Nyati
AH ambassador
- Joined
- Jan 15, 2011
- Messages
- 13,802
- Reaction score
- 54,229
- Location
- Madrid, Spain
- Media
- 142
- Articles
- 1
- Member of
- RFEC, RFETO
- Hunted
- Spain, Finland, RSA ( KwaZulu Natal, Limpopo, North West, Northern Cape, Free State, Mpumalanga)
It was a ten day hunt, from the 17 to 26th of September, and took place near Kimberley in the Northern Cape and Free State provinces of RSA.
The outfitter was Adam Barnard, the agent J.M. Aranda, and my PH Hannes, a very experienced professional who has hunted the big 5 all over southern Africa with well-known outfitters.
I was traveling with J.M.Aranda who I have known for years, and two other hunters, who are friends of his, plus the father of one of them (non hunter ) and his nephew, who turned 14 during the hunt and got his first African trophies.
On my list were Tsessebe, Red Lechwe, Common Reedbuck, plus Steenbok and Duiker if I could find better specimens than the ones I have. As targets of opportunity, Baboon, Jackal, Porcupine and Warthog. Spitskop has all these less common plains game, as well as all the color variants you can dream about.
I had never been to the Norther Cape before, it is flat, with scarce vegetation consisting of acacia trees and clumps of bushes, thorns everywhere, of all sizes, here and there you will find kopjes, which are low hills made of volcanic rocks.
Having to make an internal flight connection from Joburg to Kimberley, plus my hearing loss decided me not to bring my own gun, and I borrowed a silenced 22-250 from Adam. It was a Musgrave Mod 90 with heavy barrel shooting 55 Gr softpoints.
Lodging was first class and the food delicious.
Flight was a boring 10 hours from Madrid to Joburg, connecting to Kimberley for a further one hour flight. A call to an acquaintance in the Airport VIP department made it all fast and easy.
So we arrived on the 16th, and proceeded to check guns. Then back to camp and some hard earned Castles.
Hunting day 1.
We hunted Tsessebe on one of Spitskop´s properties, after a couple of hours driving around on the bakkie, we finally spotted a group of them. We parked the truck behind a clump of acacias and bushes, and approached them to see if there was a mature animal to shoot. We could not close more than a 100m. as the vegetation was scarce. My PH decided there was a good one and pointed it to me, the sticks went up, I aimed carefully just behind the shoulder, as I was shooting softpoints, and the 55 gr. bullet did its job, the animal went down within 10m.
We took the animal back to camp, had lunch and in the afternoon went looking for a Steenbok. We saw a nice one but he didn´t give me a chance to shoot. As these animals are territorial, we decided to look for him the following day.
Hunting day 2
We drove to a farm 90km away which is reputed to have nice Red Lechwes. We drove around for hours but could not see a good one, and then we spotted a group of three with one which looked good, and decided to stalk them in order to get a closer look. As we were closing on the group, a larger one appeared, he was about 200m. and looking directly at us, confident that we were too far. Hannes said take him, and I obliged with a frontal shot which dropped him on the spot.
We took the animal back to camp, and in the afternoon went to search for our elusive Steenbok. He would not let us close on him, and with a setting sun hid behind a bush, but I could see him, and took a long shot, about 150m. He went down.
Hunting day3
We drove to a farm in the Free State, about 80 km. away to look for a Common Reedbuck. We climbed a kopje, drove around, climbed another kopje, and repeated the process during the whole day but could not find a really mature one. The sun was setting down, and we had nearly given up, when a nice one jumped from behind some bushed and then stopped about 50m. away to look at us. Just what I was waiting for, a frontal shot brought him down.
Hunting day 4
As I already had the principal animals on my list, I just relaxed and took it easy from there. So we went to a huge cattle farm and sat at a watering hole to see what would come in. We heard baboons but none came. I saw a huge green lizard but couldn´t get a picture of him; lots of small warthogs came to drink, and finally a big one who took a 55gr. bullet. It was a rally hot day.
Hunting day 5
One of the farmhands had seen a very large Jackal near camp, so we decided to go looking for him, but failed miserably, he was smarter than us. We also looked for Duiker, or a warthog, but found nothing worth shooting. I saw two bat eared foxes for the first time.
That afternoon, we went to Kimberley visited the Big Hole, and did some shopping.
Hunting day 6
We went back to the cattle farm, and saw a large troop of baboons crossing the road into the farm. Good omen? Un fortunately went spent another hot day sitting at a waterhole with nothing interesting to shoot.
Hunting day 7
Drove around near camp, looking for jackal/duiker/warthog, and saw a fine specimen of Cape Cobra also called yellow snake or Geelslang in Afrikaans. I tapped on the roof and told Hannes, he stopped the bakkie a few meters away, came up to the back and said it was a very dangerous snake, shoot it, I did and missed. I could not believe it but that snake came for the truck! Hannes went back to the cab and drove away; he wanted nothing to do with it.
Picture from the web.
We made a plan to do some night hunting with a spotlight. It´s incredible, the number of animals you see at night, we spotted two Aardvarks and a nice Duiker which I shot with a .243 as the 22-250 was unwieldy for fast shooting. The 100gr. bullet entered frontally and the animal literally exploded, so I took no pictures as it wasn´t nice to see.
Hunting days 8/9/10
As I had completed my list of animals, my PH and I went along with one of the other hunters to assist them in completing their lists. We spotted game for them and it was very interesting to see them from a distance doing the approach and shooting. I did carry a rifle along just in case a target of opportunity happened to come along.
It was an overall good experience, seeing new different places, with good company, great professionals, a cozy camp with great food, unlimited supply of Castle, and the trophies I wanted to shoot. I did not measure any of them, so you can judge for yourselves.
The outfitter was Adam Barnard, the agent J.M. Aranda, and my PH Hannes, a very experienced professional who has hunted the big 5 all over southern Africa with well-known outfitters.
I was traveling with J.M.Aranda who I have known for years, and two other hunters, who are friends of his, plus the father of one of them (non hunter ) and his nephew, who turned 14 during the hunt and got his first African trophies.
On my list were Tsessebe, Red Lechwe, Common Reedbuck, plus Steenbok and Duiker if I could find better specimens than the ones I have. As targets of opportunity, Baboon, Jackal, Porcupine and Warthog. Spitskop has all these less common plains game, as well as all the color variants you can dream about.
I had never been to the Norther Cape before, it is flat, with scarce vegetation consisting of acacia trees and clumps of bushes, thorns everywhere, of all sizes, here and there you will find kopjes, which are low hills made of volcanic rocks.
Having to make an internal flight connection from Joburg to Kimberley, plus my hearing loss decided me not to bring my own gun, and I borrowed a silenced 22-250 from Adam. It was a Musgrave Mod 90 with heavy barrel shooting 55 Gr softpoints.
Lodging was first class and the food delicious.
Flight was a boring 10 hours from Madrid to Joburg, connecting to Kimberley for a further one hour flight. A call to an acquaintance in the Airport VIP department made it all fast and easy.
So we arrived on the 16th, and proceeded to check guns. Then back to camp and some hard earned Castles.
Hunting day 1.
We hunted Tsessebe on one of Spitskop´s properties, after a couple of hours driving around on the bakkie, we finally spotted a group of them. We parked the truck behind a clump of acacias and bushes, and approached them to see if there was a mature animal to shoot. We could not close more than a 100m. as the vegetation was scarce. My PH decided there was a good one and pointed it to me, the sticks went up, I aimed carefully just behind the shoulder, as I was shooting softpoints, and the 55 gr. bullet did its job, the animal went down within 10m.
We took the animal back to camp, had lunch and in the afternoon went looking for a Steenbok. We saw a nice one but he didn´t give me a chance to shoot. As these animals are territorial, we decided to look for him the following day.
Hunting day 2
We drove to a farm 90km away which is reputed to have nice Red Lechwes. We drove around for hours but could not see a good one, and then we spotted a group of three with one which looked good, and decided to stalk them in order to get a closer look. As we were closing on the group, a larger one appeared, he was about 200m. and looking directly at us, confident that we were too far. Hannes said take him, and I obliged with a frontal shot which dropped him on the spot.
We took the animal back to camp, and in the afternoon went to search for our elusive Steenbok. He would not let us close on him, and with a setting sun hid behind a bush, but I could see him, and took a long shot, about 150m. He went down.
Hunting day3
We drove to a farm in the Free State, about 80 km. away to look for a Common Reedbuck. We climbed a kopje, drove around, climbed another kopje, and repeated the process during the whole day but could not find a really mature one. The sun was setting down, and we had nearly given up, when a nice one jumped from behind some bushed and then stopped about 50m. away to look at us. Just what I was waiting for, a frontal shot brought him down.
Hunting day 4
As I already had the principal animals on my list, I just relaxed and took it easy from there. So we went to a huge cattle farm and sat at a watering hole to see what would come in. We heard baboons but none came. I saw a huge green lizard but couldn´t get a picture of him; lots of small warthogs came to drink, and finally a big one who took a 55gr. bullet. It was a rally hot day.
Hunting day 5
One of the farmhands had seen a very large Jackal near camp, so we decided to go looking for him, but failed miserably, he was smarter than us. We also looked for Duiker, or a warthog, but found nothing worth shooting. I saw two bat eared foxes for the first time.
That afternoon, we went to Kimberley visited the Big Hole, and did some shopping.
Hunting day 6
We went back to the cattle farm, and saw a large troop of baboons crossing the road into the farm. Good omen? Un fortunately went spent another hot day sitting at a waterhole with nothing interesting to shoot.
Hunting day 7
Drove around near camp, looking for jackal/duiker/warthog, and saw a fine specimen of Cape Cobra also called yellow snake or Geelslang in Afrikaans. I tapped on the roof and told Hannes, he stopped the bakkie a few meters away, came up to the back and said it was a very dangerous snake, shoot it, I did and missed. I could not believe it but that snake came for the truck! Hannes went back to the cab and drove away; he wanted nothing to do with it.
Picture from the web.
We made a plan to do some night hunting with a spotlight. It´s incredible, the number of animals you see at night, we spotted two Aardvarks and a nice Duiker which I shot with a .243 as the 22-250 was unwieldy for fast shooting. The 100gr. bullet entered frontally and the animal literally exploded, so I took no pictures as it wasn´t nice to see.
Hunting days 8/9/10
As I had completed my list of animals, my PH and I went along with one of the other hunters to assist them in completing their lists. We spotted game for them and it was very interesting to see them from a distance doing the approach and shooting. I did carry a rifle along just in case a target of opportunity happened to come along.
It was an overall good experience, seeing new different places, with good company, great professionals, a cozy camp with great food, unlimited supply of Castle, and the trophies I wanted to shoot. I did not measure any of them, so you can judge for yourselves.
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