Rich cuts Lulu loose and after she stares at the Kudu for a second, she gathers her courage and goes in to get the Kudu on its feet. I shoot again free hand and hear the bullet ting off the rocks and rich says “you missed”. Then through the scope I watch this little dog tackle a kudu to the ground and never moved again… What had actually happened was that last shot went through the heart clean and the pass through hit the rock and when Lulu grabbed its leg it had already taken its last step. My view was more fun then what truly happened… One of the two animals that scream Africa to me was down and this trip felt like a great success. We head back for lunch.
5/16 Morning hunt traveling through low country looking for warthogs. Had a trophy and a cull on the list. Thomas spots a few small hogs a couple hundred yards out so we get out of the truck. We walk within about 100 yards of what we though were four young hogs. We stalk closer and Rich directs me to which hog. He then says “wait” and we see a sow that was hidden by brush. She’s facing right at us and he says when she picks her head up, shoot her in the chest. She picks her head up, bang-flop. Was a great feeling after missing a relatively easy shot the day before. Photos and then Thomas guts it so we can keep hunting for a male. About an hour later on a hill side Thomas spots 4 hogs going across low part of hill. Im on back of truck and Thomas points me to the male in the back of group. I’m using the 300WM and Rich says “aim one-pig high”. I feel steady and take a shot on it walking at 375yds. It slows him down but he still keeps moving. I set back up and Rich says “hold at top of back”, this shot drops the pig with what turned out to be a spine shot. We aren’t sure if its dead as it fell behind a bush so Thomas and Lulu take the trek up the hill. They find the hog dead where it fell. Rich and I carry the tarp up to help drag this hog down this rocky hill/mountain side. Rich is wearing smooth bottom boots so Thomas and I tag team the drag down. This is a humbling experience as Thomas is a man among boys when it comes to hard work. After he drags me into a pricker bush I catch my breath and we finish the drag to base of the hill. This is the second animal I think of when I think of Africa so I am ecstatic to have two warthogs in the salt. We head back for lunch.
We decided to add a couple cull wildebeest so that afternoon we went after them. They didn’t cooperate. We chased a herd of black wildebeest around the mountains but they didn’t want to stop. We run into a blue wildebeest herd and after some chasing, they spread out enough for Marrah to get set up on the high rack with Rich. She gets lined up on a cow at 250yds and hits it in front left knee. Rich grabs the gun and puts a round in its rear to keep it from taking off. We take off in the truck and get 50yds from it where Marrah puts a shot in the vitals. Doesn’t end the wildebeest as quickly as desired so she shoots once more in the neck and its done. She makes a death bellow which doesn’t sit well with her but the suffering was over. We were both surprised how beautiful her coat was up close. I wasn’t interested in wildebeest at first but they are truly beautiful critters.
On drive back to camp Tom sees a calf black wildebeest stuck in some vines in bottom of ravine. To me looks dead as hell. Tom gets down there and grabs the vine and it picks up its head. Tom cuts him loose then we all get a good laugh as it immediately charges Tom. The calf gets its bearing and slowly walks off looking dehydrated but otherwise healthy.
We continue our drive back and not far from camp Thomas spots a Duiker along the road heading up a small hill. Rich gets excited and tells me to get out, grab gun, and shoot off the hood. In the excitement I short stroke the bolt so when I shoot at a perfectly broadside Duiker at 120yds it just goes click. I hear Rich say “you have to put a bullet in it” as he laughs and I re-run the bolt. The duiker is walking dead away and again I get “shoot it in the ass” so I send a 300wm lengthwise through this little guy. It falls immediately but goes out of site in the tall grass. Thomas goes up with Lulu. Lulu takes off full speed and grabs this Duiker, which isn’t completely dead, by the neck and the Duiker lets out an awful cry until Thomas can pull her off. Thomas brains it with his knife and its over. I tell Rich I’m a euro guy and he says “this one you may want to shoulder mount” once I get my hands on it and he tells me again that he would mount it, I agree and I’m happy as a pig in shit. I have 3 euro Muntjac in my office and now have an African tiny 10 to go with them. Eventful day and we get back to eat a fantastic dinner.
5/17- I tell Rich at breakfast I now want a Steenbok after shooting that Duiker. Thomas sees a large Steenbok on drive from camp. By time we all get out for stalk and get into the brush its long gone. We then head to other side of property where we saw some Steenbok before. When we arrive there’s baboons everywhere. They take off like they’ve been shot at before… We get out and set up and I send a magazine worth of 300wm shots at running baboons to no avail from 200-300 yds. Was fun but not fruitful. After shooting up the valley we take back off to backside of the property. As we are glassing we hear talking/yelling and Rich/Thomas start talking to each other. Rich says there should be no one out here, then we get in truck to try to get better look. We get where we can see over the river and the fence line. Rich and Thomas talk again and rich shoots three times at opposite hillside. We wait and then see a man in a blue coveralls walk up the hill. Turns out it’s the neighbors sheep herders who I’m sure shit themselves. We head out for lunch.
We head out for evening hunt in search of Steenbok. Thomas spots a narrow kudu at 100yds so we stop and glass it. Rich then asks if we want a half price Kudu as they want it out of the gene pool. I look to my wife as I don’t need another and she says she doesn’t want it. Rich then counters with lower price and she still says no. I harass her a little bit but she holds fast. Rich drives off a few hundred yards then she says “I feel like I will regret not shooting it”. That was enough for me so we turn around after the Kudu. The kudu walks through the tree line out of site. Rich and Marrah hop in back and Thomas drives towards where we last saw him. He had crossed a dry Creek bed and was standing maybe 70yds from us. I turn on my phone video and wait for her to shoot. She shoots, I see what I think is a good shot and the Kudu bucks and runs but I never see it hit the hillside in front of us. Rich talks to Tom and Tom says he thinks she hit in neck. Everyone hops out and Rich asks me to drive the truck around to the other end of field to see if they jump it so I can put another shot in it. The three of them walk too me and we never see anything. I can see on Marrah’s face she feels terrible about it and we hop in truck to check the next field over. We cover a lot of land by truck and even see some females that look unfrighten standing in the bush. The whole thing doesn’t feel right to me as a Kudu isn’t small yet we never saw it leave the field it was shot in. The sun sets and we make the drive back to the lodge with Marrah going through the emotions most of us have after not finding an animal at last light. Rich and I try our best to say it happens and we’ll find it in the morning but its not helping, I’ve been in her shoes before so I understand. Rich says in morning we will get 4 more guys and grid the area until we find it. Marrah goes back to the room to clean up for dinner and I remember I filmed the shot with my iPhone. Shat video with it zoomed in but when I zoom in further in slow Mo I can see the dirt fly off the Kudu right in the vitals. I show the video to Rich and he says “that’s a dead Kudu”. I show Marrah, doesn’t really seem to help as she assumes we are both just trying to make her feel better.. We have a couple beers with dinner and I sleep pretty soundly.
5/18- In the morning Rich radios his assistant manager to bring the guys and meet us at 7:30. The guys spread out and within 300yds of the shot the Kudu is laying dead in the field in the tall grass. As we walk up I can smell its guts and our fear is realized that the Jackals tore it up. The highlight to this was Rich trying not to vomit while Thomas and the ranch hands gutted what was left. Everyone, especially Marrah got a great laugh as he was behind the truck coughing. We then found out Rich cant gut any animals or he will throw up… Was a fun lesson to learn. We take “not great” photos of Marrah with what’s left of the Kudu and drive back to camp. We head back out for Steenbok with no luck. Lunch time.
I decided to add a springbok after Sashal had told us it’s the South African animal. We head out to the flat land and run into a big herd of springbok. They immediately notice us and sprint across the valley. We follow and they spread out in the next clearing. I get set up on the truck with Thomas and he directs me onto the big male of the group. I talk to Rich in the cab and he says hold on the vitals, it ends up being a 220 yard shot and went under its belly. No excuses because I felt solid. The springbok doesn’t seem phased, 2nd shot a little back with him quartered towards us. He’s not in good shape so we close the distance and one more shot ends it. Tom was kind enough after first shot to say “think the wind got you”, Rich of course said “you missed”. Once got up on it Rich tells me their scent gland smells like cotton-candy. After our time together, I call bullshit but hes persistent. I look to Tom and he’s smiling so again I call bullshit. After some convincing I smell it after I make sure no one is within range to shove my head in it. There was definitely a sweet sugar smell which was interesting.
On our drive back we see a aardwolf along the road. Rich says “try to stalk up on it and see if you can touch it”, again I look to Tom who doesn’t understand what I am asking him but also doesn’t look worried. The “stalk” was very brief as I am not that stealthy and the aardwolf takes off. Neat looking animal for sure. Dale tried to creep up to it but no luck. Back to camp we go.
5/19-At breakfast Rich says “we need to accept the fact we aren’t getting a bushpig” as we were slated for torrential rain that night. We discuss options on substitutions and Rich says he has an old yellow blesbok that is on his own that used to be a breeder and that we can add a common blesbok. The idea of two animals gets my interest and we agree to go after the only male yellow blesbok left at Comre. We drive drive way up into the mountains where he was seen a couple weeks ago. We stop to glass at the top and no one sees him anywhere. We do see a herd of buffalo working their way up the mountain which I definitely didn’t expect. Rich then says “we will never shoot one back here” in reference to trying to recover the animal. We discuss that the blesbok may have been jackal food and head down the hill. We talk about going after a gemsbuck instead when Tom taps on the roof. Tom had spotted the yellow blesbok in the basin all by itself. We turn the truck around and I hop in the back and get on the gun. Again Rich says hold on vitals and wait for him to stop walking. The blesbok stops at 212 yards, I shoot and he he’s hurting. He death runs behind some brush and doesn’t come out the other side. After previous shooting experiences, I ask Tom how the shot looked and he smiles. Rich says from the cab “you love gut shots don’t you” and my heart sinks. We drive towards the bush and spot it laying dead. Turns out was a perfect shot (finally) and that Rich was an asshole… Once we put hands on it Rich and Tom both say its much bigger then they thought and I’m a happy man.
Tom guts it and we head off after a large common blesbok we had seen by itself the day before. Like the animal had agreed to our plan, he’s exactly where we saw him before, 50yds from the road. We hop out to “stalk” up and shoot off the sticks. One shot at 70yds and he crumbles. Originally I didn’t care about blesbok but after seeing these two up close, they are truly beautiful critters. The notable thing to me was that we shot the exact 2 blesbok we discussed at breakfast as they were standouts on the ranch. Both had almost no teeth left were living the lone old man life. We head back for lunch and I’m feeling confident on how great my shooting has evolved, even if was at close range..
After nap time we are happy to see the skies were still clear so we went looking for a cull black wildebeest. The blacks seem more turned on then the blues and yet again don’t want us getting close. We chase the herd for a while until they finally calm down in an open field. Back on the high rack and waiting for Tom and Rich to agree on which female. Tom directs me to the right one and I shoot what felt great at 230yds. The group scatters and I don’t see a single wildebeest limping or lagging behind and I feel like crap again. I ask Tom and he points to the wildebeest at the front of a small group heading to our right. I say it cant be and he reiterates it’s the one in front of the group. I’ve never seen a wounded animal lead a herd but that was her in front and through the scope couldn’t see blood or limp or anything. We follow in truck then they finally slow down and I take another shot at 150yds that hit the heart. I’ve seen plenty of animals bleed, especially in the snow, but this was like a horror film amount of blood. She rears up and falls over backwards dead. We drive up to her and looks like someone tried to paint a room by just swinging a gallon around their head with the lid off. We take photos and can see the weather coming in the distance. We load up and head back after what would be our final time in the field for our first African Safari.
Up to this point we had been alone in camp all week. This evening two parties join the camp from NC and CA. We have some good conversations and watch some awkward conversations about politics that evening and into the next day which was rained out. Was actually kind of nice to lounge around and relax before starting the long days of travel back home. The three guides that joined the camp from Hunters Hill all seemed like great guys and we had a great time BSing.
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Note: We had bushpig on camera at a feeder near camp. Bushpig was the #1 animal on my list. We spent a couple hours after lunch one day clearing brush and setting up a “blind” behind an old rock wall that once served as a fighting fort in the 1800’s if I remember correctly. The blind was about 100yds from the feeder and up hill. First night we hear the pigs on our walk in and then feel the wind switch to our backs. We sat until midnight and the pigs never came to the feeder. Next night wind looks good again but swirls all night. Pretty early on we have a sow come in that gets the adrenaline flowing. We watch her eat, run off, come back and eat some more for about an hour. She walks off finally and we see nothing else for rest of night. Unfortunately the weather report was wrong about the wind two nights in a row and was showing flooding/rain for the next two (final two nights) of our trip. I at least got to watch that sow through binoculars which was cool to see.
This trip was planned for 5 years and was canceled twice with covid. It was everything we hoped and more. “Unfortunately” I didn’t get the bushpig I wanted so we have to go back…
