Allen Kitts
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- Jul 16, 2020
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First off let me start this post by thanking Louwrence Lombard and his wonderful family for an unbelievable third trip to @Waterval Safaris in the eastern cape. To say I had a great time would be an understatement. Everything went off without a hitch from the flights to the accommodations in Joburg, thanks to TWG in San Antonio, TX. Our short flight from Joburg to PE was great, no issues with my firearms, thanks to Rifle Permits and to Splitting Image Taxidermy for picking up the trophies at the lodge to be turned into memories that will hang in my home for a lifetime.
This trip started out several years ago after my second hunt of a lifetime in SA. I knew I had to come back and give a Buffalo a second try since my first endeavor didn't end so well (Long Story). Louwrence assured me he could put me on a good Buff and he did not disappoint but that will come a little later in the story. Our agenda was to cull warthogs while looking for an exceptional Blue Wildebeest with a hide that was suitable to hang in the cabin I am building in Montana and a bull Lechwe that I had been dreaming about for quite awhile based on photos Louwrence had shown me via Whats App of one of his clients taking a beautiful bull. Once I saw it I knew I had to have one for my own trophy room. Days one and two ended with many a warthog hitting the dirt, we were not taking tuskers just females and youngsters, leaving the tuskers for the trophy hunters he had booked for later in the year. We saw so much game it was unreal, I think the place had gained more animals then the last time I had been there, everywhere we looked there were impala, blesbok, springbok, gemsbok, Kudu and more. It had been four years since my last trip and i knew the place was great but had forgotten how many critters called Waterval home. On day three we found a beautiful Blue Wildebeest cow by itself and her hide was just what I was looking for, very pronounced lines (stripes) and even a hint of maybe Golden wildebeest in the mane and tail. She was at 750 yards so we closed the distance using the acacia trees to block our outlines and got to just under 350 yards. I found a nice place to lay down over my pack and when the dross hairs settled the 6.5 PRC barked. She jumped like a bucking bronco at the shot and ran right towards us. I knew it was a hit but it appeared through my scope that the impact was right of where I had been aiming. When she got almost directly in front of us she cartwheeled over a small sheep fence and never moved again. When we got over to her the bullet had drifted almost 6" in the wind and took her directly in the neck severing the carotid artery and her windpipe. Luckily she had her head down or I would have probably missed altogether. When I checked the wind with my wind meter, note to self do it before the shot not after, the wind was about 12-13 miles per our and the dope should have been 2 minutes, just over 6". In the excitement I had never even thought about how hard the wind was blowing. Lady Luck had been on my side and the hide was just as beautiful as I had thought. A few minutes later the rest of our gang that had been watching up on the hill came around with the truck and we got her loaded up. Trophy one in the books. The next day found us looking for the Red Lechwe and possibly a baboon to take a shot at. No luck on the baboon but we did find a very nice Red Lechwe bull and the stalk was on. Again the wind was blowing in excess of fifteen miles per hour, making shots of any distance tricky. I tired a shot at eh bull at 400 yards off of the sticks and i missed to the left again not giving enough windage to the small 140 grain projectile I was shooting. The Lechwe took off over the hill and we were in hot pursuit. When we got over the hill the bull was standing along the perimeter fence, a 5 foot fence not a high fence, as Louwrences place does not have a high fence, it is all free range, Louwrence looked at me and said "lets let this one go brother, with it being at the perimeter, its no longer fair chase" I agreed and we walked away. To say I was impressed with this gesture from my PH would be a great understatement. I was blown away. We looked for others that day but to no avail. The next morning found us driving up a canyon road to get to a high spot to glass from when we spotted a small group of Lechwe on the top of the hill to our left. We stopped the truck go out to find a glassing spot and determined that one of the two bulls that we could see was definitely a shooter. I went back to the truck and retrieved my rifle and my pack and got comfortable for the shot. It was just over 300 yards and the wind in the canyon was pretty minimal. The bull decided to bed down and it was now a waiting game. After about thirty minuted a younger bull walked by on the tail of a cow Lechwe and the bigger bull didn't like it. He got up and started to work his way around to the cow. He was quartering to me so I put the crosshairs on the offside shoulder and squeezed the trigger once he stopped. The bullet took him exactly where it should have and he immediately dropped to the ground like he had been stoned. My first Lechwe bull was down and he was all I hoped he would be, absolutely beautiful and all on film. We spent the next couple of days picking flowers, a story for another time, and shooting warthogs and rock rabbits. Friday had us changing locations to the Graaff Reinet area of the Eastern Cape to look for a Buffalo. Friday evening was spent scouting the area for any sign of buffalo and we were lucky enough to find a few decent bulls to wet our appetite for the next mornings hunt. Daybreak had us eating a light breakfast and we were off, the excitement was at about a 10 when we got in the truck, by the time we saw the first bull standing on a hillside about 100 yards away I could hardly stand to sit still. He was beautiful with wide and decent curl to both horns. My PH said he was a younger bull and not fully hard yet but that he was going to be a giant in a few years. He knew he was safe as he stood there the entire time as we watched him via the binoculars. We continued on and spotted two other bulls way up on a mountainside and got out to set up the spotting scope to determine if they were what we were looking for. After about a half hour and plenty of looks we dicided they were both hard bossed bulls but not what I was hoping for, since it was only the first morning we decided to pass on them and keep looking. About fourty five minutes later our tracker thumped on the roof of the vehicle and we stopped, he told us he had spotted a bull running down the hillside ahead of the truck about 500 yards and it appeared to him to be a large bull we had seen the night before standing in a small pond raking his horns in the mud. When we had seen him the night beofre it was very hard to make him out from inside the vehicle we could just barely see the top of his back over the dam on the pond but something told him we were there and his head flew up and off he went, muddy horns and all, running like a small locomotive across the rocy hillside. He was beautiful and I was just smitten at how majestic he looked running away from us. The decision was made to continue on and see if we could find him in the river bottom, when we passed where he had been running down the hill we stopped and glassed the thick cover and Louwrence spotted him right away. I had paid for a 40" or smaller bull and he was definitely larger than 40" so Louwrence said lets drive up the road and discuss this bull so we did. It took about 2 seconds to convince me that he was exactly what I had come for and if I had to pay additional money for it I would. We drove back up the road to get the wind right and started our stalk from about a half mile away, wind in our face and sun at our back. When we got to about 100 yards we spotted him bedded in the river bottom, face in the wind directly away from us. Unfortunately there was no shot offered so we waited. 1 hour and fifteen minutes later he stood up, started to walk to a small oepning in the acacias andother growth and when his shoulder started to clear the brush he stopped, looked directly at us and froze. We were hiden pretty well but he had sensed something and just froze. We did the same and he finally turned a 180 and laid right back down in the exact same spot, this time looking straight in our direction. After another hour he got up again and started away from us. I was on the sticks at a distance of 70 yards and I told my PH that I would not shoot unless he told me to and I felt comfortable with it. The bull cleared the brush but never stopped and my PH never uttered a sound so I waited. I was sure that this time he was gone as he was moving away and into the wind and I figured he had had enough. I dont think he knew we were there but he sensed something and you could jsut tell he was not liking it. Louwrence told me to saty put and he would move further up the river bottom to see if he could spot the bull again, He got about 40 yards and stopped dead in his tracks in mid stride. I knew that meant he could see the bull and the bull could probably see him. After about 20 seconds or som he finally took a step back and motioned me up to him. When I got there he said "he is right in front of us at 31 yards bedded down facing to the right, into the wind and his head is down". "We are going to step into the opening, put the gun on the sticks, quickly and find the offside shoulder and shoot". I took the safety off on the 416 Rigby, moved into postion behind Louwrence and we moved in unison right into the opening, as soon as Louwrence stopped the rifle was on the sitcks and I was on the bull. I found the offside shoulder and pulled the trigger. at the report of the rifle the bull jumped up and was running so fast I couldn't believe it. 400 Grains of hot copper at over 5000 foot lbs of energy and he didn't even look like he had been hit. I dropped the sticks and put another round in the chamber, luckily I found the crease behind the shoulder that was to me and let him have it again. He turned and fell into the brush in the river bottom. Louwrence said come, come and I was trying to reload and run at the same time into the river bottom. Finally in the middle of the small river, the called it a river, to me it was a small creek, I got my gun loaded again as the bull was thrashing in the bushes. He was givnig it all he was worth but he could not get up. Louwrence told me to put one in his spine and I did. The thrashing stopped and it was over. 3 hours and 45 mins after the stalk started I had my first Cape Buffalo and what a beauty he was. I never got nervous, I didn't shake,I had no problem finding the aiming spot and even making the second shot. after we walked up to the bull the emotions kicked in and I could hardly hold my rifle. A wave of imotion hit me like a brick wall. I think I hyperventilated, maybe cried, and I know I said a little prayer of thanks for what had just transpired. I have to say thanks to Louwrence and his fellow ph Andrew Parsons for keeping me in the right place and the right frame of mind the entire time. It could not have happened and it would not have been as special had they not been a part of it. My brother Louwrence Lombard is the consumate PH, he has the demeanor about him that is just perfect for bing a PH, or as we call them in the states, a guide. He never gets rushed, he never rushes you and he never looses his cool. Calm, Cool and Collected. I would put my life in his hands again any day. We spent the rest fo that day sitting on the road on a cooler drinking a few adult beverages and watching the sun go down while the recovery team tried to load the buffalo onto the truck. One of the funniest things I have ever witnessed. to say that this was one of the best days I have ever spent on this earth and definitely the most intence 3 hours and 45 minutes of my life, would again be a major understatement. Three great trips with Waterval Safaris and hopefully a fourth will be coming up in about another two years. I told Louwrence maybe its time to think about the tiny ten. Who knows if I will ever make it back to SA again but if I have anything to say about it the fourth trip of a lifetime is only a couple of years away.
This trip started out several years ago after my second hunt of a lifetime in SA. I knew I had to come back and give a Buffalo a second try since my first endeavor didn't end so well (Long Story). Louwrence assured me he could put me on a good Buff and he did not disappoint but that will come a little later in the story. Our agenda was to cull warthogs while looking for an exceptional Blue Wildebeest with a hide that was suitable to hang in the cabin I am building in Montana and a bull Lechwe that I had been dreaming about for quite awhile based on photos Louwrence had shown me via Whats App of one of his clients taking a beautiful bull. Once I saw it I knew I had to have one for my own trophy room. Days one and two ended with many a warthog hitting the dirt, we were not taking tuskers just females and youngsters, leaving the tuskers for the trophy hunters he had booked for later in the year. We saw so much game it was unreal, I think the place had gained more animals then the last time I had been there, everywhere we looked there were impala, blesbok, springbok, gemsbok, Kudu and more. It had been four years since my last trip and i knew the place was great but had forgotten how many critters called Waterval home. On day three we found a beautiful Blue Wildebeest cow by itself and her hide was just what I was looking for, very pronounced lines (stripes) and even a hint of maybe Golden wildebeest in the mane and tail. She was at 750 yards so we closed the distance using the acacia trees to block our outlines and got to just under 350 yards. I found a nice place to lay down over my pack and when the dross hairs settled the 6.5 PRC barked. She jumped like a bucking bronco at the shot and ran right towards us. I knew it was a hit but it appeared through my scope that the impact was right of where I had been aiming. When she got almost directly in front of us she cartwheeled over a small sheep fence and never moved again. When we got over to her the bullet had drifted almost 6" in the wind and took her directly in the neck severing the carotid artery and her windpipe. Luckily she had her head down or I would have probably missed altogether. When I checked the wind with my wind meter, note to self do it before the shot not after, the wind was about 12-13 miles per our and the dope should have been 2 minutes, just over 6". In the excitement I had never even thought about how hard the wind was blowing. Lady Luck had been on my side and the hide was just as beautiful as I had thought. A few minutes later the rest of our gang that had been watching up on the hill came around with the truck and we got her loaded up. Trophy one in the books. The next day found us looking for the Red Lechwe and possibly a baboon to take a shot at. No luck on the baboon but we did find a very nice Red Lechwe bull and the stalk was on. Again the wind was blowing in excess of fifteen miles per hour, making shots of any distance tricky. I tired a shot at eh bull at 400 yards off of the sticks and i missed to the left again not giving enough windage to the small 140 grain projectile I was shooting. The Lechwe took off over the hill and we were in hot pursuit. When we got over the hill the bull was standing along the perimeter fence, a 5 foot fence not a high fence, as Louwrences place does not have a high fence, it is all free range, Louwrence looked at me and said "lets let this one go brother, with it being at the perimeter, its no longer fair chase" I agreed and we walked away. To say I was impressed with this gesture from my PH would be a great understatement. I was blown away. We looked for others that day but to no avail. The next morning found us driving up a canyon road to get to a high spot to glass from when we spotted a small group of Lechwe on the top of the hill to our left. We stopped the truck go out to find a glassing spot and determined that one of the two bulls that we could see was definitely a shooter. I went back to the truck and retrieved my rifle and my pack and got comfortable for the shot. It was just over 300 yards and the wind in the canyon was pretty minimal. The bull decided to bed down and it was now a waiting game. After about thirty minuted a younger bull walked by on the tail of a cow Lechwe and the bigger bull didn't like it. He got up and started to work his way around to the cow. He was quartering to me so I put the crosshairs on the offside shoulder and squeezed the trigger once he stopped. The bullet took him exactly where it should have and he immediately dropped to the ground like he had been stoned. My first Lechwe bull was down and he was all I hoped he would be, absolutely beautiful and all on film. We spent the next couple of days picking flowers, a story for another time, and shooting warthogs and rock rabbits. Friday had us changing locations to the Graaff Reinet area of the Eastern Cape to look for a Buffalo. Friday evening was spent scouting the area for any sign of buffalo and we were lucky enough to find a few decent bulls to wet our appetite for the next mornings hunt. Daybreak had us eating a light breakfast and we were off, the excitement was at about a 10 when we got in the truck, by the time we saw the first bull standing on a hillside about 100 yards away I could hardly stand to sit still. He was beautiful with wide and decent curl to both horns. My PH said he was a younger bull and not fully hard yet but that he was going to be a giant in a few years. He knew he was safe as he stood there the entire time as we watched him via the binoculars. We continued on and spotted two other bulls way up on a mountainside and got out to set up the spotting scope to determine if they were what we were looking for. After about a half hour and plenty of looks we dicided they were both hard bossed bulls but not what I was hoping for, since it was only the first morning we decided to pass on them and keep looking. About fourty five minutes later our tracker thumped on the roof of the vehicle and we stopped, he told us he had spotted a bull running down the hillside ahead of the truck about 500 yards and it appeared to him to be a large bull we had seen the night before standing in a small pond raking his horns in the mud. When we had seen him the night beofre it was very hard to make him out from inside the vehicle we could just barely see the top of his back over the dam on the pond but something told him we were there and his head flew up and off he went, muddy horns and all, running like a small locomotive across the rocy hillside. He was beautiful and I was just smitten at how majestic he looked running away from us. The decision was made to continue on and see if we could find him in the river bottom, when we passed where he had been running down the hill we stopped and glassed the thick cover and Louwrence spotted him right away. I had paid for a 40" or smaller bull and he was definitely larger than 40" so Louwrence said lets drive up the road and discuss this bull so we did. It took about 2 seconds to convince me that he was exactly what I had come for and if I had to pay additional money for it I would. We drove back up the road to get the wind right and started our stalk from about a half mile away, wind in our face and sun at our back. When we got to about 100 yards we spotted him bedded in the river bottom, face in the wind directly away from us. Unfortunately there was no shot offered so we waited. 1 hour and fifteen minutes later he stood up, started to walk to a small oepning in the acacias andother growth and when his shoulder started to clear the brush he stopped, looked directly at us and froze. We were hiden pretty well but he had sensed something and just froze. We did the same and he finally turned a 180 and laid right back down in the exact same spot, this time looking straight in our direction. After another hour he got up again and started away from us. I was on the sticks at a distance of 70 yards and I told my PH that I would not shoot unless he told me to and I felt comfortable with it. The bull cleared the brush but never stopped and my PH never uttered a sound so I waited. I was sure that this time he was gone as he was moving away and into the wind and I figured he had had enough. I dont think he knew we were there but he sensed something and you could jsut tell he was not liking it. Louwrence told me to saty put and he would move further up the river bottom to see if he could spot the bull again, He got about 40 yards and stopped dead in his tracks in mid stride. I knew that meant he could see the bull and the bull could probably see him. After about 20 seconds or som he finally took a step back and motioned me up to him. When I got there he said "he is right in front of us at 31 yards bedded down facing to the right, into the wind and his head is down". "We are going to step into the opening, put the gun on the sticks, quickly and find the offside shoulder and shoot". I took the safety off on the 416 Rigby, moved into postion behind Louwrence and we moved in unison right into the opening, as soon as Louwrence stopped the rifle was on the sitcks and I was on the bull. I found the offside shoulder and pulled the trigger. at the report of the rifle the bull jumped up and was running so fast I couldn't believe it. 400 Grains of hot copper at over 5000 foot lbs of energy and he didn't even look like he had been hit. I dropped the sticks and put another round in the chamber, luckily I found the crease behind the shoulder that was to me and let him have it again. He turned and fell into the brush in the river bottom. Louwrence said come, come and I was trying to reload and run at the same time into the river bottom. Finally in the middle of the small river, the called it a river, to me it was a small creek, I got my gun loaded again as the bull was thrashing in the bushes. He was givnig it all he was worth but he could not get up. Louwrence told me to put one in his spine and I did. The thrashing stopped and it was over. 3 hours and 45 mins after the stalk started I had my first Cape Buffalo and what a beauty he was. I never got nervous, I didn't shake,I had no problem finding the aiming spot and even making the second shot. after we walked up to the bull the emotions kicked in and I could hardly hold my rifle. A wave of imotion hit me like a brick wall. I think I hyperventilated, maybe cried, and I know I said a little prayer of thanks for what had just transpired. I have to say thanks to Louwrence and his fellow ph Andrew Parsons for keeping me in the right place and the right frame of mind the entire time. It could not have happened and it would not have been as special had they not been a part of it. My brother Louwrence Lombard is the consumate PH, he has the demeanor about him that is just perfect for bing a PH, or as we call them in the states, a guide. He never gets rushed, he never rushes you and he never looses his cool. Calm, Cool and Collected. I would put my life in his hands again any day. We spent the rest fo that day sitting on the road on a cooler drinking a few adult beverages and watching the sun go down while the recovery team tried to load the buffalo onto the truck. One of the funniest things I have ever witnessed. to say that this was one of the best days I have ever spent on this earth and definitely the most intence 3 hours and 45 minutes of my life, would again be a major understatement. Three great trips with Waterval Safaris and hopefully a fourth will be coming up in about another two years. I told Louwrence maybe its time to think about the tiny ten. Who knows if I will ever make it back to SA again but if I have anything to say about it the fourth trip of a lifetime is only a couple of years away.
