Recent content by SwampTrooper

Thanks for reading! Yes I will post the next installment after the holidays! I’ve been spending some time with family but will get back to writing soon. It’s good to see someone who felt like I did!

Day 8 The previous day, the camp discussed taking a day to go to an area that had elephants, and have a game drive for dangerous game. I thought this sounded like a wonderful idea, but the nagging feeling of losing time made me flip back and forth. “I think we came here to hunt, not see...

Day 7 (actually 7, I miscounted the previous two days) On this day, I again do not remember too much that happened, only that it was the day that I clumsily bagged a Gemsbok which I will recount here. As we planned to go for Gemsbok, Nathan told us that going over the road was the way to go...

Day 7 I do not remember too much about this day, other than the beautiful drive in morning which I spent mostly studying the back of my eyelids. We were not going to miss the early hours chasing Kudu this time. When I was awake, I could see the beautiful orange sun come out of valley between...

Day 6 We woke up cold. Cruiser Safaris on cold nights slips a hot water bottle into your bed in what is a charming touch of civilization and coziness. We used up all that heat from the bottle on that night. Through the night, the temperatures dropped below freezing which was surprising for this...

Rigby makes a canvas safari sling but it’s about $250 or so to get it to the states. Sorry Rigby, I love you (they’re on this forum) but economically, I have to love you from afar. The sling is a Tourbon canvas two inch sling. I used a Jim Green lace to tie the front to my swivel stud...

Day 3 We woke up at 6am, had breakfast and were informed that we would be hunting just over the road, in a nearby property targeting Gemsbok. We had discussed with Nathan about how the properties work, what preferences he had, and how he liked to hunt them. Pieter ultimately made all the...

Thanks for the positive feedback, everyone. I really appreciate it and will keep posting the trip. As I re-read it, I notice a million grammar and writing errors that my eyes just skipped over when writing and posting. I wish I could go back and edit it but there is a 30 min limit after posting...

thank you! I have it all written but with a lot of typos as you can see. Some have snuck into the posts. I’ll keep posting as I proof the rest of the days.

Day 2 At 4:30, we rose eagerly, ate a lovely breakfast of eggs, toast, some leftover game meat with bacon, and packed into Nathan’s Hilux to roll out to the mountains. The drive was pleasant in that we saw a lot of the territory we saw coming in during the soft blue early hours now. We...

Day 1: We woke about 5:30 in the morning, excited and raring to go. We sat and scarfed down a standard breakfast of bacon eggs, and leftover impala on toast. I saw once again we had that marvelous inky black Bovril tar that makes the best breakfast toast one could dream of. Our party was broken...

A Ten Day Plains Game Hunt for the First Timer. PART 1 Introduction: During this trip I attempted to keep an abbreviated journal so that when I return home, I can properly sit down, reflect, and offer a hunting report to you, the wider hunting community. I had hoped that I would be able to...

Good call on the cocking piece, I’ll cold blue it. I flame blued the safety and bolt stop. The results were far better than I imagined. A trick to minimally effect tempering is to allow the parts to air cool rather than quench. Here’s some before and after on the safety. I didn’t photograph the...

As a general update, the gun is working perfectly with an non-bubba'ed surplus in the white cocking piece. The original low side safety works well, albeit a little sticky, but a little sand paper and steel wool should help. I also purchased a flag style military safety which works superbly but...

Haha don’t stress yourself! If you have some free time later on, I would love to see it but you have already help me so much!