SOUTH AFRICA: Katzke Safaris April 2017

[308Win]

I went on my first hunting safari this spring outside of Douglas, South Africa (not too terribly far from Kimberley) with Katzke Safaris. And I had a blast.

I had originally planned to hunt with Johann Fourie, a member of the South African Palma team, who was killed in a car accident shortly before the trip. Another member of the South African team got me in touch with Eduard Katzke to schedule a hunt. (I was traveling with the US team to shoot the South African target rifle (SABU) championship.)

Eduard and I figured out the details, and, as it turned out, a few folks I knew from rifle shooting in the US had hunted with him and raved about it. So, that was good enough for me, and I booked the trip.

The match was great. The De Brug range is very challenging, but honest (meaning if you know what you're doing, you can put up a very good score, but the range will make you pay for mistakes) and it's my favorite range in the world to shoot on.

The range even has a resident hartebeest:

On the line...

On to the hunt...

The PH I hunted with was Prieur du Plessis, and he drove out to Bloemfontein to pick me up while the rest of the team loaded up a bus for the ride back to JNB for the flight home. The drive was an enjoyable one, chatting with Prieur about the hunt and all the things I didn't know, the rifle match I had shot, and my attempts to learn some Afrikaans.

We met up with Eduard Katzke ('Katte') at a restaurant in Douglas for a rather nice lunch, chatted for a bit about logistics (my wife was flying in the next day) and then Prieur and I headed for camp. ('Sunset Private Reserve')

Day 0.5 (Sunday afternoon)
I wasn't expecting to do any hunting that afternoon, but we stopped by the range, I shot a few shots with the loaner rifle (a Remington 700 in .308 with a suppressor), including, I'm somewhat ashamed to admit, were my first shots off shooting sticks. I did a ton of practice leading up to the trip, but it was all with my target rifle. In any event, the rifle shot well, and after a few questions about technique and some dry firing, I felt comfortable with the sticks, and off we went.

First, a little back story. Ten years ago, my wife and I were in Nairobi, and we went on a photo safari. We saw all the usual critters, and I discovered the Waterbuck. I'd never seen one, never seen a picture of one, and never even heard of one. But here's this majestic creature that, depending on the light, is gray, brown, purple, silver, or blue. I decided I'd have to go hunt waterbuck sometime. I wasn't sure when, or how, but someday, I was going to hunt waterbuck. So the whole trip was focused on hunting waterbuck.

As we set off in the truck, everything I saw was a waterbuck until confirmed otherwise. I'm sure Prieur was getting a bit tired of the newbie's questions, but he didn't show it.

After a bit, we saw a herd of blesbok, and started a stalk. All my hunting has been for deer and squirrel, so an active stalk was new and much more entertaining than sitting in a deer blind. After a while, we got to 160m, and I took a shot from the sticks. I broke the shot a hair higher than I was meaning to (used to deer vitals) but it took out the top of the heart, and the blesbok ran about 10 yards, and collapsed. My first African animal:

We saw some zebras later that afternoon, but we decided to wait on the zebras (more on that later).

Day 1 (Monday)
The next morning, after a couple brief stalks on a herd of springbok (females and juveniles, but it was good practice) and another up a rocky hill for some impala, we spent most of the morning stalking a herd of Gemsbok through some fairly thick brush. After we made it through the brush, we came out to a big clearing with hundreds of animals. It was beautiful. At that point, Prieur called for Johannes (the tracker) to meet us with the truck, and we drove the long way back to camp for lunch.

After lunch, we decided to sit in a blind by a waterhole to try to get a springbok. After a while, up walks a male, and I take what was the first of two bad shots on the trip. In target rifle shooting, it's not uncommon for (especially in the less stable positions like standing) for the sights to settle nearly perfectly still--but not on the center. For some reason, you take the shot anyway, because the sights came to a stop. Resulting in a 9 or worse. Well, the same thing happened. I had a bit of an awkward firing position, and I was following the walking springbok. When he stopped, the crosshairs sat perfectly still right on his head, and *BANG*. Followed by thinking "I just shot a springbok in the head. Why did I shoot the springbok in the head?!!?" Prieur said I got him, which I knew... since I just shot him in the head. We walk up to him, I'm expecting to have a ruined trophy. But, bad shot #1 of the trip worked out. Entered right between the eyes, but the TTSX didn't expand as violently as a cup-and-core would have, and the damage wasn't catastrophic. There was the entrance hole, a slightly larger exit behind the ear, and one of the horns had a distinct wobble to it, but Prieur said (and the taxidermist later confirmed) that it was completely repairable. The eye stuck out a bit in the pictures, though.

After that, we picked up my wife, and we met my wife at camp, and went back out. I can't remember what exactly we did, but we ended up seeing a nice waterbuck at about 50 yards. I had a nice, steady rest, but he was standing in some tall grass. I asked Prieur if I could shoot through the top of the grass, and he whispered that I could, but to avoid the bushes. With two things in the back of my mind, the need to shoot lower than I'm used to on deer and the bad shot on the springbok, I hesitated, not knowing where to hold on what I could see. I could have placed the bullet as well as I could have stuck a target paster, but I wasn't sure where to hold. He then turned slightly after quite a while, and that presented a shot, briefly. He kept moving, and we followed him into the brush. We caught a quick glance, but then he was gone. We'd look for him in that area for the next few days.


The day of the Zebra (Tuesday)

The next morning, we went back to the area, saw him at 500+ meters as we drove up, but when we got out to track him, we never caught up to him.

Later, we spotted some zebra in the distance, and got out and stalked up to about 300m. Prieur asked if I was comfortable with the shot, and I told him we'd get on the sticks, and I'd see how my hold looked on the zebra, and make up my mind. The zebra was quartering toward us, and looking at us, so getting closer wasn't going to be an option on this stalk. I got ready, and my hold looked good. I came up with a ballpark hold for elevation (using the 2700fps approximation of ~8" low with a 200 yard zero at 300, and at this distance, yards and meters are close enough to equivalent). I took the shot, and this was bad shot #2, but I didn't know it yet. I broke the shot a little right (maybe about a minute's worth, so 3 inches or so, and there's a decent amount of left-to-right wind which I had discounted, until I broke the shot right, then started to wonder about it) We hear a good hit, and the zebra reacts like he's hit in the lungs. So we start tracking. And tracking. This was at not long after 8:00. By about 10:00, we catch up to him, but he's on the far side of a clearing, about 550m (ranged) away, walking away from us. Prieur sets up the sticks, and tells me to shoot. Lest I wait for a perfect shot (he's walking away), he tells me to "Shoot! Shoot him in the @$$!" He ranges again, and he's at 600m. I think he gives me a bit too much credit for shooting .308s in my very specialized discipline... but I give it a go. My thought process goes like this... at 500 yards, the bullet will drop about 48" below the point of aim... he's about 650 yards, so I'll need to aim another 3+ minutes, with is another 18", but we're at higher elevation... so... one and a half zebra bodies above his back. I'm about to break the shot, and notice heavy mirage running left to right, so I think that's a few minutes' worth, and hold one and a half zebra widths off the left side of the zebra and shoot. Being sure I've missed, but not knowing what direction I'm wrong, I ask Prieur if he saw the trace. By the time I finish asking, we hear a *THWACK!*, and the zebra jumps.

We walk briskly to where he was, and we find some droppings and now we have a blood trail. Or, at least, occasional drops that confirm we're on the right track. And by that I mean, Johannes and Prieur could point it out to me; they were already knew which track they were following. We followed the trail for a while longer, but the zebra is walking gingerly, and not leaving much track. He walked into a well-trod section about the time the blood trail fell off and we lost the trail. However, he was walking more-or-less toward a waterhole. So Johannes walked back to the truck (which was now a good ways back) and met us, and we drove to the waterhole. Sure enough, we found a good amount of blood at the waterhole. We decide to go have lunch and come back to try to pick up the trail.

We have lunch (I can't remember which was this day, it might have been the fanciest pig-in-a-blanket I've ever had: ground gemsbok (might have been sausage, might have just been seasoned ground meat) in a flakey pastry shell, cooked over coals. It was delicious.) and then go back out to find the zebra. We head for the waterhole, and Prieur and Johannes try to find which way he's headed. They look for quite a while, and then decide to get back in the truck and drive around and try to find the track that way. While we're doing that, we see a herd of gemsbok. I think Prieur is probably thinking it'd be good to get my mind off the zebra, and probably my wife's, too. (An aside... when we were figuring out what I'd hunt, other than waterbuck, which was a given, priority was given to things she'd like to have on the wall in the family room. She had said something like "if you get a zebra, definitely get the hide, not a shoulder mount." which I took to mean "she wants a zebra". But what she meant was, "I'd rather not see a zebra die, but if you must, don't make me look at a horse's head!" There are some critters, squirrels being another one, that she does *not* like the idea of hunting. Deer? Sure, she'll help butcher. Rabbits? Of course! But squirrel? (and, as I learned) zebra? nope.) So, Prieur and I get out (my wife stays in the truck), and we stalk the herd for a good while, several mile's worth. Finally, we get a shot on what Prieur says is not the best gemsbok we'll see, but a good one (certainly the biggest I've ever had my crosshairs on), and it's up to me if I want to shoot him or try for a bigger one some other time. Given the situation with the herd, the cover, and the blesbok herds that are on either side of us, we won't have a chance this stalk to get a better animal. I think the gemsbok looks wonderful, so I take the shot from the sticks at about 200m. The shot goes right where I aimed it, which was a bit higher than I should have (I was fighting my deer-vitals instinct the whole time), but it hit at the base of the neck and the gemsbok dropped. We walk up to him, and I end up putting another round in his chest to finish the job.

Johannes and my wife drive up, but the gemsbok, though dead (touching the eye got no response), is twitching a bit. Between that and the unaccounted-for zebra, my wife, whom we had convinced to try for a white blesbok, no longer wants to risk wounding an animal.

 

[308Win]

Day of the zebra, continued...

After loading up the gemsbok in the truck, we decide to head over to the area where we saw the waterbuck. The zebra is assumed to be a lost cause. I'm bummed, because I hate to lose an animal, and, if I'm honest, even more than that, I want to find out where my shots went. And what went wrong with the first shot, and where the second hit. As we're driving that way, Johannes spots, not 20 yards off the track, and less than a quarter mile from the waterhole, the zebra. There was much celebration, and despite a bit of rigor mortise limiting the classic trophy picture, the happiest trophy picture we've take up to this point.

And, perhaps best of all for me, I get to score my shots. The first shot hit low and right. (He was quartering toward us, facing left of us.) I think that black spot on his belly, just to the right of the first stripe behind his left leg is the entrance hole. So, on that shot, I made three mistakes, I didn't hold high enough, I broke the shot a bit right (maybe 3"), and I didn't account for about a minute's worth of left wind, another 3-4 inches. I think I could have gotten away with any two of those mistakes, but not all three. The follow up shot from 600 meters, however, was dead on. It hit *exactly* in the center of what I was aiming at--his umm... backside. The bullet hit exactly on the centerline. We joked a bit that the taxidermist was going to think that Prieur and Johannes were the best trackers in the world, since the bullet hole would have been cut straight through to remove the hide. The only marks on the hide as it reached the taxidermist would have been the entrance and exit holes in the belly, which would not have been fatal except possibly through infection.

Day 3 (Wednesday)

Once again, we started the morning looking for the waterbuck in the area we saw him on Monday. I think this morning we saw several cows, but no bulls. We keep seeing gobs of kudu and sable, both of which seemed to my un-trained eye to be big. And, my untrained-though-fully-functioning ears could hear Prieur explaining how big they were. Which is really how I knew how they measured up.

Later in the morning, we set up in a small blind (really just a couple of fallen trees) near a water hole where we'd seen some impala. Barely 5 minutes later, my wife points out a group of impala walking up. Prieur points out the one to take, and I make a shot at all of 50 yards from a stable position. It was about the easiest deer hunt I've ever been on, but I've never shot a 'deer' like that before.

After getting the impala, we went back to camp for springbok kabobs for lunch. Specifically, the springbok I shot on Monday morning. They were excellent. While in camp, the owner of the property came by, and we chatted a bit about the hunt so far, and how much we were enjoying ourselves. By this point, Prieur and I had just about convinced my wife to try for a white blesbok, since Prieur was most confident we could get her a good shot up close on one. (And pointing out that 'old age' means 'dying of starvation when the teeth wear down enough that they can't eat enough to survive', so a less-than-perfect shot was still probably a better way to go than old age for a wild animal.) Upon hearing that she had never taken an animal of her own, the owner insisted Prieur take us to the other property, set up in a blind by a waterhole, and shoot a springbok, on the house. So, a free springbok was enough of a nudge that she decided to go after a springbok of her own.

We got her a set up with the sticks in the blind, and then we waited. We saw some beautiful lechwe and quite a few female springboks, but no males for a while. My wife is having a great time, though, seeing the lechwe at less than 10 yards away. Then, a male starts walking up, and she gets ready. At about 130 meters, quartering toward us, he pauses, and she shoots, making a perfect shot, right through the heart and blowing out the far leg. He ran about 30 yards on three legs, collapsed, and expired. This was her first animal ever taken. Not a bad way to start.

That evening, we looked for my waterbuck some more. We climbed up in a tower which taxed my tolerance for heights, but I wanted my waterbuck, so I shut up and climbed. More kudu, and some sable, and a few waterbuck cows, but no bulls.

Day 4 (Thursday)
This is the next-to-last day of the hunt. I've now got everything I came for except for a warthog and a waterbuck. I wanted a warthog, but given the wet year and the abundance of food, the boars were staying in the thick stuff, and we only saw juveniles and sows. Katte suggested that I substitute a white blesbok for the warthog, which sounded fine to me... but I wanted my waterbuck first. So, the other blesbok would have to wait.

We got up early, and went and back to the waterbuck search. Again, kudu galore, and waterbuck cows, but no bulls. About this time, I'm thinking I really should have taken that shot on Monday...

Early in the afternoon, three waterbuck bulls, two of which are pretty big, run across the road not far in front of us, and disappear into some thick stuff. We get out and try to track for a bit, but they were moving pretty quick, and we decide to get back to the truck and drive to the other side where they might be headed. We never find them again. Later in the afternoon, the sky opens up with a huge storm. Prieur and I don our rain gear, and keep looking for waterbuck. Again, we find cows. It gets dark, and we head back to camp. One day to go.

Day 5, the last day (Friday)

It rained all night, but let up shortly before dawn. After an earlier-than-normal breakfast, we head back out. I'm hopeful that the rain will chase the waterbuck out from the cover to find some sun to dry out. But the clouds roll back in pretty quickly, and there's little sun to be found. However, we are seeing quite a lot of cows, and even some young bulls, which, despite my insistence that they'd be the biggest waterbuck in my living room, Prieur won't let me shoot. I was even on the sticks on one, with the safety off, waiting for Prieur to confirm if he was big enough or not, only to be told that he wasn't a shooter, either. Even on the last day.

Then the rain returns. Even harder than the day before. Raining buckets. Prieur and I stay on the truck, looking. We see a big cow, and glass around her, looking for a bull. But nothing. Back to driving around. A good while later, we're back in the same general area as that cow, and we stop, and again glass around her. Nothing. we start to drive. I tap the truck to get Johannes to stop and say, "wait, what's that under the tree to her right?" and Prieur and I start looking again. Prieur says, "Yeah, you're right, there he is, under the bush to her left." I have no idea what I saw under the tree to the right, but whatever it was, wasn't a waterbuck. But we found our quarry. We moved a bit to get a shot, and I shot at about 120m. It was a good hit, and he ran. Prieur and I, and now Johannes moved quickly to follow, since, as Prieur explained, it was raining so hard that in 10 minutes the track would be completely wiped out. So, good shot or not, we were chasing. I spotted him through the brush, bedded down, he saw us, and bolted. We caught up to him again, and I asked if I should shoot, Prieur said to move for a better angle, I put the gun down, took a few steps to the left (the waterbuck was only 30 yards away or so), and raised the gun again to shoot. But there was so much rain it had filled up the eyepiece of the scope, I couldn't even find the *reticle* in the scope, much less anything to shoot at. The waterbuck saw us, and bolted again. I wiped the scope clear, and put it back under my poncho to keep it dry.

We went back to *running* after the waterbuck, again with the admonition that if he got enough ahead of us, we'd lose him. After all the time we spent looking for a waterbuck, that would be a bummer of a way to end up empty handed. (it added up to over 24 hours spent specifically looking for the waterbuck) We catch a few hundred yards later. The ground is so soft that *I* can follow the tracks at a run. We see him bedded down again, but this time he doesn't jump up (or maybe he didn't notice us--it's raining so hard that it'd be hard to hear us, even if we are running through the bush like elephants) I take aim, and shoot. As the shot hits him, he tries to get up again. Prieur says shoot again, so I shoot again. He had made it halfway to standing up, but at the second of the follow-up shots, he dropped. I had my waterbuck. And it was so much better than getting him with a chipshot on the first day would have been.

We loaded up the truck, but between Prieur, Johannes, and I, we couldn't quite get him in the truck. So we resorted to the winch. He was a *big* animal. I'm a pretty big guy, so keep that in mind as you compare the sizes. Also, I'm sitting with my legs right up against him. He's a pretty big animal. I'm *thrilled* with how the hunt went.

After a drive in the rain back to camp (it's been raining the whole time), we take a little break, wipe down the guns, and change clothes. I didn't have a spare set of boots, so the wet boots went back on as Prieur and I headed back out to find a white blesbok. My wife and Johannes stayed in camp. We found a herd with a good white blesbok in it, and made a stalk. We were in the cab of the truck this time, so we were dry, and by the time we got out to stalk, the rain stopped. We stalked a mile or so through some brush, and got a shot at about 200 meters. Prieur said that, because of the rain, and because it was just him without Johannes (and because we're slated to head back to Kimberly once we get back to camp), to take my time, make a good shot, and then shoot as many follow-up shots as it took until he was down. Okay, good shot, then keep shooting. Got it. I lined up my shot, and made a good shot. Though, as you can see in the wound by the shoulder, it's a bit high again. My trigger finger wouldn't let me break the shot lower, and I kept making deer shots, rather than antelope ones. But it was a good-enough shot, a solid hit and then he ran. I cycled the bolt, and shot again, hitting him a bit further back, and then again for a third hit, and he fell and stayed down. All told, he ran about 50 yards, and given the first shot, probably wouldn't have gone all that much further.

It was a nice end to a wonderful hunt.

What did I learn on my first hunt?
-Gaiters for my boots. The thorns are brutal, and socks are a magnet for them.
-Spare boots. (Given all my competition gear, I didn't have the weight to spare for extra boots, but if weight allows, they'll be coming next time.)
-Better rain gear. A poncho worked in a pinch, but it'd be worth the luggage weight for something better.
-Bring my own rifle, if possible. It wouldn't have been possible this time, given the target rifle and other gear I had to bring, but being familiar with the rifle would have been nice. However, every shot went right where I broke it, so the rifle did exactly what I asked of it. However, I probably would have been less likely to make the bad shot on the springbok and the zebra had I been more familiar with the rifle.
-Aim low. Seriously, aim low. The vitals are down there. I think I'd have made better shots if I'd have seen all the shot placement pictures before I went. (though I'm not sure it mattered, as the problem with the zebra was a different problem, and all the other shots were plenty effective, even if I used up much of my margin for error by aiming high)
-Think about the longer range stuff ahead of time. I wasn't planning on shooting past 250 meters, with 300 as the longest, and when I had to take a very long shot on the zebra, I did a little mental math and some approximations that turned out to work out just fine. But I know I got lucky. I made a good shot, and a good guess, and got it close enough to get lucky, but I got lucky. I should know the trajectory (at the atmospheric conditions there--the elevation is pretty high) ahead of time, and not have to come up with a solution off the top of my head.
-Practice off the sticks. The first time I ever shot off the sticks was at the range in camp. Since, most likely, a future hunt will be part of a trip to shoot SABU again (the SA target rifle national championship), my practice leading up to the trip will be for that, but I need to practice in the off season, then.
-Hunting with suppressors is *great*. I like shooting with suppressors, and I'm currently waiting on a stamp to build a suppressor for whitetail hunting, but I'd never hunted with one before. It's great. Your ears don't ring, and you don't have to fumble with ear plugs. (I'm paranoid about my hearing, and double up foamies and muffs whenever I'm at the range.)

 

[cpr0312]

Congrats and thanks for sharing!

 

[308Win]

And another lesson learned: my follow up shots, almost universally, hit the center of what I could see, and not necessarily the vitals. Hopefully, staring at the shot placement pictures will drill that into my brain.

 

[BRICKBURN]

Thanks for sharing your hunt with us.
Congrats.

How did you fair in the shoot?

 

[308Win]

Thanks for sharing your hunt with us.
Congrats.

How did you fair in the shoot?

There was a bit of a mix up with the schedule, so none of the US team placed well in the grand aggregate. But discounting that... I was pleased. And we had some late cancellations (life and work happens...) so we didn't bring the level of team we could have. But... It's a great match and a great place to shoot. I enjoyed it immensely. Plus, we got some new team members some good experience in international competition. And we can't wait to go back. Hopefully we don't have to wait four years for the next trip.

 

[cagkt3]

Congrats! I'm also curious how the shoot went?

 

[Kowas Adventure Safaris]

Dear 308WIN
We trust that you have enjoyed gathering memories in Africa.
When you are ready to plan your next safari, perhaps you want to consider Namibia as an alternative African country for your hunting destination?
Thank you for sharing your hunting experience with others.

 

[308Win]

I actually read my post all at once... and my high school English teacher would have strung me up for turning that in. And I can no longer edit it. So... my apologies. There are folks posting here for whom English is a third or later language who write better than I did.

Kowas, thanks for the note. I'd absolutely consider going somewhere else. I'll have to see how the shooting schedule and team selection goes next year. (There are big matches in New Zealand and Canada that I hope to be selected for.) Also, it depends on how work goes as to when I can escape for a bit, and how much I can dedicate to a trip. Buuut... on the list for the future is definitely Buffalo, and a few plains game animals I'd love to pursue. Anything in genus kobus would be on the list. I think lechwe was the 'waterbuck' of this trip. Like the Kenya trip 10 years ago, I saw an animal in person that I had never heard of or seen pictures of, and now I want to hunt it. And then there's the usual kudu and eland and the warthog I didn't get this year. And I'd love to hunt gemsbok again. Stalking them was particularly fun, and they're such beautiful animals. Basically, I want to go back, and hunt again. My wife was suggesting I do Buffalo next, since it would be more of a change than plains game again. Maybe I'd just have to add in a lechwe or another waterbuck.

Can you tell I'm a bit excited to go back? I had a great time. And the Palma match (I think...) will be in Bloemfontein in 2023, so I'd probably get to go shoot two years in a row. Maybe even three of four if we go in 2021 as well.

Oh, and one other thing from my trip... if you find yourself in Bloemfontein, go to Margaritas and have the chateaubriand and say 'hi' to George, the owner, on behalf of the American shooters who became regulars once we found the place. I think it was the best steak I've ever had. I'd have to compare it back-to-back with the steaks in Buenos Aires, but this one was definitely cooked better. And it was dry aged over a month. It was *perfect*.

 

[Neale]

Nice trophies and I liked reading your report. Do not worry it is not an english lesson. (As seen by my reports)

 

[CAustin]

Congrats on the trophies taken. Glad you had a good time.

 

[gillettehunter]

Thanks for sharing. Enjoyed the candid nature of the report. Some nice trophies. I agree its nice to have your own rifle, even when the rental is good, its still not familiar.......... Bruce

 

[Bruce]

Fantastic first hunt in Africa...you really worked hard for your trophies which IMO is better than getting them " on a plate" as it were!!
Well done and well written...

 

[cls]

Congrats, enjoyed the report.

 

[Nyati]

Congrats on a great hunt !

Definitely go for a Lechwe next time, and a buffalo too, of course.