In pursuit of the tiny 10….

[slam8031]

The following morning, we set out about 600 and headed northwest back to his Limpopo camp near Lephalele and Elisras. By my count we spent roughly 26 hours in the bakkie over the first portion of the hunt. I am always in awe of the sunrises and changes in scenery as we crisscross South Africa. The orange tree groves are mind blowing as well.

 

[slam8031]

One of the most fascinating things on this trip was the amount of grass growth. The region received a tremendous amount of rain and it shows. The grass along the roads was often 4 feet tall and literally the road traffic was cutting the grass back to the edge of the road. Once we arrived in camp in Limpopo it was roughly 30 degrees warmer than the Eastern Cape. So….its back to shorts!!! Thursday morning after breakfast, we checked feeding stations and were making a plan for Klipspringer, and discussing an invite to pursue a bushbuck that was in a very large cauliflower field. While checking out a recently acquired property, we spotted an old kudu with a broken right side. We were able to get a great angle thru the brush at 80 yards. The 6.5 creedmoor anchored him right there. I took a second shot to finish him but without a doubt the 6.5 shooting 143 ELDX was plenty for this kudu.

 

[slam8031]

There are big cats in RSA. Oxtail and red wine pies are Devine. Giraffe are beautiful.

 

[slam8031]

We packed a lunch and headed out for bushbuck. Over a cup of coffee at the farmer’s home, we heard the horror story of an attempted poaching of a female rhino involving the team assigned to protect them. It was disgusting. The rhino was undergoing surgery to remove the bullet to compare the ballistics of the confiscated rifle and hopefully punish the four people arrested. The bushbuck came into the cauliflower as expected. The Creedmoor did its job again at just over 100 yards.

 

[slam8031]

I hope a moderator can flip my pictures that sideways…thanks in advance.

 

[slam8031]

So we arrive at Friday which is my last day of hunting. One last day to try for the Klipspringer. We saw one early Friday but it saw us first and exploded into oblivion as quickly as we saw it. Friday afternoon we headed up into the mountains for one last epic stalk to see if we could connect. Approximately two miles up the mountain I saw the female up the mountain. Tienie was able to locate the ram just below in the shadows. I had shot one tiny ten from the tripod, one from the prone, one from the spartan bipod, but this one was going to happen off of traditional sticks at 154 yards. This quest for tiny ten was over for now…

 

[slam8031]

This leaves red duiker, Suni, and sharps grysbok which gets me to 10 or 11 depending on the Vaal inclusion.

The 6.5 Creedmoor did everything I needed it to do. Bullet placement of a quality bullet into vital tissue results in death.

The ability to make this trip happen was incredibly difficult to plan out and make all the pieces fit together. Tienie Bamberger does that incredibly well.

Solomon forces shoes were perfect in the mountains.

Kuiu axis jacket was perfect for the top layer in the cold of the East Cape.

Jim Green ranger boots were perfect again in the veld.

We pushed the envelope for doing all this in nine days, but it worked.

The tricer tripod set up is awesome. The Bipods from spartan are incredibly strong and light also.

I am beyond pleased with the trophies, but the memories and the travel and the time with my friends and family from Warthog Safaris is what I’m most thankful for.
I never dreamed I would pursue the tiny ten. But here I am with steenbok, duiker, dik dik, Vaal, blue duiker, cape grysbok, oribi, and klippie. The plan for the remaining three is in the works.

 

[Hunt anything]

Great secondary growth your klippie! Nice bushbuck as well, I can never get enough bushbuck.

Did the 6.5 blow up on the little antelope?

 

[slam8031]

The only damage was to the oribi the rest had very manageable holes on the opposite side of the shots

 

[slam8031]

The rest were pass thru shots behind the ribs.

 

[Firebird]

Thank you for the report-you took some fascinating animals. Congratulations on your success

 

[Sabre]

... 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.

Is there debate about what the tiny ten is? Genuine question, not being snarky. I thought it was a set list of ten specific animals. But I have just glanced at the lists a few times and never studied it much. So maybe there is variation from one person's definition to another.

Congratulations on what looks like an awesome hunt, and thanks for sharing it with us!

 

[slam8031]

Is there debate about what the tiny ten is? Genuine question, not being snarky. I thought it was a set list of ten specific animals. But I have just glanced at the lists a few times and never studied it much. So maybe there is variation from one person's definition to another.

Congratulations on what looks like an awesome hunt, and thanks for sharing it with us!

There is apparently some debate as to whether to include Vaalie in the list. Then you have a bunch of duikers found north—yellow back and a few others. However, I hope to add the other three—Suni and red duiker and sharps grysbok and make 10 not counting the Vaalie. I have never seen an official tiny ten list.

 

[Hunt anything]

SCI has a list of species that are eligible for their Tiny Ten award

 

[slam8031]

Species included in the Tiny Ten:

• Blue Duiker
• Common Duiker (also known as Gray Duiker or Bush Duiker)
• Red Duiker (also known as Natal Duiker or Natal Forest Duiker)
• Cape Grysbok (also known as Southern Grysbok)
• Sharpe's Grysbok (also known as Northern Grysbok)
• Klipspringer
• Oribi
• Steenbok (also known as Steinbuck or Steinbok)
• Suni
• Damara Dik-dik
• From SCI AI