SOUTH AFRICA: My First Safari Hunting The Mountains Of The Eastern Cape With KMG Hunting Safaris

[MTA]

Greetings AH members,
It is with excitement that I write my hunting report for my first safari that took place earlier this month, May of 2023. Here is some basic information before I start with a small portion about details on safari prep and then follow on with a detailed account of each travel & hunting day. If you don't like detail laden writing, now is the time to click out of here :

Location: RSA, Eastern Cape
Dates: May 8th - May 16th
Outfitter: @KMG Hunting Safaris
PH: Marius Goosen
Rifle: Sako S20 chambered in .300 Winchester Magnum
Suppressor: Aimsports Triton NO. 5 (purchased in SA and left for subsequent hunts with KMG)
Ammunition: Handloads - 175gr Barnes LRX over 76gr of H4831SC, Lapua Brass, CCI LRM. Velocity avg 3025 FPS

This hunt was a package deal that Marius was running for the 2022 & 2023 seasons. I was suppose to come in October 2022 but had to postpone for a family emergency. The targeted animals were all plains game and originally consisted of the following: Kudu, Wildebeest (Blue or Black), Impala, Red Hartebeest, Blesbok, Gemsbok. A few months before heading out, he agreed to allow me to swap the Hartebeest for a Burchell's Zebra. Here is the original thread for those curious: https://www.africahunting.com/threads/7-day-hunt-6-animals-package-for-2022-2023.66436/

To start, just a bit of background on my journey to booking this safari. Ever since I got out of the military, I have dreamed of coming to Africa to hunt. About 3 years ago, this stopped being a dream and started to become reality. Once I was able to line up the finances and time off, the world ended due to the China flu. Quite honestly, during covid, I thought that would be it for me. I sure as hell wasn't going to get vaccinated ever and by all appearances, it seemed that if you were not vaccinated, you would never internationally travel ever again. Thankfully, this was not the case and in May of 2022, I joined this forum. A few weeks later I saw KMG's reviews on here and more specifically Marius' penchant for hunting hard and decided to reply to the above thread. The rest is history and it resulted in a very successful and enjoyable first safari. If you are thinking about doing your first safari, just do it. Its truly as expensive as you want it to be, and you never know when the next international bs scam will kick off.


I will work on this as I am able. My job has me working like I am stitching Nikes in Malaysia right now. Time off is never truly time off, oh well.

I hope yall enjoy this report as much as I enjoyed the hunting!

 

[flatwater bill]

Hi MTA............despite all my trips to Africa, I have yet to make it to the Eastern Cape.......still hope to..............awaiting more info and hope to hear more from you soon........also hope to see one of those recovered Barnes LRX bullets!.......FWB

 

[Trophyhunter01]

Nice, keep it coming. I know how you feel the two weeks of email catch up is brutal. I need to start my report as well from early May.

 

[Hunting Hitman]

I’m in for the ride…keep it coming!

HH

 

[MTA]

Hi MTA............despite all my trips to Africa, I have yet to make it to the Eastern Cape.......still hope to..............awaiting more info and hope to hear more from you soon........also hope to see one of those recovered Barnes LRX bullets!.......FWB

Hey Bill, didn't want to make you wait til way further in the thread, I posted up about the LRX in the Bullet Performance Database. Needless to say, it performed flawlessly at close and far distances. https://www.africahunting.com/threads/bullet-performance-database.37971/post-1066252

 

[MTA]

1 Year Prior

Rifle Selection
The old wisdom is to "not buy a new rifle just for your safari", well that may be sound advice for some, but it ended up happening to me anyway. I am a .308 guy, always have been and always will be, but that said, my Sauer 100 has a particular liking for Sierra 180gr SBT which due to covid have become non-existent. My buddy @cash_tx graciously gave me a partial box he had left over but I did not have enough bullets on hand to bring the Sauer with me. I also did not feel like wasting more time trying to find another bullet it likes since its so damn touchy with what it likes.

This led me to the rifle that I would end up taking. In June of 2022, I was on gun.deals, just browsing and saw that Cabela's / Bass Pro were clearing out their Sako S20 hunter & precision floor models. I have had some great experiences in the past with Sako's 75 and Finnbear models and despite the S20 looking like it is made out of recycled trash bins, I decided to give it a go. $1000 ish spent after military discount made this deal worth it. The rifle itself had no functional issues at all but did have some sort of very slight discoloration on the top of the barrel. The calibers left were 6.5 cm and .300WM. I like women so I went with the .300WM. I picked it up from the Cabelas in Allen and upon inspection I remarked how ugly it was and the old timer behind the counter called it "Old Ugly" . The name stuck.

Facing similar bullet issues, I ended up being able to get a sizeable supply of Barnes LRX 175gr from gunbroker. The LRX was suppose to expand a bit easier than the TSX/TTSX and although I could only find a small amount of experiences with it in SA, I decided to roll the dice on it. I typically keep a large amount of factory ammo in calibers I am invested in on hand so that when I get a new rifle, I can break in the barrel with the factory stuff, while gathering up data for which handloads I want to try out.

Practice Begins
Armed with the new rifle and after shuffling optics between my rifles, practice formally began. During this time, I decided to invest in a pair of shooting sticks from @African Sporting Creations. I would say that this was probably the single most important piece of safari gear that you could buy. Getting comfortable shooting from them is the single most important piece of safari prep you should partake in.

In South Texas, I have had the opportunity to shoot a free range axis deer off of similar sticks. Honestly, I took to them very fast. There is something very natural about shooting off of them for someone with my body type. My neighbor allows me to hunt/shoot on their property whenever I want, so I had some steel gongs set up from prior shooting sessions. I started out at 75 yards, then to 100 yards and eventually out to 250 yards. I was able to reliably smash a 8" inch gong at 250 yards so I felt pretty good. From this point forward, I would practice 2-3 times a week at distances between 100-250 yards. I would also practice off hand shooting (never happened during my hunt and it felt like it would be extremely rare to do this in the terrain we were hunting in) and shooting from the kneeling. Another position I would add to practice is sitting and using a non-attached bipod. This was a common occurrence while I was there.

Load Development
I got lucky when it came to this rifle and load development. I know that Barnes bullets can be finicky with seating depth, but I did not have this issue thankfully. The two powders I have a good stock off and were up for consideration were H4350 and H4831sc. I also tried out MagPro, which gave me very good groups on occasion, but I was concerned with temp sensitivity.

So with H4350 and H4831sc, I ended up with the most accurate loads for both around max charge. Barnes likes to lump their load data for 175gr and 180gr projectiles together. 5 grains makes a difference and I wish they didn't do something so stupid, so I played around with both powders to find out a good balance of velocity and not killing myself. At the chrono, the 4831 edged out 4350 by 50 fps so I went with that instead.

The rifle printed groups between .4-.675 with this load. This coupled with my confidence on the shooting sticks made me feel as prepared as I could. I ended up logging 427 rounds fired in practice through the S20, with a good percent of this being factory ammo. Now on to the travel!


Magpro group. Shame it didn't do this consistently, but I will try it out again. Maybe it was me:

Typical 4831sc group:

"Old ugly" in the early days, testing factory ammo. At this point it had my Zeiss Conquest on top which is my test scope for new rifles. Not the 2 additional spacers on the stock. I have gorilla arms:

 

[Rare Breed]

Greetings AH members,
It is with excitement that I write my hunting report for my first safari that took place earlier this month, May of 2023. Here is some basic information before I start with a small portion about details on safari prep and then follow on with a detailed account of each travel & hunting day. If you don't like detail laden writing, now is the time to click out of here :

Location: RSA, Eastern Cape
Dates: May 8th - May 16th
Outfitter: @KMG Hunting Safaris
PH: Marius Goosen
Rifle: Sako S20 chambered in .300 Winchester Magnum
Suppressor: Aimsports Triton NO. 5 (purchased in SA and left for subsequent hunts with KMG)
Ammunition: Handloads - 175gr Barnes LRX over 76gr of H4831SC, Lapua Brass, CCI LRM. Velocity avg 3025 FPS

This hunt was a package deal that Marius was running for the 2022 & 2023 seasons. I was suppose to come in October 2022 but had to postpone for a family emergency. The targeted animals were all plains game and originally consisted of the following: Kudu, Wildebeest (Blue or Black), Impala, Red Hartebeest, Blesbok, Gemsbok. A few months before heading out, he agreed to allow me to swap the Hartebeest for a Burchell's Zebra. Here is the original thread for those curious: https://www.africahunting.com/threads/7-day-hunt-6-animals-package-for-2022-2023.66436/

To start, just a bit of background on my journey to booking this safari. Ever since I got out of the military, I have dreamed of coming to Africa to hunt. About 3 years ago, this stopped being a dream and started to become reality. Once I was able to line up the finances and time off, the world ended due to the China flu. Quite honestly, during covid, I thought that would be it for me. I sure as hell wasn't going to get vaccinated ever and by all appearances, it seemed that if you were not vaccinated, you would never internationally travel ever again. Thankfully, this was not the case and in May of 2022, I joined this forum. A few weeks later I saw KMG's reviews on here and more specifically Marius' penchant for hunting hard and decided to reply to the above thread. The rest is history and it resulted in a very successful and enjoyable first safari. If you are thinking about doing your first safari, just do it. Its truly as expensive as you want it to be, and you never know when the next international bs scam will kick off.


I will work on this as I am able. My job has me working like I am stitching Nikes in Malaysia right now. Time off is never truly time off, oh well.

I hope yall enjoy this report as much as I enjoyed the hunting!

His offer is a great one…type animals for the cost…truly exceptional and he has an excellent reputation

 

[MTA]

His offer is a great one…type animals for the cost…truly exceptional and he has an excellent reputation

It was an outstanding experience all the way around

 

[MTA]

Day 1: Travel to JHB

I began my journey to the DFW airport. I love this airport. Its very easy to get in and out of and never seems too crowded. I packed up Old Ugly and included a folder with a copy of my SAPS permit and CBP 4457

I was flying Premium Select on 200/201 and Comfort+ on my legs to and from Atlanta. The PS seats granted me Sky Priority. SP allows you to have your own check in kiosk. I was the only on there for SP so the lady waved me up. She was friendly and asked me about hunting in SA. I was asked to unlock my rifle case and place a little orange tag affirming that my rifle was unloaded. I told her that my ammo case was locked and placed in my checked bag. This all checked out for her so I left my bags there and proceeded towards security. I used apple airtags in all 3 bags and found this stressful but ultimately very useful. Just remember that the airtags dont sync at the same time every time. Sometimes I would see my ammo case tag away from my checked bag. Ultimately everything synced.

Security was fully open and I spent less than 2 minutes online. The TSA agent asked for my passport and scanned it. I was through very quickly.

Some notes on DFW.

• I booked my parking early online and got 50% off. It was around $90 to park at the terminal from may 6 - 17. They also have a 4 hour arriving & leaving grace period that is completely free
• Make sure you sign your passport if its brand new. Not a big deal but this happened to me

The flight from DFW to ATL was uneventful. I sat in the first row of Comfort + and one thing that is unique for this “bulkhead” row is that it has carryon storage underneath the first class seats in front of you.

ATL was dirty and over crowded. Every restaurant was either closed or completely packed. After a 6 hour layover and multiple gate changes, they finally gave us the correct gate and our plane taxied up arriving from Seoul. We boarded at 930 and took off at 11pm.

DL200

I sat in the middle aisle seat and it was ok. Lots of noise and light from the galley. I didnt realize until towards the end of the flight that the little bag of items they give you in PS include ear plugs and eye masks which would have helped. The food was ok but was certainly not first class. They served dinner about an hour or so into the flight, 6 hours later they gave out a small sandwich and then 1.5 hours before landing they served breakfast. I think next trip I will skip PS and just pick an economy exit row seat. Not much value in my opinion. Overall not a bad flight at all if you are overnighting in joburg before proceeding.

I took this picture for @Cam300 since he will be on this flight soon, it is the bulkhead row in Comfort+

Here are the rest of the pictures from that leg

Johannesburg
I was the first person off the plane. You walk through the loading jetway into an open room where there are a ton of black men in suits with signs. I found the representative from RiflePermits and we were off. This man walked fast as he knew the passport check line would grow. So we hauled over there. I was only on line for about 15 minutes and then over to baggage claim. We retrieved my checked bag and then proceeded out to the main foyer of the airport. There I met Anna and Marius of @riflepermits.com. Extremely friendly and helpful, I proceeded with Marius to the SAPs office. My rifle case was waiting for me in the office, I opened it up and the SAPs officer checked the serial number for about a split second. I was then given my actual rifle permit which you should keep on your person always while in SA. We proceeded on to City Lodge which was a short walk. I get checked in and made plans to meet back with Marius in the lobby the following morning for my next flight. For now I was happy to be in my hotel room. I did go down to the restaurant in the hotel. They give you two choices, buffet or menu. Pick the buffet as the menu food is delicious it did take an excessively long time for the food to come out. Perhaps I was a bit worn out from the travel but I was over it when my tbone steak came out. It was delicious and a welcome sight to see after the Delta food. After that I went upstairs and promptly passed out

 

[MTA]

Day 2: Travel & Arrival at the lodge
I slept in and missed the bed & breakfast I had a paid a bit extra for at the City Lodge. Check out was painless and I met Marius in the lobby. Check in at the Airlink counter is where I separated my ammo box from my checked bag. The lady at the counter tagged all of the bags, the checked bag was left with her and we proceeded to the firearms room with the rifle & ammo cases. There, I had to show my permit, rifle serial number and sign a ledger. After that, the two cases were left behind to be loaded on to my plane, I departed from Marius and breezed through security almost instantly.

There are a few small shops in the domestic departure terminal in JHB. I bought a cheap prepaid phone to use while in SA. There isn't really anywhere to buy OTC medicines or anything like that, but there are plenty of places to eat.

The Airlink flight was uneventful. We were delayed by about 20 minutes due to an avionics issue but other than that it was good. On this particular flight there is no first class. I would advise the bulkhead seats. They are spacious. Another note is that overhead space is limited on these small planes and if there is no space left, your bag will get placed into the cargo bay. I did not have this issue though.

East London
I arrived at East London airport which is a small regional airport. There are no jetways, you unload off of a portable staircase and then walk while directed by ground crew into the baggage claim section of the main airport building. I retrieved my checked bag and was greeted by a lady holding a sign with my name. I was expecting a man, more specifically a PH I would be hunting with, but I was informed that she was the hospitality manager of the lodge I would be staying at and that my PH had got into a car wreck with a flock of guinea fowl that had destroyed his radiator. I was informed that I would be hunting with Marius himself now. All good with me. Once again into a firearms room, this particular one being the size of a closet, show permit, open rifle case, sign ledger and then we were out to the truck and on our way out of the airport.

I have experience with countries where they "drive on the wrong side of the road", so that wasn't anything new to me. We proceeded on from the airport into the city proper. East London looked like any major US city. Very busy with road construction and lots of pedestrians walking in and out of the traffic. We ended up taking a small detour to get outside of the city a bit quicker and on to the main highway that leads out of the urbanized area. Once on the highway it was smooth driving all the way to the dirt road that leads up to the lodge.

Lodge

The lodge is the "Coastal Lodge" as described on the KMG website. It was a bit surreal to be standing there after looking at those pictures a few hundred times over the last year. I was settled into one of the lodge rooms and informed that at 4pm, one of the lodge owners would be by so we could head to the rifle range.

For this trip, I actually bought a suppressor, an AimSport Triton, before arriving. Marius had it in his truck and was out hunting so I shot unsuppressed to confirm that my zero had not shifted. It was dead on. After that we went on a short drive around this property and observed some game. Loads of impala, zebra, blesbok as well as nyala.

That night Marius and Nick, his head PH, returned back with two other hunters from the US. We met and made plans for the following day. We would first head back to the range to get the suppressor on the rifle and sighted in then proceed on to a concession close by to start the hunt

 

[Pheroze]

I love the enthusiasm in your report! It reminds me of the saying “The only man I envy is the man who has not yet been to Africa- for he has so much to look forward to.” I am very happy you enjoyed yourself with a great PH.

 

[MTA]

I love the enthusiasm in your report! It reminds me of the saying “The only man I envy is the man who has not yet been to Africa- for he has so much to look forward to.” I am very happy you enjoyed yourself with a great PH.

Thank you sir. It was a great adventure for me and I am happy to be able to share it with everyone

I am hoping that I am finding a good middle ground for everyone, where it is informative/factual for the new safari hunter and trying not to put the veteran safari hunter to sleep with too many details

If any first timer is reading this and has any ?s please let me know, my notes I took on my phone are extensive and I don't mind answering any questions.

 

[jhendricks]

Thanks for posting, I appreciate all the details building up to the hunt.

 

[gillettehunter]

I may be a veteran safari hunter, but I still love the details. Enjoying your report.
Bruce

 

[RLL]

Good posts! I just returned from the East Cape last week, hunting around Kenton on Sea and Port Alfred areas. Beautiful areas and good hunting!

 

[buck wild]

Keep it coming!

 

[TwoTracks]

I love it, keep it coming. Bringing back lots of memories from my trip there last summer.

 

[Mort]

Great report so far . I am very excited to see the rest as I will be hunting with Marius next May.

 

[MTA]

Day 3
The day started out at the range with the Triton attached to the end of the rifle. The Triton is a very interesting design that is common in South Africa & Europe but not in North America. The rifle barrel is placed into the suppressor and threads are not engaged until it is about halfway into the suppressor body. Makes for a great balance on a magnum length barrel. The suppression is also superior to my SiCo Omega 36M. Anyways, a couple of shots on paper and everything was ready to go. We set out from there to the first concession.

First Concession

A short drive away from the lodge was the first concession. My description will it do this no justice, but it was amazing. We came down through the gate and down a small hill which had a view out to a basin which was bordered by more rocky hills. Covered sporadically with trees and a few dirt roads that led up to the hilltops. The road we followed carried across the basin and continued on uphill, this led out to this view with mountains adjacent to us. A herd of blue wildebeest tore out across the road in front of us as we stopped. Looking out across the terrain it was a bit surreal that I was actually finally in Africa and about to hunt!

So after the blues past on, we continued on the road. About 4-500 yards from there we spotted a lone Blesbok. Marius got a good look at him through the spotting scope and decided he was a shooter. The ram was on the move at a trot to our right, he moved up and over the hillside that we had just driven from. We slowly moved back in the truck to a position that would be better suited for a stalk. Dismounting from the truck with rifle in hand, it was on! We began our first of many ascents up the hill top and into a thick set of brush. As we continued up, we gradually drifted to the left to make the wind a bit more advantageous for our position. We stalked along game trails through the rough terrain, spotting a lone Blesbok ram but a young blood. As we decided to back out from there without spooking him, we heard a ruckus in the brush immediately in front of us. Marius motioned for us to kneel. Out of the thick brush line ahead of us a young warthog popped out, followed by another and another. No shooter in the group but we stay there very still in the shadows of an acacia tree. We were about 30 yards away and in this picture, you can just make out their bodies:

The pigs decided they had enough and carried on, not noticing us. We pressed onwards. At this point were were at the highest point of elevation for hill so we kept walking straight before turning right in hopes of sighting the big ram from earlier. I took a minute during our 'speedwalk' to take this picture. You cant really tell but we were fairly high up and down at the bottom was grassy plain, very savannah like, were we could see a big herd of zebra feeding, accompanied by the ever so annoying lookout ostrich that seemed to move in the same direction as us, kicking up everything in this plain. Simply magnificent view though

Continuing on to the very top of the hill, which was grass that was between waist and chest high, we spotted a decent group of Blesbok right about the same time the spotted us. They took off at a sprint away and to our right down the hill. Admist that group was a (possibly thee) big ram but at this point my first stalk in Africa was over. On to the next one, we took some time on that hilltop to glass the surrounding hillsides and plateaus. In the far distance, probably 800 yards or more away as a massive herd of Blesbok. Marius cooked up a new plan and we called the tracker, Loyd on the radio who retrieved us in the truck. We drove along the road we had started out on far back and around the highest hill top to position us to come out on the far side of the herd after a good bit of walk/stalk.

Blesbok

With the truck parked, we began another brisk walk forwards, keeping low in case an animal found themselves in or near our path. We continued this pace for about 15 minutes before we came to a tree patch surrounding a bed of rock shaped almost like a horseshoe, with a big green bow blind towards the middle. We got down to a crawl as Marius spotted a damn lone ostrich, strutting away and to our left. Once he was clear we walked through the small bit of trees and took a knee. At this position, the herd that we saw previously would be directly in front of us, but down the gently rolling hillside. So out of sight for us but atleast we would be out of sight for them. We got down and participated in one of my favorite military past times, crawling with a rifle through grass, thorns and God only knows what else. Coming to a pretty good position, I got set up on the shooting bipods in a sitting position. The grass kept us mostly concealed and at this point I was thankful that I brought a camo neck gaiter, which I would use on nearly every stalk while in country (bring one if you are coming to the EC), to conceal my mug. We sighted the herd about 500 yards out from where we were. They were moving towards us but to the right. In this herd of many, there were two males in particular that stood out, a big white and a big common colored one. They were taking turns beating the piss out of each other. The white one was a mean bastard but he helped me out as the more ornery he became, the more he pushed the common ram out to the edges of the group. They meandered on and on until they were about to be 300 yards in front of us. I swung to the right and got ready to make it happen. Marius and I kept a clear line of communication as we both constantly went back and forth confirming that I was on the correct Ram (they all look the same when they are in a herd and its your first time hunting them). They gently grazed and walked, with immature females constantly nearing the designated ram. Once again the white ram did me a favor and pushed on over to the common ram who walked about 10 feet up from the herd and turned completely broadside at 294 yards. I relayed to Marius that I was taking the shot and he affirmed. I pulled the trigger and heard the bark of the suppressor followed by the distinguished sound of a suppressed round smashing into an animal. If you have never heard this sound before, it is akin to Mark McGwire swinging a baseball bat at a thick blanket. Sitting from a bipod is never a truly stable shooting position and even a suppressed 300wm is enough to get me off target for a second. The herd took of, screaming fast up and out of sight. Marius told me that he saw something drop, but the grass was just too thick to see from where I shot. He called forth Loyd in the truck and we unleashed Flex, Rigby and Gypsy, the tracking dogs so they could get some exercise. The dogs made short work of any tracking as the ram had in fact dropped, DRT. Just like that, my first African animal was down, hallmarked by also being my longest kill ever at 294 yards. I thanked God for allowing me to be here, to have practiced as much as I was able to with a 2 yr old at home and to have finally made a dream come true.

Second Concession
With the Blesbok in the salt, we continued on to the second concession. This concession was a bit different, more greenery, much taller grass (chest high) but plenty of hills. We spent the rest of the afternoon here chasing after Zebra which were extremely wary and switched on. They have no shortage of land to run at this massive property and fortunately for them they can make it up a hill much faster than we can. Someone would call it a fruitless endeavor, but I enjoyed every minute of it. Zebra are my number 1 animal so it was a great day spent in the pursuit.

 

[PARA45]

Great report, and like the details. It brings back memories, last year hunted in the EC. Keep it coming.