SOUTH AFRICA: 4.5 Hunters, 6 Days & 18 Animals At Bos en Dal SAFARIS

[mdwest]

Just arrived back in the US on Sunday and am still recovering from jet lag.. and haven't managed to sort through all of my notes or pics yet.. but thought I'd get this started (it might take me a couple of days to finish)..

What an incredible trip!

I'll add in the obvious disclaimer up front (as has been done on previous @Bos en Dal SAFARIS hunt reports... A quick look at my signature block shows I've got a bit of bias for Bos en Dal... Gerrit is more than just an outfitter and my preferred PH.. he is a dear friend to both myself and my family..

That said.. Its important to note that I receive NO preferential treatment in any way.. I am treated just like any other client whenever I hunt with @Bos en Dal SAFARIS .. and this is done for a specific purpose.. Gerrit and I both think if I am going to properly act as the companys US Representative that I must be able to accurately describe to potential clients what they should expect to experience... So.. I stay in the same accommodation.. receive the same service.. eat the same food.. hunt on the same schedule and on the same properties, work with the same PH's, etc..etc.. that anyone else does that hunts with @Bos en Dal SAFARIS ...

So.. now that is covered... on with the hunt report

This is the third time I have hunted with Bos en Dal, and second time I have brought over a group of "veterans" to do a group hunt. Planning began in August 2021, just a couple of weeks after the last "veterans" group returned to the US in July of 2021. We quickly worked out dates and settled for mid July 2022 based on work schedules, camp availability, etc.. Thankfully everyone booked flights early and avoided the Q2 airline price spikes that happened earlier this year. One family was on the dreaded NYC to Joberg route via United (everything worked out wonderfully for them though.. no issues at all..), another hunter is a US expat living in Norway, so he flew KLM out of Europe and had zero issues.. and we chose to go Qatar on the DFW-Doha-Joberg route.. which once again proved to be a wonderful decision...

"Mohammed" one of the supervisors at the ticket counter at DFW for Qatar Airlines happens to live less than a mile from my house.. What a GREAT GUY! If anyone ever has an issue at DFW with Qatar, SEEK OUT MOHAMMED! That dude is a rock star! He actually recognized us from doing the same trip last year (he is one of the people that knows how to deal with all of QA's flying with firearms paperwork, policies, etc.. and is who helped get us checked in last year)... Checking in with rifles and ammo was a breeze... and once on the plane, as consistently reported in many other peoples hunt reports, QA is incredibly hard to beat.. great service, polite crew, comfortable cabins, better than average food, on time departures, on time arrivals, etc..etc.. and THANK GOD, zero problems in Doha with the Doha Airport Police this year.. (read last years report to get a better understanding of the debacle experienced with the Airport Police last year when they decided they wanted to conduct a shakedown of our bags and confiscate a bunch of ridiculous items like a canister of powdered steel, etc..)..

The one downside (or perhaps upside depending on how you look at it I suppose) is the QA flight we were on arrived in Joberg at 340 AM.. which makes for an incredibly long day after a 14+ hour flight to Doha, a 2.5 hour layover, and then a follow on 10 hour flight to Joberg.. only to spend another hour and a half deplaning, collecting bags, clearing customs and immigration, and then clearing SAPS with the guns... but once again, as always.. Henry's team at @riflepermits.com did an incredible job getting us through SAPS in a matter of literally less than 10 minutes.. and also equally wonderful is that @Bos en Dal SAFARIS is only a 90 minute drive from OR Tambo.. so while a 340 AM arrival makes for really long day after international travel.. the incredible benefit experienced was... we had deposited our bags and gotten situated in our room at camp, unpacked the rifles, and were sitting on the range confirming zero by 730AM... and were out on our first hunt before 8AM on the same day we arrived in country..

Confirmation of zero was a quick and easy process.. Both the Win 70 in .375 H&H and the Kimber Adirondak in .308 put their first rounds where they were supposed to go.. so no time was wasted and we set right out on a "whatever the bush provides" hunt just to see what we could see..

Tons of animals were out trying to catch some early morning sunshine and warm up from the cool night they had just experienced.. ostrich, sable, impala, wildebeest, kudu, blesbok, zebra and what seemed to be a million vervets were all viewed within the first hour of the hunt... but nothing really struck a chord just yet, and we were clearly exhausted from travel and didn't want to rush into a shot that would be anything less than perfect... so we just took things slow and easy for most of the day..

One of the priority animals for this trip was bushbuck... Gerrit and I had been talking about this for 6+ months and had several possible plans for making this happen... My better half has wanted a nice bushbuck for 4+ years and has pursued them (and gotten skunked) on two prior safaris.. we had high hopes that luck would change this time around... so about 10 AM we stopped by a location near a river bank on a low fence, free range property across the main road from the primary Bos en Dal property to check on a game cam that Gerrit had been monitoring for some time.. the antelope Gods were smiling on us... The game cam showed a young male, a couple of females, and a very nice, large, and apparently old male frequenting the area on a regular basis and on a somewhat regular schedule... what was really surprising was they were coming through this same area in the late mornings between 11-12.. so we decided to find a decent place to hide and try to set up an ambush and see what happened..

Sundays would appear to be the bushbucks day off... and they were a no-show... so after a while we packed up and headed back to camp for lunch... a delicious kudu lasagna was consumed while we "made a plan" for the afternoon hunt...

We decided we'd go out after lunch and see if we could find a nice ostrich... After my experience with James Leddy Boots in Abeline ( https://www.africahunting.com/threads/james-leddy-safari-boots.58315/ ), I thought if I could get my hands on an ostrich, Id get myself another set of boots made... ... and once we got a little closer to the end of the day, we'd walk the river banks on the free range property and give bushbuck another try..

tons of "shooters' were spied of several species... but no large male ostrich were seen... and no old bushbuck rams were found... so a few minutes before nightfall we headed back to camp...

A couple of glasses of amarula and several tales of the day were shared by the fire... it turned out both of the other hunters in camp had successful days.. one, a very experienced hunter, but first time africa hunter learned a quick lesson in communication and understanding when the PH says "shoot the impala furthest from you" that he actually means the one that is the greatest distance... NOT the one that is the least distant from you lol... then less than an hour later redeemed himself by shooting the impala that the PH actually wanted him to shoot lol.. (face blacked out on purpose as this hunter is not a member here..)

the second hunter was new to the sport and had never hunted prior to this morning... he also scored a nice impala early in the day (also not a member here)...

more to follow after a bit more rest and time to sort through some pics and notes...

 

[BourbonTrail]

 

[Mark Biggerstaff]

Been waiting for this report!
Can’t wait for more Dave!!

 

[buck wild]

Pay the same money ??

 

[mdwest]

Pay the same money ??

Sometimes I wonder if he doesnt charge me a "you're a pain in my ass" fee in addition to the trophy fees and day rates

 

[buck wild]

Sometimes I wonder if he doesnt charge me a "you're a pain in my ass" fee in addition to the trophy fees and day rates

So I was being a "little cheeky" as they say, but in all honesty, if a Rep wants to say they are doing the same trip as everyone else, then personally I think they should be honest about all aspects, otherwise it's not really the same trip.

Looking forward to the rest of your report. I almost booked with Gerritt in 2018 and still have them very high on my spreadsheet.

 

[Jörg Krüger]

Can't wait for the rest. Great start.

 

[mdwest]

Day two began following a great (and much needed) night of sleep under a warm blanket in a comfortable bed, with everyone ready to go at 645AM.

We started the day by spending 2 hours on foot, walking the property in search of ostrich. Early on we spotted a female sitting on a nest, and then shortly thereafter find a pair of younger females running around with a decent male... we put in a fairly long, but ultimately failed stalk (man those suckers like to run!).. As we start to circle around and head back the way we had come, we spot a huge, jet black male at about 400 meters and decide to try to close the gap on him and see if we can get a shot.. a naughty adolescent blesbok put the kibosh on that plan though by busting us and alerting not only the ostrich, but everything else hanging around for about a 500 meter radius..

We continued to give chase/stalk to the big male, which ultimately led us back to the original nesting female we had seen... this made us realize the big male was part of a nesting pair.. with the female hanging out on the nest all day, and the male taking his turn at night... so we decided to give a hard pass on hunting him anymore... that said.. the female let us get very close (20 meters?) to take some pics... that was a really cool experience...

After deciding to pass on the big black bird for the day (unless we were fortunate enough to find another one), we just decided to go back to the "lets see what Africa provides" plan and continued to walk the property.. we saw a couple of nice 22"+ impala, but having taken several impala previously, they weren't of much interest at the time.. we also saw several sable.. mostly young bulls.. but there was one nice 42"+ old guy running around that will make someone an excellent trophy one day... zebra was given some thought as we ran across a small herd that had a nice stallion in it, but for whatever reason they didn't seem to be of interest to either of us at the time.. we also ran across more wildebeest that I could possibly count.. but with 3x wildebeest already on the walls at home, they were also a hard pass..

bushpig was another animal Gerrit and I had discussed several times... and he had been baiting them for a few weeks prior to our arrival in hopes of bringing in some nice boars.. our next move was to go check a trail cam on the bait site.. the camera revealed quite a bit of both warthog and bushpig activity with both nice warthogs and bushpig boars coming in with some frequency... so we made a mental note that if we wanted to get out one evening for a night hunt, this would be where we would come...

With that, the pre-lunch window that we knew the bushbuck were hitting each day in the free range field was quickly approaching, so we moved locations and sat in our improvised blind until about noon.. unfortunately the bushbuck took Monday off as well as were a no show... so we headed back to camp for another delicious lunch... and made an afternoon plan to go after springbok and/or hartebeest.

The afternoon hunt proved to be a huge success! We headed to a secondary property owned by Bos en Dal where there are significant numbers of both springbok and hartebeest.. the property is fairly diverse with a couple of huge open field areas, lots of densely wooded areas, and a few large rolling hills as well.. While sitting on the edge of one of the fields, our PH for the day, Francois spotted a small group of 6 to 8 springbok with a pair of males walking around.. they were 600+ meters away, so judging their maturity was difficult. While looking at the springbok, I noticed a small herd of about 5-6 hartebeest less than 100 meters to the right of the springbok, and thought that at least one of them appeared to be a big, mature bull, so we decided to go back to the bakkie, drive around to the back of the hill (about a .5 mile drive) and see if we could put the wind in our face, sun to our back, and talk in for a closer look... by the time we got to within about 250 meters we were able to get a really good look at the springbok ram and determined he was worthy of chase... so we further stalked to about 140 meters.. .the sticks went up, a shot went out within just a few seconds.... and my first ever springbok was down (didn't move an inch.. the 168gr .308 TTSX traveling at about 2700fps did its job perfectly)...

As the PH went back to fetch the truck... What must be the worlds dumbest hartebeest bull decided to step out of the woodline to take a look at what was going on... Less that 10 minutes had passed since the shot on the springbok was fired.. and here this guy and his harem of cows just walks out like he owns the place mess than 200 meters away and stands in the open checking things out while I, my wife, and our teenager are all milling around and a diesel bakkie is motoring up to our location....

As soon as the PH dismounted the truck he saw what was going on, grabbed his sticks, grabbed the wife, and moved out... they entered a small thicket that they used for cover and closed the distance on the hartebeest to about 150 meters.. and less than 20 minutes after the shot on the springbok happened, a second shot rang out... and a big red hartebeest was down..

We spend maybe 30 minutes dealing with the hartebeest.. John, @Bos en Dal SAFARIS primary skinner and tracker came to us with a trailer to help load it and take it to the skinning shed... once the animal was in Johns care, we were off to see what else we might find.. Lots and lots of game was seen.. but nothing was really striking anyone as a "must have"... until we saw a really nice blesbok out in an open field...

5 safaris, and I've never actually even thought about taking a blesbok.. but for whatever reason, this one seemed really appealing all of a sudden.. he was close to 500 meters away, and there was no good way to dismount and begin to give chase without spooking him.. he was already very much aware of our presance and watching us closely.... so.. we chose to just keep driving and try to get the truck well out of sight, and then move on foot back to his general location...

we dismounted several more hundred meters down the road, placing a treeline between us and the blesbok and began to stalk back to his location, ultimately getting to where we had a decent shot window at about 225 meters... the rifle barked.. the blesbok went down... but then got back up and immediately took off across the field, headed for the opposing woodline about 200 meters away... I took two shots on him while he was at a full run, but missed both... we gave chase to the far woodline, and found him laid down, but still alive, about 50 meters into the bush... another shot was delivered that ultimately put him down...

upon inspection it was found that the first shot was actually a good one.. both front shoulders were broken and a single lung was hit.. It never ceases to amaze me how tough African critters can be.. it this was a whitetail he might have made it 20 yards before piling up.. but this guy went 250 meters on 2 broken shoulders and 1 lung before deciding he'd had enough and laid down...

Turns out he was a Rowland Ward quality animal, coming in just a hair under 17"

3 animals down inside a 90 minute window of time! What an afternoon!

That night we had wildebeest and impala filets on the braii for appetizers that came from the other hunters impala taken on day 1, and one of the wildebeest that had been taken earlier in the day by one of the other hunters in camp with us.. delicious!

Fine south african wine by the fire while waiting on dinner, and lots of stories from the days hunts with all hunters having success.. me and the wife with our blesbok, springbok, and hartebeest, and both of the other hunters bagging a blue wildebeest each..

Another great day in South Africa!

 

[mdwest]

Day 3 started much like day 2 with a quick cup of coffee, a couple of rusk, and out the door by 645 to see what we might see... within just a few minutes of leaving the lodge we spied a very nice zebra stallion, a mare, and what we thought was probably a yearling with them... we put in a good stalk, but got busted pretty quickly so we went back to the bakkie and started looking around again...

wildlife were out in large numbers this morning.. a herd of maybe 20-25 buffalo were seen, several herds of impala, blesbok, and a small bachelor group of kudu bulls were all milling around catching the morning sun.. Our primary quarry for the morning was ostrich.. but only one lone female was seen.. shortly after seeing the female ostrich a huge bodied warthog ran out of the bush so we stopped to take a look.. but he turned out to still be a youngster with maybe just 3-4" tusks.. so we passed..

Buff cow was also a potential quarry for this safari, so when we encountered a herd of cows and calves we stopped for a few minutes to see what we had... but every cow had a calf with her.. so, no luck..

After lunch our luck changed...

as stated in an earlier post, ostrich was desired.. so that's what we set out after.. after spending a couple of hours looking the only bird we managed to get reasonably close to was a pair of females.. one of the gals looked pretty old.. and since it was early afternoon and we watched them milling around for quite a while, we were reasonably sure they weren't nesting.. we watched for close to 30 minutes thinking wherever there are a pair of females, surely there is at least one male closeby... but never saw one...

Francois asked if I would consider a female.. he knew I had no intention of keeping the feathers or doing any sort of mount.. all I wanted was the leather for boots.. I told him I had no preference other than I didn't want to take one off of a nest.. but male or female made no difference to me..

So.. we decided to take the older, bigger looking gal out.. .

Ostrich clearly don't stand up well to a .308... a shot was made at about 90 yards.. the bird dropped immediately in her tracks... time to call James Leddy Boots

after sending the bird to the skinning shed we decided to go back and see if we might find that same group of 3 zebra we had seen first thing in the morning.. we patrolled around from about 3 - 530 PM with no luck... so we decided to head back to the lodge and make a plan for the next morning..

when we got within about .5 miles of the lodge we rounded a corner near a field, saw a herd of about 10-12 buffalo.. and then noticed slightly to the side of the buff herd.. there were our zebra!

we dismounted and stalked a few hundred meters and got within about 150 meters of the zebra... the big stallion presented a perfect broadside.. so a shot rang out..

I saw the impact of the bullet on the zebra, heard the distinctive thud of the hit, and watched the zebra reel in the scope... but he didn't hit the ground.. he immediately took off into the bush...

thankfully Francois heard him pile up out of site just a short distance from where he was hit... It was right at last light however.. so we returned to the truck so that we could use the headlights to help search if necessary.. and also to offer a little protection from the buff that rather than running, decided to go check out what was happening over in zebra land..

thankfully my 375 H&H was also in the truck.. so when we dismounted to go look for the zebra, I took that rifle with me, put the truck between myself and the buff and stood guard for a few minutes while Francois searched..

he found the stallion within just a couple of minutes.. it had only run about 75 yards into some thick brush and perished..

a perfect ending to another wonderful day of hunting at @Bos en Dal SAFARIS !

once back in camp we learned that one of the other hunters in our party had taken a very nice warthog a littler earlier as well!

 

[spike.t]

Just arrived back in the US on Sunday and am still recovering from jet lag.. and haven't managed to sort through all of my notes or pics yet.. but thought I'd get this started (it might take me a couple of days to finish)..

What an incredible trip!

I'll add in the obvious disclaimer up front (as has been done on previous @Bos en Dal SAFARIS hunt reports... A quick look at my signature block shows I've got a bit of bias for Bos en Dal... Gerrit is more than just an outfitter and my preferred PH.. he is a dear friend to both myself and my family..

That said.. Its important to note that I receive NO preferential treatment in any way.. I am treated just like any other client whenever I hunt with @Bos en Dal SAFARIS .. and this is done for a specific purpose.. Gerrit and I both think if I am going to properly act as the companys US Representative that I must be able to accurately describe to potential clients what they should expect to experience... So.. I stay in the same accommodation.. receive the same service.. eat the same food.. hunt on the same schedule and on the same properties, work with the same PH's, etc..etc.. that anyone else does that hunts with @Bos en Dal SAFARIS ...

So.. now that is covered... on with the hunt report

This is the third time I have hunted with Bos en Dal, and second time I have brought over a group of "veterans" to do a group hunt. Planning began in August 2021, just a couple of weeks after the last "veterans" group returned to the US in July of 2021. We quickly worked out dates and settled for mid July 2022 based on work schedules, camp availability, etc.. Thankfully everyone booked flights early and avoided the Q2 airline price spikes that happened earlier this year. One family was on the dreaded NYC to Joberg route via United (everything worked out wonderfully for them though.. no issues at all..), another hunter is a US expat living in Norway, so he flew KLM out of Europe and had zero issues.. and we chose to go Qatar on the DFW-Doha-Joberg route.. which once again proved to be a wonderful decision...

"Mohammed" one of the supervisors at the ticket counter at DFW for Qatar Airlines happens to live less than a mile from my house.. What a GREAT GUY! If anyone ever has an issue at DFW with Qatar, SEEK OUT MOHAMMED! That dude is a rock star! He actually recognized us from doing the same trip last year (he is one of the people that knows how to deal with all of QA's flying with firearms paperwork, policies, etc.. and is who helped get us checked in last year)... Checking in with rifles and ammo was a breeze... and once on the plane, as consistently reported in many other peoples hunt reports, QA is incredibly hard to beat.. great service, polite crew, comfortable cabins, better than average food, on time departures, on time arrivals, etc..etc.. and THANK GOD, zero problems in Doha with the Doha Airport Police this year.. (read last years report to get a better understanding of the debacle experienced with the Airport Police last year when they decided they wanted to conduct a shakedown of our bags and confiscate a bunch of ridiculous items like a canister of powdered steel, etc..)..

The one downside (or perhaps upside depending on how you look at it I suppose) is the QA flight we were on arrived in Joberg at 340 AM.. which makes for an incredibly long day after a 14+ hour flight to Doha, a 2.5 hour layover, and then a follow on 10 hour flight to Joberg.. only to spend another hour and a half deplaning, collecting bags, clearing customs and immigration, and then clearing SAPS with the guns... but once again, as always.. Henry's team at @riflepermits.com did an incredible job getting us through SAPS in a matter of literally less than 10 minutes.. and also equally wonderful is that @Bos en Dal SAFARIS is only a 90 minute drive from OR Tambo.. so while a 340 AM arrival makes for really long day after international travel.. the incredible benefit experienced was... we had deposited our bags and gotten situated in our room at camp, unpacked the rifles, and were sitting on the range confirming zero by 730AM... and were out on our first hunt before 8AM on the same day we arrived in country..

Confirmation of zero was a quick and easy process.. Both the Win 70 in .375 H&H and the Kimber Adirondak in .308 put their first rounds where they were supposed to go.. so no time was wasted and we set right out on a "whatever the bush provides" hunt just to see what we could see..

Tons of animals were out trying to catch some early morning sunshine and warm up from the cool night they had just experienced.. ostrich, sable, impala, wildebeest, kudu, blesbok, zebra and what seemed to be a million vervets were all viewed within the first hour of the hunt... but nothing really struck a chord just yet, and we were clearly exhausted from travel and didn't want to rush into a shot that would be anything less than perfect... so we just took things slow and easy for most of the day..

One of the priority animals for this trip was bushbuck... Gerrit and I had been talking about this for 6+ months and had several possible plans for making this happen... My better half has wanted a nice bushbuck for 4+ years and has pursued them (and gotten skunked) on two prior safaris.. we had high hopes that luck would change this time around... so about 10 AM we stopped by a location near a river bank on a low fence, free range property across the main road from the primary Bos en Dal property to check on a game cam that Gerrit had been monitoring for some time.. the antelope Gods were smiling on us... The game cam showed a young male, a couple of females, and a very nice, large, and apparently old male frequenting the area on a regular basis and on a somewhat regular schedule... what was really surprising was they were coming through this same area in the late mornings between 11-12.. so we decided to find a decent place to hide and try to set up an ambush and see what happened..

Sundays would appear to be the bushbucks day off... and they were a no-show... so after a while we packed up and headed back to camp for lunch... a delicious kudu lasagna was consumed while we "made a plan" for the afternoon hunt...

We decided we'd go out after lunch and see if we could find a nice ostrich... After my experience with James Leddy Boots in Abeline ( https://www.africahunting.com/threads/james-leddy-safari-boots.58315/ ), I thought if I could get my hands on an ostrich, Id get myself another set of boots made... ... and once we got a little closer to the end of the day, we'd walk the river banks on the free range property and give bushbuck another try..

tons of "shooters' were spied of several species... but no large male ostrich were seen... and no old bushbuck rams were found... so a few minutes before nightfall we headed back to camp...

A couple of glasses of amarula and several tales of the day were shared by the fire... it turned out both of the other hunters in camp had successful days.. one, a very experienced hunter, but first time africa hunter learned a quick lesson in communication and understanding when the PH says "shoot the impala furthest from you" that he actually means the one that is the greatest distance... NOT the one that is the least distant from you lol... then less than an hour later redeemed himself by shooting the impala that the PH actually wanted him to shoot lol.. (face blacked out on purpose as this hunter is not a member here..)

View attachment 479760

the second hunter was new to the sport and had never hunted prior to this morning... he also scored a nice impala early in the day (also not a member here)...


View attachment 479761

more to follow after a bit more rest and time to sort through some pics and notes...

Jeez....am exhausted from reading that post....

 

[mdwest]

Since we had our teenager along, and one of the other hunters also had his wife in camp who had never visited South Africa before, we planned a couple of excursions on our trip in addition to hunting..

One of the things I really like about @Bos en Dal SAFARIS is its close proximity to several cool things for non-hunters to do while in country such as an elephant sanctuary, a very nice predator park, a huge curio shopping market, etc..

So we began our day by visiting the Akwaaba Predator Park outside of Rustenberg.. https://akwaabalodge.co.za/predator-park/

The park tour and add on packages to get to play with baby tigers, hand feed lemurs, play with a brown hyena, pet cheetah, etc.. is very affordable.. I think it cost us about $80 in total per person to literally do everything the park had to offer.. My wife and I had been to this park before in 2019 and had a great time, so we thought it would be a cool experience to let the other hunters and our teen check it out... I think it ended up being one of the highlights of the trip for everyone.. definitely something you cant do readily in the US..

after the predator park we returned to camp and had some great reedbuck burgers for lunch and then headed out for an afternoon of hunting..

Sure enough.. the first thing we see is the big male ostrich I had been seeking for days.. and since I had already taken a female to provide leather for boots, I intended on giving this guy a pass...

My wife couldn't resist though.. she suddenly decided she needed some boots of her own I suppose.. so.. a quick dismount, short stalk, and within just a few minutes "my" (now hers) ostrich was on the ground lol..

something I found very interesting having never shot an ostrich before was how much both birds bled (profusely) from the mouth after being hit... both the female I took and the male she took were hit right in the heart/lungs.. but put tons and tons of blood on the ground through their mouths.. I have no idea whats different about their anatomy that causes that (maybe a PH here knows?)...

After we sent the ostrich to the skinning shed we decided to look for a decent impala for a little while.. our teen has expressed an interest in hunting for a little while, but has never actually hunted for herself (although she has sat in deer blinds, turkey blinds, etc.. with her mother on different occasions).. we had no luck finding a decent impala.. so we went to a concession property to check out a couple of hawar grass fields where there were supposedly lots of bushbuck coming in late in the afternoon... as soon as we arrived we spotted 2 big bushbuck... but the hawar was so tall that all you could see was the top of their heads, their horns, and on occasion maybe the top 1-2" of their backs when they would lift their heads up from feeding... we sat on them from about 3PM until last light and were never presented a shot... there was a second field with shorter grass nearby.. so we planned to return to this concession the next day and perhaps hunt that field and try for bushbuck again...

back at camp an incredible wildebeest pizza was served for dinner..

 

[mdwest]

Day 5 was another day where the plan was "lets see what Africa provides" with no particular agenda other than to try to chase bushbuck in the late afternoon, so we set out from camp at about 7AM and began to drive the property to see what animals might be moving around trying to warm up and do a little feeding in the early light.. we also thought if we happened across a decent impala we'd see about chasing it for our daughter, who was still very much interested in a first hunt... but we knew we'd need to have nearly perfect conditions for that one (wanted to be absolutely certain she'd be successful and take zero risks if at all possible)..

We drove the property for about 90 minutes and saw a lot of animals.. but nothing that really jumped out at us and begged to be taken, and were at this point considering getting out on foot and maybe walking the bush for a little while to stretch our legs and maybe get lucky on something that might be lurking deeper in the trees.. when a really nice nyala appeared off the the right, maybe 200 meters away...

I've always thought the "spirals" were beautiful animals.. but honestly never considered taking any of them... my wife at this point had 3 of the 4.. but still lacked her bushbuck.. I figured already having a big kudu, eland, and nyala in the house was enough.. we don't need more.... but this guy just screamed "take me!"... he appeared to be ancient.. he was certainly a bit on the skinny side and looked like he was losing some hair.. but had really nice horns with what appeared to be a lot of ivory on the tips...

So a quick decision was made.. and we formed a plan... which honestly didn't take a whole lot of effort.. we dismounted, stalked maybe 100 meters, lined up a nice shot (he was now maybe 80 meters away).. and the rifle went "bang"... the nyala ran maybe 30 meters, stood wobbly on his legs for maybe 3-4 seconds and then dropped.. he was down..

Ive got to say.. for an unplanned hunt that turned out as simply as it did.. I was super excited to get this guy.. I might have to start on my own "sprial slam" now that I've bagged my first

For the next 90 minutes or so we tried our best to find the perfect impala (much more important that he present a perfect angle, at a reasonable distance, etc.. than he be particularly huge, etc)... but had no luck... at one point we thought we were in business when we happened upon a small herd of about 8 that had 2 "shooter" rams in it.. but there were too many eyes and they were far too fixated on us to get any closer than about 250 meters.. so after working them for a little while we decided to move on...

Thats when we got the call from Louie, the PH working with one of the other hunters that we needed to come to his location.. he had something he absolutely had to show us...

So we head to his location.. and he wasn't kidding.. there was something there we needed to see...

His hunter had just put a 62.25" kudu on the ground...

They had been chasing this thing all morning and had covered nearly 5 miles before the animal finally gave them a shot (a pretty simple lay up at less than 75 meters).. the 180gr bullet fired from the hunters 30-06 dropped him in his tracks..

Ive seen some huge (or what I thought to be huge) kudu on my trips over... but nothing ever like this thing.. the previous Bos en Dal record was a monster 58" taken by @Mark Biggerstaff ... the PH that guided this particular hunt literally was getting emotional.. in all of his years in the field he had never seen anything like this guy either... and no one knew he existed before this morning.. they had seen some pics of a kudu last year that they think was probably this same guy.. but they were estimating him in the 57-58" range.. no one had a clue he was pushing over 60"..

After lunch we set out after impala again.. this time we had success! we found a pair of bachelors hanging out.. both reasonable shooters.. in the middle of a large field that was probably 1KM long by 300M wide... as we approached in the bakkie, both of them moved into the woodline, but stopped maybe 50 meters in to watch us.. we were able to position our teen to get about a 90 meter shot on one of them through about a 3' window in the trees... she connected and put the 103gr .243 ELD-X right where it was supposed to go.. the ram went maybe 70 meters and went down... what an AWESOME DAY! Proud parent moment for sure... for her first ever animal (big game or otherwise) to be an african antelope was just icing on the cake

Once we got the impala loaded up it was time to go back to the hawar fields and see if we could find that elusive bushbuck... old broken horn was out again (this was the second time we saw him).. but once again was too deep into the grass to get a shot on him... broken horn was obviously ancient from what we could tell in the glimpses of his face we could catch every few minutes.. and if his right horn wasn't busted off, he'd make a stellar (Rowland Ward?) trophy...

we caught glimpses of other high quality bushbuck in this field as well.. but same problem.. either sitting in the wrong field and 400-500 meters away with no means of getting closer.. or sitting in the deep grass where all you could see was the head and horns when they'd come up from feeding (their entire bodies were covered)...

We sat until dark with no shots provided.. so went back to camp for amarula by the fire...

one of the other hunters took a pair of egyptian geese with a camp shotgun that morning we found out.. and then, not wanting his geese to just sit out in the lake, decided to strip to his skivvies and go for a swim to recover them...

something ain't right with that guy lol... (damn it was cold out there lol.. but he lives in Norway.. so I suppose this was "warm" water to him lol..)

 

[kdenn]

Really enjoying the report, looks like a great safari so far.

 

[gillettehunter]

I am enjoying your report. Some nice trophies. When you were looking for the Impala for your daughter and saw the Nyala I thought she was going to get a species change up. Congrats to her on her Impala.
Bruce

 

[mdwest]

Day 6.. the last hunting day for us...

back to the bushbuck blind that we have been sitting on near the hawar grass for several days at first light.. no luck at all...

then off to chase baboons...

there are no baboons on any of the Bos en Dal properties.. but Gerrit has a friend with a cattle farm just a few miles (less than 5?) down the road that has a large troop of approximately 200 baboons that have been terrorizing the place for some time that is more than happy for hunters to come by and help control his growing problem..

It took less than 15 minutes to find the apes.. they were located in the same place @Mark Biggerstaff found them on a hunt a few weeks prior, sitting across a fairly large, steep, and deep canyon where making recovery was going to be a real challenge.. but we thought we'd try anyway..

It took probably 15 minutes to get into a reasonable shooting position on the canyon's edge.. the baboons knew we were there and were doing a lot of barking and screeching at us.. but not really moving around much as the closest animals were almost 250+ meters away and the furthest were more than 400 meters out..

My wife set up on the only baboon that was presenting any sort of a shot at the moment.. he looked a bit small/young... but also looked quite agitated and like he wanted to be an alpha at some point (definitely raising a good bit of hell with us.. sitting alone in a tree on the opposite edge of the canyon, etc)... She took her shot at 258 meters and dropped him on the spot with the .308....

Before we moved to try to recover her baboon, we decided to see if a second animal would let us take a shot.. once again it took another 15 or so minutes to find a decent shooting position and an animal that presented a reasonable shot.. this one was a good bit further out though... my attempt was a 359 meter shot (used my Nikon rangefinder on both animals) and was a clean miss (I think my shot went about 6-8" to the left)..

After the baboon we decided to take a few hours off and head to Rustenberg to let our daughter get a tase of what life in a South African city/town looks like.. we checked out a local high school, a couple of shopping centers, etc.. and then took her to lunch at a great little cafe that Gerrit recommended.. the scratch baked brownies there are among the best I have had in my entire life..

during lunch the youngest hunter in our group made it clear that she wasn't done yet.. .she now wanted to add a blesbok to the list.. so we headed back to @Bos en Dal SAFARIS with a plan to seek one out in the same manner we chased the impala (look for a perfect shot rather than a perfect blesbok).. we gave it our best effort for a couple of hours but nothing panned out.. we saw 3 different really nice rams.. but the closest we could get to any of them was about 300 meters, which was about 200 meters further than our comfort level with her taking a shot..

Then it was time to give the bushbuck one last try.. at this point its been a 4 year endeavor with no success... dozens of bushbuck have been seen over those 4 years.. but all either too young.. female.. too far away.. already on the run when spotted.. or into such thick stuff that no shot was ever presented.. hope wasn't lost.. but we were already thinking that we'd have to make another attempt sometime next year as the big rams we were seeing this year were simply outsmarting us...

Since there were two hawar fields the bushbuck were freqenting that were maybe a couple of hundred meters apart (with a thick woodline separating them) the plan was to have me set up on the field with the shorter grass but longer shots (as far as 500 meters to the far end) to watch (this was the field they weren't coming into as often)... while the wife and Gerrit sat up in a hide on the other field where the grass was much taller and thicker, but the animals were coming to more frequently..

We sat for better than 2 hours and saw nothing other than a few warthogs come into the tall grass field.. last light was coming about 10-15 minutes after 6 each night.. and it was getting difficult to see after about 545... So when I looked at my watch and saw it was about 540, I told myself "we might as well pack things in and plan to try again next year..."....

Then... 5 minutes later.. right at 545.. old broken horn walks into my field.. and comes in close.. he is only about 80 meters away..

I immediately send a whatsapp to Gerrit and tell them "come quick!"... and then I sit and wait... at 6PM Im wondering "where are they????? whats going on????".. its only about a 200 meter walk from their position to mine... and its been 15 minutes.. Im expecting to hear them approach from the right rear... and Im hearing nothing at all..

then at 606 PM.. its dark outside.. we're literally less than 5 minutes of any shooting light left on the very last day of the hunt... I hear a loud rifle report from about 50 meters to my left.. and old broken horn drops in his tracks... .

Gerrit had spotted an animal trail earlier that afternoon leading to the field I was in.. rather than walking the road between fields they decided to use the trail and use the woodline as cover to make their approach... the shot was about 120 meters and was placed perfectly... great plan! that swaro optic's light gathering ability certainly paid off.. the pic below doesn't really convey how dark it was (we used multiple flashlights and camera lights to illuminate so we could take the pic..).. I don't think a lessor optic would have allowed the shot.. I was using leupold binos to watch the bushbuck at the time the shot was taken.. and he was a cloudy blur for me at the point the trigger was pulled..

We had zebra filets and a few other meats on the braai as an appetizer (Im not sure the PH's were too enthusiastic about the zebra.. but since I had taken one, I really wanted to try it! ).. I honestly found it delicious



Day 7 was our departure day... we had a plane to catch in Joberg about 2PM.. but the other parties in camp weren't flying out until 8 and 10 pm.. so they decided to try to do a little more hunting before heading into the city... one of the hunters went to the same location we did for baboon.. he also bagged one (huge hunt for him.. he had never hunted in his life before this trip.. but took impala, wildebeest, warthog, geese, and a baboon all on his first safari!)..

There is an orphanage and a school that @Bos en Dal SAFARIS provides charitable support to... we made a stop by the orphanage on our way to Joberg... what a heartwrenching and heartwarming experience all rolled into one... the woman that runs the place might be the most giving and selfless person Ive ever met... we made a small cash donation, and also brought some toiletries, bibles, and a few other items to present as gifts to the kids... it was a touching way to end our time in South Africa this year..



And... that's a wrap..... we got on a plane.. headed back home.. Qatar Airlines was wonderful as expected.. and no hassles or problems from US Customs or Immigration upon our return.. we collected our rifles, got in the truck, and headed straight to Whataburger when we left the airport lol... then pretty much slept for most of the next 24 hours...

 

[mdwest]

I am enjoying your report. Some nice trophies. When you were looking for the Impala for your daughter and saw the Nyala I thought she was going to get a species change up. Congrats to her on her Impala.
Bruce

If he would have made it a little bit easier, that would have been a wonderful idea.. I was also a little concerned about the rifle with her (she kept asking if she could hunt a kudu... but she has never shot anything larger than the .243... and that's all she was comfortable shooting at the time (although now she wants me to set up a 308 for her and let her start training with it)..

I am 100% certain a .243 will drop a Nyala with no second thoughts.. but.. was a little worried about her hunt going any direction other than absolutely perfect (had to be a close shot, that she could put right on the money, with a bullet that would drop the animal quickly, etc.. or I was afraid I might ruin her for hunting for the future)...

Im pretty sure Im on the hook with her for kudu and a black impala next year though lol... its only been a week and she's been clear about what she wants for her birthday lol..

 

[WyoBull]

Great report and awesome hunt! Really enjoyed reading it and thank you for sharing it.

 

[Mark Biggerstaff]

Great report Dave! Congrats on some awesome animals. Guess I have to plan a trip now to take back the Kudu record
Great bushbuck your wife got!

 

[AZDAVE]

Dave great report. Looks like a very successful trip for all. Thanks for taking a group of veterans on their first safaris. We will have to go with you one of these years. (However don't know what Gerrit would charge for both you and me in the (pain in the ass category) in camp at the same time

 

[JG870]

Super report congratulations on a great hunt.