TERMINATOR
AH elite
- Joined
- May 6, 2011
- Messages
- 1,135
- Reaction score
- 2,564
- Location
- West Michigan
- Media
- 34
- Articles
- 1
- Member of
- NRA (Life), Safari Club Intl
- Hunted
- Namibia (Kalahari), RSA (Eastern Cape & Northwest Province), Canada(Sask), USA (Michigan, Colorado, Wyoming, Illinois, Iowa, Nebraska), Texas (Ya'll do realize Texas is a country right)
Well, we just got back from my second hunt in Africa. First trip was to Namibia in 2000 where I shot Mountain Zebra, Kudu, Eland, Gemsbok, Hartebeest, Impala, Springbok & Steenbok.
This trip my target species were Nyala, Bushbuck, Blue Wildebeest, Blesbok and Mountain Reedbuck. I was open to taking an monster Impala, Warthog and Duiker time and opportunity permitting.
At first the trip started off on a sour note, none of which was in control of Marius at KMG. We flew from Grand Rapids MI to Atlanta, had a long layover where we took a day room near the airport for a nap and lunch before the 16 hour evening flight from Atlanta to Johannesburg. We were to spend the night at the Afton Guest House, then depart early for Port Elizabeth to meet Marius.
Because I knew we would be trashed from all the flying to get to Johannesburg and because I had not dealt with the SAPS process before, I decided to pay someone to do the pre-processed temporary rifle permits. I figured it was worth the $150 just to have it all taken care of so that when we landed we could breeze through the process and quickly be off to the Afton House for dinner and sleep. At Lori's (Travel Express, great help) suggestion I worked with Bianca at Safari Concierge to do all the paperwork in advance. A few weeks and several emails/documents later I was told we were all set and my pre-approved temporary permit would be waiting for me. Lori made the RSVPs with the Afton House.
The night before we left for R.S.A. I contacted the Afton House and Bianca at Safari Concierge to confirm the arrangements and my flight schedules were set as I always do just to make sure everything was in order. Afton House confirmed they would be waiting to take me from the airport to the Guest House. Bianca confirmed that "all I had to do was arrive" to quote her and that the rifle permit would be waiting for me. We were all set for the JoBurg portion of our travels...or so I thought.
When we got off the plane in JoBurg, there was a nice young man waiting for me with our name and he breezed us through the VIP lane at Customs bypassing the hordes in line to be processed. He helped us collect our luggage, got it on a cart and took us to the SAPS office to process the rifle. Great stuff to that point...then everything fell apart. There was no pre-approved rifle permit for me. Somebody forgot to give it to somebody or Bianca never had it in the first place. I don't know which because nobody at Safari Express has ever returned a phone call or email to give me an explanation or even an apology, much less a refund for the service I had paid for in advance (the pre-approved rifle permit). It is now 12 days later and I have not yet gotten a response from Safari Concierge. So basically I paid $150 to have somebody get me through customs quicker, collect my luggage and show me where the SAPS office was. A complete rip-off.
After wasting a lot of time trying to get in contact with Bianca to find out where my rifle permit was I finally gave up and decided to just do one myself. This is where Adel of Hunters Permits Africa saw we were having a problem and stepped up and helped me get the permit filled out and approved even though I was a CUSTOMER OF ONE OF HER COMPETITORS!!! She actually meets her customers herself to make sure everything was in order and they were satisfied and when she saw our situation offered to help. Well I tipped her and all I can say is that if somebody wants help they should go to Hunterspermits Africa - Welcome to Hunters Permits Africa, your map to all your needs to hunt in South Africa! and contact Adel and avoid Safari Concierge like the plague.
To make a bad night worse, the Afton House had not sent anybody to pick us up and after a couple calls to them we were finally told that their guy had screwed up and was expecting on a later KLM flight coming in 3 hours later. They quickly sent someone to collect us but we never got any kind of apology for the mix up and generally felt like we were an imposition on them even though the room was nice and the food was good at dinner ($25 p/p extra charge) and breakfast (included). When they dropped us to the airport, their porter apologized for the mix up and showed me the paperwork that the people at the office had printed out showing us arriving with the others on the KLM flight. So basically the people at the Afton House blamed the porter while in fact they had given him the wrong instructions despite my having confirmed our arrival flight and time the day before with them! So we won't be using the Afton House again....
So at this point we were less than thrilled with JoBurg and hoped that things would get better once we got the he11 out of there and got to P.E. and with Marius. Well, that was certainly the case because we could not possibly have been happier with everything on our trip from the point we met Marius in P.E. at noon.
We spent the night in a beautiful room at Sir Roy's Guest House in P.E that was 1/2 the price we paid the night before in JoBurg and was way nicer. Our plan was to relax, meet Marius and his lovely wife Kim for dinner in P.E, then get up in the morning and spend the morning at the Addo Elephant Reserve on a game drive before heading to the lodge in the afternoon to check the sights on the rifles and begin hunting the following day.
Marius being the hunting machine he is was so excited to hunt he asked if we were up do doing the game drive yet that afternoon before dinner then we could start of first thing to the lodge and get an extra 1/2 day of hunting in. We were feeling pretty good so we agreed and had a great time seeing and photographing Elephant, Kudu, Warthog, Zebra etc. We then had dinner with Marius and Kim and went to bed.
Next day we were off to the lodge at the crack of dawn and arrived there at about 8am. We dropped our stuff in a stunning room at the most incredible lodge I have ever seen and buzzed over to the shooting range which happened to be at a ranch that held lots of Blesbok. First thing I noticed was that I had forgot the detachable magazine for my custom Rem 700 7mm-08...so I had a single shot rifle. DOH!!! So I would half to make my shots count. We quickly confirmed the rifles were ok and started stalking Blesbok. After a couple stalks and not seeing what we wanted we spotted a ram that looked good and started stalking through the grasslands moving bush to bush to cut down the range. We managed to get it to about 100 and I put the 140 grain Nosler Accubond through the lungs of the ram. He ran through some bushes and was out of sight. We put Marius' Jack Russel on the trail and he quickly led us to my first trophy in R.S.A. It was not even noon of what was technically my non hunting arrival day and we had one in the salt LOL That was how my hunt was to progress.
We got him on the truck and then went back to the lodge and looked at several Kudu (not on my list) and Nyala bulls but did not see what I was looking for that first evening. So we retired to the lodge...and what a lodge it is.
My wife thinks "roughing it" means staying in a Marriott Courtyard instead of a full level Marriott Resort..and she LOVED THE PLACE. Incredible views and very nice rooms. To give you and idea of how good the food was, I carry a step counter all day every day and we averaged between 16,000 and 18,000 steps a day which is 7-9 miles every day up and down steep hills....and I gained 3 pounds!!
The next day we set off to a nearby ranch to look for Blue WB. We hunted hard and at last light finally got a crack at a good bull as they were milling around but I rushed the shot with my other rifle the .300 Wby...and I missed clean. We looked long after dark and all the next morning with several trackers and the dog and finally gave in that I had missed clean. Better than wounding one but still I was mad at myself. We decided to give the BWB time to settle down so we went back to the main ranch and once more looked over several Nyala bulls but did not find what I was looking for...something 27" with Ivory Tips and outward flare. You know you are in "Nyala Heaven" when there are so many bulls they are literally dying of old age and you have set a high standard but you can pass up bull after bull and your PH is saying "We will find your shooter...be paitient".
Still wanting to rest the BWB we started the next morning on the ranch once again glassing Nyala and Kudu bulls and seeing a Bushbuck ewe. After about our 3rd place of stopping to glass we spotted what was definitely a good Nyala bull and set off after him to get a closer look. We were on a cliff about 140 yards above him and Marius set up the sticks and I got the bull in the scope while deciding if he was "the one". He was very tall but did not have the outward flare I hoped to be looking at for the rest of my life on my wall so we were discussing taking him or not when suddenly we spotted a real good Bushbuck ram in a gap in the thick cover 30 yards to the right of the Nyala we had been looking at. Once glance and Marius said "Take that Bushbuck!" so I readjusted the rifle in the sticks and BAM, drilled him through the top of the shoulder down through the lungs and out the front of his chest from 125 yards with the 7mm-08. He bounced off the hillside and tumble down the hill a little ways before stopping stone dead.
We had little time to celebrate because we still had the Nyala bull we were considering taking in front of us but he had moved off about 100 yards at the shot. We quietly slipped around the cliff we were on and repositioned the shooting sticks and I got on the bull again in my scope. I was excited at the possiblity of taking a "twofer" of Bushbuck Ram and Nyala Bull off the same cliff but Marius still wasn't sold on the bull. Evenutally he headed over the hillside and the decision was made for us. So we went down in the valley with the trackers and retrieved the Bushbuck. We got him out of the valley and into the truck and dropped him at the skinning shed. As we were driving on the rugged road back to the lodge I saw another Nyala bull in the valley near the lodge. We stopped and got out for a closer look. He wasn't a shooter but when Marius looked at one feeding near him he immediately uttered the words I had been waiting for..."THAT is your bull!". We worked down the hillside to about 140 yards and could get no closer. I got on the sticks and after settling my breathing sent the 140 grain 7mm bullet though his near shoulder and lungs where it stopped on his far side next to his leg. That was the only bullet I fired out of my 7mm-08 we recoverd. The bull stumbled away bleeding into some thick cover but we knew he was hit. When he appeared in an opening in the valley I put a 2nd shell into him for insurance. It turned out to be a wasted shot but we did not know that for sure at the time. The bull went a few more yards into the thick cover at the bottom of the valley and disappeared. It took us a long time to get down into that thickly covered valley and we we did Marius' Jack Russel name Flecks took off on a blood trail and quickly found the bull stone dead against a bush. The bull hardly had any teeth left and would not have lived another 6 months so I got him just in time!
Not a bad morning when you can bang a 14" Bushbuck and a 27"+ Nyala in the same morning!
The next day found us on a ranch about an hour away that was on higher ground filled rolling hills. We glassed a couple of groups of Reedbuck and saw a group with a ram in it but they had seen us and were headed over the far mountain so we went to look for more. On another stalk I blew what should have been an easy shot on a good ram about 140yards away and we were wondering if my scope hadn't been jarred the morning before when I took a tumble as we went down the mountain to find the Nyala. So I took Marius' .308 with it's suppressor for the remaining stalks that day. After a couple more stalks were we were busted by the sharp eyes of the Mtn Reedbuck we laid yet another stalk on a group with a real good ram in it. They took spotted us as we tried to get closer on the relatively open hillside and ran over a hill. We took after them and when we got to the top of the hill I finally got a lucky break with the Reedbuck...the Ram had stopped to check his back trail. Quickly I was on the sticks and drilled him as he stood quartering towards us just inside the front shoulder and through the lungs. A fine end to a fun day stalking the Mtn Reedbuck. It was quite different than the thick cover we hunted in most of the day and a fun challenge. I highly recommend people give them a go.
This ram also was very old and was almost without teeth. Marius said he would score very high in SCI record book. I don't care much about those things but it is good to know we got a real good Mtn Reedbuck ram.
So now I had 4 "in the salt" as they say and it was only my 3rd "official" day of hunting!
More to come...
This trip my target species were Nyala, Bushbuck, Blue Wildebeest, Blesbok and Mountain Reedbuck. I was open to taking an monster Impala, Warthog and Duiker time and opportunity permitting.
At first the trip started off on a sour note, none of which was in control of Marius at KMG. We flew from Grand Rapids MI to Atlanta, had a long layover where we took a day room near the airport for a nap and lunch before the 16 hour evening flight from Atlanta to Johannesburg. We were to spend the night at the Afton Guest House, then depart early for Port Elizabeth to meet Marius.
Because I knew we would be trashed from all the flying to get to Johannesburg and because I had not dealt with the SAPS process before, I decided to pay someone to do the pre-processed temporary rifle permits. I figured it was worth the $150 just to have it all taken care of so that when we landed we could breeze through the process and quickly be off to the Afton House for dinner and sleep. At Lori's (Travel Express, great help) suggestion I worked with Bianca at Safari Concierge to do all the paperwork in advance. A few weeks and several emails/documents later I was told we were all set and my pre-approved temporary permit would be waiting for me. Lori made the RSVPs with the Afton House.
The night before we left for R.S.A. I contacted the Afton House and Bianca at Safari Concierge to confirm the arrangements and my flight schedules were set as I always do just to make sure everything was in order. Afton House confirmed they would be waiting to take me from the airport to the Guest House. Bianca confirmed that "all I had to do was arrive" to quote her and that the rifle permit would be waiting for me. We were all set for the JoBurg portion of our travels...or so I thought.
When we got off the plane in JoBurg, there was a nice young man waiting for me with our name and he breezed us through the VIP lane at Customs bypassing the hordes in line to be processed. He helped us collect our luggage, got it on a cart and took us to the SAPS office to process the rifle. Great stuff to that point...then everything fell apart. There was no pre-approved rifle permit for me. Somebody forgot to give it to somebody or Bianca never had it in the first place. I don't know which because nobody at Safari Express has ever returned a phone call or email to give me an explanation or even an apology, much less a refund for the service I had paid for in advance (the pre-approved rifle permit). It is now 12 days later and I have not yet gotten a response from Safari Concierge. So basically I paid $150 to have somebody get me through customs quicker, collect my luggage and show me where the SAPS office was. A complete rip-off.
After wasting a lot of time trying to get in contact with Bianca to find out where my rifle permit was I finally gave up and decided to just do one myself. This is where Adel of Hunters Permits Africa saw we were having a problem and stepped up and helped me get the permit filled out and approved even though I was a CUSTOMER OF ONE OF HER COMPETITORS!!! She actually meets her customers herself to make sure everything was in order and they were satisfied and when she saw our situation offered to help. Well I tipped her and all I can say is that if somebody wants help they should go to Hunterspermits Africa - Welcome to Hunters Permits Africa, your map to all your needs to hunt in South Africa! and contact Adel and avoid Safari Concierge like the plague.
To make a bad night worse, the Afton House had not sent anybody to pick us up and after a couple calls to them we were finally told that their guy had screwed up and was expecting on a later KLM flight coming in 3 hours later. They quickly sent someone to collect us but we never got any kind of apology for the mix up and generally felt like we were an imposition on them even though the room was nice and the food was good at dinner ($25 p/p extra charge) and breakfast (included). When they dropped us to the airport, their porter apologized for the mix up and showed me the paperwork that the people at the office had printed out showing us arriving with the others on the KLM flight. So basically the people at the Afton House blamed the porter while in fact they had given him the wrong instructions despite my having confirmed our arrival flight and time the day before with them! So we won't be using the Afton House again....
So at this point we were less than thrilled with JoBurg and hoped that things would get better once we got the he11 out of there and got to P.E. and with Marius. Well, that was certainly the case because we could not possibly have been happier with everything on our trip from the point we met Marius in P.E. at noon.
We spent the night in a beautiful room at Sir Roy's Guest House in P.E that was 1/2 the price we paid the night before in JoBurg and was way nicer. Our plan was to relax, meet Marius and his lovely wife Kim for dinner in P.E, then get up in the morning and spend the morning at the Addo Elephant Reserve on a game drive before heading to the lodge in the afternoon to check the sights on the rifles and begin hunting the following day.
Marius being the hunting machine he is was so excited to hunt he asked if we were up do doing the game drive yet that afternoon before dinner then we could start of first thing to the lodge and get an extra 1/2 day of hunting in. We were feeling pretty good so we agreed and had a great time seeing and photographing Elephant, Kudu, Warthog, Zebra etc. We then had dinner with Marius and Kim and went to bed.
Next day we were off to the lodge at the crack of dawn and arrived there at about 8am. We dropped our stuff in a stunning room at the most incredible lodge I have ever seen and buzzed over to the shooting range which happened to be at a ranch that held lots of Blesbok. First thing I noticed was that I had forgot the detachable magazine for my custom Rem 700 7mm-08...so I had a single shot rifle. DOH!!! So I would half to make my shots count. We quickly confirmed the rifles were ok and started stalking Blesbok. After a couple stalks and not seeing what we wanted we spotted a ram that looked good and started stalking through the grasslands moving bush to bush to cut down the range. We managed to get it to about 100 and I put the 140 grain Nosler Accubond through the lungs of the ram. He ran through some bushes and was out of sight. We put Marius' Jack Russel on the trail and he quickly led us to my first trophy in R.S.A. It was not even noon of what was technically my non hunting arrival day and we had one in the salt LOL That was how my hunt was to progress.
We got him on the truck and then went back to the lodge and looked at several Kudu (not on my list) and Nyala bulls but did not see what I was looking for that first evening. So we retired to the lodge...and what a lodge it is.
My wife thinks "roughing it" means staying in a Marriott Courtyard instead of a full level Marriott Resort..and she LOVED THE PLACE. Incredible views and very nice rooms. To give you and idea of how good the food was, I carry a step counter all day every day and we averaged between 16,000 and 18,000 steps a day which is 7-9 miles every day up and down steep hills....and I gained 3 pounds!!
The next day we set off to a nearby ranch to look for Blue WB. We hunted hard and at last light finally got a crack at a good bull as they were milling around but I rushed the shot with my other rifle the .300 Wby...and I missed clean. We looked long after dark and all the next morning with several trackers and the dog and finally gave in that I had missed clean. Better than wounding one but still I was mad at myself. We decided to give the BWB time to settle down so we went back to the main ranch and once more looked over several Nyala bulls but did not find what I was looking for...something 27" with Ivory Tips and outward flare. You know you are in "Nyala Heaven" when there are so many bulls they are literally dying of old age and you have set a high standard but you can pass up bull after bull and your PH is saying "We will find your shooter...be paitient".
Still wanting to rest the BWB we started the next morning on the ranch once again glassing Nyala and Kudu bulls and seeing a Bushbuck ewe. After about our 3rd place of stopping to glass we spotted what was definitely a good Nyala bull and set off after him to get a closer look. We were on a cliff about 140 yards above him and Marius set up the sticks and I got the bull in the scope while deciding if he was "the one". He was very tall but did not have the outward flare I hoped to be looking at for the rest of my life on my wall so we were discussing taking him or not when suddenly we spotted a real good Bushbuck ram in a gap in the thick cover 30 yards to the right of the Nyala we had been looking at. Once glance and Marius said "Take that Bushbuck!" so I readjusted the rifle in the sticks and BAM, drilled him through the top of the shoulder down through the lungs and out the front of his chest from 125 yards with the 7mm-08. He bounced off the hillside and tumble down the hill a little ways before stopping stone dead.
We had little time to celebrate because we still had the Nyala bull we were considering taking in front of us but he had moved off about 100 yards at the shot. We quietly slipped around the cliff we were on and repositioned the shooting sticks and I got on the bull again in my scope. I was excited at the possiblity of taking a "twofer" of Bushbuck Ram and Nyala Bull off the same cliff but Marius still wasn't sold on the bull. Evenutally he headed over the hillside and the decision was made for us. So we went down in the valley with the trackers and retrieved the Bushbuck. We got him out of the valley and into the truck and dropped him at the skinning shed. As we were driving on the rugged road back to the lodge I saw another Nyala bull in the valley near the lodge. We stopped and got out for a closer look. He wasn't a shooter but when Marius looked at one feeding near him he immediately uttered the words I had been waiting for..."THAT is your bull!". We worked down the hillside to about 140 yards and could get no closer. I got on the sticks and after settling my breathing sent the 140 grain 7mm bullet though his near shoulder and lungs where it stopped on his far side next to his leg. That was the only bullet I fired out of my 7mm-08 we recoverd. The bull stumbled away bleeding into some thick cover but we knew he was hit. When he appeared in an opening in the valley I put a 2nd shell into him for insurance. It turned out to be a wasted shot but we did not know that for sure at the time. The bull went a few more yards into the thick cover at the bottom of the valley and disappeared. It took us a long time to get down into that thickly covered valley and we we did Marius' Jack Russel name Flecks took off on a blood trail and quickly found the bull stone dead against a bush. The bull hardly had any teeth left and would not have lived another 6 months so I got him just in time!
Not a bad morning when you can bang a 14" Bushbuck and a 27"+ Nyala in the same morning!
The next day found us on a ranch about an hour away that was on higher ground filled rolling hills. We glassed a couple of groups of Reedbuck and saw a group with a ram in it but they had seen us and were headed over the far mountain so we went to look for more. On another stalk I blew what should have been an easy shot on a good ram about 140yards away and we were wondering if my scope hadn't been jarred the morning before when I took a tumble as we went down the mountain to find the Nyala. So I took Marius' .308 with it's suppressor for the remaining stalks that day. After a couple more stalks were we were busted by the sharp eyes of the Mtn Reedbuck we laid yet another stalk on a group with a real good ram in it. They took spotted us as we tried to get closer on the relatively open hillside and ran over a hill. We took after them and when we got to the top of the hill I finally got a lucky break with the Reedbuck...the Ram had stopped to check his back trail. Quickly I was on the sticks and drilled him as he stood quartering towards us just inside the front shoulder and through the lungs. A fine end to a fun day stalking the Mtn Reedbuck. It was quite different than the thick cover we hunted in most of the day and a fun challenge. I highly recommend people give them a go.
This ram also was very old and was almost without teeth. Marius said he would score very high in SCI record book. I don't care much about those things but it is good to know we got a real good Mtn Reedbuck ram.
So now I had 4 "in the salt" as they say and it was only my 3rd "official" day of hunting!
More to come...
