ranger92xi
AH member
When it comes to the Big 5, choosing where to hunt is as important as deciding who to hunt with. I was talking to my friend Alex Hinkins over a cigar, and mentioned that I was exploring options for a cape buffalo hunt in South Africa. Alex, who owns Wings Hunting and Shooting, one of the biggest outfitters in Europe, and we were running through options.
The first question was where to do the hunt. I had always wanted to hunt buffalo in Zimbabwe, where my father hunted his Big 5, but given the limited amount of time I could spare, and the relatively short notice for the hunt, this was going to be impractical.
I had always been sceptical about hunting buffalo in South Africa, maybe from seeing too many big breeding bulls put up for sale, and watching herds of very relaxed buffalos snorting and saluting 50 yards from the vehicle as we drove past, and so I had always wanted to hunt them somewhere rugged and wild. I wasn’t sure if South Africa could genuinely offer that, but Alex put me in touch with Jacques Spamer at JKO Outfitters, who told me about Sandymount Park in the Free State, about two hours from Kimberley. Almost 100,000 acres, with more acreage to be added soon, no internal fences, mountainous terrain, and genuinely self-sustaining herds of buffalo, which know all too well when they are being hunted. With abundant plains game, including tsessebe and common reedbuck, which I had not hunted before, we decided to make the trip happen, and a six-day hunt was booked in, my second in South Africa in 2025, and fourth in the last 18 months.
I arrived in Johannesburg, met up with Jacques, and cleared my rifles through customs. For this hunt I brought my Bergara B-14 HMR in .300 Win-Mag, as well as my father’s custom .375 for the buffalo. Six hours later and we were at Sandymount. After 16 safaris, I have seen the full spectrum of lodges and hospitality, and JKO and Sandymount do it properly. Good quality food, friendly and attentive hospitality staff, bedrooms that would not look out of place in some of Europe’s better hotels, and a nice, relaxed vibe made the evenings, and the ‘lull’ between morning and afternoon hunts, pass all that much more pleasurably. I also had the pleasure of meeting Riaan Scholtz, another PH for JKO, who was also hunting the same concession.
Jacques and I refined our plan for the hunt. He understood my usual parameters around wanting to shoot fully mature, top-quality trophies in as close to their natural habitat as can be achieved. We agreed to prioritise a mature buffalo that would score well in the record books, alongside a sable, tsessebe, and whatever else we decided to take up. We knew the weather would be against us for the first couple of days, and the lightning which lit up the sky as we had our first drink on the balcony confirmed that. Strong gusts of wind during the days and torrential rain overnight became a feature of the first two days of our hunt.
Day one consisted of driving to vantage points across the property and glassing for herds of buffalo. With the cold weather and gusty winds, most of the buffalo were bedded down on the hillsides, or tucked into the thickets, but we were able to look over several groups, and whilst several very promising bulls were identified, they lacked the hard bosses, thick horns, and scarred faces that we were searching for. Those hunters fortunate to hunt Sandymount in 2026 and 2027 will have plenty of quality bulls to choose from!
On day three, we closed the distance on a herd of 14 buffalo, all bulls, and all big. One stood out – taller, wider and heavier than the others - with a body which was scarred and worn from a full life in the hills. He also carried horns with rock hard bosses, excellent width, and long tips which hooked backwards. This was the bull I wanted.
We tracked the herd for about two kilometres before finding them bedded down between thick bushes and tall grass. We closed the distance to about 50 metres and studied them, but in the dense foliage, a shot was unlikely to be possible, and so it was decided to leave them be, retreat for lunch, and come back to the same area that afternoon, in the hope of catching them either still bedded down, or feeding on the more open hillside.
A few hours later, and we found the herd, a few hundred metres from where we had left them, bedded down, but this time in a more open area. Our bull was lying to the right of the group, in an area where we knew a clear shot could be presented. We stalked, from bush to bush, closing the distance to about 30 metres, set the 375 on the shooting sticks and waited for the bull to stand. One well-placed bullet through the shoulder, followed by a short track interrupted by the death bellow which characterises a successful buffalo hunt, and we found our bull, down little over 30m from where the shot was taken.
By every metric and measure, this bull was superb. To call him a 43-inch bull would be true, but that description alone does him a disservice. Bosses of 13 inches, and exceptional length derived from a deep curl, high-rising horns, great tip length and backwards hooks, combine to make this bull a trophy of a lifetime. He will comfortably qualify for both SCI Gold and Rowland Ward, but for me, this hunt meant more than that. This was a buffalo hunt in South Africa, but indistinguishable in every sense from a truly wild and unfenced hunt. Sandymount Park is big enough, its buffalo are wild enough, and its topography challenging enough, that it can provide a truly challenging buffalo hunt. My decision to choose South Africa over the alternatives for this hunt was validated.
Once we had extracted the bull, the tenderloins were marinaded for us to enjoy on our final day in the lodge, meat was set aside for the lodge staff, and the remainder of the bull was packaged for use in the local community. The leather will be used to make a weekend bag, and the horns and cape will become a pedestal mount in my trophy lodge, thanks to the fine work of my taxidermy partners in South Africa - Splitting Image Taxidermy. Nothing was, or will be wasted.
Many drinks and several cigars were enjoyed that evening, and the burden of our top priority trophy having been lifted, we set out the following day in search of plains game. We looked over tsessebe, sable, lechwe, bontebok, eland, springbok, roan antelope, blue wildebeest and hartebeest, and whilst we saw several trophies which would tempt most hunters, I have hunted these species before, and wanted to wait for something special. Eventually, that something special found us, a majestic sable that dwarfed the others we had looked at up to that point. As we stalked through a wooded area and down a dry riverbed, we lost sight of him several times, before finally catching him passing through an open clearing. The shot was precise, and the bull was breathtaking. It is rare with sable to be drawn to the base of the horns as opposed to the sweeping tips, but the thickness of the horns on this bull was impossible to overlook. The bases were easily ten inches thick, and the bull’s great age was illustrated by intense secondary growth, rising almost nine inches up the horn. Jacques estimated the bull to be ten years old at minimum and I can believe that. Remarkably for a bull of that age, his horns remained long and sharp, undamaged and un-blunted, at over 44 inches in length, again qualifying for SCI gold and RW.
As the days passed, we concentrated on tsessebe. They are not a popular trophy, usually hunted by serious collectors, or people looking for something different. Part of me can understand why. They are not striking in appearance, lacking the white blaze and deep colours found on other South African damalisc species such as blesbok or bontebok, the price is typically higher than most other plains game options, and their horns are somewhat uninspiring. On the other hand, they can make for one of the more exciting and challenging plains game hunts. Males and females carry horns of similar size, and so judging, selecting the right animal, and communicating that to the client can be challenging at times, and their speed (reportedly the fastest antelope in Africa) and sturdy, powerful build necessitates an accurate shot, with little margin for error. I find them beautiful in their own way, and I was looking forward to a challenging hunt.
We saw several dozen tsessebe, some on the open plains, and others on higher ground, some alone, some in small groups, and several in large herds. Eventually, we spotted a group with a large, heavy-horned tsessebe in it, and even from a distance, it was clear that this was a male, and a large one at that. We closed the distance, hiding behind bushes and outcrops, before setting up for a 250m shot. The bull was exactly what I had hoped for, old, with 14-inch, thick, semi-circular horns. His horns and face were caked in mud, dried by the hot sun which had finally graced us with its presence for the final days of the hunt. A perfect trophy, which I am proud to add to my collection.
That evening, we walked through riverbeds, and tall grass searching for common reedbuck, and whilst one was spotted at very last light, it disappeared into the darkness before we could even consider an approach.
The next morning we set out for hartebeest. I have shot several hartebeest in Namibia, but having seen the number, and quality, of bulls at Sandymount, it made sense to spend a morning searching. Again, strong winds made the animals skittish, and out on the open plains, surrounded by hundreds of hartebeest, wildebeest, springbok and eland, stalking within range was challenging. Eventually, after trailing a group of bulls for over two miles, we found them milling on the edge of a hill, 400 metres from us. With no option to close the distance, I decided to take the shot with my .300. My scope does not have mil-dots, turrets, or other aids, and I prefer it that way, because it allows me to focus on the shot itself, and the animal in the crosshair. At exactly 394m, the 150grain Sako bullet passed through the front shoulder, and exited the far side, the bull moving only about ten metres before falling.
Our six-day hunt coming to an end, a friend of mine from Splitting Image Taxidermy in Port Elizabeth made the drive up to spend a couple of days with us, and that afternoon was dedicated to giving him a chance to do some hunting of his own. Him and his team have handled enough of my trophies over the past couple of years, and so it was fun to watch him stalk into a herd of blue wildebeest, taking a trophy of his own with open sights.
Our final evening was spent hunting jackals on another property. I have shot several in passing, but I wanted a couple for a full mount and a flatskin, and Jacques and Riaan were happy to oblige my request. That evening, armed with callers, thermal scopes and thermal binoculars, we were able to call in several, shooting three.
There is a lot I can say about this hunt, all positive. It was a chance to hunt on new terrain, pursue top-tier trophies, and spend time with people who know the African hunting business inside and out. Jacques and Riaan have hunted across Africa with clients, in Zimbabwe, Botswana, Uganda, Cameroon and beyond, and they have a compendium of stories to tell. I learned from their experience, and enjoyed their company around camp as much as I did the hunt itself. I look forward to hunting with them both again. Uganda calls us in 2026 or 2027.
The first question was where to do the hunt. I had always wanted to hunt buffalo in Zimbabwe, where my father hunted his Big 5, but given the limited amount of time I could spare, and the relatively short notice for the hunt, this was going to be impractical.
I had always been sceptical about hunting buffalo in South Africa, maybe from seeing too many big breeding bulls put up for sale, and watching herds of very relaxed buffalos snorting and saluting 50 yards from the vehicle as we drove past, and so I had always wanted to hunt them somewhere rugged and wild. I wasn’t sure if South Africa could genuinely offer that, but Alex put me in touch with Jacques Spamer at JKO Outfitters, who told me about Sandymount Park in the Free State, about two hours from Kimberley. Almost 100,000 acres, with more acreage to be added soon, no internal fences, mountainous terrain, and genuinely self-sustaining herds of buffalo, which know all too well when they are being hunted. With abundant plains game, including tsessebe and common reedbuck, which I had not hunted before, we decided to make the trip happen, and a six-day hunt was booked in, my second in South Africa in 2025, and fourth in the last 18 months.
I arrived in Johannesburg, met up with Jacques, and cleared my rifles through customs. For this hunt I brought my Bergara B-14 HMR in .300 Win-Mag, as well as my father’s custom .375 for the buffalo. Six hours later and we were at Sandymount. After 16 safaris, I have seen the full spectrum of lodges and hospitality, and JKO and Sandymount do it properly. Good quality food, friendly and attentive hospitality staff, bedrooms that would not look out of place in some of Europe’s better hotels, and a nice, relaxed vibe made the evenings, and the ‘lull’ between morning and afternoon hunts, pass all that much more pleasurably. I also had the pleasure of meeting Riaan Scholtz, another PH for JKO, who was also hunting the same concession.
Jacques and I refined our plan for the hunt. He understood my usual parameters around wanting to shoot fully mature, top-quality trophies in as close to their natural habitat as can be achieved. We agreed to prioritise a mature buffalo that would score well in the record books, alongside a sable, tsessebe, and whatever else we decided to take up. We knew the weather would be against us for the first couple of days, and the lightning which lit up the sky as we had our first drink on the balcony confirmed that. Strong gusts of wind during the days and torrential rain overnight became a feature of the first two days of our hunt.
Day one consisted of driving to vantage points across the property and glassing for herds of buffalo. With the cold weather and gusty winds, most of the buffalo were bedded down on the hillsides, or tucked into the thickets, but we were able to look over several groups, and whilst several very promising bulls were identified, they lacked the hard bosses, thick horns, and scarred faces that we were searching for. Those hunters fortunate to hunt Sandymount in 2026 and 2027 will have plenty of quality bulls to choose from!
On day three, we closed the distance on a herd of 14 buffalo, all bulls, and all big. One stood out – taller, wider and heavier than the others - with a body which was scarred and worn from a full life in the hills. He also carried horns with rock hard bosses, excellent width, and long tips which hooked backwards. This was the bull I wanted.
We tracked the herd for about two kilometres before finding them bedded down between thick bushes and tall grass. We closed the distance to about 50 metres and studied them, but in the dense foliage, a shot was unlikely to be possible, and so it was decided to leave them be, retreat for lunch, and come back to the same area that afternoon, in the hope of catching them either still bedded down, or feeding on the more open hillside.
A few hours later, and we found the herd, a few hundred metres from where we had left them, bedded down, but this time in a more open area. Our bull was lying to the right of the group, in an area where we knew a clear shot could be presented. We stalked, from bush to bush, closing the distance to about 30 metres, set the 375 on the shooting sticks and waited for the bull to stand. One well-placed bullet through the shoulder, followed by a short track interrupted by the death bellow which characterises a successful buffalo hunt, and we found our bull, down little over 30m from where the shot was taken.
By every metric and measure, this bull was superb. To call him a 43-inch bull would be true, but that description alone does him a disservice. Bosses of 13 inches, and exceptional length derived from a deep curl, high-rising horns, great tip length and backwards hooks, combine to make this bull a trophy of a lifetime. He will comfortably qualify for both SCI Gold and Rowland Ward, but for me, this hunt meant more than that. This was a buffalo hunt in South Africa, but indistinguishable in every sense from a truly wild and unfenced hunt. Sandymount Park is big enough, its buffalo are wild enough, and its topography challenging enough, that it can provide a truly challenging buffalo hunt. My decision to choose South Africa over the alternatives for this hunt was validated.
Once we had extracted the bull, the tenderloins were marinaded for us to enjoy on our final day in the lodge, meat was set aside for the lodge staff, and the remainder of the bull was packaged for use in the local community. The leather will be used to make a weekend bag, and the horns and cape will become a pedestal mount in my trophy lodge, thanks to the fine work of my taxidermy partners in South Africa - Splitting Image Taxidermy. Nothing was, or will be wasted.
Many drinks and several cigars were enjoyed that evening, and the burden of our top priority trophy having been lifted, we set out the following day in search of plains game. We looked over tsessebe, sable, lechwe, bontebok, eland, springbok, roan antelope, blue wildebeest and hartebeest, and whilst we saw several trophies which would tempt most hunters, I have hunted these species before, and wanted to wait for something special. Eventually, that something special found us, a majestic sable that dwarfed the others we had looked at up to that point. As we stalked through a wooded area and down a dry riverbed, we lost sight of him several times, before finally catching him passing through an open clearing. The shot was precise, and the bull was breathtaking. It is rare with sable to be drawn to the base of the horns as opposed to the sweeping tips, but the thickness of the horns on this bull was impossible to overlook. The bases were easily ten inches thick, and the bull’s great age was illustrated by intense secondary growth, rising almost nine inches up the horn. Jacques estimated the bull to be ten years old at minimum and I can believe that. Remarkably for a bull of that age, his horns remained long and sharp, undamaged and un-blunted, at over 44 inches in length, again qualifying for SCI gold and RW.
As the days passed, we concentrated on tsessebe. They are not a popular trophy, usually hunted by serious collectors, or people looking for something different. Part of me can understand why. They are not striking in appearance, lacking the white blaze and deep colours found on other South African damalisc species such as blesbok or bontebok, the price is typically higher than most other plains game options, and their horns are somewhat uninspiring. On the other hand, they can make for one of the more exciting and challenging plains game hunts. Males and females carry horns of similar size, and so judging, selecting the right animal, and communicating that to the client can be challenging at times, and their speed (reportedly the fastest antelope in Africa) and sturdy, powerful build necessitates an accurate shot, with little margin for error. I find them beautiful in their own way, and I was looking forward to a challenging hunt.
We saw several dozen tsessebe, some on the open plains, and others on higher ground, some alone, some in small groups, and several in large herds. Eventually, we spotted a group with a large, heavy-horned tsessebe in it, and even from a distance, it was clear that this was a male, and a large one at that. We closed the distance, hiding behind bushes and outcrops, before setting up for a 250m shot. The bull was exactly what I had hoped for, old, with 14-inch, thick, semi-circular horns. His horns and face were caked in mud, dried by the hot sun which had finally graced us with its presence for the final days of the hunt. A perfect trophy, which I am proud to add to my collection.
That evening, we walked through riverbeds, and tall grass searching for common reedbuck, and whilst one was spotted at very last light, it disappeared into the darkness before we could even consider an approach.
The next morning we set out for hartebeest. I have shot several hartebeest in Namibia, but having seen the number, and quality, of bulls at Sandymount, it made sense to spend a morning searching. Again, strong winds made the animals skittish, and out on the open plains, surrounded by hundreds of hartebeest, wildebeest, springbok and eland, stalking within range was challenging. Eventually, after trailing a group of bulls for over two miles, we found them milling on the edge of a hill, 400 metres from us. With no option to close the distance, I decided to take the shot with my .300. My scope does not have mil-dots, turrets, or other aids, and I prefer it that way, because it allows me to focus on the shot itself, and the animal in the crosshair. At exactly 394m, the 150grain Sako bullet passed through the front shoulder, and exited the far side, the bull moving only about ten metres before falling.
Our six-day hunt coming to an end, a friend of mine from Splitting Image Taxidermy in Port Elizabeth made the drive up to spend a couple of days with us, and that afternoon was dedicated to giving him a chance to do some hunting of his own. Him and his team have handled enough of my trophies over the past couple of years, and so it was fun to watch him stalk into a herd of blue wildebeest, taking a trophy of his own with open sights.
Our final evening was spent hunting jackals on another property. I have shot several in passing, but I wanted a couple for a full mount and a flatskin, and Jacques and Riaan were happy to oblige my request. That evening, armed with callers, thermal scopes and thermal binoculars, we were able to call in several, shooting three.
There is a lot I can say about this hunt, all positive. It was a chance to hunt on new terrain, pursue top-tier trophies, and spend time with people who know the African hunting business inside and out. Jacques and Riaan have hunted across Africa with clients, in Zimbabwe, Botswana, Uganda, Cameroon and beyond, and they have a compendium of stories to tell. I learned from their experience, and enjoyed their company around camp as much as I did the hunt itself. I look forward to hunting with them both again. Uganda calls us in 2026 or 2027.
