SOUTH AFRICA:An Auction Hunt With Numzaan Safaris Turns Out Better Than Expected

[Winkabeast]

My brother Rob and I have just returned from our long-delayed Connecticut DSC Dinner auction hunt with Numzaan Safaris in the Limpopo Province, South Africa.

I had been warned that Limpopo has been heavily carved up and fenced, and that the properties are smallish when compared to other parts of South Africa, or other destinations around it, and this turned out to be a spot-on assessment.
It is also mostly flat, and brush choked, so all in all I would have to say it was not the most epic and awe inspiring of our safari hunting experiences or the most breathtaking of African scenery, but the lodge was comfortable and Jakes the PH, and Sello the tracker were good men, so Robbie and I kept a good attitude and we had a fun hunt, even if the days excursions were a bit repetitive, with a lot of miles on the same roads, and even if we saw a lot of fences and feeders.

The first day found us in a very small area which seemed to be chosen for the numbers of Nyala, which was the auction specific animal. With country this flat and brushy there's a tendency to use the truck more than you really should, but I told Jakes I wanted to stalk and shoot off the sticks, so we only spotted from the vehicle, then went in on foot when a good bull was spotted.
After a couple busted stalks, we finally got in on a group successfully, and I put my Nyala down !
This pattern would repeat over the following days, though we did occasionally go to larger areas looking for other species.
I shot my BERGARA Highlander in .300 WinMag on this trip, and was once again very pleased with it's performance. The Highlander is now discontinued, and I know some found/find it a little heavy, but I don't mind its weight at all. It's not oppressive, it's just not as light as some of the sexy light mountain rifles that have come out since. And that little extra weight makes it SO steady off the sticks !

I had purchased a set of the Danish Viper Flex quad sticks a couple months back, and I had done a LOT of practicing at home with my .22 and my .223 getting ready for this trip, so when I switched to the bigger gun my shooting was natural and on point !
I was really in the zone on this trip.
I fired a total of eight shots...
2 shots literally in the same hole, and on the bullseye, on day one, verifying my zero...
4 one shot, DRT kills on the point of aim on my animals during the course of my hunt... and...
2 shots hitting a half of a 12" steel in the near dark, off a field expedient rest, at 500 yards on the last night, just for fun.

I took a great Nyala, which was a bucket list animal for me, a beautiful Golden Wildebeest, a 27" Common Impala, and a beautiful Black Impala.

Rob was shooting his Shaw Custom in .35 Whelen, but he was having a bit of a bad stretch with his shooting this time. He had a couple misses early on, and a long, blood trailing recovery later in the week, but he did finally take a really nice Blue Wildebeest, a nice Springbok, and an old warrior of a Common Impala.

All in all I would have to say I agree with other reports on Limpopo and Numzaan.
The outfitter is extremely professional and organized and employs good people, but the properties are small and the fencing extensive enough that the hunt feels tame and very similar to shooting inside the high fence exotic operations in Texas.
The flat country is also not beautiful or evocative of your African dream. I'm glad this wasn't my intro to African hunting, or I might not have gotten the addiction as bad (good?) as I did.
That said, we did have a fun hunt, and we did laugh a lot with our tracker and our PH, and we did take some nice animals.
A hunt is often what you make of it !
Enjoy the pics.

 

[WAB]

Funny, we tacked this exact hunt on to the front end of a Dande buffalo hunt in 2019. The property we hunted was extremely rough and hilly. The lodge, beyond 5 star with an executive chef sat atop a Koppe and we were the only guests on the property. Not all of Limpopo is flat!

 

[Winkabeast]

Funny, we tacked this exact hunt on to the front end of a Dande buffalo hunt in 2019. The property we hunted was extremely rough and hilly. The lodge, beyond 5 star with an executive chef sat atop a Koppe and we were the only guests on the property. Not all of Limpopo is flat!

I feel like Numzaan is a big company with a lot of properties.
All those that we hunted were almost completely flat, and our food and accommodations, while quite comfortable, were definitely not 5 star... obviously a satellite type of camp.

 

[WAB]

I feel like Numzaan is a big company with a lot of properties.
All those that we hunted were almost completely flat, and our food and accommodations, while quite comfortable, were definitely not 5 star... obviously a satellite type of camp.

Sounds like you had a good hunt. Ours was crazy. We were in the private lodge of a Swedish billionaire with his private chef. No idea how we scored that place, but it would have been worth flying over for even if we didn’t hunt.

 

[375Fox]

Appreciate the honest report. My first Limpopo hunt was somewhat similar to this. It was fun at time but not what I’m looking for now. There are more challenging properties and mountainous properties but I feel you need to know exactly what you are looking for and plan it out with outfitter.

 

[375Fox]

Were those Norma bondstrike? Did you recover any bullets?

 

[MontanaPat]

I hunted with Numzaan on an auction hunt in June of this year, sounds like a similar donation package of two Nyala bulls for 2 hunters. Your experience and mine sound identical. The people there were great and professional, food was excellent and our lodge was very nice. The properties were much smaller than my previous hunt experiences and not what I preferred but were in line with what I was expecting. As I mentioned in my report overall it felt more like a shot versus a hunt. Overall Numzaan was a pleasant experience but not some place I would personally look at going back to due simply to the properties we hunted

 

[buck wild]

Nice fair, honest review- thanks !

 

[cpr0312]

Congrats and thanks for sharing!

 

[Berettaco]

Thank you for sharing your pictures and report, looks like you had a good time. Very nice impala and Nyala!!

My first safari was with numzaan and had a very similar experience to what has been posted.
- bought the safari at an auction
- very nice accommodations
- super small hunting areas but I did ask for large hunting areas. Point of contention with the owner/PH and myself.
- Pushed by the PH to shoot from the truck.

A couple bad experiences while there will keep me from ever using them, or recommending them to anyone.
1. I wanted to hunt a black wildebeest, they took me to a 2-3 acre pen with two bulls running back and forth and said “we will put a stalk on them and you can get your bull”. I declined to shoot and then it became a bit of an issue because of all the trouble they went to in order to find a bull and drive me to the pen.
2. We did go to one larger property (large for them) and I shot a couple animals but they were very young (my first safari and I didn’t know better).
3. The last full day, we were done hunting (still no black wildebeest) and we asked to go to town to shop and grab some lunch. We were told if we weren’t shooting animals we had to stay in camp. That is terrible customer service and I was pretty pissed about that - they are selling an experience and in my opinion that should have been a small part of it. If a customer asks for something that is negligible and it makes them happy, you try to accommodate. I would do that for my customers…
4. No introduction of greeting from the owner. Met him on my way to the airport when we stopped to pay. I realize now that their operation is one of substantial volume, churning through the hunters as fast as they can, having them shoot off “stocked” properties and get them out asap to he the next group in. There probably isn’t time for the owner to meet the client groups before they leave.
My second and third safaris were not with them. I now know what to ask for and have found a good outfit to hunt with.
I am happy that the hunt turned out good for you and your group.

 

[Winkabeast]

Appreciate the honest report. My first Limpopo hunt was somewhat similar to this. It was fun at time but not what I’m looking for now. There are more challenging properties and mountainous properties but I feel you need to know exactly what you are looking for and plan it out with outfitter.

Agreed 100%.
I normally do, and i have been to a lot of spectacular places.
This was an auction hunt at a price too good to pass up, so we took a chance, and it was actually a fun hunt once you got your mindset okay with what it was going to be like.

 

[deewayne2003]

@Winkabeast Congratulations on your hunt and thank you for the honest write up.

You and your friend have entered the very small list of people who have booked an auction hunt and actually gone on the hunt and or been happy with it.

I've never gone on an auction hunt, although I have bought a couple at DU banquets and then the outfitters became hard to contact and or impossible to schedule with.

I'm glad to hear there are operators that honor their donated/auction hunts.

 

[Winkabeast]

Were those Norma bondstrike? Did you recover any bullets?

375:
Yes, I shot the 180g NORMA BondStrike on this hunt.
They were traveling at a legit, (chrono'd) 3025fps, and grouping consistently at .7 MOA out of my rifle.
The Nyala, and the two Impalas were complete pass thru with the bullets not recovered, and the animals fell on the spot.
I shot the Wildebeest at about 240 yards, so the bullet stayed inside him, but I forgot to ask about having a look at it when we dressed him out.
He bucked and ran about a hundred yards or so before piling up.
I have had really great luck with this bullet, and with the older Oryx bullet in several calibers.

 

[cls]

Thank you for the honest report. I'm glad you enjoyed it. Congratulations on some fine animals.

 

[Winkabeast]

Thank you for sharing your pictures and report, looks like you had a good time. Very nice impala and Nyala!!

My first safari was with numzaan and had a very similar experience to what has been posted.
- bought the safari at an auction
- very nice accommodations
- super small hunting areas but I did ask for large hunting areas. Point of contention with the owner/PH and myself.
- Pushed by the PH to shoot from the truck.

A couple bad experiences while there will keep me from ever using them, or recommending them to anyone.
1. I wanted to hunt a black wildebeest, they took me to a 2-3 acre pen with two bulls running back and forth and said “we will put a stalk on them and you can get your bull”. I declined to shoot and then it became a bit of an issue because of all the trouble they went to in order to find a bull and drive me to the pen.
2. We did go to one larger property (large for them) and I shot a couple animals but they were very young (my first safari and I didn’t know better).
3. The last full day, we were done hunting (still no black wildebeest) and we asked to go to town to shop and grab some lunch. We were told if we weren’t shooting animals we had to stay in camp. That is terrible customer service and I was pretty pissed about that - they are selling an experience and in my opinion that should have been a small part of it. If a customer asks for something that is negligible and it makes them happy, you try to accommodate. I would do that for my customers…
4. No introduction of greeting from the owner. Met him on my way to the airport when we stopped to pay. I realize now that their operation is one of substantial volume, churning through the hunters as fast as they can, having them shoot off “stocked” properties and get them out asap to he the next group in. There probably isn’t time for the owner to meet the client groups before they leave.
My second and third safaris were not with them. I now know what to ask for and have found a good outfit to hunt with.
I am happy that the hunt turned out good for you and your group.

Berettaco:
Yes, we had much the same experiences...
I went a little light on my orig review, because, as I said, we still enjoyed ourselves under the circumstance.
But yes...
- there was pressure to shoot off the truck. I didn't, but my brother eventually relented.
- the PH did not like having to deal with the tiny bit more complicated set up of my quad sticks, and
at first was insisting on me using his trigger stick tripod. It came to a head when I told him "i'm a
66 year old man, and I've shot off trigger sticks dozens of times. These are better, I've practiced
with them, I brought them here, and I'm going to use them even if i have to pack them into the
bush myself and set them up myself." Then I climbed back onto the truck. The next morning there
was no more discussion about the sticks and we got along great for the rest of the hunt.
- there was definitely "upsell" pressure, including a farcical next to last day story about a "problem
buffalo" which needed to be shot, and would therefore be discounted to $10k just for me, the great
hunter, lol.
- I could see panic in the PH's eyes when we told him we were going to take the last day off
regardless of whether or not we had taken every wish list animal, lol. Luckily for them, and unluckily
for my wallet, after many attempts, we finally came upon a decent Black Impala in a shootable spot
at last light on the next to last day.
- we also met the owner on our way out, and he gave us a tour of the main facility.
It was undeniably impressive, with onsite tanning and taxidermy, and a nearly foolproof system of
keeping every hunter's trophies in order. he/they are rightfully proud of what they have built there. It's just a bit too much of a machine, or factory, then what I want my African experience to be.

 

[Berettaco]

Glad to hear that same problem buff is still running around creating havoc. I was also offered that “opportunity”

 

[Winkabeast]

Glad to hear that same problem buff is still running around creating havoc. I was also offered that “opportunity”

Hahaha... Amazing !

 

[Ontario Hunter]

Glad to hear that same problem buff is still running around creating havoc. I was also offered that “opportunity”

I was selected to get rid of a problem bull. There was a herd of dagga boys but one was beating up on calves in the breeding herd. Taking out his frustration of not being the top dog. He was full price to the best of my knowledge. But I could only shoot that specific bull (no animals were tagged so identification was tricky). He proved too smart for us and after three days of chasing them around, we had to throw in the towel. But I took a hartbeest and sable on the property so didn't feel too bad leaving the rogue to someone else to dospose of, likely the property owner as it was end of August and height of the pandemic. The cow I shot on my first safari was a culling pure and simple. No bullshitting. Wasn't wild about it when the offer was made but at the price hard to turn down without insulting people I barely knew. It turned out to be quite an exciting affair and a very nice trophy. My outfitter is a straight up guy. He knows how I like to hunt and does his best to accommodate. No need to fictionalize. e.g. he was called with a great offer for 48" sable @ $4500. Okay, how do they know it's 48". Is it a breeding bull planted? Yep. Not my kinda thing. "I figured not, but thought I should let you know." Sable are not terribly challenging even if they are genuinely "wild." Point is, he could have built it into something it's not and sold an expensive animal, but he didn't.

To the best of my knowledge, my outfitter and his PHs will NOT let clients shoot from the vehicle. I did shoot a warthog while leaning against the truck but they are semi-varmints and terrible spooky. Spot and stalk is nigh onto impossible. The property owner was in the back seat and said "There's a tusker! You better shoot him." So I did. One shot at 200 yards and dropped in the dust. "You got him!" Sure. I shot him in the neck. "In the neck? Why?" Aren't they good meat? I am now always welcome on that property!

 

[Nyati]

At least both of you made the best of the situation and had a good time !

 

[Winkabeast]

Nyati
Yes sir...
In reading back I can see that my report sounds kind of negative, but in actuality we had a good time.
I pretty much knew that going in that this wasn't going to be the wilds of Mozambique, and as I said, the people were excellent and very competent, and the operation is very organized.
It's just that it was more of a high fence, enclosure type of hunt than I really like.

At least both of you made the best of the situation and had a good time !