SOUTH AFRICA: 2021 Group Hunt With Bos en Dal SAFARIS

[Mark Biggerstaff]

Great Bull!! Looks like one I saw on my trip!! I know the spot and they had to work to get him out. Congrats to huntress.

 

[Tanks]

Qatar airport police however were a bit of a disaster… they decided I couldn’t have several items and seized them from my bags.. More on that to follow later.. nothing that will have any impact on my hunt.. but they did take items intended for some South African friends.. some of the truly silly and for no justifiable reason.. like 10lbs of powdered steel… but, take them they did.. all while showing me on video that they were taking them…

So, they X-ray transit luggage? Also, how did they get into your bags, break the locks or do they have TSA keys?

 

[BourbonTrail]

You are going to make Bob’s day with the 35 Whelen shout out.

The tips on that eland look awesome, congrats!

 

[cpr0312]

Nice looking eland, congrats!

 

[WAB]

That is a tremendous old bull!

 

[mdwest]

So, they X-ray transit luggage? Also, how did they get into your bags, break the locks or do they have TSA keys?

From what I can tell, it was a planned and well executed theft...

We had an 8 hour layover.. plenty of time for them to notify me if they wanted to check a bag, or talk to me about something.. but they literally waited until boarding.. with 40 minutes to go before wheels up to ask me to "talk" to them about my bags..

They didnt even look at the 3 bags that had declared items in them (2x rifle cases, and a pelican luggage that had the ammunition in it).. they only "searched" the checked bag that they knew didnt contain a firearm or ammo..

They took everything that looked like it might be firearms related, but was clearly not a regulated or controlled item in the US, Qatar, or South Africa.. they took a rifle stock, an optics mount for an old milsurp swiss bolt action rifle, some barnes bullets (not ammunition.. just the actual projectiles), 2 canisters of powdered steel (they though it might be a "drug".. after the guy opened the cans with his knife I asked him to please snort some to confirm that it was nothing more than metal dust), and a few other items...

I explained to them that nothing they were concerned with was a controlled item in the country of origin, the country of destination, or in Qatar.. they basically advised that I was "probably" right, but they would need to contact their "captain" (a sergeant was already present) and that this would take hours since he wasnt at the airport... so.. I could allow them to "cancel" the items and remove them from my bags.. and go get on my plane (which was now departing in 20 minutes) or I could wait a few hours and MAYBE fly to South Africa the following day..

They refused to provide any paperwork, refused to sign anything, etc.. I did however manage to snap a couple of pictures of the monitor where they had video feed showing the items they had removed from the bags and placed in a plastic bin..

They had clearly already been in the bag for a long time prior to calling me.. they had already cut the locks, already sorted through all of the items, already opened boxes, etc.. and figured out what they planned to take before I ever got there...

The real issue is once I got to South Africa, I started trying to follow up with the Qatar Airport Police and Qatar Airways.. QA basically washed their hands of it.. blaming the police.. they have nothing to do with it.. they arent responsible.. etc.. and the QAP suddenly all forgot how to speak english, have no idea what Im talking about, it doesnt matter that I have photos, the have no record of the incident happening, etc..

Im still in the process of trying to get some relief and/or some answers from them.. but honestly its not looking hopeful.. this was a situation with a couple of dickbags, Im guessing probably anti-hunters, doing something illicit, with no purpose other than to screw with a traveler (its not like they have any use for a bolt action rifle stock without an actual rifle to place in it.. or 10lbs of powdered 1095 steel, etc)..

Sadly this isnt the first time Ive had issues with airport cops in "developed" middle eastern countries..

It would take 2 pages to tell the story of how the airport police in Dubai about lost their minds in 2010 when I passed through the airport with about 2 oz of pipe tobacco and a meerschaum pipe that I was bringing to a friend in Afghanistan... and detained me for close to 90 minutes while they "investigated"..

Travel enough internationally (I've got a little more than 2M miles under my belt) and youre going to run into bands of assclowns..

 

[Bob Nelson 35Whelen]

ok.. finally managed to catch a couple of decent nights of sleep and organized a few pics.. so... back to posting in this thread...

first.. a pic of the eland mentioned in the previous post

View attachment 415128

The old boy was a serious brute with a huge dewlap, well worn teeth, and some great horns.. He's going to make a fine addition to the "spiral slam" collection that now almost complete.. you can tell from the pic that the terrain on the mountain he was standing on is thick.. the shot window was small.. but things worked out well.. he went just a few yards before we watched him tumble.. Im pretty sure he would have come down the mountain quite a bit more, but the tree he is resting on stopped his roll, and Im sure prevented any damage to his horns, legs, etc..

If anyone questions whether or not a .35 Whelen is enough gun.. i think the pic provides the answer.. eland presented absolutely no problem at all (nor did the other animals taken... more on that to follow... )....

@mdwest
Really love the ivory tips on the old boy, gives him a touch of class
Bob
Never underestimate a hunter with a Whelen

 

[Bob Nelson 35Whelen]

You are going to make Bob’s day with the 35 Whelen shout out.

The tips on that eland look awesome, congrats!

@BourbonTrail
I enjoy reading hunt reports. It's just that I have a soft spot about the Whelen especially since I've played with it and learned about its full potential. I feel that now people know what it's capable of we may get some converts that want to try the old cartridge.
Bob

 

[mdwest]

on to the next day of hunting....

With the big eland down there were only 2 more critters on the huntress' "list".. she wanted a big croc, and a bushbuck... so the next morning we set out for a concession thats about a 2 hour drive north of the Bos en Dal lodge, just a few kilometers from the botswana border, where Gerrit knew there were some particularly big lizards running around..

The plan was to wait until the sun was fully up and the day was starting to warm in hopes that the crocs would leave the water and begin trying to warm up on the banks of the various dams on the property.. The last few weeks have been particularly cold and catching any/all animals looking for sunshine was a pretty regular plan.. Because we knew we didnt want to disturb the crocodiles while they were still cold and alert we werent in any particular hurry this morning.. We left the camp at about 7AM just after the sun came up, drove the 2 hours to the concession, and then sat and had a coffee and took it easy for a little while longer before setting out on the hunt... by about 0930 we thought it was warm enough to give it a try..

We dismounted from the bakkie a fairly long distance from a large dam where the local PH thought there was a good chance a large croc would be (maybe 1/2 mile?) and took our time slowly stalking in.. The concession we were at is a beautiful property, full of game, with very different terrain than the main property at Bos en Dal. While Bos en Dal has both hilly and flat/open plains area, the soil is largely red or black dirt, very rich, with lots of ground cover.. The concession with the crocs was almost completely flat land with very sandy soil, and lots of water sources all around..

Once we started approaching the dam, we sought out some high ground (its flat.. so "high ground" = a slight ridge maybe 5' in elevation higher than the actual water lol).. so that we could look around, and found 2 crocs in the dam.. both were large.. but one was notably bigger than the other.. what we couldnt tell initially however was how big.. while it was warming up a good bit, the lizard of interest was stil about 1/2 in the water and about 3/4 submerged..

We spent the next half hour or so patrolling around the perimeter of the dam, staying below the ridgeline so we couldnt be seen or easily heard, and about 50-75 meters away from the banks.. finally positioning ourselves for a shot.. by the time we got there the croc we were interested in had finally come completely out of the water and was providing a fairly easy neck shot at about 50 meters.. so we started trying to get into a final shooting position and prepare for the trigger squeeze...

Mr. Croc Im guessing heard or saw something he didnt like.. because while we were getting set up , he backed into the water and started to swim 180 degrees from us... thankfully he only went about 30 meters.. turned broadside again, and then very slowly started moving toward the banks looking for a place to sun and warm up.. so now we basically had the same shot as before.. only the requirement was to hit a 2", not well defined target, at 80 meters instead of 50..

My hunting partner is a very capable shooter, and the rifle she was using (built by yours truly ) is very accurate with the load it was firing.. After just a minute or so getting comfortable on a rest, she gave the trigger a gentle squeeze, and hit the lizard exactly where she was supposed to..

I knew the croc was big just from glassing it.. but its hard to appreciate just how big these things are until you get right up on them.. the dinosaur that was taken was just under 14' and is going to make an incredible mount of some sort I am sure (although I have no clue at this point what we're actually going to do with it)..

I try to learn something new with every trip I make to South Africa.. this time I learned that crocodiles have really insane genitalia that becomes erect after being shot apparently lol...

 

[mdwest]

Forgot to add... after we got back to the Bos en Dal property a few hours after the croc hunt was complete, we set out to find a bushbuck... Bos en Dal has a large, free range property (only some low, 4' cattle fences here and there.. no high fences at all) across the main road, that has kudu, steinbok, and a few other critters running around (leopard prints were found on the property just a few weeks before we got there).. tons of jackals roaming the open field areas.. and TONS of bushbuck running around in the thickets and reeds along the banks of a small river that runs across the property..

We parked the truck at one end of the property near the river, got out, and walked a long distance along the banks (maybe 1/2 mile?), then the huntress continued to search another mile or so further with one of the Bos en Dal PH's Francois (love that guy!) while Gerrit and I went and recovered the truck and looked around for steinbok.. We did manage to see one female steinbok shoot across a patch of open field, and then located what I am sure was her yearling lamb under a tree.. but had no luck otherwise.. When returning to the river area we also saw a fairly large bushbuck ewe, but no rams..

Later we linked back up with huntress and Francois.. They saw a couple of small rams, and a couple of ewes, but no shooters.. they did confirm however that there was a TON of bushbuck sign everywhere and that there were many more present in the area than just the handful we had seen.. so... we "made a plan"..

We decided that we would come back the next day, set a trail cam, and put out some bait and see if we couldnt set up an ambush for one of the following mornings or evenings...

Wanting to also chase jackal that evening, we immediately went and picked up a couple of small bales of fresh alfalfa, some pelletized cattle feed, and a small bottle of syrup.. we now had our bait and would be ready to set our trap the next day...

We then went back out to the same free range area and set up the fox pro... We managed to call one in just a short while after it got dark.. but I screwed up the shot and missed.. he was only about 125 yards out.. but was slightly too far away to illuminate with the red lens flashlight we were using, all I could make out were his beady little eyes, so I decided to try for a headshot.. Im pretty sure I put the round 2-3" right over the top of him.. there was no "thwunk" of impact on the animal.. and we saw him dart off quickly in the 10 oclock direction, never to be seen again.. We searched for blood or any other indication of a hit just to be 100% certain and found no evidence that the jackal had been tagged.. Mr. Jackal gets to continue to chase steinbok for another day..

A view of the area we hunted jackal in, about 30 minutes before the sun started to set..

 

[Bos en Dal SAFARIS]

@mdwest
Don't you love it when a plan comes together.
It's good you had success and the Whelen did its usual great job. Did you recover the bullet.
Congrats again looking forward to seeing the photos.
Bob

It is a always good if a plan comes together!! never recovered a bullet from the Whelen. At 235 it punched right through the eland. None of the other animals shot with it allowed us to recover any bullets. Great cartridge.

 

[Bos en Dal SAFARIS]

Dave,
Following along! Hope to be there myself in the near future with my boys! Hopefully it will work out and you can be there as well and we can molest a few dozen castles over the bush tv! Hunt well,
Cody

Cody

That sounds like a great plan, i'll stock up on the Castles while it is open again to buy booze

 

[mdwest]

I just realized I left this report half finished (I apologize.. got sidetracked with work, life issues, etc and completely dropped the ball in getting the rest of the story in)...

So.. as stated early on, this hunt was originally planned in 2019 to be a a hunt among a group of US Military veterans that get together every year to chase deer and hogs in southeast texas, and that the other hunters in the party had never been to Africa, nor hunted anywhere outside of the US before.. so I intended to largely focus on being a "host", making sure everyone in the group had a great time, etc.. and if I happened to take a few animals along the way, that would be great, but it was pretty low on the priority list to be honest..

The great news is I did have an opportunity to take a nice impala as well as a nice blue wildebeest over the next few days.. I've hunted both of these animals before, and they are both plentiful on the Bos en Dal properties, but who can ever hunt enough wildebeest and impala? Each was something of a target of opportunity that presented itself while out looking for other animals, and each ended up being a fun hunt..

We spied a fairly large group of impala a couple of different times while out looking for a good hartebeest bull or perhaps even a hartebeest cull.. Both times the impala were hanging out in some extremely thick brush and were spread out over a distance of 200-300 yards away.. There were a couple of good shooter rams in the group, and as we sat and watched them, we discussed how this could actually be a pretty difficult hunt.. if we wanted to try to take one, we were going to have to figure out how to cover a couple of hundred yards of really thick bush without being heard, deal with swirling winds without getting smelled, and then find a window to shoot through that would likely be small.. We thought the chance of making a connection was probably 50/50 at best, but to be truthful I much prefer a challenging hunt to an easy one, and while I'd love to be able to get in a challenging hunt that produces a 26" impala, I'm the sort of guy that is equally happy with a "good representative" and would take a 22" and a hard hunt over a 26" easy hunt any day.. So we set off to see if we could land a "good representative" knowing that it wasnt at all going to be easy..

We closed the gap and got to within about 125 yards, but were unable to get a shot off on the first attempt.. by the time the sticks went up and I was able to get into a stable position behind them we heard one of the ewes blow at us, and off the herd went another 70 or 80 yards into the bush where we could no longer see them..

This happened one more time.. and now I was pretty sure they were on to us.. the first time we were "busted" I thought the ewe just sensed something wasnt right and sounded an alarm.. the second time it happened I thought they must have smelled us at this point or maybe saw some movement they didnt like and we'd never catch up to them again... but.. I was wrong..

We made one more attempt, closed the gap to about 135 yards, found the shot we were looking for, and I had my first animal of the trip...

More on the wildebeest later (another hunt we decided to do thinking it was going to be difficult, but it actually ended up being the easiest hunt I've ever had on any hunt in Africa lol...)

 

[Bob Nelson 35Whelen]

I just realized I left this report half finished (I apologize.. got sidetracked with work, life issues, etc and completely dropped the ball in getting the rest of the story in)...

So.. as stated early on, this hunt was originally planned in 2019 to be a a hunt among a group of US Military veterans that get together every year to chase deer and hogs in southeast texas, and that the other hunters in the party had never been to Africa, nor hunted anywhere outside of the US before.. so I intended to largely focus on being a "host", making sure everyone in the group had a great time, etc.. and if I happened to take a few animals along the way, that would be great, but it was pretty low on the priority list to be honest..

The great news is I did have an opportunity to take a nice impala as well as a nice blue wildebeest over the next few days.. I've hunted both of these animals before, and they are both plentiful on the Bos en Dal properties, but who can ever hunt enough wildebeest and impala? Each was something of a target of opportunity that presented itself while out looking for other animals, and each ended up being a fun hunt..

We spied a fairly large group of impala a couple of different times while out looking for a good hartebeest bull or perhaps even a hartebeest cull.. Both times the impala were hanging out in some extremely thick brush and were spread out over a distance of 200-300 yards away.. There were a couple of good shooter rams in the group, and as we sat and watched them, we discussed how this could actually be a pretty difficult hunt.. if we wanted to try to take one, we were going to have to figure out how to cover a couple of hundred yards of really thick bush without being heard, deal with swirling winds without getting smelled, and then find a window to shoot through that would likely be small.. We thought the chance of making a connection was probably 50/50 at best, but to be truthful I much prefer a challenging hunt to an easy one, and while I'd love to be able to get in a challenging hunt that produces a 26" impala, I'm the sort of guy that is equally happy with a "good representative" and would take a 22" and a hard hunt over a 26" easy hunt any day.. So we set off to see if we could land a "good representative" knowing that it wasnt at all going to be easy..

We closed the gap and got to within about 125 yards, but were unable to get a shot off on the first attempt.. by the time the sticks went up and I was able to get into a stable position behind them we heard one of the ewes blow at us, and off the herd went another 70 or 80 yards into the bush where we could no longer see them..

This happened one more time.. and now I was pretty sure they were on to us.. the first time we were "busted" I thought the ewe just sensed something wasnt right and sounded an alarm.. the second time it happened I thought they must have smelled us at this point or maybe saw some movement they didnt like and we'd never catch up to them again... but.. I was wrong..

We made one more attempt, closed the gap to about 135 yards, found the shot we were looking for, and I had my first animal of the trip...

More on the wildebeest later (another hunt we decided to do thinking it was going to be difficult, but it actually ended up being the easiest hunt I've ever had on any hunt in Africa lol...)

View attachment 417843

@mdwest
Keep going mate I need more and what else did your darling wife take with her Whelen. Did you use it on anything.
Bob

 

[Shootist43]

Dittos on what did "the Huntress in Heels do?"

 

[Bob Nelson 35Whelen]

I just realized I left this report half finished (I apologize.. got sidetracked with work, life issues, etc and completely dropped the ball in getting the rest of the story in)...

So.. as stated early on, this hunt was originally planned in 2019 to be a a hunt among a group of US Military veterans that get together every year to chase deer and hogs in southeast texas, and that the other hunters in the party had never been to Africa, nor hunted anywhere outside of the US before.. so I intended to largely focus on being a "host", making sure everyone in the group had a great time, etc.. and if I happened to take a few animals along the way, that would be great, but it was pretty low on the priority list to be honest..

The great news is I did have an opportunity to take a nice impala as well as a nice blue wildebeest over the next few days.. I've hunted both of these animals before, and they are both plentiful on the Bos en Dal properties, but who can ever hunt enough wildebeest and impala? Each was something of a target of opportunity that presented itself while out looking for other animals, and each ended up being a fun hunt..

We spied a fairly large group of impala a couple of different times while out looking for a good hartebeest bull or perhaps even a hartebeest cull.. Both times the impala were hanging out in some extremely thick brush and were spread out over a distance of 200-300 yards away.. There were a couple of good shooter rams in the group, and as we sat and watched them, we discussed how this could actually be a pretty difficult hunt.. if we wanted to try to take one, we were going to have to figure out how to cover a couple of hundred yards of really thick bush without being heard, deal with swirling winds without getting smelled, and then find a window to shoot through that would likely be small.. We thought the chance of making a connection was probably 50/50 at best, but to be truthful I much prefer a challenging hunt to an easy one, and while I'd love to be able to get in a challenging hunt that produces a 26" impala, I'm the sort of guy that is equally happy with a "good representative" and would take a 22" and a hard hunt over a 26" easy hunt any day.. So we set off to see if we could land a "good representative" knowing that it wasnt at all going to be easy..

We closed the gap and got to within about 125 yards, but were unable to get a shot off on the first attempt.. by the time the sticks went up and I was able to get into a stable position behind them we heard one of the ewes blow at us, and off the herd went another 70 or 80 yards into the bush where we could no longer see them..

This happened one more time.. and now I was pretty sure they were on to us.. the first time we were "busted" I thought the ewe just sensed something wasnt right and sounded an alarm.. the second time it happened I thought they must have smelled us at this point or maybe saw some movement they didnt like and we'd never catch up to them again... but.. I was wrong..

We made one more attempt, closed the gap to about 135 yards, found the shot we were looking for, and I had my first animal of the trip...

More on the wildebeest later (another hunt we decided to do thinking it was going to be difficult, but it actually ended up being the easiest hunt I've ever had on any hunt in Africa lol...)

View attachment 417843

@mdwest
Keep going mate I need more and what else did your darling wife take with her Whelen. Did you use it on anything.
Bob

 

[Mtn_Infantry]

Congrats on the great hunt. It's always great to hunt with fellow veterans.

Looking forward to hearing more of the hunt.

 

[PARA45]

Any other pictures of the crock, besides his woody. How about the bushbuck, any luck?

 

[mdwest]

@mdwest
Keep going mate I need more and what else did your darling wife take with her Whelen. Did you use it on anything.
Bob

Only 1 additional shot was fired from the whelen (not by me). The last hunting day (the day before our departure) a 265 meter (290 yard) shot was taken on a nice black impala.. He was hit just a little low, which resulted in him taking off from the huge open field that he was in (roughly a 500 acre open field?) and running into a large piece of super thick thicket (maybe a 300 acre patch of thick, nasty stuff).. Several hours of searching and the assistance of a tracker and several farm hands provided success though and he was finally recovered..

The toughness of African animals (even the "weaker" ones like impala) never ceases to amaze me.. Hit any whitetail, mule deer, or even an elk with the same shot that the impala took and it would have gone 100-150 yards TOPS (its more likely it would have only gone 50), found some cover to hide under, and died.. The black impala probably covered a full mile of distance, all on 3 legs (the low shot hammered his far front leg when the bullet exited the body) and with a clipped lung..

 

[mdwest]

Any other pictures of the crock, besides his woody. How about the bushbuck, any luck?

Many attempts were made on bushbuck. We pretty much went out every evening we were there in search of one, and saw a dozen or more over the course of the trip.. but they were all females or young rams with only one exception..

At one point we decided to try to set up an ambush.. We put out some bait/feed (alfalfa and molassas) and set up a trail camera about 100 meters from a treeline where we thought we would have a nice hiding spot, that was located less than 100 meters from a small river and just outside of a large (maybe 1 acre) patch of reeds.. While Gerrit and Francois (PH's) were setting up the bait and camera and the huntress and I were looking on, a very nice ram darted out of the reeds, up an embankment onto a ridge, and into the treeline and was gone within about 3 seconds (not nearly enough time to get sticks up or even try to take a shot on the fly)..

Non crock cock pic below