SOUTH AFRICA: RIFLE: BOWHUNT: KMG Hunting Safaris Aug/Sept 2018

[Ryan]

It's been two years in the making, but it finally happened.

In the beginning it started as a multi-species hunting trip with nyala as my main focus. Then it expanded to hunting and fishing , then I decided I needed to tour a bit after the hint to see the Cape of South Africa. The original final plan was seven days hunting, a day fishing offshore, and nine days of touring from Grahamstown to Cape Town in a zig-zag pattern from all along the coast to the Karoo.

Here goes.

 

[Ryan]

It's been two years in the making, but it finally happened.

In the beginning it started as a multi-species hunting trip with nyala as my main focus. Then it expanded to hunting and fishing , then I decided I needed to tour a bit after the hint to see the Cape of South Africa. The original final plan was seven days hunting, a day fishing offshore, and nine days of touring from Grahamstown to Cape Town in a zig-zag pattern from all along the coast to the Karoo.

Here goes.

First up, flying.
I'm out of Anchorage, Alaska. There's no way to get to South Africa fast, but you can get there and back on two or three flights in the summer if you work it. I did. Condor Air goes straight to Frankfurt in just under ten hours. Long layover to goof around Frankfurt and then straight down to Jo-Burg for another 10 hours, with a hop to Port Elizabeth. I only brought my bow this go, picking it up and rechecking it was relatively painless.

Marius and I have been WhatsApp chatting for a while and he asked me to look around for another hunter, named Bryan, from Canada, going on the same flight to PE.

This was a challenge right up until I looked at the carry on baggage of others in line.....

Found him.

 

[Ryan]

Quick intro's and we headed to PE. Marius picked us up, checked weapons through fast and away we went to the lodge.
By evening I was checking zero on the rifle I was borrowing, the my bow sights, making little adjustments.

Day one had us taking a drive in the fog and light rain to another farm 45 minutes away. Entering the gates we were told about some nyala seen earlier. Within a few minutes we had them spotted, moving. We worked stalk for a bow shot, Marius donning his gillie suit, but things didn't quite work out. The rest of the day we spent lookin over bush buck, first ewes and then rams. Marius knows his business and we practically set our watches on his predictions of when they'd start coming out of the brush. Several stalks on rams were made, all not up to snuff to Marius. While I was more inclined to take the rifle for bushbuck we were within bow range of many of the rams and a few unsuspecting warthogs. Last ram was big heavy necked ram that spotted us first before a shot was possible, exitting in a huff.

 

[Ryan]

Day two: success with complications.

We were up bright and early to hunt bushbuck on the lodge property. We settled in to one of the valleys or kloofs to glass for ram warming themselves. Within the first couple minutes a ram hopped out acorss the road and back into bush.

Marius warned me they'd pop out of nowhere to warm themselves. Like magic, within a half hour he had one 70-80 yards off in a little patch of sunlight where it hadn't been the moment prior.
Sticks were set and I settled in to a head on shot for the base of the throat through the vitals. I fired an it jumped down...
Sometimes things don't play out perfectly. The shot turned out to be a hair to the left with the ram turned causing the bullet to enter the neck and out the shoulder. We searched on foot but wounded bushbuck aren't too be treated lightly. Eventually the dogs were brought out and it was bayed and dispatched by Marius in a spot we had walked right past looking for it.

 

[Ryan]

Day two continued..

A big nyala bull we'd happened across while heading to the rifle range was sticking around popping up along a road on the farm so we started trying stalks on him with my bow. It busted Nick and and then later Marius and I on stalks. Thankfully, with the help of a little alfalfa he seemed to stay in the area.
This evening Marius and I began the bushpig vigil. Sunset to 1030 watching the bait. First night, nothing but a genet and birds.

 

[Ryan]

Day three:
We had a plan. Make an opening in the brush pile near the remaining alfalfa, wait for the nyala. Some hacking and checking of the shooting lane and we settled in as the bakkie with Loyd our tracker drove off. Wind was good. Marius said I'd have to draw seted low and rise up into lane to shoot. Ok. Not an hour went by and Marius spotted horn tips, the bull was coming in. A couple zebra winded us downwind and made a commotion leaving, spooking the bull so we laid low. Slowly but surely the bull ate and watched. Then it started moving over and into the shooting lane. I drew, rose and let him walk right into my sight window. Marius started video recording. He stopped, I released. The arrow hit a bit high, spine dropping him on the spot and I finished him off quickly after that. No tracking.
As Marius said " I love it when a plan comes together." I was thinking of calling him "The Colonel" after that....

That night w spent another four hours or so in the bush pig blind to no avail. Trail cam had them coming in late at night.

 

[Ryan]

The blind and the bull.

 

[BenKK]

Congrats on a nyala with a bow from a natural blind!

 

[thi9elsp]

Two great animals. Looking forward to the rest of the trip. Congratulations.

 

[gillettehunter]

Very nice bow hunted Nyala. He's a good one. The bushbuck has great mass. Congrats
Bruce

 

[Ryan]

Day four:
Prelude. Back when I first set this up I looked into extra animals to hunt. I asked about eland and black wildebeest. At the time eland bulls were a bit scarce but plenty of black wildebeest. So I opted to put blsck wildebeest in my thoughts. Thigs change. The black wildebeest had taken a hit this year from ticks, but some of the crew had seen a good mature eland on the place. I said I'd take a crack at it if it seemed possible. Graham mentioned he'd seen it around noon on day three and Marius asked if I was serious. I said let's do it. We hunted it that afternoon but all we saw was cows. Considering my experience hunting them in Namibia, that's their usual magic. Poof, gone.

So Day four had us up looking on sunny slopes for the bull. Intel had it on one end of the place but Marius looked over some slopes on the other end real quick and right off the bat, 7am, there it was. Rifle in the truck, wind check, game plan made and off we went. From what we saw he was with a cow. So two sets of eyes. Parking some distance off we worked around him and had a decent set up. Within an hour I was looking at him through the scope, but tree limbs and bad angles prevented good shots to me. Some I second guess. It turned out we had more eyes. There was a young bull and another cow plus a wildebeest. Forget cat and mouse, from 8-ish on we played chess with elands.They make their moves, we make ours. They were often within fourtycyards, never more than seventy. Sometime in there a baboon came by, saw us and ran for the next province without the eland spookin. And at around 11:00 one of us heard a sneeze in the bushes behind us. Not fifteen feet away a fine duiker ram was laying down, chewing his cud, and ignoring us. We kept an eye on him, though he eventually slipped off. Chess moves continued until the bull finally made a bold move. He dropped into an opening and Marius moved the sticks. I dropped the rifle on it and waited as the bull gave me more bad angles. It was at a steep quartering away that Marius told me to wait. Then when it turned a bit it gave me a clear quartering shot into the vitals on it's left side and I took the shot. The 300 Win mag hit home perfectly where I wanted it and he instantly stumbled about. He stayed up but was obviously hit hard so we kept him in sight and worked in on him until he went down but not out, finally giving me a shot to the right side that finished him. Noon, four hours of chess paid off.

 

[Ryan]

Day four continued into night:
Let's not forgot the ongoing saga of bushpig hunting. Did I mention it's with a bow?
Tonight it finally all came together. So, talking with Marius about things like luminious peep sights, fiber optic lighted sights, and practicing in the dark formed a solid plan months ago. This all sounds easy until you do it and you live in Alaska where it doesn't really get dark in summer until August. I darkened the lanes in my archery club and I was shooting out of my bedroom window at 5 AM the last couple weeks.
How to draw them in? Bait. That sounds easy, but it's not. Marius has his own secrets of the trade, let's call it a secret recipe just so we can call him The Colonel for more reasons. Two nights of nothing had us less than encouraged, with talks about PH's doing shifts with me all night long, when (very thankfully) tonight they showed up an hour after dark. They- plural, don't shoot but one, the big boar, in the dark. After drawing and letting down and drawing again until my arms shake, aim...... release. A lighted nock traced through the dark like a laser beam and all Hell breaks loose when it connected, then silence. We waited for help then a search in the dark for something with those teeth and attitude to match ensued. A perfect heart shot made short order of him.

It's official folks, I have taken what the author E. Donnall Thomas jr. called...

The Ham Slam.

Feral hog, javelina, warthog, and now the bush pig.

 

[IAhawks84]

Congrats! Looks like you had a great trip!

 

[IdaRam]

Congrats on some very nice spiral horn animals! And well done on that bushpig! Bushpig with any weapon is an accomplishment, but with a bow is something very special! Awesome

 

[flatwater bill]

Thanks for sharing the hunting with us.............love the ruff on that eland, and a great nyala................well done......................FWB

 

[Matt Perchick]

Very nice trophies. I will be hunting with Marius starting on Monday and hope to get a bush pig

 

[flatwater bill]

Ryan.............how was your experience with Condor Air? Their user reviews are terrible......just slightly better than a French prison colony...........your take?

 

[Nkawu]

The hamslam- excellent! Can you tell us about your bow and also the rifle you borrowed?

 

[BenKK]

Epic eland hunt! He’s an awesome bull!

 

[Joe P]

Great eland! Love the "ham slam"