OK, finally back home in Montana with decent internet and time to get a report out since several folks have asked how the hunt went.
Flights made it into JNB fine from Doha and I spent the first night at Afton Lodge since our flight to Maun didn't leave until the next day at noon. Hunting buddy made it in later that evening on Delta as he connected thru Amsterdam since the flights were much cheaper and he wasn't bringing a rifle along. Caught our flights into Maun on Sunday 5/26, I went thru the gun permits and paid my duty fees on my ammo and we were off to Ghanzi. Quentin, one of Jaco's PHs, picked us up for the 3 hour drive to camp and we arrived just at sunset. NKWE has a nice tented safari camp that has a nice "old Africa" feel to it, got settled in, had dinner and called it a night after sitting around the fire for a while. We were there for 8 days of hunting in total.
Hunting Day 1:
My main target animal was to go after a big eland bull followed by kudu. Since I had not shot an eland previously and new they had some big old blue eland bulls on their properties, that was to be my first target animal. I also wanted the experience of a tracking eland hunt. Quentin was to be my PH for the week and my buddy Kevin was hunting with Jaco, although we did a few hunts with all of us together during the trip.
Quentin and I started out that morning shooting both rifles to make sure the scopes were still on target and then headed out with Kenny our tracker and Tuma driving. We were hunting NKWE's main property where the camp is located, not sure of the size but it is quite large and has a perimeter fence only, we never reached the backside of the property all week.
We stopped by a waterhole right away to look for tracks and they said lots of fresh tracks but all cows and young bulls. Down the road we went to soon saw some more tracks but Kenny indicated that it was a single old bull and Quentin wanted to try and find a group of bulls to get on. Soon we found tracks crossing the road, got off to examine them and Kenny said it was a group of bulls that had crossed the road the previous evening and then back across during the night/morning. So we set off following the tracks. I was using my .375HH for the eland hunt and set off following Quentin and Kenny on the tracks. We followed the tracks for about 45 minutes and quite a distance when Quentin said we had come upon a group of Zebra and needed to circle around them and pick up the eland tracks again to keep from spooking the Zebra. We started to move around them in the thick brush when suddenly we saw the Eland. It was a group of 8 Eland bulls hanging with the Zebra. The zebra kind of spooked and set off at a trot and the eland followed along. Kenny and Quentin tracked the group for another 15 minutes and we caught up with them all milling around feeding in the thorn scrub. We were watching the eland in our binos to see what size bulls they were and any good shooters when a couple of Zebra caught our scent and spooked the whole group to take off again. Back onto the tracks we went and soon the Eland bulls split away from the Zebra onto their own. This is what we wanted to get them away from the spooky Zebra. We trailed the eland for another 1.5 - 2 hours getting close and then they would move out agian. I was amazed at the tracking ability of our bushman tracker Kenny to stay on the right tracks. With tracks of numerous animals crossing our path I had no idea if we were on the right trail until every once in a while we would come across fresh dung or urine in the sandy soil indicating to me at least that we were still on the right track. The eland would move for a while and then stop to feed and watch their back trail and either see or hear us moving closer then off they would trot again. Finally after several miles of this we got into a position to see the eland feeding. I was watching one eland we saw in an opening when Quentin set up the sticks and said to get on them for a shot. He indicated which bull and all I could see was the one I had watched which had now moved away. I kept saying I can't see which one you are indicating and strained to pick out the biggest bull in the group. They were only about 60 meters away in the thick thorn brush but it was a struggle to pick them up in the scope. After several seconds of Quentin and I going back and forth on where to look, I finally saw the back of the eland and as I moved left could make out the face of the bull with his big mop staring right at me. Quentin whispered to estimate where his shoulder was in the brush and punch a .375 round thru the brush. I fired and the bull jumped up in the air kicking and eland erupted everywhere! We waited a few minutes, both feeling the shot was a good one. We eased forward and found the bull dead only about 15 meters from where he was standing when I shot. The 300 gr A Frame punched right thru the brush and smacked him right in the shoulder for a perfect shot. I was elated to have a beautiful big eland bull down. We had spent about 3 hours tracking them and according to my iPhone fitness app in my pocket, we had walked about 7 miles, so I was getting pretty tired by the time we got the shot. Quentin called Tuma on the radio to come find us. We took some pictures and loaded him up to head back to camp around noon.
View attachment 612894
View attachment 612895
He measured right at 35" with big heavy bases and mop on his face. He looked like he was starting to lose some weight and was a good older bull.