Silence
AH enthusiast
I´m always reading all the great hunting reports, so now it´s my turn!
Over the last years I became an addict, but lets start from the beginning:
2013 – First African Hunting Experience
Never thought about hunting in Africa – or even travelling there. The hunting I do in Germany is for food or to get rid of vermins, no big trophies around. In 2013 some friends wanted to do a South Africa trip with visiting Kruger, Johannesburg and Cape Town. I joined in and as I was looking for activities in Cape Town I saw the “one day springbok hunt” from Cape Town Hunting Safaris. Hm. Problem here: The friends I was travelling with were greenies, one of then a vegan (that´s this kind of a king vegetarian, eating literary nothing that brings satisfaction). But as I went through their list of wanted activities (like visiting a… hippie village?!?!) I thought: Fu… them, I want to hunt!
So I booked the trip for the last days of our journey, starting point was Cape Town. Till then we had a very nice trip through South Africa, especially the Kruger – for someone sitting hours and hours in a treestand to see maybe 1 roe deer it was like hunters’ heaven – so many different species, so many variations in trophies…. Wow! I was looking forward to hunt my first African animal!
Joe da Silva picked me up at the hotel and the trip to the hunting area started. As someone never hunted with a PH and always being on my own in my hunting place making my own decisions I first thought this might be odd, but I was wrong – Joe is, for me, the perfect PH! We had a lot of fun chatting all the way to the hunting area!
It turned out to be a perfect day – shooting from the sticks (never do that at home) went great, so we went for the springbok. What an excitement following the herd, picking the right one, and them – bum! I got a perfect one and was the happiest person on the planet – I guess. And this is how the illness called Africa fever begun.
Best thing: Joes wife is a taxidermist, so everything was perfectly arranged and my springbok shoulder mount arrived at Germany exactly as I wanted him. Great work, great service.
Dead on the spot!
Still remeber well how happy I was!
2014 - Comin´ back for more
Next year, same story. Friends wanted to do the Garden Route (yes, again greenies, again an odd hippie village/hostel/whatever on the list – but this time I went there all clothed in hunting stuff and at the “wish evening” when everybody could speak out a wish in front of the group I wished I had enough money to buy this place and make a golf club out of it – ha!). At the end of the trip we were in Cape Town again and – guess what – I booked a hunting trip with Joe. This time it was getting bigger – we went to a farm couple of hours outside of Cape Town to hunt wildebeest, Oryx and eland.
This time Joe bring his wife Nicole, and we had great fun hunting, chatting, eating… and of course drinking, haha!
I could harvest some great animals!
The black wildebeest was my favorite hunt – no animal I know shows such an odd behavior. They were running up and down, from left to right, and we were always a step behind. But after some stalks two bulls started fighting each other and didn´t notice us coming. It was a great view seeing these two animals fight over the females, nearly forgot about hunting. I let the winner go, may he spread his good genetics in the herd. And took the looser down with one shot (what a day for this poor fellow…).
Next was a cull hunt on an eland female from a big group. We could observe the group for a while and pick the right one out… the feeling deciding over the life and death of game is disturbing and exiting at one time, this I experience from this encounter with wildlife. One shot took her on the ground. What a beautiful animal! Eland is, I think, my favorite African animal.
We went for a trophy oryx, but I noticed there is a female in the herd with problems walking… something was not right with one of her feet, so we decided to go after her…
Oryx are tough animals. First shot seemed not to bother her at all. She moved along as nothing happened… Missed? Maybe.
But then she started to separate from the herd. Next shot – same results. No reaction at all! She went 300 meters off and lay down under a tree. Went after her and gave her the final shot.
First two were too far behind but still harmful and surely painful as hell, but she acted like someone throw cotton balls on her. What a tough animal! I will never forget the moment stepping towards the lying oryx and giving her the last shot. Hunting is truly a rollercoaster of emotions – at the same time regarding the bad shots and feeling the excitement of finally getting the animal down. There is nothing comparable to this.
Meet the meat
2015 - Hunting hard
This time I brought my boyfriend M. with me – no hunter, but good at shooting and willing to take a first animal. Another non-hunting friend came with us and with two “first time African tourists” I did the hole South African experience: Kruger, Drakensberge, Durban, Cape Town… we separated for a week because the non-hunting friend wanted to go diving, so M. and I went hunting to a farm close to Port Elisabeth. One week of non stop hunting! Great! As Joe was busy hunting big game, Nicole, his wife, came to hunt with us.
First day was great, sun was shining and we we´re driving around looking for animals and discovering the farm. And then the rain started. And the Fog. It was crazy, you could barely see 10 Meters and we were here to hunt Kudu in a very hilly and densely vegetated environment.
It was a tough hunt for sure! Every evening I could wring out many liters of rain out of my hunting clothes. Even the best raincoat capitulated, after some hours being outside we were completely wet. But our spirits were high and we had a great time! Hunting isn´t all about shooting, it´s about the experience – and this was an experience I will never forget!
So, under this hard circumstances, M. shot his first animal ever – an impala. Man, he was proud! I could not be better than that, he earned this animal very hard… when I remember my first kill (getting in a treestand, waiting, deer comes out, bumm!) I am happy for him he worked for every inch of that impala.
He was also able to get a kudu on the last day of the hunt - a wide shot with a fast follow up shot took the animal down. Great!
I was also successful, got a nice Impala ram and finally a great male Eland! A hunt I will never forget - raining like hell and I could barely see anything. But the fog started to go away and slowly I started to see the
silhouettes of these magnificent creatures coming out of the grey. Have no foto of this scene but it is in my mind like it happened yesterday. Set the rifle on the sticks, one shot and this huge animal went down. WOW! It was worth all the work and all the wet clothes.
2016 - It´s getting big!
2016 M. and I went on a plains game safari in South Africa, but with another outfitter. But no way going to Southern Africa and not meeting Joe, so we decided after the plains game hunt (we got waterbuck, blue wildebeest, blesbok, warthog and zebra) we go to Zimbabwe to meet with him, do some touring (Have I already mentioned Joe is not only a great PH, he also is a perfect tour guide? Well, he is!) and, of course, some hunting.
M. decided to go after a buff (now his 5th animal ever hunted) and I wanted to try my luck on a hippo. So we landed in Vic Falls and Joe took us to a very nice camp - everything was perfect! The tents, food, beer, the stuff, the great view over a valley... life can´t get much better than this, I guess. We spent days of stalking buff in the Matetsi area. M. got a open sighted .458, made two test shots and was happy about it - never fired a gun like this before. The stalking was great - the heat nearly killed us one time or another, but following the herd through the bush was an experience we will never forget, that´s for sure. One afternoon we could finally come close to a herd with some males... but as we followed them we run out of cover. Distance was over 100 Meters and the herd started to be nervous, looking for us... so M. set up the sticks and fired a shot at this distance. Bull went 5 Meters and went down. One shot kill on a buff! Could a day get any better than that?
So now it was my turn and we went from the Matetsi area to Binga to go after my hippo. A hole day we spent on a boat, looking for a good one and trying to get a good position to shoot. I was lying there aiming and aiming for many hours, the boat went up and down and up and down. Hunting can be hard even when you don´t walk, haha!
Finally, there was a chance to shoot - a hippo came up and I shot. In a split of a second it was down again. I was completly unsure what happened... missed? Everybody went quiet... and then the hippo went up again with a fountain of blood coming out of its head. It went up and down and up and down swimming fast around the boat, other hippos went mad too and I was not able to shoot in every direction because there were now many (hungry) people standing on the river bank and I was afraid I could harm them. It was a crazy situation and I and the PH fired a couple of rounds in the hippo to make it stop.... I can´t describe the excitement of that minute. Full of adrenaline!
The village people took the hippo out of the water and there was just enough time to make some fotos, because the people wanted the meat! After I cut the tail of the hippo all the men started chopping parts of the hippo, it was away in no time!
An adventure of a lifetime, for sure. After finishing our hunts we went sight seeing with Joe, visited the Falls, went Tiger Fish fishing and of course drinking high tea at the Victoria Hotel.
Already missing Africa when I write this... next trip will come, and sure I will go again with Cape Town Hunting Safaris!
Joe and I at the Chobe National Park
Trophies at home
Over the last years I became an addict, but lets start from the beginning:
2013 – First African Hunting Experience
Never thought about hunting in Africa – or even travelling there. The hunting I do in Germany is for food or to get rid of vermins, no big trophies around. In 2013 some friends wanted to do a South Africa trip with visiting Kruger, Johannesburg and Cape Town. I joined in and as I was looking for activities in Cape Town I saw the “one day springbok hunt” from Cape Town Hunting Safaris. Hm. Problem here: The friends I was travelling with were greenies, one of then a vegan (that´s this kind of a king vegetarian, eating literary nothing that brings satisfaction). But as I went through their list of wanted activities (like visiting a… hippie village?!?!) I thought: Fu… them, I want to hunt!
So I booked the trip for the last days of our journey, starting point was Cape Town. Till then we had a very nice trip through South Africa, especially the Kruger – for someone sitting hours and hours in a treestand to see maybe 1 roe deer it was like hunters’ heaven – so many different species, so many variations in trophies…. Wow! I was looking forward to hunt my first African animal!
Joe da Silva picked me up at the hotel and the trip to the hunting area started. As someone never hunted with a PH and always being on my own in my hunting place making my own decisions I first thought this might be odd, but I was wrong – Joe is, for me, the perfect PH! We had a lot of fun chatting all the way to the hunting area!
It turned out to be a perfect day – shooting from the sticks (never do that at home) went great, so we went for the springbok. What an excitement following the herd, picking the right one, and them – bum! I got a perfect one and was the happiest person on the planet – I guess. And this is how the illness called Africa fever begun.
Best thing: Joes wife is a taxidermist, so everything was perfectly arranged and my springbok shoulder mount arrived at Germany exactly as I wanted him. Great work, great service.
Dead on the spot!
Still remeber well how happy I was!
2014 - Comin´ back for more
Next year, same story. Friends wanted to do the Garden Route (yes, again greenies, again an odd hippie village/hostel/whatever on the list – but this time I went there all clothed in hunting stuff and at the “wish evening” when everybody could speak out a wish in front of the group I wished I had enough money to buy this place and make a golf club out of it – ha!). At the end of the trip we were in Cape Town again and – guess what – I booked a hunting trip with Joe. This time it was getting bigger – we went to a farm couple of hours outside of Cape Town to hunt wildebeest, Oryx and eland.
This time Joe bring his wife Nicole, and we had great fun hunting, chatting, eating… and of course drinking, haha!
I could harvest some great animals!
The black wildebeest was my favorite hunt – no animal I know shows such an odd behavior. They were running up and down, from left to right, and we were always a step behind. But after some stalks two bulls started fighting each other and didn´t notice us coming. It was a great view seeing these two animals fight over the females, nearly forgot about hunting. I let the winner go, may he spread his good genetics in the herd. And took the looser down with one shot (what a day for this poor fellow…).
Next was a cull hunt on an eland female from a big group. We could observe the group for a while and pick the right one out… the feeling deciding over the life and death of game is disturbing and exiting at one time, this I experience from this encounter with wildlife. One shot took her on the ground. What a beautiful animal! Eland is, I think, my favorite African animal.
We went for a trophy oryx, but I noticed there is a female in the herd with problems walking… something was not right with one of her feet, so we decided to go after her…
Oryx are tough animals. First shot seemed not to bother her at all. She moved along as nothing happened… Missed? Maybe.
But then she started to separate from the herd. Next shot – same results. No reaction at all! She went 300 meters off and lay down under a tree. Went after her and gave her the final shot.
First two were too far behind but still harmful and surely painful as hell, but she acted like someone throw cotton balls on her. What a tough animal! I will never forget the moment stepping towards the lying oryx and giving her the last shot. Hunting is truly a rollercoaster of emotions – at the same time regarding the bad shots and feeling the excitement of finally getting the animal down. There is nothing comparable to this.
Meet the meat
2015 - Hunting hard
This time I brought my boyfriend M. with me – no hunter, but good at shooting and willing to take a first animal. Another non-hunting friend came with us and with two “first time African tourists” I did the hole South African experience: Kruger, Drakensberge, Durban, Cape Town… we separated for a week because the non-hunting friend wanted to go diving, so M. and I went hunting to a farm close to Port Elisabeth. One week of non stop hunting! Great! As Joe was busy hunting big game, Nicole, his wife, came to hunt with us.
First day was great, sun was shining and we we´re driving around looking for animals and discovering the farm. And then the rain started. And the Fog. It was crazy, you could barely see 10 Meters and we were here to hunt Kudu in a very hilly and densely vegetated environment.
It was a tough hunt for sure! Every evening I could wring out many liters of rain out of my hunting clothes. Even the best raincoat capitulated, after some hours being outside we were completely wet. But our spirits were high and we had a great time! Hunting isn´t all about shooting, it´s about the experience – and this was an experience I will never forget!
So, under this hard circumstances, M. shot his first animal ever – an impala. Man, he was proud! I could not be better than that, he earned this animal very hard… when I remember my first kill (getting in a treestand, waiting, deer comes out, bumm!) I am happy for him he worked for every inch of that impala.
He was also able to get a kudu on the last day of the hunt - a wide shot with a fast follow up shot took the animal down. Great!
I was also successful, got a nice Impala ram and finally a great male Eland! A hunt I will never forget - raining like hell and I could barely see anything. But the fog started to go away and slowly I started to see the
silhouettes of these magnificent creatures coming out of the grey. Have no foto of this scene but it is in my mind like it happened yesterday. Set the rifle on the sticks, one shot and this huge animal went down. WOW! It was worth all the work and all the wet clothes.
2016 - It´s getting big!
2016 M. and I went on a plains game safari in South Africa, but with another outfitter. But no way going to Southern Africa and not meeting Joe, so we decided after the plains game hunt (we got waterbuck, blue wildebeest, blesbok, warthog and zebra) we go to Zimbabwe to meet with him, do some touring (Have I already mentioned Joe is not only a great PH, he also is a perfect tour guide? Well, he is!) and, of course, some hunting.
M. decided to go after a buff (now his 5th animal ever hunted) and I wanted to try my luck on a hippo. So we landed in Vic Falls and Joe took us to a very nice camp - everything was perfect! The tents, food, beer, the stuff, the great view over a valley... life can´t get much better than this, I guess. We spent days of stalking buff in the Matetsi area. M. got a open sighted .458, made two test shots and was happy about it - never fired a gun like this before. The stalking was great - the heat nearly killed us one time or another, but following the herd through the bush was an experience we will never forget, that´s for sure. One afternoon we could finally come close to a herd with some males... but as we followed them we run out of cover. Distance was over 100 Meters and the herd started to be nervous, looking for us... so M. set up the sticks and fired a shot at this distance. Bull went 5 Meters and went down. One shot kill on a buff! Could a day get any better than that?
So now it was my turn and we went from the Matetsi area to Binga to go after my hippo. A hole day we spent on a boat, looking for a good one and trying to get a good position to shoot. I was lying there aiming and aiming for many hours, the boat went up and down and up and down. Hunting can be hard even when you don´t walk, haha!
Finally, there was a chance to shoot - a hippo came up and I shot. In a split of a second it was down again. I was completly unsure what happened... missed? Everybody went quiet... and then the hippo went up again with a fountain of blood coming out of its head. It went up and down and up and down swimming fast around the boat, other hippos went mad too and I was not able to shoot in every direction because there were now many (hungry) people standing on the river bank and I was afraid I could harm them. It was a crazy situation and I and the PH fired a couple of rounds in the hippo to make it stop.... I can´t describe the excitement of that minute. Full of adrenaline!
The village people took the hippo out of the water and there was just enough time to make some fotos, because the people wanted the meat! After I cut the tail of the hippo all the men started chopping parts of the hippo, it was away in no time!
An adventure of a lifetime, for sure. After finishing our hunts we went sight seeing with Joe, visited the Falls, went Tiger Fish fishing and of course drinking high tea at the Victoria Hotel.
Already missing Africa when I write this... next trip will come, and sure I will go again with Cape Town Hunting Safaris!
Joe and I at the Chobe National Park
Trophies at home
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