SOUTH AFRICA: Huntershill May 2018

Congrats on a great hunt and some beautiful animals! I am one of the lucky baboon hunters...managed to get on on my 4th day as they were coming for water. Huntershill looks like a quality outfit!
 
I'm still getting synched to the time change and my wife handed me a massive honey do jar. I hope to add to this later but suffice it to say I had a blast. Hunted 3 properties with a great PH Johan and after 4 years finally got my baboon.

Day 1 off to the range to check my zero and after a few shots we are off to do a bit of scouting before dinner. Massive property with plenty of game but they are skittish so either shoot long or work on your stalking skills.

Day 2 Johan finds me 3 very nice Black Wildebeest with one being a great one. Unfortunately they are moving at 350 up high on the side of the mountain. Broke my first rule of don't shoot at moving animals and paid the price. He went down but jumped up and the 3 were off to higher ground. My PH went for the truck to cut them off while the 2 trackers and me followed them from what cover we could find. I got another very long shot at a steep angle but mistake#2 no rangefinder so parted the hair on his back only. We trailed him for the rest of the day but lost them.

Day 3 Johan takes me to a new place Comre for Eland. It is flatter, sparse cover and covered in stones. At my age I'm watching where my feet go more than the animals because a twisted ankle ruins the hunt. We finally spot some nice eland and low and behold one old gray bull. Sent Johan to get the truck and we followed them for a long ways till they stopped but a herd of giraffe had us spotted and pinned down. Nothing to do but wait till one or the other moved, thankfully the eland moved over the hill and we followed them. After spotting the old gray guy we started our stalk keeping what sparse cover there was between us till we closed to 300yds. I placed the crosshairs 8" over his shoulder and squeezed. The 7mm mag barked and he hunched I was sure he was done but you guys said keep shooting so a second produced another hunch then a slow turn and I dropped another quartering away. Down for the count. When Johan got there he looked at the 2 shots about 3" apart and said that where you hit him, nope those were the exit wounds, he couldn't believe it. Barnes 145LRX damn deadly. The 3rd was recovered and weighed 144gr. Getting him into the truck was even more of an adventure.

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Very interesting and thanks for posting.
 
Congratulations..... Have heard nothing but great things of Huntershill. Looks beautiful!
 
Congrats on a great hunt, thanks for sharing!
 
Great report and photos. Congratulations on the long range shooting, you appeared to be more comfortable doing it than I would be since most of my hunting is done at under a hundred yards.
 
Great report and photos. Congratulations on the long range shooting, you appeared to be more comfortable doing it than I would be since most of my hunting is done at under a hundred yards.

I hate shooting off sticks (mental block) and avoid it whenever possible. However up north where there is plenty of short scrub you have no choice. In the EC particularly at HH I used a long bipod and shot from a sitting position, way more stable. Here at home I haven't ever killed a deer over 50 yds, just can't see that far in the scrub
 
Thanks everyone for the kind words. You have helped me out immeasurably over the years with helpful advice and the do's and don't's of hunting Africa. This is the best site out there on Africa Hunting and it is because of the people here.
 
Day 9: Repeat of Day 8

Day 10: Suffice it to say that I'm now convinced that I won't find my BWB but off we go yet again. Plenty of wind, spitting rain (isn't this the dry season) and some really low cloud cover blankets the mountains. We have seen a few herds but my guy is nowhere to be seen. So I bit the bullet and we started a stalk on a really nice bull. Taking advantage of tree cover we managed to get to within 250yds but the wind was at our back and they winded us. They took off but the bull stopped for a few seconds giving a clear shot. The big 7 barks and he is DRT.

Had a wonderful time and met some great people from the US, England, Australia and Ireland.

Mike from Chicago if you read Africa Hunting I apologize for shattering your preconceptions that all Canadians are polite socialists who liked Obama and loathed Trump :)

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That is a brute of a Blackie!!!
 
I am surprised at how large the baboon looked in the picture. What did he weigh?
 
Congrats on a great hunt! I'll be back at Huntershill next June. Going to see what being an observer is like!
 
Nice report. Thank you for sharing. Like the eland and baboon best.
 
that was an awesome hunt! I love the baboon, he looks huge.(y)
 

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