The usual disclaimer.. if youre logging in on your computer (vice the app on your phone), its obvious I have a relationship with
@Bos en Dal SAFARIS that goes beyond just being another loyal client (although I am very much that too).. I have acted as the outfitters US Representative for the last few years.. You can see the banner below each of my posts.. So.. I bottom line up front.. I admit I am positively biased..
BUT... I will also say that having hunted with numerous outfitters across South Africa and the rest of the world, there is a reason I agreed to work with Gerrit at Bos en Dal as opposed to anyone else.. I sincerely love the location, the staff, and everything about the operation.... I have a "day" job that compensates me very well (many of you that frequent AH know me personally and know what I do for a living, etc).. I dont need, nor do I make any money from the relationship I have with Bos en Dal, and YES, I do pay for the animals I hunt there, likely at a similar rate that any of you could negotiate if you choose to hunt at Bos en Dal. I dont act as the Bos en Dal US Representative because of any motivation that the relationship might get me something personally.. I do it because I have become genuine close friends with the owner, his family, and his team, and I know they take extremely good care of everyone I refer to them (I generally take at least 1-2 other hunters with my family every year, and have other friends hunt with Bos en Dal each year when we arent in camp as well).
So.. now that all of that is handled... onto the 2023 Bos en Dal Hunt Report!
We planned a longer trip than normal for us this year, and booked 2x weeks in South Africa (our normal trips are 9 days including travel). While we definitely wanted to hunt, we also wanted to spend some time this trip playing tourist in Cape Town, as well as make some time to visit an orphanage we have developed a relationship with while in country (more on that later).. This year the hunt party was supposed to be myself, wife, youngest daughter, a good friend, his wife, his daughter, and
@roverandbrew .. Unfortunately the good friend/wife/daughter had to cancel at the last minute due to a medical situation, which was super disappointing, but thankfully he has gotten everything sorted out already and we're already talking dates for him and the family to join us on our 2024 hunt (
@Bos en Dal SAFARIS has become a bit of an annual pilgrimage for us since 2019)..
@roverandbrew did make the trip however, and we had a great time spending a week with him in camp (I wont steal his thunder in case he wants to post his own hunt review at some point, but may mention him occasionally through this one
)..
We really didnt have much of a "plan" for this years hunt... I really only had one objective.. I wanted to take something fairly large and notably tough with my bow (maybe a zebra or a blue wildebeest, etc).. Ive been practicing with my bow pretty intensely for about 4 months at this point and really wanted to see what it could do with it being properly tuned and with it shooting proper "africa" arrows... My 2017 hunt with a bow was a little disappointing as I just wasnt rigged up correctly, and while I did kill a wildebeest on that trip, the shot simply didnt get the desired penetration, which ultimately resulted in a LONG 2 day track to find the downed animal.. I hoped for much better performance on this trip..
@Bos en Dal SAFARIS ran a Buff Cow special last year as the herds have gotten HUGE and there is a need to cull a few off, so that was my wifes primary objective.. she wanted to take a cow... and then our youngest, still a fairly new and inexperienced hunter, either wanted a blesbok or a springbok.. whichever we could find that would offer up a relatively easy shot at a reasonably close range (inside 125 yards if possible)... other than those three things we just thought we'd "take whatever the bush provides" and be happy with it, and had no other real list to worry about..
The flights over on Qatar Airways were as always pretty uneventful.. They have been a super reliable and high quality choice out of Dallas for several years at this point.. DFW Airport on the other hand was a complete shit show on our departure day.. Im not sure who shat in the coffee cup of every TSA agent and airport employee that morning, but they clearly got ALL of them.. Im pretty used to Texans being friendly, easy going people as a rule.. but Im certain we didnt deal with one pleasant person that afternoon.. Im equally surprised that I didnt end up in the DFW jailhouse for choking out a couple of people before we got on the plane.. it was sincerely that bad.. (to the point of being almost surreal).. Even the people in the American flagship lounge were frankly assholes (we flew on Qatar as they are code shared with American.. but actually booked our flights through American)..
All of that said, once we were on the plane, things shaped up nicely and were a breeze for the rest of the way to Johannesburg...
We arrived at Jo'berg at OH MY GOD IT'S EARLY (330 AM).. Thankfully we all got a little sleep on the plane and werent too terribly bad off, because Gerrit made it clear when he sent the WhatsApp message to me saying he was at the airport standing by to pick us up.. "We're going hunting today!".. Once we grabbed our bags (bows had no problem making the trip in their respective Pelican and SKB cases), we set off for Afton House to pick up
@roverandbrew ...
@roverandbrew was loaded up in the mini-bus by 430 and we were unpacking our bags in our rooms at
@Bos en Dal SAFARIS by 615...
We all grabbed a quick bite to eat for breakfast, sucked down a couple of cups of coffee, and we're off to hunt...
@roverandbrew took off to the rifle range to confirm zero with his PH Rikus, and my wife and I took the bows out for a few practice shots to confirm everything was still in order while the youngster napped for a few hours in the lodge (she didnt sleep quite as much or as well as my wife and I did)... We then headed out to one of
@Bos en Dal SAFARIS new bow blinds to see what we might see..
Shortly after getting into the blind (huge, spacious, and SUPER QUIET with a nice bench in the back to sit on, etc) a herd of 6 young sable bulls pulled in for a snack.. In another 12-24 months ALL of these bulls are going to be wonderful trophy animals. The smallest of the group had to already be pushing 38"+ and the largest were already over 40".. they were all still just a wee bit young though to consider taking and needed another year at a minimum (still some brown in the coats, etc).. several other species tried to come into the area over the next few hours, but the sable were definitely the dominant species and werent having any of that.. they ran off a few kudu cows, a couple of young wildebeest bulls, and a handful of impala over the course of the morning.. The only animals that the sable didnt seem to be troubled by were a pair of warthog females with their two piglets.. they were fun to watch running around the feed of the sable eating and drinking... we patiently waited to see if a big tusker male might show up, but none came to the hole....
About noon we decided to call it and head back to the lodge for some lunch.. while traveling back to the lodge we saw a really nice, but young bushbuck standing in some reeds not far from the road... like the sable, in another year or two he is going to be an awesome trophy for someone (hopefully me!
)...
Lunch was filling (as always).. still a little punch drunk and tired from the flights over, we hung around the lodge until about 230 and then decided to grab the rifles and drive around a bit to see what might step out on us.. Typically we bring our own firearms, but this year knowing that we were going to go to cape town for a few days on the back end of the trip we didnt think it would be worth the hassle of trying to haul them all over the country, so we opted to use camp rifles.. For the buffalo, Gerrit lent us a fine CZ550 in 375 HH.. For PG we had access to a couple of different rifles.. when hunting with Gerrit we used his Musgrave 7x57.. when hunting with Frikke we used his Ruger in 30-06..
Things were a little slow for the first hour that we were out.. It was particularly cold this year (in the low 30's most mornings and high 60's most afternoons) and the animals seemed a little sluggish during the middle of the day... which made the next wildlife encounter extremely surprising... around 3PM while driving the main property, we rolled past what initially looked like a big black stick on the side of the road... closer inspection revealed that it was not a stick, but was instead a 5' python trying to sun himself... 6x hunts in SA in the June - July time frame.. and probably 20x trips to southern Africa in general during their winter, and I have never seen a snake of any sort during cold months... it was a pretty cool thing to experience.. Gerrit was tempted to pick it up and put it in the truck I think.. but I think my wife would have shot him just before shooting the snake if he did
After about 330 things started to pick up quite a bit.. We spotted a huge nyala in the field.. Im pretty sure it was north of 27" with a massive body... but Nyala wasnt on the menu for this trip.. I took a really nice one last year, and the wife took a really nice one the year before.. We also saw several herds of zebra and wildebeest over the next few hours.. The better half got out on a couple of wildebeest stalks but got busted.. We finished the day around 530, with the sun just a few minutes from setting spotting a really nice blesbok that our teen was interested in.. She got in a really nice stalk and was able to close the distance to 113 yards, but wasnt able to get a good angle on him as he was down in a little gully with grass as high as his shoulders all around him.. We finally called it a day just before 6PM... had a HUGE dinner and enjoyed hearing about
@roverandbrew taking a Rowland Ward quality Blesbok earlier in the day (again, wont steal his thunder.. I'll let him tell the story if he so chooses).. Everyone was completely bushed from the flights though.. so we turned in relatively early (about 9PM I believe), planning on hitting the bow blind right at sun up the next morning...
Day 2 reporting to follow after I get some lunch (we're sitting at City Lodge in Joberg now waiting on our flights home
)...
