Timt
AH veteran
First of all I would like to apologize if there is any grammatical or spelling errors in the below text, english is not my first language so please bear with me.
Place: Eastern Cape, Swaershoek Safaris (Booked with hunthardsafaris on the forum as always)
Time: 26.01.2015-31.01.2015
Species Hunted: Blue duiker, Cape grysbok, Eland, Mountain Rhebok, Warthog(!) and Black Wildebeest
Rifles: Blaser r93 Varmint .308 win topped with a March 5-40x56 and shooting 180gr Northforks.
Ruger no1 in 6mmNormaBR topped with a Nightforce NXS 5.5-25x50 shooting 95gr Nosler BT's
Just got back from my latest African holiday, it didn't start off that well but ended in an excellent way.
I was supposed to fly out to Port Elisabeth on the 24th of January with my wife and two kids but sadly my daughter of two years caught chickenpox three days before. We rebooked our tickets and flew out on the 26th instead after the doctor had a look at her and deemed her well enough to fly.
With chickenpox you cannot fly until it has all dried up so you aren't contagious anymore. That was the only bad part of the whole holiday so I am pretty pleased with how the holiday ended up.
After 36hrs of traveling we finally landed at PE and could start to relax a bit.
At this point I split up with my family as they were going straight to Swaershoek safaris camp while I drove up to hunt Blue duiker with Jeff Ford outside Port Alfred.
When I arrived at the camp late in the evening it was raining alot, so we were really hoping it would clear up during the night so we could get out early in the morning with the dogs. As those things go it didn't stop raining until 11.00 and we didn't start hunting until about 12.30.
We really needed it to dry out a bit so the dogs would have a fair chance of finding the little fellas.
I don't think I ever realised how thick the bush would be were we hunted them, it was rare that we had more than 10meters of visibility were we had a chance of spotting and shooting them.
The dog handler/ph we hunted with was a funny one though, he came equipped more like a gardener or forester than a ph. He opened up the areas with his shears and a foldable saw so atleast I had a clear shot for the few meters of visibility I had.
He did take it to extremes though and cut everything from trees that were 3 inches thick to branches 3 inches long that he deemed to be in the way for my shooting.
It gave me a fair bit of frustration and alot of amusement after we finished our hunt.
The first time the dogs were released they immediatly started barking as they got the trail of the duiker. I only spotted the duiker they were chasing once as it was dissapearing around tree and back into the thick bush.
We released the dogs in two more areas after that but had no luck in flushing anything out, we could hear the dogs barking and chasing in the bush but even though we moved around a fair bit in the bush trying to cut them off we were always too late or they turned around before coming close enough.
We tried one last drive at 16.30 with us standing on an old road that was halfway overgrown before we were going to try our luck with a blind close to a waterhole.
As the trackers and the dogs walked through the bush on our right side they picked up another duiker that ran the wrong way. We were starting to curse our luck but decided to let them try the small bush on the other side of the road before heading off.
The duiker came out of the bush about 75m in front of us and started to run straight down the road towards us. I slowly raised my shotgun and waited for it to come in range. As it came to about 45m I got ready to shoot close to the bush I had designated as the furthest I felt comfortable to shoot a moving target. The PH/dog handler had not spotted the duiker before this and got so excited that he shouted for me to shoot while flapping his arms like a windmill. Ofcourse this made the duiker spot us and it made a quick throw into the bush just as I pulled the trigger. I hit it on the back of the legs, not hard enough to kill it but enough to wound it. I started swearing as the dogs ran into the bush after it. It only took about 10 seconds and it came running across the road again and I took my second shot just as it jumped into the bush on the other side of the road. Success!
An old female blue duiker was the reward of our hunting, about five minutes before we had set our break off time to go for the blind instead.
We got up early the next morning to try and get me a cape grysbok down in Kirkwood. Had a nice drive there and passed Addo elephant park on the way. Got the opportunity to take a few photos of the elephants roaming the area which was a nice bonus.
We arrived at the farm at around 10am so we had a nice brunch and a snooze before going out. It was way to hot to go out mid day as the animals would not be moving around in the heat. At 16.00 we started to make ready for going out as we knew it would be cooling down and we could catch the animals moving off for a drink. During our snooze I decided to take an impala if we could find a really old ram that had just not opened up but was flaring out at the top. I have taken impalas before so it would have to be an really exceptional animal for me to really consider taking it.
We glassed a fair few impalas while waiting for it to cool down and get a bit closer to dark when the grysbok would start moving. We even stalked a few groups but didn't see anything worth shooting.
Late afternoon/evening we start to look for the grysbok and just at last light we start running into them. We glass a few but they are all female
(My usual luck with the small species).
When it gets dark we break off for a nice supper and some planning.
We decide to go out and look for them with a spotlight, just watching for their eyes. We had a bit of luck, it was almost full moon and it was a clear sky so it wasn't completely dark which meant I could actually see through my scope with no additional light source.
We stalked several females to within 20ft within the first two hours. After that it started getting quiet and we didn't see anything that was worth stalking for a while. We did see plenty of common duiker though, even some nice trophies.
Out of nowhere we spot our first and only ram of the night and after a quick view through the scope we decided to take it. A quick shot and the grysbok was in the salt!
A very nice trophy and hunt for this small animal.
We came back late that night at around 00.30 but we still decided to leave early in the morning to hit the road on our way to Swaershoek safaris and my family . The poor skinner was up to 03.30 taking care of the grysbok, with us leaving at 04.30 so he crashed pretty quickly in the car.
On our way we started talking and Davies the Ph told me he knew of a farm on the way that had cull warthogs.... Since I am a pig addict I couldn't help myself, we had to stop and see if we could'nt find a pig for me to shoot.
We pulled in on the farm at around 07.00 and had a quick chat with the owner. I got my ruger no1 6mmbr ready and we took a quick drive up to the area where they liked to hang around. After a few hundred yards of walking I spotted a pig on the other side of a valley about 200m away. We set up with the shooting sticks while keeping an eye on the pig as it was moving down towards us.
It stepped behind a bush and we waited for it to step out in a clearing just below the bush about 120m away. It took a while before I spotted the pig again, and then it was only 30m from us!
I slowly moved a step to the right and took a quick offhand shot high on his shoulder. Another pig down and I was very happy! Can't go hunting in Africa without shooting a pig of some stripe!
After that we pretty quickly decided to get a move on and head up the mountains close to Somerset east for lunch with my family and a spot of Eland hunting.
I had decided to finish of my SA spiralhorns if we could find a really old blue Eland bull.
We met up with my wife and two children outside the hunting area and drove up the mountains to a more or less abandoned cottage high up in the mountains.
While we were having lunch and talking about our adventures during the days away from eachother the trackers were taken up the mountains on a quad bike to see if they could spot any tracks or a herd of eland.
After about two hours we got a call on the radio that they had spotted a herd of Eland walking up the mountain a fair bit away from us. So we saddled up in the truck and started driving in the direction they were last seen heading.
Once we came 2/3 of the way up we dismounted and started to walk, my 8yr old son tagging along behind us.
Walking up we soon spotted the herd about 200m above us and 500m away by a small dam of water. It looked like there was an old bull in the group so we decided to stalk in and have a closer look.
We didn't go further than maybe 100m before we also spotted a small group of 3 black wildebeest next to the eland..
Wich ofcourse meant we needed to be even more careful and stay out of sight.
Luckily we had the wind in our favour and some light thunderstorms on the other side of the mountain. Keeping out of sight we followed a string of bush/trees all the way up to the dam wall and set up just below it to catch our breath before taking a peek over the edge to see where they were now. As we set up the black wildebeest must have heard us because they came up to the edge and stood there looking at us from 30m away.
Once they started running we knew we would have to be lucky for the eland not to go over the top of the mountain.
As luck would have it they choose to come our way on the paralell mountainside 150m away. The whole heard came trotting out except for the big bull.
As Nei, my PH left me to have a look over the dam wall a truly old and blue eland bull stepped out and started to trot after the herd. Neil came sliding down and told me, unnecesarily that it was the bull we wanted. The colouration was so different from the rest of the herd that it was easy to spot.
I took my first shot on the shoulder and as he started to run I gave him a bit too much lead and dropped him drt with a neckshot. We recovered the first bullet after it passed through both lungs and the heart resting against the bone on the off shoulder.
Anyone claiming to be undergunned with a .308win on a eland needs to try a premium 180gr bullet like the Northforks or a-frames. 150m shot through bone and still managed to pass through all the vitals without a problem.
Either way I am well pleased with the hunt and the way my bullet/caliber combo worked.
After recovering the eland 150m away and 50m up from the closest place the truck could go we decided to call it an early day and go home and relax.
Finally got to catch up with hunthardsafaris and his wife at camp so it was a nice evening of hunt talk and more.
The next day I got up early again to go look for a mountain rhebok together with hunthardsafaris and have a look at Swaershoek safaris "farm". Everything was more or less freerange. The area is absolutely beautiful and it was nice scout some more mountains for game. For some reason I prefer to hunt in areas where there is atleast some mountains to look at. It was very nice to be back sitting on top of a "bakkie" again chatting about everything and nothing.
About two hours in to the hunt we had counted atleast 10-15 females but not so many males, nothing worth having a closer look at anyways. But as soon as the sun broke cover things started to change. We glassed a few young males before we ran into the ram we wanted. After letting hunthardsafaris borrow my rifle to check the trophy at a higher magnification I made a quick shot with my trusty Blaser and it was in the salt. Not so much of a walk and stalk this time but I was enjoying myself to the fullest!
Sometimes you get everything right, and the background on this trophy shot is an absolute stunner!
We arrived back at camp early so I brought out my 6mmbr ruger1 for my son Kate to try it out a bit. He was on target every time at 50m so we made a plan to see if we could not let him take his first game.
We went out in the bakkie and had a look around for a Black wildebeest we had spotted earlier in the morning. After a short drive we got out and started walking to see if we could get nice and close. We spotted the wildebeest and stalked uphill along a road to get the wind right. We got fairly close and set up for Kate to take a shot but had some problems with the bush and the scope being set to a too high magnification so he couldn't see it properly. As such things goes the wildebeest ran off after a while with us following.
After a while we walked back to the bakkie and had a drink as we got a bit tired and thirsty after walking on the hill.
On of the trackers had spotted the wildebeest on a field down the hill so we started walking down to stalk closer. We walked in a depression close to the field to get into shooting range. After stalking a few kilometers we finally got into position under a tree at the edge of the field. We had to wait for the wildebeest to get clear of a herd of fallow deer but once clear Kate could finally take a shot. He took a shot with the animal slightly quartering towards us and hit it a tad far back. The wildebeest was off like a rocket. We found it down a few hundred yards away and just put a safety shot in it to make sure.
This was without a doubt the high point of the trip for me! Never mind my trophies, my sons first trophy outclasses all of them in my mind! I loved every second of this hunt, following him around and beeing a part of it.
This was our last hunt and we drove down to cape town for some rest and relaxation for the whole family (and some shopping for my wife). I'll add some stuff about that if you fellas are interested but this report was about the hunting part of the trip
On a finishing note I would like to say that Both Hunthardsafaris and Neil from Swaershoek safaris did an excellent job at organizing this trip, even after we had to reschedule at the last minute. That they made a true effort to get everything working even if I was hunting in a few different areas and with different outfitters on the Eastern Cape was truly a blessing.
I would also say that Neil is a true class act and I now consider his place a home away from home. I will return to hunt with Neil as soon as my wife feels up to taking the kids down again as they also had a great time even when I was away for a few days as Neil made them feel right at home! The camp he keeps is excellent and the food even better!
Got nothing but high praise for Neil and his camp and this I think might be one of few times I have been in Africa where everything has been outstanding.
Place: Eastern Cape, Swaershoek Safaris (Booked with hunthardsafaris on the forum as always)
Time: 26.01.2015-31.01.2015
Species Hunted: Blue duiker, Cape grysbok, Eland, Mountain Rhebok, Warthog(!) and Black Wildebeest
Rifles: Blaser r93 Varmint .308 win topped with a March 5-40x56 and shooting 180gr Northforks.
Ruger no1 in 6mmNormaBR topped with a Nightforce NXS 5.5-25x50 shooting 95gr Nosler BT's
Just got back from my latest African holiday, it didn't start off that well but ended in an excellent way.
I was supposed to fly out to Port Elisabeth on the 24th of January with my wife and two kids but sadly my daughter of two years caught chickenpox three days before. We rebooked our tickets and flew out on the 26th instead after the doctor had a look at her and deemed her well enough to fly.
With chickenpox you cannot fly until it has all dried up so you aren't contagious anymore. That was the only bad part of the whole holiday so I am pretty pleased with how the holiday ended up.
After 36hrs of traveling we finally landed at PE and could start to relax a bit.
At this point I split up with my family as they were going straight to Swaershoek safaris camp while I drove up to hunt Blue duiker with Jeff Ford outside Port Alfred.
When I arrived at the camp late in the evening it was raining alot, so we were really hoping it would clear up during the night so we could get out early in the morning with the dogs. As those things go it didn't stop raining until 11.00 and we didn't start hunting until about 12.30.
We really needed it to dry out a bit so the dogs would have a fair chance of finding the little fellas.
I don't think I ever realised how thick the bush would be were we hunted them, it was rare that we had more than 10meters of visibility were we had a chance of spotting and shooting them.
The dog handler/ph we hunted with was a funny one though, he came equipped more like a gardener or forester than a ph. He opened up the areas with his shears and a foldable saw so atleast I had a clear shot for the few meters of visibility I had.
He did take it to extremes though and cut everything from trees that were 3 inches thick to branches 3 inches long that he deemed to be in the way for my shooting.
It gave me a fair bit of frustration and alot of amusement after we finished our hunt.
The first time the dogs were released they immediatly started barking as they got the trail of the duiker. I only spotted the duiker they were chasing once as it was dissapearing around tree and back into the thick bush.
We released the dogs in two more areas after that but had no luck in flushing anything out, we could hear the dogs barking and chasing in the bush but even though we moved around a fair bit in the bush trying to cut them off we were always too late or they turned around before coming close enough.
We tried one last drive at 16.30 with us standing on an old road that was halfway overgrown before we were going to try our luck with a blind close to a waterhole.
As the trackers and the dogs walked through the bush on our right side they picked up another duiker that ran the wrong way. We were starting to curse our luck but decided to let them try the small bush on the other side of the road before heading off.
The duiker came out of the bush about 75m in front of us and started to run straight down the road towards us. I slowly raised my shotgun and waited for it to come in range. As it came to about 45m I got ready to shoot close to the bush I had designated as the furthest I felt comfortable to shoot a moving target. The PH/dog handler had not spotted the duiker before this and got so excited that he shouted for me to shoot while flapping his arms like a windmill. Ofcourse this made the duiker spot us and it made a quick throw into the bush just as I pulled the trigger. I hit it on the back of the legs, not hard enough to kill it but enough to wound it. I started swearing as the dogs ran into the bush after it. It only took about 10 seconds and it came running across the road again and I took my second shot just as it jumped into the bush on the other side of the road. Success!
An old female blue duiker was the reward of our hunting, about five minutes before we had set our break off time to go for the blind instead.
We got up early the next morning to try and get me a cape grysbok down in Kirkwood. Had a nice drive there and passed Addo elephant park on the way. Got the opportunity to take a few photos of the elephants roaming the area which was a nice bonus.
We arrived at the farm at around 10am so we had a nice brunch and a snooze before going out. It was way to hot to go out mid day as the animals would not be moving around in the heat. At 16.00 we started to make ready for going out as we knew it would be cooling down and we could catch the animals moving off for a drink. During our snooze I decided to take an impala if we could find a really old ram that had just not opened up but was flaring out at the top. I have taken impalas before so it would have to be an really exceptional animal for me to really consider taking it.
We glassed a fair few impalas while waiting for it to cool down and get a bit closer to dark when the grysbok would start moving. We even stalked a few groups but didn't see anything worth shooting.
Late afternoon/evening we start to look for the grysbok and just at last light we start running into them. We glass a few but they are all female
(My usual luck with the small species).
When it gets dark we break off for a nice supper and some planning.
We decide to go out and look for them with a spotlight, just watching for their eyes. We had a bit of luck, it was almost full moon and it was a clear sky so it wasn't completely dark which meant I could actually see through my scope with no additional light source.
We stalked several females to within 20ft within the first two hours. After that it started getting quiet and we didn't see anything that was worth stalking for a while. We did see plenty of common duiker though, even some nice trophies.
Out of nowhere we spot our first and only ram of the night and after a quick view through the scope we decided to take it. A quick shot and the grysbok was in the salt!
A very nice trophy and hunt for this small animal.
We came back late that night at around 00.30 but we still decided to leave early in the morning to hit the road on our way to Swaershoek safaris and my family . The poor skinner was up to 03.30 taking care of the grysbok, with us leaving at 04.30 so he crashed pretty quickly in the car.
On our way we started talking and Davies the Ph told me he knew of a farm on the way that had cull warthogs.... Since I am a pig addict I couldn't help myself, we had to stop and see if we could'nt find a pig for me to shoot.
We pulled in on the farm at around 07.00 and had a quick chat with the owner. I got my ruger no1 6mmbr ready and we took a quick drive up to the area where they liked to hang around. After a few hundred yards of walking I spotted a pig on the other side of a valley about 200m away. We set up with the shooting sticks while keeping an eye on the pig as it was moving down towards us.
It stepped behind a bush and we waited for it to step out in a clearing just below the bush about 120m away. It took a while before I spotted the pig again, and then it was only 30m from us!
I slowly moved a step to the right and took a quick offhand shot high on his shoulder. Another pig down and I was very happy! Can't go hunting in Africa without shooting a pig of some stripe!
After that we pretty quickly decided to get a move on and head up the mountains close to Somerset east for lunch with my family and a spot of Eland hunting.
I had decided to finish of my SA spiralhorns if we could find a really old blue Eland bull.
We met up with my wife and two children outside the hunting area and drove up the mountains to a more or less abandoned cottage high up in the mountains.
While we were having lunch and talking about our adventures during the days away from eachother the trackers were taken up the mountains on a quad bike to see if they could spot any tracks or a herd of eland.
After about two hours we got a call on the radio that they had spotted a herd of Eland walking up the mountain a fair bit away from us. So we saddled up in the truck and started driving in the direction they were last seen heading.
Once we came 2/3 of the way up we dismounted and started to walk, my 8yr old son tagging along behind us.
Walking up we soon spotted the herd about 200m above us and 500m away by a small dam of water. It looked like there was an old bull in the group so we decided to stalk in and have a closer look.
We didn't go further than maybe 100m before we also spotted a small group of 3 black wildebeest next to the eland..
Wich ofcourse meant we needed to be even more careful and stay out of sight.
Luckily we had the wind in our favour and some light thunderstorms on the other side of the mountain. Keeping out of sight we followed a string of bush/trees all the way up to the dam wall and set up just below it to catch our breath before taking a peek over the edge to see where they were now. As we set up the black wildebeest must have heard us because they came up to the edge and stood there looking at us from 30m away.
Once they started running we knew we would have to be lucky for the eland not to go over the top of the mountain.
As luck would have it they choose to come our way on the paralell mountainside 150m away. The whole heard came trotting out except for the big bull.
As Nei, my PH left me to have a look over the dam wall a truly old and blue eland bull stepped out and started to trot after the herd. Neil came sliding down and told me, unnecesarily that it was the bull we wanted. The colouration was so different from the rest of the herd that it was easy to spot.
I took my first shot on the shoulder and as he started to run I gave him a bit too much lead and dropped him drt with a neckshot. We recovered the first bullet after it passed through both lungs and the heart resting against the bone on the off shoulder.
Anyone claiming to be undergunned with a .308win on a eland needs to try a premium 180gr bullet like the Northforks or a-frames. 150m shot through bone and still managed to pass through all the vitals without a problem.
Either way I am well pleased with the hunt and the way my bullet/caliber combo worked.
After recovering the eland 150m away and 50m up from the closest place the truck could go we decided to call it an early day and go home and relax.
Finally got to catch up with hunthardsafaris and his wife at camp so it was a nice evening of hunt talk and more.
The next day I got up early again to go look for a mountain rhebok together with hunthardsafaris and have a look at Swaershoek safaris "farm". Everything was more or less freerange. The area is absolutely beautiful and it was nice scout some more mountains for game. For some reason I prefer to hunt in areas where there is atleast some mountains to look at. It was very nice to be back sitting on top of a "bakkie" again chatting about everything and nothing.
About two hours in to the hunt we had counted atleast 10-15 females but not so many males, nothing worth having a closer look at anyways. But as soon as the sun broke cover things started to change. We glassed a few young males before we ran into the ram we wanted. After letting hunthardsafaris borrow my rifle to check the trophy at a higher magnification I made a quick shot with my trusty Blaser and it was in the salt. Not so much of a walk and stalk this time but I was enjoying myself to the fullest!
Sometimes you get everything right, and the background on this trophy shot is an absolute stunner!
We arrived back at camp early so I brought out my 6mmbr ruger1 for my son Kate to try it out a bit. He was on target every time at 50m so we made a plan to see if we could not let him take his first game.
We went out in the bakkie and had a look around for a Black wildebeest we had spotted earlier in the morning. After a short drive we got out and started walking to see if we could get nice and close. We spotted the wildebeest and stalked uphill along a road to get the wind right. We got fairly close and set up for Kate to take a shot but had some problems with the bush and the scope being set to a too high magnification so he couldn't see it properly. As such things goes the wildebeest ran off after a while with us following.
After a while we walked back to the bakkie and had a drink as we got a bit tired and thirsty after walking on the hill.
On of the trackers had spotted the wildebeest on a field down the hill so we started walking down to stalk closer. We walked in a depression close to the field to get into shooting range. After stalking a few kilometers we finally got into position under a tree at the edge of the field. We had to wait for the wildebeest to get clear of a herd of fallow deer but once clear Kate could finally take a shot. He took a shot with the animal slightly quartering towards us and hit it a tad far back. The wildebeest was off like a rocket. We found it down a few hundred yards away and just put a safety shot in it to make sure.
This was without a doubt the high point of the trip for me! Never mind my trophies, my sons first trophy outclasses all of them in my mind! I loved every second of this hunt, following him around and beeing a part of it.
This was our last hunt and we drove down to cape town for some rest and relaxation for the whole family (and some shopping for my wife). I'll add some stuff about that if you fellas are interested but this report was about the hunting part of the trip
On a finishing note I would like to say that Both Hunthardsafaris and Neil from Swaershoek safaris did an excellent job at organizing this trip, even after we had to reschedule at the last minute. That they made a true effort to get everything working even if I was hunting in a few different areas and with different outfitters on the Eastern Cape was truly a blessing.
I would also say that Neil is a true class act and I now consider his place a home away from home. I will return to hunt with Neil as soon as my wife feels up to taking the kids down again as they also had a great time even when I was away for a few days as Neil made them feel right at home! The camp he keeps is excellent and the food even better!
Got nothing but high praise for Neil and his camp and this I think might be one of few times I have been in Africa where everything has been outstanding.
