Lou Toweill
New member
I returned on June 20 from South Africa where I had a great hunt with Big Game Hunting Adventures. I had signed up for the trip after visiting with John McAdams, having met him at a booth at the Puyallup, Washington, sportsman’s show. John was very patient in answering my questions in the coming weeks to help me prepare for the hunt. I felt very prepared before I left the US. They are a veteran-friendly organization and certainly treated me well as a vet.
The PH’s, Kobus Kok and Johan Seyffert, met me right at the airport in Johannesburg even though I arrived late at night and drove me to their hunting camp. Black wildebeest and blesbok scattered as we approached camp in the darkness.
I borrowed one of their 30-06’s with 180 grain bullets for all my hunting and felt afterwards that it was the right gun for the plains game. We shot at a target in the morning to make sure everything was on track and started hunting. The landscape consisted of open areas, fairly thick brushy areas and areas of scattered trees. The vegetation included many blue gum trees and acacia thorn bushes. Before long, Kobus and I encountered a beautiful nyala (in a brushy area) which I took. We saw too many animals to count in the herds of black wildebeest, blesbok and springbok as we hunted during the week. Vervet monkeys played around the main camp buildings. In the afternoon I took a good blesbok which stopped at the rear of one of the herds.
On the second morning, we found a kudu bull and female feeding on a hillside. We ran down the road and I shot the male. The crew was very good at setting up tripod sticks for my shots all week. We rested in the main camp for the noon meal and went out again in the afternoon. A big waterbuck was standing in a different position than I thought and I unfortunately wounded him. We trailed him for about 3 miles before we caught up with him again and finished him off. I was impressed with the ability of the crew to track a wounded animal so well. Fortunately that did not happen again.
I killed a nice impala on the third morning. That left only a warthog on my wish list so we hunted for one all afternoon without success but Kobus was optimistic that we would find one. We did finally take one on the fourth morning.
Having filled my desired list of animals, I turned down an opportunity to hunt zebra and springbok on the next day so Johan took me to the Cradle of Civilization museum and the adjoining Sterkfontein cave where we saw blind cave shrimp that had no pigment.
Johan and I had a shore barbeque the following day and went fishing for trout and bass.
On the last day, we gathered the trophies and took them to a taxidermist at Pretoria for dipping prior to obtaining export permits and shipping to the US. Then we went to a historical museum called the Voortrekker Monument which tells the story of some of the mostly European people who settled in South Africa. We finished up by eating a light lunch and doing some shopping for souvenirs before arriving at the airport for the flight home. I certainly had mixed emotions leaving after such an excellent week of adventure.
The PH’s, Kobus Kok and Johan Seyffert, met me right at the airport in Johannesburg even though I arrived late at night and drove me to their hunting camp. Black wildebeest and blesbok scattered as we approached camp in the darkness.
I borrowed one of their 30-06’s with 180 grain bullets for all my hunting and felt afterwards that it was the right gun for the plains game. We shot at a target in the morning to make sure everything was on track and started hunting. The landscape consisted of open areas, fairly thick brushy areas and areas of scattered trees. The vegetation included many blue gum trees and acacia thorn bushes. Before long, Kobus and I encountered a beautiful nyala (in a brushy area) which I took. We saw too many animals to count in the herds of black wildebeest, blesbok and springbok as we hunted during the week. Vervet monkeys played around the main camp buildings. In the afternoon I took a good blesbok which stopped at the rear of one of the herds.
On the second morning, we found a kudu bull and female feeding on a hillside. We ran down the road and I shot the male. The crew was very good at setting up tripod sticks for my shots all week. We rested in the main camp for the noon meal and went out again in the afternoon. A big waterbuck was standing in a different position than I thought and I unfortunately wounded him. We trailed him for about 3 miles before we caught up with him again and finished him off. I was impressed with the ability of the crew to track a wounded animal so well. Fortunately that did not happen again.
I killed a nice impala on the third morning. That left only a warthog on my wish list so we hunted for one all afternoon without success but Kobus was optimistic that we would find one. We did finally take one on the fourth morning.
Having filled my desired list of animals, I turned down an opportunity to hunt zebra and springbok on the next day so Johan took me to the Cradle of Civilization museum and the adjoining Sterkfontein cave where we saw blind cave shrimp that had no pigment.
Johan and I had a shore barbeque the following day and went fishing for trout and bass.
On the last day, we gathered the trophies and took them to a taxidermist at Pretoria for dipping prior to obtaining export permits and shipping to the US. Then we went to a historical museum called the Voortrekker Monument which tells the story of some of the mostly European people who settled in South Africa. We finished up by eating a light lunch and doing some shopping for souvenirs before arriving at the airport for the flight home. I certainly had mixed emotions leaving after such an excellent week of adventure.
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