DPHunter4570
AH veteran
- Joined
- Jul 17, 2023
- Messages
- 228
- Reaction score
- 633
- Location
- Southern Illinois
- Media
- 14
- Member of
- SCI, Wild Sheep Foundation, American Bear Foundation
- Hunted
- USA-IL,MO,MN,ME; Canada-Manitoba; South Africa
I've just returned a few days ago from my first trip to Africa. In short, it was amazing. 10 days in the Eastern Cape of South Africa with the Burchell's and Frontier Safaris. Hunted 9 days, took one day off for a day trip to Pumba Reserve where we saw elephant, white rhino, and a white lion among many of the same plains game species we had been hunting. My wife went with me as an "observer" and she also was able to shoot one of my packages cull impalas. We shot 12 animals total on this trip.
We flew on United, from St. Louis to Newark to Johannesburg, with an overnight stay at Afton Safari Lodge. Then flew Joburg to Port Elizabeth. Afton was great, very cool place with some neat mounts. Ate a heck of a good dinner and slept comfortably. I had Afton do the gun permits, Mr. X met us at the airport and it was a breeze. No problems on the flights until the return, United decided to leave my guns in Newark for an extra day, but they came in the night and I went over and got them the day after we got home. Otherwise, the flights went well. United Economy Plus was actually pretty darn roomy and for the long flight over, I was dreading it and it wasn't bad at all.
I took my Winchester Model 70 Alaskan Laminate 30-06, as well as my Marlin 1895 45-70. Much can be hotly debated about taking a 45-70 to Africa, I wont dwell on that too much. I love that gun, and I really wanted to shoot a few animals with it, namely a warthog. The stars didn't align for me, it only left the truck a few times and didn't shoot anything. My M70 performed excellently shooting 165grain Federal factory ammo loaded with Barnes TSX bullets. The rifle did its job, I missed a few shots I should have made. Chalk it up to buck fever. Didn't lose any animals and all but one dropped on the spot.
Made it to Port Elizabeth where we got picked up by PH Kian Burchell, who did an amazing job all week. We hunted hard and had a blast. Kian is a great PH for such a young guy, but that comes with growing up on the property I imagine. At 23 he's doing an incredible job from driving the rough rocky mountain roads to picking out and guiding us in on animals. We hunted hard, walked a ton, and made a point to find good, mature animals versus shooting the first one that walked out. I hope Kian enjoyed hunting with us as much as we did with him.
The Frontier farm/property/facilities are great. The stone chalets were very nice, comfortable, and clean. The boma and breakfast/ lunch rooms are awesome, with good views and cool taxidermy. We ate like kings, and drank too much good Black Label beer. Impala backstraps, kudu stew, blesbok roast, breads, ice cream, custard, milktart, koeksisters, all amazing. My favorite game meat surprised me. The Bushpig roast was out of this world good, as well as the warthog ribs. I wish we'd had eland as I hear its about the best. One eland was shot, we never ate any of it though. We were taken care of incredibly well on this trip.
Being from southern Illinois, spot and stalk is something that doesn't happen much here. Id had a hell of a good time spotting game, glassing, then making stalks. Stalking was incredibly fun. We had some that were easy, and some that were really tough, and more than a couple that failed. The animals definitely didn't stand there and make it easy. Being on a property close to 80,000 acres (125 square miles) in size was something hard to imagine for me. Our 300 acres here at home is tiny in comparison. There were plenty of other people in camp and we did not really see anyone nearby, never felt pressured by other hunters etc.
Average shots were 200-250 yards, with my baboon being the longest shot at 440 yards. That's the longest shot I'd ever taken, on targets or game. No turrets on my old VX2, I held half a baboon high and drilled him. Some shots were closer, I think my wife's impala was right about 100 yards, and my springbok was about the same. Definitely opportunity for long shots in that area if that's what a guy is interested in. I enjoyed and preferred stalking close.
I did lose zero twice on my M70's scope. I've always loved the laminate and brushed stainless look, and this rifle had stainless leupold dovetail mounts and a stainless Leupold VX2 3-9x40 to match. Love the look, love the scope, don't love the dovetail mounts but didn't change them before the hunt. I wish I had now as I ended up shooting way high about mid hunt. We adjusted back down and it was great for a couple days, then we finished the hunt hitting left. After all the prep shooting I did, that blew my mind. I sent the scope back to Leupold to verify if its good or not, and the mounts are headed for the trash can. Luckily, it only made for a few clean misses and no lost/wounded animals.
I'll try not to be too long winded about each animal. The black wildebeest was a chance encounter as we were working in on some blesbok. I happily changed targets as wildebeest was something I was most excited for. I ended up making a poor hit in his back leg after he moved to the right uphill just as I shot, we spent the day chasing his tail and caught up to him after lunch and got him down. A dandy black, wide spread horns with big bosses and good drop. He'll be getting shoulder mounted as my first African animal. Luckily, the rest of my shots all went much better (aside from the misses due to scope zero issues.)
I was able to shoot both a common Blesbok and a White Blesbok. Both were very nice males. Mature with good horns. Both of the stalks were very fun, both had a lot of eyes on us. We took three impala on this trip. Two cull and one trophy. The cull I shot was mature with horns that hook back in almost touching each other, very much a cull male. My wife's cull was mature with just a bit of a hook back in, but they called it a cull and she obliged with a one shot bang flop. She's a great shot and I never had a doubt. She was nervous as heck! I don't know why, she's a big buck's worst nightmare at home. The trophy impala is very nice with heavy horns. Not a real wide spread but he makes up for it in mass I think. I was able to shoot a very nice common Duiker on the last hunting morning. Very fun given how small they are and their nocturnal tendencies. We saw many baboon, with two chance encounters to shoot. Incredible teeth on the solo male I was able to shoot.
We spent some time searching for a quality Gemsbok, and I think we were rewarded quite well. We drove to a far corner of the ranch, spotted one skylined up on the mountain ridgetop, so off we went. We hiked up the mountain, and of course he was gone. But the PH looked over a small knob and there were two more. One was a male with a broomed tip that I never even really got a good look at, and one was an old female with very nice horns. The horns both ended up measuring 39.5", and one was razor sharp pointy. This was one of the coolest stalks of the trip, made even more special by a nice bit of sunset while taking pics.
As many people say, you're hunting Kudu from day one, and we did. We glassed many smaller young kudu bulls, and we were up to six borderline shooter bulls before we spotted our target. Just before dark, we were up on a mountaintop glasses a thick area below that held a couple cows and two bulls. PH Kian gave the green light on one, and down we went. I wish I knew how far and the elevation drop, but man that was a damn big mountain to go down. We made it to the bottom, 220ish from the kudu who was nosing hard on a cow, and dropped him. I had sweat rolling off me, I could feel it dripping down my arms while I was on the sticks! Incredible stalk that happened in the blink of an eye. We then had to wait about an hour and a half in the dark as Kian had to RUN back up the mountain and fetch the cruiser. As we saw the truck lights moving, my wife said, "he made it up there in 20 minutes!" Then we proceeded to do some hardcore off-roading to get out of that thick spot.
We spent morning looking for springbok and warthog, and made out with a heck of a ram with one antler worn down from use. I got to witness the springbok flare and get a whiff of that cotton candy smell, that was very neat! Then we set out after a nice big old warthog with some good teeth on him. We ended up spotting this hog from about 800 yards, and while he worked towards us we worked towards him. Ended up taking 3 30-06's to get him to quit. A beast of a hog, Kian thought 120-130 pounds with some really nice ivory on him. I was stoked as warthog was high on my excitement list.
All in all, I had a damn good time. As many folks say, "you think you'll be back?" I knew I would be before I ever even made it there, and only confirmed it. I will be back as much as my life and bank account lets me. My wife and I both had amazing experiences. The land and rural country was beautiful and unforgiving all at once with a lot of mountains and hills to climb, along with plenty of acacia to tear my legs up. Frontier was awesome, all the staff and other PH's were great, and Barry and Lizelle are great folks. We got to eat supper one night up at their home in their entertainment room which was an amazing area filled with really neat mounts and paintings. We took some great trophies. Most of my animals were old, with either worn horns or secondary growth on them. We did great in that regard I thought.
We will be back. My wife already says she wants to shoot a waterbuck bull, so I said alright! Next up for me will have to be breaking into the big 5, and then some of the more specialized plains game. Nothing to it but to do it! Lastly, thank you to all on this site for the massive amount of information to help folks with planning. I didn't really join and dive in on this site until after I had booked my trip, but its all just very helpful for the future.
- Dan P
We flew on United, from St. Louis to Newark to Johannesburg, with an overnight stay at Afton Safari Lodge. Then flew Joburg to Port Elizabeth. Afton was great, very cool place with some neat mounts. Ate a heck of a good dinner and slept comfortably. I had Afton do the gun permits, Mr. X met us at the airport and it was a breeze. No problems on the flights until the return, United decided to leave my guns in Newark for an extra day, but they came in the night and I went over and got them the day after we got home. Otherwise, the flights went well. United Economy Plus was actually pretty darn roomy and for the long flight over, I was dreading it and it wasn't bad at all.
I took my Winchester Model 70 Alaskan Laminate 30-06, as well as my Marlin 1895 45-70. Much can be hotly debated about taking a 45-70 to Africa, I wont dwell on that too much. I love that gun, and I really wanted to shoot a few animals with it, namely a warthog. The stars didn't align for me, it only left the truck a few times and didn't shoot anything. My M70 performed excellently shooting 165grain Federal factory ammo loaded with Barnes TSX bullets. The rifle did its job, I missed a few shots I should have made. Chalk it up to buck fever. Didn't lose any animals and all but one dropped on the spot.
Made it to Port Elizabeth where we got picked up by PH Kian Burchell, who did an amazing job all week. We hunted hard and had a blast. Kian is a great PH for such a young guy, but that comes with growing up on the property I imagine. At 23 he's doing an incredible job from driving the rough rocky mountain roads to picking out and guiding us in on animals. We hunted hard, walked a ton, and made a point to find good, mature animals versus shooting the first one that walked out. I hope Kian enjoyed hunting with us as much as we did with him.
The Frontier farm/property/facilities are great. The stone chalets were very nice, comfortable, and clean. The boma and breakfast/ lunch rooms are awesome, with good views and cool taxidermy. We ate like kings, and drank too much good Black Label beer. Impala backstraps, kudu stew, blesbok roast, breads, ice cream, custard, milktart, koeksisters, all amazing. My favorite game meat surprised me. The Bushpig roast was out of this world good, as well as the warthog ribs. I wish we'd had eland as I hear its about the best. One eland was shot, we never ate any of it though. We were taken care of incredibly well on this trip.
Being from southern Illinois, spot and stalk is something that doesn't happen much here. Id had a hell of a good time spotting game, glassing, then making stalks. Stalking was incredibly fun. We had some that were easy, and some that were really tough, and more than a couple that failed. The animals definitely didn't stand there and make it easy. Being on a property close to 80,000 acres (125 square miles) in size was something hard to imagine for me. Our 300 acres here at home is tiny in comparison. There were plenty of other people in camp and we did not really see anyone nearby, never felt pressured by other hunters etc.
Average shots were 200-250 yards, with my baboon being the longest shot at 440 yards. That's the longest shot I'd ever taken, on targets or game. No turrets on my old VX2, I held half a baboon high and drilled him. Some shots were closer, I think my wife's impala was right about 100 yards, and my springbok was about the same. Definitely opportunity for long shots in that area if that's what a guy is interested in. I enjoyed and preferred stalking close.
I did lose zero twice on my M70's scope. I've always loved the laminate and brushed stainless look, and this rifle had stainless leupold dovetail mounts and a stainless Leupold VX2 3-9x40 to match. Love the look, love the scope, don't love the dovetail mounts but didn't change them before the hunt. I wish I had now as I ended up shooting way high about mid hunt. We adjusted back down and it was great for a couple days, then we finished the hunt hitting left. After all the prep shooting I did, that blew my mind. I sent the scope back to Leupold to verify if its good or not, and the mounts are headed for the trash can. Luckily, it only made for a few clean misses and no lost/wounded animals.
I'll try not to be too long winded about each animal. The black wildebeest was a chance encounter as we were working in on some blesbok. I happily changed targets as wildebeest was something I was most excited for. I ended up making a poor hit in his back leg after he moved to the right uphill just as I shot, we spent the day chasing his tail and caught up to him after lunch and got him down. A dandy black, wide spread horns with big bosses and good drop. He'll be getting shoulder mounted as my first African animal. Luckily, the rest of my shots all went much better (aside from the misses due to scope zero issues.)
I was able to shoot both a common Blesbok and a White Blesbok. Both were very nice males. Mature with good horns. Both of the stalks were very fun, both had a lot of eyes on us. We took three impala on this trip. Two cull and one trophy. The cull I shot was mature with horns that hook back in almost touching each other, very much a cull male. My wife's cull was mature with just a bit of a hook back in, but they called it a cull and she obliged with a one shot bang flop. She's a great shot and I never had a doubt. She was nervous as heck! I don't know why, she's a big buck's worst nightmare at home. The trophy impala is very nice with heavy horns. Not a real wide spread but he makes up for it in mass I think. I was able to shoot a very nice common Duiker on the last hunting morning. Very fun given how small they are and their nocturnal tendencies. We saw many baboon, with two chance encounters to shoot. Incredible teeth on the solo male I was able to shoot.
We spent some time searching for a quality Gemsbok, and I think we were rewarded quite well. We drove to a far corner of the ranch, spotted one skylined up on the mountain ridgetop, so off we went. We hiked up the mountain, and of course he was gone. But the PH looked over a small knob and there were two more. One was a male with a broomed tip that I never even really got a good look at, and one was an old female with very nice horns. The horns both ended up measuring 39.5", and one was razor sharp pointy. This was one of the coolest stalks of the trip, made even more special by a nice bit of sunset while taking pics.
As many people say, you're hunting Kudu from day one, and we did. We glassed many smaller young kudu bulls, and we were up to six borderline shooter bulls before we spotted our target. Just before dark, we were up on a mountaintop glasses a thick area below that held a couple cows and two bulls. PH Kian gave the green light on one, and down we went. I wish I knew how far and the elevation drop, but man that was a damn big mountain to go down. We made it to the bottom, 220ish from the kudu who was nosing hard on a cow, and dropped him. I had sweat rolling off me, I could feel it dripping down my arms while I was on the sticks! Incredible stalk that happened in the blink of an eye. We then had to wait about an hour and a half in the dark as Kian had to RUN back up the mountain and fetch the cruiser. As we saw the truck lights moving, my wife said, "he made it up there in 20 minutes!" Then we proceeded to do some hardcore off-roading to get out of that thick spot.
We spent morning looking for springbok and warthog, and made out with a heck of a ram with one antler worn down from use. I got to witness the springbok flare and get a whiff of that cotton candy smell, that was very neat! Then we set out after a nice big old warthog with some good teeth on him. We ended up spotting this hog from about 800 yards, and while he worked towards us we worked towards him. Ended up taking 3 30-06's to get him to quit. A beast of a hog, Kian thought 120-130 pounds with some really nice ivory on him. I was stoked as warthog was high on my excitement list.
All in all, I had a damn good time. As many folks say, "you think you'll be back?" I knew I would be before I ever even made it there, and only confirmed it. I will be back as much as my life and bank account lets me. My wife and I both had amazing experiences. The land and rural country was beautiful and unforgiving all at once with a lot of mountains and hills to climb, along with plenty of acacia to tear my legs up. Frontier was awesome, all the staff and other PH's were great, and Barry and Lizelle are great folks. We got to eat supper one night up at their home in their entertainment room which was an amazing area filled with really neat mounts and paintings. We took some great trophies. Most of my animals were old, with either worn horns or secondary growth on them. We did great in that regard I thought.
We will be back. My wife already says she wants to shoot a waterbuck bull, so I said alright! Next up for me will have to be breaking into the big 5, and then some of the more specialized plains game. Nothing to it but to do it! Lastly, thank you to all on this site for the massive amount of information to help folks with planning. I didn't really join and dive in on this site until after I had booked my trip, but its all just very helpful for the future.
- Dan P
Mine will return a third time someday.
