Day 9 of 15 of my second safari with Louis Loots of Ka Maoto near Northam in the Limpopo region of South Africa.
I am now up to 10 animals which range from common animals to more exotics/rare ones and maybe even something that would be considered trophy size.
The rifles I brought with me were the new Ruger Marlin 1895 Guide Gun in 45-70 Govt and a Winchester XPR-SR in 300WM.
On the first day fresh off the airport pickup we got the silencers fitted to my rifles and zero’d out, then headed for a drive around the property. Wasn’t long until we ran into some wildebeest and I took my first kill as it dropped on the spot from a neck shot. Female wildebeest, nothing out of the ordinary. Then not long after a female nyala fell victim to the second round out of my suppressed 1895 and as she bounced away despite having her vitals blown out, I took a running shot hoping a center mass hit but I took out the hind leg, which made it drop as soon as she touched ground from her jump. Both kills were done within 50 yards of not less.
Second day, the 300WM was put to work as we came across another pack of wildebeest and after quite a bit of chasing them through the mountainous terrain, a nice bull came to rest under the shade of a tree, a bit uphill from the truck. A neck shot dropped the beast, not allowing him a final step. As I missed an uphill shot on a female impala standing over the ridge earlier, that shot felt pretty good, as I consider uphill shooting the most difficult as an inexperienced hunter. After dropping it off to the camp, we went on ahead to find another impala and again a lot of back and forth through the steep terrain finally led to a comfortable downhill shot that once again made the animal kiss the dirt without a second thought. By then it was only 9:45am so we set out to go visit the local taxidermy shop where I collected some of the flat skin from my last hunt. Impressive collection of animals, including a full body mount lion taking down a ram impala.
Still thirsty for blood, we ended the day on a neighbouring property where the 300WM took its third trophy of the day with a not so perfect but lethal broadside shot on a very nonchalant blesbuck.
Friday and Saturday were spent without a shed of blood on my end as we attempted to find a big ram impala for another hunter in the camp and then going after some zebra. The fellow hunter finally got his impala after a full day of hide and seek leading to an almost 300yds shot from sticks. Three missed shots (200-300yds) on warthogs and a visit to a croc pond after a high speed chase of a zebra herd following a photo safari of giraffes where the highlight of those days for me, with honorable mentions to lot of cute dogs.
Sunday the big day, celebrating my 33rd birthday, halfway to retirement, as I set out early to hunt one of the biggest and most iconic animal of South Africa (in my opinion), the giraffe, with my 45-70. As we were making our way to giraffe town, a huge golden wildebeest was staring at us under the guise of an old tree. The same one that was spooked from his nap as we were chasing the zebra the day before and ran out before I could put a 45 in his chest after locking eyes together. As I told the PH I’d love to shot him if we ever crossed path again, he quickly hurried me my 300 as I struggled to make out if I was aiming down the monster or a big ant pile down the open high grass. After almost a minute of looking at the suspect, I received visual confirmation from his tail swinging as he turned broadside and started walking out of his shaded cover toward a very grown green bush. Half hidden in the grass, I decided to take a shot just a few steps from him entering full cover and the brass hasn’t even hit the ground yet the whole crew jumped off the truck and started running to the beast yelling me to hurry. I caught up to them 200 yds down range to find the animal laying where I shot him but still breathing and kicking. Fearing he may get up and run, they asked me to give him one more into the chest. Only then I realized it was the same animal from the previous day and how huge it was. Initial though were I shot him in the neck but below the spine. The day after the skinner gave me a fully mushroom bullet (150gr Barnes TTSX .308) saying I actually hit both shoulders and the bullet was left just under the skin. This was an unexpected kill just before 8am and we tagged the animal with a few lengths of TP, to be retrieved later as we were still on our way to giraffe land.
Louis told me that once I take my initial shot, I should keep on shooting till I run out as to keep the giant from running away somewhere hard to get. 7 shots later the whole crew was yelling Rambo as I ejected the last shell from the lever gun. It was thrilling and magnificent. Took lots of pictures and then we had a loader come pick up the 1000kg animal with the bucket and drive it back to the slaughter house while we fetched our golden wildebeest from his TP temple. It was the first animal my bullets didn’t punched out of. Only 2 full bullets and 2 partial ones were retrieved, but a total of 7 entry wounds were accounted for. Both recovered bullets (broadside shots) went completely through until they met the thick hide on the opposite side. The broken ones were from two shoulder shots and only the mushroom parts were found. When they cut the chest open, there was nothing but mush. I was using 325gr hard cast gas check RNFP 2100fps at about 80yds. They recovered about 450kg of meat.
I am now up to 10 animals which range from common animals to more exotics/rare ones and maybe even something that would be considered trophy size.
The rifles I brought with me were the new Ruger Marlin 1895 Guide Gun in 45-70 Govt and a Winchester XPR-SR in 300WM.
On the first day fresh off the airport pickup we got the silencers fitted to my rifles and zero’d out, then headed for a drive around the property. Wasn’t long until we ran into some wildebeest and I took my first kill as it dropped on the spot from a neck shot. Female wildebeest, nothing out of the ordinary. Then not long after a female nyala fell victim to the second round out of my suppressed 1895 and as she bounced away despite having her vitals blown out, I took a running shot hoping a center mass hit but I took out the hind leg, which made it drop as soon as she touched ground from her jump. Both kills were done within 50 yards of not less.
Second day, the 300WM was put to work as we came across another pack of wildebeest and after quite a bit of chasing them through the mountainous terrain, a nice bull came to rest under the shade of a tree, a bit uphill from the truck. A neck shot dropped the beast, not allowing him a final step. As I missed an uphill shot on a female impala standing over the ridge earlier, that shot felt pretty good, as I consider uphill shooting the most difficult as an inexperienced hunter. After dropping it off to the camp, we went on ahead to find another impala and again a lot of back and forth through the steep terrain finally led to a comfortable downhill shot that once again made the animal kiss the dirt without a second thought. By then it was only 9:45am so we set out to go visit the local taxidermy shop where I collected some of the flat skin from my last hunt. Impressive collection of animals, including a full body mount lion taking down a ram impala.
Still thirsty for blood, we ended the day on a neighbouring property where the 300WM took its third trophy of the day with a not so perfect but lethal broadside shot on a very nonchalant blesbuck.
Friday and Saturday were spent without a shed of blood on my end as we attempted to find a big ram impala for another hunter in the camp and then going after some zebra. The fellow hunter finally got his impala after a full day of hide and seek leading to an almost 300yds shot from sticks. Three missed shots (200-300yds) on warthogs and a visit to a croc pond after a high speed chase of a zebra herd following a photo safari of giraffes where the highlight of those days for me, with honorable mentions to lot of cute dogs.
Sunday the big day, celebrating my 33rd birthday, halfway to retirement, as I set out early to hunt one of the biggest and most iconic animal of South Africa (in my opinion), the giraffe, with my 45-70. As we were making our way to giraffe town, a huge golden wildebeest was staring at us under the guise of an old tree. The same one that was spooked from his nap as we were chasing the zebra the day before and ran out before I could put a 45 in his chest after locking eyes together. As I told the PH I’d love to shot him if we ever crossed path again, he quickly hurried me my 300 as I struggled to make out if I was aiming down the monster or a big ant pile down the open high grass. After almost a minute of looking at the suspect, I received visual confirmation from his tail swinging as he turned broadside and started walking out of his shaded cover toward a very grown green bush. Half hidden in the grass, I decided to take a shot just a few steps from him entering full cover and the brass hasn’t even hit the ground yet the whole crew jumped off the truck and started running to the beast yelling me to hurry. I caught up to them 200 yds down range to find the animal laying where I shot him but still breathing and kicking. Fearing he may get up and run, they asked me to give him one more into the chest. Only then I realized it was the same animal from the previous day and how huge it was. Initial though were I shot him in the neck but below the spine. The day after the skinner gave me a fully mushroom bullet (150gr Barnes TTSX .308) saying I actually hit both shoulders and the bullet was left just under the skin. This was an unexpected kill just before 8am and we tagged the animal with a few lengths of TP, to be retrieved later as we were still on our way to giraffe land.
Louis told me that once I take my initial shot, I should keep on shooting till I run out as to keep the giant from running away somewhere hard to get. 7 shots later the whole crew was yelling Rambo as I ejected the last shell from the lever gun. It was thrilling and magnificent. Took lots of pictures and then we had a loader come pick up the 1000kg animal with the bucket and drive it back to the slaughter house while we fetched our golden wildebeest from his TP temple. It was the first animal my bullets didn’t punched out of. Only 2 full bullets and 2 partial ones were retrieved, but a total of 7 entry wounds were accounted for. Both recovered bullets (broadside shots) went completely through until they met the thick hide on the opposite side. The broken ones were from two shoulder shots and only the mushroom parts were found. When they cut the chest open, there was nothing but mush. I was using 325gr hard cast gas check RNFP 2100fps at about 80yds. They recovered about 450kg of meat.
