SOUTH AFRICA: Seven Days With Tally-Ho Hunting Safaris

[postoak]

Country - Alldays, Limpopo, South Africa
May 13 - May 24
Species Targeted - Sable, Roan, Tsessebe, Common Duiker, Ostrich, kudu
Rifle - Weatherby Vanguard Range Certified .300 Win Mag, Meopta 3-9x40
Loads - 180 grain Barnes TTSX at 3070 fps
Outfitter - TallyHo Hunting Safaris
PH - Stuart Williams (landowner) and Rudi Nel
Driver/Tracker - Brighton (also a PH)
Chef - Kharen
Agent - direct contact via Africa Hunting forums
Locations Hunted - 5500 hectares (13,500 acres) 1 or 2 miles outside of Alldays
Species seen - impala, warthog, blue wildebeest, ostrich, tsessebe, cape buff, baboon, jackal, sable, roan, zebra, anteater, common duiker, steenbok, Cape Eland, waterbuck, gemsbuck, Vervet Monkey, civet cat, African Wild Cat, rabbit, kudu, nyala.
Lodging - main lodge with guest chalets
Food - excellent
Activities - shopping offered but not interested
Travel methods - Lufthansa from Houston to Frankfurt to Johannesburg, van from airport to hunting property
Would Recommend to friend - yes

To be continued

 

[postoak]

Species actually taken:

Impala (2)
Sable bull (2)
Sable cow (juvenile)
Roan
Ostrich
Blue Wildebeest
Duiker

 

[postoak]

You don't have to go through security or passport control to get to My Cloud as long as your flight comes into the Frankfurt Z gates area.

Photo of lodge doesn't do it justice but this is the only one I took. Breakfast is in the main lodge building but you never go there except first thing in the morning. Most of the action takes places in a patio area surrounded by a masonry wall of about 4 or 5 feet. There, also is the bar and the large table where you eat lunch and supper, plus the campfire. Guest sleep in stand-alone chalets.

Owner Stuart Williams, 42, left, and PH Rudi Nel, 29, right.

Rudi's dog Quattro.

Stuart's dog Hunter.

Meals matched or exceeded any of the other lodges I have stayed at. Chef Kharen (male name in Africa, apparently) is a real asset.

Limpopo bushvelt.

Millipede. Harmless to pick up. But deadly if eaten.

Note the bull below is not the same sable. It was shot two days later and has only one unbroken horn. That is Brighton on the right.

Defective (IMO) Barnes TTSX bullets from my .300 WM.

Proper expansion from these TSX from a .375 Ruger.

 

[postoak]

I was met on arrival by a representative of Rifle Permits and owner Stuart. After getting my baggage and rifle, we exited the airport. The drive to our destination if plus four hours, but it went by fast getting to know Stuart, and looking at the scenery.

A nice lunch and then we sighted my rifle. It was dead on at 100 meters. Stuart provides Led Sled which is nice because it removes the human factor.

We drove around the place that afternoon but saw nothing I wanted to shoot. At this point I was focused on my target species. Every PH I've ever hunted with says not to do this, to just take what comes up but I always resist at the beginning. My resolve held only till the next morning.

I should say here that my motor skills have declined with age (and they weren't that good to begin with). I can shoot tiny groups off the bench, but I have had to accept the fact that I'm not good off sticks. I told Stuart and this and suggested 100 meters as my max range. It is legal to shoot off the truck and I have no problem with this. That also extends my range. Lying prone, over a bag, my limit is about 350 meters, but shot opportunities like that are very rare.

It was very interesting to finally see classic Limpopo bushvelt. It is 5 - 10 feet brush except for the Marala trees which can reach 40 feet. But it is mostly not dense thicket. You can always find a way to walk through it so it is like a labyrinth. The thorns here are not as savage as the ones in Namibia, which is a blessing.

 

[postoak]

The next morning, my resolve to hunt only target species went out the window when an impala stepped broadside in the road and stood there at 130 meters. I shot off the truck and made a very good shot. He went 40 yards before piling up.

Next up was ostrich. One stood facing me at about 75 yards. I aimed center of mass and he came crashing down.

A great lunch and we were out again at 3:30. Speaking of food, one thing I liked about Kharen's cooking was that he used my own game animals as well as others. I remember eating impala, wildebeest (the wildebeest Wellington was fantastic), eland, and ostrich. Most meals were wild game although we did have chicken and beef for some.

I walked more on this trip than I have on any others, averaging about two miles a day. After driving around for a while, Rudi decided we should walk down the road to approach a water hole. It paid off with a wildebeest stepping out and then walking toward us until I fired off sticks at about 90 yards. He ran about two hundred yards before piling up. He had been quartering toward me and my shot was high on the shoulder and angling back. The bullet never exited the body.

 

[Ridgewalker]

I’ve hunted around Alldays. Very good area and from the reports, Tally-Ho is a very nice place to hunt. I’ve drooled over their croc hunts!
Keep going! I’m enjoying this!

 

[Nyati]

Congrats, nice trophies !

 

[postoak]

All my African trips I have made various mistakes. Bad shots, bad tactics, bad planning. (But I've done lots of things right, too.) The first of these mistakes became apparent because I had scheduled my hunt centered right on the full moon, and this kept down the numbers of animals moving in the morning. Still the next morning we bumped into a herd of 5 or 6 tsessebe, the first I had ever seen. Rudi and I got down and entered the bush to put a stalk on them. This was actually the most exciting stalk I've experienced, but eventually the animals busted us and ran off.

Second mistake was coming during breeding season. Because they are trying to build up their sable and roan herds, bulls in herd were ruled off limits, and that's all we saw for the next two days. I was told that if a herd bull was shot during breeding season a new bull might not take over the herd.

On the fourth day, at lunch, Stuart (who had gone home to Praetoria for a couple of days) called Rudi and said a farm owner about 30 minutes away wanted to replace his sable herd bull with new genetics and we could hunt it. I said yes and we headed over immediately after lunch. I thought this was going to be a "hunt" but it turned out otherwise. With the farms tracker our crew drove around for hours trying to locate the herd. When we did, it proved skittish and moved away from our stalk. Eventually we relocated it and I got a shot at 125 meters at the bull. When we walked up, we saw no dead bull but instead an immature female on the ground. I finished her off quickly but was very upset with myself. However, none of us four had noticed her standing behind the bull. I felt that I had definitely wounded the bull but we tracked until dark with no sign of blood or signs of limping.

Next morning we were out very early. The bull was not with the herd which confirmed to me that it was wounded. At noon we broke off the search and Stuart drove up from Pretoria to continue the search on his own. After about 3 hours we got a call from him saying they had located the bull and Stuart had put it down with Rudi's .375 Ruger. The bullet didn't exit and was recovered. My shot had been forward of the shoulder and exited in front of the opposite shoulder, so way to the right and low. I was really annoyed with myself and told Rudi and Stuart, in my mind the kill didn't count (OCD kicking in).

Early the next morning we stumbled across another sable 30 meters off the road laying down. I told Rudi I wanted him even though one horn was broken. I covered him and fired when he stood up and the shot was good of course. He ran about 100 meters and piled up. This made up for the disappointment from the two previous days and we continued hunting but saw nothing until right at dusk when a male duiker stood for us at about 30 meters. This was a somewhat rushed shot and he was facing straight away. I hit right and low and he ran away but after a chase Stuart finished him off with his knife. I was in a funk again with the bad shot.

Next morning we were after roan, however an impala stepped out in the road at about 210 meters and I took the shot, which I shouldn't have. Again, a bad shot, and Rudi had to finish off the animal. I was low and right even though not off sticks. I felt I was holding a good sight picture too, although I always do on all my shots.

Anyway, back to roan. Stuart had seen one at a waterhole and we approached the blind through the bush but Rudi saw the roan and we headed in a semi-circle and came out on the road on which the roan was standing. The distance was latered measured at 266 meters. I had no business taking this shot and Rudi told me 2 or 3 times it was up to me whether to take it. Long story short, I took the shot and hit right and low, breaking his leg. Rudi ran after it and put it down with his .375. So, very uphappy again even though the roan was a beautiful animal.

I began to formulate a theory (which might be obvious from the way I described things) that something about sticks cause me to shoot right and low IF the distance is such that I am struggling to maintain my sight picture. Back at the lodge, I took 3 shots and 200 meters and all 3 shots were low, and 2 were to the right, but only slightly so. I am going to do some practice off sticks during the next year to see if I can sort this out, but the answer will probably be to just limit shots to 100 meters or less in the future. I'll probably do more shooting over waterholes. This wounding of animals shall not continue.

We tried hard to get a nice kudu the next day, we saw a 48 incher at a waterhole, and a much larger one that I almost got a shot at but with no success.

Departure day we hunted in the morning and we came across tsessebe again but couldn't get a shot.

The drive back to Johannesburg and flight home were uneventful and in spite of my bad shooting, I had a good time and plan to return next year for that kudu and tsessebe.

I can highly recommend Tally Ho to anyone.

 

[postoak]

I would like to add that I always felt I was hunting wild animals at Tally Ho (sometimes too wild, LOL). They do have a 350 acre enclosure with about 30 roan in it. Two or three males of one and a half years are released each year onto the main part of the ranch. They are not hunted for several years and they seemed very hard to hunt to me. There is also a 75 acre enclosure where sable are bred. Other than these two enclosures, there are no internal fences.

To me, the sable seemed much less wild than the roan, but perhaps this is just a species difference. Perhaps someone who is familiar with sable can answer this. In general the game seemed just as wild here as the much larger places I've hunted in Namibia.

There is a herd of about 150 buffalo on the property but because of the nature of Limpopo bushvelt we only ran into about 5 that were traveling away from the main herd. This was in eight days of hunting. (I got an extra free day because we hunted the first afternoon and the morning of departure day.)

 

[cpr0312]

Congrats on your hunt and thanks for sharing!

 

[BRICKBURN]

I looked at your picture of your plate and there was way too much green stuff on that one for my liking. ( I am still really six years old)

Glad you enjoyed your hunt and were successful. Congratulations.

I appreciate the hunting report.

 

[Lbarr265]

Great report, thank you for sharing

 

[postoak]

I forgot to mention something, regarding planning a Limpopo hunt. The vegetation was still on the various bushes and low trees in May because they had late rains, and it would have made it easier to see animals (especially kudu, which like to stand back in bush observing you) if I had planned my hunt for June, July, or August. I've already reserved dates in August for next year, straddled around a new moon.

Mashburn, that "green stuff", especially that green puree, was all excellent!

 

[Ridgewalker]

Thanks Postoak! Good honest report. You made some very good points IMO. Starting with hunting during the dark of the moon which I am a firm believer in! And practice, practice, practice off of sticks. I agree 100% that the POI can change depending on the hold and rest.
You took some fine trophies!
Thanks again for sharing!

 

[flatwater bill]

Postoak...............you done good............nice trophies, and a great report. It's no worries that you weren't perfect. You will be next time...................BTW...........that load from the Win Mag is screamin at 3080!...................congrats and thanks for posting..................FWB

 

[cls]

Thanks for the honest report. I am sure we have all made some less than stellar shots in the heat of the chase. Lots of practice off sticks is the key and I am sure with the help from guys on AH you will be able to solve your problems.

 

[postoak]

Just to be clear, I don’t think moon phase is important on your first few safaris when you are going after the common stuff. It becomes more important later on. I read somewhere that 3070 fps was the original load for the Win Mag, later reduced. I wanted to duplicate the original load and it was actually easy with RL16.

 

[postoak]

My theory on the right and down is that when struggling to maintain the sight picture on longer shots, the greater strength of my right arm is causing a pull. Solvable by restricting distances so it isn’t difficult to hold steady.

 

[buck wild]

What time did your flight land in joberg ? The Delta flights lands in the evening and Emirates at 5 am.
I'd love to hear your story firsthand some day. I'm in Midtown if you are ever "in the city" LOL

 

[postoak]

Hi buck, I try to avoid Houston but if you are into cigars we could meet up here at Mike's Cigars some time for a chat.

Arrival was at 8:30 AM so we were on the property around 1:30 PM, had lunch, sighted in rifle, and then headed out at 3:30 PM for an evening hunt and look-around.