SOUTH AFRICA: Americans Gone Wild - SA PH School

[wesheltonj]

Posting the quiz?

 

[Sarg]

Good luck with the course, it’s a little harder than you think, I suppose being a group of English speakers the Tutor/Instructor may speak full time in English, mine did not & I don’t speak Afrikaans well, he also didn’t want me to score too high as foreigner & already a PH elsewhere !

The test at the end is the leveller, for me anyway, what province are you being trained for ?

 

[Mtn_Infantry]

Wish I could’ve attended this one with y’all. Been waiting for the updates.

 

[mdwest]

Good luck with the course, it’s a little harder than you think, I suppose being a group of English speakers the Tutor/Instructor may speak full time in English, mine did not & I don’t speak Afrikaans well, he also didn’t want me to score too high as foreigner & already a PH elsewhere !

The test at the end is the leveller, for me anyway, what province are you being trained for ?

Thankfully our instructor and his appie speak very good English (probably better than my redneck southern English lol) so no problems there…

Since we are not actually preparing for the licensing exam, all of the legal things we have addressed so far are related to nature conservation and the national laws… the course is geared toward Limpopo though..

 

[PARA45]

Too bad I couldn't go; this sounds like a lot of fun. Specially the syllabus around the fire. Keep it coming, anxiously waiting for more.

 

[mdwest]

Another day down..

We started the morning with SCI and Rowland Ward measuring classes and then moved into a couple of blocks on birds that addressed everything from game birds, protected species, and special protected species, and their habits, habitats, etc and their relationships to other animals..

Finally before lunch we moved into plains game identification for a bit..

After lunch the rest of the day was spent on caping, with practical exercises completed on sheep’s heads…

After lunch but before dinner the wife and I did a little walk around the main Bos en Dal property for about an hour, which as fun.. we saw a small bachelor herd of sable, a pretty sizeable group of impala, and a few blue wildebeest all within a quarter mile of camp…

While we were not promised “safari” grade table fare (understand this course is substantially less expensive than even just the normal safari day rate for accommodation), we’ve been served a quality of food much better than expected (IMO) that has largely been game meat focused… tonight was build your own gemsbok burgers.. lunch was a pancake wildebeest dish… yesterday we had sable meat pies.. and prior to that we were served a wildebeest stew.. we’re definitely not going hungry…

 

[Houston Bill]

We have had a great time so far. My wife and I came in a couple of days early and did a buffalo cull hunt. My Heym 450/400 came though again!

My PH, Francois Rademan, was a blast to hunt with. He especially liked the great photos my wife took while we were hunting. We are thoroughly enjoying the lively conversations with everyone here.

Many thanks to Gerrit at Bos en Dal and Dave for arranging this class. It is a lot of fun and we are all learning from the instructor and from each other.

Tomorrow morning we are off the the shotting range to prove we can shoot our rifles accurately.

 

[Sarg]

Another day down..

We started the morning with SCI and Rowland Ward measuring classes and then moved into a couple of blocks on birds that addressed everything from game birds, protected species, and special protected species, and their habits, habitats, etc and their relationships to other animals..

Finally before lunch we moved into plains game identification for a bit..

After lunch the rest of the day was spent on caping, with practical exercises completed on sheep’s heads…

After lunch but before dinner the wife and I did a little walk around the main Bos en Dal property for about an hour, which as fun.. we saw a small bachelor herd of sable, a pretty sizeable group of impala, and a few blue wildebeest all within a quarter mile of camp…

While we were not promised “safari” grade table fare (understand this course is substantially less expensive than even just the normal safari day rate for accommodation), we’ve been served a quality of food much better than expected (IMO) that has largely been game meat focused… tonight was build your own gemsbok burgers.. lunch was a pancake wildebeest dish… yesterday we had sable meat pies.. and prior to that we were served a wildebeest stew.. we’re definitely not going hungry…

View attachment 714746

Don’t forget to split/thin the eyes & lips, get more points !

Do you have Rusks & Coffee pre morning lessons ?

I loved my Ouma (Grandma) Rusks - Butter Milk, used to be super cheap snack/fast food back in the day, now bloody expensive & here in NZ over $10-12 a small box !!

Not so nice a memory is Pap for near ever meal in SA & in Zim this is Sadza, used like we have mashed potatoes - can be main meal , breakfast or even dessert lol

 

[mdwest]

Range days are always fun… we started the day shooting and practicing the qualification course which doesn’t involve a lot of rounds, but is a bit challenging. Students are required to put 3 rounds into approximately a 4” circle at 100 meters from the sticks (not all that difficult) in one string of fire, as well as putting a shot into a 30 meter target, a shot into a 20 meter target, and a shot into a 10 meter target in under 12 seconds in a second string of fire (not quite as easy as it might sound using a bolt action, scoped rifle)…

After a half day on the range.. we moved back into the classroom (after lunch) and covered more laws/legal issues related to species that are protected, special protected, and unprotected (birds, mammals, reptiles) etc..

The remainder of the day was spent learning both SCI and Rowland Ward measuring standards and techniques and then practicing/applying the information provided until time for dinner.

Tomorrow we’re supposed to start the day in the classroom going over tracks and tracking and then move to the field to practice identifying specific animal tracks..

 

[Green Chile]

How is the group doing on the shooting so far? Which rifle/calibers were brought for this? I would think all scoped bolt actions for the students from AH...and probably iron sighted bolt guns for the locals/instructors.

 

[mdwest]

All shot very well.. rifles are all over the map… I’m just using a “camp rifle”.. BRNO 602 in 308… there’s also a blaser, a Rigby, a beautifully executed custom 98 Mauser, and Tika that were on the range today… calibers were 7x57, 308, 243, 8mm Mauser, and and 9.3x62…. Some brought additional rifles for hunting before and after the course… there’s a nice heym double in 450-400 floating around, a 375 H&H, and a few others..

All rifles are scoped, but most have QD’s and irons… one shooter ran the close range course of fire with irons one iteration… was fun to watch

The student group is definitely better outfitted than your typical South African student group… in addition to an overall higher grade of rifles and scopes, we’re all here with leica, swaro, zeiss, etc binos… have nice/higher end range finders, several nice knives were used during the caping drills, etc… the instructors have made multiple comments about the difference in gear and knowledge base of our group and their typical groups (in a very complimentary manner).. they’ve enjoyed getting to see some of the nicer gear in action… and for example while locals generally come to the course with a better baseline knowledge on local flora, fauna, and general hunting laws and South African hunting practices, our group noticeably has a lot more shooting experience, a lot more knowledge of ballistics, etc…

 

[Green Chile]

I know who brought the Blaser. He's been practicing so maybe someone needs to distract him with a good piece of cheese or something.

 

[AZDAVE]

Sounds like a very educational course. Glad to see everyone learning and having a good time

 

[mdwest]

Started the day in the classroom discussing tracks and tracking, then headed out the door early before it got too warm to look at live tracks and try to apply the information provided earlier… it was nice to get out on the property and see animals and the terrain for a few hours while trying to see the difference in say a kudu vs a nyala track or an eland vs a buff…we also got a few additional lessons on other spoor such as poop, etc… I missed a prime opportunity to get a pic of students passing around a fresh zebra turd, sniffing it for freshness… I’m going to regret that for a while…

After lunch we moved into the subject of firearms and ballistics which led to detailed discussions amd lots of information shared..

We then spent the last hour or so of the day talking about proper photography, before shutting things down just a little early so that we could all take a game drive to the top of “eland mountain” for a group sundowner…

I have to say, that’s been one of the best features of this course… there’s been a really nice balance of typical PH study and traditional “safari” experience… we’re in far better accommodations than any PH school provides, eating better quality meals than any PH school provides (closer to what you’d expect if you came over for a hunt), having great nightly conversations by the fire, and experiencing things like sundowners make for a super nice time that is not exclusively study and work…

 

[Goopy]

Meer foto's van Rikus!

 

[mdwest]

We spent the first half of the day working on trophy identification.. one of the PH instructors sat down range at 100 meters holding up various horns and skulls (about 40 different animals) while the student group judged.. with each animal the instructor sitting with the student group offered tips and tricks on how to judge each species for length, Rowland Ward qualifying, age, etc..

While humbling (judging kudu is MUCH harder than we thought everyone found out), I think the group did surprisingly well overall…

One of the “features” of this particular course is that each student gets to hunt either a trophy impala, trophy blesbok, or cull wildebeest while another student applies everything taught so far and acts as his PH/Guide (all under the immediate supervision of a licensed PH. After lunch the guiding exercises began, with one of the students being immediately successful… (I’ll let them post pics and tell the hunt story if they so choose)…

 

[PARA45]

I feel for you guys, all this studying, hanging out in the field, sitting by the fire, wow, how boring.......NOT! What a tremendous trip and two thumbs up to you @mdwest for setting it up. Keeping it coming.

 

[Mountainshadows]

We spent the first half of the day working on trophy identification.. one of the PH instructors sat down range at 100 meters holding up various horns and skulls (about 40 different animals) while the student group judged.. with each animal the instructor sitting with the student group offered tips and tricks on how to judge each species for length, Rowland Ward qualifying, age, etc..

While humbling (judging kudu is MUCH harder than we thought everyone found out), I think the group did surprisingly well overall…

One of the “features” of this particular course is that each student gets to hunt either a trophy impala, trophy blesbok, or cull wildebeest while another student applies everything taught so far and acts as his PH/Guide (all under the immediate supervision of a licensed PH. After lunch the guiding exercises began, with one of the students being immediately successful… (I’ll let them post pics and tell the hunt story if they so choose)…

Francois is astonishingly good at ID and size! On every one I shot he was either right on with the size or within an inch. An impressive skill to say the least!

 

[mdwest]

Missed posting yesterdays events...

The day was set aside for hunting and practicing all of the practical skills taught so far (we have 2 full hunting days scheduled.. a half day yesterday, a full day today, and we'll get another half day in at the end of the course).. as described prior, each PH student practices guiding another student on a hunt while a licensed PH keeps a watchful eye on everything that occurs, takes corrective action if something is going wrong, offers tips/tricks while hunting, and evaluates the student(s) through the exercise)... every student is able to take a trophy impala, trophy blesbok, or a cull wildebeest as part of the course..

By the end of the day about half of the student group had completed successful hunts (I'll let any/all that wish to post pics or tell their own stories do that)... I thought it would be fun to guide the licensed PH assigned to my wife and I, so I "donated" my hunt to him.. he has a trophy impala of his own already, but has never taken a trophy blesbok.. so thats what we set out for..

Bottom line up front... I suck as a PH lol...

We found a really nice blesbok ram fairly quickly, and got out on a stalk but got busted... we tried to re-engage, but got busted again and watched the ram and the handful of ewes he was traveling with take off like rockets... so we headed back to the bakkie and decided to look for another one... after a few hours of trying to find him another ram and being unsuccessful it was time to return to the lodge... skunked by the blesbok..

 

[mdwest]

Today was the wrap up for hunting with the first half of the day set aside for more practical exercise in the field.. My wife and I were assigned to a different PH, so the "donated" blesbok was no longer a thing.. and I was on the gun..

I was fairly indifferent to what we were to hunt... Ive taken several really nice impala, have a rowland ward quality blesbok already, and have culled a LOT of wildebeest over the years.. so the plan was simply to prowl around for a little while and see what the bush would provide..

Within 20 minutes of leaving camp we spotted a really nice, obviously ancient, lone blesbok ram... so the hunt was on... until it wasnt... 30 minutes of playing cat and mouse with the old guy ended with him finally getting tired of screwing around with us, and he took off at a high rate of speed, never to be seen again (we thought)..

While we didnt bag the blesbok, we did get in a whole lot of work in the process.. it was a fun hunt...

After returning to the truck and only driving maybe 1/2 mile further down the road we spotted a herd of about a dozen impala with one obviously dominant ram.. while he wasnt a monster, he was definitely a shooter... I judged him to probably be 21"-22".. a good representative of the species.. so we continued down the road probably another 800 meters, parked the truck, and started our stalk...

It took about 45 minutes to work our way around the herd so that the wind was in our face and the sun was to our backs... the impala were moving slowly through a large field (maybe 1/2 mile long and 1/4 mile wide) of grass, that also had several acacia thickets strewn throughout.... we were about 350 yards from the herd once we finally got on the right vector for a final approach...

We started closing the gap.. at about 250 yards we stopped for a moment, planning our next move, trying to keep thickets and trees between us and the impala herd.. when we suddenly heard brush break about 50 yards to our left.. out bounced the ancient lone blesbok ram from earlier..

He wasnt at a running pace, but he was definitely moving at a fast trot... crossing in front of us... for an unknown reason he just stopped at about 70 yards and quartered hard toward us.. I am certain he didnt see or hear us, but he definitely knew something was up and was scanning the wood line where we were trying to figure out what was going on...

Our impala hunt quickly became a blesbok hunt... the ram had moved just a couple of feet and positioned himself on the other side of a tree.. it only took moving just a few inches to the right and I was able to see a clean vitals shot (still hard quartering toward) between two big branches..

the 308 rang out.. the ram jumped about 2' into the air, ran no more than 10 yards and piled up immediately... success!

It turns out he was a legitimate Rowland Ward quality animal with 16.75" horns that were incredibly thick at the bases (6.75" around).. Im super proud of him..


After dropping the ram off at the skinning shed it was time for lunch.. the student group met in the field for a bush braai (its national braai day in South Africa today) and had sausages on rolls... and spent a little while just enjoying each others company in the shade for a bit before heading back to the lodge for more class...

It turns out that almost all students were successful on their hunts at this point.. and a couple of pretty majestic animals were taken as well (animals not on the "list" but that students wanted to take instead)... lots of stories of the days hunts were shared..

The rest of the day was spent doing a horns judging practical test, judging 20 sets of horns at 100 yard (everyone passed!)... then we moved into the classroom to discuss photography and to review and critique the trophy photos each student took during the hunt where they acted as the PH (mine were bar none the worst in the group... I need remedial lessons! lol).. we then rounded out the day with more discussion and study on South African (Limpopo) hunting laws before calling it a day and moving to the fire for drinks and relaxation....

Connectivity and bandwidth is a little limited with so many people in camp this week, so I'll hold on posting more photos until bandwidth gets a little better or I get home... we've definitely taken a lot of really nice pics between the group of us..