SOUTH AFRICA: Free Range Bushbuck Hunt With Venture South Outfitting

Fjold

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Namibia 2008 (Khomas Highlands, Kalahari), Zimbabwe 2011 (Zambezi Valley), South Africa 2013 (East Cape), South Africa 2016 (KwaZulu Natal), Namibia 2019 (Kalahari)
Sorry, I didn't notice that Ian had already posted his version of this hunt. Moderator, you can delete this, if you prefer.

From April 26th through May 4th of 2016 I hunted with Ian Blakeway of Venture South Outfitting on a free range concession in the Kwa Zulu Natal region of South Africa for Nyala and Bushbuck. I used my left handed Winchester Model 70 chambered in 375 H&H magnum loaded with the 235 grain Cutting Edge Bullets, Raptor Extended Range bullets at 3,000 fps. Forgive me for the quality of some of the photos. It was drizzling rain that day and all the photos in the brush were taken with the flash on automatic so it looks a lot lighter in there than it actually was.


On the northern half of the 30,000 + acre concession, we drove up the dirt road along the eastern side of a canyon and spotted a kudu bull holed up in the thick brush at the bottom of the brush filled ravine. We continued to the top of the mountain and spent two hours glassing the empty hillsides in the light rain. We started back down the dirt road and about half way down we saw a couple of bushbuck ewes browsing near the ravine where the kudu bull was laid up. We watched those ewes for about an hour waiting for their buck to show up. The ewes disappeared into the brush and just as we were going to give up, Tombo the camp tracker, excitedly hissed “Nkonka” (Bushbuck) and pointed down and across the valley.

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There browsing on the edge of the brush near a bright green tree was a bushbuck. Ian said that he’s big and old but he only has one horn. At first I didn’t want another one horned buck (I shot a one horned buck on the East Cape in 2013) but looking at him with my binoculars I could see that he was a spectacular old buck with great mass in his horn and broken stub.

I retrieved my rifle from the back of the truck and loaded it with three, 235 grain CEB Raptors while Ian grabbed the shooting sticks. When I looked up again, the buck had disappeared! We waited for about 5 minutes and I decided to walk down our side of the canyon for a different view. About 20 meters down the road I could see the buck browsing behind the bright green tree. I hissed for Ian and Tombo and they rushed over with the shooting sticks. I got seated behind the sticks and Ian said “230 yards”. I slid the crosshairs down the top line of the buck’s shoulder and when they settled on the shoulder joint, I touched the trigger.

At the shot, I saw the buck rear up on his back legs before losing him in the recoil. The buck lunged forward and disappeared into the brush. The brush shook once and then stopped. Ian says “Perfect heart shot! He did a back flip and then fell into the brush. He’s dead.”

We got in the truck and went back up the mountain to the other side of the valley, to find the buck. Ian said that he’s a beautiful buck and if I hadn’t shot he would have liked to take it himself. He then suggested that I immediately go out and buy a lottery ticket when I get home as the odds of taking two, one-horned old bucks was phenomenal. He added that he had only seen three, one horned bushbucks in his life and I had managed to kill two of them on successive hunts.

We got across the canyon, I loaded my rifle and we started down the hillside. Ian decides not take his rifle but has his Glock 23 loaded with Winchester Black Talon ammo on him. We walked down the hill and started looking for the dead buck. Ian found the first blood and we slowly worked out his trail. We followed the blood trail down into the deep brush, stooping under the overhangs and crawling when necessary.



The worn game path split into two separate trails but we couldn’t find any more blood. I went back out and around some brush to look on the higher path while Ian and Tombo searched for any more sign on the lower path. On the other side of the brush, I found fresh blood and tissue and called Ian and Tombo over. We slowly crawled back into the brush and Ian said, “I can hear him breathing, it sounds like a lung shot.” I could hear a low gurgling sound ahead of us in the brush and we continued looking for him.

Ian suddenly stiffened and said, “There he is”. He was looking through a foot wide hole in the brush but I couldn’t see the buck from beside and behind him. I handed my rifle to Ian and told him to shoot. Ian shot and said “He’s down”. I take my rifle back, cycled the action and safed it. Ian crawled into the 6 foot by 6 foot clearing where the buck was lying down on his left side. I could see into the hole and took a picture with my cellphone when the buck suddenly drew a breath.



There wasn’t enough room in the clearing for me to enter so Ian drew his Glock and shot the buck in the chest. The buck then rolled upright, Ian hesitated and then shot the buck again with the pistol. The buck exploded off the ground facing me and I swung my rifle toward it but couldn’t shoot so close to Ian. The buck spun left and launched itself right at Ian. Ian straight armed the buck with his left hand, hitting it in the horn stub. He pushed it aside as it lunged for him while shooting straight down into the buck’s back. The buck traveled past him about ten feet and fell so I shot it again in the chest with my rifle. He was finally dead!



Ian and I looked at each other, safed our guns and started jabbering questions at each other trying to figure out what had happened.
We examined the buck and he looked like hell, full of bullet holes on his back and left side. He’s a very old buck, completely blind in his left eye and with large cataracts in his right eye. His front teeth are worn almost completely to the gum line and he probably wouldn’t have made it through the next dry season.



As near as we could figure out, my first shot across the canyon hit him right on the point of the shoulder, destroying it. The bullet then deflected straight down, sliding outside the chest cavity until it broke the breast bone.
Ian’s shot with my rifle, hit the buck in the horn stunning it. Then Ian’s first shots with his handgun woke the buck up and it charged him.

We found four petals from the first CEB Raptor bullet in the destroyed left shoulder and there was nothing left of the buck’s shoulder joint.



There were bone fragments in the chest cavity and the left lung was completely shredded. At the bottom of the buck’s chest was an eight inch long gash that may have come from my finishing shot.



Two pistol shots entered the left side of his chest and exited low on the right side belly. Two more pistol bullets went straight down through his back and we found one long vertical graze behind his left shoulder. There was a half inch long slit in the buck’s heart and inside it we found the jacket of one of the Black Talon bullets but no core.



My PH Ian, came out of it with a bruise and a sore spot on the palm of his left hand and it’s a hunt that we’ll both definitely remember for the rest of our lives.



.
 

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Cool story, beautiful trophy!
 
Getting the tales told from various angles is great.

That is an incredible forensic study and one hell of a trophy.
Thanks for sharing your report.
 
Congrats!

Definitely a tough old warrior. And always like to see anyone with a left hand rifle!
 
I love a great story, and this is a great story! As they say . . . it's the dead ones . . .

Thanks for sharing.
 
Wow! Gotta love an animal that small and that tough, fighting it out till the end!!!
 
Excellent report Fjold. Thank you for the detail and photos! I think your trophy is outstanding! I would put him on my wall n a heart beat.

Do you question the quality of the bullets you used? It seems that there was massive damage to the animal yet it would not die and was shot many times! The one recovered fragment looks like the whole bullet came apart. Was that part of a rifle round or one from the PH's pistol? I can not tell from the picture.
 
image.jpg

I hasten to add that I had to shoot a Nyala three times causing massive damage as you did to the bushbuck. The animal just didn't want to give up.
Two side shots and then a chest shot face on!

You and the PH really stuck to it to end the hunt of the bushbuck! I think it proves once again that African animals are very very tough!
 
Excellent report Fjold. Thank you for the detail and photos! I think your trophy is outstanding! I would put him on my wall n a heart beat.

Do you question the quality of the bullets you used? It seems that there was massive damage to the animal yet it would not die and was shot many times! The one recovered fragment looks like the whole bullet came apart. Was that part of a rifle round or one from the PH's pistol? I can not tell from the picture.

I consider that an absolute bullet failure. The CEBs generally have a great reputation for penetrating and then shedding their petals inside the animal. On my bushbuck and also on a jackal that I shot the next day, it looks like the nose of the bullet shattered on impact. The four petals shown in the post above were found in the shoulder meat of the bushbuck in the first inch of meat. The core of the bullet then seemed to deflect or deviate, straight down and never made it into the chest cavity. There were bone fragments from the shoulder bone in the left lung which caused a lot of damage but I would not want to count on that to kill any animal.
 
I consider that an absolute bullet failure. The CEBs generally have a great reputation for penetrating and then shedding their petals inside the animal. On my bushbuck and also on a jackal that I shot the next day, it looks like the nose of the bullet shattered on impact. The four petals shown in the post above were found in the shoulder meat of the bushbuck in the first inch of meat. The core of the bullet then seemed to deflect or deviate, straight down and never made it into the chest cavity. There were bone fragments from the shoulder bone in the left lung which caused a lot of damage but I would not want to count on that to kill any animal.

Thank you Frank for the follow up response! I was thinking something had to be wrong when a 375 didn't kill a bushbuck even knowing that they are tough animals.
So the CEB ammo would concern me!
 
Congrats, great trophy, great story !
 
Great story. Those bushbuck sure do seem to be a tough bunch.
 
Bushbuck are known to be extremely aggressive when wounded, glad everyone made it out with no serious injury. Quite a trophy Frank, but I am surprised at the CEB's performance. I've been using them for several years now and have had no failures. The Black Talon's separation from the jacket doesn't raise an eye brow as I've seen this with several brands of pistol projectiles. Did you contact Dan @ CEB? I'm assuming you used the copper CEB Raptors? Hair raising hunt for sure, congrats!
 
Bushbuck are known to be extremely aggressive when wounded, glad everyone made it out with no serious injury. Quite a trophy Frank, but I am surprised at the CEB's performance. I've been using them for several years now and have had no failures. The Black Talon's separation from the jacket doesn't raise an eye brow as I've seen this with several brands of pistol projectiles. Did you contact Dan @ CEB? I'm assuming you used the copper CEB Raptors? Hair raising hunt for sure, congrats!

I used the CEB Raptor Extended Range bullets. They're a brass bullet. CEBs have a great reputation with the Safari Raptors and the Copper Raptors. But, the Extended Range Raptors have a longer slimmer ogive and the walls of the hollow point cavity are thinner than in the other Raptors. I believe that this causes the nose to explode on contact.

I emailed CEB's US Customer Service Rep, Nikki and she said basically, that it looked like the bullet failed on the bushbuck but they have a lot of satisfied customers so oh well. She's my only contact at CEB but I don't think that she recognizes that it was just the Raptor ER bullets that I was questioning.

Frank
 
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Thanks for the reply Frank. I have seen this with the 240 grain copper Raptor designed for the Colt pistol. I used them in my .50 muzzle loader for Whitetail deer. They were quite explosive on penetration but petals exited the far side and as well as the main body. They have since began work on a very successful muzzle loading bullet which I've had great success with. May have just been that particular bullet. CEB constantly is designing and working on all aspects of their projectiles.
 
Congrats and thanks for sharing!
 

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