In pursuit of the tiny 10….

[slam8031]

I just returned from my first hunt dedicated to the tiny 10. In 2012 I shot my first of the group with a nice representative steenbok in the Limpopo valley. In 2021 I took a Damara Dik Dik while in pursuit of leopard in Namibia. The 375 h and h was a bit much for the Damara so I was only able to salvage a table top shoulder mount. Soon after I started working on a plan with Tienie Bamberger of Warthog Safaris to pursue 6 more of the tiny 10 over 10 days. I posted here to ask opinions about weapon choice and ended up going with a tikka 6.5 creedmoor with 143 grain ELDX (not match) and three inch turkey load 5’s for the Benelli SBE II.

My hunting partner had to back out with a medical concern, so 10 June 25 I’m on the runway in Charleston SC awaiting takeoff. As the plane accelerated, the left engine exploded…so I guess that’s better than failing mid flight …watching the fire crew soak the engine of a loaded plane is a bit disconcerting. However, the delay made it impossible to make the flight to JNB Tuesday night. Fortunately I was able to secure a flight the next evening on DL 200. As a side note, Delta is now charging for second bag international on Comfort + and economy. Second bag is included on premium select and delta one.

The flight on premium select was comfortable with no issues. Upon arrival and passage thru SAPS, we began traveling towards the East Cape. We stopped to overnight and then continued another 10 hours the next day to our first stop where we would pursue Vaal rheebok. We can debate if this is a tiny ten, but it had been my nemesis on the past safari and we were going to make a point to pursue them along the way.

More to come…

 

[Hunt anything]

Waiting anxiously! The tiny ten has grown on me over the years.

 

[slam8031]

We awoke in the camp with the nearest town being Craddock. We went immediately to the range and I dialed up the sig sauer scope on the tikka and hit the three inch gong at 300 meters. Time to go hunt. I have hunted Vaal unsuccessfully and seen very few That was not to be the case on this day. As we travelled up in elevation, the terrain changed from heavy brush to very scattered trees. I was amazed at the amount of water in pans all over the mountains. We spotted several small collections of Vaal and stalked into a group of 7 but there was no mature ram in the group as he dove over the side of the next plateau. We continued our chase and saw a total of five groups of reebok. We crested a small ridge and spotted a group of 8 with a nice ram headed to the valley below. We scrambled to set up for a shot. The ram stopped broadside at 405 yards approximately 300 feet below our position on the mountain road. From a prone position I sent the 143 ELDX. we over estimated the wind and I hit the ram in ham of his right hip. We closed the distance and finished him off. What a magnificent creature in magnificent landscape!

 

[Green Chile]

Looking forward to this T10 report and your success. Are you shooting from a bipod, shooting bag or tripod of some kind on the longer shots?

 

[ftrovato]

I just returned from my first hunt dedicated to the tiny 10. In 2012 I shot my first of the group with a nice representative steenbok in the Limpopo valley. In 2021 I took a Damara Dik Dik while in pursuit of leopard in Namibia. The 375 h and h was a bit much for the Damara so I was only able to salvage a table top shoulder mount. Soon after I started working on a plan with Tienie Bamberger of Warthog Safaris to pursue 6 more of the tiny 10 over 10 days. I posted here to ask opinions about weapon choice and ended up going with a tikka 6.5 creedmoor with 143 grain ELDX (not match) and three inch turkey load 5’s for the Benelli SBE II.

My hunting partner had to back out with a medical concern, so 10 June 25 I’m on the runway in Charleston SC awaiting takeoff. As the plane accelerated, the left engine exploded…so I guess that’s better than failing mid flight …watching the fire crew soak the engine of a loaded plane is a bit disconcerting. However, the delay made it impossible to make the flight to JNB Tuesday night. Fortunately I was able to secure a flight the next evening on DL 200. As a side note, Delta is now charging for second bag international on Comfort + and economy. Second bag is included on premium select and delta one.

The flight on premium select was comfortable with no issues. Upon arrival and passage thru SAPS, we began traveling towards the East Cape. We stopped to overnight and then continued another 10 hours the next day to our first stop where we would pursue Vaal rheebok. We can debate if this is a tiny ten, but it had been my nemesis on the past safari and we were going to make a point to pursue them along the way.

More to come…

Looking forward to all the details and pictures...

 

[slam8031]

I shot the Vaal from a shooting bag laying prone. I took a tripod from Tricer that incredibly light and maneuverable.

 

[Green Chile]

What are the target species this trip?

 

[slam8031]

It snowed the night before we arrived on this peak. I also have spartan bipods that are magnetic attachments

 

[slam8031]

Target species for this trip are Vaal rheebok, blue duiker, oribi, cape greysbuck, and Klipspringer. The extra targets are bush buck and possibly a kudu. The lost day means we won’t chase red duiker or Suni at the end of this safari.

 

[slam8031]

After lunch, we searched for bushbuck and happened upon a fallow deer. We had discussed my concerns with larger animals and the creedmoor. The fallow deer had a deep chocolate coat and a clean set of antlers. At 320 yards pretty much uphill, I anchored the fallow deer.

 

[slam8031]

That’s the fallow buck up the hill…

 

[slam8031]

We saw many mountain reedbuck that afternoon but no bushbuck. The plan was to proceed another two hours the next morning and sit for the blue duiker.

 

[slam8031]

Sunday morning, we rolled out of camp around 615 am and headed towards Kenton on Sea in the eastern cape. We arrived at 9 am and made our way north to the hunting area outside the conservancy. We climbed into the pop up blind at 930am. And we waited. And we waited. At 420 pm a female blue duiker filtered quietly through the brush and a male followed. After assessing the male, I took the shot with the Benelli SBE at 21 yards. The blue duiker was right there! What an amazing little antelope! There was absolute silence as it walked in the leaves.

 

[slam8031]

We stoped where we could go to the Indian Ocean. I never thought I would make it to three oceans, let alone get to experience Africa as much as I have.

 

[Hunt anything]

Great ram!! That beach brigs back doe great memories

 

[slam8031]

We traveled towards Addo to spend the night outside the park but also pursue Cape Grysbok. We ate at Africanos outside Addo and headed south. The owner of the property asked for a porcupine if we saw one, so ten minutes out of the shed we obliged our host with a porcupine. We had discussed cape grysbok could be an incredibly long hunt. Our version was not. 15 minutes from the shed we found a nice ram. 105 yards and the ram was down. Not a bad day on the Eastern Cape.

 

[slam8031]

The shot was 105 yards and the ram was down.

 

[slam8031]

The next morning we rolled out and headed back to Kenton on Sea and met up with the outfitter for the Conservancy where we would chase oribi. We saw four different groups of oribi. The males had small harems of 3-4 does or ewes. We were able to get to 90 yards anchor the ram. This has been an incredible hunt in terms of planning an origination and fortunately execution!!!

 

[slam8031]

We finished up the paperwork and caping around noon and headed west towards the Free State where Tienie has a camp We arrived there about seven hours later, and stopped by a local restaurant to enjoy a fantastic ribeye with creamed spinach. The hunts on the eastern cape were quite cool. Each morning was below freezing and temps rose to about 50 degrees Fahrenheit.

 

[Hunt anything]

Love it, especially the grizzled look of the grysbok!