Well I just got home from my first trip to Africa. I hunted with Eugene Erasmus at Intaba Safaris In the Eastern Cape. Let me just say that Eugene and his crew went WAY above what I expected in all areas of the hunt. Bring the east cape some of the concessions were of course high fence but huge areas. We hunted quite a few free range/low fence sheep/cattle operations as well for kudu and a few other animals. The mountain hunting was just incredible. Steep rocky cliffs and thick river bottoms and valleys. We hunted near Fort Beaufort/Adelaide area. I had 5 animals on my list that I really wanted but a few more that it given the opportunity at a trophy I’d consider taking. My original 5 I wanted were kudu, waterbuck, gemsbok, Nyala and zebra. If the opportunity arose I wanted an eland, bushbuck, warthog and an Impala. I also was gonna do a night hunt to try my hand at a jackal, porcupine and whatever else we seen. I’m gonna do a day by day hunt and try to post pics as I go. Gonna be long and new to posting pics so bear with me.
1st day.
We got up early and after a wonderful breakfast we headed to a high vantage point where we could see a big valley for about a mile. After about 30 min we spotted a group of 3 bull Eland. Eugene said there was a good bull but to be patient as we wanted to see what moved out of the bottoms to feed into the warming sun. This ended to be how we started every morning. The animals would just appear into to sunny spots to warm themselves after the cold nights. Amazing how they would just show up out of nowhere especially after u glassed an area time and time again. Well back to the story. I told Eugene I wanted a bull with a big red mop, black face and a big dulap. Horns meant nothing to me. Well soon as the sun came up 2 more big eland bulls came out onto the flat and started feeding. Both were very big but one had just an incredible mop that went half way down its face. I said let’s go! After about a 3/4 mile stock we got into the bottom where they came out of and sneaked up over the ridge. They were all feeding at 130 yards. There was no question which was the bull. His body was much bigger and more blue than the rest. He was lightly quartering to me. I put the Sako 375 H&H where his shoulder met his neck 1/3 up and squeezed. He reared straight up and almost went down. He regained he’s footing and went over the next little ride about 40 yards behind him. We slowly sneaked over the hill expecting him to be lying there but he was standing at the back of the group swaying a little. Eugene said put another one in him. So at 274 yards I dropped him with one well placed quartering shot. Man the feeling when we got up to him and seeing the sheer size of this animal was insane. He was everything I wanted and more!!! First bullet went in perfect and exited about 3” behind the off shoulder. Second bullet hit him in behind the last rib and the bullet was dug out of infront of his off shoulder. Bullet went right through the heart so almost 40” of penetration. I was shooting the 275 gr Hammer Shockhammers at 2640 under 73gr of RL15. Scope was a Leupold vari-X 111 2.5-8x36. Gun is a lefty Sako custom deluxe I bought off a guy here on the fire.
1st day.
We got up early and after a wonderful breakfast we headed to a high vantage point where we could see a big valley for about a mile. After about 30 min we spotted a group of 3 bull Eland. Eugene said there was a good bull but to be patient as we wanted to see what moved out of the bottoms to feed into the warming sun. This ended to be how we started every morning. The animals would just appear into to sunny spots to warm themselves after the cold nights. Amazing how they would just show up out of nowhere especially after u glassed an area time and time again. Well back to the story. I told Eugene I wanted a bull with a big red mop, black face and a big dulap. Horns meant nothing to me. Well soon as the sun came up 2 more big eland bulls came out onto the flat and started feeding. Both were very big but one had just an incredible mop that went half way down its face. I said let’s go! After about a 3/4 mile stock we got into the bottom where they came out of and sneaked up over the ridge. They were all feeding at 130 yards. There was no question which was the bull. His body was much bigger and more blue than the rest. He was lightly quartering to me. I put the Sako 375 H&H where his shoulder met his neck 1/3 up and squeezed. He reared straight up and almost went down. He regained he’s footing and went over the next little ride about 40 yards behind him. We slowly sneaked over the hill expecting him to be lying there but he was standing at the back of the group swaying a little. Eugene said put another one in him. So at 274 yards I dropped him with one well placed quartering shot. Man the feeling when we got up to him and seeing the sheer size of this animal was insane. He was everything I wanted and more!!! First bullet went in perfect and exited about 3” behind the off shoulder. Second bullet hit him in behind the last rib and the bullet was dug out of infront of his off shoulder. Bullet went right through the heart so almost 40” of penetration. I was shooting the 275 gr Hammer Shockhammers at 2640 under 73gr of RL15. Scope was a Leupold vari-X 111 2.5-8x36. Gun is a lefty Sako custom deluxe I bought off a guy here on the fire.
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