LegalEagle
AH member
Rewind the clock to the spring/summer of 2016...My brother-in-law and I are on the way to a Kansas City Royal's game with the wives. Hunting Africa has long been a dream of my brother-in-law. Somehow or another, between my house and the stadium it is decided that we are booking an African hunt. The winter of 2017 we attended the SCI show in Kansas City where we met, talked with, and priced packages with a number of outfitters from both South Africa and Namibia. It did not take us long to decide on and book a hunt with Somerby Safaris for the summer of 2018.
After booking, we were contacted by Somerby and after some discussion the date of our trip was moved and we were set to leave Kansas City on June 25th and to return on July 8th. Our flight was pleasantly uneventful and we had no issues with customs as we took our own rifles. After booking our trip I decided that I would develop a handload for us to shoot. As we were both taking .300 Win Mags, our thought was that if I could work a load that both of our guns shot well, everything would be interchangeable. That worked out great as my first load touched holes from both of our rifles. If anyone is curious, I loaded 165 grain Barnes TTSX pushed by 67 grains of IMR 4350. Could not have asked for a better shooting load or a better performing load.
As we arrived in Johannesburg in the evening, we spent our first night on the outskirt of Pretoria in preparation for an early morning drive to our first hunting destination in the Free State. We departed the next morning with our PH Andre and drove approximately 6 hours to our destination. The first camp we stayed at was very cool. The grounds included a pair of 9 year old rescued cheetahs who were fun to observe and pet during the daylight hours. We spent a few days hunting an area that was about a 25 minute drive from this location. We would wake up to a wonderful early breakfast and spend our day hunting with lunches packed. My brother-in-law had decided prior to our arrival that since the top two animals on both of our lists for this particular hunt were Kudu and Waterbuck, that he would have first chance at a waterbuck and I would have first chance at a Kudu. Little did we know that we were hunting the Waterbuck mecca in this first location!
We headed out the first afternoon after arriving and saw a number different species and a LOT of them. Red Hartebeest, Zebra, Black Wildebeest, Waterbuck, Springbuck, Ostrich, Eland and more. We had seen a bunch of waterbuck, all of which looked impressive to us newbies. Andre kept telling us "He's not big enough", or "He is a shooter anywhere else...but not here". Finally, just before sunset we spot a lone bull that we pass...or so we thought. Moments later Andre advises "I've had a better look...he is a good one". My brother-in-law put a great shot on him and a 30" waterbuck was the first trophy of the trip. I will let my brother-in-law share pictures and his own experience and will focus on my individual hunts from here out...
After booking, we were contacted by Somerby and after some discussion the date of our trip was moved and we were set to leave Kansas City on June 25th and to return on July 8th. Our flight was pleasantly uneventful and we had no issues with customs as we took our own rifles. After booking our trip I decided that I would develop a handload for us to shoot. As we were both taking .300 Win Mags, our thought was that if I could work a load that both of our guns shot well, everything would be interchangeable. That worked out great as my first load touched holes from both of our rifles. If anyone is curious, I loaded 165 grain Barnes TTSX pushed by 67 grains of IMR 4350. Could not have asked for a better shooting load or a better performing load.
As we arrived in Johannesburg in the evening, we spent our first night on the outskirt of Pretoria in preparation for an early morning drive to our first hunting destination in the Free State. We departed the next morning with our PH Andre and drove approximately 6 hours to our destination. The first camp we stayed at was very cool. The grounds included a pair of 9 year old rescued cheetahs who were fun to observe and pet during the daylight hours. We spent a few days hunting an area that was about a 25 minute drive from this location. We would wake up to a wonderful early breakfast and spend our day hunting with lunches packed. My brother-in-law had decided prior to our arrival that since the top two animals on both of our lists for this particular hunt were Kudu and Waterbuck, that he would have first chance at a waterbuck and I would have first chance at a Kudu. Little did we know that we were hunting the Waterbuck mecca in this first location!
We headed out the first afternoon after arriving and saw a number different species and a LOT of them. Red Hartebeest, Zebra, Black Wildebeest, Waterbuck, Springbuck, Ostrich, Eland and more. We had seen a bunch of waterbuck, all of which looked impressive to us newbies. Andre kept telling us "He's not big enough", or "He is a shooter anywhere else...but not here". Finally, just before sunset we spot a lone bull that we pass...or so we thought. Moments later Andre advises "I've had a better look...he is a good one". My brother-in-law put a great shot on him and a 30" waterbuck was the first trophy of the trip. I will let my brother-in-law share pictures and his own experience and will focus on my individual hunts from here out...
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