SOUTH AFRICA: AH Group Hunt For Dangerous Game With MATTANJA HUNTING SAFARIS…

[Azklmsr]

He was A Giant of a bull for sure!

 

[Azklmsr]

TigerBob mentioned some medical items as did Bryan relative to the team. Shortly after signing up for the hunt, my health took a plunge in the wrong direction. I was diagnosed with AFIB. Though relatively infrequent, it could knock me down pretty hard. Add to that my left hip was shot in late summer (I've been a distance runner since mid-teens, now I'm 64). I tried many things on both fronts to make these issues tolerable including meds, Yoga, meditation, lot of prayer, diet, strength training, chiropractic care and heavy steroids. In the end, I had the hip replaced on May 4, about 7 weeks before the hunt. It was completely healed, no issues of pain or limits, though it did leave me less strong than I am used too. I had a coronary ablation procedure 8 days before Safari. I was PERFECT and left me 100% improved.

Doctors including my Chiro were all part of the decision and all 100% supportive. I came back from the hunt stronger than when I got there.

Moral of the story: Don't miss what God is telling you. Push on and take His blessings!

During the hunt, we had a lot of things that were hard, and some occasional easy things. I was often reminded of a saying from my late father: "Most things in life are hard. It's ok to take the easy ones now and then".

Kurt

 

[Green Chile]

After you hunt buff for awhile (as many here know), you realize that some are wired differently than others. Some are pretty docile and some are irritated and half cocked all the time. That buffalo of Bobby's was a challenging beast. Not only was he tricky in his habits but he was also a fighter. He laid up more than once for us after being shot and then gave that violent performance at the end where he snapped his horn off. I have never seen or heard of that happening due to shooting one. No he didn't shoot the horn...I watched it happen. He torqued his neck so violently in his final moments of trying to come for us a 3rd time that it just broke off near the boss. I said, hey you've got half a scrum cap! Interesting buff for sure.

 

[Houston Bill]

Great concept and sounds like to group had a great time, thanks for sharing.

 

[Tbitty]

Love it!

I'm actually in the process of organizing a group hunt for 2028. One of the hunters went with me last year for his first safari. He is hooked now. For the other three, this will be their first safari.

My new-to-hunting friend who joined in a safari last year signed up for a cull hunt, turned it into a trophy hunt 3 days in, and was already planning a return trip before we left. At least this time, I get help recruiting more first-timers to join us.

 

[skydiver386]

My first animal on this hunt was the one that convinced me to sign up, stalking a Croc along a river bank. Hunting from a blind over bait is fine, but this sounded more exciting.

The river you see in the background in @Green Chile's original post is the Salt river, and I'm here to tell you, it's full of huge Crocs. Most of the afternoon you can see dozens of them from the Lodge overlooking the river. Of course, most are females, and we're looking for a large male.

Our PH Gys suggested we stalk as slowly as possible along the river to see if we could spot a lage male. Several stalks were busted by Hippos along the bank, and one particular male followed us for quite a distance.

After walking most of the river bank, and spotting females and small males, Gys suggested we turn back to where the Hippo had spoiled our stalks earlier. Gys spotted a large male along the far bank with his head resting on a clump of grass, almost pointed upward. We briefly discussed shot placement and figured the 450 Rigby with the Barnes X in the neck would settle the matter.

After moving another 50 yards closer we came to a spot that offered us a clear shot. He asked if I would be comfortable taking a 70 yard shot from the sticks, and I replied that the shot wouldn't be a problem, but since the Croc was awake with his eyes open, I thought as soon as we set up the sticks the Croc would give us the slip.

I told Gys it might be better to lay down the small pack I was carrying and keep low by shooting from the prone. He pushed the pack slowly into the open shooting lane and I low crawled behind it and lair the rifle on top of it. I adjusted the scope to it's max of 4X as Gys pointed out the proper aiming point on the neck. He asked if I were comfortable with the shot, and I replied yes and pushed the CZ's trigger forward to the set position.

As the cross hairs settled on the aim point on the neck, I gently pressed the trigger and the shot landed precisely in the center of the neck. I stood up and tried to put a second shot into the hips, but his tail was thrashing wildly and my second shot went low. The third shot went in the neck and exited the left jaw.

From this photo you can see the opening in the trees on the far bank where the shot was taken.

Back at the skinning shed he measured just under 13ft. Quite an exciting hunt and exactly the type of stalk I had been looking forward to.

 

[skydiver386]

A word about bullet performance on Crocs. The first shot in the neck shattered the spinal column, but didn't pass through. A .458 450gr Barnes X at over 2400fps broke it's petals off, and continued on like a solid, but still made it only to the skin on the far side. Croc are built just a tad more stoutly than I had imagined, but Brian did warn me about this. One of the petals was laying in the Crocs mouth as Keepa and Gys fished him out of the river.

I had initially wanted to bring my CZ550 in 375 H&H, but accuracy problems and adding a Buff made me reconsider and I ended up taking the CZ550 in 450 Rigby that I purchased from @krish. It turned out to be a good decision as you'll see when I tell the tale of my Buff.

As an aside, Tina grew a bit frustrated when that Hippo kept spoiling things for us. You could hear the Crocs
splashing as they entered the river ahead of us,with the Hippo just yards away. On our next hunt, @tinktink12 is going to take a crack at Hippo, hopefully on land.

 

[Green Chile]

Yea that was a great croc. Big kudos to being able to shoot prone with a 450 Rigby. That would overwhelm most shooters and potentially hurt them. Great shooting Darrell!

Darrell, do you want to share Tina's learning experience about crocs and how long their muscles continue to work after dying? Hilarious story.

It was also good eating that night! Had a texture like calamari. Dieter's dad is owns a refrigeration business and built Leadwood's walk in cooler. Here you can see some of the buff and Darrell's croc tail.

 

[Green Chile]

View attachment 776801
Back at the skinning shed he measured just under 13ft. Quite an exciting hunt and exactly the type of stalk I had been looking forward to.

Love that photo...Darrell is not a small man and that's one big lizard. As he said, I warned him that an exit on a neck shot was highly unlikely. In fact, I've never seen one. I think a .416 with a solid might do the trick but the 450 Rigby didn't quite make it. You don't need an exit at all but they are remarkably dense in their necks. I also warned him that our style of hunting crocs is VERY different than baiting and I was pleased that he enjoyed it so much. Well done my friend!

 

[tinktink12]

I'd like to start my portion of the hunt report by congratulating the entire staff along the way that worked so hard to make this hunt so memorable.

Gilbert and the staff at African Sky

Glen and Charmaine of Leadwood
Chef's Solani and Jacob
Butler Andrew

PH's Francois, Gys and Deiter

Trackers Vusi, Steven, Keepa

Each of them was a joy to get to know, and their hard work is very much appreciated.

The Lodging, food and company were all spectacular, with one small exception. One the first night in camp it was rather cold, and Tina went to our chalet while I got to know the staff and PH's around the fire. After an hour or so of Fancois stories about battling drunken Honey Badgers, I decided it was time for bed. As I slipped under the covers I felt something especially warm on my side of the bed, and not only was it warm, it was also HAIRY. My mind flashed to images of Francois tales of battling hung over Honey Badger's and figured for sure that's what it was as I jumped back out of bed.

THOUGHT I WAS GONNA HAVE TO UNCASE MY CZ550 AND GO TO WORK!

I heard Tina giggle softly as she informed me it was a Hot Water Bottle placed there by the staff.

I figured from that moment on I'd better keep my guard up.

I second this … the staff and PH’s were great and made us feel like family. They always remembered our drink orders and what food we liked and disliked. They even baked us a special cake to celebrate America’s 250!

The grounds and bungalows we stayed in were top notch. Every night there was a water bottle in our bed warming it up with yesterday’s clothes all pressed and cleaned on a chair.

Every night we hung out at the fire pit with the PH’s and talked about the days accomplishments.

And every time during daylight when we returned to our bungalows we had Nyala and bushbuck greeting us.

Even at night there was a Hippo and other creatures that wandered up to our camp to say hello.

We were a group of 6 from the AfricaHunting Forum who had never met officially but got along fabulously and probably will remain friends.
It was a truly fabulous trip!

 

[skydiver386]

Yea that was a great croc. Big kudos to being able to shoot prone with a 450 Rigby. That would overwhelm most shooters and potentially hurt them. Great shooting Darrell!

Darrell, do you want to share Tina's learning experience about crocs and how long their muscles continue to work after dying? Hilarious story.

It was also good eating that night! Had a texture like calamari. Dieter's dad is owns a refrigeration business and built Leadwood's walk in cooler. Here you can see some of the buff and Darrell's croc tail.

View attachment 776822

That brings up the nightly dinners. The Croc nuggets were quite good especially in the sauce she put out with them. My favorite was the Giraffe steaks, followed closely by the Buffalo. The Zebra Schnitzel was very good, but anything pounded, breaded, fried and smothered in mushroom gravy is difficult to compare against other game meats.

Bushbuck, Impala and all the other PG was quite good.

Yes, Tina at first didn't believe me when I explained that Crocs are the most notorious animal in Africa for being loaded onto a trailer, and somehow coming back to life!

Gys saw her reach into the Crocs mouth to retrieve one of the petals from the Barnes X, and warned her about the danger. After holding the mouth open for a second, he let go and the Croc made a satisfying CLOP as it's mouth closed. At that point I think she understood we were serious and that reptiles can be dangerous long after you think they've expired.

 

[skydiver386]

Our Night Hunting was especially productive and I scored this huge Honey Badger around 9:30. A group of female Bush Pigs with their young came into the bait pile just after dark and fed for over an hour. No large males though.

As the night went on, the near full moon illuminated everything and it was almost possible to take a shot without any additional light. Four Honey Badger's came to the pile, but the first was suspicious and passed right under the tower blind, and I caught a glimpse of him looking up at us. Gys spotted a really large male coming in from our right and gave me a quick look at him through the thermal. Once he was busy feeding I lined up on him with Tina's 257 Roberts and gave Gys the nod to switch on the white light. One Barnes X and job done. He did run maybe 20ft towards a tree to our left, but was struggling to even get that far. Tenacious little boogers.

This particular Badger was quite a bit larger than all the others and had a head the size of a cantaloupe. What a fun hunt so far!

 

[skydiver386]

Yea that was a great croc. Big kudos to being able to shoot prone with a 450 Rigby. That would overwhelm most shooters and potentially hurt them. Great shooting Darrell!

I don't let that oversized Daisy Red Ryder intimate me!

 

[TigerBob]

After shooting the buff, I asked my PH what he would like to hunt. I would hunt just about anything and I wanted to see what got him excited. Without hesitation he said I'd love to get that old dugga boy bushbuck we've been hunting, but he's a wily critter. Apparently they've been hunting him all year but with no success. So, Bushbuck it was... We sat in the river bottom and slowly stalked trying to find him, but it took 2 full days to locate him. On the morning of the 3rd day we got up from our morning sit and were about to head out to the north when I caught a glimpse of what appeared to be a bushbuck about 1000 yds away walking towards us down a road. Francois confirmed that this was our boy and the stalk was on. We closed the distance over a course of 15 minutes or so and he walked back out on the road roughly 50 yards in front of us, which made for an easy shot. This was a great accomplishment for Francois as he had hunted this guy all year and I didn't have a bushbuck yet. Sometimes lady luck just smiles on you. You can see he's an old guy - warts on his head, scars on his back and broomed tips on his muddy horns. This old warrior will make a great addition to my trophy room.

 

[Azklmsr]

Fabulous photos Tina and Darrel and it was such a privilege to get to share this hunt with all new friends for Pam and I.

That was the magic of the group hunt that Dieter and Bryan pulled together. They clearly worked to ensure we would be a good fit and made it easy, especially for this newbie, to feel very comfortable bringing my non-hunting wife! Hunt was great. Group time was even better. Facilities, owners, and staff made us feel super comfortable and at home.

 

[Azklmsr]

That was a terrific bushbuck Bobby for sure!

 

[Tbitty]

These are great tales, everyone. Glad to hear it was such a successful hunt and look forward to hearing more!

 

[dhoover]

You all had a great hunt. I'm heading to the same place tomorrow with a group of 11 from Little Rock including a few wives. Glad to see the wives had fun. You guys are a tough act to follow. We will do our best and report back in a few weeks.

 

[skydiver386]

On my Buffalo hunt, I really had the opportunity to see Vusi, the head tracker, do his thing.

Just after breakfast we headed out to find any tracks crossing the roads and foot trails. In just over an hour we found the tracks of 3 good bulls that looked promising., and just before lunch we were sure they had bedded in one thick spot for the afternoon.

Vusi, Gys, Keepa, Tina and I caught back up to them shortly after lunch. For the next 6 hours, those 3 Bulls stayed just ahead of us, sometimes offering a glimpse of a horn here and a hoof there. Often we were well within 20 yards of them, but could barely see through the thick cover, and they would silently move off.

As it started to get dark I thought it might be time to call it for the day. Still good shooting light, but not if things go south. Two of the Bulls moved into an open area where one looked over his shoulder in our direction, then all 3 moved down a slight hill along a narrow path.

Vusi, Gys and I quickly followed and at a small bend Vusi suddenly threw up the sticks and stepped to the left with Gys. The Bull was facing to my left and I rapidly put the rifle on the sticks as I pushed off the safety. Red centered cross hairs in the Leupold reticle one third the way up the front leg and I squeezed the trigger.

I quickly worked the bolt for a follow up shot, but couldn't see anything but a cloud of dust. Gys pointed to the Bull who was already down behind some small brush. As we walked forward I asked if I should put another one in him, but Gys said not to get to close, and just give him a minute. No kicking, no rise and fall of the chest, just a very quiet escape of air from the lungs.

Very cautiously we approached from the Bulls backside and Gys gave him the eye poke to confirm he was gone. After some back slapping and hand shakes, we noticed he spun to his right and as he did his left horn nearly tore the bark off a tree from knee level to over 6ft.

It took 9 of us and a boat winch to load him onto the trailer for the ride to the skinning shed.

The 450 gr Barnes X did a phenomenal job and we recovered it just under the skin on the right shoulder. The Bull went maybe 10ft from where he had neen standing when I pulled the trigger.

Vusi said the next day to Steven, one of the other trackers "When the Old Man shot the Buffalo, it ran 5 steps and DIED. I never seen the Buffalo die like that with only one bullet!"

When Steven told me that, my first thought was wait a minute, who's he callin an Old Man?

 

[Azklmsr]

Great Job Darrel (aka old man)