The trip to Africa was amazing and I have to admit it far exceeded all my expectations. Most of the critters were not of trophy caliber but were all I was hoping for.... good representatives of each species and I was very happy with the outcome. We had a rocky beginning and the trip was in serious jeopardy of not happening, almost assured it would not at one point. Seems us boneheads were 24 hours late getting to the airport due to not reading the flight schedule properly. Can’t believe we all read it the same way several times (the wrong way) but we did (more to it than that but I won’t go in to it). Couldn’t get on a flight that night we were late either, they were completely booked for several weeks. Long story short our travel agent returned my panicked call the next morning saying 3 people had just cancelled their flight leaving that night so she booked us in their spots. Really just a stoke of good fortune them fine people cancelled otherwise I’d be bitchin’ about all the money we just blew but with no one to blame but ourselves. (Thanks Debbie at Custom Travel!!). The hunting portion of our trip was now cut short by 2 days, from 8 down to 6 days. Because of that I elected not to bring the muzzleloader. Kind of a downer but I figured there was a lot more to the trip than just hunting, and there was. After the hunt we spent 3 days in a few different cities taking in the sights, sounds and culture. Amazing places with some very interesting people. All in all it was the best vacation I’ve had and I know I will be going back, the place gets in your blood. The hunts themselves were much tougher than anticipated. You read about these canned type hunts in South Africa and I was not thrilled about that type of hunt, although I was not apposed to it. Truth be known we did hunt the impala on a 1200 acre high fenced place and that hunt was not much of a challenge, although still fairly exciting. Most of the other hunts were conducted on a 250,000 acre conservancy that was surrounded only by a 3 foot high goat fencing where game could come and go freely. I’m not a math major but I’m pretty sure 250,000 acres is pretty big , more area than most of us hunt for deer and elk. The idea of hunting free roaming game was one of the biggest draws to that hunt and the place was not a disappointment.
Only mishap of the whole hunt happened sometime after shooting the gemsbok in the morning I banged up my scope really bad. Not sure when exactly it happened. That evening I had a monster Eastern Cape Kudu (53 inches give or take and inch) standing at 265 yards and missed badly. Obviously I didn’t sleep well that night but was ready to go for impala in the morning. I chalked the miss up to kudu jitters. Two missed standing shots at impala less than 200 yards had me checking my 30-06. Thats when I saw the nasty gash in the front of the scope. Upon shooting at a 2 foot box at 100 yards and not connecting had me shelving the gun and switching to my brothers backup gun, a 270 Weatherby Magnum. It would later prove to be a good move. Day 5 of the hunt was coming to and end with the sun about 1 hour before going down and still no Kudu to show for the efforts. Thats when one of my tracker/skinners spotted a big kudu way up at the top of the hill... 491 yards of safety between us, giving us the eye. As luck would have it my PH was well versed in 270 ballistics and my brother had done lots of 400+ yard shooting and knew within and inch of where the bullet would hit at 500 yards. Between the 2 they both agreed I needed to shoot 8 inches above the back to hit him in the vitals. After finding a dead steady rest and making sure there was no wind I felt very confident I’d make a lethal shot. At the recoil I lost sight of the bull. I looked over at the trackers and they were jumping up and down yelling and laughing... which I took as a good thing. One of them gave me the hand flopping sideway signal and saying “dead bull, very dead”. Amazingly he dropped in his tracks. Thats a memory I will remember the rest of my life. After 3 hard days of hunting for kudu I finally had the trophy I had come for.
Anyway, like I said the trip was amazing in all aspects and I look forward to the time I make another trip back. I absolutely hate flying but sometimes you got to make the sacrifice to do the things you love to do. A few pics of the trip are attached, hope you enjoy.
Since this friggen site will only let me post a few photos you might have to look somewhere else to see the rest. C'mon Moosie what gives with limiting the photos being posted
They encourage you to shoot these critters whenever you can...
He looks alive but he is very dead...
A very good specimen...
Used the .375 on this dangerous game. Can never have enough gun
My wife deserves credit for this one. She spotted it coming around a bluff and the hunt was on...
The main reason I went to Africa, the trackers did much more than I did to deserve him and thought they should be displayed prominently in the photo.
Hope you enjoyed the peak into Africa.
Only mishap of the whole hunt happened sometime after shooting the gemsbok in the morning I banged up my scope really bad. Not sure when exactly it happened. That evening I had a monster Eastern Cape Kudu (53 inches give or take and inch) standing at 265 yards and missed badly. Obviously I didn’t sleep well that night but was ready to go for impala in the morning. I chalked the miss up to kudu jitters. Two missed standing shots at impala less than 200 yards had me checking my 30-06. Thats when I saw the nasty gash in the front of the scope. Upon shooting at a 2 foot box at 100 yards and not connecting had me shelving the gun and switching to my brothers backup gun, a 270 Weatherby Magnum. It would later prove to be a good move. Day 5 of the hunt was coming to and end with the sun about 1 hour before going down and still no Kudu to show for the efforts. Thats when one of my tracker/skinners spotted a big kudu way up at the top of the hill... 491 yards of safety between us, giving us the eye. As luck would have it my PH was well versed in 270 ballistics and my brother had done lots of 400+ yard shooting and knew within and inch of where the bullet would hit at 500 yards. Between the 2 they both agreed I needed to shoot 8 inches above the back to hit him in the vitals. After finding a dead steady rest and making sure there was no wind I felt very confident I’d make a lethal shot. At the recoil I lost sight of the bull. I looked over at the trackers and they were jumping up and down yelling and laughing... which I took as a good thing. One of them gave me the hand flopping sideway signal and saying “dead bull, very dead”. Amazingly he dropped in his tracks. Thats a memory I will remember the rest of my life. After 3 hard days of hunting for kudu I finally had the trophy I had come for.
Anyway, like I said the trip was amazing in all aspects and I look forward to the time I make another trip back. I absolutely hate flying but sometimes you got to make the sacrifice to do the things you love to do. A few pics of the trip are attached, hope you enjoy.
Since this friggen site will only let me post a few photos you might have to look somewhere else to see the rest. C'mon Moosie what gives with limiting the photos being posted
They encourage you to shoot these critters whenever you can...
He looks alive but he is very dead...
A very good specimen...
Used the .375 on this dangerous game. Can never have enough gun
My wife deserves credit for this one. She spotted it coming around a bluff and the hunt was on...
The main reason I went to Africa, the trackers did much more than I did to deserve him and thought they should be displayed prominently in the photo.
Hope you enjoyed the peak into Africa.
