UGANDA: The Pearl Of Africa With JKO HUNTING SAFARIS

[Cam300]

Awesome report so far! Can’t wait to read the rest.

 

[Hunt anything]

How hard was it to get your yellow fever vaccination?

I’ve always gotten mine at our county health department as a walk in. Try them.

 

[BRICKBURN]

Always interesting to see any tent accommodation placed under it's own "hay shed" for protection.

 

[PHOENIX PHIL]

When to hunt Uganda

Prior to my hunt I had this question come up a couple of times. We picked October because frankly that is what was available to Jacques on his schedule and also before getting into the holidays here in the USA.

It was brought up to me as a surprise I was going at that time as other outfits apparently try to hunt mostly in Jan - Feb timeframe. Well I can see why now. If you go to the link below, you'll see those are certainly the driest times of they year in Uganda.

Uganda Weather & Climate (+ Climate Chart)

Climate chart & month by month description of the weather and climate in Uganda. Including the pros and cons of the dry and wet seasons!

www.safaribookings.com

Fact is while October is a bit wetter than Jan/Feb, it's not that much more. If it were me and I was basing my decision on when to hunt in Uganda, it would be more to avoid March thru May.

The fact for us were we got rained on everyday but one. The rain didn't last too long however and really never impeded our hunt. Quite frankly, I looked forward to an afternoon rain 2-3 hours before the evening hunt. The cloud cover along with the rain would cool the place off, much to the pleasure of both man and beast.

 

[PHOENIX PHIL]

Just a little more background and then I'll get into the hunting. Jacques has been working with a booking agent from France for many years now. The gentleman's name is Matthieu Mairesse.

Matthieu was introduced to the concession holder and did a few hunts here first a few years ago. Those were what you may call test hunts to see just how good the hunting would be and also the overall experience. Those hunts went well and it was time to expand the marketing of the area to a wider audience. The idea here is that the concession holder, Vickram is his name, does a great job of running and maintaining a hunting camp and is a fine PH too. What he doesn't want to be bothered with is the marketing side. That he is leaving up to Jacques and Matthieu.

So now it's time to expand the marketing to a broader audience, but then Covid hit.......and that plan went on hold until this year.

So this would be the first year for Jacques to bring clients to Uganda. And I'm a little proud to say that @AZ KJ and I were the first two clients he would PH for in Uganda. There will be a few more before the year ends.

Below is a link to a YouTube video of the area and I think does better justice to showing how beautiful it is there than my photos.

 

[PHOENIX PHIL]

Grant Zebra

This would be the first animal I would take on this hunt. I'm using the word hunt here in as loosely a way as I possibly can.

The wildlife here as mentioned has not been pressured. Furthermore while this is wild Africa, that does not mean uninhabited Africa. There are people here in small villages and out in the bush ranging their cattle. There are vehicles on the roads whether they be the prolific 125cc motorcycles or trucks making deliveries to the villages and/or the lodges within Lake Mburo National Park.

So the wildlife has become quite habituated to the presence of humans, but none more so than the Grant Zebra. This species of zebra are everywhere it seems. I've never seen so many zebra on my past hunts. And they have virtually no fear of humans, so you more shoot a zebra here versus hunt them. I say this in full disclosure as I want no one to be surprised at this.

The fact is I had no intention of taking one, I still have a zebra with @gizmo from my 2019 RSA hunt. So why do I need another? I don't.....but then you see them in person and the beauty of their coat. I would put it right alongside a Hartmann's zebra for beauty.

So knowing my propensity for having the jitters and excessive adrenaline at the start of a safari, I told Jacques I'd like to take one, figuring this would be an easy shot and get those nerves settled. Quite literally just outside of camp at the end of our first afternoon and not far from the village near there, there were a bunch of zebra standing. This one particular stallion had a broken left ear which drove us to name him Floppy, and he would be our target.

Well as anyone who has read any of my previous hunt reports may recall, my shooting on the first animal of a safari always seems to be a bit off. The pattern continues I'm sad to say.

We lined up a shot at about 100 yards and using my .375HH with 300gr North Fork bonded cores I took my first shot. It was too far back and the zebra ran off a bit, a second shot into the vitals and the stallion ran a bit more, but stopped and was soon on the ground dead.

Well this caused quite a stir amongst the locals who came in droves to see what the excitement was about. Got a pic with some of the local kids, some of whom were excited about this and others who weren't too sure about the situation.

Note the relatively small size of the zebra, the Grant Zebra are the smallest version.

Note the broken left ear.

 

[buck wild]

I’m for the rest

 

[PARA45]

Sh*t, another break? We are anxiously waiting; you know we are a patient group.

 

[PHOENIX PHIL]

East African Impala #1

So we're headed out to an area to look for the East African Impala and Nile Bushbuck. An area we'd seen plenty of both already, but no shooters yet. We take a bend to the right to turn off the main dirt two track to head I believe west towards the park boundary.

Just maybe 50 yards into this path and barely away from the road, Jacques calls for the truck to stop. There to the left of the road, maybe 250 yards or so from the two track was a nice impala ram feeding and with no concern for the truck.

I find impala to be extremely difficult to judge. I can spot a good one well enough, but not an exceptional one, but that's why we have PH's right? Jacques gives a thorough evaluation and says it was one worth taking. As I recall we just got off the truck right there.

Now this will be a familiar sounding story for the remaining animals I took on this hunt.

The landscape here is dotted heavily with termite mounds. Not those somewhat narrow and maybe 3 foot high mounds, but much bigger. Like about 6 feet high and about the same in diameter at the bottoms. It makes the landscape look a bit like a teenager with a serious case of acne. Big giant pimples all over the place. These of course make for great blinds to put between you and your quarry to screen your approach.

And this is exactly what we did. We picked one particular mound out that would be about 100 yards from the ram and used it to blind him from our approach. And he happily obliged to continue feeding slowly as we did so.

We get to the mound using the soft wet grass to also approach quietly. Jacques slowly steps to the right of the mound to spot the impala. I've hunted enough now with Jacques that I know by his body language that the sticks going up is imminent, and sure enough he puts them up.

Get on the sticks slowly and get the ram in the scope. He is still feeding and has not even glanced our way, standing broadside, his head to the left. I take the time to up the power on my scope and center the cross hairs on his shoulder and fire.

The ram's front end drops, but he finds something that allows him to take one or two bounds from right to left. The termite mound is now screening us and as I reload we move to the left side of the mound. We can see he is down and done.

The bullet squared him up right in the middle of his left shoulder and passed through the right shoulder. The bullet hit his heart and nearly split it into two separate pieces, not to mention destroying the lungs.

A pic of the impala, me and KJ.

 

[PHOENIX PHIL]

Nile Bushbuck

I am a big fan of all of the spiral horned species, but particularly bushbuck. Uganda is home to the Nile Bushbuck. They're such a gorgeous animal and thus this was high on my list to hunt.

The area that we were hunting has lots of them. You just have to be patient and eventually the right ram will show itself to you.

An interesting habit of the bushbuck in this area was their propensity for hopping up on top of the termite mounds. We would see this on numerous occasions. A bushbuck standing up on it's throne surveying it's kingdom so it seemed.

Why are they doing this I have no idea, but it was fun to see.

So there we were headed down the two track that I think we started down the previous day when I got my impala. But that memory may not be correct. Nonetheless doing what you normally do, searching for game and stopping when the right ram or bull showed itself.

Sure enough there was a nice bushbuck ram that Jacques first spotted. He called for the truck to stop and back up a bit. And there he was the ram on top of a termite mound facing away from us.

As soon as Jacques says it's a shooter, I'm off the truck. We only had to close a short distance once again using a termite mound to screen our approach. I think we close to within 90 yards of the ram who was still facing away from us.

A fairly strong quartering away shot was presented. I slowed down a bit for this one. A little off one way or another and we could end up with a wounded bushbuck which can be dangerous. In time the crosshairs settled horizontally between the front legs and vertically at the shoulder.

The 375 NF was sent on it's way busting through the middle zone between the shoulders and due to the animal's perch, on a bit of an upward path. The bullet continued on and exited the neck of the ram. He was dead before he fell.

He will make a beautiful mount. I only wish I had more room for a full body mount to show off his beautiful coat.

 

[PHOENIX PHIL]

Warthog

I have been after a warthog since my first of now 6 safaris in 2010. I have seen who know how many hundreds of them and never found one worthy to take.

For a day or few, it started to feel like I was going to a several hundred more to the list without taking one. There are tons of warthog here. Maybe not quite as numerous as the zebra or impala, but lots of them

Due to the soft moist soil, the tusks don't wear down as fast as they do in the more arid rockier places in Africa. So expectations were running high. Expectations were met.

We were once again doing our thing heading down a dirt road with our list of species we were looking for starting to get short. And finally, I now see a warthog that Jacques spotted first of course and I have that "ah hah" moment of so that's what a proper warthog looks like at distance.

Jacques does a quick evaluation and while his one tusk is a bit worn down, he thinks it's a good pig and leaves the decision to me. I'm off the truck.

We closed a short distance once again using a termite mound. But there are some impala in the area and they spook a bit and start moving off from left to right. The two warthog that are there start moving with them. There was a smaller non shooter with the one we're after.

They also move from left to right. For a brief moment there was a shot opportunity but I didn't get settled in on the boar quick enough. He moves on behind another termite mound.

Okay, I take a breath and move the crosshairs of the scope to the right of the termite mound anticipating seeing the pig clear the mound. The smaller one actually pops out first. A moment later the big one does too.

He stops shortly and the crosshairs are where they need to be and I shoot. The shot ends up slightly back of where I wanted it but due to a slight quartering away angle, the bullet takes out the offside lung. The board just dropped in it's tracks.

I'm quite happy to finally have my first warthog.

A picture of the team and our quarry.

 

[Sarg]

Awesome, thank you for posting, would love a nice EA Impala, could you say how long he was please ?

 

[PHOENIX PHIL]

Awesome, thank you for posting, would love a nice EA Impala, could you say how long he was please ?

As I recall he was 27.5” on one side, 28” on the other.

 

[gillettehunter]

Some really fine trophies so far. I can already tell you had a great hunt. I, too have a love of Bushbuck. Yours looks like a very nice one. These animals that have seen no hunting pressure sure seem to be calm. Congrats
Bruce

 

[TwoTracks]

Excellent! What a great adventure and wonderful animals. Congratulations. Thanks for sharing.

 

[PHOENIX PHIL]

East African Impala #2

So joining Kevin, Jacques and myself in camp, were Matthieu Mairesse that I mentioned earlier in this thread. And also a client of Matthieu's from Paris named Max.

Max had already been hunting for some days prior to our hunt and was having fabulous success. By the time we got to this particular afternoon, he was down to trying a Sitatunga which they only hunted for in the mornings.

For myself I had all the animals on my list and had added a zebra. At the same time, Kevin and Jacques were trying to sort out a buffalo in the thick stuff. I didn't need to be in on that and be another person to manage for Jacques.

So on this particular afternoon, I joined Matthieu and Max along with the concession holder Vickram and we went off hunting. I had no plans at the start of this hunt to pursue a Defassa Waterbuck. I already had a very nice Common version from South Africa that I got in 2010.

But......the Lake Mburo area has Defassa WB that can push the 30" mark and beyond. And well I broke down and told Jacques/Vickram that if we were to see such a trophy I'd like to take one.

So off we go for a waterbuck. Vickram asked me if I was inclined to take another impala. Well sure why not, so long as it's at least 28" I say.

So once again we find ourselves in the area not far from where I shot my first impala and Vickram spots a good one. He thinks it will go 28" or more.

Off we go once again using termite mounds to shield our approach. Now since my zebra, my shooting has been pretty solid. But on the first shot here, I don't know what I did. It felt good at trigger pull and I usually can call my shot good or bad. I thought this one was good.

At first it seemed to be, the ram dropped immediately. But it was thrashing at the ground with it's legs and continued to. I had a sense this was about to be a problem and sure enough the ram gained it's feet and took off running from right to left. The shot was high and shocked the ram's spine, but too high to break it.

He ran behind a termite mound but I setup on the left side and got him in my sights running. I touched off a second round hoping just to him him somewhere to stop him. I clearly heard the shot hit, but he kept running. As it turned out I gut shot him, but the bullet had ripped through the liver and he would have died.

I rack in another round or so I thought as the impala stopped running. Pulled up on him and squeezed of another shot, all I got was a click. Somewhere along the line I'd forgotten to top off the magazine. Quickly I grabbed another round and dropped it into the magazine.

The impala was still standing in the same spot, but he was clearly not well. I could see in the scope he was quivering and was certainly going to fall, but I put a quicker end to this with a shot thru his shoulders.

Not my best shooting for sure, but it was over fairly quickly.

@gizmo will have a little work to do here. You can clear see the entrance/exit being a bit too high. You can also see the exit on the shoulder from the last shot.

In this pic you can see the gut shot. Again this took out the liver and would've sufficed.

A local who came in to get a share of the impala meat.

 

[PHOENIX PHIL]

Some really fine trophies so far. I can already tell you had a great hunt. I, too have a love of Bushbuck. Yours looks like a very nice one. These animals that have seen no hunting pressure sure seem to be calm. Congrats
Bruce

Calm indeed.

 

[PHOENIX PHIL]

Defassa Waterbuck

So I had just got back up on the truck. Matthieu and Max had wandered off a bit investigating something a couple hundred yards off to the right and Vickram is down in front of the truck looking through his binoculars.

About this time, he turns back to me and says, hey there's a pretty nice waterbuck about 500 yards out in front of us. I get a brief glimpse at him before he disappears behind some brush. We gather up Matt and Max and move forward with the truck to get a better look.

Sure enough he's a big one and Vickram thinks he'll go 30". So back to the familiar story of using the termite mounds for an approach. The bull had started to move off however. He wasn't spooked but he wasn't very interested in sticking around either.

He kept walking and walking and walking towards some thick stuff and if he gets in there we won't get a shot. About that time however Vickram whistled and got the bull to stop and turn offering me a good shot.

I touched off the 375 and he broke into a run now heading from our left to right. I felt good about this shot and it was on the shoulder, but a bit low. Nonetheless it got the bottom of the lungs and he would stop after about 50-60 yards in a spot where we could get another shot.

In my scope I could see his back was arched a bit and he was quivering too, clearly hurt badly. But a second shot into the shoulder was taken, he ran again but he only made it about 20 yards and collapsed.

Matthieu on my left and Vickram on my right.

The shooting attracted some people who came from who knows where at light speed it seemed. They all got a share of the meat.

This would be my last animal taken on this hunt, but not the last for me to report on in this thread......

 

[meigsbucks]

You took some great animals. If you have the hide, get that beautiful bushbuck full mounted.
Uganda is on my bucket list.

 

[gillettehunter]

That is a heck of a Defassa waterbuck. Congrats!
Bruce