SOUTH AFRICA: Postoak - Limpopo - 2021 - Trip Report Tally-Ho HUNTING SAFARIS & DAVE FREEBURN SAFARIS

[postoak]

Thursday, day 4.

This morning we did something different. Instead of walking out from the lodge, Rudi and I walked out. After a couple of kms on the road we cut through a shooting block traveling about 1 1/2 mph. This is a nice pace and one I can do for hours (as you'll see I did later). We went through the block and came out one road over and I saw an animal I couldn't identify at first, along with a couple of impala. (We have been seeing impala all through the trip but I haven't bothered to mention them.) Rudi looked and said it was a Tsessebe ram. The road was curving here so we switched sides and moved forward until we saw him again. He also saw us and turned to face us trying to identify us. Rudi said the range was 127 meters. Now, I hate the straight-on shot but there was nothing to be done if I wanted him. So I got on the sticks and fired. The shot was true. He ran off at right angles to the road. While we were collecting the sticks, etc. He curved back and crossed the road and crashed down just on the edge of the opposite side from where he had disappeared. The Tsessebe is a very nice color brown.

Masilo had done no tracking so far but I brought him into the photo anyway.

 

[Desperatezulu]

I also want to talk about a subject that is somewhat unpleasant for outfitters and the industry in general. This is that game farm hunting has a certain artificiality to it, more so in South Africa than Namibia, but there too. If you are experienced you'll see pastures where animals are raised and then released into larger areas, or "hunting" areas of a few hundred hectares (actually, if the bush is thick these areas can be somewhat difficult to hunt), and areas where there are sort of earthen unloading docks for animals. Also, on a large property where certain species are released, some of them are used to man and will stand 20 - 50 meters off the side of the road and just watch as the bakkie rolls by. But this is species specific. Sable, for instance can be pretty "tame" whereas roan tend to be pretty cautious even when raised and released.

This not (always) as sinister as you may suspect - keep in mind that most of today's game farms were cattle ranches 20, 30, 40 years ago. Infrastructure like loading pens and ramps were a necessary part and parcel of livestock loading and unloading - and still remain. Same applies to old pastures/blocks/'camps' and cleared areas - legacies of livestock farming in many cases.
Of course there are game farms that buy and sell game today and require the same infrastructure, so I am not suggesting that your observation is inaccurate.

Even where game is brought in (put and take), this tends to be either new breeding stock or uncommon species that are being (re)introduced - like sable and roan etc. The vast majority of animals on the vast majority of game farms were born and bred on that property.

 

[postoak]

Friday, day 4.

We repeated what we had done the previous day, walking out from the lodge on the same road. This time we came upon 3 kudu bulls on the road. One looked good. Rudi ranged him at 160 meters, which is just outside my comfort zone on sticks but I set up and fired. The shot was a hit but we walked up and saw no blood so Rudi had Masilo and Chedwick come out to track. Chedwick runs the skinning shed but is also an excellent tracker. They followed the trail about 300 or 400 meters. We were encountering some blood, but not enough to be fatal.

We finally came on the bull, lying or standing, I don't remember. Rudi told me to wait because of obscuring branches but I felt I had a shot and aimed and fired. At the shot Rudi said he heard a "zing" and the bull took off. It turned out later that this shot just grazed the side of his neck. We repeated this process, with me not getting a shot before he took off. Eventually I did get another shot into him and he came down.

 

[postoak]

Again, guesses on horn length are welcome.

 

[postoak]

Duiker was now my main target. I've been hunting for one since I was at Khomas Highlands. Duiker are tough. Unlike, say, steenbok, they usually don't stop when disturbed. They are usually also seen only early in the morning and late in the afternoon. For some reason no one had suggested trying for them over water -- I wasn't even sure if they came to water during the day. But Rudi now brought up the subject and I was more than willing to give this a try. We spent the next two evenings sitting for one to no avail. But on the 3rd try -- this was now day 4 -- one stepped out. He was certainly in no hurry to come to the water, it took about 20 minutes for him to come out into the open completely. He was eating something along the way that he found particularly tasty. One shot with the .300 WM and he was down. This was at around 50 meters.

Also, during the long wait we got to watch a Tawny Eagle in a tree about 75 yards away. The birds coming to water seemed to sense that he wasn't hungry as they vied in competing with each other to see how close they would come to him. Eventually, he hopped down and was on the ground and was there when I shot the duiker. The Limpopo is home to 13 different eagles.

 

[buck wild]

Again, guesses on horn length are welcome.

52" on first bull and 50" on second

 

[postoak]

It was now Saturday, day 5. At this point we were down to hunting for Nyala, Waterbuck, and maybe an eland. The eland was lower down on my list, however, and I didn't want to spend time exclusively on them. We rode around a bit but switched to walking. At one point Rudi did his signature move of climbing a Marula tree to scout for game. He came down excited and said he saw a waterbuck bull that was going to cross the crossroad at about 75 meters. We set up on the sticks and waited, and waited, and waited. After 45 minutes I couldn't take it anymore and I told Rudi we had to move on. He was reluctant because he could hear something chewing in the bush. (His hearing always amazes me.) But we walked along slowly.

What he was hearing turned out to be a medium size warthog which was rooting at the base of a tree eating some particular delicacy. He only saw us when we got pretty close and then moved away but not 30 meters on we came across another one with very good tusks, eating at the base of another tree on the same thing, apparently. Warthog was definitely not on the menu but he was good enough where I decided to take him. He was at 30 meters and when I fired he went down and stayed down.

 

[postoak]

We continued walking that afternoon to no avail but did see a duiker male who we disturbed driving in the bakkie, which, of course, stopped and stared at us.

I forgot to mention something that happened a couple of days earler. We were riding along the perimeter fence when Rudi saw a group of warthogs running through the fence. One of the juveniles missed the hole they were using and hit the fence and got shocked and stunned. As Rudi walked toward him he got scared and ran down the fence with one wire between his legs. Rudi ran after him and yanked him away from the fence. He said that the shocks would have eventually killed it. He held the little thing down and helped it overcome its disorientation. Caitlin and Stuart got down and walked over and petted it and tried to calm it down. Eventually it recovered and Rudi took it back to the original hole and shoved it through. It whipped around facing him and comically proceeded to run backward from Rudi until it was out of sight in the bush.

 

[gillettehunter]

Hard to pass up a warthog as good as that one. Congrats on some nice animals.
Bruce

 

[postoak]

Thanks.

That afternoon we sat over the watering hole where I shot the duiker the previous evening and a nice nyala bull came in. I had a nice unhurried shot at 67 meters and for once decided to take the "African shot", in the shoulder and low. I hit exactly where I aimed and he ran about 100 meters into some trees and brush and disappeared. We gave it about 10 minutes and then walked over to where we thought he was and he surprised us by being further off to the left and he ran off before I could shoot. I was really surprised that he was even alive. We didn't bother with calling in the trackers and just followed the blood trail until I eventually got in a killing shot. My bullet had struck where I intended but was that too low. It went in the near shoulder without striking bone and carried on across and broke the off shoulder. Mentioning this later to Stuart he said he is *not* one to recommend that placement, preferring higher up instead.

 

[postoak]

The next morning we started off driving but then began walking. And walked, and walked. After about 2 1/2 hrs. while in the middle of a shooting block Rudi pointed out two eland bulls about 35 meters to the right in thick brush, who were unaware of us. They were moving along across our path so we just turned around and waited for a shot. But the best shot that came was obscured by twigs and small branches. Now, up to now, Rudi had been conscientious about not wanting to shoot through brush and so I was a little surprised he was okay with this shot. In my mind, might sight picture was a little confused, but I fired. Well, I messed it up. We found blood totally maybe 1/5th of a cup total. The trackers came in and Stuart. I had zero confidence we were going to recover the animal. After about an hour, we agreed that Stuart, a tracker, and a dog would continue the trail and Rudi and I would continue on after a waterbuck. So, that's what we did until lunch. After lunch Stuart continued his search and later sat at the nearest watering hole, but to know avail. We also saw nothing. I swore never to take a shot like that again.

 

[postoak]

I've kind of lost track of the days here. I know one evening we sat over a watering hole and saw at least 6 duiker come in -- all but one females, plus 2 steenbok. The steenbok appeared to be a female and a slightly smaller male. What was interesting was that the male seemed to be practicing mating behavior on the female. He would go around to her rear end and paw the back of one haunch. I've never seen anything like that before.

The last day we walked 11 miles looking for a waterbuck -- right up until dark. I walked more on this trip than my previous 5 combined -- and I have to say I enjoyed it.

 

[postoak]

The next day I said my goodbyes and Stuart and I headed off to meet up with -- not Dave Freeburn - but an assistant PH of his named Karl (I never caught his last name). We met at a gas station and were introduced to his two dogs, a 10 year old Jack Russell male named Ruger and a 1 year old or so German breed of some kind and a female named Kimber who was about the same size as the Jack Russell. Maybe someone can supply the breed name for her. Just looking online right now she looks something like an Affenpinscher.

We drove to Dwalboom and coming out the far side of it we were on dirt roads and stayed on dirt roads until we came that way again on leaving. We drove to a property of about 10,000 acres that literally backed onto the border with Botswana. At the lodge, I met Dave Freeburn, who looked and sounded somewhat like the British actor Mark Strong. We also met another assistant PH, Reinhardt whose last name I again didn't catch. Both Paul and Reinhardt are big young men about 6' 2" or 3" with that Rugby build. Dave is of English background whereas Paul and Reinhardt are Afrikaaners. In fact Reinhardt's English wasn't great and he had a strong accent, but we managed to communicate. Sidney the cook was also at the lodge and I met Dave's wife Jocelyn, briefly. She and Dave live at a second property about 15 km down the road.

That afternoon I rechecked the sighting on both rifles. While here I also asked to fire a couple of rounds in Dave's .500 Nitro Express as I'm interested in the .500s. The first shot I didn't lean into it and made the noobie mistake of losing control the of the rifle and bobbling it around. The second shot was fine. It really doesn't kick that much at the shoulder.

Reinhardt was to be our back up DG PH. Like me he had a Win. Model 70 in .416 Rem. Mag. but he had a peep sight on his.

That afternoon we did a drive around and I noticed the heavy acacia thickets I had mentioned earlier. It reminded me a lot of South Texas mesquite thickets.

 

[postoak]

For breakfast the next morning (and every morning) we had oatmeal, which I hadn't had since Scotland and made acquaintance with Bovril a sorter of milder version of Vegemite. I quite liked it.

 

[postoak]

Sidney, the cook.

 

[postoak]

Ruger, the Jack Russell. A good sport he was always willing to play with the younger dog.

 

[postoak]

Reinhardt.

 

[postoak]

Looking through my photos I'm embarrassed to see I never took photos of Dave or Karl. I just have them on video. I'll have to see if I can upload those.

The room I was assigned didn't have a/c or heat. It was turning colder and I was given 3 very warm blankets to sleep under and my sinuses thanked me for not running forced hot air over them. I slept like a baby.

 

[VertigoBE]

excellent writing so far @postoak ! keep it up and congrats on your animals! Looking forward to hearing the .416 roar ;-)

 

[postoak]

The very next morning we went after the rhino. This was on the property of about 3000 acres where Dave and Jocelyn were staying. Dave, Reinhardt and I took one bakkie and drove around while Karl, and the two Johns took the other. The soil type had changed here and was a black clay, and since it was dry season it was cracked and hard so tracking wasn't easy. After an hour or so of searching we got a radio call that the other group had spotted some tracks so we headed over to where they were. Something was pointed out to me that I wouldn't have even identified as a track, much less a rhino track.

The trackers began theit amazing work and after about 1 1/2 km we saw the lone bull we were looking for standing in heavy brush. All I could see was a gray bulk.