SOUTH AFRICA: RIFLE: BOWHUNT: First Safari With Global Safaris Just Amazing

[buckmarkhunter]

I am in Atlanta waiting for two hr before our Minneapolis flight and can’t wait to share our experience.

On April 9th we drive to Minneapolis and spent the night at a hotel. We decide to go to a local whisky bar for a drink and I knew the vacation started right as my drink came in a bathtub and had a rubber duck in it. It was some house special thing.

Then the next day we get up and head to the airport with the hotel shuttle. While loading up as I have a bow and double rifle case with locks in every hole, the driver asked if those were keyboards. I said no but they sure do play sweet music. He didn’t know what to think about that. Then to the airport checked in and beyond that we are good.

We make it to Atlanta board the plane and everything is fine. We are sitting delta comfort and have the first row behind business class. 12 min into the flight a guy from business class stands up and his laptop is on fire. He brings it to the bathroom he and the flight attendants put it out. Not liking flying that much and realizing this is a necessary evil in today’s day and age it really made me pucker. But they had it under control. Apparently his battery started on fire.

We land in Joburg and are met by Rene from global at the gate. We grab our bags and She has us all lined up with the gun permits takes 10 min we have our firearms. Load up what they call the bus (van) and head to African sky for the night. Beautiful place, enjoy a nice dinner and getting ready to go to Vic falls tomorrow.

 

[Edge]

Good start to the story

Stayed at AfricaSky three times, great place to overnight!

 

[buckmarkhunter]

After spending the night at Africa sky we get up and head back to the airport. We get checked in get on South African air and head to Vic falls. One thing I thought was strange was they walk down the isles before take off with what looks like a big bomb, I took a pic of the guy but he wasn’t happy about that.

We land in Victoria get all our stuff and head to the hotel. Before getting into the taxi at the airport the Zulu dancers grabbed my wife and before you know it she was in there doing her thing. The kingdom is where we are staying. Beautiful hotel and we settle into our room. Grab a cocktail and go for a stroll neat hotel with great scenery.

We change and head out for a dinner cruise on the Zambezi river. It’s a double decker boat where you eat up top. We start the cruise and had a 4 course dinner. We saw a pods of hippo, elephant cow and calf as well as a crock. Great first day in Africa.

 

[buckmarkhunter]

Thursday we woke up ate breakfast at the hotel, they had a little bit of everything for everyone. Then we went of to the helicopter pad for a private ride over the falls.

We did an orientation coarse, at this time it was stopped by a bull elephant walking through. Truly amazing to see one of these animals in the wild. We then proceed and get in the helicopter. It truly is a beautiful place to see up close and personal from the sky. We did a bunch of figure 8s around the falls then a small trip up the Zambezi.

When we were done with the chopper. We decided to go walk the falls. This is another great experience but to get the full affect I think you should do it from the sky.

We then head to lunch at a nearby hotel with Rene who owns global and is with us our whole time. They have nice mixed drinks here she said. She goes onto explain that at 1pm every day they have a vulcher feeding program to try and protect them.

We proceed to listen to the 5 min talk and they go onto to the feeding. It was interesting to say the least to see 400 vulchers of 5 different species at 45 yards do there thing. And just like that all the food they put out was gone.

We then went and took a pic at what is called the big tree. It’s pretty big

We went back to the hotel and got changed. Then went to a dinner at the boma. When you arrive the put on a print over your cloths and put a couple drops of paint on your face to look like a warrior. We ate traditional food buffet style, antelope,cape,Aligator, eland. It was pretty good. Then they have the dancers come out and do a traditional dance/drum show in costume.

 

[buckmarkhunter]

Friday we get up pack and eat breakfast. Head to the airport do the big bomb thing again and head to joburg.

When we land we are met by Africa sky as they has one of our suit cases and my bow and firearms. We load it up and do the 3.5 hr drive to camp. Show up in can 3 guys from Wisconsin and 1 from Idaho are there already. We eat waterbuck backslap, enjoy a cocktail over the fire pit and talk about there hunts so far.

Sat it’s finally time to hunt. We get up early as part jet lag and part excitement. Eat a great breakfast, shot my bow a bit in camp. Then I put the scopes on the 2 guns and we go sight in. I am shooting nightforce scopes and two scoped rifles with nightforce won’t fit in a double pelican case so that is the reason to use detatchabe nightforce rings. We shoot and I am good. My wife shoots and she had to move hers right 1 inch other than that she is good. Then asks to shoot at 300 yards. Ronald my ph and other owner of global asks why and she explains if I’m on at 300 150 should be a chip shot and no excuses. He smiles and said I like the way you think. We back up shoot 2 times at 300 and it’s the size of a quarter that will do.

We go back to camp and Ronald asked if I would like to go after my sable I said yes. He said grab your bow. I kind of smiled and said ya right and he explained he has a place he thinks we can walk and stalk them. I grab my bow we go out and after 2 stalks I was able to connect at 38 yards on my first African animal 44.5 x 45 sable bull

 

[Bill116]

Great write up and pictures. Can't wait to read the rest of your report. Love the sable. They are animals.

 

[MMAL]

Great trip so far. Can’t wait to hear the rest.

 

[buckmarkhunter]

Next day we sat in a blind. We didn’t really see any animals we were after. But the truck did get charged by a buffalo. Too bad it wasn’t when we were in the blind as he was a beautiful one. And cape is on my list.

Ronald asked if my wife wanted to go after a kudu. Since it’s on the list, yes is the answer. We went to the concession to see what we could see. Drove around and got some glimpses of them but not the one. Then we saw one we wanted to try and go after. Many stalks were busted, but it did end up in our favor. At 209 yds he gave her a small window and shot through the heart around his cows. Went 20 yards and it was over. 58 x 58 1/2 bull with great curl. Was so happy for her.

 

[BenKK]

Tremendous kudu! Congrats! And stalking a sable with a bow is pretty neat!

Bloody nasty fright you copped on that aeroplane!

 

[buckmarkhunter]

Monday turned out to be my bucket list day. We woke up breakfast ect and shot my bow. Ronald and I head out to the blind at the same place where we got charged by the Cape buffalo the day before. We get all set and after a while the bull that charged us just so happened to came in. He came in alone. He knew something was up so did a mock charge toward us again but didn’t know what to think. He looked toward us and peed all over the place. Honestly just having a bow and Ronald and another ph with a 458 Lott was a little uneasy. We stayed still so he didn’t know we were there. By the way this is very hard with something like that looking at you. After a while he just went back to normal. I drew back but he wouldn’t sit still or give me a good shot so I let down. Finally broadside at 26 yards I got the shot I wanted drew, settled in and the arrow flew true. He ran away from us went 45 yards and fell over. He got up but went right back down. About 30 seconds later there was the first of 5 death bellows, I was shaking so bad after the shot. Just unreal what I had accomplished, and couldn’t believe the hunt happend that quick. He ended up being everything I wanted, drop, curl and old. He was 42 1/4 wide with 17 1/2 bosses, he had 3 teeth left and was just the right bull to take.

 

[cls]

Enjoying the report, nice buff...

 

[buck wild]

I really like the puppy/buff pic for some reason

 

[buckmarkhunter]

Tue woke up ate a great breakfast like every other day. We decided to go after impala. Went out and it wasn’t for lack of animals just couldn’t find a mature common impala. Found a couple groups of black impala and a couple great one horn rams, but not the one we were after. Went back and ate a great lunch. We then went out in the afternoon and my wife was able to connect on a beautiful nyla 29 3/4 on both sides. 85 yard shot. Wasn’t planning on a nyla but when the outfitter gets excited I learned you should as well. Just a pretty animal and I couldn’t be more happy!

 

[Ridgewalker]

WOW! Some fine trophies! Enjoying your report with the excellent pictures of everything!

 

[Lee M]

Really nice Buff! What was ur bow set up? Draw weight, arrow and broadhead combo. Well done.

 

[Firebird]

Enjoying your report and especially the pictures-thanks for posting it and sharing with us all!

 

[FallowJaeger]

This is a great report. You have taken amazing animals. Keep it coming.

 

[Matt_WY]

Very nice trophies. Super nice buff and sable with the bow!

 

[Shootist43]

Great pics. and report. BTW where is your wife from? From previous AH posts most if not all of the good women shooters "hail" from Texas. It would be nice to have at least one "yankee" in that group.

 

[buckmarkhunter]

Really nice Buff! What was ur bow set up? Draw weight, arrow and broadhead combo. Well done.

I used a Hoyt carbon defiant, 80 lb 30 inch draw, Easton full metal dangerous game 250 arrows, 75 gr copper insert, stainless collar on the arrow before the broadhead and 175 gr Strickland helix head. Total weight 804 gr going 224 ft. Worked great!