SOUTH AFRICA: Our First Safari

[Jarrord]

I’m not very sure how to do a hunting report, also doing it on my phone at work so bear with me on my attempt at this report

day 1
After around 26 hrs flying and traveling we landed in Johannesburg airport and it all hit me in the face,
Holy $h17 we are in africa and then it hit again oh no we in African and I have no idea wtf to do next ,
No wifi for what’s app and no cell service so I’m going off my wits and memory what the guide said about us landing which I forgot it all , so We move on to tsa and baggage then my dad asked me what’s are guide looks like ( and yes the guide sent a photo of our ride/guide Rikus but we both failed to look at the photo of him and focused on the cape Buffalo in front of him)

But now we here and have no idea who is picking us up plus exhausted, it ended up very easy to find our ride the only guy with the @Bos en Dal SAFARIS shirt on, maybe should have thought about that first.

we get to the in car and drive through the most beautiful and terrifying lighting storm of my life , saw tree struck by lightning and catch fire it was insane or I was sleep deprived either way it was bit crazy , we arrive to the lodge and greeted with hot meal ( and yes it was a fantastic meal first real food in 2days it felt like ) and then the rooms where fantastic I’m not going into detail of the room they have photo on there page.

Day 2 the Hunt

Finally it here first day of hunting
After not sleeping due to excitement we get coffee great breakfast and in the truck by 6 headed to the bush and by 630 we are putting stalk on some warthog ( we learned quickly that was something that can’t be done ) just getting out and trying to stalk some warthog hot our heart racing and excitement going , then after getting in the truck again we saw the wilderbeast hearse of them it was breath taking, then kudu, impalas and ostriches at that moment we knew it was going to be remember Hunt, we stalk several time after some bleshbock
( I hope I get names of animals correct and spelled so just bare with me ) and failed a few several time but around 11ish we finally put on a good stalk on a nice impala for my father and boom at about 60-70yards he drops one in his tracks. ( I was so close to getting him to tear up with excitement . And then we broke for lunch which.

I’m will have to continue more later on today after work .

 

[Frederik]

Keep it coming nice impala ram.

 

[shotgungibbs]

It is a tiring flight, but the thrill of seeing game animals in Africa perks you back up! Nice Impala!

 

[Jarrord]

Day 2, of my father and I first African safari.


Day 2.

after a successful first day with my father impala,
we set our eyes out for the top of my father list which was a red hartebeest while I continue my hunt for nice warthog,
we set out around 6 and by 630 we are already looking at red hartebeest we watch this herd for a min no good old bulls among them we continue our search several time we observed some herds, finally after several failed attempt to find a good bull we was watching one heard when a nice bull stepped out of the bush and surprised us around 60 yards we quickly set the sticks up and my father got on it and shot. you could hear the shot hit this was an interesting learning experience ,
we learned that these animals unlike white tail dont seem to bleed alot we had to track by foot prints and other signs of running , we ended up tracking up a hill side looking and never found any blood, my father started to get nerves as well as myself cuz it looked like a good shot but we started to doubt after going up the hill the guide decided loop around and check the other set of tracks, as my father tells me he might have missed the guide say no you made a good shot there your bull laying around 40 yards from the shot, he ran and then changed directions on us and ran throught the bush making us loose him for a moment, when my father finally laid eye
on him almost got tear of excitement.

after the excitement of the morning we broke early for lunch around 11 so we could do a sit for warthogs for myself around 12 we saw one warthog little too small so we let him be,
after few hours i decided call it off i wanted to pop my cherry before i go after my dream animal ( black wilder beast) so i decided im take a kudu female see them every day and i felt it was easy to get but once i spoke it like our guide said the wind speaks and we saw none for the longest time but we ran into a few warthogs
i know once they was off the menu they decided to show up , after a few attempt to get kudu doe (the bulls was there tho) we saw a warthog running we drove ahead trying to catch him crossing the road and boom a nice kudu doe walks out in front once we was after a warthog, ended up taking her to end our day.
amazing day

on this day i knew this was worth all the hard work to get here and it was only the second day
thank you to @Bos en Dal SAFARIS

 

[rinehart0050]

Congrats on the well earned success.

 

[375Fox]

Very nice hartebeest. Can I make a suggestion on your report. Don’t create new threads for each day, just add to the original thread or else they just get lost and become difficult to reference.

 

[IdahoMo]

Nice work!

 

[Jarrord]

Very nice hartebeest. Can I make a suggestion on your report. Don’t create new threads for each day, just add to the original thread or else they just get lost and become difficult to reference.

Thanks, and ya I try that out I’m very new to this site

 

[Jarrord]

I do believe this is adding to the thread ,
Trying to reflect and write out this adventure and do it as much justice as this redneck can is quite difficult between work and getting back to reality.

Day 3
This is the exciting day this is my day to hunt the black wilderbeast,
I heard all week that it a difficult animal to hunt and need to make long shots 250+ yards and being from Tennessee most of our shots are with in a 100 yards.
So my nerve’s and excitement meant started getting to me. ( and ya I’m not going lie I was nerves ) now the night before it rained and between the early morning and the ground is wet and it was a cold morning and I packed for africa so shorts and T-shirts so riding in the back of the truck holding the metal bars meant I froze.
So we arrived to the open area to hunt the wilder-beast, and before we enter the open plains we saw them and when we got with in 800 yards of them they started running so we got out the truck and stalked up to a rocky hill side crawling on hands and knees praying one of the hundred pair of eyes doesn’t see the fat red headed beard man with the gun crawling after them like the toddler crawling after the cat.
I get behind the bush and raise the rifle up to the sticks and just like described they randomly started running breaking off into two herds , well we continue this tread but after several more failed attempts
To even get with in glassing distance from the bulls, we came up with a plan the herd stopped around 500yards from a small pile of trees so we drove behind and dropped the PH , the extra PH and myself off while the other PH and my father took the truck around to kinda push them closer, there we was sitting on a cooler hands half frozen from driving around the cold for last 2-3 hours finally we had a plan, with in 20mins they got in range at about 100 yards we start glassing and we find a nice one amongst the herd and he on the outskirts of the herd beautiful bull definitely a satisfaction bull, my PH Rikus say ok when he goes broadside take him.
I’m at the point safety off getting ready to squeeze it off , he starts turning towards us and Rikus goes wait wait , at this point I been behind the gun for about 5mins so I’m like ok what now ? My neck feeling cramped, ( and the positive I was in wasn’t comfy by any means and to make it little easier to tell the story I switch between kneeling, crouching, on the cooler and like a weird one leg stressed out like some yogo move, at some point during this sit also while behind the scope) once I found the animal it made sense he was a wonderful bull very old good horns his horn stood above the crowd and he was on the edge so I stayed on him while waiting for a broadside then the herd moved over and then a waiting game all while staying on this one bull cuz it didn’t take much to loose him during this ordeal he gave me 3 clear shots on him the first time my safety was on my excitement got the better of me,
The second time I didn’t take cuz I wasn’t 100% sure my PH and I was on the same bull ,
and the third time I was out of the scope to pop my neck to get rid of a cramp.

after those heart breaking loses the bulls started moving and this heard was about 40-60 strong so it was very easy to loose and they ran about 20 yards so we crept out of the tree line a little and the PH I felt almost gave up on him we actually found another decent bull we went to take but just like before I’m lining up my broadside shot I hear wait I found him.
to cut it little short he gave me one more chance and I wasn’t missing it at a 120 yards or so I had a very small gap of time and took it, I jerk the trigger sadly a little and ended up spinning him still killed him and no movement after he was hit but not as clean as like it, once I saw he was down I feel like I screamed out with excitement and failed to noticed the heard of wilderbeast running towards us which gave quite a scare having 40-60 wilderbeast run right in front of you at 10-15 yards quiet a sight .
After all said and done I was behind the scope between 30-50mins and between the stalking in the begging this was the most challenging and rewarding hunt I ever been blessed to take on

 

[gillettehunter]

Very nice Black Wildebeest; Congrats
Bruce

 

[WMU05]

Very nice, congratulations!

 

[Vanguard2279]

Great report so far! I'm glad that you and your father made the trip. You'll find that it was life-changing.

 

[Still alive]

Nice opening! Didn’t sleep because you are in Africa. Great reports

 

[Brewster6514]

Congrats on some fine animals. Just be aware that once you go over there it gets in your blood and you have to go back!