SOUTH AFRICA: KMG Hunting Safaris Hunt Report 2015

[adgunner]

Well, this is the third time we have hunted with Marius at KMG and he once again proved why we keep coming back! We arrived in the Eastern Cape and settled in to the lodge after the customary two day trip from Canada.

There was a highlight though; we got bumped up to business class between Frankfurt and JoBurg, now that is the way to travel. After a bit of catching up with everyone around the lodge and sighting in the rifles (.300 Win Mag for the Barbary Sheep, .416 Rigby iron sights for the giraffe, and the .308 for everything else), we headed out on our first stalk for baboons, a couple of close but no cigars and the baboons made their getaway. Tough animal to stalk but also very high on my list. We were also treated to some immature Waterbuck bulls sparring from our ridge top vantage point. Very cool to watch.

 

[PHOENIX PHIL]

Nice start.......

 

[Royal27]

What Phil said.

 

[adgunner]

The next morning started off with a cunning plan for baboons, where we used the rising sun as backdrop cover in order to get close enough for a shot. I don’t know who was more ready to go us or Flex and Rigby!

We did see them but their sharp eyesight made it impossible to close the gap for a shot. However, as we continued to try and push ever closer we were treated to the sounds of lions roaring, Marius immediately quipped how difficult that had been to arrange for the morning hunt and we all had a good laugh. Nothing like the sound of lions roaring to put you in the proper frame of mind for hunting, also good to know that they were a long ways off as we continued to hunt.

We spotted a pair of nice looking warthogs and as I wanted a skull for the trophy room the chase was on! After what I will admit was an exhausting trip down the side of the hill and across a very dense bush flat, we popped out to find the warthogs below us.

We close the final distance silently and the sticks were slid into place and a quick shot from the .308 put the Warthog in the salt and our first animal of the year was off to the skinning shed.

Now remember that very dense bush flat we crossed. Someone lost an IPhone during that stalk and shall remain nameless, but I am here to tell you that with the aid of a good tracker it is possible to find a needle in a haystack!

 

[gizmo]

Excellent, keep it coming. I love hearing lions. That was my favorite part of my trip.

 

[Pheroze]

Sounds like a great start to the adventure! And a great looking warthog.

 

[Wheels]

Congrats.

Looking forward to the rest of your report.

 

[Redruff]

Great start to your report. Keep it coming!

R.

 

[Warbird782]

Excellent, keep it coming. I love hearing lions. That was my favorite part of my trip.

That was a highlight to my hunt as well.

 

[adgunner]

We then decided to take the .300 Win Mag out and practice some downhill shooting, as tomorrow we would be off for Barbary Sheep. I had had some difficulty last year with some steep angle shots and hailing from some pretty flat ground we took the opportunity for some practice and confidence building as sheep hunting usually means steep hills and tomorrow would not disappoint in the steep hill department.

The alarm went off very early this morning and we began our drive to hunt Barbary Sheep, arriving just after daybreak. We collected our local guide and headed out, slowly pushing the Toyota up the steep terrain (which looked a lot like parts of Afghanistan!) and stopped to glass a valley as we proceeded up the mountain.

To our surprise coming down the opposite side of the canyon were a half dozen bushpigs headed for the cover in the valley. We instantly moved to intercept them before they would reach the cover at the bottom, but were unable to catch up to them and continued upwards in our search for sheep. We stopped to glass periodically and I spotted my first sheep, quickly realizing how well these animals blended in with their surrounding environment. We climbed ever upwards and spotted some rams atop a ridge and the climbed continued on foot.

 

[adgunner]

We came upon a dead East Cape Mountain Zebra, which showed no readily visible cause of death. As this was the first one I had seen, I marvelled at how beautiful these Zebras were, before continuing to follow the bachelor herd of rams upwards. We closed the uphill distance and crouched behind a small outcropping of rocks and scanned the herd looking for a good ram.

On hands and knees we pushed closer and the herd shifted over the crest. We reached the top and crept to the opposite edge of the mountain top hoping to find them below. They were there but once again anticipated our approach and started to make their way down the ravine heading for the opposite side. We cautiously slipped round the hill to a new vantage point and immediately spotted them below once more. The short sticks came out and I prepared for the shot while Marius pointed out the ram we were after in the herd. I found him and quickly fired, with the ram running at the shot and quickly going down.

As anyone who has hunted sheep already knows, the next couple of hours were spent getting him down off the mountain!

We did go after the bushpigs once more on the way to the bottom, utilising an impromptu drive, but to no avail.

 

[Pheroze]

What beautiful terrain! Must have been a hard hunt. Nice job!

 

[gillettehunter]

Nice pig. Good looking Auodad. Congrats. Bruce

 

[Pheroze]

I had no idea sheep hunting was a thing there! I must say, reading your post is a very pleasant distraction from today! Looking forward to the rest of the report, particularly your open sighted 416 (did I recall that correctly?)

 

[MPN]

Sounds/looks like great fun! I have yet to pull the trigger on an Africa safari, so am still living vicariously through reports such as this. Look forward to the coming posts.

 

[buchnerl]

Congratulations on a great hunt @adgunner looking forward to the rest of the report and pictures!

 

[adgunner]

Thanks guys!

Pheroze, you do recall correctly, tonight if I get the chance I shall write that up.

 

[adgunner]

Early start this morning as finally the day for the giraffe hunt had arrived. Immediately upon arrival, we could see giraffes and cape buffalos in the distance but we were after a specific bull and therefore we took to the high ground to see if we could spot him.

We spotted the bull giraffe in an open meadow valley and once again moved to the high ground in order to develop a stalking plan.

We stalked downhill towards the valley with the wind in our favour, however the big bull was flanked by both cows and calves ( not to mention some eland) and our first stalk was unsuccessful and the giraffes made good their escape.

Marius and I followed the spoor quickly until we once again came upon the small herd of giraffes including the big bull. With a somewhat favourable wind, we started to creep forward bit by bit until we were approximately 50 or 60 yards from the big bull.

I had loaded the CZ 550 ( .416 Rigby) with a soft point followed by 2 solids. Marius flicked the sticks open and I settled the iron sights of the rifle on the bull’s shoulder and squeezed the trigger.

I heard the shot hit and the giraffe began to run and I quickly followed with two solids as follow up shots even though they were not needed as the big bull had been fatally hit in the lungs. We saw him go down and let me tell you that is quite a sight to see. Now the monumental task of skinning and butchering began. We also found the Rhino 400 grain bullet and weighed it 97.7% retention.

It took quite some time just to get the bull properly set up for photos.

We loaded the head and hide, while the others continued with the butchering task and headed back to the lodge. Upon leaving we encountered two rhinos, a cow and a calf, another unexpected blessing from the African bush.

A quick hand off the hide and head to Kevin from Hunters and Collectors Taxidermy (who had driven out to meet us) at the entrance to the lodge ended the spectacular giraffe hunt.

 

[Redruff]

Beautiful giraffe! How's he going to be mounted? Keep it coming.

R.

 

[adgunner]

Redruff, he will be a floor mounted pedestal ... seen a few examples here on AH and really liked it!