SOUTH AFRICA: Last Minute Cape Buffalo Hunt With Africa Maximum Safaris

[TERMINATOR]

Maybe I spent too much time reading pictures and not enough time reading words. Who were you hunting with? I didn't see you reference the outfit youre with.

Check out the title of the thread…

 

[Hornyman]

Check out the title of the thread…

Bahhhhaahhh.

Ask stupid questions, get stupid answers.

This is what I get for posting while in boring office meetings and trying not to day dream.

I was referencing and meant to ask if there was a hyperlink to Africa Maximum Safaris. I was being lazy, but found them on Google.

Thanks for going easy on me, some days I'm amazed I can tie my own shoes.

 

[TERMINATOR]

Bahhhhaahhh.

Ask stupid questions, get stupid answers.

This is what I get for posting while in boring office meetings and trying not to day dream.

I was referencing and meant to ask if there was a hyperlink to Africa Maximum Safaris. I was being lazy, but found them on Google.

Thanks for going easy on me, some days I'm amazed I can tie my own shoes.

It was tempting to give you a real smart ass response .... but I have been there

I was going to give my summation of A.M.S. at the end but I will say I had never used them before, never even heard of them before and was pretty skeptical of what I was buying. Kind of the ole "if it sounds too good to be true it probably is" thing. I had one hour to decide and looked at their website, saw he is a member of SCI & DSC so I figured those were points in is favor given the ease to report problems with outfitters in those organizations. But my concerns were unfounded as Jacques not only lived up to my expectations he exceeded them in every way and I would not hesitate to hunt with A.M.S. (https://www.africamaximum.co.za) again or to recommend them to my friends.

Best example of what a stand up guy Jacques is...I had contracted for a hard bossed bull UP TO 38". When my PH Arrie talked to him after the first day and said it might be a challenge to find a hard bossed bull under 38", that everything we were seeing was well over 40", Jacques told him "Just try an find one under 40". Mine was 39" and change. A very pretty bull. Like I mentioned earlier in my first post, I was expecting I would be culling a broken horn bull or something in order to be hard bossed and under 38"....and I was happy with that because as I said, I really just wanted to thump a bull with my new to me .416 and this was a (relatively) inexpensive chance to do that. But I got a very nice bull that way exceeded the expectations I had when I was flying over to R.S.A.

The fact that the bull I took was the SMALLEST hard bossed bull out of several hard bossed bulls I saw says something about the quality of the herd at the Bona Bona Safari Farm. And the number of younger soft bulls says the future is very bright there as well. The quality of all the animals they actively manage at the Bona Bona Farm was very good. I just was on a limited budget this trip and saving animals for my plains game hunt next summer with Marius @KMG Hunting Safaris, otherwise I would have happily shot more animals and they would have been big. If a guy wanted to do a "Wildebeest Slam" and take Blue, Black, Golden and Kings Wildebeest that are high quality and do it with one stop....the Bona Bona Safari Farm would be my call. And the Camp Manager Walla and his wife Lisa were tremendous hosts.

My PH Arrie Classe was great at what he does and is a absolute great guy. I would hunt anything, anywhere with him and if I was to go back with A.M.S. I would request him.

A.M.S. is not the cheapest outfit around, I lucked into a situation and took advantage of it. But they are a top quality outfit and I give the hunting at the Bona Bona Safari Farm (one of several farms A.M.S. partners with) two thumbs up.

And I need to give John Martins at Discount African Hunts a shout out because he is the agent that made me aware of the opportunity to hunt this hunt with A.M.S. I will say that I was VERY skeptical of John and D.A.H. but everything he committed to Jacques lived up to...so I would use John at Discount African Hunts again now if he had something that interested me.

 

[Bill116]

Excellent report. Thanks for posting. I have done 2 hunts there with Arrie as my PH. He is the best. My wife had a great time there also. The buff in my avatar is from there with Arrie. He walked my old ass to death!! We hope to return in a couple of years. Jacques and AMS are top notch. Good luck next year.

 

[TERMINATOR]

Excellent report. Thanks for posting. I have done 2 hunts there with Arrie as my PH. He is the best. My wife had a great time there also. The buff in my avatar is from there with Arrie. He walked my old ass to death!! We hope to return in a couple of years. Jacques and AMS are top notch. Good luck next year.

Thank you.

I love that old bull of yours! Congrats!

Did you hunt the main AMS property where Jacques has his lodge or at the Bona Bona farm?

 

[Doug3006]

Super bull! Glad you were able to let that Rem Mag eat!

 

[Uncontrolled_round_feed]

Great write up! Your photos of the plains game are top notch too…curious your camera setup as I’m thinking of upgrading from just iPhoning everything.

 

[TERMINATOR]

Great write up! Your photos of the plains game are top notch too…curious your camera setup as I’m thinking of upgrading from just iPhoning everything.

Thanks

My wife took the plains game photos. Well all the photos. She is the photographer in the family.

On this trip she took he 2nd best camera and a cheaper lens just because of not wanting to tote her most expensive setups all the way to RSA and into the bush bouncing around in the hunting vehicle.

So those pics were taken with a Cannon EOS T7i and a Cannon compatible Tamron 70-200 Lens.

https://www.adorama.com/tm702002eos.html?gclid=EAIaIQobChMIttC2mpvmgAMVfAGzAB21gw8WEAQYASABEgJsa_D_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds&utm_source=inc-google-shop-p

The Tamron lenses are really good for less money than the Cannon lens. They make lenses for Sony, Cannon and Nikon so whatever camera you buy they probably have a lens for it.

Her top setup is a newer and more expensive Cannon camera and a cannon lens. I don't know the camera off the top of my head but this is the lens. I know that because I bought it for her for Christmas

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07DFVF7M4/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title

ie=UTF8&psc=1

All the newer digital cameras are great....she says "the glass" (lenses) is the key. The likes the 70-200ish range because she can take close in to pretty far away without swapping lenses but carries a wide angle lens for landscape shots. Her lenses are like my rifles...she has a lot of them but like all of us she has favorites and most of the time she is carrying a 70-2xx lens and a wide angle.

Some more of her art....

 

[Doubleplay]

So, coming into this year I had a hunt in Scotland for Red Stag booked in mid September and a Drop Camp in the Uncompaghre Wilderness south of Gunnison CO booked for Elk in October.

This trip to South Africa was not on the radar and not in the budget...but getting creative (sold some stuff I didn't need on Facebook Marketplace, sold a rifle and sold some stock that had appreciated) I was able to make it happen.

But given I had made 3 prior plains game hunts to Namibia and RSA and have another with a group of friends and family next summer (2024) for my 3rd Hunt with Marius @KMG Hunting Safaris and having limited budget this year given what I already had on the books, I really didn't want to load up on PG this trip. But of course I wanted something to do after I got a Cape Buffalo in the salt. Had it taken all 6 days to get the Cape Buffalo, so be it, but I didn't expect it would. So I decided to use this trip to try and fill some of my "bad luck animals" that were less expensive but would fill some holes in my collection.

On prior trips I had never taken a Warthog. Either we saw a good one when we were on a stalk on a priority animal and didn't want to blow the opportunity on the priority animal and was always like "we will get a warthog later". But then when I had finished my priority animals the warthogs were nowhere to be found. And on my last trip Marius had put me in position to kill a very good warthog and I blew the opportunity (long story but totally my fault). So I figured we would look for a good warthog after hunting a Buffalo.

Same with Duiker....seen them when stalking something, but didn't want to blow the opportunity on a great Nyala (or something like that) to take a Duiker...so never got one. Figured we would actually try for one this trip.

Finally I had taken a real nice Mountain Reedbuck with Marius but had not hunted Common Reedbuck so I told Arrie we would spend the last 4 days looking for a shooter warthog, a Duiker and a Common Reedbuck.

On this trip I was limited to hunting this one large farm (which was the agreement on the Buffalo hunt) so we were at the mercy of what was available for those species on this farm. Arrie said there were lots of Duiker but we just needed to find one which is a challenge in the tall grass. He said there were lots of warthogs but good males were hit or miss and that they had some Common Reedbuck and figured we could get on one. So that was the plan after we had taken the Cape Buffalo. I would use this trip to try fill some holes that had never been the priority on my prior trips.

Coming up I will tell the story of the last 4 days

Can you pm your contact info for Scotland? I'm trying yo put together a last minute hunt for this year. Thanks

 

[Uncontrolled_round_feed]

Much appreciated the detailed reply…Your wife has a gift for it!

 

[TERMINATOR]

Much appreciated the detailed reply…Your wife has a gift for it!

Your welcome. I will show her your comments.

This is the current version of the camera she took to RSA...it would make a great first Digital SLR Camera.

EOS Rebel T8i

Optical Viewfinder with a 45-point All Cross-type AF System* with Face Detection. High Image Quality with 24.1 Megapixel CMOS (APS-C) Sensor. High-Speed Continuous Shooting of up to 7.0 fps. 4K 24p along with Vertical Video. DIGIC 8 Image Processor, ISO 100-25600; Expandable to up to 51200**...

www.usa.canon.com

Then you just add a lens. The first lens would be a 70-200 Cannon or Tamron.
The 70-200 is the all-round lens that covers 90% of what you would want. I think of it as the .375 H&H of camera lenses. So you can get a great setup for a little over $2k

 

[Bill116]

@TERMINATOR , I was hunting the Bona Bona farm mostly. We did take one side trip about 75 miles or so, my wife called it the Serengeti! We saw everything there. Took a black Wildebeest there and had to deal with a group of rhino that were not happy with us. took about a half mile route around them.

 

[TERMINATOR]

Well I guess I should wrap this up....

Days 5 & 6

So I spent the last two days out in the bush looking for a shooter warthog. It was not to be. The only one I saw all week was the one that won the race to the fence and got to the neighbor property. We kept looking for him but no luck. And we keep looking for the Trespasser Warthog (or Ghost Warthog as Arrie referred to him) also with no luck.

On day 5 we went to a area way back on the farm that we had not been before because the workers said that they always saw Reedbuck there, so we went for a look.

This farm really isn't managed for Reedbuck. They were on the property when the owner bought it and they continue to live there, but there were not many of them. But it was a chance to tick one more animal off my list.

We went back to an area with a small lake and an abandoned house and glassed the area around the lake. Sure enough we started seeing Reedbuck. First a female with young one...then a young male...then we saw a Adult Male who was kind of following a female around.

Arrie said he wasn't a real good one, but he was an adult male. At this point I was getting itchy to hunt something else and it would allow me to add "Common Reedbuck" to my list of animals collected in Africa so I said "Let's Go". Arrie grabbed the shooting sticks and I put a round in the chamber of my 30-06, made sure it was on "Safe" and we took off towards the Reedbuck who was about 400 away across a grassy plain and slowly meandering away from us.

We found a shallow depression that pretty much lead in the direction of the Reedbuck and allowed most of our body to be below line sight of the Reedbuck and hustled quickly down the low spot to cut the distance down. We could see the Reedbuck and since he was walking away from us and not looking back, we were able to move as quick as my broken old body would go. We closed the distance considerable and when we saw a small tree up head, got as close to that as possible, then popped up out of the ravine and moved to the tree.

We got to the tree and we were now 150 yards away next to the tree but the Reedbuck had caught our motion when we came out of the ravine. He was acting nervous but had not yet bolted. But he sure looked like he would at any second. Arrie quickly slapped the shooting sticks in place and I got on them and found the Reedbuck in the scope. He was broadside but looking right at us. I lined up on his shoulder and fired. The gun went "bang" but the Reedbuck did not flinch. Somehow I missed what should have been a chip shot (broadside at 150).

I had no idea where the bullet went, probably over him but with nothing but empty grassland behind him there was no way for us to know. It didn't matter where that shot went because it was point blank range with me sighted in for 200 so obviously I had wobbled off the target in my rush to shoot him before he bolted. Luckily the Reedbuck was not spooked terribly....he moved off a few yards, but stopped and looked back at us. Only now he was facing straight at us.

I mentally wiped away my being pissed at myself for missing that shot and refocused on the Reedbuck who was now at 160 yards but looking at me head on. I calmed myself thinking "Take your time...if he runs he runs" and got steady, took my breath and let 1/2 out, and caressed the trigger.

This time when the gun roared he dropped in a heap in his tracks, kicked a couple times and was still. Arrie joked about me missing the broadside shot at 150 yards but making the harder head-on shot at 160 yards. All I could do was shrug my shoulders and laugh because I had no explanation

The 2nd shot hit him square in the chest right where the neck met the chest and ended up almost coming out his a$$, a perfect shot.

We took some pics a loaded him up. In hindsight I probably should have passed on him because he wasn't real big but he might have been the best we could find on that property. Oh well, I got to have a fun stalk and will do a European Mount on him and can add "Common Reedbuck" to the list of animals I had collected. Now I need to upgrade on him on a future hunt. Pretty sure Marius @KMG Hunting Safaris can help me out with that next summer.

So that his how my hunt ended. 1 real nice Cape Buffalo, one "Dugga Duiker" and one below average Common Reedbuck. The other thing I got was the the enjoyment of spending 6 days in beautiful country loaded with animals with a real nice PH that is now another friend of mine in RSA. More memories of a lifetime of hunting for this ancient hunter and my wife who gave her camera a workout....and that is the best trophy of all!

I gave my summary of Africa Maximum Safaris above and have zero regrets about my "Last Minute Cape Buffalo Hunt" with them. Once again I tip my hat to Jacques Senekal at AMS, my great PH Arrie Classe and to John Martins at Discount African Hunts for finding this hunt for me.

Now July of 2024 can't get here soon enough so I can be back in the African bush and do yet another hunt report with my group of friends and family in camp.

 

[TERMINATOR]

@TERMINATOR , I was hunting the Bona Bona farm mostly. We did take one side trip about 75 miles or so, my wife called it the Serengeti! We saw everything there. Took a black Wildebeest there and had to deal with a group of rhino that were not happy with us. took about a half mile route around them.

Awesome!

Good luck to you on all your future hunts!

 

[Flewis]

Great bull, very happy for you.

 

[TERMINATOR]

Great bull, very happy for you.

Thank you sir!

 

[Qc_BearHunter]

I really enjoyed reading your report. Thanks a bunch for it. Cheers!

 

[TERMINATOR]

I really enjoyed reading your report. Thanks a bunch for it. Cheers!

Glad you enjoyed it. I like writing them.

 

[jlb1036]

congratulations excellent bull

 

[Hornyman]

Excellent. Thank you for the write up.