BOTSWANA: Bos en Dal Safaris 2015

Wheels

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Bos en Dal 2015, Botswana

My flight from Dar es Salaam landed in Johannesburg at 10:30 pm. Gerrit was waiting for me and we took off for the Tuli area of Botswana. After overnighting at Bela Bela, we got up and took a leisurely drive toward the Limpopo. The trucks were backed up a half mile at the border. Gerrit maneuvered around them. We spent about 30 minutes getting through the RSA side and about 5 going through the Botswana side. After driving further, we arrived at the concession around noon.

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Customs. Which will go first. The tree or the buildings?


Camp was great, setting on the banks of the Limpopo. The ranch is about 35,000 acres with a few miles of river frontage. We met Erhardt who is the ranch manager. A tracker was named One One. This was evidently a nickname he received from the mines. The other tracker was significantly smaller, so I asked if he was Zero Zero. A laugh was had by all. Matanta was his real name but Zero Zero stuck for the rest of the hunt.


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We grabbed a bite to eat and went to sight in the rifles. Due to other business on this trip, I didn’t bring my own rifles. Gerrit has a CZ550 in 375 that is just like mine. He brought a Musgrave 7x57 as a second gun.


The 375 would not zero. We could only keep it in an area the size of a dinner plate. There was a problem with the Leupold scope. This was a concern since I prefer hunting plains game with a 375. I shot the 7x57 two times and the bullets were less than an inch apart right on the bull. I began thinking, is this enough gun? Then, when I remembered that Bell shot a few hundred elephants with a 7x57 I felt better about being able to take an eland on down with it.


We spent the rest of the afternoon driving around, looking at the ranch and looking for game. We were on the sticks on the dumbest or the deafest wildebeest on the property. He was a nice old bull, but Gerrit thought we could do better if we waited. When we got back to the truck, Erhardt said next time go ahead and shoot it. He gave us permission to shoot extra wildebeest and impala as meat for his staff. I’m liking Botswana even more!


We got back to camp, Petros, the chef/camp manager had a great meal prepared for us. All the meals throughout the hunt were top notch.


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Petros


Day 2


Erhardt thought the best time to hunt bushbuck would be the first hour and a half of the day. After breakfast, we started working our way along the river incurring the wrath of monkeys and baboons as they scurried way. After about an hour, we came upon two bucks feeding in the river bottom. Gerrit thought we should take the largest. The little 7mm proved itself dropping the ram in his tracks. How appropriate is it taking a Limpopo bushbuck in the Limpopo river bottom within 20 yards of the water?

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At lunch that day a hippo bull that looked like he had lost a significant battle with a rival a kilometer up river hung out below camp. He would nurse his wounds below camp throughout the rest of our hunt. Occasionally crocs would be seen, but I saw nothing over 7’. There was also a monitor lizard that hung out in the big trees around camp.


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There was a large hot tub filled with fresh clear well water in camp. The water was around 27c and felt great to chill out in (pun intended) with daytime temperatures in the 38-41 range.


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That afternoon we spent most of the time walking and took an impala out of a large herd. On the way back to camp that evening, Erhardt wanted me to take another impala for the staff. I was happy to oblige. He then proceeded to thank me for saving him a bullet. Gotta love it!


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Day 3


We spent most of the morning trying to find eland but were unsuccessful. We came upon a waterbuck that looked good but we couldn’t see the tops of his horns that were above the browse line. I was on the sticks for a minute with a 75 yard shot but no verification if he was a great one. As he took off, Erhardt said to shoot if he stopped. We never got the chance. Erhardt said he would go 32”. We stalked him for 45 minutes and busted him three times. After the third time we determined it was better to let him settle down and not run him out of his territory.


On our way into lunch we came across a herd of impala rams with a monster in it. We started stalking them. Two rams separated a few yards from the herd including the big boy. Only the bottoms of the horns were visible with all the underbrush. Erhardt thought he had the correct one picked out and told me to shoot it. At the shot the ram ran 30 yards, crashed into a tree and collapsed. Unfortunately it was the smaller ram. Erhardt thanked me for shooting a meat ram for him and saving him a bullet. Don’t you love hunts like this?


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Tree the impala ran into. Yes, the 7x57 did it's job.



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No, this didn't turn into an impala hunt. Last one, promise.



At lunch we watched a real nice bushbuck work his way along the bank on the South African side of the river. I have never hunted a property overlooking another country before. Unique experience.


We decided to forgo the long siestas after lunch and spend the time setting at waterholes from here on out. It proved worthwhile. As we saw a nice steenbok and were fortunate enough to take him.

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Zeiss is Erhardt’s GSP/weimaraner mix. This is the only photo I have of him. He would later prove his worth. He was also great at cleaning the blood off animals for photos.


It has been said that the signs of a well maintained hunting area with little or no poaching, is if you see a number of small antelope and leopard tortoises. If that is true, then this is a well maintained ranch. We saw multiple tortoises every day and there were more steenbok on this ranch than I have seen anywhere else.

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The evening hunt was spent looking for eland but we couldn’t find them. As light faded, a jackal tarried too long.


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More to come.
 
Good start Bob, you've got me wondering about using that 7x57 on an eland. Do you know what the load was you were using?
 
Great start. Looks like a lot of fun. Gotta love the extra meat animals. Hope that happens on my next hunt. Bruce
 
Good start Bob, you've got me wondering about using that 7x57 on an eland. Do you know what the load was you were using?

Thanks Phil.

Gerrit hand loaded the rounds. He will have to answer those questions. We were using Barnes TSX. I think they were 140g.

Every bullet was a pass through except a full frontal on a kudu. The bullet wasn't recovered.

As mentioned, I usually use a 375 for PG. Probably some Freudian theory about using something powerful to overcome my hunting shortcomings.:eek:

Broadside / slightly quartering on an eland, I wouldn't have a problem with a 7x57. If your son is taking the 308, I would go that way though. Hopefully some of our African friends will chime in. They are much better qualified to speak on this than I am.

Your days are counting down pretty quickly. Is your son going after an eland?
 
Great start. Looks like a lot of fun. Gotta love the extra meat animals. Hope that happens on my next hunt. Bruce

Thanks Bruce. Getting some extra animals certainly makes the hunter fill better about the entire experience. I am sure some landowners are in a much better financial position to do this than others though.

As in any business, always give more than is expected. It certainly builds customer loyalty.

Excellent report!


Appreciate it Ridge Top.
 
Thanks Phil.

Gerrit hand loaded the rounds. He will have to answer those questions. We were using Barnes TSX. I think they were 140g.

Every bullet was a pass through except a full frontal on a kudu. The bullet wasn't recovered.

As mentioned, I usually use a 375 for PG. Probably some Freudian theory about using something powerful to overcome my hunting shortcomings.:eek:

Broadside / slightly quartering on an eland, I wouldn't have a problem with a 7x57. If your son is taking the 308, I would go that way though. Hopefully some of our African friends will chime in. They are much better qualified to speak on this than I am.

Your days are counting down pretty quickly. Is your son going after an eland?

No, his "big" animal will hopefully be a nice Nyala from somewhere in KZN. But, you never know what may happen so best to be prepared.
 
February is pretty hot and the animals weren't very active through the middle part of the day. Instead of having down time, Gerrit and I sat at different waterholes after lunch and before the evening hunt commenced. I ended up with two animals I wouldn't have taken otherwise.


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Gerrit burning manure to cover our sent at a waterhole.



One of the benefits was seeing various birdlife. The good photos are Gerrits. I used an IPhone for my camera.


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Rhino foot prints.

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Rhino rub. Wet and recent.
 
Thanks for sharing your hunt, love that steenbok!!
 
What a great start to the hunt! And looks like a great place to stay too. Love seeing the little stuff like the birds, lizards, and tortoises.

And ya gotta love that the trophy fee for Impala is one bullet! ;)
 
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Awesome bushbuck! I like how you have added the birds and other critters to your timeline.
 
Great report Wheels. I look forward to further additions and of course more photos. As stated above, I too like seeing the other wildlife Africa has to offer.
 
Thanks for sharing your hunt, love that steenbok!!

Thanks Jeff. This is a pretty sweet area for steenbok.
 
What a great start to the hunt! And looks like a great place to stay too. Love seeing the little stuff like the birds, lizards, and tortoises.

And ya gotta love that the trophy fee for Impala is one bullet! ;)


Awesome bushbuck! I like how you have added the birds and other critters to your timeline.

Great report Wheels. I look forward to further additions and of course more photos. As stated above, I too like seeing the other wildlife Africa has to offer.


Thanks for the kind words guys.

I used to come home with only photos of dead animals and a lot of neat stories without photos to back them up. I try to do a better job taking photos these days. It also helps me appreciate the little things more.
 

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