SOUTH AFRICA: My First Hunting Trip To South Africa

[270Buck]

My first kill in SA to christen my 7mm Rem Mag. A cull impala, the shot was taken off a bipod at 270 yards. I am going to get a flat skin to put on my trophy room wall or ceiling.



This is one of the 5 extractions we did for female impala culls. My trackers KB and Albert carried out most of them, but I insisted on helping for some of them. The shots were between 100 and 387 yards.



Albert and me with one of the female impala culls.



Me and my PH Sirk with the mornings bag.



I wanted a kudu as a flat skin and the camp wanted some good meat. We got to within 80 yards of 4 cows and calves, I could only see their heads and was confident with the shot.



My first trophy animal of the trip, this will be shoulder mounted. My girlfriend also came on the hunt to share the experience with me. The shot was taken standing off sticks at 125 yards.







We stalked into 50 yards of numerous female bushbuck and young males, but there was no trophy animals amongst them. We starting heading back to the truck to get some lunch. On our way Albert spotted this male bushbuck laying under a tree at 304 yards. Sirk took one look at him and said to shoot him, the bushbuck must have known something was up. He slowly stood up and starting making his way back into thicker cover. He was quartering away from me, as the ram was moving I put the crosshairs on the very front of his chest and squeezed the trigger, the bullet entered 4" behind the shoulder and exited right on the shoulder, his tail flicked up he did a circle and fell no more than 5 yards from where he was couched down!!



This was the number 1 animal on my list, I am soooooo proud of it. One of the most beautiful cape bushbuck I have ever seen from hundreds of photos I have looked at. Even the PH's back at camp said it is very rare to shoot a cape bushbuck with 6 spots on its flanks. I really wanted to get a full mount done, but my girlfriend would not have been happy!!! So a shoulder mount and a back skin is what I will be having!! I am now hooked on bushbuck, the one on the list for next time is the chobe!!





The following day it poured with rain!! They had 5" of rainfall in just over 24 hours. The springbok were still out feeding however. I managed to shoot this ram at just under 200 yards, standing off sticks. My girlfriend videoed the shot, when I have time I will also upload the video.





The next morning I was back out looking for a cull warthog. The warthog in this area I was told do not tend to get massive tusks, as the soil is very stony and rocky they grind their tusks down as quick as they grow. So my next trip to Africa a trophy warthog will be at the very top of the list.

For the remaining one and a half days I was wanting a trophy common/grey duiker. We sat and glassed an area that was know to have duiker, we spotted one moving through the bush. We tracked him for a few hundred yards, he then popped out from behind a bush at 150 yards. I did not deploy my sticks quick enough before he disappeared as quickly as he appeared!!! We tried again the next morning, but did not see any moving as it was quite a hot sunny day. I decided that my last afternoon relaxing by the pool with a few drinks would be a good way to end the trip.





On the way back to camp there was a tortoise on the road. I got out to move it, it was at least 50lb in weight. When I picked it up it hissed. When I got close to take photos it hissed and chomped its mouth!!

 

[Royal27]

Looks like you'll be back!

 

[Erny]

Great write up! Congrates on some very nice animals.

 

[Powdermaker]

Your first trip to Africa is always special and it was great that your girl friend was there to share it with you.
Thanks for the report.

 

[spike.t]

congrats on making it to africa and having a great time. now are you changing your name to 7mmBuck ?..........

 

[BRICKBURN]

Nice Bushbuck, you obviously did some good shooting all round.

Experiencing 5 inches of rain would be an interesting experience.

That picture of the young fella with Warthog necklace makes me cringe. Ticks...

Thanks for sharing your story.

 

[Nyati]

Congrats for your hunt, I like your bushbuck, it´s an old one.

 

[adgunner]

Thanks for taking the time to post the report and congrats!

 

[Cliffy]

I'll bet you were talking about your next African hunt on the flight home-weren't you!
Nice report Thanks!

If you go once-you'll go again-deal with it!

 

[James.Grage]

nice trip

 

[Witold Krzyżanowski]

Cool report and pictures, nice trophies. You did have a good hunting. Congrats..
Witold

 

[Diamondhitch]

Congrats

 

[CAustin]

Looks like you had a great trip. Congrats on the fine trophies

 

[Wheels]

congrats on making it to africa and having a great time. now are you changing your name to 7mmBuck ?..........

You stole my line Mike. I'm just to slow.


Congrats on all the animals. Glad you had a good time.

Thanks for the report and photos.

 

[hunting4sanity]

Thanks for sharing the report and your photos. Seeing your photos is making that insatiable itch to return to Africa even worse. The place certainly has a magic to it.

 

[Mr. 16 gauge]

Nice report/write up.....you got some nice trophies. Did you get to eat any of the meat? If so, what did you think of it? (I really liked the kudu I had last year).

I'm thinking you will eventually be headed back.......................

 

[ScottG]

Great adventures.

 

[270Buck]

Looks like you'll be back!

Most definitely! May be a little while, but I will be back!

Great write up! Congrates on some very nice animals.

Some great animals and some great memories, I will treasure forever!!

Your first trip to Africa is always special and it was great that your girl friend was there to share it with you.
Thanks for the report.

I am also very glad that Julie shared the experience with me. I would have loved for her to have got behind the rifle and taken an animal of her own. I will work on her for next time!!!

congrats on making it to africa and having a great time. now are you changing your name to 7mmBuck ?..........

I have considered it. My 270 may be nearly obsolete! Although saying that my Irish friend wants to use it next week when we go out for muntjac!

Nice Bushbuck, you obviously did some good shooting all round.

Experiencing 5 inches of rain would be an interesting experience.

That picture of the young fella with Warthog necklace makes me cringe. Ticks...

Thanks for sharing your story.

The bushbuck was the most amazing days hunting I have ever had, the trophy will take the centre piece on my wall. I was very sad to have left the cape and head in the salt, I would have loved to have smuggled it home in my case!!

The warthog was not too bad for ticks, although I was not volunteering to carry it that way, the bushbuck had more ticks than all the other animals I shot.

Congrats for your hunt, I like your bushbuck, it´s an old one.

It was an old one, my step father hunted the same area 4 days later. They saw a monster 15" bushbuck! He did not get on it quick enough and it disappeared back into cover!

Thanks for taking the time to post the report and congrats!

Thanks gunner, between my girlfriend and I we took over 600 photos, we also visited the Pumba Big 5 Game Reserve.

We saw some elephant and captured some great photos.

We were 1 minute late in seeing a lion kill a warthog, we got there just as the lioness had hold of the warthog, it's legs were still kicking so it was almost dead when we got there.

I'll bet you were talking about your next African hunt on the flight home-weren't you!
Nice report Thanks!

If you go once-you'll go again-deal with it!

Thanks Cliffy, on the flight home? I think I was still in the lodge a few days before I left when I discussed my next trip. I really want a big warthog, another bushbuck, vaal rhebuck, common duiker, mountain reedbuck, steenbok, cape grysbok! The tiny ten really gets my appeal.

nice trip

Cheers James.

Cool report and pictures, nice trophies. You did have a good hunting. Congrats..
Witold

Cheers Witold, I really enjoyed my first trip, the first of many!

Congrats

Cheers Diamond

Looks like you had a great trip. Congrats on the fine trophies

A great trip, I can't wait to get my trophies back home.

You stole my line Mike. I'm just to slow.


Congrats on all the animals. Glad you had a good time.

Thanks for the report and photos.

Cheers, from 270Buck AKA 7mmBuck.

Thanks for sharing the report and your photos. Seeing your photos is making that insatiable itch to return to Africa even worse. The place certainly has a magic to it.

Don't think about it too much, get that aeroplane booked and paid for!

Nice report/write up.....you got some nice trophies. Did you get to eat any of the meat? If so, what did you think of it? (I really liked the kudu I had last year).

I'm thinking you will eventually be headed back.......................

We ate lots of the meat we shot and some from the previous hunters, the kudu was lovely, but the springbok was the best in my opinion.

I will be heading back but I have a few more hunts booked, chamois in France in November 2015, Spain for Barbary sheep/aoudad sometime in 2015 or 2016, mid asian ibex in November 2016, so it may be 2017 before I am back. That is unless I earn a big bonus from work in the meantime!

Great adventures.

An adventure and a half Scott. I would recommend to any of my friends who have not yet booked a hunting adventure to the dark continent!

 

[vicfox]

looked like some great hunting there. Gotta love Bushbucks.

 

[CAustin]

Getting the trophies home right now is going to take a bit of patience. There are lots of hoops to jump through over there.