SOUTH AFRICA: BOW: RIFLE: August 22 Hunt With Limcroma Safaris

[randallhebert]

We head back for lunch and to pick up Jason's sister, Stephanie that due to prior obligations had to miss the first few days.
After getting Stephanie settled in we head back out to try and find Stephanie a kudu.
Find some young bulls, impala, zebra, everything except a big kudu. Pull up to a crossroad and Ivan gets out and walks up and looks up and down the road. He rushes back and gets me. There's a good gemsbok so Ivan and I take off to try to make a stalk. We ease along in the brush until we get close. We get out to the road and Ivan sets up the sticks. Get the gun on the sticks and shot. He drops, by time I get reloaded he gets back up and runs off maybe 40 yds and cuts a flip. We walk up a little and I put another round between the shoulder blades and he's finished. Get him cleaned up and start with the pictures.

7

 

[randallhebert]

After dropping off the gemsbok we head back out and come across some blue wildebeest. Get Stephanie set up on one. She shoots and it rolls. Before we can get her reloaded he's up and gone. We look and find blood. Stephen and I take off with a rifle tracking while Ivan and everyone else drives out to try and get ahead of them. We trailed them a couple hours and over 2 miles on a drop of blood every 75 to 100 feet. Unbelievable how good these trackers are. Stephen finally came to the conclusion that it wasn't a fatal shot so we called it a day.

 

[randallhebert]

@randallhebert , you´re a good man, helping Jason on his dream hunt

Thank you sir.

 

[randallhebert]

Aug 15th
We head out from camp looking for a kudu for Stephanie. We aren't but 20 minutes from camp when we come across the kudu I had passed on a couple days before. Get Stephanie set up on the rifle and Ivan gives her the go ahead. Shot, whump he kicks and takes off running but only goes 50 yds before going down. We get him set up for pictures and they start.

 

[randallhebert]

Head back out looking for gemsbok for Jason. We have the ranch hands out looking for buffalo cow for Jason and a bull for me. We ride around and don't come across any shootable gemsbok. Head back in for lunch and a quick safety nap. Amazing how it don't take long to get into the habit of a short nap after lunch, but after eating one of Mr. Vines fabulous meals you had to.
We meet up at the truck at 3 to go back out. Come across giraffe, zebra, nyala, black and common impala, wildebeest, steenbok, sable, everything except what we are after. We are headed back to camp when we come upon a big common duiker. Ivan says he's big and someone needs to get on him. I get the rifle and find him in the scope and shoot him behind the ribs in the stomach to keep from blowing him up. He runs off in the bushes and find him. He tries to get up and Ivan finished him off with his pistol. Look him over and see he has one broke horn but you could tell he was an old fighter.
Load him up and decide to break out the bright, one eye hound for the trip back home to see if we can find anything. Pick up some eyes in the light and get Jason set up. He shoots and gets another duiker. We continue shining until we get to camp, but nothing else worth shooting.

 

[randallhebert]

Aug 16
Head out looking for buffalo or gemsbok for Jason and what ever else might stay around to long.
Ride over to Limcromas river property and not 200 yds after going through the gate we have a good bushbuck walk out. Apparently he was late for something, cause he never stopped, paused, hesitated or turned and he was gone. Continue on and stop by the river and spotted a 8 ft croc. Ended up seeing some bushbuck does, baboons, and vervets, but couldn't get a shot on the baboons or vervets, so we headed back to sable valley lodge for lunch.

During lunch, we get news that the ground crew has spotted a old cow buffalo by herself in a corner of the property. Plans were made to look for her later that afternoon when everything got up to move around.

 

[randallhebert]

We look around for gemsbok for Jason until about 5 pm then head over to the area that the cow buffalo had been seen. The buffalo was in open area of about 300 acres with a few trees and light brush, with roads all around it. Due to Jason's condition, he freezes when he gets excited or scared, so the game plan was to find her and maneuver the truck around till we could get Jason a shot. We find her in the upper left hand corner of the block and try to get set up for a shot, she takes off and heads down to the lower right corner. We head down and she heads over to the lower left corner, as we move over to the lower left corner, she heads back to the right side about halfway up. We turn around and go back to the right side and about halfway up there is a clump of brush right along the side of the road. The cow is walking like she is going to cross the road above this clump of brush so we stop below the brush and get Jason set up to shoot when she crosses the road. Stephen the tracker is driving, Doc in the front passenger seat, Jason's mom Maureen behind doc, my wife Renee middle and Jason's sister behind Stephen. Ivan is in the back against the tailgate rail passenger side, Jason and I are against the cab with him on the rifle waiting for the cow to cross the road. We lose sight of her behind the bushes and the next time we see her she has come out below the brush and is maybe 5 yards from the truck passenger side. I get Jason moved around and on her and he shoots hitting her in the left shoulder. She takes off and Ivan hits her in the left shoulder, I get the rifle from Jason and step between Jason and Ivan, and shoot her hitting her in her left side, she turns headed quartering away and Ivan and I both shoot twice hitting her in her right side. She runs out about 300 yds and starts heading back to the right. Ivan gets out and heads to cut her off. We hear 2 more shots and then hear Ivan tell Stephen over the radio that she's down and to bring us over for photos. She took 5 rounds from a 416 and 4 from a 375 and still traveled about 700 yards.

Shooting a buffalo is easy. Convincing it its dead is the hard part.

We all head out and meet up with Ivan, position the buffalo and start the photo session. After photos we head back to camp for supper. At supper the PHs welcome Jason to the big 5 club for having taken one of the big 5 even though it's a cow. Jason is beaming from ear to ear and to this day every one he meets, he tells them that he shot black death.

 

[USN]

What a wonderful story. Good job Jason!

 

[randallhebert]

Aug 17th
We are looking for a gemsbok for Jason and whatever the Bush offers his sister. It was decided to split up and hunt 2 different locations. Doc, Maureen, Stephanie and PH Ranier went to the river property while Jason, Renee, Ivan, Stephen and I went to another property about 30 minutes away. We ride around looking for gemsbok, sat at a waterhole and sat at a road crossing with mineral blocks. We found a few gemsbok but by the time we would get set up they would run off. We get Jason set up on one finally and he misses. Later that evening we stalk one and get Jason on the sticks. Another miss. By this time it getting close to dark so we start heading out of the property. We are going down the fence when we come across 3 buffalo bulls. Stephen starts slapping me on the shoulder telling me to get ready to shoot. Stephen tells me to shoot the last one in line. Ivan tells me to wait as the big bull in not out yet. The first 3 walk off and the 4th bull walks out from behind the brush. He's about 30 yds quartering, so I put it behind his left shoulder and shoot him. He hunches up and gives a little kick and runs off. This has all taken place in like 30 seconds. Ivan suggested we give him 5 minutes then follow up as it's getting dark quick. We wait 5 minutes then walk to where the bull was when I shot.

This is what we find by the lights on Ivan's phone. We start trailing with Stephen using the phone light and Ivan and I on each side with rifles. We go about 40 yds and then hear all kinds of bellowing, sticks breaking, thuds. It's like oh shit, cause we can barely see 10 yds in front, it's that dark. Ivan says the other bulls are trying to get the hurt bull away from them and that we should back out and come back in the morning. We mark the area and head out back to the truck and head to camp. They assure me that we would find him in the morning. Get to camp, ate supper and had several drinks to hopefully help me sleep, but knew it was going to be a long night.

Aug 18th
We head out to look for my buffalo. We find our marker and take off. We go about 30 yds and there lays my buffalo. What a relief. He was to stiff to position for pictures so we made do. You could see where the other bulls had trampled and smashed the brush around him. If we would have kept on the night before we would have walked right into a hell of a mess.

 

[randallhebert]

We leave Stephan and another hand there to skin the buffalo while we go hunt a water hole for a gemsbok for Jason. Ivan, Jason and I sat at the water while everyone else went to another property. A old bull buffalo comes in and drinks for a while.

Ivan tells Jason to get ready as there is a gemsbok coming in. He comes to the water and starts drinking. Shot, miss. At this point and time it was decided to head back to camp to get ready to leave the next day. Jason is ok with well, we will just have to come back and get your gemsbok.

When we get to the lodge, Stephanie had killed a beautiful golden wildebeest.

 

[randallhebert]

After paying our tab, we head out to Johannesburg to spend the night at african sky as we have a early flight to Victoria Falls the next morning.
I highly recommend Limcroma Safaris to handle any situation you can throw their way. It was so enjoyable and relaxing. The ladies enjoyed their time there so that was a big plus.

 

[randallhebert]

Aug 20

We arrive in Victoria falls and head to our hotel. On the way from the airport, we come across a herd of elephant drinking water out of a leaking pipe on the side of the rd. We pull over to watch when some idiot pulls up and gets out of his car to approach them for pictures. The females start heading toward said idiot. He ran back to his vehicle and hauled ass, cause she was not playing. We leave them and head to our rooms. We get settled, in then meet up to go see the falls. After the falls we head over and eat at the three monkeys, or something like that.

Aug 21st

This morning we head over to Botswana to do Chobe.

H]

Even got to try mopane worms. Definitely an acquired taste.

We get back after dark and run into a hyena walking down the road in front of the hotel. When we pull into the hotel the guard tells us to be careful going to our rooms as there is a hippo eating on the grounds.

 

[Greenhorn]

It looks like a fantastic trip! I need to do more sightseeing there for sure. They have so many cool places to go visit.

 

[ILDRHNTR]

Amazing experience for all of you! Congrats on all of the fine animals! Victoria Falls is for sure on the bucket list to see. Thanks for taking us along on your adventure.

 

[randallhebert]

More coming

 

[randallhebert]

The hippo was about 50 feet in front of the door of our hotel room just munching away. Several people are taking pictures and he doesn't have a care in the world. We get cleaned up and catch a ride over to the Boma for supper. It was an awesome experience. If you're ever in vic falls definitely need to go do the boma for supper.

Aug 22nd
We head over to buy curios and stop by the zip line near the rr Bridge. Stephanie, Renee and I do the zip line over the river and then it was time to head to the airport. We fly back to joberg, pick up luggage we had left with Africa Ski and Gilbert, then head to Capetown. Arrive in Capetown, get checked into hotel, supper and its time to go to bed. Can't wait to see what tomorrow brings.

 

[BrotherD]

Fantastic write-up. Limcroma runs a top notch operation. Ivan and Steven make a heck of a team too!

 

[firehuntfish]

@randallhebert

Incredible Safari! Thanks for taking the time to share your experiences and photos with the AH.com community!

 

[ACE (in CT)]

Thank you for sharing your story, it was a quite the trip!

 

[cpr0312]

Congrats and thanks for sharing!