AFRICAN ADVENTURE

The lure of Africa is an interesting one.  You never know what you will see around the next corner.  The anticipation of adventure goes beyond what we have available in the US.  For myself it started when I was 8 years old and I read an Outdoor Life issue about cape buffalo hunting.  I became obsessed with buffalo and my desire to get to Africa someday.  So, for me, it was a “no brainer”, that was how I wanted to spend my 50^th birthday, hunting the animal that I have dreamt about for so many years.

I met my friend Quintin Kruger through the Hunt Expo.  We had booths next to each other one year and we hit it off.  Over the next 3-4 years we shared a booth at different trade shows and became good friends.  I would listen to his stories and ask probably too many questions every year about hunting in Africa, so we finally decided to go.  Quintin was formerly a partner in Thabazimbi Safaris and when his partner George passed away, he renamed the business African Legacy Safaris and purchased a new lodge.

I would like to “preface” this article with a little more information and context.  For those that have never been to South Africa hunting, it is a different experience.  Most of the land is either privately owned or Government reserves/parks, very much like Texas in the US.  Hunting properties vary from the Eastern Cape where it’s mainly low fenced cattle farms, to the Limpopo area where it is mixed low fence and high fence operations.  Now, keep in mind even these high fence properties are large, ranging from 5000 acres to 50,000 acres.  The game is the property of the landowner to manage and use how they see fit.  Some rotate between hunting and eco-tourism to maintain healthy game populations.  Make no mistake, these are still wild places and wild animals as evident by several times having leopard and hyena tracks over top of our boot tracks following us.   Animals still live and die of old age and predation on these properties, it is by no means a “can” hunt.  Anyone that has hunted Montana’s block management programs knows how well critters can elude you on much smaller hunting properties.  I am of course referring to the places that I hunted, and I know that there are some places in Africa that sell “can” hunts, so a person needs to do their homework.  There are still places in other African countries that have the “wild” experience and I hope someday to experience that as well.

Enough on the back story, let’s get to the hunting!

Brenda and I arrived in Johannesburg on June 27^th and Quintin picked us up at the airport.  I had used Henry and Adel at Rifle Permits to secure a preapproved firearm import permit.  The process was seamless, and I highly recommend them.  From there we drove to Pretoria to stay the night with Quintin’s friend Jean-Louis and his family for the night.  The next morning Jean-Louis took us to a government reserve for red hartebeest.  We were met at daylight by the reserve’s game manager Phillip to guide us around.  This was my first experience in Africa, and it did not disappoint.  We soon started seeing a variety of animals that I’ve only seen in zoos before.  It wasn’t long before Quintin spotted a large wildebeest bull that we admired for a bit while he looked over his harem.  Just a little further down the track I spotted something reddish colored in the bush.  Having never seen a hartebeest before other than in books and videos I wasn’t sure if it was one or not.  As luck would have it I was looking at my first hartebeest.  It was a very deformed horned female that would have made a unique trophy.  We watched her feed for a bit and then moved on.  Further down the mountain we spotted a couple of females and a ram, and he was an old one.  As we watched him Phillip was explaining the differences between the males and females and other facts about them.  We moved in a little closer to see them better and could soon tell he was an exceptional old ram with a unique and heavy set of horns.  I prefer to hunt old mature animals with some character, so when they asked if I wanted to harvest him, I jumped at the chance.  Quintin ranged him at 156yds.  I dialed the scope on the 30-06 Ackley .5 moa and sent the 175 Barnes LRX on the way.  The bullet impacted exactly where the crosshairs were sitting, and he dropped at the shot with a complete passthrough.  I had harvested my first African animal!  He is a beautiful animal and was even heavier horned than we initially thought, later measuring just over 13” at the bases and carries the mass all the way up through his unique set of horns.    Phillip took some measurements and other biological data from him and said he would send me the information on his age but estimated him at 9-10 years old.

We quickly skinned out the hartebeest at Jean-Louis and then headed to the buffalo area.  This farm is almost 10K acres and had been in Johan’s family for some time bordering the crocodile river.  They also have a sable breeding area on the farm with a bull that if I told you how long his horns are nobody would believe me.  We had some time that afternoon to go on a game drive on the ranch.  Brenda and I jumped in the back of the truck while Quintin and Johan caught up together in the cab.  The amount and variety of wildlife we saw was amazing.  Brenda loves giraffes and the first one we saw was an older female that was rolling a leg bone around in her mouth for calcium.  The picture I took really captured it well with the eland in the background.  We spent a few hours driving around and saw hundreds of animals.  We were also looking in the roads for buffalo spoor so we knew where to start the next morning.  The lodge was something else and the staff was extremely polite and first class.  Still a little jet lagged, Brenda and I went to bed a little early.  I didn’t get much sleep with the anticipation of the hunt the next morning.  I was up early with all my gear ready to go.  After a great breakfast of sausage, eggs and toast we loaded up and headed out.  We had noticed buffalo spoor near a water tank the night before, so we figured that was the best place to start.  As we rounded the bend we could see that the buffalo were still at the water.  Quintin and I slipped out of the truck and started our stalk.  He had a target bull that he sent me pictures of that was an old bull, 13-15yrs old.  He was the one we were looking for.  Johan said he also had another bull that ran with him sometimes, but he hadn’t seen him for months and thought he was dead.  As we stalked in towards the water hole the buffalo sensed something was up and turned towards us.  The target bull’s buddy had rejoined them.  His body was substantially larger and sported heavier bosses on his horns.  Johan had told us this bull was 14-15yrs old as well.  He quickly became the one I wanted.  There were a couple of stud 10yr old bulls with these two as you will see in the photo’s but I wanted some older and like the bulls with worn down or broken horns.  As we stalked in I expected them to run, instead they moved towards us in a group.  Quintin set up the sticks for me and I lay the 375 H&H Improved on them.  Finding the bull was easy, he was massive.  Waiting for a clear shot was another story.  After what seemed like 20 min (was really only 3 on the video) all the other buffalo had cleared him.  He was facing me at 37yds and I told Quintin I was going to shoot him in the very distinct “v” that the neck makes where it meets the chest.  The 300 gr Barnes TSX at 2700fps was on the way.  At the impact his back legs kicked out and he fell to his front knees.  Regaining himself he spun and ran 15-20 yds and fell over.  His comrades immediately tried to pick him up as we watched, then came the death bellow that buffalo hunters like to hear.  He was down, but now the other bulls were fighting him and themselves.  This lasted for a few minutes, and they moved off.  As we moved towards him, we saw they hadn’t moved very far and were waiting.  Quintin says, “find a big tree, we may need it”.  My first thought was, I’m 6’3” and 240lbs, I need a big tree LOL.  We moved towards the down bull while waving our arms at the remaining 2 bulls.  The larger of the two bulls started walking towards us with his head up.  I remember Quintin saying, if he takes one more step, shoot him in the nose when he has his head up like that.  Where he stopped, I later paced it off as 8 yds.  He stopped, threw his head around a couple of times and then backed off.  Seizing a photo opportunity, I set my rifle on the down bull with Quintin covering me and snapped a quick pic of the downed bull with his two comrades 11yds behind him.  Johan brought in the truck in an attempt to scare them off which moved them back a little more.  We took a bunch of photos and then covered the crew as they winched him into the truck.  As much as I have dreamed about a buffalo hunt where we track them for miles and find them in the thick stuff, this was still a very exciting hunt.  With the other bulls not wanting to leave them and the close shot distance, the entire experience left me wanting to hunt another one someday.  Later at the skinning shed we found that the bullet had gone through the heart and lodged somewhere in the stomach.  Unfortunately we weren’t able to recover the bullet.  I would have liked to have seen what it looked like.  This old bull is right at 40” wide and has bosses just over 16”, a proper dagga boy for sure.