SOUTH AFRICA: First Time Hunting In Africa Was A Fantastic Success

CarsonG

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Africa
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I had always looked at hunting in Africa as an exotic experience that I would never be able to afford. I assumed it would take tens of thousands of dollars and I’m just no the guy. Last fall, my dad came back from a trip to Colorado where he had met a guy who hunted Africa frequently. They began to talk and when it was discovered how reasonable it was to hunt in Africa dad made a joke about us going and how he wanted to (it’s been a lifelong dream of his). I can be rather bull headed sometimes, within three days of that I discovered this wonderful site through my research and it was off to the races. I decided to hunt RSA to cut down on travel. Through my searching I found @HENRY GRIFFITHS SAFARIS and i invited a couple other people to come as well. With my father, my cousin, and a friend (along with his wife) we booked our trip and it was wheels up in the last week of August.
Don’t forget I’m a newbie and I made some newbie mistakes. I didn’t use a travel agent (why spend the extra few hundred dollars when I can find the flight cheaper than they) so we flew United going from Houston to Newark and then on to Johannesburg. Our flight from Houston was delayed but we reached Newark with about ten minutes to spare. Only to find out that the plane departed twenty minutes early (my cousin who had a different flight, was on the Newark flight already). My cousin had begged them to wait for us but no dice (guess who won’t be flying United again…nor through Newark either). We were able to get on the same flight the next day and arrived in Johannesburg to meet Henry, my cousin and some nice people who worked for riflepermits.com. It was late so exhausted we drive the five hours to Henry’s which is in the north of Kimberley and south of Vryberg. We arrived at the lodge, ate a quick snack, and then it was to bed. After waking up we had a huge breakfast and then it was off to the range to sight in guns (now it started getting exciting)
After we left the range (an old diamond mine in the woods where, due to the diamond mine, there was a nice open spot to shoot with several convenient backstops). We set out for the plains but before we got clear of the woods we jumped several Red Hartebeest and my cousin took the first kill of the day. After a small stalk, he was able to get around the opposite side of a stand of trees and killed the hartebeest as it came out the other. His 28 nosler seemed to do the trick.

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We finished driving out of the woods and headed onto the plains, where we were able to able make the most of our trip over the next few days.

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Congrats and thanks for sharing!
 
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So details are two weeks in the past and I’ve been working like a dog trying to catch up on life so I’ll skip over several of the kills and just speak to the details that really stuck with me.
I had always owned cheap scopes so when I decided to hunt Africa I knew I needed to change that, I bought a Swarovski and a Leupold off of AH, along with my Enfield p14 chambered in .375HH. The Swarovski gave me a little trouble and didn’t want to hold zero after I had sighted it in and shot it several times (no biggie there, Swarovski tells me I can send it in and they will warranty it) so I put the Leupold on my gun, I initially bought this scope because the price was really good on it, it’s a six power scope with a 30mm reticle on it. Not really a monster for magnification but by the end of the hunt I decided I’m never taking it off the gun. Again, I mentioned cheap scopes before and with them my max range was 200 yds and I wasn’t great there. So I was very surprised at how well I could see at 300+ yards and how comfortable I felt taking a shot at that distance. 309 yards away, I found this dude and decided my hunt had officially started.
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After taking down my Blesbok I was really comfortable with 300+ yard shots (which is good because stalking closer to game out on the plains seemed to be impossible). One day we hunted, the wind felt like we had accidentally done a reverse Dorthy and we ended up in Kansas. So high winds had all the game spooky and I believe it took about nine miles of walking that day to trail close enough to get three kills between the lot of us. My wildebeest took up four miles of this. At 323 yards I was closer than I had been all day.
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I was really proud of this old bull. We continued to hunt and I ended up with a yellow flanked Blesbok

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My dad, and friend, both ended up Zebra.

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After that we spotted some Gemsbok and spent half of a day trying to get me a shot at one but where we were there was very thick brush and I just couldn’t get a shot. So onto the next day, we were driving when we game around a group of trees onto the plains and we saw this dude hanging out…I believe this shot was at 340 yards
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There was a second Sable and my blood was pumping after my friend made his shot so we tried to trail it but I was left very far in the dust. So as we walk back to the first Sable a Warthog decided to come running along without a care in the world, he was at about 140 yards (my closest kill and worst shot, but this dude was moving).

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The lighting is terrible (or should I say my ability to align the camera, my kill, and myself with said lighting) Henry is great at taking good pictures, but I am not. So we continued hunting and and we got yet another surprise.
 
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I was super pleased, and at 326 yards this was my longest shot. The hunt was winding up and I gotta say, I was very pleased with the hunt, with our choice of outfitters but I was disappointed that I hadn’t seen a giraffe that was worth taking down. Come to find out, power lines and lightning strikes can have quite the damaging effect on a the male giraffe population. Henry worked hard though, I had told him how excited my kids were at the prospect of having a giraffe in the house and we were finally able to get on one. The adventure finding it was quite exciting but we did eventually find it.

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This old bull, while not dark was huge (at least to my eyes) and I was really pleased to put him down and wrap up the hunt.
This was the experience of a lifetime and I can’t wait to come back, I was super pleased with the hunt, with our outfitter. My friends, father, and myself definitely made some friendships that we will enjoy for years to come.
 
Congratulations!
 
Glad you made the decision to hunt in Africa. I love the diversity and you guys gave it a good run. Congratulations on your success and thank you for posting
 
Awesome Carson thank you for the report it was great to have you guys in camp, looking forward to next time , fiy im delivering your trophies to the taxidermy this Friday
 
Perfect, thanks again for having us and putting up with us!
 
@CarsonG - Awesome animals, great photos, and your friend with his girlfriend or wife (I'm assuming) steals the show in the photos for wholesome moments on a hunting trip.
 
Congrats on a great hunt !
 
Congratulations all around on a successful First safari. Thanks for posting your report.
 
Great review and trophies ... My party has a hunt scheduled with Henry and you certainly added to our anticipation!
 
Congratulations.
Thanks for sharing your hunt with us.
 
Great review and trophies ... My party has a hunt scheduled with Henry and you certainly added to our anticipation!

You’ll have a good time! I can’t wait to head back to the dark continent, it’s definitely a great experience.
 
It looks you had a great time, congrats mate.
Ahmad
 

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