SOUTH AFRICA: RIFLE: BOWHUNT: A Month In RSA!

Safaris with PawPrint and Dries Visser.

Looks like a nice buff! Look forward to the report!

So the planning for this hunt started at the SCI show in 2018. The wife and I had been on three Safaris but the last was back in 2011. Twice we had been with Dries Visser who is an archery only outfit. I was interested in a Cape buffalo/ sable combination. We’ve always wanted a longer trip but have twin girls who we didn’t want to be away from that long. The solution? Take them along! Now the question was where else to go. We thought about maybe bidding on something at the auction but after looking at the deals section on here we were interested in PawPrint. Pieter was always fast to respond and we decided to go with his no day fees deal. Stay as many days as you want and pay no observer or hunting fees as long as you shoot 5k in trophies. Sounded to good to be true honestly. Told Pieter besides the wife there would be two twelve year old girls coming along. He said, no problem $100 a day for the wife and the twins are free. Okay. Sign us up! We would leave Oregon the end of July and spend two weeks at PawPrint followed by 10 days at Dries Visser. Are friends who went on are initial trip in 2008 were going to join us on the second leg of the trip at Dries Visser. Should be a blast.

So now the only problem is we have a year to wait.... my wishlist for PawPrint is a little weird maybe as I’ve taken a lot of the plains game animals on the previous trips. I want to target bushbuck, duiker, mountain Reedbuck, springbuck, zebra, caracal and giraffe. When we move to Dries it will be buffalo and sable. Hopefully the twins will get excited and want to shoot something with the crossbow. They have never shot any type of weapon much less hunted but we will see how things develop. The wife shot some animals with the bow in 2009 but is having some shoulder issues so she might use the crossbow also. After quite a bit of research I decide to go with Easton FMJ dangerous game arrows tipped with Ironwill buff 250 broadheads. They weigh in right around 900 grains. I’ll use these for the giraffe and buffalo. I’ll be using just one bow for both plains game and the buffalo/ giraffe. A Matthews Helim at 70#. I have a black gold one pin adjustable sight. For my plains game arrows I’ll be using gold tip 7595 XT hunters with Ironwill v100’s. I start practicing immediately and work on adjusting pins and shooting both arrows. The FMJ’s are so heavy at 20 yards I have to adjust to 40. 30 yards equals 55 and 40 yards equals 70. I’m really not comfortable past 40 yards with these heavy arrows so that’s going to be my limit. Might sound confusing but really shouldn’t be an issue as we are going to be concentrating on giraffe and buffalo at certain times so it’s not like I’m constantly switching arrows.

Have taken the Delta flight in the past but the cheapest I find is around $2200. Use all the search engines but can’t seem to find any great deals. If it was just me and the wife probably would bite the bullet and just do it. Qatar is substantially cheaper at $1400. Have some layovers but finally decide $3200 in savings could buy a few more animals. Leaving Portland on the morning of July 28th and arriving in Joburg 5am on the 30th. Make arrangements to stay at the Afton House. Hear rumors it’s not like it use to be but they have always treated us right before so we’ll stay there again. Finally the day arrives and it’s time for the adventure to begin. I don’t know if any of you have traveled with three girls before but it appeared based on luggage count that we were moving. I had my bow in a rolling duffle which has always worked great.

I want to hear more! I have a family trip coming up next summer with my two kids and spouse. I’ll be closely reading for tips on how to handle the non hunting females in my group.

View attachment 304111 View attachment 304112 View attachment 304113 View attachment 304111 Alaska airlines from Portland to Boston and then a six hour layover. Have never flown Qatar before but based on reviews suppose to be one of the best. At the check in and all the monitors say one carry on and max of 7 kilos. A quick google search tells me that’s 7 pounds. Now we’ve spent some time and thought on how we packed. We all have a bag with a change of clothes, some electronics and so forth. We get to the counter and it’s no joke. Supposedly a TSA thing. Let the yard sale begin. We get out of line and pull basically everything out. Of course are checked baggage is through to Joburg so adding stuff to those is not an option. Very stressful but we now have 3 bags that really aren’t built for checking plus I don’t have tsa locks for them. I’m especially nervous that my binoculars and rangefinder are in one of them. Okay at least that’s done. Should be smooth sailing. Give the agent the passports and she asks for birth certificates on the girls. Huh? Long story short thanks to modern technology a call to one of the sons and we have pictures of birth certificates. Onto the gate and a relaxing 12 1/2 hour flight to Doha.

Doha is an awesome airport. Just a short two hour layover and off again on a 8 hour flight to Johannesburg.

Sleep a little bit but not much of a rest. Land in Joburg about 4:30. Clear customs with are birth certificates with no problem. Having are friends bring the originals when they come in a couple weeks. All 9 checked bags arrive and my binoculars are safe and sound. Things are looking up. The Afton house representatives are waiting. We’re it so off we go. The family room wasn’t booked the night previous so we’re able to check in right away. Can’t sleep. It’s 9 pm at home. Go to the dining area and meet a couple from Colorado here for their first Safari. Always love this place and the fact that most everyone is a hunter. Find it interesting that I can bump into someone from high school and talk 10 minutes and be out of subject matter. On the other hand I run into a hunter I don’t know from Adam and talk for hours. Manage to sleep a couple hours midday. Time for the steak dinner! Couple outfitters passing through and Don from Florida. We eat dinner with Don. He’s 86 and on his 16th Safari. Just got done shooting an elephant and is off to the Free State for a dart rhino hunt. What a guy! Can only hope I’m that spry when I’m 86.

Sleep some that night but up about 3. The twins seem to have no trouble sleeping. Managed to get about 12 hours. Even passed on dinner last night. Pieter’s sister Susan picks us up right on time at 10 am. Manage to get all the luggage in her suv but barely. She looks amazed. About a 3 hour drive to Rustenburg. Apparently Pieter has a group of 8 guys from Indonesia that have 3 days left on there hunt so he has no room. This means we have to stay at this place called the Feathered nest guest house. What an outrage! (Said with heavy sarcasm). This place is amazing. We are met by Martin and Marion the owners along with are PH from PawPrint, Riaan . The girls get a cottage of their own and Barb and I get one as well. We unpack then go have a couple drinks with Riaan and our hosts. They give us a tour and show us several owls that they rehabilitate and some that live there permanently due to only have one wing or not being able to take care of themselves. We have a great dinner cooked over the fire then off to bed.

Woke up at 2am. Managed to sleep from 5-7 then up for breakfast. Marion is a world class chef! Omelettes with all the fixings. Riaan arrived at 9. Went to PawPrint and shot the bow. I immediately impressed everyone by firing my first arrow under the target. I had taken my sight off and wrapped it in a sock and stuck it in a boot for the flight. Ended up being 10 yards off but got it dialed in. Went on a game drive and saw blue, gold and king wildebeest, Nyala and giraffe. Went back to the Feathered nest for lunch and shot the bow a couple times. Sat in a blind that evening and there was a nice duiker standing beside it as we walked in. Had about 25 blue wildebeest come in including one old bull with a broken horn. When we were walking out back to the truck that night Riaan stepped on something and guess what? A broken wildebeest horn that looked like a match for our guy. Crazy. Another great dinner followed by an outside shower and off to bed.

Up at 3am. Martin has monkeys raiding his greenhouse and eating all his vegetables. Went out at 6 to try and get one but of course they didn’t show. Went to PawPrint and sat in a blind. Saw two young sable bulls but was very windy. Riaan said we would sit another blind this evening if the wind calmed down if not pretty much a waste of time. Windy all day so I got a 3 hour nap. Our last night at the Feathered nest as we are moving over to PawPrint tomorrow. Told Riaan today that if we needed to use a rifle to take some animals that was fine. I’ve never hunted with a rifle in Africa so it would be something different and exciting. Next stop will be all bow so I’m game for whatever. Had a fabulous steak dinner followed by a couple drinks.

Up at 2:30. Went after the monkeys at 6:00. Dogs were barking at me and again didn’t see any. Martin saw them later. Had breakfast and packed up for the move to PawPrint. Pieter bought this property three years ago and it’s an old local hunting camp. A working mans Safari just as he advertises. If you want a chocolate on your pillow this isn’t the place he says! Definitely a step down from are previous accommodations but so would most places. They treat you like family and you want for nothing. Just ask and they’ll get it for you. Pretty much all you can ask for. Riaan and I go and shoot the CK 308. Shoots like a dream and we drive around for awhile searching for whatever presents itself. That evening we go on a walk and stalk for bushbuck. See good sign but no luck. Back to the lodge for dinner and then out for a night hunt. This was a cool experience that I’d never done before. What a blast. Spot eyes, try to figure out what it is and shoot if it’s something good. Saw a red heartebeest then a nice duiker at no less then 20 yards. Scampered off before I could get on him though. Went to another area that was acres of very flat and grassy terrain . Riaan spots eyes at around 150 yards and says it’s a nice duiker shoot. I take his word for it and let loose with the 308. He tells me I got him but I see an animal running off. He says, that’s the female they normally run in pairs don’t worry you got him. We drive cross country and get to the approximate spot. Get out and look but can’t find him in the tall grass. A little worried but Riaan assures me we’ll find him in the morning. 100%!

A great start to a family adventure. When did this hunt take place?

Your google search suxs 7 kgs is more like 15 pounds. I had same issue with Emirates so I unpacked some things out of my backpack, handed them to my wife, reweighed bag, it made weight and I proceeded to load items back into backpack with agent watching and no one blinked Looking forward to your report.

Enjoying the report so far, look forward to more!

John, I’m so glad you are writing this all up! Excellent read and useful information!
Now get writing “the rest of the story”.

Up at 4:30! Not bad. Getting a little later. Not as good as the girls though. They slept from 6pm until 5am. Must be nice. Go to the lodge for breakfast and then out to find the duiker. See where we off roaded and follow the tracks. Get out and within 5 minutes Riaan says, sorry. What? It’s not a duiker it’s a Steenbuck and he’s huge! What kind of PH are you? Can’t tell the difference between a duiker and Steenbuck at 150 yards in the dark. Take some pictures and deliver him to the skinning shed. Later on Riaan and I go for a walk and stalk for bushbuck. See some waterbuck but that’s it. Interesting seeing a bunch of different properties and how much the terrain varies even just a couple miles away. Most of these properties main business is local hunters and they generally don’t hunt on Sundays. For the evening we all load up and go to the property where we are going after giraffe tomorrow. Neither Pieter or Riaan have been here before and want to get a lay of the land. It’s a beautiful area with rolling terrain and thick trees but also some open plains. We don’t see giraffe but enjoy the drive spotting kudu, herds of blesbuck an impala ram and a jackal. Talk of going on a night hunt for duiker but instead decide to have a few drinks and rest for the hunt tomorrow.

Shootist43 said:

A great start to a family adventure. When did this hunt take place?

Click to expand...

July 28-August 24th

Ridgewalker said:

John, I’m so glad you are writing this all up! Excellent read and useful information!
Now get writing “the rest of the story”.

Click to expand...

Thanks Phil. I’m trying as fast as I can but it takes time. Use to do reports on other sites quite a bit but it’s been awhile. You inspired me!