Its been years in the making and finally the opportunity came along at the right time for me. I was trying to decide between a green hunt and an actual rhino hunt. The Vitadart hunt that is now popular does not appeal to me since the hunter does not get to actually tranquilize the animal. I decided I was going to pursue a sawed horn rhino where the poaching has been a problem and the owners needed to sell some rhinos to be able to keep staff on hand and pay security personnel to protect their rhino herd. Having already booked a small cats and small antelope safari with Reinier Linde of Legelela Safaris I asked him what might be available and he came through with a great hunt for me. I changed my plane tickets and backed up my safari by about a week to hunt the rhinos in South Africa.
I was using my Kreighoff .470NE which is still a very new gun to me and my first double gun. Due to an unfortunate fall that gave me a concussion I was only able to shoot this double gun the month prior to the Safari. Not an ideal situation. I luckily found a single box of Barnes ammo for this gun on the recommendation of Reinier for my rhino hunt. I bought two different shirts that can have a recoil pads inserted into them to try for this safari. They are ShockEater and Cabela’s brand and both are very good at helping with recoil.
We had good weather in Kwa Zulu Natal where the hunt was to take place. On arrival at the property we saw the large number of rhino skulls from poaching incidents over the recent years. Then I knew I was in the right place for this conservation hunt. We met up with their tracker and began the hunt. It was quite exciting as the thick brush concealed these ancient beasts was really tough to get through. We bumped a few rhino and the finally found a bull that was possibly one to go after but it had a small 3-4 year old bull calf tagging along. I was sure it was a cow with her calf but we pursued it anyway. Sure enough it was a big bull on closer inspection and we began the stalk. We had the wind right but the bull seemed to know something was up. I was in a bit of a concerned state of mind as I could just see a charge was imminent. We slowly worked our way into position and I got on the sticks. At this point the rhino was on full alert and quartering towards us. I was really hoping for a broadside shot but it was not to be. I took my shot and stayed right on him for the second shot but the other younger bull was right there in the way. As he turned and ran I did not make the second shot and he was off into the thick stuff. As we were all tracking him it seemed we had lost the track and could not find any blood trail to follow. Our tracker climbed a tree while Reinier and I tried to find something to follow. The tracker began yelling something at us in his language and I knew we must be in trouble. After being charged by a leopard last year I was thinking what have I gotten myself into now? We had one rhino charge right past us at about 5 yards! It was a close call but not the rhino I had targeted. We followed them sprinting for about 300 yards or so. Over the next 45 minutes or so I was really worried I had made a bad shot and we were in for days of tracking a wounded bull that could easily run over us at any moment. Then as we backtracked someone found blood in a grassy area. We all took the blood spoor and it was really good. We found the rhino stone dead with a perfect shot through the shoulder and exited and appeared to perform very well. This was about a mile and a half from where I had shot him!
The rest of the day was spent with skinning and all the paperwork required for a hunt of this nature.
It finally sank in that I had completed the Big 5 and I was greatly humbled by the whole experience.
More to come on the rest of the Safari.
Photos to come soon when I get better WiFi connection.
Regards,
Philip
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