SOUTH AFRICA: Tinashe Outfitters

sheephunterab · Jun 3, 2016

In early April we visited Tinashe Outfitters in the Kalahari Region of South Africa. This is a spectacular five-star lodge and this hunt was as much about sitting around an acacia fire at night drinking fine wine with friends as it was about hunting.. There were two other couples with us and another friend. Only one of the couples had been to Africa before so it was cool seeing the wide-eyed amazement of the newbies.

We flew Calgary to London to Jo'berg and used Air 2000 to clear our rifles. From there it was a 6 1/2 hour drive to the lodge. After setting in, we checked zero on our rifles and headed out hunting. We went with our friends the first evening and it was really cool sharing their first evening in Africa with them. Greg started the trip off with a nice impala. Dinners at Tinashe were always a real experience with a variety of dining locations and themes and the food was out of this world. It was a great start to a 10-day trip.

cpr0312 · Jun 3, 2016

Congrats on the trip! Look forward to reading more about it

K-man · Jun 3, 2016

Looks great! Was able to tour that lodge Dec 2014 when under construction. Looks like a fine finished product. Hope you had a great trip

CAustin · Jun 3, 2016

Looking forward to your hunt report! The lodge does look very nice!

rinehart0050 · Jun 4, 2016

Very I chatted with the tinashe guys a bit SCI. Seems like a great outfit. Looking forward to hearing more

dory · Jun 4, 2016

nice digs !
Can you tell us a bit more about them and there hunting area ?
Cheers Dory .

huntermn15 · Jun 4, 2016

I look forward to the rest of the report and the info requested above on location and outfitter.

enysse · Jun 4, 2016

Looking forward to hearing about the game you saw.

sheephunterab · Jun 5, 2016

I'm going on memory here but I believe the hunting area is about 26,000 acres and is located in the Kalahari region of South Africa. It is comprised of thicker cover than other areas we've hunted in the Kalahari and with the severe drought this year, the animals were staying fairly tight in cover. A typical hunting day saw us hunting till around 11:00am when we'd return to the lodge for lunch. There is a great pool and sun deck that saw a fair bit of use and all rooms were air conditioned for the really hot days.

We elected to hunt everything on foot and walked 10-12 miles each day. The cover was ideal but the game was quite spooky. I had cape buffalo on my list and we had several close calls the first day but it wasn't until late afternoon that Vanessa put down a great old black wildebeest bull. Our other friends had a good day scoring on a super wide waterbuck and a nice blue wildebeest bull. We saw some great eland and red hartebeest that day, as well as a really nice gemsbok. I suspect game numbers were down a bit due to the drought but we still saw plenty of game. We also tracks from two different lions that day.

sheephunterab · Jun 6, 2016

The following day was Greg's birthday and he took a great kudu first thing in the morning. That afternoon, they spotted some fresh lion tracks and decided to follow up. We tracked the lion for about five hours and despite being very close a few times, we were never able to catch up with him. It was actually quite intense tracking in the heavy cover and somehow, the video camera I was carrying seemed little defense against the big cat! We had a big celebration in camp that night for Greg's birthday.

cpr0312 · Jun 6, 2016

Thanks for the update! Wow that is a super wide waterbuck, never seen one like that

sheephunterab · Jun 7, 2016

The following day we finally found a small group of cape buffalo in a spot where they were approachable. Clayton had one particular bull in mind for me. One of the bulls was suffering badly from the drought and Clayton figured his days were numbered before a lion took him down. It didn't hurt that he was one of the biggest bulls on the property either. We played cat and mouse with the bulls for the entire morning but just couldn't get in for a shot so we decided to go for lunch and then try again in the afternoon. After several blown stalks during the previous days, the bulls were fery sppoky but we managed to get within 80 yards and I hit the big bull high on the shoulder with the 250 grain GMX from the 375 H&H. I was shocked the bull did not go straight down but somehow he managed to regain his. A second bullet in the flank as he was running away anchored him for good.

Greg and Dawn took a nice springbok that day as well.

jeff · Jun 7, 2016

That Black Wildebeest make me drool!!!

cpr0312 · Jun 7, 2016

Nice! Congrats on the buff!

sheephunterab · Jun 7, 2016

The following day the trackers found a kill early in morning while out looking for lion tracks. Greg had lion on his wish list so we all piled in the Land Cruiser for round three tracking a lion. The tracks at the kill were extremely fresh but it took about an hour to work them out and figure out where the lion headed. After that we tracked for about three hours before Greg made a 20 yard head shot through some very heavy cover. The big lion dropped right in his tracks.

Later that afternoon, we came across a great kudu and even though It really wasn't on my list, I couldn't turn the huge bull down.

cpr0312 · Jun 7, 2016

WOW! Nice lion and kudu!

rinehart0050 · Jun 7, 2016

Nice lion! Can't wait to hunt mine in about three weeks!

sheephunterab · Jun 8, 2016

With the big game out of the way, we enjoyed some more plains game hunting and did a little bit of bow hunting as well. Our other friends took cape buffalo, sable, waterbuck, gemsbok, steenbuk, impala, and zebra. This truly was a great experience and Tinashe is an ideal destination for couples looking for some good hunting and a little pampering.