SOUTH AFRICA: Hunting Report Eastern Cape Safari With HUNTERSHILL safaris

[Cody hunt4life]

Outfitter: Huntershill Safaris, Eastern Cape, South Africa

Booking Agent: John Martins

Date: May 30 2021; 9 nights, 8 full hunting days

PH: Jason Olivier, Huntershill’s Head PH; also Riley Naude for last 3 days

Trackers: Jeffi and Civit

Rifle: Camp Rile, Howa 1500 (Made in Japan) in .30-06 fitted with Zeiss Scope and Suppressor (with Jason) & same Howa Rifle in .300 Win Mag fitted with a suppressor and Bushnell scope

I made my very first trip to RSA this year after having to reschedule my safari last year due to the border closures in SA. I chose hunterhill after doing a significant amount of looking around and reading up on different PH's and getting some feedback from several folks in this forum and man am I glad I did! What a Safari!


ARRIVAL DAY:
As soon as I arrived (at approx 3:43pm) my PH Jason, had me immediately run inside to fill out my paperwork and license and we were immediately off into the bush to try and begin my quite heavy trophy list for only the 10 days I would be spending at Hunterhill. We were able to find this beautiful Steenbuck which was not on my list but started the itch I never anticipated on the tiny 10 antelope. We setup quickly as all I was able to see was his head in the tall grass and he explained to me the side and to shoot him though the back legs in order to preserve his cape for mounting purposes as I was shooting a .30-06 and shot placement through the thick grass was perfect. My tracker immediately went after it and retrieved him and what a beauty he was. He almost looked fake his colors were so vibrant. This day wasn't planned to hunt but we wanted an early start as well as got some confidence in the borrowed rifle too. I was then introduced to Africa with the ceremonial blood war paint put on my face by my tracker Jeffi and the excitement had begun and the Africa bug had immediately bitten me and now has a good hold on me for life. After this fairly quick harvest with only about an hour to hunt we decided to take some pictures, get some food in our bellies and prepare for my true day 1 of hunting the following morning which would be primarily focused on a big Kudu Bull....


Day 1:
Today was going to be focused on Kudu which was at the top of the list. We began by going to the very top of a mountain on a free range property that was sworn not to have Kudu but Jason knew otherwise. The weather couldn't have been more perfect that morning as the verty first freeze of the year rolled through and had the big guys, otherwise as we called them "Nkulu Bulls" up on ther feet trying to get some sun after a frigid night. After glassing from up top of the mountain we spotted the bull I was after and he was a moster! He had everything I was looking for with the wide spread, good barrels for curls and was tall. We had to slowly move in another 600 yeards or so to cut the distance to right at 232 yards where I took the first and only shot at him. Two words....Dirt nap! He dropped right where he stood which wasn't ideal as he was still more than halfway up the mountain which meant the work then really began as they packed him out peice by pice staring with the head and cape followed by hind quarters and then they lugged the other half down on their strap device. The amount of work put in just to get to him had me worn out, much less the work thee guys were putting in to get him off the sde of the mountain I was beyond excited for the remainder of my safari and changed gears a bit after realizing how much fun hunting the grey ghost really was and decided that this was a hunt I wanted to do again and would in the future of this trip.

To be continued when I have some more time to finish out a proper report....... LOTS to go as more than 30 animals were harvested on this safari......

 

[buck wild]

Quite a grand start !

 

[Nyati]

That´s a great start, keep it coming !

 

[Cody hunt4life]

Outfitter: Huntershill Safaris, Eastern Cape, South Africa

Booking Agent: John Martins

Date: May 30 2021; 9 nights, 8 full hunting days

PH: Jason Olivier, Huntershill’s Head PH; also Riley Naude for last 3 days

Trackers: Jeffi and Civit

Rifle: Camp Rile, Howa 1500 (Made in Japan) in .30-06 fitted with Zeiss Scope and Suppressor (with Jason) & same Howa Rifle in .300 Win Mag fitted with a suppressor and Bushnell scope

I made my very first trip to RSA this year after having to reschedule my safari last year due to the border closures in SA. I chose hunterhill after doing a significant amount of looking around and reading up on different PH's and getting some feedback from several folks in this forum and man am I glad I did! What a Safari!


ARRIVAL DAY:
As soon as I arrived (at approx 3:43pm) my PH Jason, had me immediately run inside to fill out my paperwork and license and we were immediately off into the bush to try and begin my quite heavy trophy list for only the 10 days I would be spending at Hunterhill. We were able to find this beautiful Steenbuck which was not on my list but started the itch I never anticipated on the tiny 10 antelope. We setup quickly as all I was able to see was his head in the tall grass and he explained to me the side and to shoot him though the back legs in order to preserve his cape for mounting purposes as I was shooting a .30-06 and shot placement through the thick grass was perfect. My tracker immediately went after it and retrieved him and what a beauty he was. He almost looked fake his colors were so vibrant. This day wasn't planned to hunt but we wanted an early start as well as got some confidence in the borrowed rifle too. I was then introduced to Africa with the ceremonial blood war paint put on my face by my tracker Jeffi and the excitement had begun and the Africa bug had immediately bitten me and now has a good hold on me for life. After this fairly quick harvest with only about an hour to hunt we decided to take some pictures, get some food in our bellies and prepare for my true day 1 of hunting the following morning which would be primarily focused on a big Kudu Bull....


Day 1:
Today was going to be focused on Kudu which was at the top of the list. We began by going to the very top of a mountain on a free range property that was sworn not to have Kudu but Jason knew otherwise. The weather couldn't have been more perfect that morning as the verty first freeze of the year rolled through and had the big guys, otherwise as we called them "Nkulu Bulls" up on ther feet trying to get some sun after a frigid night. After glassing from up top of the mountain we spotted the bull I was after and he was a moster! He had everything I was looking for with the wide spread, good barrels for curls and was tall. We had to slowly move in another 600 yeards or so to cut the distance to right at 232 yards where I took the first and only shot at him. Two words....Dirt nap! He dropped right where he stood which wasn't ideal as he was still more than halfway up the mountain which meant the work then really began as they packed him out peice by pice staring with the head and cape followed by hind quarters and then they lugged the other half down on their strap device. The amount of work put in just to get to him had me worn out, much less the work thee guys were putting in to get him off the sde of the mountain I was beyond excited for the remainder of my safari and changed gears a bit after realizing how much fun hunting the grey ghost really was and decided that this was a hunt I wanted to do again and would in the future of this trip.

To be continued when I have some more time to finish out a proper report....... LOTS to go as more than 30 animals were harvested on this safari......

View attachment 407769View attachment 407770View attachment 407772View attachment 407773View attachment 407774View attachment 407775

On this first day after we completed packing out this moster of an animal down the mountain and went back to the main lodge for a quick lunch, to get him skinned out how I wanted him and into the salt. Later we would be heading out to take care of a few more from the list. I may jump around a little as I get a few of the days mixed up as far as day of harvest but should still be able to give a solid report hopefully. We moved on to some other plains game that are a bit easier to find like the black and blue wildebeest herds and off we went. I was able to harvest this 1 of 2 Blue bildebeest (this one a bull) and the black wildebeest bull. These were much quicker stalks and the majority of the time on these hunts was getting them seperated out in order to start judging all of them and looking for what I cam for which were monsters. We found the by far oldest Blue in the heard and he was certainly a warrior with some SERIOUS mass upstairs. Look at the bosses on this blue from the overhead shot! IMpressive fr a blue! I wasn't able to get my hand around one side at the tip it was so heavy yet bladed on the back side likely from fighting. His teeth were 100% gone so we chose the perfect bull and he was full of character and had by far the most beautiful coat of the entire herd when it came to his actual color and defined lines all the way down him which was more important to me than his horns honestly. With the squeeze of the trigger at approx 173 yards we had a blue wildebeest down right where he stood which became a common theme of my trip which did save me significantly on my ammo fees. (harvested the first 20 animals with 24 rounds) Nearly immediately after that we spotted a herd of black wildebeest. We saw the lone bull which from what they explained is usually the lead bull or oldest bull that will seperate from the bulk of the pack. Once again, one bullet, one squeeze and......Dirt Nap for him to. The .30-06 has been doing me well thus far even though it was NOT my caliber of choice. I asked for a .300 win mag which I studied and studied the ballistics and shooting it off sticks back home and really dialed into that particular rifle and then found out upon arrival I'd be using a cartridge I was going to have to learn the holdovers on the fly and I know the drops were WAY bigger than with the flatter shooting .300WM. This comes into play later on in the safar on another kudu and turns out to be a blessing!.

 

[Jörg Krüger]

Awesome animals taken. Thank you for sharing a well written report

 

[cpr0312]

Great start, congrats!

 

[Ridgewalker]

WOW! Some exceptional trophies so far and great shooting! JMO&E, but there is nothing wrong with the old 30-06 even at long range…reference stories of “white feather”.
Anxiously awaiting the next episode.

 

[Doug3006]

Great story and some very fine trophies sir! I've hunted with the old 30-06 in NA and Africa. I was never once disappointed in the performance I got on game up to Zebra and Kudu. As for bullet drop, there's not much difference between the '06 and the 300 WM. With bullets of the same weight and similar BC, the difference is negligible under 400 yards (even then just a few inches). That's a whole lot farther than I care to shoot anything in Africa.

 

[Cody hunt4life]

On this first day after we completed packing out this moster of an animal down the mountain and went back to the main lodge for a quick lunch, to get him skinned out how I wanted him and into the salt. Later we would be heading out to take care of a few more from the list. I may jump around a little as I get a few of the days mixed up as far as day of harvest but should still be able to give a solid report hopefully. We moved on to some other plains game that are a bit easier to find like the black and blue wildebeest herds and off we went. I was able to harvest this 1 of 2 Blue bildebeest (this one a bull) and the black wildebeest bull. These were much quicker stalks and the majority of the time on these hunts was getting them seperated out in order to start judging all of them and looking for what I cam for which were monsters. We found the by far oldest Blue in the heard and he was certainly a warrior with some SERIOUS mass upstairs. Look at the bosses on this blue from the overhead shot! IMpressive fr a blue! I wasn't able to get my hand around one side at the tip it was so heavy yet bladed on the back side likely from fighting. His teeth were 100% gone so we chose the perfect bull and he was full of character and had by far the most beautiful coat of the entire herd when it came to his actual color and defined lines all the way down him which was more important to me than his horns honestly. With the squeeze of the trigger at approx 173 yards we had a blue wildebeest down right where he stood which became a common theme of my trip which did save me significantly on my ammo fees. (harvested the first 20 animals with 24 rounds) Nearly immediately after that we spotted a herd of black wildebeest. We saw the lone bull which from what they explained is usually the lead bull or oldest bull that will seperate from the bulk of the pack. Once again, one bullet, one squeeze and......Dirt Nap for him to. The .30-06 has been doing me well thus far even though it was NOT my caliber of choice. I asked for a .300 win mag which I studied and studied the ballistics and shooting it off sticks back home and really dialed into that particular rifle and then found out upon arrival I'd be using a cartridge I was going to have to learn the holdovers on the fly and I know the drops were WAY bigger than with the flatter shooting .300WM. This comes into play later on in the safar on another kudu and turns out to be a blessing!.

View attachment 407797View attachment 407798View attachment 407799View attachment 407800View attachment 407801View attachment 407802View attachment 407803View attachment 407804View attachment 407805View attachment 407806View attachment 407807

Day 1 continued: on our way out from one property heaed back to drop off for skinning we happened to spot a beautiful white fallow on the top of a hill at around 150 yards out or so and I quickly jumped out as the buck started to get to the very top of the hill I used a tree for a rest as there was no time to get the sticks out before he is about to be out of sight and quickly got on him and he got the "Texas Heart Shot" as that was the only shot I was given. Being from Texas and all it only made sense to take this shot which I have done many times with hogs knowing how effective it is. It worked flawlessly once again and we had a BBD! (Big Buck Down) This would be the final harvest of day 1. Talk about a Succesfull day! At this rate and being my very first time to hunt Africa I knew my list had just doubled if not trippled if the success rate and weather was going to hold up for us for the entirety of the trip.

Day 2: I woke up sore this day after chasing Kudu up and down the mountainous terrain but I'm excited to get the day started. After an amazing breakfast of warthog sausage and mustard and eggs we headed back out today for another mountain on the prowl for a monster Eland and my PH Jason said he had been seeing a moster mature bull in one area a few days back when he was out scouting before my arrival he wanted to try and find to put a stalk on him and boy was it a stalk for the books! We were able to drive (Thank God) to the top of this mountain to begin glassing with our spotting scope and binos along with our 2 trackers/spotters Jeffi and Civit. After about 45 minutes or so we finally have found our big bull and ready for the chase! We went ahead and ranged him and he was just over 1,200 yards out. After slowly maneuvering down and across this mountain we found a good place I would be able to get comfortabe on some large boulders and to get calmed down for a solid shot. We got the range and it was 460. Being that the wind was around 15-20mph and I was shooting a .30-06 at this point I decided I wanted to cut the distance in half if we could so off we go again trying not to be seen by the many eyes in the bush until we found the perfect place I was able to lay out in a prone position to squeeze out the perfect shot. By this point we are now just under 4 hours into this stalk and the big mature bull was slowly working his way to jump the barbed wire fence. I waited in the prone position with my head heald up to the scope for just over 45 minutes before he finally jumped onto the property and then it was game on. still with my head up (neck absolutely on fire from staying in that same position for nearly an hour) and another 10 minutes in the scope he finally turned completely broadside for the shot. My PH explained to me that I may have to put a good 5-10 rounds into this monster of a critter before he goes down. So I'm prepared and ready to reload for follow up shots. I put it on the point of his shoulder and slowly squeezed my trigger......and BOOM!!! I immediately start frantically asking where he is at because my PH is dead silent and I ask him again to help me find him and I realize he is being quiet for a reason. I asked again..."Where is he at?!?!?!" and Jason my PH responded..."He's right where you shot him" and sure enough he hadn't so much as taken a step and took a dirt nap right where he was standing. I didn't relize that he was silent because he expected and was counting on him to run downhill to the flats to expire which clearly didn't happen. In the pictures you can see the peak of the mountain behind us which is exactly where the stalk started from. Another extremely tough recovery as he too was halfway up the mountainous terrain. After hours of work to get the truck close we had to roll this giant bull down the mountain as far as humanly possible and man do they weigh a ridiculous amount! However, we got pictures and then got him into the truck. I was BEYOND exhausted at this point. However the hunt wasn't over! On our way out Jeffi (tracker) spotted a great Grey Diker which I immediately jumped from the truck, got on him and fired a shot dropping him only maybe 80 yards out. What a day! Headed back to camp for an amazing meal as usual.

 

[Cody hunt4life]

Day 1 continued: on our way out from one property heaed back to drop off for skinning we happened to spot a beautiful white fallow on the top of a hill at around 150 yards out or so and I quickly jumped out as the buck started to get to the very top of the hill I used a tree for a rest as there was no time to get the sticks out before he is about to be out of sight and quickly got on him and he got the "Texas Heart Shot" as that was the only shot I was given. Being from Texas and all it only made sense to take this shot which I have done many times with hogs knowing how effective it is. It worked flawlessly once again and we had a BBD! (Big Buck Down) This would be the final harvest of day 1. Talk about a Succesfull day! At this rate and being my very first time to hunt Africa I knew my list had just doubled if not trippled if the success rate and weather was going to hold up for us for the entirety of the trip.

Day 2: I woke up sore this day after chasing Kudu up and down the mountainous terrain but I'm excited to get the day started. After an amazing breakfast of warthog sausage and mustard and eggs we headed back out today for another mountain on the prowl for a monster Eland and my PH Jason said he had been seeing a moster mature bull in one area a few days back when he was out scouting before my arrival he wanted to try and find to put a stalk on him and boy was it a stalk for the books! We were able to drive (Thank God) to the top of this mountain to begin glassing with our spotting scope and binos along with our 2 trackers/spotters Jeffi and Civit. After about 45 minutes or so we finally have found our big bull and ready for the chase! We went ahead and ranged him and he was just over 1,200 yards out. After slowly maneuvering down and across this mountain we found a good place I would be able to get comfortabe on some large boulders and to get calmed down for a solid shot. We got the range and it was 460. Being that the wind was around 15-20mph and I was shooting a .30-06 at this point I decided I wanted to cut the distance in half if we could so off we go again trying not to be seen by the many eyes in the bush until we found the perfect place I was able to lay out in a prone position to squeeze out the perfect shot. By this point we are now just under 4 hours into this stalk and the big mature bull was slowly working his way to jump the barbed wire fence. I waited in the prone position with my head heald up to the scope for just over 45 minutes before he finally jumped onto the property and then it was game on. still with my head up (neck absolutely on fire from staying in that same position for nearly an hour) and another 10 minutes in the scope he finally turned completely broadside for the shot. My PH explained to me that I may have to put a good 5-10 rounds into this monster of a critter before he goes down. So I'm prepared and ready to reload for follow up shots. I put it on the point of his shoulder and slowly squeezed my trigger......and BOOM!!! I immediately start frantically asking where he is at because my PH is dead silent and I ask him again to help me find him and I realize he is being quiet for a reason. I asked again..."Where is he at?!?!?!" and Jason my PH responded..."He's right where you shot him" and sure enough he hadn't so much as taken a step and took a dirt nap right where he was standing. I didn't relize that he was silent because he expected and was counting on him to run downhill to the flats to expire which clearly didn't happen. In the pictures you can see the peak of the mountain behind us which is exactly where the stalk started from. Another extremely tough recovery as he too was halfway up the mountainous terrain. After hours of work to get the truck close we had to roll this giant bull down the mountain as far as humanly possible and man do they weigh a ridiculous amount! However, we got pictures and then got him into the truck. I was BEYOND exhausted at this point. However the hunt wasn't over! On our way out Jeffi (tracker) spotted a great Grey Diker which I immediately jumped from the truck, got on him and fired a shot dropping him only maybe 80 yards out. What a day! Headed back to camp for an amazing meal as usual.

Day 3: So today we are back out on the prowl for Kudu. This wasn't on the list to harvest 2 but after I got my first taste at the grey ghost I wanted t see if I could do it again. Boy did I ask for it trying to outdo my first which already made Gold Medal but I was determined and LOVED the challenge of that hunt and how rewarding it had been on the first go round. I knew this could tak a full day or possiby the rest of my trip but I knew I wanted to get another one even if it meant not getting several others or any of the others for that matter on the list I was so hooked on that hunt, but it wasn't happening today. We got eyes on a nice bull with very unique horns that I really liked. We started a stalk on him and the wind was not in our favor at all and being that Kudu were in the back end of the rut but still going strong we had way too many eyes on us with all of the Kudu cows around and we ended up getting picked up either by scent or one of the cows got eyes on us. With that said, we decided that we wanted to go after that particular bull but would come back that evening to see if we could find him again and move on to some of the easier to spot and stalk critters that we could make some ground on my list. So... Lets go find a Sable! We spotted several different small groups of 2-4 Sable and thought I found the one I wanted and then spotted a remarkable Lechwe which wasn't on the list but he was too pretty to pass up. So I jumped out of the truck, got on the sticks and busted him at around 125 yards or so and had to follow up that shot with a second to put him down right there without having to track him outside of the flats before he got into the thick of the bush. Mission accomplished but still hadn't got my sable yet. After pictures and loading it didn't take maybe 25 minutes or so and we had spotted this beast of a bull Sable. He was splittered up/shattered on both of his tips and I still didn't care. He had mass I noticed immediately on his bases and I knew he would go atleast 40" with 10-11" bases so I popped him from the sticks at about 100 yards. Yes it sucks to have to get a taxidermist to put back on the additional 2"-3"+ of horn on each side but when your bull measures 42" with 11" bases and you know you got an old fully matured beast of a warrior, I personally didn't mind at all. Yeah it makes the pictures not as pretty for some but it is one more cool warrior in the salt for me. I did however forget that on our way to finding this Sable bull I also spotted a Chocolate Fallow and knowing I already had the white one it only made sense. I had previously seen the biggest fallow of the three, which was a black one that is the biggest one I've personally ever seen in the wild when we were glassing for the Eland yesterday so I decided then and there I wanted all 3 colors and would find that monster black fallow VERY soon. So, I got on the sticks as close as we felt we could get without him catching our sent to approx 150 yards and took my shot. Heart shot and he took a dirt nap where he stood which was a very common theme of my safari luckily as that was the biggest fear was loosing or wounding an animal. But, I put in the work for over 2 years to be prepared to shoot off sticks working as frequently as possible at the range out to 500 yards off sticks and it absolutely paid off. Just as we thought we were about to head to the skinning shed we spotted a healthy heard of common and a few mixed in a few white and copper springbuck. We jumped back out of the rig and first figured out the wind and an approach as they were in the flats without much cover. We moved as they moved until we finally got the wind advantage and some elevation as well. Once we were able to get within 200 we glassed them all until we found the perfect ram where the single shot dirt nap took hold again. Down he went where he stood again with a heart shot at just over 200 yards off sticks on a 70lb animal if that. I was very proud to see the work on the sticks really had paid off now previous to this hunt and check these beauties out!

 

[Trophyhunter01]

Wow! Nice write up and animals. Successful trip.

 

[Cody hunt4life]

Day 3: So today we are back out on the prowl for Kudu. This wasn't on the list to harvest 2 but after I got my first taste at the grey ghost I wanted t see if I could do it again. Boy did I ask for it trying to outdo my first which already made Gold Medal but I was determined and LOVED the challenge of that hunt and how rewarding it had been on the first go round. I knew this could tak a full day or possiby the rest of my trip but I knew I wanted to get another one even if it meant not getting several others or any of the others for that matter on the list I was so hooked on that hunt, but it wasn't happening today. We got eyes on a nice bull with very unique horns that I really liked. We started a stalk on him and the wind was not in our favor at all and being that Kudu were in the back end of the rut but still going strong we had way too many eyes on us with all of the Kudu cows around and we ended up getting picked up either by scent or one of the cows got eyes on us. With that said, we decided that we wanted to go after that particular bull but would come back that evening to see if we could find him again and move on to some of the easier to spot and stalk critters that we could make some ground on my list. So... Lets go find a Sable! We spotted several different small groups of 2-4 Sable and thought I found the one I wanted and then spotted a remarkable Lechwe which wasn't on the list but he was too pretty to pass up. So I jumped out of the truck, got on the sticks and busted him at around 125 yards or so and had to follow up that shot with a second to put him down right there without having to track him outside of the flats before he got into the thick of the bush. Mission accomplished but still hadn't got my sable yet. After pictures and loading it didn't take maybe 25 minutes or so and we had spotted this beast of a bull Sable. He was splittered up/shattered on both of his tips and I still didn't care. He had mass I noticed immediately on his bases and I knew he would go atleast 40" with 10-11" bases so I popped him from the sticks at about 100 yards. Yes it sucks to have to get a taxidermist to put back on the additional 2"-3"+ of horn on each side but when your bull measures 42" with 11" bases and you know you got an old fully matured beast of a warrior, I personally didn't mind at all. Yeah it makes the pictures not as pretty for some but it is one more cool warrior in the salt for me. I did however forget that on our way to finding this Sable bull I also spotted a Chocolate Fallow and knowing I already had the white one it only made sense. I had previously seen the biggest fallow of the three, which was a black one that is the biggest one I've personally ever seen in the wild when we were glassing for the Eland yesterday so I decided then and there I wanted all 3 colors and would find that monster black fallow VERY soon. So, I got on the sticks as close as we felt we could get without him catching our sent to approx 150 yards and took my shot. Heart shot and he took a dirt nap where he stood which was a very common theme of my safari luckily as that was the biggest fear was loosing or wounding an animal. But, I put in the work for over 2 years to be prepared to shoot off sticks working as frequently as possible at the range out to 500 yards off sticks and it absolutely paid off. Just as we thought we were about to head to the skinning shed we spotted a healthy heard of common and a few mixed in a few white and copper springbuck. We jumped back out of the rig and first figured out the wind and an approach as they were in the flats without much cover. We moved as they moved until we finally got the wind advantage and some elevation as well. Once we were able to get within 200 we glassed them all until we found the perfect ram where the single shot dirt nap took hold again. Down he went where he stood again with a heart shot at just over 200 yards off sticks on a 70lb animal if that. I was very proud to see the work on the sticks really had paid off now previous to this hunt and check these beauties out!

Day 4: Back at it on the Grey Ghost #2! We wen't back to the last known location of the cool looking kudu we tried to put a stalk on previously. We glassed all morning and found a few immature bulls but nothing crazy or the bull we were looking for so after spending most of the morning glassing we decided before lunch we would try something else out on the list and just glass around different properties and landscapes when I decided to harvest a common Blesbuck. There were huge numbers of them and I didn't plan to harvest one but figured why not, they aren't very expensive and make an excellent shield mount so off we go! We glassed the herd which contained mostly yello blesbuck and I actually put my crosshairs and was about to squeeze on a monster yellow when my PH Jason quickly said "wait!" so I haulted and he told me there was a common which was much less on the price sheet that was nearly just as big. He got me on him as I waited for him to give me a clean shooting lane and the single shot dirt nap occured once again. After a slower morning we went back to regroup, strategize and get a bite to eat before we went back out after that kudu. Off we go back out the remainder of the afternoon glassing up the mountainsides for kudu and sure enough with the help of my incredible trackers/spotters had found another good bull. I looked at him and looked at him and was torn on if he was the right one or not for what I was looking for and figured the worst thing that could happen would be that I spend the rest of my time there kudu hunting and would bring back 3 if I had to to beat the first one as I just love the way this hunt goes down. So off we went up the mountain after this bull. Still in the rut again there are about 7-8 cows around this bull which has been whats helped us find the bulls which has been great but also a lot more eyes out to find us. We head up the mountainside and after a couple falls trying to keep up with everyone else I was winded, heart racing, partially injured from the falls and on the bipod setting up next to a large rock. The Kudu continually walked away from us the entire time we were walking & running upwards towards them so we hadn't made as good of distance as we wanted and they were about to be at the top and over and were just under 500 yards out. After doing some very quick math we decided that the holdover would be at the top of the ear or at the first curl of his horns and wind would be right at his tail (10-15 mph cross wind) and BOOM! MISSED! Went under him in front of him under his neck. BOOM! Missed again still under him. BOOM missed a third time still under him....moved up another curl. BOOM missed him again, just barely over his back. He's GONE now and I'm feeling really down suddenly because I've managed to harvest litterally the largest and smallest Antelope Huntershill has to offer without having to make but 1 follow up shot on the Lechwe to now completely missing a Kudu with 5 opportunities btween 475-525 yards. What has happened?!?! Is something wrong with the scope? All these questions start screwing with my brain and I've lost all confidence I had built in the rifle I was borrowing from Huntershill. BUT, I knew the hunt wasn't over and we still had a couple hours of daylight remaining and the weather was perfect! IT was cold and the Kudu I knew would be in the sun. So off we go back to spotting. As I set frustrated we get a tap on the roof of the truck signaling to stop as my Tracker Jeffi hadspotted a kudu bull worth looking at. We jump out of the truck and start glassing thr mountain and get him in the spotting scope for a better look and sure enough I instantly knew why GOD had allowed me to miss the last one....cause this one was atleast 4-5" taller without question than the one I missed and bigger than the first but not sure just how much more. Clearly it didn't take me but seconds to determine that's the one and off we went up the mountain. I grabbed my brand new wicked lights head lamp/torch in the case we had to do some tracking as I knew it was extremely thick up there and running up the base of the mountain as quickly as I can and BAM I take fall #1, get back up and trying to keep up with my PH and tracker. we get behind a tree to check distance and we are at about 500 yards and after the last miss I wasn't risking this monster bull. I said lets cut the distance in half and I will be comfortable to take the shot right now. Jason looked at me and said, "Then we have to hurry because we are about to loose the sun to the other side of the mountain" and I said lets go!! Jason gets ahead of me and is waving me to hury up (keep in mind I tore my ACL, Meniscus & dislocated my knee cap in one knee 3 months before this trip and just recently began walking again). We finally find a tree to get under for some cover and were at exactly 323 yards and he told me I had to take the shot before we lost all light. I'm just now also realizing that I've lost my cap and my brand new high dollar wicked headlamp so we definately have to do this quickly. I got my heart right as I have buck fever out of control looking at this beautiful creature through the scope and squeezed off my shot. Whop! I hear the shot smach something and felt good about the shot and Jason confirmed that he was hit but I didn't hold over enough for wind so he was hit a little back but unsure of how bad or if it woud be fatal enough to keep him from taking off miles and miles away. Immediately Jason gets his dog and yells something about the sun at me and starts running up the mountain with the dog in an attempt to turn the bull downhill (I'm laughing on the inside because it's a LONG way up there and thought no chance he beats him to the top and gets him turned....Well, he did. The dog found him and he was hit well enough that he was too sore to run at all thank the good lord. Jason begins screaming down the mountain over and over and all I hear is "RUN!!!!!". I know I have one in this Kudu so I immediately use that adreneline and start running uphill. Bam! fall over a rock and it hurt. BAM! Fall over another rock and another rock hits center og my thigh and I'm in so much pain at this point I think I have broken my Femur in my leg. This bull was something special to me though and I was saying out loud "there is no pain, there is no pain, there is no pain" and yell back to Jason "Where is he!?!?!?!" and just about right after I said that I looked up and he was about 20 yards in front of me looking right at me not moving and then I see the dog behind him just walking him down the mountain. It took everything I had not to shoot him with a final round right there after being in so much pain, exhausted and worried I was going to loose him as it was very thick in this area. We spead out with my PH on my right and tracker on the left all about 30 yards between us and I stayed on top of the bull as we tried to slowly walk him down. At this point I lose him again breifly and hear "run" again and BOOM fall on a rock again an now I busted my head open and am bleeding. I have no cares in the world right now though because I've got to make sure I get this bull down by the road where we can get to him and it ended up working out exactly how it was supposed to. I got him within 20 yards of the road and put the finishing round through his heart. WOW. What an accomplishment and a stalk I will remember for the rest of my life. It cost me my favorite lucky hat (replaced it immediately when I got home with a new one) and lost my never used $250-300 headlap but we just pulled of one incredible feat! We actually got to put this big bull on Salt that day which I never thought was going to happen after that first Kudu earlier was missed 5 times. Couldn't have been happier with missing now! hahaha so we went back to main camp and celevrated with some Jameson whiskey! he went another 2" bigger than the first bull in length. Man I love this place!

 

[Ridgewalker]

Ouch! I’m hurting just reading this! Oh so many fine trophies!

 

[Cody hunt4life]

Day 4: Back at it on the Grey Ghost #2! We wen't back to the last known location of the cool looking kudu we tried to put a stalk on previously. We glassed all morning and found a few immature bulls but nothing crazy or the bull we were looking for so after spending most of the morning glassing we decided before lunch we would try something else out on the list and just glass around different properties and landscapes when I decided to harvest a common Blesbuck. There were huge numbers of them and I didn't plan to harvest one but figured why not, they aren't very expensive and make an excellent shield mount so off we go! We glassed the herd which contained mostly yello blesbuck and I actually put my crosshairs and was about to squeeze on a monster yellow when my PH Jason quickly said "wait!" so I haulted and he told me there was a common which was much less on the price sheet that was nearly just as big. He got me on him as I waited for him to give me a clean shooting lane and the single shot dirt nap occured once again. After a slower morning we went back to regroup, strategize and get a bite to eat before we went back out after that kudu. Off we go back out the remainder of the afternoon glassing up the mountainsides for kudu and sure enough with the help of my incredible trackers/spotters had found another good bull. I looked at him and looked at him and was torn on if he was the right one or not for what I was looking for and figured the worst thing that could happen would be that I spend the rest of my time there kudu hunting and would bring back 3 if I had to to beat the first one as I just love the way this hunt goes down. So off we went up the mountain after this bull. Still in the rut again there are about 7-8 cows around this bull which has been whats helped us find the bulls which has been great but also a lot more eyes out to find us. We head up the mountainside and after a couple falls trying to keep up with everyone else I was winded, heart racing, partially injured from the falls and on the bipod setting up next to a large rock. The Kudu continually walked away from us the entire time we were walking & running upwards towards them so we hadn't made as good of distance as we wanted and they were about to be at the top and over and were just under 500 yards out. After doing some very quick math we decided that the holdover would be at the top of the ear or at the first curl of his horns and wind would be right at his tail (10-15 mph cross wind) and BOOM! MISSED! Went under him in front of him under his neck. BOOM! Missed again still under him. BOOM missed a third time still under him....moved up another curl. BOOM missed him again, just barely over his back. He's GONE now and I'm feeling really down suddenly because I've managed to harvest litterally the largest and smallest Antelope Huntershill has to offer without having to make but 1 follow up shot on the Lechwe to now completely missing a Kudu with 5 opportunities btween 475-525 yards. What has happened?!?! Is something wrong with the scope? All these questions start screwing with my brain and I've lost all confidence I had built in the rifle I was borrowing from Huntershill. BUT, I knew the hunt wasn't over and we still had a couple hours of daylight remaining and the weather was perfect! IT was cold and the Kudu I knew would be in the sun. So off we go back to spotting. As I set frustrated we get a tap on the roof of the truck signaling to stop as my Tracker Jeffi hadspotted a kudu bull worth looking at. We jump out of the truck and start glassing thr mountain and get him in the spotting scope for a better look and sure enough I instantly knew why GOD had allowed me to miss the last one....cause this one was atleast 4-5" taller without question than the one I missed and bigger than the first but not sure just how much more. Clearly it didn't take me but seconds to determine that's the one and off we went up the mountain. I grabbed my brand new wicked lights head lamp/torch in the case we had to do some tracking as I knew it was extremely thick up there and running up the base of the mountain as quickly as I can and BAM I take fall #1, get back up and trying to keep up with my PH and tracker. we get behind a tree to check distance and we are at about 500 yards and after the last miss I wasn't risking this monster bull. I said lets cut the distance in half and I will be comfortable to take the shot right now. Jason looked at me and said, "Then we have to hurry because we are about to loose the sun to the other side of the mountain" and I said lets go!! Jason gets ahead of me and is waving me to hury up (keep in mind I tore my ACL, Meniscus & dislocated my knee cap in one knee 3 months before this trip and just recently began walking again). We finally find a tree to get under for some cover and were at exactly 323 yards and he told me I had to take the shot before we lost all light. I'm just now also realizing that I've lost my cap and my brand new high dollar wicked headlamp so we definately have to do this quickly. I got my heart right as I have buck fever out of control looking at this beautiful creature through the scope and squeezed off my shot. Whop! I hear the shot smach something and felt good about the shot and Jason confirmed that he was hit but I didn't hold over enough for wind so he was hit a little back but unsure of how bad or if it woud be fatal enough to keep him from taking off miles and miles away. Immediately Jason gets his dog and yells something about the sun at me and starts running up the mountain with the dog in an attempt to turn the bull downhill (I'm laughing on the inside because it's a LONG way up there and thought no chance he beats him to the top and gets him turned....Well, he did. The dog found him and he was hit well enough that he was too sore to run at all thank the good lord. Jason begins screaming down the mountain over and over and all I hear is "RUN!!!!!". I know I have one in this Kudu so I immediately use that adreneline and start running uphill. Bam! fall over a rock and it hurt. BAM! Fall over another rock and another rock hits center og my thigh and I'm in so much pain at this point I think I have broken my Femur in my leg. This bull was something special to me though and I was saying out loud "there is no pain, there is no pain, there is no pain" and yell back to Jason "Where is he!?!?!?!" and just about right after I said that I looked up and he was about 20 yards in front of me looking right at me not moving and then I see the dog behind him just walking him down the mountain. It took everything I had not to shoot him with a final round right there after being in so much pain, exhausted and worried I was going to loose him as it was very thick in this area. We spead out with my PH on my right and tracker on the left all about 30 yards between us and I stayed on top of the bull as we tried to slowly walk him down. At this point I lose him again breifly and hear "run" again and BOOM fall on a rock again an now I busted my head open and am bleeding. I have no cares in the world right now though because I've got to make sure I get this bull down by the road where we can get to him and it ended up working out exactly how it was supposed to. I got him within 20 yards of the road and put the finishing round through his heart. WOW. What an accomplishment and a stalk I will remember for the rest of my life. It cost me my favorite lucky hat (replaced it immediately when I got home with a new one) and lost my never used $250-300 headlap but we just pulled of one incredible feat! We actually got to put this big bull on Salt that day which I never thought was going to happen after that first Kudu earlier was missed 5 times. Couldn't have been happier with missing now! hahaha so we went back to main camp and celevrated with some Jameson whiskey! he went another 2" bigger than the first bull in length. Man I love this place!

View attachment 409043View attachment 409044View attachment 409046View attachment 409047View attachment 409048View attachment 409049View attachment 409050View attachment 409051View attachment 409052View attachment 409053View attachment 409054View attachment 409055

Day 5: Today was a bit of an off day as we couldn't seem to find a mature quality impala ram. I was okay with something with character but I also wanted to have atleast a good speciment after passing on many impala meanwhile getting some amazing video footage of several rams in the mountains out sun bathing. Days like this I tried to male sure to take in all of the beuty of South Africa and the unique Eastern Cape landscape. It's beaten me up pretty good thus far into the trip but I still have another 5 ful days to hunt so I'm starting to work on revising my list to see what all was remaining and what I may want to add. After an unsucessfull hour or so of glassing for impala I had an appointment as I had paid for an hour in the helicopter for the sake of time to find my monster black fallow buck I spoke of earlier. WE had seen him both times we hunted that area so we felt pretty confident we would find him bedded in that area. So we get the video equipment all setup and the big camera up front with my PH, headsets on and liftoff! I've got an hour to find this fallow from the chopper and then it's play time on babboons and jackal. Right out of the gate we catch a jackal at a full spring and man oh man can he fly this chopper. He put me right on him the entire time and with a quick pull of the trigger he was down. I was using a Benelli 12ga with 00 Buck shot in 3" magnum shells. Now off to find the fallow. We circled the area twice and just as we are about to give up on him we see him bolting from the area from the side and off we go after him. When you have someone flying with the skill level that PH Grant has, you have very little worry about getting on a critter once you get him spotted. Sure enough Grant on me right on top of this massive falow and he got the usual dirt nap treatment. BBD!! I had finally completed and kind of created the new "Fallow Slam" as they were calling it around camp, now that I had harvested all 3 colors available in the area. We then moved on to the next line item on the list.....Baboons! This was the funnest part of the chopper hunt. Chasing baboons up, down and through the mountains was an absolute blast! From the swooping and diving og the chopper to the baboons rolling down the mountain. I was able to harvest a nice male baboon of which I'm having Splitting image taxidermy in RSA to do a full body mount as well as a bleached skull mount. That's one mount I'm really excited for! So, this was the end of the chopper hunt and it's only 10am now so there's still a lot of time left in the day to go retrieve these animals, get pictures and back off looking for a few left on the list like red hartebeest, impala, Zebra, Gemsbok warthog etc. as at this point with my third fallow buck now harvested that part of the hunt is now succesfully completed. We find all of the harvested animals get pictures done (this time with a few props with the baboons)which was fun. I had planned to put my lucky hat on him backwards for the pictures I will be posting but I lost my cap chasing that Kudu Bull in the mountains the day before so I no longer had it to use as a prop. So, I made use with all I had on me which was a "TRUMP" "MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN" beanie which worked out okay for the pictures and got quite the positive feedback and laughter on Facebook when I posted it for my friends to see. Definately got the most attention of all of my posts hahaha. I thought it was pretty funny. Some snowflakes out there I'm sure got butthurt but I really didn't care. We started on a mountainside I had yet to hunt at this point in the trip so it was completely new territory to see what all we could find. My PH Spotted what he thought was a Gold Medal Gemsbok and told me to get my rifle and pack on the hood and get ready for him to walk into the very small shooting lane in the thick of the bush approx 60' up the side of a mountain about 150 yards from me. He told me to take him as soon as he took that next 2 steps I needed to get to his vitals. She slipped up and did take those 2 steps I needed and I put the hammer down on her for a quick harvest. Dirt nap achieved. Oddly, instead of just the trackers running up to bring him down for pictures I hear Jason my PH yell from above "I'm paying for this one!!" once he saw this Gemsbok cow as he thought she was heavy and extremely tall resembling a bull's basses with a cow's lengthwhich was exactly what I was looking for but that wasn't this one and he made a mistake judging him which was fine because it was a freebie mistake and I got to keep it anyways. He brought her down and we didn't even take pictures with it or measure her but she was probably only arounf 36" or so. Not even close to what I was looking for. I didn't get a single picture of her now that I think about it other than at the end when we checked all of the skulls and capes for taxidermy pick up where you will see it pictured. I'm now wishing I would have taken the time to take pictures with it as it was still a harvest I am proud of and it's still a trophy to me that I'm having a shield mount done. I'm havine everything else shoulder or full body mounted but the gemsbock and common blesbuck. So back at it we go and spot a big mature Kudu Cow, a Red Hartebeest Bull and a decent impala ram all within shooting range @ 200 yards and under on the mountainside as we glassed from the truck out the window and got some more amazing video and debated about taking this ram or not. The hartebeest was nice but we felt we could still do a little better and I've still got a few days left. So we ended up passing on the ram and hartebeest satisfied with the video I had just captured of them in their habitat doing what they do. So we head to a different location and spot the best ram we were able to find all day long and were starting to worry that I wasn't going to get a mature nice ram until we saw this ram who had a break at the front of the bowl of his horns and some cool formation on one horn from fighting. This was the ram for me. I like character and he's definately mature so off we go on foot for a stalk. We needed to close about 200 yards to get a really good look and in comfortable shooting range. We ended up approx 120 yards from him and I got setup on the sticks. The rest is history. A Perfectly placed heart shot knocked this warrior ram into a dirt nap and that was that. We finally got on a decent ram after all day trying to find one. We were able to capture great footage of it though as my upcoming new PH Riley caught everything on tape with the sooper zoom camcorder and the video is amazing! This was a major focus for the rest of the safari was that we were going to get every single shot on the big camera moving forward and man was that a challenge but we made it happen! So back to the lodge after a very succesful and fun day from making stalks by foot, to tracking down one specific fallow buck in a chopper. What a day!

 

[Cody hunt4life]

Day 5: Today was a bit of an off day as we couldn't seem to find a mature quality impala ram. I was okay with something with character but I also wanted to have atleast a good speciment after passing on many impala meanwhile getting some amazing video footage of several rams in the mountains out sun bathing. Days like this I tried to male sure to take in all of the beuty of South Africa and the unique Eastern Cape landscape. It's beaten me up pretty good thus far into the trip but I still have another 5 ful days to hunt so I'm starting to work on revising my list to see what all was remaining and what I may want to add. After an unsucessfull hour or so of glassing for impala I had an appointment as I had paid for an hour in the helicopter for the sake of time to find my monster black fallow buck I spoke of earlier. WE had seen him both times we hunted that area so we felt pretty confident we would find him bedded in that area. So we get the video equipment all setup and the big camera up front with my PH, headsets on and liftoff! I've got an hour to find this fallow from the chopper and then it's play time on babboons and jackal. Right out of the gate we catch a jackal at a full spring and man oh man can he fly this chopper. He put me right on him the entire time and with a quick pull of the trigger he was down. I was using a Benelli 12ga with 00 Buck shot in 3" magnum shells. Now off to find the fallow. We circled the area twice and just as we are about to give up on him we see him bolting from the area from the side and off we go after him. When you have someone flying with the skill level that PH Grant has, you have very little worry about getting on a critter once you get him spotted. Sure enough Grant on me right on top of this massive falow and he got the usual dirt nap treatment. BBD!! I had finally completed and kind of created the new "Fallow Slam" as they were calling it around camp, now that I had harvested all 3 colors available in the area. We then moved on to the next line item on the list.....Baboons! This was the funnest part of the chopper hunt. Chasing baboons up, down and through the mountains was an absolute blast! From the swooping and diving og the chopper to the baboons rolling down the mountain. I was able to harvest a nice male baboon of which I'm having Splitting image taxidermy in RSA to do a full body mount as well as a bleached skull mount. That's one mount I'm really excited for! So, this was the end of the chopper hunt and it's only 10am now so there's still a lot of time left in the day to go retrieve these animals, get pictures and back off looking for a few left on the list like red hartebeest, impala, Zebra, Gemsbok warthog etc. as at this point with my third fallow buck now harvested that part of the hunt is now succesfully completed. We find all of the harvested animals get pictures done (this time with a few props with the baboons)which was fun. I had planned to put my lucky hat on him backwards for the pictures I will be posting but I lost my cap chasing that Kudu Bull in the mountains the day before so I no longer had it to use as a prop. So, I made use with all I had on me which was a "TRUMP" "MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN" beanie which worked out okay for the pictures and got quite the positive feedback and laughter on Facebook when I posted it for my friends to see. Definately got the most attention of all of my posts hahaha. I thought it was pretty funny. Some snowflakes out there I'm sure got butthurt but I really didn't care. We started on a mountainside I had yet to hunt at this point in the trip so it was completely new territory to see what all we could find. My PH Spotted what he thought was a Gold Medal Gemsbok and told me to get my rifle and pack on the hood and get ready for him to walk into the very small shooting lane in the thick of the bush approx 60' up the side of a mountain about 150 yards from me. He told me to take him as soon as he took that next 2 steps I needed to get to his vitals. She slipped up and did take those 2 steps I needed and I put the hammer down on her for a quick harvest. Dirt nap achieved. Oddly, instead of just the trackers running up to bring him down for pictures I hear Jason my PH yell from above "I'm paying for this one!!" once he saw this Gemsbok cow as he thought she was heavy and extremely tall resembling a bull's basses with a cow's lengthwhich was exactly what I was looking for but that wasn't this one and he made a mistake judging him which was fine because it was a freebie mistake and I got to keep it anyways. He brought her down and we didn't even take pictures with it or measure her but she was probably only arounf 36" or so. Not even close to what I was looking for. I didn't get a single picture of her now that I think about it other than at the end when we checked all of the skulls and capes for taxidermy pick up where you will see it pictured. I'm now wishing I would have taken the time to take pictures with it as it was still a harvest I am proud of and it's still a trophy to me that I'm having a shield mount done. I'm havine everything else shoulder or full body mounted but the gemsbock and common blesbuck. So back at it we go and spot a big mature Kudu Cow, a Red Hartebeest Bull and a decent impala ram all within shooting range @ 200 yards and under on the mountainside as we glassed from the truck out the window and got some more amazing video and debated about taking this ram or not. The hartebeest was nice but we felt we could still do a little better and I've still got a few days left. So we ended up passing on the ram and hartebeest satisfied with the video I had just captured of them in their habitat doing what they do. So we head to a different location and spot the best ram we were able to find all day long and were starting to worry that I wasn't going to get a mature nice ram until we saw this ram who had a break at the front of the bowl of his horns and some cool formation on one horn from fighting. This was the ram for me. I like character and he's definately mature so off we go on foot for a stalk. We needed to close about 200 yards to get a really good look and in comfortable shooting range. We ended up approx 120 yards from him and I got setup on the sticks. The rest is history. A Perfectly placed heart shot knocked this warrior ram into a dirt nap and that was that. We finally got on a decent ram after all day trying to find one. We were able to capture great footage of it though as my upcoming new PH Riley caught everything on tape with the sooper zoom camcorder and the video is amazing! This was a major focus for the rest of the safari was that we were going to get every single shot on the big camera moving forward and man was that a challenge but we made it happen! So back to the lodge after a very succesful and fun day from making stalks by foot, to tracking down one specific fallow buck in a chopper. What a day!

Day 6:

PH SWITCH: Riley

Tracker:Civit

My list is quickly dwindeling away as we have been so successful every day harvesting more than 1 animal per day so now we are down to the final animals on my list which were Warthog, Red Hartebeest, Zebra, Mountain Reedbuck and to call in a caracal & Jackal at night via foxpro. So today I've changed PHs and now Riley is my PH and I've also lost one of my 2 trackers as JAson and Jeffi had to go to another property to meet some other clients which was fine because we had completed the most important portion of my list to me and I wanted to do some night hunting and calling and Riley just so happens to be a professional night hunter as farmers from all over pay him to take care of the predators on theor properties that are tearing up their crops or eating their animals as there were a lot of sheep farmers in that area. We set out first to an area I was a litle familiar with but that I hadn't had much luck with and we spotted 4 impala from above down in the bowl between mountains and I heard them before I actually saw them and WOW I was blown away that this small of an animal puts out such an intense roar that I can only describe as increadibly deep and loud similar to a red stag roar but from an animal a fraction of its size. Very impressive. As I watched closer, there were 3 rams about to kill the 4th as he had a front leg just dangling by the skin. We were unsure if he was shot and injured (he was a mature ram, just bad genetics) or if this had happed as a result of the other rams all ganged up on him. So we radio in to the office and ask permission to cull him and put him out of his misery which was confirmed the right call. So we had to put a pretty long stalk on this guy even though he was injured due to him hiding in some extremely thick stuff. We finally flushed him out a bit and I was able to put one in him off the sticks quickly putting that ram out of his misery. (forgot to take pictures with this or of this ram. Only have it on video)For 2 days we looked for a good ram and now I have 2 rams in the salt, Africa can change I've found at any minute you never know what you're going to see. Just when you think you've seen it all...you realize you haven't. So on we go with a focus on Warthogs and Hatebeest. We drive around a bit and we spot 2 bulls together which were both great bulls and would have been happy with either. Again we were able to get the big camera up and rolling, put a quick stalk on them and the one shot dirt nap went bang again and we have a brute of a bull. The mass on this guy was the sole reason I decided on him. He was nearly grown completely together at his bases. Very happy with my decision on him. The rest of the day we looged for a big boar but without success. I was at the point where even if I had to shoot a smaller one I would for a skull mount and then focus on a monster after that for a nice shoulder mount. Well, clearly this wasn't going to happen as the wind for the remainder of my stay would be a big factor as well as the cold weather which from what I was told these pics don't like at all. However, I've still got a couoke days so I've still got some hope!
Tonight we decided to go out and call for a while. We know the wind is high and likely will result in a slow night but we are going to give it a try and check the fields for porcupine. We were able to get some jackals to talk to us but unable to get any to move. The wind he said was likely the reason. We checked for porcupine and tried to get to them fast enough but as we got to that side of the field they had already crossed under the fence and were gone. We will be back tomorrow night now that we knw where the porcupines are at! This is another critter I really want a full body mount of and am determined to get one! I also found out that the African Porcupine is one of the staff's favorite animals to eat and treated it as if it was a delicacy for them. Who knew?!

 

[VertigoBE]

Thanks for sharing @Cody hunt4life ! Some excellent trophies you got! Congratulations!

 

[Ridgewalker]

Never heard of a heli hunt in Africa! I’ve heli hunted hogs and coyotes in Texas, but never hunted from one in Africa. Interesting.

 

[TXhunter65]

Keep it coming!

 

[gillettehunter]

Sir you had a great hunt. Some beautiful animals. A lot of pretty good shooting. You hunted an interesting area with an abundance of fine animals. Good hunting outfit. Some things you’ll remember forever. The heli hunt sounded interesting. Personally I’d be happy to hunt jackals and baboons that way, but not the Fallow. As long as it’s legal it’s your choice tho.
The wounded kudu you intentionally herded down the hill to the road was not a choice I would make. I feel an animal deserves as quick a finish as we can do. No need for them to suffer needlessly. That’s the kind of fodder anti hunters love to use.
Bruce

 

[TXhunter65]

What happened.... need Day 7+.