SOUTH AFRICA: My First Trip To South Africa 22 Amazing Days In The Bush

[BRICKBURN]

What a set of Bosses on that Wildebeest.
Nice trophy. Now I know what to look for, not just length. Thanks for the lesson.

Congrats.

 

[sierraone]

Those dogs keep me filled with invitations and open doors for hunts around the world. My dogs can now be found on 5 different continents. Without them I'd just be another nobody trying to grind out a living.

Whether by luck or hard work, it appears to me that you have done well my friend!

 

[WildRose]

What a great hunt report @WildRose !! Thank You

Do you have a website for your dogs?

I'm WildRose German Shorthairs.

www.wildrosegermanshorthairs.com or www.texasquail.com

 

[WildRose]

Whether by luck or hard work, it appears to me that you have done well my friend!

A combination of my unbelievably good luck and the very hard work of my Friend Fracois Vd Walt in Witbank with the help of his friend Derick Opperman.

Francois connections seem to be limitless and he planned and organized the whole thing.

 

[Wheels]

............. these two hunts still leave me speechless and in a state of awe. A luckier man has never lived.

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Love your attitude.

These are sentiments that all of us that have been blessed to be able to hunt Africa probably feel.

Congratulations on the great trophies.

 

[enysse]

Beautiful animals and great stories.

 

[WildRose]

Thanks guys. There's more to come when I can gather my thoughts and get time to do so.

 

[gillettehunter]

Great East Cape Kudu. Very nice to have lots to look over. Congrats on your bull and the shooting. Its always fun to show the PH's that yes, we really can shoot! Bruce

 

[WildRose]

GH Thanks.

I almost hate to admit it but I did flat blow 2 shots during this trip. Not bad considering how many shots I took but indeed I proved that I'm not infallible.

 

[WildRose]

I've been home nearly a month so I'm finally at a point where the blur that was my trip is beginning to clear up so I thought I'd share some of my hunts.

The trip was the product of an invitation from Francois VD Walt who has imported several dogs from me over the last 7 years. The dogs have done exceptionally well for him and in total there are about 87 out of my breeding in the RSA now. For four straight years we tried to get it together but I've had 7 orthopedic surgeries in the last 5 years, the last being a badly broken arm last year so each time we've tried to plan it, we've had to postpone another year.

This year being relatively healthy I just felt like I could no longer put him off without offending him so we committed to the trip and he did absolutely all the planning and organizing for me.

He lives in Witbank and is one of the prinicpals in Classic Arms there so he has connections literally all over sother Africa and he's also a licensed PH who has worked in the past for some of the most respected outfitters in Africa.

My first full day there we drove north to the Waterberg Mountains a strikingly beautiful area. Game was abundant all along our route so the drive was just a pleasure. We hunted a smaller property there near Naboom. The accommodations were nothing fancy but very comfortable. Two of us stayed in a large fiberglass igloo while Francois and his wife stayed next door in a nice little stone cabin. We had running water, hot water and a shower along with an indoor/outdoor kitchen and lovely stone fire pit for our brie (barbecue).

It was a beautiful and very relaxing place to "camp".

We hunted several properties there including some predator hunting the first evening for two days. The landowner was having a great deal of trouble with Jackels and a Brown Hyena who were being very hard on the Impala and others and I was glad to help.

He'd actually hired a professional to come in and call but was having zero luck. In three hours we were able take three Jackals. Unfortunately the Hyena eluded us. We even set up on an impala carcass that he'd killed but he just wouldn't come back.

We moved an hour or so the next day to a very large property, something over 40,000 Hectares near Ellisras. Again the scenery was just breathtaking.

We spent two days stalking Kudu, Blue Wildebeest and Eland. We stalked to within good shooting range of a half dozen Kudu but just didn't see one that quite fit what I was looking for. We had arranged to try and take an old barren Eland cow but due to the cover even though we had successful stalks we never could be 100% sure that she was the one I had a shot on so we did not take her.

Both days we also had multiple successful stalks on Blue Wildebeest but again in the heavy cover I could not be sure I had "the right one" in my sights and a clear shot so I held off.

Around noon on the last day we were to be there we came across a small herd of warthogs as we were walking to the truck. None of the boars were particularly outstanding but there was one sow in there I thought would look very good on my wall.

It was crowded at the water hole with some young Sable, Impla, and Kudu close by so getting into a shooting position on the sow was rather difficult. Francois and Derick held back and I just very slowly crept a couple of hundred yards at literally a snails pace trying to keep the sparse cover between me and them so they'd not notice my movements.

Of course there's a problem in using the cover in such a way because it also makes it quite challenging to get a clear shot. The best I could do was to get to a position that was fairly clear with just a few small scrub thorn trees between us.

I got set up on my sticks and then began a grueling wait hoping she'd turn sideways but she never would. Finally they started moving off so I took a shot from straight behind with the 300 wm. She was hit very solidly and went down about thirty or forty yards away.

I was thrilled of course but as we approached it was clear she'd gotten up and run off going through the fence into the next camp/pasture.

This was a bit disconcerting because we knew there were five to seven lions in that several thousand acres along with an unknown number of leopards.

I'm nervous enough about going after a wounded hog with tusks like she has and the risk associated with the cats definitely raised the blood pressure a bit.

Fortunately we quickly found her trail, she was obviously bleeding good and dragging a leg so we knew she was hit good and it was just a matter of us getting to her before the cats did.

After just a hundred yards or so we walk up on her and she gets up in a really foul mood. Derick put one in her with the .270 CZ he's carrying but that just seemed to infuriate her. Not wanting this to get uglier I just charged in until I had a clear shot and put a finisher in her chest as she'd decided not to run any further and turned back to fight.

It turned out that I'd apparently hit one of the small scrub trees and the bullet had come apart making just a huge gaping wound on her hind end right where I was aiming but it wasn't very deep. Strangest bullet performance I've ever seen!

To be continued.... .

Since I failed to add a picture of "Miss Piggy" and can't edit I'll just do it this way.

 

[WildRose]

Did I mention that the day is still young? Before we even get him loaded Dawi tells us one of his boys has spotted a group of five very nice old sable bulls and they are just a few miles away. He's already called another truck to come and pick up this guy and wants to get us to the sable before they move too far. They are in a camp/pasture of about 3000 acres with very good cover and some difficult terrain so they can disappear rather quickly.

As we make the drive I'm told these are three old "retired" bulls that are no longer breeders. He says there's one particular bull in there that he thinks he wants me to take. He says the bull has extremely heavy mass to his horns but he's so old they've been groomed off losing several inches so he's probably no better than 38". Also he tells me to look closely as they think he's lost his left eye in a fight a few months back.

Well we soon spot them only a half mile or so from where they'd been seen. Dawie's sister is the Sable Expert in the family and so she has to give us the go ahead on which bull to take and she has to study them very closely to be sure she puts me on the right one. This proved to be quite a chore. These guys did not like to stand still and any time they even suspected we were around they just drifted off to disappear into the heavy cover. We spent four hours alternately stalking afoot and by truck trying to get "the shot" lined up on "the bull".

Trust me, after four hours of losing and finding them a half dozen times I thought we were quickly running out of chances. and my frustration was probably beginning to show.

Finally we come around a corner and there they are standing in a tight wad almost like a defensive position in a half circle, each of them staring us down.

Well the girl says, "That's your bull" and I ask which one? She says right in the middle of the pack! Great I think, I've got no clear shot unless we move the truck and if we move the truck the best I'm going to get is a keyhole shot trying to take him out with no margin of error at all. Of course the way things have been going the more likely outcome is that if we move the truck even an inch they'll blow out of there not to be seen again. They are obviously tired of being harassed.

I formulate a quick plan tell Dawi to put it in goat gear and let it just idle very slowly until I say "stop" and to expect a shot the second I say it.

Sure enough, two grueling feet put me in position to take a straight on chest shot and I've got all of a food or less of clearance on both sides or I hit one of the other bulls with a pass through. Well I sure can't afford two and say to myself if the gives me a perfect frontal shot I'll take it because there's almost no chance of a pass through shooting the .270gr Interlock.

In a grand stroke of luck he shifts his rear slightly to the left giving me exactly the shot I want.

At the crack of the rifle I'm waiting what seems like an eternity looking for my bullet impact. It is perfect right at the top of the sternum flipping him over stone dead. He must have been just starting to rear up a bit as the shot entered because it took the top of the heart and buried up in the spine just stone dead.

The rest of the boys split out of there like lightening, obviously in good health with no signs of a second hit.

The adrenaline hits me hard and I'm shaking like a virgin bride on her wedding night. I can't believe what I've just done. Two animals more than any other drove me to make this trip and in the span of just a half day of hunting I not only have two of them, I have two that are once in a lifetime quality trophy animals.

What immediately struck me when we got to him is just how big of an animal it really is, then I notice the scars from the years of fighting and the slash that cost him his left eye. This isn't just a nice trophy, he's an old warrior who's victories must have been many and his genes have been well passed on to new generations.

These are the types of animals I wanted to take, those who are past their best days and have done their part for bettering the species with their genetic donations so future generations can enjoy the same experience I had shooting their grampa!

I'm still utterly in awe of how a guy like me finds himself here taking animals people, including myself, have dreamed for years of taking.

He measures 41" and 42" with 10.5 and 11" bases and carries that heavy mass for about 2/3 of the length.


I am truly a very fortunate and blessed man and every time I look at these animals on the wall I can sit back and relive those days, those hunts, the stalks, and the shots.

Amazing isn't even a strong enough word for how I feel.


I had to of course get Francois into some of these since none of it would have been possible without his tireless efforts in putting it all together.

I am indeed a truly blessed man with a wealth of friends and stories of our time together to fill a lifetime.

Adding pictures.

 

[enysse]

That sable is just a stunning trophy