SOUTH AFRICA: Hunt With 3S Safaris

[redassnavajo]

Had a great time on the Eastern Cape ! Can't wait to go back . High school buddy and I went on a 7 day hunt, trip started with a hiccup as we took the Delta 200 flight which was great but the fact that Delta allows 2 checked bags and they charged me $200 for 3rd bag which never made it to JNB. Which said bag had clothes, ammo, and broadheads. MMMMM not a happy camper to say the least as I was informed my bag would arrive on next days flight catch was we departed at 10:30 for East London so I was not there to collect bag and declare ammo. RED FLAG so I was told bag was held up do to having ammo in it as I told the lady at baggage claim it had ammo she said no problem BS. They kicked around sending my bag back to ATL but I told them key was in lock take ammo I needed my clothes. All in all I was without ammo for 4 days of my 7 day hunt hindsight when I arrived at ELS should have had PH take me to store for ammo but I thought Delta would be good on their word which I have learned in the Aviation Industry they screw every possible chance.
But as I was with a friend I had no problem being an observer as I waited could have used one of their rifles but I opted not to my choice. My friend had booked a 7 animal package and he did well taking Kudu, Blue Wildebeest, Blesbuck, Duiker, Warthog , Bushbuck, Impala, Baboon.
I chose to hunt of pricelist I was after a Huge Baboon, Nyala, Mtn Rhebuck, Warthog. I wanted to snag a few animals with the bow this trip which was a NO GO due to above circumstances ended up borrowing some ammo from PH's girlfriend for last 3 days.
Lesson #1 that I learned is to pack all hunting clothes in carry on and wear hunting footwear. Nike suck for busting through the cacti I had thorns go all way through bottoms of soles into my foot.... Not pleasant.
First day out we went sighted in rifle all good there and off we went in search of the Grey Ghost. We pulled into gate and drove about 100 yds and got out to glass a valley and it didn't take long we saw a few young bulls to start as they ere starting the rut and we chasing the cows. We continued on and saw a group of 4 bulls that were shooters , my friend was in awe as he never really knew how big the Kudu actually were . So I would say within the first hour the sticks went up and we had a nice narrow horned bull in the sights and just as he was squeezing the trigger he moved behind some brush so we maneuver around a little draw to get a better angle and they were still not sure if we were the enemy yet we spot the bulls again as Ph was instructing which bull to take which was a wider bull than previous sticks go up and from where I was I could only see the wide horned bull and when the gun went off I thought to myself how do you miss that at 80 yds and immediately Ph says you shot the wrong one reload hes hit so we scramble to get to the top of ridge where he was at the shot and he immediately laid down cause when we topped the hill he jumped up at about 15 feet away and Joel just had this dumbfounded look as to what do I do now this thing is huge which seemed like an hour but was only couple of seconds so we hurry around a clump of trees and on the sticks he goes and boom well lets just say hes not going to be in the sniper category. Took 4 shots but we got him when all the commotion was over PH was why did you shoot this one he said he wanted that one instead which was fine because this was the one we set up on first but the second bull was a bit bigger. And of course it had to go to the very bottom of a ravine and die and we had to pack it straight up a cliff 100 yds as that was as close as we could get to it with tractor.

 

[rinehart0050]

Sorry to hear about your traveling/luggage issues. Nice Kudu for your buddy to start off with. Looking forward to the rest of the report.

 

[cpr0312]

Thanks for sharing, look forward to more!

 

[BRICKBURN]

Congrats on your Kudu.
Thanks for sharing the lessons on luggage.

 

[redassnavajo]

Ok rewind we were hunting on property of 6600 acres with access to over 600,000 acres of hunting concessions in close proximity. Our host were top notch I met our PH Hennie Van Jaarsveld couple years ago when I hunted at Kubusi, he is the hardest working/hunting machine I ever met . He was head PH for Kubusi for several years and decided he had enough and was going to do his own thing so we kept in touch and when I was ready to come back we booked it .
Best part about it we had HOT water whoo hooo , hunted winter last time I'm hear to tell you a clod shower at 5:30 am when its 34 degrees in your chalet it allows for tremendous shrinkage!!
They done a great job and the food was top notch I would have to say the Bushpig hamburgers were the bomb.
We hunted for the first 4 days with PH Warren Pote super nice chap and a go getter he likes to walk Woof does he.
We went to a property found some Impala and we tried to stalk a few and after getting busted several times it was time to move places. We were met at camp picked up another tracker and off we went we had a couple stall out where they just vanished amazing how they do that but it happens . We sat a watched a couple of real nice Nyala bulls feeding in an opening and of course I had no weapon.lol Trust me I almost opted to borrow my friends cause I wanted a full mount with the long belly hair and chaps he was beautiful but I had to restrain.
We were getting daily updates from airlines as to status on my stuff , Hennie had a client in camp that had stayed for 30 days hunting so I tagged along with Warren until Hennie was freed up and then we split to 1x1 . We also found a jackpot on Bush buck this place was loaded with them we tried to get on one late one evening and he was Houdini also .
We called it a wrap and headed back to camp for some beers and dinner and make a plan for the next day .
Up at before daylight headed to another place with promising news about some nice Impala so we were off again and it wasn't long we were tracking some Impala and ran into a nice Blesbuck Joel put the smackdown on him and he was in the salt.
Dropped the tracker off at the skinning shack and out we went to get back on those Impala it took a few tries with no luck it was getting late we must have walked 10 miles that day but I spotted a Duiker off to our left and I pointed him out to Warren and he was watching some that I hadn't seen on the right , Joel at first wasn't really interested in a Duiker and when he saw that one I told him he was a nice one but if you don't want him can I borrow your rifle, he pauses for a moment and Warren reassured him he was nice so he looked him over and decided it was a go , we bobbed and weaved to about 40 yds and with 300Wm they don't stand a chance. Had really nice day saw a ton of animals but the swirling wind was going to make us work hard for everything.
We made it back in to sit by the boma for some beverages and conversation waiting on dinner and did I say the food was great. I bet I gained 15 pounds.
Day 3
Up again before daylight had a good hot breakfast as we were going after Baboon I had 1 broadhead on my bow so we both sat in a blind as they have been baiting on the property so we sat saw some white Blesbuck and Zebras coming in to see the Lucerne that was putout we could hear the baboons bark but no takers we sat till around 10:30 and decided to go elsewhere as there was a alfalfa field that also had some huge baboons
But them buggers are smart as hell. We went out looking for nothing in particular we went back to the same property with the Nyala and we ran into a couple herds of Impala and Joel got on the sticks and Impala down.
He wasn't as nice as we wanted but he was on the wrong one but still a nice ram. It was getting late so we decided to head back to camp.
Day 4
Haleluha I have ammo and with only 3 days of hunting the bow is on the back burner.
We split up today Joel was with Warren and I was with Hennie, got confirmation that my bag will be at camp when we got in so I would have my shoes and some more clothes.
We went in search of Nyala, warthog we drove around and we were looking for a particular Nyala Hennie had spotted with another client recently but he was being shy, warthog on the other hand were scarce this trip with drought and all they said they lost a few but we just weren't seeing many boars worth looking at I bet I saw 200 females on this place we drove and drove and drove saw several nice bulls but not the one we were looking for and we decided to walk a bit and we saw a nice bull he had really heavy bases with the perfect hair I was looking for , for my full mount I got on sticks and ranged him at 306 Yds but I had my scope turned down to 4 and I thought it was a little far the 1/2 second it took me to process and I was on 4 power I lowered rifle to adjust and he vanished, we waited a couple of minutes as to not pressure him we eased through the rolling terrain and when we got to where he was standing we spooked a group of 4 bulls that started straight up a hill and they stopped to give me a shot at 216 yds he dropped at the shot then it was a mad rush to get up the hill and this 46 year old fat kid don't move like he used to. Got pictures done and we called down to the farmer to send help up they came with a tractor and they drove straight up the hill within 20 yds of the spot driving over trees boulders I say they are crazy cause no way in hell I would have done it. We have lunch and we went and sat in the brush for a stakeout as they put some sweets out for the warthog but they weren't having it we drew a big zero so we decided to go in .
Joel had sat a the lands (alfalfa field) for the baboon and they came out and he missed at 250 yds he got a nice Blue on his day .
Day 5
I went to the lands at daylight and they were barking but never came out they knew something was up we sat until lunch time and nothing . We leave and 20 min later they are there as we drove by going to another property but when they see the bakkie at mach 6 they are gone they know when you let off the pedal and they bolt. Warthogs gave us the slip again we glassed and glassed saw tons of animals just nothing I wanted.
So we head back and make a plan for the next day we would be going about 40 minutes away to a farm with Mtn Rhebuck that was on my list and he had some nice warthogs as well. This particular farm had Greater Kudu as well he had some nice ones but I had to use extreme will power not to shoot one ( next trip) we drove around nd saw some warthogs we drove past about 500 yds they acted like they didn't even care we eased back down the road on foot and vapor trail that boar had nice tusks too we eased around the clearing and stalked to within 40 yrds of a young male and a female with babies so back to the bakkie we go . We saw tons of bushbuck on this property as well as some really nice Cape Buffalo we spotted some Mtn Rhebuck in a draw so we get out and put a stalk on get to about 60 yds an I'm on the sticks and the big one has his ass to me and we , I could have shot but I didn't want to ruin the hide so I waited wind swirled and they were never seen again.
Off to a look out that was over the fish river which was very nice and you could see for miles and it overlooked
an open field, we watched Nyala, Bushbuck, Bontebuck, Duikers run around a nd feed and sun from our purch. We spotted a nice busbuck feeding out in the open and I cut lunch short I had to give him a try soe we race around the road about 3 miles to get back on the other side of river and we walked about 1/2 mile so we didn't spook them as there were 100 set of eyes in the field with little cover and we eased around the lower end and he had vanished also. So we drove to the skinning shed and we spot a Mtn Rhebuck asleeping in the sun in the wide open not huge but a good mature old ram. I get on sticks and hes in the salt we immediately saw a Bushbuck ram also sleeping the wind was blowing hard enough he never heard the shot I just made so we sneak to a tree line and boom I have 2 animals down less than 150 yds from each other.
Starting to come together we spot a nice boar in the open and of course we get busted by the Zebra.

 

[redassnavajo]

 

[redassnavajo]

After a few minutes to regroup we grabbed a soda and eased up on a clearing and there were 2 boars feeding so we make a stalk we get to clearing and they were gone WTF wind was good and I catch movement out of corner of my eye they came back .. bad move 118 yds boom in the salt. Those dudes are tough that thing probably weigh 200 pounds bigger than I thought they were. And I cant even find the damn picture of it.
the tented camp and lodge were nicely situated in a bowl with surrounding hills .
Last day I went out and sat at the lands again never to see them again, went out looking for something that would catch my eye and I saw lots of stuff just not catching my eye was still steaming pissed that I lost 4 days of hunting.
But if that happen again I will stop on way in don't give a damn what they promise.
While we were there we toured the onsite taxidermist Lauriston Taxidermy and he does really nice work, cant wait to get my stuff back.

 

[redassnavajo]

Ok we are on our way back from the long flight arrive in ATL go through customs without a hitch....Then we get to the TSA desk (PRICKS) I have a bow case and a rifle case explain whats in each he asked me to unlock the gun case does his swab test I ask about bow case he said he did not have to check it leave it locked . So we head on to catch the next flight . We arrive in Dallas and I go to oversize baggage and there is our cases and immediately I see locks are missing again I say WTF ex

cept very loudly I am beyond pissed at this point cause when they cut locks off they twisted and ruined my brand new bow case and I proceed to MF the Delta rep and he said TSA did that we do not cut locks off so not only did they cut it they put the locks inside to beat the living *&^it out of everything inside . So I went to TSA desk MF that guy a while and I had to file a claim with them waist of time got 0 reimbursement for damaged luggage and only got $300 from Delta for purchase of ammo and refund of $200 bag fee they declined to pay for 4 days of day fees. Really pisses you off to plan and pay for these expensive trips and they seem like they could care less if they screwed up.
But I still had a good time but learned a little.

 

[Nyati]

Congrats for the hunt, sorry for the hassle on the journey !

 

[cpr0312]

Some more nice trophies, congrats!

 

[CAustin]

Sorry to hear about the travel issues but looks like some really nice trophies!

 

[redassnavajo]

Thanks guys.

 

[LivingTheDream]

You got some great trophies, those bushbuck are awesome. Sucks about the airline and TSA, you're right though they could care less.

 

[enysse]

Nice animals, love the bushbucks!

 

[redassnavajo]

Sweet got email last night from taxidermist invoice which means 1 thing...... Yep they are almost done and ready to ship.

 

[CAustin]

Sweet got email last night from taxidermist invoice which means 1 thing...... Yep they are almost done and ready to ship.

Happy day!

 

[Art Lambart II]

Great trophies, I feel your luggage pain we flew to SA on August 8th the day of the Delta computer crash only one of our six checked bags made it to Joburg.