SOUTH AFRICA: First Cape Buffalo Hunt & More........

[Av8or]

I am always a little hesitant to write a report, kind of like sharing a little of your soul. I will do my best to tell our story and the flavor of Africa from my perspective. It will probably be too long . Thanks for reading along.

My son and I hunted South Africa in 2018, planned a return trip in 2020. Plan was for entire family to meet us after a buff hunt for photo safari and etc. Then covid changed everything( like everyone else) . We put our trip on standby for all of 2020. Never gave up on the dream until end of Oct 2020. Rescheduled for beginning of May 2021. Booked tickets on Delta for 5 , started to make plans, and then election , covid tests , etc made it too hard for my daughters to get off work and travel. Then Delta cancelled flights . Lori @TRAVEL EXPRESS rebooked us on Qatar from DFW to JNB, with . Time kept moving along and South Africa stayed open , the two weeks before we left I was absolutely worthless, only dreaming of my return and praying nothing would change overnight. We checked in Dfw and got everything settled( rifle check in is slow, posted review of travel in separate thread). We were underway to S Africa.

I used Henry @riflepermits.com to get pre approved for firearm in S Africa. In and out of firearm office in less than 5 minutes. 45 minutes from landing we are in the vehicle headed to to the hunting are in Limpopo on the Olifants River in big 5 country.

Areas hunted: Greater Kruger parks on a private concession, Limpopo, Gold Valley Lodge near Nelspruit, and Badplaas area. Time for a sundowner after a quick game drive on the Olifantsriver river. So nice to be back in Africa. You can never replace that feeling of your first time on the dark continent, (I was like a little kid in a candy store the first time), this time I am just happy to be able to return , and very happy to be able to get my outfitter/ph a client finally!

We are hunting with MatthewGreeffsafaris.com. First on the agenda is a Cape Buffalo, I have an AHR (American hunting rifles) 375 H&H with a Zeiss 1.5x6I scope on it ( I really liked the red dot in the reticle) I am using swift a frame 300 grain bullets. We are hunting for 11 days.

Crocodile and Wildebeest, yum! Dinner , maybe a cane and coke or two and off to bed for the weary travelers ...... sweet dreams of what the next day could hold ..........

 

[Jörg Krüger]

Thank you for wanting to share with us. It is greatly appreciated.

 

[Av8or]

Olifants river , lion track, dinner, hippos.

 

[Av8or]

Up for our first day. A small breakfast, coffee and we are off to check guns. We will use their guns for plains game , when appropriate. Need a small adjustment to my 375 and all is well , off to look for the elusive Cape buffalo. We start by looking for tracks in th roads and river beds. We find a nice track in a riverbed and start tracking, absolutely quintessential Africa for this Texas boy, just like it is out of a novel. As we go around a corner , we see 3 African wild dogs, rare sighting, but will definitely have animals on full alert. Three hour stalk on a herd of buff leads us to a spot in the bush we can glass them laying down, appears to be no day 1 shooters in the group.
We do a little crawling and jockeying and find a satellite group that has 1 bull worth looking at ( they are all big and beautiful and impressive in my eye) we make a decision to pass up this opportunity as we think we can do better and it is day 1. Off to look for sign and try another stalk. We find another track and we are on the move. The brush is still very thick and a lot of crunchy leaves and dry grass, slow going to keep noise down. We get really close, but just like i have seen or read about a hundred times, I feel that little breeze shift on the back of my neck, and they are gone!! It is amazing how quickly a group of big animals can get out of ”dodge” so quickly. What a smart , wary , cool animal.

 

[Av8or]

My son is tagging along watching the old man‘s buff hunt , biding his time until we hunt some plains game. Day 1 ends with no shots taken , several stalks , wild dog sighting and us getting back in to the flow of looking in the brush and being quiet.
As we begin day 2 , eerily similar to day one, stalks , swirling wind and wary animals, tired hunters, . Along the way we see a nice Nyala , time to get something on the ground and some blood drawn if possible. My son and the extra PH , Kalie , make a great stalk and down goes 1 Nyala.
Dogs. PH, trackers and clients are all happy!

 

[Av8or]

Day 3 is starting and my hopes are starting to grow, we are in a flow, I’m getting good at following my PH , Matthew , I’m getting good at walking quietly, rolling my foot , not breaking branches and kickIng rocks etc. I have total faith in Matthew and the trackers that we will get on a good buff at some point. But on this day smart buffalo, baboons and impala all have a different view. We get on a nice buff track , 3 hours in and an impala bark has him on full alert, he busts from us about 40 yds away, we find the track where he was standing on a small hill looking back at us we stopped to glass. Later in the day we are set up In a small riverbed( just off the side ) with 2 buff about 50 yds away( with no shot ) looks like they will be headed down the riverbed for a perfect setup and shot, but a baboon barks and that changes everything, off into the brush they go, as nightfall approaches, we must wait another day.

 

[Av8or]

Day 4 we are off again in search of a cape buff. Pretty much a repeat of previous days, we get on a nice track, end up sitting in the brush 35 to 40 yds from a big group and are looking for the “one” . Wind shifts and off they go! In the back is a big bull( guess is 42 inches plus) we are in 2 separate groups and we track this heard and then go to a place to possibly cut them off, my son and other group go to get truck and pick us up. They see the buff in the brush not far from the road as they drive by, we go to track him but never see him again. Time for lunch.. After lunch we go to the area we had seen the buff that the bamboon spooked. We get set up on a spot we think up they are moving through and four bulls come heading straight for us. They stop at about 25 yds ,on the edge of a riverbed, as they see us knelling in the opposite edge in the grass. We are after the last buff , who unfortunately is blocked by the other 3. They all turn to their right to leave , ( our left) there is a nice opening they will all go through so I am on the opening and ready to shoot, ( about 2 garage doors worth of space) 1 buf goes by , 2nd buff goes by...., 3rd buff goes by....I’m on the opening , I have the timing and aim point down , as the 4 th buff begins to appear I am starting to slowly squeeze the trigger.... and that damn buff was a wary old survivor, he turned the opposite direction on an absolute dime as I fired and I shot him right in the ass. . I was so focused and committed, I could not stop the shot, but I knew immediately that I did not like what I saw when the gun went off. We went to see what we could find, we found the track and blood,” this could get very interesting, very fast” is the quote I believe Matthew made. We did not find him that night........................
I replayed the shot and scenario in my head a thousand times and I don’t know anyway i could of stopped the process once it started. Bad circumstances, never shoot a moving buff? , not sure, but I do know that we know have our work cut out to do all we can to honor him and find him and finish the job.

 

[jasyblood]

Cograts to your son on a very nice nyala!

From the two pics of the deck of the place you stayed at, I believe that's the same camp I stayed at 2 years ago(hunted buff/giraffe), although I was hunting with a different outfitter. Very nice place to stay and hunt!

Keep the report coming....

 

[WAB]

My son is tagging along watching the old man‘s buff hunt , biding his time until we hunt some plains game. Day 1 ends with no shots taken , several stalks , wild dog sighting and us getting back in to the flow of looking in the brush and being quiet.
As we begin day 2 , eerily similar to day one, stalks , swirling wind and wary animals, tired hunters, . Along the way we see a nice Nyala , time to get something on the ground and some blood drawn if possible. My son and the extra PH , Kalie , make a great stalk and down goes 1 Nyala.
Dogs. PH, trackers and clients are all happy!

View attachment 402964View attachment 402965View attachment 402966View attachment 402967

That’s a heck of a nyala!

 

[Av8or]

Fri morning we are all up early ready to go find this buff. We come up with a plan to track him and put everyone else on likely exit routes if we bump him. Off we go , we get on the track and find blood pretty consistently for a while, tracker thinks he is limping . Farther we go , less blood we find but we stay on the track. The trackers are absolutely amazing , we are going through all kinds of bush that I could never find crap in, they find where he has laid down 3 times and fresh blood in each spot. After the last resting spot , they determine that he has found a buddy and there are two of them we are tracking now. 6 hours on the track , unbelievable work by my PH and trackers, we finally get a shot and the buff is down. One more insurance shot ........... so happy to end his suffering, relieved to find him, bittersweet, we were very determined to finish the job , I would have preferred it to end on the first shot, but the highs and lows of hunting can be like no others! When we cut him up , bullet was through his left ham/ ass and went into his stomach, he would have definitely gone septic at some point and died a miserable death. I’m glad we avoided that. A lot of respect for a warrior from me.

 

[cpr0312]

Great nyala!! Congrats on the buff also! Love the white on the face as a added bonus!

 

[Av8or]

Thanks. Small teaser, we have another animal that is way better ( as far as quality in his breed )

 

[Av8or]

Cograts to your son on a very nice nyala!

From the two pics of the deck of the place you stayed at, I believe that's the same camp I stayed at 2 years ago(hunted buff/giraffe), although I was hunting with a different outfitter. Very nice place to stay and hunt!

Keep the report coming....

Did you hunt with Wayne? Ian?

 

[machinistbutler]

Wow what a great buffalo! Congratulations

A dream buff for sure and I am so glad you were able to find him.

 

[jasyblood]

Hunted with Ian. Good guy and a great PH!

Congrats on the buff!

 

[Av8or]

The story continues, ....... so we go to hunt separate areas for Waterbuck , for a few days, no luck , we see some just nothing we want to shoot. I did see lions , a cheetah and wild dogs again ( that makes 3 wild dog sightings on my trip)

 

[Av8or]

Hunted with Ian. Good guy and a great PH!

Congrats on the buff!

He is awesome !

 

[Av8or]

Long report and trip......! We are now going to leave the Limpopo and Olifants river and head to Mpumalanga for our next adventure. We get in On Sunday night and plan to sleep in on Monday morning for a well deserved break , up for a big wonderful breakfast and off to hunt after at Gold Valley. It is a beautiful setting and the home of my outfitter Matthew And Sylvia Greeff. It feels like home and we are glad to be back. The friendship, love, food , ambiance are all as good as it gets when you are here. I love this place. Nothing shaking on Monday, we see a zebra , blue wildebeest, warthogs and Nyala ( we are done with Nyala for this trip) no shots fired, my son and Kalie are hunting separate and looking for a bush pig. We have been joking that a little black cloud had been following us around Africa for a week, but after we found the buff , we sent that sucker away!

 

[Desertrover]

Thanks for a great write up, really enjoyed your story and experience.

 

[Av8or]

No bush pig on Monday night. Tuesday we head our separate ways to look for bushbuck , warthogs, bush pig, or anything else we might see. Matthew and I go on a nice long walk , glassing , slow walking ,seeing what we can turn up. About 1015 in the morning he spots a mountain reedbuck laying in the grass across a small draw about 300 yds away. We crawl up to a rock that we can set up a good place to get a steady shot. We decide to just wait for him to stand up and sit down for the duration. We discuss the shot, golf , life, etc as we wait. The reedbuck licks himself, lays his head down between his from feet , changes positions, but is not in any hurry to stand. Patience is our friend. About 1 1/2 hour goes by and he decides to stretch and scratch, we are 260 yds , good rest on a rock and Matthew gives me the go ahead, squeeze off the shot , and whack , good hit, he is still standing , but appears very much hurt, decide to shoot one more time and he is down for good .( right through front shoulder) we watch for a while and then make our way over to see him . What an absolutely cool , beautiful little animal. I am in awe of the whole situation, georgous day , beautiful animal and good shooting. I missed a warthog on a similar shot in 2018 and I had been waiting three long years to redeem myself!!