New from Pennsylvania

[jfowler812]

Greetings fellas (and ladies),

Recently booked my first trip to Africa and found your site while starting to do some more information gathering for my trip. Great site by the way, tons of information. I am sure I will learn a lot from this forum in the upcoming months.

I will be hunting in SA next June with Numzaan Safaris. I purchased a package on the live auction at the Pittsburgh SCI banquet this past spring at Nemacolin Woodlands resort. 10 day hunt with kudu, eland, waterbuck, blesbok, impalla, zebra, warthog and possibly nyala on the "to do list" for this trip. Taking the wife and another couple along for the trip, which I am also very excited about.

I travel all over North America hunting waterfowl and have never considered myself much of a big game hunter, but after having spent the past 5-7 years reading a number of books on Africa I could not longer take the wait. A wise retired friend of mine once told me "Be careful reading Capstick and Ruark, because they are infectious." I could not agree more. A nice buffalo is the ultimate goal, but I wanted to start out with a plains game hunt to break myself in a bit.

I have purchased a Rem .300 Ultra Mag for this trip and am currently looking at a CZ Safari .375 H&H as a second gun. I understand that the CZ may be too much from what I am reading, at least for what I want to hunt anyway. I am currently doing my reserch on optics, but think I am leaning towards the Leupold VX-3.

I live in northwestern Pennsylvania and spend most of my time hunting ducks and geese around the great lakes and various other destinations. This year I am also headed back to Alberta and California for ducks. I have 2 lovely daughters, ages 5 and 8 months. I work as a PA in Ear, Nose & Throat.

 

[AfricaHunting.com]

Welcome to AH jfowler812! Glad you decided to join. Thanks for such a nice introduction. We have a great community with members who are happy to share their knowledge and answer questions that you might have. I too am passionate about bird hunting, where will you be Duck hunting in California? Looking forward to hearing more from you.

 

[TerryR]

Check with your outfitter, you may find that the bird hunting there is excellent. You may want you second "rifle" to be a shotgun.

 

[AfricaHunting.com]

Great suggestion Terry.

 

[TOM]

Welcome to the forum! Tons of great people and information on here.

 

[Big5]

Hello jfowler812 . . . glad you found the forum and decided to join.

 

[enysse]

Welcome to the website! I for one love the CZ 375 H&H. But you could easily go to a 416 or the mighty 458 Win. for cape buffalo. You have a great list of plains game to hunt in RSA. Good Luck and bring us a hunt report and picture back to us.

 

[jfowler812]

Thank you all for the very warm welcome!

I actually do have a day of winghooting included in my trip next summer, so I am pretty excited about that as well. I am hoping to bring back some birds in addition to the various antelope. Just one more reason for my lovely wife to roll her eyes at me

Since it is only one day of bird hunting, I was just going to rent a shotgun from the outfitter rather than take one along, plus from what I have read it is more of a pain to take a semi into SA. I could take one of the over / unders I own, but would rather take a second rifle I think.

Jerome Phillipe, I will be hunting in the San Fran Bay area second week of January. One day of divers and two days of puddle ducks followed by a day of wine in Napa (my second passion). I think the outfitter is based out of Martinez, Ca just south of American Canyon. Can't wait!
Jason

 

[AfricaHunting.com]

I think it's illegal to visit that area without some wine tasting! Beautiful area and great food too.

 

[MarkR.]

Welcome to this forum, I had a day of pigeon shooting in SA this June, was a good break in the middle of the trip and the birds fed quite a few people.
Mark

 

[gillie]

Welcome to the forum. It is introductions like these that make one realize yet again, how lucky we actually are to live here, even with all the "problems" surrounding Africa. It still is a magical place even in these modern days! If you have any questions, I am sure you will have more than enough willing people to help you out.