SOUTH AFRICA: Second Time Around Is Even Better With Blackthorn Safaris In Free State Of SA

[Gerry Addison]

Two years ago my friend David and I went to the Free State in South Africa to hunt Buffalo with Alex Goss owner of Blackthorn Safaris. I wrote a report on that trip as did David. On that trip I took a beautiful old 42 1/2 inch, solid as a rock bull and David took a great solid bull as well, David shooting his with a bow! We loved the hunt so much we booked again for September 24 through October 4th. I'm not sure how they did it but they totally topped the 2023 hunt setting a new all time high water mark for excellence in service, food, fun, and friendship. To say we had a great trip would be a total understatement! We had the best trip!

Let me tell you a little about myself so you understand that when I say the trip was great I have a pretty good measuring stick. I am a cameraman for American Archer TV show on the outdoor channel and so we have traveled all over the US and to most of the major hunting areas around the world. We have done many really awesome trips with many, many great people and I've had a ball the last 22 years. This trip now is at the top of the list.

I won't go into flight details as we all know how brutal that can be and no use hashing it out here. I'll just say we flew Delta, with pretty much on time flights, and no lost luggage. Everyone was helpful and the food was a little better than expected. As always the flights were full! Once we arrived we were greeted by Mr. X who had our gun permits and took us right through the check in process with the police. Then off to African Sky for a great dinner and a very nice room to get some much needed sleep. I highly recommend African Sky as they have always been easy to work with and provide excellent rooms and food.

The next morning we woke early to have a great breakfast and then to get into the van for a 6 hour drive to our hunting destination. We had thought about flying one extra leg to get to the lodge but in the end the time worked out just about the same and it was more expensive so we took the van instead. I never cease to be amazed at the living conditions you see while driving near Johannesburg. Always makes me realize how lucky we are to live here in the states.

Upon arriving at the beautiful lodge we were greeted with a warm towel and a cold drink. Seeing Alex Goss once again was like seeing an old friend. We had stayed in touch the last couple years sharing hunting stories and it was great to be with him again. Once we got to our rooms and did a little unpacking we headed to the range for those necessary warm up shots. My Blaser R8 in 375 H&H was right on and only required one shot which always makes you feel good. I don't know how Blaser gets those quick detach mounts to return perfectly every time, but they have always worked for me and I love them. I also brought a 300 Win. barrel for my Blaser just in case we needed to do some "after buffalo" hunting. We then took a ride around one small edge of the 110,000 acre property see lots of animals but no buffalo which was fine with me as I knew they were there in good numbers. The next morning we were going to start our hunt in earnest.

Waking at 5 AM the next morning was one of the easiest things I will ever do. I was up well before the alarm went off and was already dressed and drinking coffee when Alex, David, and Vella (David's PH) came in. We had a great breakfast and we headed to the vehicles before 6:00 and we were all pumped. The day was the first of 9 wonderful days, riding slowly down the miles and miles of "roads" looking for tracks or the always well hidden buffalo. We usually stopped and made our way climbing to a high vantage point to glass for distant bulls. When found we would carefully check them through the spotting scope to see if they held anything of interest and if so we would try to drive as close as possible and then hike in for closer inspection.

On the second morning we spotted a distant small group of bulls that had potential. Making our way in and making a number of carefully planned approaches we were finally able to catch up to them with the wind in our favor and get in close. When I say close, I'm talking 15 yards close! There were 12 bulls together with most being still soft, however one bull really stood out from the rest. At 20 yards he looked like a tank and was solid as a rock. He had age and was over 40 inches. Now we had to make a decision. Do I shoot my bull on the second morning or do I pass and continue to do what I came to do, hunt buffalo? Well I looked at Alex, and he said, let's keep hunting! I couldn't have been happier! I wasn't ready to be done hunting buffalo and neither was Alex. We sat behind that bush and watched them slowly feed away. When they were gone Alex turned to me and said, "I hope we didn't just make a huge mistake". I said, no way was that a mistake. That was what I came for! Getting close to a great bull is just about as exciting as it gets. Little did I know that the decision to pass would play a huge role in the success of David and my hunt. Here is a picture of the bull we passed on that second morning. The picture was taken through our spotting scope from a good distance. When we finally got close we didn't take any pictures as we were too busy trying to decide what to do.

I'll stop here for now and try to make another installment tomorrow.

 

[Fatback]

That’s a great looking bull. Sounds like we are in for a treat with the rest of your story. Thanks for taking the time to share.

 

[Gerry Addison]

Before going any further I thought I would post a couple pictures from our last hunt with Alex in 2023. Again, I was hunting with my good friend David and we both took great bull. David actually shot his with a bow and this led to a full on charge with the bull being stopped at 9 feet, but that is another story. Here is the bull I took on the last hunt. He measured 42 1/2 inches and had bosses that were just massive. I knew this was a bull of a lifetime for me, but buffalo hunting is addictive so back I went.

The thing I really like about hunting with Alex Goss is he loves to hunt buffalo as much as I do and he never ever tries to rush you into shooting a bull. In fact I try to convince him that we should shoot a bull. There is no way you are going to shoot a young bull with him no matter how pretty he is. On this current trip we say a number of bulls that were spectacular but needed another year or two to reach full maturity and achieve those rock hard bosses that everyone wants to see in their bull.

I also wanted to give you a feel for the size of the place we were hunting. This picture shows one of the spots we used to look for bulls and our tracker Jacob who has unbelievable eyes for game. Everything you see in this picture is in our hunting area and this is only a little corner of the area.

I'll try to post more on our hunt later. This is work for me as I hate to write!

 

[JG26Irish_2]

Gerry, Congrats Sir. Thank you for the hunt report. I too have hunted buffalo in the Free State and while my hunting experience was great, I must report that I really liked Limpopo much better than Free State. I grew up in the Appalachian Mtns and found much of Free State to be very flat and open like Kansas and the animals far more shy than the ones I encountered in two other hunts in Limpopo.

Also it being African winter in early June, the further south you go, the colder it gets. Free State was Cold. At or below freezing every morning and on the 2nd day of hunting it was also overcast and bloody cold. That alone would not have been bad but in addition, my lodging had no heat and only lukewarm showers. On the plus side the food was great and the PH was superb. After several days in Free State we relocated back to Limpopo where the skies were blue and the climate several degrees warmer.

The only reason I had went to Free State was to access animals which are not native to the provinces further north. Springbok and Black WB to be clear. For those, the hunter needs to be prepared and confident taking shots that are longer than average. 200y, 300y and possibly further. All doable, but combined with the distance and the winds, I did not have any perfectly placed shots while I was there. I work hard to be a precision marksman but in Free State my first shot at 242y on Springbok was high and a bit back from ideal. It dropped the beastie but not my best work. My next shot on a Black WB was low due to the 314y range and the possibility that the range was a good bit further. I knew my dope exactly yet my shot was a good 4-6" lower than expected. Afterwards, I found that the tall grass made getting consistent laser ranging impossible and I got readings ranging from 280-450y. I suspect based on the drop of the bullet that the actual range was about 400y. Still hit the WB and dropped it but again, not my best work.

I could have compensated for the ranging issue by bringing a better rifle for long range shooting like a flat shooting 7mm mag but I chose to hunt with a 7mm/08 because it is short, light and handy and would be also used in Limpopo later and was accurate out to 400y. It just was not as flat shooting and thus required accurate range estimates to do a good job when hunting much past 250y. Thx for sharing.