SOUTH AFRICA: Hunt & Equipment Report With Tally-Ho Safaris

MerlinMc

AH senior member
Joined
Jan 21, 2016
Messages
67
Reaction score
127
Location
WA & TX
Media
6
Hunting reports
Africa
3
Member of
SCI
I took a number of warthogs on a hunt with Tally Ho. We hunted two very specific hogs we had seen and then took a number of meat hogs.

Rifle & Ammo. I used a Blaser R8 equipped with a 26 Nosler barrel. Ammo was factory-loaded Nosler with 142 ABLR (accubond, long range). Both rifle and ammo performed well as described below.

Sticks. My personal sticks consist of a camera tripod, ballhead and "Hog Saddle" rest. It's heavier than most sticks, but allows for very precise shots. The tripod shown here is a Manfrotto aluminum. The setup could be made lighter with a carbon fiber tripod, but it would cost substantially more. Owner of Hog Saddle is a US veteran. Expensive but highly recommended. I have an earlier model and it's held up across lots of hunts. The camera tripod and ballhead also gets used for my camera as well. See: http://www.hogsaddle.com/

Wart Hog Male. Shot in the shoulder at about 125 yards as night fell. Slightly quartering, the boar wheeled around and ran about 50 to 60 yards before expiring. Bullet expanded nicely though a substantial amount of the inner lead core was not recovered.

Wart Hog Female. Pass through shot to the shoulder at about 50 years. Dropped on the spot, some kicking for a few seconds. This hog was nicked "Sally" because of the multiple separate efforts needed to finally get her.

Meat Hogs. Took 3 small hogs and one medium hog for meat. Shots ranged from 90 to 200 yards. All pass through shots. All 4 hogs dropped on the spot. The first small hog was shot broadside in the neck and almost decapitated. Second small hog was shot in the chest front-facing with the bullet blowing open the bottom of the animal. Third hog as shot in the center of the head. Fourth hog was shot in the ear at 200 yards. The only hog that even moved at all after the shot was the one shot in the forehead. That hot kicked for a few seconds.

Dinner. One of the small hogs was roasted with mushrooms by Tally Ho's chef for dinner one night. Absolutely delicious.

PH and owner of Tally Ho, Stuart Williams, organized some excellent hunts for me on his property and others. One of Stuart's PHs, Rudi Nel, also assisted. In the last image you can see the lengths that the lithe (he's tall and thin) PH Nel would go to when we were searching for Sally and searching for a mobile signal.

My experience with Tally Ho was excellent. I was happy with the rifle, even though it's more of a hunting rifle than a precision piece. Ammo worked as expected. Hog Saddle has performed exceptionally well everywhere I have used it; so no surprises on these hunt.

Sticks high tech med res.jpg
Warthog 1 med res.jpg
Warthog Sally med res.jpg
Rudi scanning horizon.jpg
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Congrats and thanks for sharing!

Couple of nice piggies there!
 
Very Cool Thank You for sharing!
 
Love the pigs, thanks for sharing !
 
The river behind the picture of the "high tech" stick is the Limpopo. It was pretty dry when this photo was taken. Here is a picture comparing the "bush" sticks built by PH Rudi Nel to my setup.

Rudi shooting sticks med res.jpg
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Got the job done and enough meat to feed you for a while.

Congrats.
 
Congrats on all the hogs!
 
Love those tuskers! Good choice on caliber. I took a 26 Nosler in '15 shooting the 140s. That rifle could reach waaay out there.
 
Hi All
my 2 cents worth
i was a little apprehensive on the 26 Nosler to start with as its a little small on the diameter for "Bushveld" hunting
but as long as the path was clear, that little bullet packs a punch
it dropped a blue wildebeest in its tracks with a quartering on shot, performed very well on oryx, warthogs, baboon, wildebeest and impala
great shooting too by "merlin" never had to follow up anything very far

kind regards
 
MerlinMc, meat hunting is all too often overshadowed by pictures of antlers and horns. Thanks for sharing. BTW how many lbs. of meat did you wind up with? How do you prepare the meat for long term storage? Many folks in the U.S. still use double wrapped Butcher Paper but the best way to go is Vacuum Packed.
 
Fine tuskers!
 
Hi All
my 2 cents worth
i was a little apprehensive on the 26 Nosler to start with as its a little small on the diameter for "Bushveld" hunting
but as long as the path was clear, that little bullet packs a punch
it dropped a blue wildebeest in its tracks with a quartering on shot, performed very well on oryx, warthogs, baboon, wildebeest and impala
great shooting too by "merlin" never had to follow up anything very far

kind regards

@Tally-Ho Hunting Safaris what's your feeling on the 6.5 Creedmoor?
 
Good looking hogs an sounds like a lot of fun
 
@Tally-Ho Hunting Safaris what's your feeling on the 6.5 Creedmoor?
hi there
i am really not that familiar with that calibre and prefer not to comment if i dont have the knowledge
if its anything like the 26 nosler i am sure its great

regards
 
MerlinMc, meat hunting is all too often overshadowed by pictures of antlers and horns. Thanks for sharing. BTW how many lbs. of meat did you wind up with? How do you prepare the meat for long term storage? Many folks in the U.S. still use double wrapped Butcher Paper but the best way to go is Vacuum Packed.
Shootist, I do not know how much meat we ended up with, but a fair amount. Tally Ho has an excellent butchery WITH a commercial vacuum sealer. I agree that vacuum sealing is the way to go. It's not only superior to the butcher paper, but you are set to Sous Vide the meat.
 
@Tally-Ho Hunting Safaris what's your feeling on the 6.5 Creedmoor?
Cagkt3, I know you were looking for Stuart's opinion, but I thought I would chime in as I am a fiend for 6.5. I have a dedicated, long range 26 Nosler rifle and then the 26 Nosler barrel for my Blaser R8. I also have 260s.

The Creedmore is very similar to the 260 and the 6.5x47. I have the 260 because I also shoot 308 and 22-243 (all the same parent case) Here is a nice comparison: http://demigodllc.com/articles/6.5-shootout-260-6.5x47-6.5-creedmoor/

The 26 Nosler and 6.5-300 Weatherby are much larger cases than rounds just above. You get more velocity, but also more muzzle blast, shorter barrel life. One is probably not going to burn out a hunting barrel, especially given the cost of shooting the magnums.

The 260, Creedmore, etc. are likely to work as well as a 270 or 308 on game. The BCs are higher too. 6.5s have a lengthy track record in Europe on deer-sized game. Lots of elk (i.e. moose) taken in Europe with a 6.5.
 

Attachments

  • Screenshot (56).png
    Screenshot (56).png
    414 KB · Views: 424
  • Screenshot (57).png
    Screenshot (57).png
    276.3 KB · Views: 390
Last edited by a moderator:
Thanks @MerlinMc! I've asked a handful of folks - I love my 6.5 but it seems like many outfitters are not familiar with it yet. I had asked the outfitter I'm going with in the spring, and since he seemed a little hesitant about it I'm just going to bring my .30-06 (Going for PG only, kudu probably the largest I will go after).

I love the 26 Nosler also. I have a friend who recently had a custom rifle built in this caliber (actually a switch barrel concept, with the 2nd barrel being 28 Nosler). It is a really fun gun as well.
 
I took a number of warthogs on a hunt with Tally Ho. We hunted two very specific hogs we had seen and then took a number of meat hogs.

Rifle & Ammo. I used a Blaser R8 equipped with a 26 Nosler barrel. Ammo was factory-loaded Nosler with 142 ABLR (accubond, long range). Both rifle and ammo performed well as described below.

Sticks. My personal sticks consist of a camera tripod, ballhead and "Hog Saddle" rest. It's heavier than most sticks, but allows for very precise shots. The tripod shown here is a Manfrotto aluminum. The setup could be made lighter with a carbon fiber tripod, but it would cost substantially more. Owner of Hog Saddle is a US veteran. Expensive but highly recommended. I have an earlier model and it's held up across lots of hunts. The camera tripod and ballhead also gets used for my camera as well. See: http://www.hogsaddle.com/

Wart Hog Male. Shot in the shoulder at about 125 yards as night fell. Slightly quartering, the boar wheeled around and ran about 50 to 60 yards before expiring. Bullet expanded nicely though a substantial amount of the inner lead core was not recovered.

Wart Hog Female. Pass through shot to the shoulder at about 50 years. Dropped on the spot, some kicking for a few seconds. This hog was nicked "Sally" because of the multiple separate efforts needed to finally get her.

Meat Hogs. Took 3 small hogs and one medium hog for meat. Shots ranged from 90 to 200 yards. All pass through shots. All 4 hogs dropped on the spot. The first small hog was shot broadside in the neck and almost decapitated. Second small hog was shot in the chest front-facing with the bullet blowing open the bottom of the animal. Third hog as shot in the center of the head. Fourth hog was shot in the ear at 200 yards. The only hog that even moved at all after the shot was the one shot in the forehead. That hot kicked for a few seconds.

Dinner. One of the small hogs was roasted with mushrooms by Tally Ho's chef for dinner one night. Absolutely delicious.

PH and owner of Tally Ho, Stuart Williams, organized some excellent hunts for me on his property and others. One of Stuart's PHs, Rudi Nel, also assisted. In the last image you can see the lengths that the lithe (he's tall and thin) PH Nel would go to when we were searching for Sally and searching for a mobile signal.

My experience with Tally Ho was excellent. I was happy with the rifle, even though it's more of a hunting rifle than a precision piece. Ammo worked as expected. Hog Saddle has performed exceptionally well everywhere I have used it; so no surprises on these hunt.

View attachment 199213 View attachment 199214 View attachment 199215 View attachment 199216
Nice, thanks for sharing
 

Forum statistics

Threads
53,442
Messages
1,125,832
Members
92,313
Latest member
RamiroMcGu
 

 

 

Latest posts

Latest profile posts

thriller wrote on Bronkatowski1's profile.
Until this guy posts something on pay it forward free I would avoid him at all costs.
sgtsabai wrote on Buck51's profile.
If it hasn't sold by next week I might be interested. Stock would have to be changed along with some other items. I'm already having a 416 Rigby built so money is a tad bit tight.
The35Whelen wrote on MedRiver's profile.
Hey pal! I'll take all the .375 bullets if they're available.
Thanks!

Cody R. Sieber
@DERIAN KOEKEMOER SAFARIS is proud to say that we are members of PHASA.
WhatsApp Image 2024-03-09 at 08.11.01_9d17b32f.jpg
 
Top