VikingsGuy
Well-known member
As mentioned in an earlier post, we have just gotten back from a trip to South Africa hunting. It was a combo trip - family vacation and hunting safari. It was the whole clan - wife, son, both daughters and the new son-in-law. We did a bunch of sight seeing together and when we were hunting the women were hanging out in Cape Town (all three passed on the hunting invitation, but they were invited). We had a blast and am very glad we did it, but frankly I doubt I will do it a second time. I am not much of a "guided" person - I like to get out on my own and explore - not a viable option in most cases in South Africa. The guides were great - just not my cup of tea. We saw just about everything you could want to see (including a leopard taking down an impala 50 yards from us) and shot everything on our list (except my son's wish for a Warthog - we saw hundreds of them over the two weeks, but by the time we targeted finding a big one on the final day the weather changed and they disappeared).
I don't have time to break-down day by day or hunt by hunt right now - if there is interest I can come back and do a travelogue another time after I get caught up. In the mean time, here are a few pictures. FWIW - I shot a .308 and my son shot 300wsm. Both guns killed everything they hit - some dropped right in their tracks, some ran 50-100 yards. All were found within a couple of minutes. This confirmed our understanding going in - a well place .30 cal TTSX will quickly dispatch any African plains game. One other quick comment - the hunting was trickier than I was expecting given the shot distances ranged from 140-280 yards and we never had any wind - in theory that should have made things fairly easy. But the animals were super skitish and the thick highveld brush placed a premium on quick and accurate shots - the limited shooting lanes closed quickly as the animals where always moving around.
I don't have time to break-down day by day or hunt by hunt right now - if there is interest I can come back and do a travelogue another time after I get caught up. In the mean time, here are a few pictures. FWIW - I shot a .308 and my son shot 300wsm. Both guns killed everything they hit - some dropped right in their tracks, some ran 50-100 yards. All were found within a couple of minutes. This confirmed our understanding going in - a well place .30 cal TTSX will quickly dispatch any African plains game. One other quick comment - the hunting was trickier than I was expecting given the shot distances ranged from 140-280 yards and we never had any wind - in theory that should have made things fairly easy. But the animals were super skitish and the thick highveld brush placed a premium on quick and accurate shots - the limited shooting lanes closed quickly as the animals where always moving around.
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