SOUTH AFRICA: BOWHUNT: Cheetah Safaris Report 2019 & Equipment Learning

RedsInTx

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I just got back from my first South Africa hunt and needless to say it won't be the last. We hunted with Cheetah Safaris, Pieter Bothma in Limpopo Province. We hunted 7 total days and I was able to take a Nyala, Waterbuck, Gemsbok, Kudu, and the grand daddy Cape Buffalo. My son (11) took an impala with a rifle and was successful with the crossbow on a Kudu and Warthog. Cheetah Safaris was a great experience for us, Pieter, Carina, and Robbie took excellent care of my family during our adventure and we look forward to our next trip.

For my trip I had a Mathews Triax set at 70# and took two arrow setups.
Plains Game (Kudu and down) - Rampage 250, standard insert, VPA 250gr broadheads (654gr Arrow Weight)
Buffalo - Rampage 250, Ethics Archery 215gr Outsert, Bishop 315gr 2 Blade Single Bevel (878gr Arrow Weight)
I used a multi pin sight, as the 30yd pin of the lighter arrow as the 20yd pin for the heavy arrow, same went for the 40yd pin for the light arrow was the 30yd pin for the heavy arrow.

My first two trophies were the Nyala and the Waterbuck. On both animals, the footer broke out of the shaft. Fortunately penetration was there to get two holes. In hindsight, I should have thought more about this, given the standard 56gr footer with the Rampages has a 7/8" shank that inserts in the shaft and the VPA broadheads are 3 1/4" long. This is just too much disparity upon contact and the deflection on hitting bone caused the failure. Note I see nothing wrong with the Rampage shafts, bad setup on my part. I switched to the heavier arrow setup (Ethics Archery 215gr Outsert and added the VPA broadhead, 813gr arrow weight). The Ethics Archery outsert has a 2" shank that inserts into the shaft providing much more strength upon contact. On the Gemsbok and Kudu I had complete pass through shots with no arrow damage.

The last two days we targeted the Buffalo. My arrow placement was near perfect, severing the main artery in the heart. The arrow penetrated about 50% at 20yds. The bull ran 75 yards, turned, stood for less than a minute and then started to stagger. He quickly went down. He let out the death bellow and we celebrated. About 45 seconds later, he got up, walked about 10 ft then staggered and went down for good. Pieter said you can never trust the death bellow as more people have been killed by "dead" buffalo than alive ones. I will say, based on penetration, I would use more than 70# draw weight in the future on the super game, perhaps a heavier arrow would have provided additional benefit as well.

Biggest lesson learned is I will never hunt with heavy broadheads without outserts again. Ethics Archery makes an excellent product that is first hand proven its durability.

Amazing experience, hats off to Cheetah Safaris and I hope everyone can learn a bit from my experience.
Happy Hunting,
Todd

2019 Todd Buffalo 1 Reduced.jpg
2019 Todd Gemsbok.jpg
2019 Todd Kudu Red.JPG
2019 Todd Nyala Reduced.jpg
2019 Todd Waterbuck.jpg
Murphy Kudu.JPG
 
Congrats to you and your son on a successful safari, thanks for posting
 
Congratulations! Looks like you guys had a very memorable family adventure, and some great looking trophies.
 
Looks like you had an amazing time! Congrats to you and your son on a great trip
 
Looks like you had a great hunt! Congrats and thanks for sharing!
 
Congrats on a great hunt !
 
Thanks for sharing your lessons learned and the hunt with us.
Congratulations on your hunt and your inevitable return.
 
nice bow kills
 
Congratulations on a great hunt with your son! Thank you for sharing.
 
I have hunted with Cheetah several times and consider them friends for life, great folks! I hope Carina made you bush ice cream!!! if not that is one reason to re-book!!
 
Sounds and looks like you had a wonderful hunt. To be able to share that with your son made it extra special. I can almost guarantee that he is the only kid in his school that has taken a kudu.
A buff with a bow... WOW. The nyala and waterbuck are very nice.
 

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