SOUTH AFRICA: 2021 South Africa (Northern & Eastern Cape) Hunt Report

[Jörg Krüger]

What a blast of a time you had till now

 

[TennJay]

This is a great read!

 

[English Hunter]

Magnificent report

 

[Hank2211]

Day 13

A bright and sunny day. We headed out early morning in search of cull waterbuck, and while we found some, our stalks were always busted. We kept at it, and they kept away from us. We shot a couple of fallow deer once we’d given up and were headed back for lunch. And two blesbok which we sort of snuck up on using a trick I’ve seen work more often than it should – stop the truck; get out on the side where you can’t be seen, and the truck leaves. The animals seem to think all is well once the truck is gone!

So we returned with two fallow deer and two blesbok. It wouldn’t do at all to come back empty handed.

We headed back out in the afternoon, again looking for waterbuck, but we found none. We did come across a squirrel though. That wasn’t an especial accomplishment – there were lots of ground squirrels on Niel’s land. John decided he was tired of the holes they were making, and tried one at about a hundred yards with his .375, iron sights only. I actually have a video of the result, but I’m not sure it’s the kind of thing which would be acceptable to some, though I will say that Rocket took it home (along with the brother of the one John got – which I got at about the same distance but with a scope. I have video of that as well!)

We never did find any waterbuck in the afternoon, but we did find a small herd of eland, maybe 10 or so, all but two likely culls. The females had “bad” horns and one male had only a single horn. So we decided to try to get close enough for a shot. No luck at all. We tried plan after plan, but they eluded us completely. I did ask John what he thought of shooting at eland with a .275 and his response was simply "you'd better put the bullet in the right place." I guess so.

We couldn’t come back completely empty-handed. Rocket told us that his wife was looking for a dassie for dinner, just as we were approaching a rocky cliff not far from the house. They’re pretty fast, but John was faster – a quick shot from the .375 and Rocket had his dinner. His joy wasn’t complete though – it was a head shot, and apparently, the head is the best part!

As we were driving the last couple of hundred yards to Niel’s house, this fellow kept a close eye on us:

Daily tally: 2 blesbok; 2 fallow deer.

Running total: 58 animals (This number seems wrong. I'm going to bring in the auditors.)

 

[AB2506]

Keep it coming Hank!

 

[TennJay]

We want more!!! This sounds like such a great trip.

 

[Hank2211]

The auditors have finished their work and provided their opinion. I missed a day! Surprised no one noticed . . . says something about the state readers must have been in. Apparently there is no Day 7!

Here's a (very) brief recap on what happened on day 7: I shot 3 blesbok; 1 fallow deer; and 4 springbok. That goes some way to explain why I ran out of ammo!

So the real current running total of animals is 66 animals (not counting 2 squirrels and 1 dassie!)!

 

[Riksa]

State of the readers is an excellent match to the state of the writer. Keep it coming. Loving the story

 

[Frederik]

Keep em coming and throwing lead!!

 

[BRICKBURN]

We were forewarned of the 10 day blur, so all is forgiven.
Once the numbers get that high it can be a blur.
Nice to see an effusive farmer knowing how to enjoy good company.

 

[Hank2211]

Day 14

We spent most of the morning looking for waterbuck and eland, but had no luck even seeing them. We began to head back for lunch and saw a springbok which looked like it might rescue our morning. I set up and took a shot from about 150 yards. The shot was a bit lower and farther back than I wanted, but it had the effect of unzipping his belly, so his stomach and intestines were hanging out. He didn’t go far and dropped near an anthill. Not a great shot, I thought, but it got the job done.

At that point a couple of his friends came by and must have kicked sand in his face or something, because he got up and began to trot after them, dragging his guts. Not a pleasant sight, but instead of slowing down, he actually sped up! We raced back to the truck and went after the three, which one of the trackers said went over a hill. We got off at one point and continued the chase on foot, but eventually lost the ones we were looking for. We had last seen blood by an open gate we had driven through chasing them, so John said “back to the last blood”, and we began walking back to the gate. It was Dean who announced, as we got nearer to the gate, that the springbok was lying dead beside the road. If we’d focused on the blood rather than where we thought he’d gone, we’d have seen him as we drove past him. A relief.

I felt good about that, so shot another one, as well as a fallow deer. Now we could return for lunch without being embarrassed.

A sable roaming the farm. Unfortunately (for me), it wasn't limping!

That afternoon we were hoping to find the eland again, but got sidetracked stalking a fallow deer. At one point Mendile said he’d just seen the eland on a mountainside some 800 yards or so away. Sure enough, there they were, so plans changed, and we began to stalk the eland. Now, when I say “there they were” I don’t mean I’d seen them. In fact, I couldn’t see them at all, but since I’d seen nothing, how could I argue that there was nothing there? As the lawyer in me would say, “absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.”

I finally managed to see one or two of the eland when we were a couple of hundred yards away. I could see John was trying to make a plan to get us closer, which was a good idea, since I really didn’t want to take a shot at eland in heavy brush from 200 yards with a .275.

Slowly – and I mean slowly – we closed the distance to about 100 yards, moving from cover to cover, when we thought their heads were down, feeding. At one point a springbok came walking by not 30 yards from us – “unbelievable” I was thinking to myself – our stalk gets busted by a springbok! But we froze, the wind was in our favour, and while he looked at us from time to time, he didn’t seem disturbed and just kept going. That was the really unbelievable part!

At another point a cow saw us, but we froze and while she stared at us for what seemed like forever, she eventually lowered her head and we slowly moved behind a bush.

By this time, daylight was running out. We’d only seen a few of the eland and the one John wanted, the male with the one horn, he’d spotted initially but hadn’t seen for some time. All we knew was that there was a group ahead of us, higher than us on the side of the mountain, but they were moving in and out of heavy cover. It was possible that some had used the cover to move away around the base of the mountain. So I kept the rifle on the sticks, and John kept telling me not to move, and we kept discussing if I should wait to find the bull or shoot one of the cows. One cow in particular (the one which had seen us) had longish horns but they were oddly shaped, so likely a good one to take. Eventually, the decision was more or less made for us. We were starting to lose the light and we hadn’t seen the male in some time. So John said “if you’re comfortable on the cow to the left, take her.”

Dean, who was doing the video, had no idea that I was going to shoot the cow. From his position, he had seen the bull and focused on him, but we didn’t know that – from where we were standing we couldn’t see the bull. So he missed the shot on the cow.

The cow.

When I pulled the trigger on the cow, she stood for a moment and I wasn’t sure what had happened. But then she fell and did a summersault down the hill, so I figured the shot was good. John had been watching through his binos and as the shoot rang out, the rest of the herd suddenly showed themselves, including a group which were no farther than about 50 yards from us, in a bit of a sloot, which we had no idea about (lucky we hadn't gone any further - they'd have busted us for sure). But John also saw the one-horned bull and said “there he is . . . shoot him!”

I saw the bull standing, looking towards us, but surrounded by others. I got him in my sights and waited until I thought he was clear, and took the shot. He ran forward a few yards, stopped and looked back. I think the shot would have done it, but given that he wasn’t down, that it was getting dark, and that I’d had too many bad experiences on this trip with dead ones getting away, I gave him another, which dropped him on the spot. I should point out that when I took my first shot, the bull had a young eland behind him. Had I seen it, I might not have taken the shot (Dean did say that it was there, but I couldn't see it so thought it must have moved). Having said that, not one bullet passed though either of the eland, which is not a surprise.

Two eland down, in less than 40 seconds, with three total shots from a .275, using about as traditional (non-premium) a bullet as you can get these days. I impressed myself!

Given the weight of one eland, let alone two, we called for help from camp and within 20 minutes Niel showed up with his Land Cruiser and a half dozen workers. They made short work of getting the eland loaded up and back to camp.

A great way to celebrate my 63rd birthday! Of course, the very tasty chocolate cake with cream cheese icing which they made for me was pretty nice as well!

 

[Randalljameshebert]

Two things right off the bat. First, this is another one of my long form hunt reports. In instalments. If you’re easily bored, I suggest you either move on or save this for late nights when you have trouble sleeping. As well, this first instalment is all about background and planning, so if you want hunting, skip this bit.

Secondly, this is called a hunt report because that’s what Jerome calls these. But it should really be called a shoot report, because I’m going to South Africa more for shooting than for hunting. But there will be some hunting in the mix, so it’s not a complete misrepresentation.

Those health warnings out of the way, on to the report.

Like many of us, I had plans to hunt in 2020 which never came to pass. When the COVID first hit, I was planning on a leopard hunt in Zimbabwe in June, 2020. When that got cancelled, I (over-optimistically as it turned out) changed my plans and decided to visit Zambia in September. I was sure that the COVID would either be under control by then, or we’d all have decided to return to life-as-usual anyway. Wrong again. That trip was cancelled. I wanted to re-book right away, but by now I was collecting credits on airlines I wouldn’t normally fly on.

Anyway, by December, 2020 the itch was strong and I decided to give it one last try. I decided to book for April, 2021. If this thing wasn’t under control by then . . . well, I’d go anyway! But instead of booking a “real” hunt, I decided to return to the scene of past crimes and just spend a few weeks with old friends I hadn’t seen in some years, culling and shooting anything past its best-by date. In other words, just going to Africa to relax, without any pressure to get anything in particular (finishing the spiral horns took a lot of pressure off the hunting).

Animals

I did have some animals in mind for this hunt, apart from the shooting/culling. I really wanted a suni, but I couldn’t get a permit. That might have to wait for a trip to Mozambique. Since I started a thread on the “secret seven” and came under a fair bit of pressure to include the unassuming aardwolf on the list, I decided to try for one of those. And I have all of the large cats of Africa and many of the small cats (such as serval, civet, genet and caracal) as well. But I don’t have an African wildcat (though not for want of trying in the past), so that was added to the list. A bonus of hunting an African wildcat is that it looks just like a house cat, and I’m more than happy to annoy cat people.

I also added a barbary sheep to the exercise. I’m not a big fan of hunting animals outside of their normal range, but since I’m unlikely to be hunting North Africa any time soon, and I do enjoy hunting in the mountains, I thought this could be an interesting add. Speaking of mountains, I’m also looking for a vaal rehbok. I already have one, but as I said, I do enjoy hunting in the mountains of South Africa and since I’d be there anyway, if we came across a nice vaalie . . .

Lastly, I was (a few days before I left) convinced to try a vita-dart hunt for rhino, to ‘complete’ the Big 5, if darting a rhino could be said to complete that. I’m going to say that it should qualify, if only because you have to get a heck of a lot closer to the rhino with the dart gun than you would with a rifle. The clincher for me was that without hunts like these, those who take on the expense of keeping and securing rhino don’t get a lot out of the deal. A darted hunt seems a small price to pay to make the keeping and protecting of rhinos worthwhile . . . but candidly, it’s still (and unfortunately) a lot more than most so-called “rhino lovers” ever spend to ensure the sustainability of the species.

Oh – one last thing. I have made it very clear to my PH that if any ostrich interferes in any way with a hunt or stalk – even just by distracting me – or even enters my field of view - that ostrich must go! John, my PH, who was with me when we took on the mad ostrich of Fort D’Acre (see earlier hunt reports), understands.

Location

I’ve hunted a few times at the “old” Wintershoek Safaris camp Wag-‘n-Bietjie Lodge (otherwise known as the main camp), just outside of Kimberley, in the Northern Cape. A couple of years ago, I think, they moved away from the old camp to a new camp, known as Karreekloof. I believe they have a little over 112,000 acres of land here, and I wanted to see what the new operation looked like. So that would be my first stop.

I should point out that Strauss Jordaan, who is a PH himself and now the logistics manager for Wintershoek I think, is the only person I know who has been attacked by an ostrich. As the story goes, Strauss was guiding a family and they spotted an ostrich, which came towards them to see what they were. The family expressed some concern, but Strauss told them not to worry, the ostrich would stay away. Well, this may have been the cousin of the notorious ostrich of Fort D’Acre mentioned above, because it didn’t stop, but rather it ran up to Strauss and knocked him down, and began to kick him! Unfortunately for Strauss, I wasn’t even in Africa on that day, or I don’t think the ostrich would have dared. Bloody bliksem. Strauss survived, of course, his ego only mildly more bruised than he was, but he did swear me to secrecy about the story. So please don’t repeat it.

After some days at Karreekloof, we’re going to drive to the Karoo in the Eastern Cape for some hunting and more culling. I’ve previously hunted a game ranch called Grootdam Farm near Somerset East, and that would be our home for the balance of the trip. Niel, the (fifth-generation) owner, is a wonderful host and accommodation is in his family home which is very comfortable. I expect we’ll have a very relaxing time here.

Oh, and somewhere along the way we may camp out, sleeping under the stars (weather permitting). Some of my fondest memories of Africa are of sleeping in the open with nothing but the stars and the Southern Cross above me.

Flights

In trying to book flights to South Africa in April (about the only time I could go, for various reasons), I found that things were no longer as easy as they once were. It was looking like it would be impossible to escape COVID.

I live in Calgary, Canada, and not so very long ago we had direct flights to London, Amsterdam, Frankfurt, and various places in Asia, as well as the US. No longer. All international flights, other than some to the US, have been cancelled, with no set dates for their re-opening. And even if I could get to Europe to connect to JNB, it wasn’t clear they’d let me land, or if they did, that they’d let me depart again without some form of quarantine. The rules changed weekly, if not more often. Fortunately, Qatar Airways was still flying every few days non-stop from Montreal to Doha, and then on to JNB. So the itinerary which I decided on as being both the shortest and the most reliable, was Calgary – Montreal – Doha – Johannesburg – Kimberley. Note that there is no way that this is “short” by any definition, but it did seem to be more reliable than flights via Europe, so I went with it. I left Calgary at 11 am on Sunday, April 11, 2021* and arrived in Kimberley at noon on Tuesday, April 13. Thank you, Ambien.

I should add that as I write this, Qatar has cancelled my return flights and re-booked me other flights, none of which really work for me. Something for the travel agent to worry about. As an aside, I tend to make my own travel reservations but I never travel to Africa without using a travel agent. Flights change or other problems arise, and fixing them yourself from Africa is a nightmare. I’ve seen others miss hunting because they’ve been sitting on hold or dealing with African airlines or African representatives of other airlines trying to fix flights.

I have never flown Qatar before, nor through Doha with a firearm, so that needed to be attended to. It turns out that Qatar is pretty reasonable – both the airline and the country. You need to tell them in advance that you’re travelling with a firearm, fill out a paper attesting to the fact that it’s unloaded, and give them a copy of something which allows you to move the firearm. In Canada, that seems to be the Temporary Export Permit (more on that below) issued by the Government of Canada.

Firearm

Since I’m not undertaking any dangerous game on this trip, I pretty easily concluded I needed only one rifle. My .300 Win Mag, which was ruined on a trip to Benin, is still in the repair shop (the COVID hasn’t helped there either). But even that apart, the decision was actually pretty easy. My .275 Rigby Highland Stalker has only ever been to the range, so – no time like the present – I decided that this would be its maiden voyage. It’s wearing a Swarovski 1.7 – 10 x 42 Z6i scope and I’ll be shooting Rigby branded bullets (140 grain) which are really Hornady Interlocks. No abuse allowed over the choice of ammo – I don’t load my own and that’s the only .275 Rigby I can get. I’m going to try to pick up some 7x57 Mauser in Africa once I get there, but I’m not sure those will be any better, even if I can find some. I will just have to shoot straight. For a change.

Permits

The permits for the firearms were a bit more complicated than usual.

First, the easy one. I hired AfricaSky Guesthouse as I have done in the past for the South Africa permit, and as they have always done in the past, they secured the permit (even though I sent in the forms much later than the required time). As I’ve said many times in the past, I try my best to minimize my interaction with authority in Africa for a whole bunch of reason ranging from my wallet to my temper. I have no doubt I could get the permit from the Firearms Office in JNB, but why put myself through that?

The second permit, and this will only be of interest to Canadians, is the Temporary Export Permit from the Government of Canada. In mid-January I filled out the forms, applying for permits for the firearm, the ammunition and the scope, all as required by law. When you submit all of the required paperwork, along with things like cover letters explaining what you’re doing, a letter of invitation, a copy of the itinerary, etc., normally a permit is emailed to you within a month or so. It’s a pain, but a manageable one.

So the forms went in, and I waited. Finally, in early March, not having heard a thing, I sent a note to the fellow who handles these things – a very practical and helpful man – and asked him if he’d seen my application and if everything was ok. He emailed me back within 10 minutes asking when I sent it. I said mid-January. He then told me that they had had a COVID issue in their mailroom, and it had been closed since about then. Mail went into the mailroom, but nothing was leaving the mailroom. Unbelievable. Only a government can get away with this. I can imagine what the Government would say if a tax demand had sat in a closed mailroom for months . . .

He asked me to email him the package, so I did that. Two more weeks go by and I send him a note – he says he’s approved it and it’s on the desk of his “permit officer.” He gives me her email address and I send her a note. Crickets.

Ten days before I’m supposed to go, the permit shows up. In theory, Air Canada should ask to see the permit when I check the rifle, but that’s never happened, and I’m certain they wouldn’t know what a temporary export permit looks like. But I need it to get the firearm back into the country, so best to just comply. Thanks to Serge for his help in getting this done, even without the benefit of a mailroom.

My travel agent sent the permit off to Qatar and I think I’m good to go on the firearm.

Now, I just have to wait for departure day and hope flights don’t get cancelled . . .

View attachment 403067

My wife and I were in a drive through safari park in Texas with my 18 month old son standing on my lap feeding some deer out the driver's window. A ostrich comes up and before I can drive away he has my sons hand that is full of food in his mouth. Instinctively I reach out and grab the ostrich around the windpipe vocal cord area. They ostrich starts backpedaling to get away with his eyes about to pop out his head. This goes on for about 10 seconds until he let's go of my son's hand. I let go and it didn't take him long to get out of there.

 

[AB2506]

My wife and I were in a drive through safari park in Texas with my 18 month old son standing on my lap feeding some deer out the driver's window. A ostrich comes up and before I can drive away he has my sons hand that is full of food in his mouth. Instinctively I reach out and grab the ostrich around the windpipe vocal cord area. They ostrich starts backpedaling to get away with his eyes about to pop out his head. This goes on for about 10 seconds until he let's go of my son's hand. I let go and it didn't take him long to get out of there.

Another example of why feeding animals, even deer, is a bad idea. Thank goodness you reacted quickly. I take your son was unharmed?

 

[Randalljameshebert]

Another example of why feeding animals, even deer, is a bad idea. Thank goodness you reacted quickly. I take your son was unharmed?

He was ok. Just scared

 

[Hank2211]

My wife and I were in a drive through safari park in Texas with my 18 month old son standing on my lap feeding some deer out the driver's window. A ostrich comes up and before I can drive away he has my sons hand that is full of food in his mouth. Instinctively I reach out and grab the ostrich around the windpipe vocal cord area. They ostrich starts backpedaling to get away with his eyes about to pop out his head. This goes on for about 10 seconds until he let's go of my son's hand. I let go and it didn't take him long to get out of there.

I have my own methods to deal with ostriches. Of all kinds. Bloody bliksem!

On another note, the running total for animals now seems to be at 71, although even that number seems a bit off. When the numbers get high, it tends to get confusing!

 

[R.M.C.]

Damn Hank that sounds like an awesome trip!!!! Thanks for sharing the details!!!

 

[Hank2211]

Day 15

I had expected to have two more days to help Niel meet his target, but COVID reared its ugly head . . . no, I didn’t get it, but I had to get a test before leaving for Canada. I’ll give you the rundown of what turned out to be my last day chasing animals and then get into the return trip.

After the two eland afternoon, the next day was always going to be a bit anti-climactic. I had a pretty good morning though – 4 blesbok, 2 fallow deer and a springbok.

The afternoon provided a couple of impala, one of which caused John to almost cuff Rocket. We’d stalked a couple of impala, one of which looked pretty nice, but had a decided limp (before I shot it – really), so I took a shot at it, and I thought it dropped to the shot. As we were getting ready to go fetch it, Rocket said he saw it get up and run away. We raced to where he said he’d seen it go, and while there were impala over a hill, we couldn’t see one which looked like it might have been shot. So once again, back to where we saw it drop to follow the blood. Not how I wanted to spend my last afternoon. When we got to the spot, there, of course, was a dead impala. I assume Rocket really did see an impala run, but it wasn’t the one I'd shot, obviously. John, who speaks fluent Xhosa, had a bit of a "conversation" with Rocket – that was twice in two days. The problem, from our perspective, is that if someone says the animal I shot ran, then we have a choice – start from where it was shot and track, or try to get to where it is or where it’s going, and finish it off before it has a chance to get too far. Usually, the latter course is the best one but that’s only true if the animal did in fact get up and run away. Another consideration is that while both Rocket and Mendile can track, they aren’t exactly Zimbabwean trackers . . .

Anyway, we finished up with a grand total of exactly 80 animals to show for the time we spent at Niel’s. I was a bit surprised that the total had gotten that high, but I had great fun getting it there, and I felt that we’d justified our time at Niel’s.

I'll finish up the trip in one last post, soon.

Final total: 80 animals

Niel's from a mountain. The dam on the left is where we had the outdoor dinner; the green field to the right is the lucerne where we shot the warthogs. Pretty much everything you see is his.

 

[Nyati]

80 animals, quite a hunt/shoot !

This is giving me an idea for the future

 

[Kevin Peacocke]

Nice report Hank. Was the objective of the cull hunt to take out deformaties, or just reduce numbers, or both? We recently did a very minor version of this where the target was to reduce the female impala, apparently there has to be a balance.

 

[Hank2211]

Nice report Hank. Was the objective of the cull hunt to take out deformaties, or just reduce numbers, or both? We recently did a very minor version of this where the target was to reduce the female impala, apparently there has to be a balance.

A bit of both actually. Niel needed numbers reduced so that was number one. But once we were reducing numbers, it made sense to start with the old, the hurt, the deformed, etc., rather than trophy animals.

The alternative is to bring in the game capture people, who pay a fraction of what a hunter will pay (even a cull hunter), and they keep the animal. In the case of a hunter, the landowner also keeps the meat, so it's a win-win for him. Having said that, unless someone in Niel's position can get a lot of hunters, he will still have to bring in the game capture people, although he will have made far more with me being there than he would if I had not.

I think he was pleased with the ultimate number - it sure exceeded what I expected to shoot going in!