SOUTH AFRICA: Plains Game Hunt With Induna Safaris

James2018

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I would like to share my experiences while hunting with Induna Safaris in South Africa which is about an hour and 15 minutes drive from Port Elizabeth SA. I hunted Plains Game at Induna which is owned and operated by Kelvin and Denise Milsom in both 2017 and 2018. Both hunts took place in the winter June 22-July 8th.

It had been a life long dream of mine to travel to Africa and after several setbacks and cancellations due to my parents health issues, I finally made the trip over for the first time in 2017. I think that I must have spent hundreds of hours and about 25 years researching different outfitters and areas and going over all the things that were a priority and important to me. I probably read the perfect shot 50 times and spent lots of time researching the evaluation of the animals I wanted to hunt. For me some of the most important things were that I wanted the hunting to be fair chase and to spend lots of time hiking and walking- spot and stalk style on foot. Most of my life has been spent travelling the world by plane and vehicle for work, so I really wanted to spend my time on the ground if this makes sense. I also wanted a outfitter that would be willing to adapt to my changing desires and that would be willing to take me to areas that would give me the opportunity to see some remote country and high quality mature trophies. I also wanted to be where the operator was not next to a highway or road noise and a place that would be relaxing and peaceful. Lastly I was looking for a outfitter that owned most of property and not freelance so for the most part the hunting would take place on property they owned.

I wrote many emails and made many phone calls to numerous outfitters and called all of the references. I selected Induna after contacting many of the references , they all said the same things just go its a no brainer. many of these clients had been to Induna 6 or even 10 times. That made up my mind and I never looked back and was so glad I made that choice.

When I arrived in Port Elizabeth in June of 2017 after a very long flight I was greeted by Kelvin at the Airport and we made the drive to his home /farm concession. When we arrived I freshened up and headed to the range to sight in the rifle I would be using. I thought after reading the blogs on the Induna Website I was ready and knew what to expect. But I must admit I was not totally prepared for the kid in the candy store feeling when I started to see so many different animals in great numbers. We spent most of our time on either his home property or a very large neighbouring property owned by his father in law. It was very scenic and vast and offered me the chance to spend lots of time walking and hiking and hunting the way the I had intended. It was also very peaceful and relaxing and a great place to unwind.

For my first hunt I pursued Kudu, Impala, Nyala, Blesbuck, Bushbuck, Copper Spingbok, Gemsbok and Warthog. I was able to successfully take some excellent mature trophies all would end up making the SCI book, although for me the most important thing was that they were good representations of the animal and prime mature animals. I ended up taking two Kudu due to the fact that on one of the last days a much larger 54 inch Kudu stepped out and I just felt that is not something that happened every day in the Eastern Cape. The only animal that eluded me was the warthog we saw many but just could not locate the large mature male I wanted. Below are some photos of my hunt in 2017. I had the trip of a lifetime every expectation I had was exceeded, the food was incredible and Denise and staff go out of their way to meet your preferences while at the same time offering local cuisine.I ate lots of different dishes with wild game and local lamb and certainly never went hungry. The accommodation was excellent very clean and comfortable. The properties themselves were very well kept and tidy , everything from the fences to the areas around the houses was kept in great shape which to me indicated organization and a well run business. I also found that the fact you stayed with Kelvin and his family in a separate area of the lodge that the atmosphere was casual and relaxing, after all I was hoping to unwind and have a vacation as well. I took the advise of others and took the bare minimum over in the form of luggage everything I took fit in two small carry on bags. Any small item I forgot could easily be located in Port Elizabeth. Laundry was done every day and there was no need to take a huge checked bag this made travel so much more smooth for me, no worries about losing bags or delays.


I enjoyed my trip so much that I immediately booked a return trip for exactly the same dates in 2018 and planned to pursue Red Lechwe, Steenbok, Vaal Rhebok, Mountain Reedbuck, White, Black and Common Springbok , Hartebeest and Duiker. I counted the days for an entire year and couldn't wait to get back.
After having such a great experience the first time it is a tough act to follow, after all hunting is not something that always goes the way you want. Well I can honestly say that my 2018 hunt was even better, I managed to successfully hunt some very difficult species and all were mature trophies. Some very difficult animals were taken like the Vaal Rhebok, Mountain Reedbuck and I managed to get an exceptional common Springbok.
The amount of walking and hiking up very steep terrain and the amount of work it took for some of the animals made the trophies even more satisfying and I will remember these hunts for the rest of my life. I was so glad I had walked nearly 10 km per day year round in boots, after several of the mountain hunts my legs were done even with the preparation. The winter here in Canada was one of the coldest ever and many weeks it was -40 with high winds and we were hit with a ice storm, so I had to attach metal studded cleats to keep walking daily for several months. I chuckled to myself when I noticed even the tracker was walking slowly the next day after the Reedbuck hunt.

So in summary what they say about hunting in Africa that once you go you end up going back turned out to be true and I plan to return again. I have not in any way been prompted to write about this experience, I simply wanted to share my satisfaction with Induna and Kelvin and Denise as well as their staff in the lodge and Alton the tracker. I must admit I had a hard time at first adapting to hunting with a PH and a tracker, where I live I nearly always hunt alone so I constantly had to remind myself to try to follow the PH and trust them and the tracker. I appreciate the patience as I tend to be very high strung and get excited as I am very passionate about hunting. Kelvin knows his land and it is vast , scenic and peaceful with many species of animals in large quantities For the few animals that are remote mountain species we did travel to some neighbouring concessions and had to work hard to achieve success once we arrived in the area by vehicle.
In several cases we walked in excess of 15km and the terrain was steep and like the rest of the Karoo paved with brick sized rocks or round ones that are like large ball bearings.

Every hunt was fair chase and involved plenty of walk and stalk style hunting, many times attempts failed and some in the case of the warthog just wouldn't happen. Kelvin was willing to adapt to my changing desires for which animal I wanted to pursue and knows the animals and property well. I would also like to mention that for 2017 I chose to use Hunters and Collectors Taxidermy in Port Elizabeth and when the trophies arrived I can honestly say I could find no fault with any of the work, everything arrived and travelled over and was cleared with zero issues. All of the paperwork and proper steps were followed and I turned over my trophies for 2018 to Kevin at Hunters and collectors and I am very excited to receive them later this year.
Everyone who has seen my 2017 trophies has commented on how good they look at the quality of the work.
The communication with Hunters and Collectors via emails was also continuous throughout the process so I never felt like I was not aware of the progress.

I also spent some time visiting a local Elephant/Game Park , another game preserve , several mountainous
areas and Port Elizabeth and took some fantastic pictures of scenery and close up photos of Wildlife.
I came home with some amazing photos and plan to do more of this next time and perhaps tour the Garden Route.


Finally here are my 2018 trophies and should anyone have any questions please feel free to private message me I am more than willing to offer some suggestions based on my experiences for those considering travel to South Africa to hunt plains game.

Safe hunting to all,

James

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Looks like a great adventure! Congratulations.
 
thanks It was an incredible adventure and trips of a lifetime to say the least, I can see 12 photos embedded in the email , it shows the other six as attachments, can you tell me if you can see those? they are of the black, white and common springbok, lechwe, duiker and Vaal Rhebok?
 
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Thanks for sharing!

Interesting the first Kudu has no stripes!
 
he was old and grey and had not too many teeth either, his tips were worn off , was a good animal to take
 
Congrats on all the fine trophies!
 
I was able to view the attached photos that did not show up.
Some really fine trophies. Looks like an incredible hunt. Congratulations!!
 
Congrats on some nice trophies! Thanks for sharing!
 
thanks for letting me know the attachments worked and on congrats
 
Oh yes sir! All show up and all are fine trophies! Congratulations!
And thanks for sharing!
 
Looks like you have taken some great animals. Congrats. Thanks for sharing. Would love to hear some stories of individual animal hunts.
Bruce
 
Congrats, good hunts and fine trophies !
 
Thank you for sharing and you took some grand trophies!
 
I will try to share a couple of stories on individual hunts like the Reedbuck , Vaal Rhebuck and Kudu when I have time, all were certainly memorable and took hard work to succeed, but several were special due to the terrain and amount of effort and many failed stalks. I should point out that after having traveled around much of the eastern cape and seeing lots of terrain for nearly a month one of the main reasons I really like hunting at Induna was the properties. By this I mean it was a mix of high hills and valleys lots of cover and feed for the animals. Typically you would ascend up a high ridge on one side of the valley or the other depending on wind, then spend quite a bit of time glassing and spotting potential animals. Then if you were able to find an animal of interest you could see them from above and formulate a plan to get close to them. There are some animals such as springbok that were in more open areas but there still was enough cover to stalk within shooting range. I saw many other properties while traveling the country over the two trips and in most cases there were either flat with thick thorn bush and there was no way to really spot game from a distance, or they were flat and desolate with nothing but small thorn bushes a foot high or succulent plants. I hunted one such area due to dry conditions it was the only place to find Gemsbok and can say that it was close to impossible to get within range and to be truthful a miserable place. Sometimes what you see on a website does not end up being what you see when you arrive. Both of the properties owned by Induna were very scenic and had lots of cover and vantage points as well as natural funnels where animals congregated, I saw large herds of Kudu, Springbok in different colour phases, Impala, Nyala, Black and Blue Wildebeest, Duiker , Steenbok , Hartebeest, Blesbok, Waterbuck, Zebra and Warthog. Other then when entering the property you rarely saw the end of its and many other birds and small animals were seen daily. I only left the property to head to higher mountains for the Vaal Rhebok and Reedbuck. Spending off time on the property was relaxing and I could walk around the lodge and take pictures of Waterbuck, Impala, Kudu and other animals.

Also as mentioned the property was remote and quiet and not close to noisy roads here are a couple of photos of the scenery to illustrate what I mean:

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looks like a great trip! awesome trophies and great pic's! congratulations!!!!:D Beers:
 
As requested I am going to post a few stories of Individual Animals hunts starting with the Kudu in 2017

July 4th 2017

KUDU OPPORTUNITY KNOCKS

After having a good breakfast at the main lodge and taking a packed lunch we headed out to a neighbouring property owned by Kelvin's father in law. The area is very large with a mix of more open plains, heavy thick bush and some rolling hills. We spent the morning looking for a nice copper springbok and after seeing many animals we were able to locate a very nice ram, we attempted to get close to him several times but it took some patience to stalk within a distance I felt comfortable. Kelvin and his tracker were able to stalk within a reasonable distance and we managed to remain undetected due to favourable winds and the trees that we used as cover. I took the shot and it was a bit lower than I would like we ended up having to track the animal for a short distance and a follow up shot was required.

We headed back to an area where we could put the animal in the shade and then have a quick lunch and wait for a while as generally the middle of the day is a slower time when the animals are bedded down and not as active. Early afternoon we decided to try to find a good warthog which to this point eluded me, we went to an area where many were often seen and a place where the digging was easy for them to make their burrows . We decided to hike in to the bush quite a ways and sit quietly and ended up seeing a number of animals such as duiker and kudu that had no idea we we there. It was interesting to watch animals like duiker that normally are just seen zig zagging at high speed. Late in the evening we spotted a warthog male feeding a short distance away and we were looking at him to access the size of his tusks. Very suddenly, Alton the tracker got our attention and pointed over to an area along a ridge in some very thick brush. At first all I could see was a herd of Kudu and nothing really stood out, I had already taking a fairly nice mature bull and was not even thinking about another one. Then all of a sudden the Kudu bull raised his head and I saw what the tracker was trying to tell me. Even kelvin got excited and said that is a very large Kudu, after looking at him again for several minutes though my binoculars I could see he was considerably larger than the animals I had taken earlier in the week. So I decided that this was an opportunity that had to be taken, he was an exceptional animal for a Southern Great Kudu. He was feeding with several female and juvenile animals in thick high trees , I had the 30-06 rifle I was using resting on the shooting sticks and as I was now preparing for the shot I had lowered the bolt. He was at a distance of between 180-190 yards he was facing left but had his head down or raised up high feeding and I was unable to get enough of a view of his profile to take a shot. I must admit that I can get excited and patience is not one of my strongpoints, but I just had to put my foot on the brake and wait. What seemed like an hour, was most likely 15-20 minutes, but this built the anticipation and my arms were becoming stiff from just holding the rifle and looking through the scope. He finally turned 180 degrees and now faced right, he had a large tree covering part of his rear hindquarters and was about to travel right into some very thick bush and most likely would have been gone. I had a window of opportunity that lasted no more than 2-3 seconds, I took a deep breath put my finger inside the trigger guard and placed the shot right on his shoulder. From using the rifle for the entire trip I knew if I did my job that the bullet would hit were I aimed out to 300 yards, the bull took very few steps down hill and ran a few yards and dropped. We walked down and across the ridge to where he ended up, when we first walked up I could not believe the size of his horns and how symmetrical he was and he had long ivory tips that curved out and almost forward. I was very glad the shot him him directly in the heart and he went down immediately, after not making an ideal shot with the springbok earlier I really concentrated on doing my best. I knew if he was hit poorly and wounded it would be a nightmare recovering him or he may be lost altogether.

We went back a retrieved a game cart and got some more help to haul the animal out of the thick bush and get him close to a road , once we arrived back at the lodge we ran a tape around him and he ended up having 54 inch horns and very thick bases, I feel very lucky and fortunate to have been able to succeed in taking this great Kudu bull. Over the 2 weeks I was hunting I saw many large herds and lots of very nice bulls, but this one stood out to me. I look at that animal on my wall every day and I think of the whole hunt, the Taxidermist did an amazing job and I certainly will always remember the day. Once thing about Africa you just never know what is going to happen, hunting is like that everywhere, but nowhere else is there such a wide variety of game in such numbers. Plan as you want you really have to be ready for all plans are subject to change!

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Outstanding trophies and lots of them! Especially love the Kudu! Congrats.
 
Excellent hunt, Funny....my first safari I initially booked with Kelvin, and to be honest I cancelled with him and booked a leopard hunt in Namibia. I too had glowing reports on his operation. Congrats on some fine trophies.
 
July 6 2017

THE BUSHBUCK MOMENT

Having already been successful with most of the other animals on my list of priorities for my first trip over to the Eastern Cape with Induna Safaris, I did have two other animals I was interested in pursuing a warthog and a bushbuck. To date I still have not been lucky enough to find the large sized warthog I am after. After talking to Kelvin about the bushbuck throughout the trip and reading about this animal for many years this animal was very high on my list. The animal is said to be similar to our Whitetail Deer and is elusive to say the least, what made this hunt particularly difficult is many parts of Africa have had a severe and extended drought. Many waterholes and creeks have dried up, the bushbuck have disappeared from many areas and have congregated in some of the last areas along riverbeds or near irrigated fields. For the most part they have become almost nocturnal as well and come out just minutes before dark. In any case we decided to give it a shot and I knew it wouldn't be easy, Kelvin was able to locate some animals in another area with irrigated fields and it meant we needed to drive several hours to get to the area and then hunt right until last light.

The day started off in typical fashion with a quick bite to eat , some coffee then a long drive to get to the area. Once we arrived we met with the local manager of the concession and we picked up an additional tracker who knew the area well and because Bushbuck head to the thickest brush and can be dangerous when wounded and know how to use their dagger like horns. We left the vehicle and crossed a large open area with some irrigated fields and in a landscape where the effects of the drought were obvious it stood out as very green. We eventually reached a winding creek bed with a drop of several yards to the bottom. The bush all along both sides of the creek was so thick it was almost impossible to see anything. We positioned ourselves along the edge of the bank looking out to the field and the creek bank that wound around the other side of it. The wind forced us to be on this side and we had no choice but to remain there, it turned out to be a long wait of many hours. We stayed quiet and low along the bank and only the tracker watched from a slightly elevated position within some brush along the edge. A few times before dark we heard the distinctive bark of a Bushbuck deep in the bush.

Just before dark the tracker caught our attention and we carefully took a look and could see several bushbuck clear across the field at the far left edge. One male had only one horn and the other looked to be a decent male, there were several females as well. We came up with a plan that Kelvin and I would crawl along the bank to our left to get closer to the left edge of the field as were were far from within shooting range. After about 30 minutes of stalking very slowly and quietly along the bank ensuring that we stayed low and did not step on sticks or noisy branches we came to within 200 years of the animals. We crawled on our stomachs so we could just see over the bank and I attempted to try to get in a position to shoot prone. After a quick discussion with Kelvin it was decided we would slowly and quietly put up the shooting sticks while still lying down as I could not get enough of a line of site over bush and grass and the ground was uneven. It was now becoming dark in a hurry, I quietly chambered a shell and then lifted the bolt until I was able to stand and get on the shooting sticks. Once standing I got into a ready position and lowered the bolt, Kelvin was still laying down as we had almost no cover and the animals seemed to be on high alert. During this time some sheep had moved into the area as anyone knows there is no shortage of those in this area of South Africa, I had great difficulty clearly seeing the animals as it was getting very dark. I lifted my Leica binoculars several times to get a better look at where they were. At the same time Kelvin was instructing me to shoot the correct animal , two sheep had moved very close to the Bushbuck one was in front and one was behind. I could see Kelvin was wondering what the heck I was waiting for and was telling me to shoot the one on the left, I said no shit but I can barely see him between those sheep. Finally it what seemed like 20 minutes but was probably about 5 minutes I took the shot at a distance of 100 yards, the Bushbuck was quartering away so I had no choice but to aim for the opposite shoulder. All I could think of is you need to make sure you put him down because if he went into that bush at this time of day good luck getting him out until tomorrow or at all. I shot him where I had aimed and he went less than 15 yards and dropped. As you can see from the photo we had to hurry to get a picture before there was zero light. After taking a photo we loaded the animal and headed home, later when reflecting on the hunt and the last few minutes of stress that comes from nobody wanting to make a mistake we laughed about my reaction to Kelvin wondering what the heck I was doing. Kelvin's wife
Denise coined the phrase did you have a Bushbuck moment? I felt very fortunate to have a successful hunt because they are certainly difficult to hunt and also not as abundant due to the dry conditions.

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Great Kudu and a very nice Bushbuck. Proper hunts for them. When I look at mine I remember the hunts. The tough ones provide the most vivid memories. Thanks for sharing.
Bruce
 

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