SOUTH AFRICA: African Wild Safaris Hunt Report

[dhoover]

11 of us from Little Rock and the central Arkansas region and 2 from Texas left for Johannesburg on July 15th through Atlanta on the DL0200. Our group included several wives and 2 father son teams. We booked our travel through Jennifer at Travel express. Everything went smoothly and as stated on another thread the dreaded SARS Traveler Declaration form was a non-event. We had reservations at Africa Sky and paid for the express service through customs at $33 per person. It's a nice service paired with Gilberts gun permit service. Gilbert was off that night, but we were assisted by Willard, and he did a great job. Getting 7 rifles through took approx. 10 minutes. It took a long time to get our bags, so dinner was ready at Africa Sky when we got there. As usual the rooms were nice, the food good and the drinks cold. I like Africa Sky.

The Airlink flight to Polokwane was uneventful the next morning and the ride to Leadwood Ranch was beautiful as always. Rolling into Leadwood brought back a ton of good memories and anticipation for a great hunt. My wife of 34 years was with me, and while it was different dynamic from my previous hunts it was great having her along. Lunch was ready and within an hour we were at the range checking zeroes.

I was guided by Francois, my neighbor and his son by Deiter, another friend and his son by Grys, another friend by Dion and another by Eddie. The Texans, a husband and wife got Ruan. It was time to go hunting.

 

[dhoover]

I wanted to get off to a fast start the first afternoon, but it was not to be. I told Francois that if I could get a giant buffalo and Kudu, I'd hunt 8 days and be happy with 2 animals. Well, he took it to heart. I didn't chamber a round until days three.

We hunted hard and walked a lot of miles trying to find a big Kudu. We caught a glimpse of one mid-morning of day 3 running with another bull that looked to be 54" Francois would not let me shoot him, he thought the other bull was bigger. This was the hottest day of the hunt at 95 degrees (it was 105 at home). We broke for lunch to cool off and headed back to the lodge where we ran into Abel, a tracker for Ruan and asked if he wanted to go track a big Kudu, he smiled and "Yes, I would". So, we immediately went back without lunch with our tracker Morfas and Abel and got back after the 2 Kudu bulls. It was sweltering hot. We set up on a crossroads and Morfas and Abel went in to find them. about an hour later they came walking back telling us they found them. I couldn't believe it. We went with them and snuck in the cover as quiet as we could and about 30 minutes later there they were, 30 yards way hidden the brush.

Video link below

https://drive.google.com/file/d/17HHR-lScfcn326PSHMdnHb2SsrSw3_5A/view

 

[dhoover]

 

[Firebird]

Nice deep curls. Looking forward to the rest of your report-hopefully there is a big buffalo bull and the end of this thread. . .

 

[Muntjacer23]

Beautiful Kudu! I look forward to reading the rest of the report!

 

[HuntOften36]

Love Kudu with that shape

 

[gregrn43]

Awesome looking kudu

 

[dhoover]

Getting the kudu took some pressure off but a lot of animals were hitting the ground and our group was doing some damage. 4 buffalo had been shot along with a lot of nice plains game included a huge sable and a few Crocodiles.

 

[kpoynter]

Congrats and thanks for sharing
The Kudu has massive curls…really really deep

 

[dhoover]

Day 4 we started off early looking for buffalo tracks. We were looking for a lone bull with tracks like a Clydesdale. He was living in the hilly rocky area above the river. About 8 am Glen called and said they had seen a big Crocodile in the river near where we were hunting. within 20 minutes we were looking at a big croc 100 yards away and here are the results.

 

[dhoover]

I shot him 4 times with a 375 Ruger with Choice Ammo 300 grain Barnes TSX and none of the bullets exited. 14'3".

 

[dhoover]

That afternoon we continued to check waterholes for buffalo tracks with no luck. My good friend Mike killed a magnificent 46" Buffalo with Grys. It was with other buffalo, so we were hopeful it wasn't the big bull we were after but also very happy for Mike.

The morning of day 6 we were still struggling to find a buffalo track and came across an ostrich which was on my list, so we shot him right before lunch. The 375 was just enough to put him down.

 

[TigerBob]

Love the hunt recap! We were at Leadwood the week before you (we left on July 7th) and I too hunted with Francois. He's a good dude, even if he is a ginger! Sounds like you all had a good hunt.

 

[dhoover]

Francois is the best. I really enjoy hunting with him. We had a great trip. I'll post more soon. Still catching up at work.

 

[dhoover]

After the ostrich we looked around for a few hours for buffalo tracks and didn't find much. I wanted to shoot a zebra but since my wife and I have horses and she was on the trip zebras were not on the menu. Francois and I decided it was time we try for a bushbuck so we road tripped over to the mountains between us and Polokwane to hunt Bushbuck in the agricultural fields where they have permission. It was a fun hunt, and we got our Bushbuck at about 4000 ft elevation.

 

[dhoover]

Day 6 we again spent the morning looking for single buffalo tracks and found none. after lunch we resumed and about 3 pm caught a break. we found a huge lone track at a water hole and immediately started to follow. the bull ed us up over some hills and through some rocky areas that made it difficult to follow. I was amazed as Morfas skill, and he continued to find the track again and again in the tough terrain. we stopped at dark after following them for almost 3 hours. I never got the idea that he knew we were following and he never an, just steady walking. The bull was generally heading towards a waterhole in a deep valley. On the walk back to the truck, we decided to pick up a second tracker and start at the waterhole the next morning.

Early the morning of day 7 we were at the waterhole with Morfas and Vusi, another great tracker I have hunted with before. They quickly picked up the track and we drove a mile away to a road where the dry riverbed the bull was following crossed. We hadnt been there more than 5 minutes when Vusi called on the radio and said they had jumped the bull, he was big and headed our way!

We set up on the sticks on the riverbed and waited maybe 10 minutes when Vusi called again and said get ready he's mad and he's coming. We soon heard the bull coming through the trees, breaking brush and grunting like he meant business.
Check out the video https://drive.google.com/file/d/1V2TPl8pK28jy0vqbRQgfZlvJLA6YbeJ6/view

 

[Hunt anything]

Great report, well done!

 

[Graham Hunter]

Your video doestn't load and comes with warnings!

 

[dchum]

Your video doestn't load and comes with warnings!

they work fine for me.

 

[dhoover]