South Africa 2012

[BCRiverBoater]

Guess I am off to SA in 2012. Have not firmed up the dates yet but it will be early spring 2012. Got a little too into the fund-raiser in Feb and bought a hunt for two in South Africa.

4 animals are included....Gemsbok, Springbok, Blesbok and duiker. I am adding a Kudu and impala for sure and of course a good warthog if the tusks are decent. After that I am not sure what else. The wife wants me to take a zebra no matter what but I am not convinced yet. Although I have heard they can be hard to hunt and are tough as nails. I am thinking maybe blue wildebeest or maybe a red hardebeest. But if I take a good blue wildebeest then maybe I need a black one to mount with it.

I have no idea how I am going to decide what to add on but I know it will be tough not to take a few extras if flying all that way.

I am thinking of using the PH's gun as we are planning on a few stop overs and sight seeing while on this trip so taking my own rifle is not an option. I know people who have been there with this guide and his guns are great.

We are bringing our wives for this trip of a lifetime so I also plan to take 2 days/nights at a game reserve as well.

I am open to any tips on gear, clothes etc. as I have no idea what to pack. Also what is a good idea to bring for tips for the helpers...

[BCHunterFSJ]

Are you going with Bertus?
Should have a good time!
Have fun and good luck!
PM me if you need more info...

[David Heitsman]

what is a good idea to bring for tips for the helpers...

They need cash like all the rest of us. Knives, boots & binos are appreciated but they need $$ to buy gas and food too. Your PH will help you figure it out. Don't forget your cooks too. Great food can make or break a safari.

[sheephunterab]

Get yourself a set of safari gaiters! Best 20 bucks you'll spend.

3393

Also pick up a copy of The Perfect Shot. Shot placement is different on some African game. And yes, hunt zebra. Fantastic hunt and fantastic meat!

[BiG Boar]

You're going to love your hunt! Read as many stories as you can so you know what to expect and what you should bring. I would also use the PH's guns. Know what animals you want and what it will cost all toll before you start pulling the trigger. It starts out cheap and then it really adds up quick. I would make at least a month of it. Africa is amazing in so many senses. When in 2012?

[Blainer]

I'm thinking to drop a deposit on a very similiar package today.
http://africanphotographicsafaris.com/catalog/product.php?cat_id=15&pid=11
Like yourself,I'm looking to add a gemsbok and wildebeest.
Good call on the cooks there David.
Seems there are plenty of people to tip,ph,trackers,cooks,any others?
What kind of tips are we talking,$'s or % of hunt.I assume the ph would receive the largest tip?
Again like yourself,I'm looking to use the outfitters firearms.

[ROEBUCK]

tip amoint is up to you !
but consult your outfitter on how much is apropiate for cooks,trackers,gun bearers.
as the pay is low in south africa and if people start throwing around 100,s of $$$
it can upset the balance.

[Blainer]

I'm thinking to drop a deposit on a very similiar package today.
http://africanphotographicsafaris.com/catalog/product.php?cat_id=15&pid=11
Like yourself,I'm looking to add a gemsbok and wildebeest.
Good call on the cooks there David.
Seems there are plenty of people to tip,ph,trackers,cooks,any others?
What kind of tips are we talking,$'s or % of hunt.I assume the ph would receive the largest tip?
Again like yourself,I'm looking to use the outfitters firearms.Deposit has been made!

http://madalasafaris.com/gem.jpg

http://madalasafaris.com/greater-kudu.jpg

[BCRiverBoater]

Yes it is with Bertus. I know a lot of people from around town who have been hunting with him. I have been reading on shot placement and it definitely is different. I will be going over that with the PH before taking my first shot. We are heading out in the spring of 2012, just have not booked the exact dates yet. With our schedules at home it is not leaving open too many options. I was thinking of taking some knives with me for some of the guys. I know cash is not the best to throw around except with the ph. I will be talking to him about what the trackers and cooks would like etc.

[wsquared]

Re: South Africa 2012
What area is the hunt to take place? That affects the species available, as well as what attractions are nearby, unless you are willing to build in travel days inside the country.
My wife and I went to South Africa in Aug.2008, flying AC from Calgary to Frankfurt( redeye flight) and wandered around the airport until the redeye SAA flight to Johannesburg.I found this helped adjusting to the different time zone. If you are buying economy seats, look into using points to upgrade to business/first class.
We stayed at Afton Guest House( recommended by our Outfitter http://www.cruisersafaris.com (http://www.cruisersafaris.com/)) near the airport, booking day trips and tours through them.Sterkfontein caves, Cullinan diamond mine are both near JBG, and easily done in one day total. We then went to Kruger park for 3D/2N, staying at a lodge just outside the park. Back to Afton house to meet the other hunters in our group and head out the next morning.
This was relaxing and allowed us to fully adjust to the new time zone, while seeing other parts of a beautiful country.
Practice shooting off sticks, my PH used Bog pods, standing and kneeling. The previous recommendation of getting the Perfect Shot book is spot on. I used that book and had one animal in ten go more than 25 yds. The other 3 hunters in camp all lost one animal ($), due to incorrect shot placement.
We hunted in the Limpopo province, the package was for six animals( southern greater Kudu, gemsbok, Impala, Blue Wildebeest, Warthog, Blesbok),I planned for two extra( Waterbuck, bushbuck) ended up shooting four extra( Waterbuck, Red Hartebeest, Warthog #2, Zebra).
My wife and I had an awesome trip, three of the four hunters in camp brought their wives , and the whole group got along very well.
My trip report is on Cruiser's website under newsletter, 2008, August.
I found a lot of very useful info on http://www.accuratereloading.com (http://www.accuratereloading.com/)

[bandit]

Going to be very hot and dry that time of year. I can never get used to the dry air in SA, it gives me nose bleeds and headaches! It gets cold really quick after sundown too so pack more warm clothes than you would think you might need.
My own view - dont choose your animals before you see them! There are so many species in SA hunting doesnt need to be very difficult unless you get fussy about what you want to shoot. FWIW I would take a black wildebeest over a blue or a hartebeest any day of the week (but if you want a black one I have a spare in my basement that I could be persuaded to part with).

[David Heitsman]

If you hunt black wildebeest after you have been eyeing blues just make a note that they are half the size. I kept trying to get closer to the one I shot thinking that I was still quite a ways away. I was surprised
when I walked up to it and it was so much smaller. Looking forward to seeing it in my trophy room soon as it is enroute from RSA as I type.

[BCRiverBoater]

Thanks for all the tips. I have been so busy at work I have not had much time to do any planning. I will hit t hard this fall after I get some North American game on the ground. I can not wait. The more I see the zebra pedestal mounts, the more I think the wife is right. I should try to take one.

[wsquared]

If you are planning to come through Ft. Nelson, let me know. In the taxidermy I got done, I did get zebra pedestal mount, in case you want to have a look.
If you look at the cruiser safaris website link, in my previous post, check out accomodations photos. Then look in the bar and lounge area folder. This shows pictures of how a flat skin looks on the wall. I think flat skins are nice for the floor, they take up at least 4' X8' on a wall. It also shows a zebra pedestal mount, similar to to what I had done.
My wife also influenced the decision to go for a zebra and do the pedestal mount.

[BCHunterFSJ]

My wife also "made me" shoot a zebra! It has made a great rug on the trophy room floor...
Enjoy your hunt.

[BCRiverBoater]

If a person did a head mount on a pedestal would there be much hide left to do a partial rug as well?

[wsquared]

I had skin panels on the hexagonal pedestal, so that used up most of the back half. If you went with wood panels, the rear half of the zebra skin would still look good somewhere in the house.

[BCRiverBoater]

I am also going to use some of the hide on the pedestal. I have decided they look the best with some of the hide on them. I guess an option would be to purchase a rug from a cull hunt. I am sure the PH or taxidermy could let me know if there is a half decent small rug available??? Then again if I do not shoot it then not sure if I want it bought home. I would never do that in North America so why in SA?

[1/2 slam]

:mrgreen:Just to tease you a little my trophies from 2009 were put on the wall 2 days ago. I'll take some pictures and post them later.:mrgreen:

[BCRiverBoater]

:mrgreen:Just to tease you a little my trophies from 2009 were put on the wall 2 days ago. I'll take some pictures and post them later.:mrgreen:

Yes please do!!!

[Blainer]

:mrgreen:Just to tease you a little my trophies from 2009 were put on the wall 2 days ago. I'll take some pictures and post them later.:mrgreen:I would very much look forward to seeing those photo's as well.
Still waiting on my pronghorn draw in Montana for this year,but Africa in 2012 is a done deal.

[mark yanko]

message to Wsquared who did you have for a guide with cruiser ?Ive hunted with them a few times and had a great time .Are you thinking of ever going back ?they have some realy good archary properties now so I was thinking of doing that but Young peter (grassy) isnt ther anymore so I was thinking of useing Jhohan or Hans .

[wsquared]

I had Craig, and I was very happy with him. I want my boys(11 & 8 ) to have a deer or two under their belt before going back to Africa.
I would seriously consider Cruiser's again, although other parts of RSA interest me, as well as Namibia.

[BCRiverBoater]

Count down is on. Once the September Elk hunt ends I will be hitting the planning full time.

[MKD]

Go to: http://www.africahunting.com/content/ You will get tons of help from helpful people. Lots of info in the archives too.
Have fun.

[BCRiverBoater]

Thank you. I will check out the site. Just booking flights this week. Time to start nailing down the little things like gear etc.

[Ruger4]

:mrgreen:Just to tease you a little my trophies from 2009 were put on the wall 2 days ago. I'll take some pictures and post them later.:mrgreen:

waiting patiently......................................... ...........................

[1/2 slam]

waiting patiently......................................... ...........................

Sorry, we just moved. I'm in the process of re hanging everything. I'll post them when I get them all up:-D

[Mr. Dean]

I'm in envy. :mad:

I too was planning a late spring hunt down there (Namibia).
But due to getting me a *new-one* ripped while out hunting for Muley's, I've GOT to postpone it for 2013. :cry:


Zebra and Warthogs are at the top of my list; We'll see what else, once we're down there.

[BCRiverBoater]

Can't wait that is for sure.

The animals I want change daily so will now just wait and see when I get down there.

[sheephunterab]

Just because a zebra looks like a horse don't let it fool you. I'd rate mountain zebra as one of the toughest plains game animals to connect on. Take two, one for a rug and one for a pedesta...lol We have both and both are spectacular. They are darned fine eating too!!!!!

[BCRiverBoater]

Just because a zebra looks like a horse don't let it fool you. I'd rate mountain zebra as one of the toughest plains game animals to connect on. Take two, one for a rug and one for a pedesta...lol We have both and both are spectacular. They are darned fine eating too!!!!!

Haha...That is exactly what I was thinking. I want a pedestal mount and the wife likes them as well. However she does also want a rug. I need to figure it over the holidays.

I have talked to a few people that hunted them and they have a new appreciation for them. They said it was the hardest animal to get from all the plains game. I do not doubt that they will be hard to connect on. I can not wait.

[daycort]

I hope you have fun. The look on your wifes face when you bid that last time was pretty funny. I can't wait to see the pictures. we should get together here one day and drink some beer though.

[BCRiverBoater]

Absolutely. I could imagine the look on my face as well. I remember pouring a glass of wine as it was in reach then going up and ordering two drinks. lol A beer would be great!

[BCRiverBoater]

We officially booked our tickets this week. There will now be three hunters so I am sure we will get a ton of pictures and have some good stories. Three shooters in SA could mean a lot of animals down. I can't wait.

[Kody94]

Just because a zebra looks like a horse don't let it fool you. I'd rate mountain zebra as one of the toughest plains game animals to connect on. Take two, one for a rug and one for a pedesta...lol We have both and both are spectacular. They are darned fine eating too!!!!!

I "ditto" speephunterab's comments above on all counts!

Glad to hear the tickets are bought....the daydreaming and excitement will build exponentially from here!

Cheers!

[thumper1]

I'd suggest that you strongly consider having the taxidermy work done in Africa. It employs locals and gives real value to them keeping wildlife on their landscape. As long as they see that wildlife is worth more in long-term tourism dollars than a meal in a stew-pot, there will be game animals in S Africa.

I had spare bits of hide turned into a 'patchwork' rug that looks cool, and the gemsbuk hide left over from the shoulder mount made into a rifle case. It's not fancy, - just foam 'egg carton' interior, but it's a great reminder of the hunt that I use all the time. Also - if you're getting some skull mounts done - you might want to have some local artist paint the animal on the plaque.
http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b23/Canmoron/Africa/IMG_2733.jpg

http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b23/Canmoron/Africa/IMG_2737.jpg

http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b23/Canmoron/Africa/IMG_2743.jpg

Of course - conventional shoulder mounts are good too!

http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b23/Canmoron/Africa/IMG_2716.jpg
http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b23/Canmoron/Africa/IMG_2723.jpg

[BCRiverBoater]

I plan on doing my work in South Africa. Shoulder mounts for all plus I will keep the left over hide for little add-on here and there. I can not wait for the trip and then an even longer trip to get the animals shipped back.

[sheephunterab]

I like that quilt thumper. We brought all our back skins home and have used some for various projects but I like that. Might be a great idea for the remaing ones.

[BCRiverBoater]

Yes that quilt is a great idea for the extra pieces of hide you can bring back. Will remember that for sure. I will be putting a few into the pedestals I plan for a few of th animals. I want a zebra pedestal mount and I want to do a three mount with my blesbuck, implala, and springbuck. Have seen a few of them and they go great together. May vary it a bit depending on what I shoot. If I end up with a black springbuck or white blesbuck or another sub species of a few animals I would put them together rather than three different species.

[David Heitsman]

Half Slam and I did all our work over there and it turned out impeccable. The only issue is to have them verify airline crate restriction sizes prior to construction as you may be consolidating crates between the three of you. We each had life sizes done, including a nyala so the crates were to big for wide body airservice consequently our crates had to come by sea via Singapore. It adds about 7 weeks to the transit time but by then a year or more has passed so what's another couple months.

I like the idea of the three mount pedestals as that does reduce trophy room footprint volume. We have our kudus done with an unusual shoulder mount where the animals are turned and then there is some of the striping showing from where the cape goes way back past the shoulder.

[BCRiverBoater]

I like the idea of the three mount pedestals as that does reduce trophy room footprint volume. We have our kudus done with an unusual shoulder mount where the animals are turned and then there is some of the striping showing from where the cape goes way back past the shoulder.

I like the sounds of that mount. They have really nice capes so it would be nice to show the lines. Maybe pm me a pic if you get time. I am always open to new ideas.

[BCRiverBoater]

Added a fourth hunter this morning. We added a third about 3 weeks ago and just had the fourth guy book his flights today. Four shooters in Africa should make for a very eventful trip. There will be so many pictures and videos it will take months to go through them. The taxidermy bill will also be something to see.

[Kudu]

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y260/Gogga2/Bluebulle.jpg

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y260/Gogga2/52inchKudu.jpg

[srupp]

love the taxi work and the animals Kudu..

Steven

[BCRiverBoater]

I am doing a couple pedestal mounts as well. I will be doing the zebra on a pedestal that will be a wine rack or a case for my photos and videos from Africa. I am then going to try a three way pedestal mount for some of the animals. Not finalized yet but maybe the blesbuck, impala and springbuck. I have seen a few of these and they turn out very well and do not use up all your wall space. Of course your picture shows the springbucks nicely.

That is a very nice kudu. What was the length on that one?

[BCRiverBoater]

Got all my shots and vaccines as required. Think I am all ready to leave in 4 weeks. Going to be the longest month of my life so far waiting for the day to depart for South Africa.

[91Jason91]

how much are the hunts in africa im going in june for 3 week safari and wondering how much the hunting is

[1/2 slam]

how much are the hunts in africa im going in june for 3 week safari and wondering how much the hunting is

A safari is a hunt. The photo tours wanted them to sound more exotic so they started calling them safaris.

Cost for hunting depends where and what you want to hunt.

[91Jason91]

A safari is a hunt. The photo tours wanted them to sound more exotic so they started calling them safaris.

Cost for hunting depends where and what you want to hunt.

o well Im going on the photo tours and stuff and what are like basics like 5 grand all the way to 50grand?

[BCHunterFSJ]

http://i175.photobucket.com/albums/w130/BCHunter_photos/africatrophies019jpgresize.jpg

Here you go; springbok (black), blesbok and impala. Work done in South Africa; great liquor cabinet below...

Have a great trip!

[1/2 slam]

http://i175.photobucket.com/albums/w130/BCHunter_photos/africatrophies019jpgresize.jpg

Here you go; springbok (black), blesbok and impala. Work done in South Africa; great liquor cabinet below...

Have a great trip!

Very cool..........

[BCRiverBoater]

http://i175.photobucket.com/albums/w130/BCHunter_photos/africatrophies019jpgresize.jpg

Here you go; springbok (black), blesbok and impala. Work done in South Africa; great liquor cabinet below...

Have a great trip!

Sweet. That is exactly what I am planning on doing. But Blesbok, impala and regular springbok. Also a little darker wood and most likely a wine rack as South Africa is a wine country. Or maybe for the photo albums and videos of the hunt. The zebra is also going to be a pedestal so I guess I can have both!

[bandit]

o well Im going on the photo tours and stuff and what are like basics like 5 grand all the way to 50grand?

You can get a good basic hunt for less than 5k (excluding flights) - as a very rough guide $300 per day plus $500 for a small animal or $1000 for a large one. Dont forget hunting in SA is WAAAY more productive than BC, so you can realistically expect to hunt 1 or even 2 animals a day if you arent too picky. I have done a couple of 3 day South Africa hunts with 3 decent trophies for under $3000 including tips. Some places will also offer discounted management type hunts as opposed to trophy if you want the experience without the cost.

[BCRiverBoater]

18 days and boarding the plane. Man the four of us can not wait!!!

[thumper1]

Great looking mounts & cabinet! Interesting that when the railways were built in the late 1800s, teak was used as railway ties. In more recent times, those valuable teak ties have been replaced, and cut into planks for use in cabinetry. You'll see a lot of bars and furniture made out of it in S.A. - nice wood!

Good luck on your trip of a lifetime - you're going to love it!

[1/2 slam]

18 days and boarding the plane. Man the four of us can not wait!!!

17 now......Mid July for me!

[BCRiverBoater]

Well good luck 1/2 Slam. I will post some pics soon to really get you thinking about it.

[Blainer]

17 now......Mid July for me!
Late May for me!

[1/2 slam]

Late May for me!

Good luck! I look forward to the pictures..

[1/2 slam]

Well good luck 1/2 Slam. I will post some pics soon to really get you thinking about it.
And good luck to you as well. I'm looking forward to the pictures.

[etk]

Good luck to you. Hunted in RSA in 2010.

[MOL]

So here is one for you guys! What is the best cheapest airfare to get to SA? Lufthansa via Vancouver is about $1600 Economy via Frankfurt. Pretty good fair, not sure on the carrier, but bet it is better than Air Canada cattle cars!

[hntcrazy]

I heard south african airways out of new york ......

[bruin]

We flew lufthansa Seattle to Washington to Dakar to johanesburge to cape town. Not the easiest but definitely the cheapest at that time! About $1400 per person.

[etk]

Calgary to New York on West Jet and then New York to Joburg via Madrid on Iberia. Was about $1900 during the peak of World Cup in 2010 when other flights were costing upwards of $3500

[Caveman]

Man, am I pumped about all this. Looking forward to seeing the pictures, etc. from your guys trips. I have to wait a fair bit longer. I'm going in Sept. to SA, picked the safari company, got prices for taxi services and quotes for freight. Really looking forward it.

[BCRiverBoater]

Getting close to go time!!! Leave on the 24th. Everything is in place and ready to go. Just have some packing to this week and I will be all set. We are going Vancouver to London and on SA. I think we paid around $1800 all in with our small flight from Johannesburg to Kimberley. We looked on an off for almost 8 months and chose this flight for price and Star Alliance for the points.

[Bear Chaser]

Hey Semi. Theresa said she saw you at the old JOB yesterday and you were talking about the trip.
Good luck and hopefully we can get together after you get back for an evening of pics and storytelling.

[BCRiverBoater]

You bet J. I should have 100's if not 1000's of pictures between the four of us. Also should have several hours of video. We hope to get most of the hunts on video.

[bowhunterbruce]

You bet J. I should have 100's if not 1000's of pictures between the four of us. Also should have several hours of video. We hope to get most of the hunts on video.

getting it all on videos will be awsome,pray those video gods are on your side,lol.
i look forward to seeing a few of them
bhb

[BCRiverBoater]

Yes. Getting good quality video with the proper footage is way easier said then done. I am guessing with 4 shooters that we will have enough opportunity to capture a few good videos.

[daycort]

so no whisky's this year at the fund raiser?? Good luck man, I hope you have a wicked trip!! when you get you should have a picture beer night at your neighbors nice big shop.

[bridger]

Hey guys have a good trip! May have to get into the whiskey on Saturday night myself!

[BCRiverBoater]

Yes it sucks I am going to miss out Saturday night. I am sending the wife though so I can win another raffle. The spotting scope last year was a big win.

[BCRiverBoater]

Well I made it back Monday night after another two days in airplanes and airports. That is one grueling flight when you talk about South Africa. I am still going through pictures and sorting things out. I took roughly 1000 pictures alone plus what the other 3 guys took. It will take some time to get all of our pictures together and sorted out. I will hopefully put together a few stories and pictures for my personal adventure. I will leave any other photos or animals to be told by the others if they feel like adding in.

I personally took 9 animals. I went down thinking I would take 9 animals if all went well. I only added one animal that was not on my list and also came home without one. I took a gemsbuck, zebra, , blesbuck, impala, blue wildebeest, black wildebeest, springbuck, diuker and red hartebeest. Unfortunately I hit, dropped and lost a great kudu. It was the only one I had a chance at the whole trip. One a tough animal to find, spot and then get a shot at. Truly a magnificent animal that knows how to remain hidden. We only got one between all of us this trip. They are still going to spend some time looking for mine and will send the horns to the taxidermist if they luck out and find it but I am not expecting to see it ever again. To make things worse it was the largest one we saw the whole trip. I will give a better update when I write and post more details. Other than this it was an awesome trip and a ton of fun. Would recommend it to anyone. I must do if the chance ever comes up for anyone.

I hope to have something together in the next 3-4 days. Stay tuned!!!

[Spy]

Glad to see you made it back in one piece! To bad about loosing your Kudu, I hope they find it, should not be too hard once the jackals get him! I can't wait for the pictures ect!

[REMINGTON JIM]

Good to hear from you !- glad you made there and back all ok and had a awesome trip by the sounds of it ! The shits to lose that Kudu - all you can do is hope it turns up ! Want to see pics real bad - hurry up - OK ! Cheers RJ

[1/2 slam]

Can't wait for the pictures. Glad you're back in one piece.....13 July for me

[BCRiverBoater]

I have been busy with work since I have been home. I have only had time to go over my 9 animal pictures that I have. Not even sure if they are the best ones of the all the photos we took but it is the only ones I have so far. I have somewhat resized them to work on this site or at least I think I have. I am slowly working on a bit of a write up but I am having a hard time finding the time. You may end up getting mostly pictures at this point with a very limited write up. I did write about 20 pages of notes throughout the trip but it would take a long time to copy all the notes into this story. Please bare with me.

[BCRiverBoater]

This trip started out about one year ago when I attended the North Peace Rod N Gun Club annual fund-raiser. It is a great night of food, drinks and auctions. There is a lot of raffles and silent auctions along with a good set of live auctions. It is always a great time and the turn out is always good. The amount of money our local club can raise by the awesome support of the local residents is simply unbelievable. I went there with no plans to purchase any hunts at all. I was however fortunate to win a Swarovski spotting scope early on in the night. This may have contributed to my loosening up when the live auction began. To shorten things up, the was a hunt up for auction for South Africa. It was a trip for two for 4 days that included 4 animals each. Just out of the blue I asked the wife if I should bid. She said go for it. I bid once after a couple of others made a few bids and low and behold no one else bid again. In all of about 30 seconds I had a trip to Africa. I was in shock to say the least.

Jump ahead to Feb. 24 of this year and I was on a plane to Vancouver to meet 3 of the 4 guys. After a few drinks...or several drinks in the Maple Leaf Lounge, we were on our way to London. I have never been on an over seas flight and man was I in for a shocker. A 9 hour flight was a little more than unbearable. I think I watched about 3.5 movies and got all of about 1 hour sleep. We found our fourth hunting partner about an hour after landing. He was in the wrong terminal from what we agreed to but oh well. A huge airport and everyone was tired. We once again headed to the Star Alliance lounge to get some rest, some food and more importantly a hot shower. For anyone who plans on making long flights like this one, the hot showers are a must. I had always thought these private lounges were for the people who thought they were too good for the common folk. Now that I have been in these lounges I know know they are an absolute must. The quiet atmosphere, cold drinks, hot food were great. But the private shower was unbelievable. Anyways...two of the group had a solid 2 hour nap while myself and Dean chatted over several beer. I then had a hot shower and felt like a million dollars. But all this did was convince me that I as good for a few more drinks. We had a 6 hour lay over and it was all spent over cold beer in the lounge.

Finally it was time for the 4 of us to board the flight for a 11.5 hour flight to Johannesburg. I thought the 9 hour flight was bad. Well this took it to a new level. I can officially say I hate flying at this point. Well due to the few cold beer in the lounge, I figured it was a great idea to keep going. Two of us drank until about 4:30 in the am. Not advised on a long trip like this. We landed in Johberg and had another 4 hour lay over before catching our final 1 hour flight to Kimberley. We landed at about 1:30pm and met one of our Professional Hunters. The 4 of us, the PH and his tracker piled into his small truck with no air conditioning for our 3 hour drive to the hunting concession near Kuraman. Oh and did I say it was hot? It was about 35c upon arrival and we are in pants and light jackets. It was the last time for jackets and I think we wore pants the first morning for a few minutes then it was shorts everyday.

[BCRiverBoater]

Not having any luck resizing the pictures to work on the site. They were taken at 18 MP so I have them shrunk and quality reduced and still no luck. Bare with me but this may take days to complete.

[Caveman]

You're killing us here!!!!! JK! Looking forward to the story!

[BCRiverBoater]

I am still working on trying to re-size my photos. I hope I can get more efficient and get the quality a little better. But here is my first attempt.

This is the three of us leaving Vancouver as mentioned earlier.
http://i724.photobucket.com/albums/ww250/BCRiverBoater/Africa%202012/LeavingVancouver.jpg


And the four of us in London.
http://i724.photobucket.com/albums/ww250/BCRiverBoater/Africa%202012/InLondon.jpg

And our sweat box of a ride.
http://i724.photobucket.com/albums/ww250/BCRiverBoater/Africa%202012/OurRide.jpg

I promise I will keep working on this and hope the quality gets a little better. I will also work on getting the pictures in to the story itself.

[BCRiverBoater]

Well now that I sorta have these technical difficulties behind me I will continue where I left off. I will try to only include hunting photos as not to drag this story on for too long. Also I am not including any of the other 20 animals we took on this trip. I will only show my 9 animals and leave the other 20 up to the other guys if they choose to chime in.

We spent about three hours driving from Kimberley to Kuraman. Seemed like a a long drive after spending the better part of two days in airports and airplanes. We were tired and a little hung over but very excited to get to our camp. We arrived about 5:30 pm and we glad to get out of the vehicle and stretch our legs. We were hunting with Bertus Meyer of De Duine Safaris. We quickly met Bertus and his mom and dad. Bertus is the PH but we are staying on his mom and dads cattle farm. They bought the farm upon retirement and then decided to also get into raising game so we would do some hunting on this farm as well as many concessions in the surrounding area. We barely got introduced and shown to our rooms. The accommodations were very nice. We all had our own room with showers, toilets and all the amenities you would require. Very posh compared to what I am used to in the fall for our regular hunting trips.

Were not even settled and Bertus said alright guys let go for a quick drive before dark. There was a good eland bull close to the house the day before and he may still be not too far. My buddy Dean was thinking of taking an eland. We quickly changed and did not even have time to grab our gear. We just grabbed the cameras and jumped in. We may have drove for all of 2-5 minutes and a bunch of gemsbuck run out. Dean was at the front with the rifle so Bertus said take the large wide female. He wanted the old female taken for conservation of the farm. One shot from the .338 Win Mag and we had our first animal down. We may have been hunting for 5 minutes and were maybe on the farm for 20 minutes total. We could not stop laughing as we were sort of in shock. I guess this is Africa. We would soon get used to this. On the way over to the gemsbuck we look into an opening and standing there was the eland. We just shook our heads. We spent about 10 minutes taking photos and video and loaded the gemsbuck. We started to drive back and saw that the eland were still standing out in the opening. We lined up the truck and Bertus said the bull is on the right. Take him in the shoulder. Boom...the eland stumbles and walks about 20 yards. He stops broadside and Dean shoots a second time to make sure. The eland spins and goes down. We have been hunting for 15 minutes total and we have 2 animals down. Welcome to South Africa! Now this is a big animal so we start taking photos while the truck goes back to drop off the gemsbuck and pick up all 5 of the trackers and skinners as it will take all of us to lift this heavy male into the truck. By the time they get back we are done taking photos. It takes all 12 of us to get this big animal into the truck. We get it loaded and ask if we can go back, unpack, relax and have a drink. We figure the skinners have enough work for the first evening. I can not believe how quick things happened the first night. We now knew we were in for a fun, crazy 10 days.

Here is the truck we were hunting in.
http://i724.photobucket.com/albums/ww250/BCRiverBoater/Africa%202012/Truck.jpg

This was my room.
http://i724.photobucket.com/albums/ww250/BCRiverBoater/Africa%202012/Accomodations3.jpg

Adam's room on the left and Bertus was on the right.
http://i724.photobucket.com/albums/ww250/BCRiverBoater/Africa%202012/Accomodations.jpg

Two doors here. One to left was Dean and Abrie (assistant PH) and Daniel to the right.
http://i724.photobucket.com/albums/ww250/BCRiverBoater/Africa%202012/Accomodations2.jpg

Stay tuned. Will work on the first full day. I took my first two animals on day one as well as two other guys taking 3 or 4 animals.

[Spy]

And our sweat box of a ride.
http://i724.photobucket.com/albums/ww250/BCRiverBoater/Africa%202012/OurRide.jpg

LOL Nissan Sani !Those black pants & tans or lack of, must have turned alot of heads LOL:mrgreen:
I have done that flight a couple times, I also hate flying if they had a boat that took a week I would take it!

[BCRiverBoater]

We wake up at 6:00 am for our first day of hunting. The two animals the night before were a bonus. A quick coffee and some toast and we are off. Adam and Daniel are going to another concession to look for gemsbuck and springbuck. I am off with Dean to look for a kudu. I organized the trip so I had first shot on the kudu. We drive around for a few hours and see a few female kudu, one small male and one shooter but he is too far away and we do not see him again that morning. During this hunt we all got a new appreciation for the "grey ghost" I soon find out how they got their name. We hunted hard for these elusive animals. Always saw females and lots of sign but the males are so hard to spot. And when you do spot them, all you see is their ears and their horns. And it seems no matter how far away they are, they still run within seconds.

After the morning hunt for kudu winds down we move to another area of the farm that has more grasslands. Within minutes we spot a herd of black wildebeest. These are on my list so we stop and do some glassing. There is a mature bull in the herd. These animals are fun to watch. They spook easy and then put on a show. They snort, they buck, the kick and they run. It is quite the show to watch. We spend about 20 minutes following them and waiting for them to stop. The only issue now is waiting for the bull to separate for a shot. Finally he leaves me a broad side shot at about 175 yards. The shot is good and he drops within a few feet of where he was standing. It is a good bull with decent bosses and good length. He does not carry his weight as good as some bulls but a very good, mature male. I can not be more happy with my first African animal of the trip.

http://i724.photobucket.com/albums/ww250/BCRiverBoater/Africa%202012/Trent-BlackWildebeest2.jpg

We take all the photos etc. and drop of the animal for the skinners. We head to another area and look for kudu once again. But we have no luck once again. We see some gemsbuck but they do not present a shot. So off to another area once again. Within minutes we spot a her of gemsbuck. Immediately Bertus says there are two mature males and he wants one of them shot. By the time the truck comes to a stop the larger male of the two stops short of the other females. I take one shot with the .338 Win Mag and down it goes. My second animal of the trip. I am starting to think I should have brought more money for this trip. We set up for the photos and the usual post shot celebration. This gemsbuck is a little shorter than the female taken last night but has a lot more mass. I realize that the gemsbuck are closely monitored and the PH knows exactly what ones they want shot. It was a female from the one herd and a male from this herd.

http://i724.photobucket.com/albums/ww250/BCRiverBoater/Africa%202012/Trent-Gemsbuck.jpg

We drop off this animal and have some lunch and a few beers. Not sure how the other two are making out but I am sure they are having similar luck. We go for a drive after lunch and see a ton of game but not the kudu we are looking for. The rest of the afternoon is spent relaxing and taking photos etc. We then go for a drive in the late afternoon for the elusive kudu. Once again we do not have much luck. See lots of other animals and a few female kudu but not the shooter we are hoping for.

When we come back to the houses the biggest rain storm you could imagine hits. It rains sideways for about 45 minutes with a very impressive lightning storm. We are stuck in the vehicle waiting for it to end so we can get under some shelter. They claim they have never seen rain like that in the 16 years they have had the farm. There is literally rivers running everywhere over the hard red sand. Once it slows down we realize that some of the water was running into my room. Good thing everything was up off the floor and the rooms were tile. There had to be about 3 inches of water in my whole room. It does not take long to sweep out. Of course when the rain ends it is still in the high 20's and everything dries fast. The other guys were stuck on the highway by the gate to the farm as it was raining so hard they could not see and there was too much water on the farm road. Once they make it back we gather for a drink. Sounds like they had an eventful day as well. They both took their gemsbuck and Daniel took a springbuck. I would say a fairly succesful Day 1.

[The Dude]

Keep it comin'

http://i908.photobucket.com/albums/ac283/ice_091/mcdonlds.jpg

[Spy]

Im envious ! Nice Gnu & gemsbuck the females normally have longer horns while the males are not far off but thicker! Love those thunder/lightning showers & the smell just before & afterwards! Can't wait to go back,Maybe August see if I can't get a kudu bull,would like to take one with the bow if I do!

[BCRiverBoater]

Day 2 started out with all four of us going for a drive in the morning together. There was a nice blue wildebeest we had seen that I was interested in as well as two nice red hartebeest. None of us were sure about the hartebeest but they were starting to grow on us. I for one was thinking I may take one if we saw a good male. We saw a few impala first thing but none stuck around for a shot. We saw the usual group of zebra, eland, black wildebeest and blesbuck. We headed up into this hilly area and at a distance we saw a nice impala. It was about 200 yards away so was not running away like most of the ones we had seen so far. My buddy Daniel took the rifle and lined up. One shot and the impala fell out of sight. We all spread out and started to walk up to where we thought it dropped. We searched for about 30 minutes in the tall brush. We knew he hit it but we were not having much luck. Finally we sent two people back with the truck to where we shot from. With a few hand signals we moved over to where they were pointing and found his nice impala. We got several good photos and loaded up the animal. We looked around a bit for some other animals before heading back to the lodge.

Today Adam and Dean were heading out to another location to look for springbuck, black wildebeest and maybe blesbuck. Daniel was staying back with me to look for kudu, blue wildebeest and maybe my zebra. We spent several hours driving around looking for the ever elusive kudu. We tried some new areas but only found a few females and a few female waterbuck. I am really starting to wonder how we are going to ever find a shooter let alone 3 or 4. But of course it is only day 2 of 10 but we have been spoiled so far. Late morning we decide to go look for a zebra. We take two of the senior trackers to come along as glassing zebra to decide which ones are male and which ones are female and who has foals is a bit of an art. Right away we find the zebra and the glassing begins. I had no idea how hard it is to tell the males from the females. Especially in tall grass. We follow the zebra for a long time and slowly start to distinguish which zebras are which. In the mean time we spot a steinbuck at about 150 yards. It is just standing still which is very rare. but of course it is a female. We drive around the other way as they are usually in pairs. But this time it is a lone female. Too bad as they do not usually stick around for this long and it would have been easy to get a shot. Of course hitting such a small target would be another thing. So back to the zebra. On a side note I was not sold on shooting a zebra. in fact I was one of those who always said it is just a horse with stripes. However this was the first animal my wife told me she liked and wanted me to shoot as soon as I booked the hunt. She is not one for animals in the house yet she wanted a zebra? I talked to several people who have been to Africa and they all said you will be surprised how hard they are to hunt. They never stand around and they are hard to pick out shooters. So I went into this trip with an open mind. But I can tell you after seeing these animals for two days I was beginning to truly appreciate them. They are beautiful animals and I was starting to see them as a nice trophy. I also knew they would make a great pedestal mount. I listened and watched the PH and trackers carefully watch over the zebras. After about 30 minutes they figured out that there was 2 large females that were larger than the lone male. They also pointed out that they both had nicer coats then the male. Most males begin showing scars from fighting as they mature. They said it is quite common for the females to have way better hides than the older males. And that many hunters look for the quality of the hide when looking for a trophy. We all decided that one of the large females would be the best choice. Now we need to find out which one the foal belonged to. There was one foal that always ran with these two. By looking at the stripes on the rump we could tell the two females apart and really watch them. Over another 15-20 minutes we figured out which one had the foal and which one was dry. Now it was a matter of waiting for them to stop in range without being bunched up. Finally at about 175-200 yards she stopped by herself. I took one shot with the .338 Win Mag and we knew she was hit hard. But zebras are very tough animals. She ran with the herd but only went about 75 yards and went down. She got up and went a few yards and went down again. She got up a second time and I was starting to think maybe she needed another shot. She spun around and went down. The herd just stood there making a racket, staring at her. They did not know what to do. She was obviously the lead mare of this herd. By the time we drove up she was dead and the herd and moved off a bit. What a miraculous sight. They are so stunning up close. Her head was so shiny and bright. She had been rolling in the red sand so her body was a little bit tan color but her neck and face were stunning. I knew at this point that I made the right decision in taking a zebra. Daniel was with me and was also thinking about a zebra. This sealed the deal for him. He was now officially hunting zebra. We set up for pictures and just stood there staring at this animal.
http://i724.photobucket.com/albums/ww250/BCRiverBoater/Africa%202012/Trent-Zebra.jpg

We loaded up the zebra. Man are they heavy. it took 9 of us to get it in the truck. We just started to drive and the truck hit a large warthog hole. The one back tire completely sunk in the hole. The front tire was not even on the ground. We had a good laugh and waited for another truck to come tow us out. We went back and dropped of the zebra for the skinners and had a few cold drinks.

While back having a drink and snacks we got a call from the other two hunters. They were having a great day as well. Dean took a very nice black wildebeest. it had similar bosses as mine and was similar in length but carried a little more weight on through the horns. He also took a black springbuck and a white blesbuck. After shooting two animals the first night he took the first day off but now took 3 animals on day 2. We couldn't wait for them to come back and show us the pictures. I really hope they decide to share some stories and photos or maybe at least let me show the photos one day.

That afternoon was a day of a few cold beer and some stories. That evening Adam and Daniel went to a blind to see if a warthog or duiker would come into the water and minerals. Me and Dean went out to look for my kudu. This is where the trip had its one black mark. Right away we spotted two young kudu but they were not shooters. We drove a little further and we spotted one with one horn. It was very large but had only the one horn. Right away we noticed it was with another bull. It was a nice one. But it took off before we could shoot. So we headed around to see if we could spot them again. About 5-10 minutes later we spotted another younger bull and he ran right to a tree with a big bull under it. We positioned the truck around and stopped about 175 yards out. The bull was facing right towards us. All we could see was his nose and above. He was a very big bull. They largest one yet and the only one standing around. I got a very good rest on the truck and waited for the other bull to walk clear of him. Bertus asked me how it felt. I said good. He mentioned they do not present shots very often in this area as the bush is so think and tall. The only problem is there was a bush right in front of him. All I could see was a few inches of neck then his face. Bertus said line up on him and come down about 18" to where his chest should be. If it feels good shoot. I took my time and it felt very good. I pulled down and squeezed the trigger. WHACK!!! It was very load. Even the guy over in the stand heard the hit. He went down instantly and hard. The only bull we saw run was the smaller bull. We all cheered and high-fived. He was big and down. Bertus figured every bit of 48-50" which is as big as they get in this area. We tracked through the thick bush to where he was. Nothing! The was blood and bone chips in the tree behind him and on the ground. He had somehow gotten up and went out through the bush out the back door. That is why we did not see him run. We followed the obvious trail for a few minutes and saw blood, some meat and some more bone. We figure he is down so we figure we should leave him for the night as it is getting dark. The one PH follows the tracks and see them go towards the road towards the corner of the property. We go back and drive towards the corner. Just as we crest a little hill we see him limping hard along the fence line. The PH and I both raise the guns but by the time the truck stops he has rounded the corner. We missed getting a shot by 5 seconds. We race up to the corner and see him running down the fence line. he could not walk on three legs but he could run alright. We almost get a second chance again but just as we go to shoot he runs into the bush. We mark where he went in and leave him for the night so we can come back with the trackers. We figure he will not last long. Talk about highs and lows of hunting. It was a low percentage shot but after hunting them all week I would take it again anytime. We never got to see many kudu bodies. it was always neck and head. That is all they seem to give us in this terrain.

[BCRiverBoater]

I guess my last post was too long. So here is the rest of it. I will leave you with this one until tonight when I continue with Day 3.

On the way to pick up the guys at the blind we spot a large puff adder snake on the road. Before the driver even slows down, Bertus takes the gun and shoots it. It just makes it into the thorns and dies. I take it they hate snakes as much as I do. We pick up the guys and they ask how we made out. They heard the shot and the impact. We tell them the bad news. It turns out they watched a few small warthogs come in but they were not big enough to shoot. They also got good pictures and video of a nice female and male duiker. For some reason they changed their minds and did not shoot it. Not sure why. They PH looks at the video and says it is a very good one and they should have shot it. Turns out they regretted it all week. But it made for very good video.

All we can talk about all evening is the kudu and how big it was and how we will find it in the morning. I can barely sleep all night. I replayed the shot over and over again in my head. Should I have taken a head shot? Should I have taken a neck shot to take the bush out of the way? Is it dead? Is it alive? Will we find it? Well we are set to wake up and go out as a group with all 4 hunters, 2 PH's and all 5 trackers/skinners in the morning.

[Bear Chaser]

Great read and great pics so far.
I agree about the zebra and would love to take one someday myself.

[luckynuts]

BCRB.. Loving it big time.

W.

[Blainer]

I'm enjoying this tale.
I should finalize the flight details by Tuesday.
South Africa May 15th

[BCRiverBoater]

I'm enjoying this tale.
I should finalize the flight details by Tuesday.
South Africa May 15th

You will have a blast! Good luck!

[BCRiverBoater]

Day 3

Well this was a very quiet day as far as hunting goes and some what of a disappointing day. We got up and had a quick bit to eat. All four of us, the two PH's, the driver (Bertus' dad) and 5 trackers/skinners loaded up and went to look for my kudu that I hit the night before. At this point I was still confident that we would find him dead first thing. I was told that old Tommy was a great tracker and would find him.

We went to were we saw him last night and started there. We let out Tommy, the trackers, Dean, Adam and Daniel. I jumped out with the one PH and we both took rifles. Bertus stayed in the truck to drive around and stay high to see if we spooked something up. This morning was already hot and we knew we would be putting on some miles. The one thing I learned 2 minutes in is that every single bush and tree was covered in thorns. We had an idea they were bad from driving around but we had no idea how bad they really were. Every single branch you rubbed up against grabbed a hold of you and stuck you with multiple thorns. You learn real quickly what you can and cannot touch. We all had cuts on our arms and legs as well as ripping up all of our sleeves. It was a long two hours with limited water and large amounts of blood loss.

Watching the trackers and especially old Tommy was a very neat experience. You would not believe how well they can follow a track and blood trail. He was point out spots of the size of a pencil tip. Remember the sand and soil is red but he still could see blood. He was looking under leaves and bushes and finding blood all over. He could also see the the exact track of my bull as his one hoof track was slightly different due to the wound. There was tracks everywhere but he could follow the wounded kudu like nothing. Even over the rocky areas he never missed a beat. We all thought he lost the track numerous times but out of nowhere he would so us blood so we knew he was right on track. We found a few spots where the kudu had stopped and rested and bled out. Eventually we found bedding spots as well. The kudu lost a lot of blood. We then found a spot where he laid down about 5 times every few feet. There was a lot of blood so we figured we were close. But then he eventually got up and walked off. We covered several square miles but all the sign was older and from last night. Unfortunately we did not find him. We figured he was hurting bad but was still alive and we were just pushing him. We went back to refresh and have some lunch. But with my luck a huge rain storm stareting to roll in. By 2:30 it started to pour and pour. It rained for 2 hours. i knew all tracking was off now and that it would just be luck to find him now. We decided to leave him for a few days and continue hunting. On the weekend we would all go back and just start pushing the bush. They have had luck doing this in the past and we were out of options. Very disappointing. I texted my wife and she gave me some encouragement. She said it is what it is and that there is nothing I could do. Just go out and have fun and get my other animals. I decided then and there that if Adam and Daniel got their kudu then I would take a second one in a heartbeat. Then if I found my first one then I would have two. If not then I would have one.

That evening me and and Dean went to the stand so I could see if that duiker came back as it was on my list. Adam and Daniel would go for a drive and look for a kudu for Adam as he was next shot. Within minutes we heard a gun shot. I figured Adam had his kudu. The sooner they got theirs, the sooner I was on the gun again. We did not see too much other than Guinea Hens and a few small pigs that were out of range. The clouds moved in again right at the best time of night so we got picked up. The gun shot was Adam taking a nice impala. When he shot his two other huge impalas ran out. He now wanted one of these as well as me and Dean who still did not have ours. That about ended Day 3. Very uneventful compared to the first two days.

[BCRiverBoater]

Day 4

The place we were supposed to go today for Daniels zebra, my blue wildebeest and our blesbuck fell through. However Bertus found a new place he had never been to that would give me and Daniel a chance for our blesbuck. Adam and Dean headed out for kudu and we started out to our new location. On the way there we picked up some more salt for our capes and a few groceries. We got to the location at about 9 and was ready for hunting by 9:30.

We barely got out of the yard and a very nice impala jump the brush in front of us. I knew instantly he was a shooter and I wanted him. We asked the driver but he said no impala. The male ran into the brush but then ran back out. I said to Bertus that I wanted him. He then got out his cell phone. Only in Africa. The owner said he did not have impala, but we were looking at one. Bertus offered a little more and the owner said take him. Well about a 75 yard shot and he was down. Still using the .338 WM. Seemed a little large but I am comfortable with the gun and the Africans are big on big guns for grass and bush. We did have a 30-06 some days and a .308 but it rarely came out. Bertus was a big fan of the .338 Win Mag with 250 grain Nosler Partitions. The trackers grabbed the impala and vrought it back to a nice area for the pictures as were still on the main road and by the feed lot. I had not been hunting impala yet but Daniel ensured me it was very big compared to what they had seen so far. I got out and looked at him and was very happy. Turns out it remained the largest one taken this trip by the 4 of us. We hunted the two larger ones seen the night before and saw them several times but would not get a shot at them. They were very wide and tall.

Here is a picture of my impala.
http://i724.photobucket.com/albums/ww250/BCRiverBoater/Africa%202012/Trent-Impala.jpg

So it was 5 minutes in and we were loaded and ready to start looking for blesbuck. Because I shot the impala it was Daniels turn to look for blesbuck. We drove around a bit and found a few blesbuck here and there but no shooters yet. We put on a lot of miles over 1-1.5 hours and spotted some hartebeest, gemsbuck, springbuck, black wildebeest and a few small blesbuck. We did find a nice white blesbuck and we knew Adam wanted one. So back to the cell phones. Adam and Dean were now on their way. We decided we better get my impala back to be worked on. As we got back near the farm we found a large herd of blesbuck. Immediately we saw two large white blesbuck but the two of us wanted common blesbuck. Then we finally found a shooter. Daniel lined up and had a close easy shot with the .338. After some pictures we loaded up and took the two animals to the skinners.

We had a some water and had time to relax while waiting for the other hunters. We spent time taking some good photos and watching the skinners. Once Adam and Dean showed up, all four of us and the two PH's loaded up. We went back to where Daniel got his blesbuck and found the two large white ones again. Adam lined up and took a nice shot. Bertus told him to wait until he was broadside as he was angled away hard. Adam was lined up with the good rests about 60 yards away. He said the second funniest line of the trip. Bertus said wait....wait. Adam is lined up and says "it feels good, why wait?" Boom he drops him. Bertus and the rest of us have a good laugh. A very nice trophy. The largest one of the trip. There is a second white one and they start bugging me to shoot it as I was only one needing one still. I had my mind made up for a three way mount with the impala, blesbuck and springbuck so I wanted them all common so they have all brown colors. Adam had a black sporingbuck and now a white blesbuck so it would be a nice color match. I knew if I shot the white one then I would want a black springbuck changing my whole plan. Therefore I passed it up.

Daniel and Dean went back to the main farm with Bertus and me and Adam and Abrie stayed to look for my blesbuck. What a hot day and me and Adam stayed out all day. We drove for hours looking for my blesbuck. No luck. Just the nice white one and Abrie kept trying to get me to shoot it. We did spot two different large red hartebeest. When we saw each of these I had made up my mind. I am wanting one now. But both times the driver screwed up and did not stop in time then turned the wrong way and turned behind bushes etc. Both times the bulls ran away. I was upset but figured it happened for a reason. We headed back about 5pm. Daniel and Dean were in the blind when we got back. Finally some cold beer and some cold spiced rum and coke. It had been a long day with limited water and no food. We did stop in town on the way home and got a meat pie with mystery meat in it and a 6 pack of beer. They were gone in the 15 minute ride to the farm.

The blind was unproductive tonight. it is looking like they really should have taken that duiker that night. Adam and Dean did relive the morning when they were chasing the big impala. They found the same two and got close to them but could not get a shot. They really want these two animals. Dean still needs one and Adam will take a second one. They also saw the red hartebeest we saw the first two days and it is a good one. Now I want one even worse. My time will come.

[SHAKER]

Love'n it! keep it come'n......

[BCRiverBoater]

Day 5

Kudu day!!! All 4 of us and the two PH's are off to a new concession for the whole day to look for kudu. We have two trucks lined up so we can split up. Adam and I in one truck to find Adam's kudu and my blesbuck. Daniel and Dean in another truck to look for Daniels kudu and his zebra. We start hunting at around 9:30 am. We split up and go in separate directions so we are not near each other when the shooting starts. We head right into the heavily treed area and don;t go more than 5 minutes. We see a bull kudu under a tree. He has his head stuck right in the trees. We can tell he is a bull and has weight but can not see how high he is. We debate on size for a few minutes but we are not sure. He then walks away into the thick trees. We see that he is mature and close to 40" and would be a shooter. Adam is not sure as he has not seen any bulls yet. However we do not get a shot anyways. We drive around this area for awhile and jump several cows but do not see anymore bulls. We do se several giraffe and man are they big when you are up close.

We come out of the trees into a more open area and see some blesbuck. Up until now the blesbuck have been very quiet and still not these ones. They run away instantly. We see that one is a shooter so we go after them. We do not get a shot again but then they run into a herd of 6 male red hartebeest. We can see that two are way larger than the others and are shooters. I now switch to hartebeest mode as I now have officially added them to my list. We follow them for almost an hour and get no shot. All the animals on this farm are very cautious and more like North American game. Me and Abrie grab the shooting sticks and go on foot. We get a glimpse of them but the wind shifts and they spook. Gone! We see them go up and over a large hill towards the other guys about 1 km away. We got a good look at them and want the one male! While keeping our eye on them we spot the zebra. We call the other truck and tell them we are coming up there to get the hartebeest. We also tell them about the zebra. We start heading up to the hartebeest and see the other truck driving as well. They do not appear to be going after the zebra. We call them again and Abrie tells them about the zebra location. They said they have been seeing them and do not see a male. The owner is with them and only wants a male taken. So we tell them we are going after the hartebeest. Seems strange but we are kinda going in the same direction. We think maybe they are going after the hartebeest as well. Game on! What is better than some friendly competition? All of a sudden we see the hartebeest and those guys are a little closer. We look but it is the 4 smaller ones off to our right. We drive a little closer and have a better angle at them. Finally the other truck turns a bit away. Maybe they do not see them. We drive a little more and all of a sudden Abrie tells the driver to stop. Off to the left of us are the other 2 hartebeest. The older males are really dark red. These 2 are dark. Finally we found the two larger males and they are out of site of the other truck about 600 yards away and behind us to the left. The driver sets up the truck and shuts it off. We are about 200 yards out and the bull stops in a small opening slightly quartering away but looking right at us. Abrie wants to get closer. I say no it is good. I am used to hiking on foot and making 100-300 yard shots with only branched or small trees as rests. Standing in a vehicle with two heavy shooting bags on a rack is like shooting off a bench rest. 200 yards is an easy shot as all our shots have been so good that I do not think the cross hairs ever move. i line up and squeeze the trigger. I am shooting Abrie's 30-06 for the first time. They use a 180 grain bullet. The hartebeest just drops in his tracks. We high five and shake hands. Abrie says that is a good male. Larger than the two we wanted yesterday. Me and Adam and Abrie walk up to it. Abrie immediatley says holy shit that is big. Congratulations on a trophy red hartebeest. I wanted a heavy bull with no space between its horns. That is what I had been saying to the guides. I do not care about length I just want mass. Well when I look at it...I am stoked. It is very heavy and a lot longer than I thought. It is so heavy that it does not look that long. But when you look at it and get your hands on it, it is longer than one would think. My pictures do not do the justice. You need to see a side profile to see the length. I hope the other camera has some different angles. i truly do not know how big it is at this time as the PH's say every animal is big. lol That is their job. We take some pictures and shake hands. Abrie is truly happy with this animal so I figure it must be good. He wants in the picture and wants to use his camera. The blacks and the drivers want in as well. It must be good but I have no idea. Check it out.

http://i724.photobucket.com/albums/ww250/BCRiverBoater/Africa%202012/Trent-RedHartebeest2.jpg

I turns out that we got one more the next day. It was a good one as well. When we walked up it was noticeably lighter and little smaller. It may be longer on the tops but the weight is no comparison. We also went to the taxidermist and there must have been 30-40 hartebeest. None of them compared to this one. A few were close but nothing this size. I now realize I may have a very good animal. I sure hope I get mine back from Africa. I should have measured it to see how it truly stands to the other good males.

We drop off the hartebeest and head back to the treed area to look for kudu. We see an animal standing under a tree. We back up and see that it is a black fallow deer. They are not native to Africa but have been there since the late 1600's. Adam sees the horns look like a cross between elk and caribou. He wants it. Out comes the cell phone again. Only in Africa. They negotiate a price and bang. Down goes the buck. Abrie explains how rare they are and how hard they are to find. It is not huge compared to Europe but very respectful for Africa. He also states that the dark ones are even more rare. Farmers buy them and release them then never see them again. He has tried for 6 years and still does not have one. Adam is very happy with his unique trophy. I buggedhim about going tall the way to Africa to shoot a fallow deer. A few minutes later we hear a gun shot. Maybe a kudu for Daniel? We phone them and they tell us Daniel got his zebra.

[BCRiverBoater]

Day 5 continued

We drive back to the skinners to drop off the fallow deer. Abrie takes his truck and rifle to town to get beer and lunch. Adam and I jump in the truck with no PH and go to help load the zebra. We are almost there and look over and see a kudu bull under a tree. I tell the driver to stop. I am explaining to him we have a kudu standing there. Give me the rifle I am yelling. He says no I can't. Lets wait for Abrie. He keeps driving and says it will stay there. Me and Adam can't believe it. We have been looking for them all week and we have one here and can't shoot it. Anyways we go and see the zebra and take pictures. We help load the heavy male and congratulate Daniel. We then tell Bertus that there is a kudu just over there. For some reason Daniel jumps in the shooter seat and we head over there. Sure enough it is under the same tree. We stop and the funniest thing ever happens. Bertus is still talking to the driver and getting him to slow down and turn to the left. Daniel is loading the gun and me and Adam and Dean are going for our binos. I ask if it is even the bull and Adam says yes its a bull. Daniel just grabs the rifle, swings 90 degrees to his left and free hands the gun. Boom! Right beside Adams ear as he was still looking through his binos. Bertus was just going for his binos when Daniel shoots. The funniest line of the trip comes from Bertus. "Not sure how big it is but it's dead!" The PH had not even looked at the animal and Daniel shot it. We all fall down laughing. Once the laughing ends we walk over to see the bull. Daniel walks up and says "sorry guys, I got a little excited" Frick we all break down laughing again. If we could have only got the whole thing on video. Anyways we have our first kudu down! Not sure how or what happened but Daniel got his kudu before Adam. lol We start bugging Daniel and Abrie nicknames him Kudu Poacher. The name stuck with him all week. I do not have pictures of this animal yet. I am guessing it is about 38". After 5 days there was no holding Daniel back. We start to think this is the one we may have seen in the morning??? Time to load it up and go back for the beer and lunch Abrie went to get. When we get back there and tell Abrie the story he just laughs and said we should have shot it. The driver could have gave us the gun. There is no law saying he had to be there. They are just sometimes nervous of hunters without the PH encase we do not know what we are looking at and take a female or a wrong species. So Adam could have shot it but no big deal. It was down either way. We enjoy the cold drinks and food.

Bertus decides to load up the animals and head back to the farm. We can send some guys back or all go in the one vehicle. Well with kudu still out there all four of us decide to stay. We all hunt out of one vehicle for the afternoon. We drive around looking for kudu for Adam but do not have anymore luck. We do jump some females again but that is it. We did see another fallow deer and many other animals. We eventually find a nice blue wildebeest and try for a shot. but after an hour it slips us. Right then we see a decent blesbuck at about 80 yards and with out hesitation I shoot. The 30-06 does its job once again. Unsuspecting but animal down. A very respectful blesbuck. We now all have our blesbuck.

http://i724.photobucket.com/albums/ww250/BCRiverBoater/Africa%202012/Trent-Blesbuck.jpg

It is about 5-6pm and we are spent. It was a long hot day and we were in the sun with out a break. Time to head back for supper and drinks. One thing you notice in Africa is everyone eats late when hunting. The earliest supper we had was maybe 9:30 pm. Lots of times we did not eat until about 10:30. I think this was one of those times. Anyways it was a great day. First and only kudu and a few other bonus animals including the big hartebeest.

[BCRiverBoater]

Day 6

Off to another new concession today. We are still looking for a kudu for Adam and if he can get one out of the way then I may get my second chance. There is also blue wildebeest here and red hartebeest. Daniel really wants one now after seeing the one I took the day before. We know it is only a matter of time before I get a chance at a wildebeest and Daniel gets a shot at the hartebeest. Both these animals are available but we have not spent much time lloking for them as we are concentrating mostly on kudu. Our hunting starts around 9:30 am again as we had another lengthy drive in the morning. We meet our drivers and head out for a morning hunt. Right away we see several female kudu but again no bulls. We are also on hartabeest right away. There is one shooter in this group. We spend about 30 minutes trying to get a shot but they just keep staying out of range. Daniel finally says to forget about them and keep looking for kudu. We cover a lot of ground and see several groups of hartebeest and some wildebeest. These animals are very spooky and do not provide very good looks or chances at any shots. We probably spent about an hour trying to get a shot a blue wildebeest as well as a group of hartebeest. We also see several eland and zebra. Of course they stand still now that we do not want any of them. We are also constantly spooking up steinbuck and duiker our of the tall grass but these little guys run for their life. I guess being so small in Africa it pays to run and hide. After a few more hours, we finally spot a good red hartebeest and it is in range. Daniel takes a look and agrees it is worth shooting. He takes a decent 175-200 yard shot and drops the bull in his tracks. When we approach this hartebeest we realize it is really long on top and even curls down a little. A very good bull. Fairly heavy and very long. A nice trophy. We now have two very good red hartebeest. We load up the animal and head to the lodge for a bite to eat.

While starting the fire and letting it burn down to cook on, the driver and his buddy bring out a nice bottle of Brandy. It is our first Brandy of the trip but a very nice touch. We each have two stiff drinks and they must have been good as the bottle is gone. We all have a little glow on and it is time to get back to hunting. We try a different area of the concession to see where the kudu are hiding out. We once again spot a few female kudu but no bulls. This time of year the bulls are in bachelor groups and not with the females. Out of nowhere we jump 4 blue wildebeest. Abrie glasses them quiclkly and we can tell one is a lot bigger than the others. He says they are four bulls and the one is a shooter. Right then they run away. We drive around them to cut them off and keep them from getting into the thick brush. This works and they head towards the grasslands. The bull steps out first at about 200 yards. We have been chasing these things for three days and this is the best chance I have. He is angling away pretty good but I know I do not have much time. I raise the gun and fire right away. Smack! He is hit hard but runs to his left with his left leg straight out. Abrie yells these animals are tough. Hit him again they can run for ever. I shoot quickly while he is on a dead run away from me. I rush the shot and shoot over him. Right then he falls down. I guess the 250 grain bullet going over his head scared him to death. Me and Abrie jump out and load our guns and start walking in the tall grass towards him. Abrie tells me on the way there to be ready and if he tries to get up we will both shoot. He states they are tough and angry when hit. If he gets up he may charge so be calm but ready. We spread out and walk towards where he went down. We spot him down and approach slowly. He is stone cold dead. My shot was a perfect shot in the boiler room. Blue wildebeest down. What a magnificent animal up close. Their hide is so shiny and blue. All the guys like the trophy and Dean immediately knows he wants one to go with his black wildebeest as well. The bull is older with a lot of character on his bosses. He tips back nicely as well. I am very happy with this animal. We take a lot of photos and video. Of all the pictures we took of the animals, we all agreed these ones turned out the best. I think it is due to the fact they are nice animals.

http://i724.photobucket.com/albums/ww250/BCRiverBoater/Africa%202012/Trent-BlueWildebeest2.jpg

This old boy was a work out for the 5 bellies full of brandy. We head back and drop it off for the skinners. They now have a hartebeest and wildebeest to work on. We head out again for another search for kudu. Finally we jump a bull. he runs off and stops but is iffy for a shot. Adam is not sure if he is big enough to take. We play cat and mouse for a bit and almost get into range a few times. But Adam is not sure. Finally Abrie asks if he wants it or not. if not we will move on and look elsewhere. Adam finally says okay I want him. We try to get a shot for another 20 minutes or so. The silly thing finally slips us and hides in the brush. We head back to the lodge for a break and to see what the storm clouds have in mind. A wicked thunder storm starts and we stay dry in the lodge. Well this is what you do in Africa while it rains.

http://i724.photobucket.com/albums/ww250/BCRiverBoater/Africa%202012/MixingDrinks.jpg

The rain subsides and it is late afternoon. We figure the last time we stopped for Brandy we went out and got a wildebeest. Now lets go fro kudu. We head back to where we saw the bull last and take a look. Unfortunately we do not see him again. Adam is not too upset as he was hoping for a bigger one anyways. We spend more time driving around but have no luck. All of a sudden a duiker jumps up and we see he is a male and is a shooter. For once in the whole trip it stops about 40 yards out in the grass. All I have is the 30-06 with 180 grain bullets but no time to trade guns. I line up and man are they small in the scope. I shot and nothing. I shot over the little guy. I am going to blame this on the ballistics as the bullet is still rising...lol Maybe it was the brandy...He only runs five feet and stops. Wow this is strange for a duiker. I line up again and take my time a little more. I also aim at the bottom of his shoulder. Boom!!! he runs in a few circles and goes down. My oldest daughter will be happy as this was what she wanted. A full mount of a duiker or steinbuck. We walk up to it and there is blood everywhere. This little guy managed to run with no shoulders and a beer can size exit wound. It was tough to get pictures as we needed some clean up. Therefore you are getting a close up. I also have no decision to make on what side will be against the wall. This buck is a good duiker as every quarter inch of horn counts.

http://i724.photobucket.com/albums/ww250/BCRiverBoater/Africa%202012/Trent-Duiker.jpg

I guess the Brandy works. We drive around a little longer before dropping it off for the skinners. Full mount for this one. Upon leaving the skinners we come across a few warthog. Nothing real big but the farmer wants them shot. Abrie and Adam line up and on the count of three they shoot. Haha...they were both aiming for the same one. Therefore we only got the one small pig. Abrie offers the meat to the skinners as they worked hard today. We hunt right to dark but do not find another kudu. Man these ghosts are living up to their name. We are running out of time. 4 days of hunting left but only 2 days in kudu country. We had lined up our last 2 days to be at a lion and rhino concession as we wanted to see the fancy lodges and get a chance to see rhino and cape buffalo along with the other exotic animals like the sable etc. We also knew it would be neat to see all the lions up close in the breeding pens. But of all the animals they have, there is no kudu. So only two days left to hunt kudu and we still need to bush the bush and look for mine.

[BCRiverBoater]

Day 7

We got up and loaded everyone up to push bush and look for my kudu and hopefully get one for Adam. Today all 5 trackers/skinners are coming as well as the 4 of us and the 2 PH's and even Bertus neighbor. It is looking to be another hot day. It is tough hiking through the thorny brush in the heat. We head to the section of land first. We all spread out about 75 yards apart. Bertus and Adam stay in the truck and work around to the other side. We go in and start looking under every larger tree and follow any tracks we can find. We zig zag through the brush to cover as much ground as possible. I get to the first road crossing and see I am on other peoples tracks as well. I then hear something waling on the rocks off to my left about 50 yards away. I take the gun off my shoulder and chamber a round. I am scanning the tops of the brush looking for ears and horns. Nothing! Then I look down the road and see a very large boar warthog. We have not seen any larger ones as this area is very hard and the tusks stay worn down. This is the largest bodied pig by far and has about 4-5 inch tusks. Not a monster but very respectful. I slowly lower the cross-hairs onto him and he looks at me and runs. I needed only 5 more seconds for a shot. If I had been looking low instead of high above the brush he would have been dead for sure. This turns out to be our only chance at a large warthog. I head to the far side of the property and meet the truck and other guys. Nothing. We saw some fresh tracks but no animals.

We head to the other side and start again. I am on some very fresh kudu tracks so try my best to follow them. I know I would let old Tommy down but I do my best. A few minutes in I hear a gun shot. Please be Abrie shooting at my kudu. I stay on my tracks and see where they lead. I can hear the truck coming towards where I am heading. Good. If I jump this kudu it will head right to them. I follow the tracks to a large tree and some larger bushes. There is tracks everywhere around here and a pile of old and fresh scat. This is a hang out for the kudu. The branches are rubbed off and there is beds everywhere. I stay on the tracks and head the next largest tree. After a few days hunting kudu you start to see a pattern of where these creatures hang out in the heat. I get close to the tree and all of a sudden a kudu jumps out of the bush on a dead run away from me. I do not get a good look or time to shoot but I am certain I see horns. All of a sudden I hear excited voices from the truck and it stops quickly. Then I can hear it turn around and take off. I know they saw the kudu and it has to be a male. I meet up to the truck awhile later and get the story. First Abrie jumped a very big kudu. he squeezed off a quick low percentage shot and missed. He claims it was my kudu as it was very big and wide like mine. He also thinks he saw it limping? No idea if it is truly mine or not as it happened so fast. One of the other guys says they saw it and it was not limping. So no idea if it was mine or not. And I will never no know. Then I asked the guys in the truck about what I scared up for them. They said it was a good kudu. A shooter for sure. Bigger than the few Adam has seen to date. It took off and they followed it but never could get a shot. It was definitely not limping so was another bull. Now we know there is at least two good bulls in this area. So much for finding my kudu. I guess pushing the bush is effective but makes it impossible to get a shot. These animals can run through this thick bush very quickly and there is just too many places to hide.

Time to go have lunch and a rest. Does not take long to get wore out and dehydrated waling in the 35c weather. That afternoon was just about relaxing and rest while waiting for the evening. Dean wants to find those 2 big impala so him and Abrie went on foot with the shooting sticks. Daniel went to the blind to wait for warthogs as they have been seen near there. Adam and I went with Bertus and all 5 trackers to look for kudu again. The trackers pushed some more bush but nothing. While driving later on we spot a good bull about 350 yards out but again he takes off before we can shoot. We spend about 30 minutes following him and getting close but never close enough for a shot. At one point one of the trackers even jump out and tries to push him our way. These damn kudu just are not cooperating. I guess that is why they call it hunting not shooting. Once again it gets dark and no kudu. We pick up Daniel at the blind and nothing. He only saw rabbits, eland and birds. Abrie and Dean found the impala and played cat and mouse all evening. The impala won this time. but Dean keeps seeing the two big ones and it makes him want them even more. This is only one of two days with anyone animals being shot. But I guess we are winding down. Adam only wants his kudu, Daniel says he is done and Dean only needs impala and blue wildebeest. I am also down to only a springbuck for sure and a stenibuck if he shows up and kudu only if Adam connects.

[BCRiverBoater]

Day 8

Time is running out for kudu. We only have today and tomorrow morning to hunt here for kudu then we move tomorrow afternoon. We are heading to a town about 2 ours away whee Bertus lives and will stay at a B&B that night. Then we stop in at the taxidermists to go over our plans and make our order. Then it is two hours to the Lion & Rhino concession where we have one night before heading to the Pilanesberg National Park for a two night stay before flying home. time to hammer down for Adam's kudu.

We all drove around looking for the impala first thing or the blue wildebeest. Nothing. We then spent a few hours looking for a kudu. Saw some females and one really young bull. Nothing. We dropped Dean off to sit in the brush where we have been seeing the impala. We also dropped of Daniel at the blind once again. We are off to look for kudu. After several hours we head back and pick up Daniel first. While heading over to get Dean we jump the big impala close to Dean. Adam and Abrie take off on foot to get a crack at one or try to push them to Dean. They get very close to them but do not get a shot. They also pushed them within a few feet of waling out in the opening in front of Dean. But they put the slip on everyone. Back for lunch!

After lunch we go for a quick drive and check on some water holes. Nothing. Back by 2:30 for a nap. I actually laid down and had my first and only nap of the trip. The others nodded off a few times during the trip but this was a first for me. Felt good. Up at 5:00 for an evening hunt. Dean went on foot again for these impala that have him hooked. Daniel went back to the stand and me and Adam back after the kudu. Pretty uneventful night. We saw a few females only and nothing else. Daniel did not see anything at the blind. Dean did not see his impala either. however he got to within 100 yards of the blue wildebeest we had been after. He was lined up and the big bull needed to step another 5 yards into the opening. Of course he turned and ran. I guess Dean had the most action of the evening.

Back for supper. Tonight is BBQ night which means lighting a fire and letting it burn down for over an hour before cooking. So we sat around the fire and told stories and had a few drinks. Another supper at about 10pm. A few more drinks and off to bed for our last night at this main farm.

[BCRiverBoater]

Day 9

Last morning for kudu. We have until about 2pm at the latest to find a kudu. We drop Dean off to sit and wait for his impala. The three of us drive around to a spot we have not been for awhile. Of course! Blue wildebeest 60 yards away and just staring at us. But Dean is in his chair looking for impala. Now that is hunting. The guy is not with us and we get the best chance at the wildebeest bull. We continue on to an area we have not been to for a few days. We have seen a few females here but no bulls. We sorta wonder why we are not back where we have had the most action. Well I guess they know where the animals are and maybe we just haven't been seeing these ones. Right away we see 5 kudu cows and one young bull. We slow down and Tommy spots a bull about 50 yards away. By the time we stop the bull moves and out of nowhere appears a second bull. The second is a lot bigger than the first. A definite shooter. The smaller one is good so the larger one is a no brainer. They are just slowly walking through the tall brush so we can not get a shot. Finally Abrie and Adam jump up on the roof deck. They can just see the tops of the head and horns. Adam lines up using Abrie's shoulder as a rest. But they are about 200 yards out and Adam only has a head shot. The rest is not good enough and he decides not to shoot. Finally the bulls lose us. Damn kudu! Finding them is hard enough but getting a shot is impossible. I am now glad I took the shot I did as it is no different then these opportunities.

We head back at 8 am and have a beer. Only in South Africa. At about 8:30 we take Daniel to the blind one last time. We then head back to the main area we have been seeing kudu. We do a quick drive through and see nothing. We decide to go back to where we saw the kudu this morning as it is a way smaller area and maybe we can scare them up. We are running out of time. On the way there we check on Dean. He has an impala down. He must have shot it right when we were dropping of Daniel. It is not the big one he was looking for but he saw it come out and figured it is now or never. It is part of the herd he had been chasing but not the big boy. However it is a very good impala. We take out pictures and go drop it off.

We head back to where we last saw the kudu bulls and boom. There they are! Right where we say them earlier. They are about 100 yards out standing in the bush again. All Adam can see is horns sticking out and he is staring right at us. The rest feels gun and Adam lines up. He debates what to do but figures it is his last chance. All he sees is horn. He guesses 3" or so and comes down. Time to go for a head shot. Low percentage but figures either he will miss or drop it in his tracks. He shoots and we only see one run. We do not hear a smack but can not tell if he hit or not. We walk in and find nothing. A clean miss. either he shot high or hit a branch. I laugh and say well at least your miss did not cost you $1700. Abrie falls down laughing. Another win for the kudu. They are kicking our asses!!!

We spend another 2 hours looking for these bulls again. We even push some brush. You should see these trackers walk and run through this thick thorny bush. It is amazing. We can not walk through it without being stuck and all cut up. They ran through it untouched. No luck. We do scare up the 5 cows and young bull and some waterbuck but no kudu.

Time to pack up and head to Bertus house and on to lion concession. We are done with kudu. All we have left at the lion concession is my springbuck and Deans blue wildebeest. Apparently this place is wide open with no trees and has a ton of animals. Abrie calls it the zoo. There is no doubt in our minds that we will get the last two animals. We will only have one evening there but it sounds like it will be easy.

Not to bore you with non hunting stories I will skip the events of the afternoon and evening. All I can say is we did the Canadians proud on the 2 hour drive. Abrie has never seen anyone drink beer like we did in that short time. lol Needless to say when we got to the B&B we had a nice cool swim and finished a bottle of Brandy before Bertus came to take us to his house to meet his family and have supper. He has one hell of a trophy room. You name it he has it. Cape buffalo, rhino, giraffe, lions...everything. Well another bottle there and then why not one more back at the B&B. We left our mark in that town and the poor B&B will never be the same. The ladies in the morning who served us breakfast were smiling and asking how our night was. I think we may have been a little loud. I said I would avoid non hunting stories so time to move on. The last hunting day will be posted later tonight.

[BCRiverBoater]

Day 10

We woke up a little later than normal...maybe we were a little hungover. haha Breakfast was at 9:00am and only because the ladies at the B&B needed to go to town and were tired of waiting for us to get up. Must have been a good night. Bertus showed up around 10 and we are off to the Lion & Rhino concession. But on the way we need to stop at the taxidermist and go over all of the mounts we want. I takes about an hour to get to the taxidermist shop. When we walk into this business we are all blown away! There are 100's and 100's of animals on the walls and animals all over the shop floor. There is every single specie of animal from Africa. There must be 30+ animals of most species. There is not a mount you can dream of that is missing from this collection. We sit down one on one with the staff and go over what we want for each of our animals. They have samples or pictures of anything you can think of. While each of us is going over the lists, the other walk around in awe taking pictures. I took over 100 pictures of various mounts. I must say that a full mount sable is the nicest mount I have seen. Mind you the leopards are pretty damn cool. We spent about 1.5-2 hours in the shop before moving on.

It is another 1.5 hour drive to the Lion Concession where we will be spending one night before moving to the Game Reserve for two nights. We arrives at about 2pm and get settled into our rooms. This coincesion has unbelievable lodges and buildings. They have two seperate locations for accommodations. Ours has a full kitchen and dining room, a large sitting area and bar, a large outdoor sitting area and about 6 lodges. There is also a nice pool and waterfall area. It is a top notch organization. We are staying at the lion camp. We are surrounded my lion cages with at least 25+ male lions. They are everywhere. What impressive powerful animals. There is every size and color you could dream of. Somehwere there is also all the lioness but they are not anywhere near the males. We take some photos and wait for the truck to come for our last hunt. We still have a blue wildebeest to get for Dean and my springbuck. We were told it would be no problem to get them here. About 4pm we load up and get ready to go.

First thing you notice is that there is no trees on this concession. Wide open grasslands so you can see forever. I guess the area where they hunt lions is heavily treed but the two parcels we hunted were wide open. This is a very large farm with every animal available other than elephants and kudu. We drive around and spot several blue wildebeest but nothing Dean is wanting to shoot. We had the cameras out as there is animals everywhere. We see cape buffalo, rhino, sable, waterbuck, white springbuck...the list goes on. They even had some black impala at a price tag of $25000 US. They also had two golden wildebeest at a price of $60000 US. You name the animal and they have it. This place is neat to visit and for photos but not the most exciting to hunt. I would recommend it if you ever are in the area as it is a beautiful lodge and you can see all the animals of Africa. Finally we see a nice herd of wildebeest. Right way we decide there is a good shooter. The male provides a shot right away. We all start the videos and wait for the shot. Click! Dry fire! We all break into laughter. Dean looks down and notices the gun did not have a cartridge chambered. Bertus loaded the gun and gave it to Dean but he did not cycle the bolt. The bull is still standing there so we all get ready again. Click! Again! Now we can hold in the laughter. Man I hope we got it all on video. Dean looks down again and notices the bolt was not closed all the way. He makes sure it is ready the third time. Now the bull has walked into the herd. We wait about 25 minutes before he presents a third shot. We are laughing so hard...guess you had to be there. Finally he shoots and boom. We know he is hit but he runs and is not limping. Thankfully we are in an open area and not where I shot mine. He runs a bit and we can not tell which one he is in the herd. So we just sit and wait. But after 10 minutes nothing happens. Finally we spot blood on the bull but it is back behind the guts right up against the hind quarter. What the hell? At a 100 yards with a good rest? Dean figures the gun is shooting left? WE have used it all week and it has been good??? Finally the bull presents a shot at just over 100 yards. He lines up and takes his time. Boom! Whack! He is hit hard. But he runs again. This time he slows down after 100 yards and goes down. We walked up and see that he hit about 6 inches behind the shoulder. Still caught the edge of the lungs. Now Dean is sure the gun is hooting left. Then Adam admits that the gun slid off the rack yesterday and hit the rail pretty hard. I said now you tell me. I have to shoot a little springbuck next. The amount the gun was off on the wildebeest would be a miss on a springbuck. Bertus still does not say anything. Just tells me to take my time when I get to shoot. We take a bunch of pictures and have a good laugh at the dry fires and the slight miss on the third and fourth attempts. They are such a nice animal. We load up the animal in a second truck and they take it back.

We have to head to another parcel for the common springbuck. The wildebeest took about 1.5 hours but that was because he was being picky and it paid off. We head to another parcel and start looking for the springbuck. Within minutes we spot a small group. All females. So we drive another few minutes up onto a hill. Apparently they have some springbuck. There must be a herd over over 100. They start running and I just start glassing. Immediately Bertus says fourth from the right. This is the back of the herd. He says he is a good male. So we watch the herd as we head after them. How the hell am I going to get a shot at this buck as there is so many animals. We get to about 100 yards and the herd stops. I load the gun and wait for instructions. The last few animals are waling around the back of the herd. They finally stop to and to my amazement the big male stops about 5 feet short of the main herd. Bertus says he is alone take him. So in the back of my head is this gun that is shooting left. The male is standing broadside facing left. I am trying to take my time and BErtus reminds me. I line up and just get the crosshairs on him and all I can think of is they are going to run or he is going to walk into the herd. So much for taking my time. I just get the crosshairs on him and pull the trigger. I swear I look up as I pull the trigger as I watched him fall over with my naked eye. Bertus laughs and says it was a heat seeking missle as I looked up before I shot. Adam yells so much for taking your time, did you even aim? Luckily he went down. Well it helps that it is a .338 WM on a 75lb animal. Upon seeing the animal it is immediately apparent that I hit him about 4 inches left and hit the base of his neck in front of the shoulder. Finally Bertus says, oh my gun must be shooting left and I should check it soon. Oh well it all worked out. We all have another good laugh at how fast I shot. I guess I know what way the offset is going to have to face on my three way pedestal mount.

These are the prettiest little animals in Africa.
http://i724.photobucket.com/albums/ww250/BCRiverBoater/Africa%202012/Trent-Springbuck.jpg

For those of you who have not shot a springbuck I want to explain the hair on his back. About 2-5 minutes after they die that hair starts to stand up. It rises up on its own and spreads apart. It smells just like honey. We captured it on video on some of the other ones we shot. After another 5 minutes it just lays down and looks like they do when they are alive standing. it is very neat to watch.

This ends our hunting portion of the trip. We hunted springbuck for maybe 5 minutes on this farm. We do the pictures and load up the animal. We head back to the rooms and unload our packs. Now we head out for a ton of pictures of the lions. They are everywhere and are impressive. We are about 5 feet away from them through the fences. We take a ton of pictures. Here is one to show you a few of the males we were looking at.

http://i724.photobucket.com/albums/ww250/BCRiverBoater/Africa%202012/Lions.jpg

To wrap up the day we had another open fire BBQ with a lot of t-bone steaks. Some good stories, cold drinks and some great food. Africa to a tee!!!
Tomorrow we are up and off to the Pilanesberg Nation Park Game Reserve for two nights. Here we hope to see elephants, lions, rhinos and plains game. The reserve is about 2 hours from here and then from there about 3 hours from Johberg.

[1/2 slam]

Here is a picture of my impala.
http://i724.photobucket.com/albums/ww250/BCRiverBoater/Africa%202012/Trent-Impala.jpg

That is a very nice Impala

[BCRiverBoater]

Day 11-12

I am done boring you guys and I am done typing these stories. Next time maybe I will stick just to photos.

Anyways we spent two days at the game reserve. It is a very large chunk of land and we did not cover it all. For photos and scenery it would be tough to match anywhere in the world. The accommodations and food was very good. There is about 6 separate lodges on the park grounds. We saw two of the other ones and they looked very nice as well.

To sum it up, we saw a ton of zebra and blue wildebeest. We also saw springbuck , impala, giraffe, waterbuck, kudu, tsessebe, steinbuck, duiker, klipspringer, warthog and who knows what else. We managed to see a few elephant and some rhino. We only saw one female lion as they are hard to find. Of course we missed out on cheetah and leopard. But to end the trip on a high note we saw the only pack of spotted wild dogs in the whole park. These animals are almost extinct in most parts so it was neat to run into them. If in Africa I would recommend a few days at a large game reserve.

I have attached a few photos from the game reserve.
http://i724.photobucket.com/albums/ww250/BCRiverBoater/Africa%202012/Baboon.jpg
Baboon
http://i724.photobucket.com/albums/ww250/BCRiverBoater/Africa%202012/Elephant.jpg
Elephant
http://i724.photobucket.com/albums/ww250/BCRiverBoater/Africa%202012/Impala.jpg
Impala
http://i724.photobucket.com/albums/ww250/BCRiverBoater/Africa%202012/Giraffe.jpg
Giraffe
http://i724.photobucket.com/albums/ww250/BCRiverBoater/Africa%202012/Klipspringer.jpg
Big klipspringer

[BCRiverBoater]

http://i724.photobucket.com/albums/ww250/BCRiverBoater/Africa%202012/Kudu.jpg
Elusive kudu
http://i724.photobucket.com/albums/ww250/BCRiverBoater/Africa%202012/Springbuck.jpg
Springbuck
http://i724.photobucket.com/albums/ww250/BCRiverBoater/Africa%202012/Steinbuck.jpg
Young Steinbuck
http://i724.photobucket.com/albums/ww250/BCRiverBoater/Africa%202012/Tsessebe.jpg
Tsessebe
http://i724.photobucket.com/albums/ww250/BCRiverBoater/Africa%202012/Warthog.jpg
Small warthog

[BCRiverBoater]

http://i724.photobucket.com/albums/ww250/BCRiverBoater/Africa%202012/VelvetMonkey2.jpg

http://i724.photobucket.com/albums/ww250/BCRiverBoater/Africa%202012/VelvetMonkey.jpg
Velvet Monkey
http://i724.photobucket.com/albums/ww250/BCRiverBoater/Africa%202012/Rhino2.jpg

http://i724.photobucket.com/albums/ww250/BCRiverBoater/Africa%202012/Rhino.jpg

http://i724.photobucket.com/albums/ww250/BCRiverBoater/Africa%202012/Rhino3.jpg

We saw several different groups of rhino over the two days.

[BCRiverBoater]

http://i724.photobucket.com/albums/ww250/BCRiverBoater/Africa%202012/WildDogs-1.jpg


http://i724.photobucket.com/albums/ww250/BCRiverBoater/Africa%202012/WildDogs2.jpg
Wild dogs on the road. And man do they stink. Smell like rotten meat.

http://i724.photobucket.com/albums/ww250/BCRiverBoater/Africa%202012/Lioness.jpg

http://i724.photobucket.com/albums/ww250/BCRiverBoater/Africa%202012/Lioness2.jpg

http://i724.photobucket.com/albums/ww250/BCRiverBoater/Africa%202012/Lioness3.jpg

Only vehicle on the road in this area. We were fortunate to catch a lion in the wild. We looked hard for the rest of the pride but could not see any others. We know they were there somewhere.

[Bear Chaser]

Sounds like you guys had a really great trip with a lot of good laughs.

Too bad a guy has to go back to work eh!

[MOL]

That is one hell of a job on writing up your hunt and your pictures are excellent! Congratulations on the great trophies. Dam the Kudu, you will shoot a monster next time. I am presently in the very early stages of a South African hunt planning and maybe we will cross paths in FSJ to touch base. Sounds like you guys had a blast, we too got some comments about our beer drinking abilities in Tajikistan, I know you guys did us proud in SA!

[BCRiverBoater]

That is one hell of a job on writing up your hunt and your pictures are excellent! Congratulations on the great trophies. Dam the Kudu, you will shoot a monster next time. I am presently in the very early stages of a South African hunt planning and maybe we will cross paths in FSJ to touch base. Sounds like you guys had a blast, we too got some comments about our beer drinking abilities in Tajikistan, I know you guys did us proud in SA!

You bet. If you ever want to chat before heading down just let me know. I saw the pics from your trip. Very nice animals!

[BiG Boar]

Great write up BCRB! Brought me back a few years to when I was there. Good kudu are always hard to find. I missed my neck shot through bush also (for some reason the PH always tells you its okay to shoot through bush). Luckily there was no blood, but I learned a lesson there. Never shoot unless you KNOW you're going to kill the animal. There are some expensive drops of blood on the soil in africa. I ended up taking my kudu on the last day in a free range mountainous area we were not expecting to see them. Africa is an incredible place though, I know I'll be back some day. Thanks for the write up. If you can post a few dozen more pictures of the trip, I would love to see them.

And tell your buddies to post up their stories and pictures, I would love to see more!

[SHAKER]

Great write up BCRB! Brought me back a few years to when I was there. Good kudu are always hard to find. I missed my neck shot through bush also (for some reason the PH always tells you its okay to shoot through bush). Luckily there was no blood, but I learned a lesson there. Never shoot unless you KNOW you're going to kill the animal. There are some expensive drops of blood on the soil in africa. I ended up taking my kudu on the last day in a free range mountainous area we were not expecting to see them. Africa is an incredible place though, I know I'll be back some day. Thanks for the write up. If you can post a few dozen more pictures of the trip, I would love to see them.

And tell your buddies to post up their stories and pictures, I would love to see more!

I'm with big boar..... keep the pics come'n! I'm in the early planning stages and can't get enough of others exprience's.

[BCRiverBoater]

I will see what I can find over the next few days.

[Blainer]

I'm thrilled with this thread.
I'm past the early stages of planning,paid for flight today.
May 12th,but what a killer flight.
I opted to spend a couple nights in Amsterdam on the way home.
Keep the pictures coming.

[BCRiverBoater]

I'm thrilled with this thread.
I'm past the early stages of planning,paid for flight today.
May 12th,but what a killer flight.
I opted to spend a couple nights in Amsterdam on the way home.
Keep the pictures coming.

Probably a good idea except Amsterdam? Would have been way too much trouble for me. haha I have always wanted to see Amsterdam but figured it is a trip in its own.

The flight really sucks. Make sure you pay the extra for the private lounge access. Maybe you are an elite flier already but if not pay for the lounge access. It gives you a quiet setting without all the people. Also it has free drinks and food and most importantly it has nice showers. This was a life saver for us and I will never fly international without it.

[Norcana]

Trent,

Awesome looking animals! Looks like you had a great time with Bert. Those South Africans sure love their Brandy and coke...
We'll have to meet up for beers one day and look at your photo album. I really enjoyed reading your post as I have a Sable hunt planned in 2013 in Zambia.
Congratulations on the great Trophies!

Cheers,
Sacha

[Philcott]

Day 11-12

I am done boring you guys and I am done typing these stories. Next time maybe I will stick just to photos.



Are you kidding me? I don't think you will have bored anyone with the stories and pics. Thanks for taking us on the ride with you.

[BCRiverBoater]

Trent,

Awesome looking animals! Looks like you had a great time with Bert. Those South Africans sure love their Brandy and coke...
We'll have to meet up for beers one day and look at your photo album. I really enjoyed reading your post as I have a Sable hunt planned in 2013 in Zambia.
Congratulations on the great Trophies!

Cheers,
Sacha

You bet Sacha. I would like to see the rest of your photos as well. I bet things are a little different in the "stan" countries. Sable is my dream animal in Africa. After seeing them at the taxidermist shop and in the wild...what a beautiful animal. I knew I liked them for plains game but after seeing them I would shoot one of them before a leopard I think.

[REMINGTON JIM]

Those are some awesome animals and pictures along with some great stories - Thks for posting them ! Hopefully 1 day i will get there ! Cheers RJ

[BCRiverBoater]

Woke up to some awesome news this morning? I received an e-mail from Bertus (our PH) and the subject title was "Look What Tommy Found". There was two e-mails and both had attachments. I immediately yelled to the wife. They found my kudu!!! Of course I had not opened the e-mails yet but I knew old Tommy found my kudu. Tommy was the old experienced tracker that led us all on a few good days of hunting for my kudu and pushing the bush.

Bertus told me if it died they would eventually find it and send it to the taxidermists. And it would be easy to find a cape. I had started to lose hope as a full month has gone by. I was even telling the neighbor last night that I was over it now and did not expect to recover it.

Upon opening the e-mail, I was over joyed. There laying in the red sand was a totally decayed kudu with a very nice set of horns. Of course it is very hard to tell how big he is with nothing to reference it to. But he was close to what I remember when I pulled the trigger. He comes around for the start of the third twist. Very wide and lays out nice. When we shot him that night and figured we would find him easily the next day I asked how big he was. They said it is as big as they get in this area and that I shot a very nice bull. For his area he does not get bulls over 50". Of course larger bulls live in other areas but he said you would hunt for a long time before getting one any larger. Bertus and Abrie figured every bit of 48-50" Of course that made me very happy that night but crushed me the next few days when we did not find him. He was easily the biggest one we saw all trip but I have no idea how long he really is. I do not think he is 48" but he is mid 40's quite easily. Of course it does not matter and I could give a crap. I have my kudu!!! Also made the $1700 pill a little easier to swallow. I will be celebrating tonight!!!

The pictures are a little rough has this animal has been laying dead for about a month. He must have dead right after we stopped looking for him. I do apologize for the photos but want everyone to see the one that almost got away as written in my story.

http://i724.photobucket.com/albums/ww250/BCRiverBoater/Africa%202012/FoundMyKudu2.jpg

http://i724.photobucket.com/albums/ww250/BCRiverBoater/Africa%202012/FoundMyKudu.jpg

[Bear Chaser]

Good news Trent. Did they tell you how far the critter was from where you shot it?

[SHAKER]

It's brutal reallity and has or probably will happen to all of us at one time or another. Looks doesnt' look like allot of scavangers where you were, he's pretty intact except for being really deflated. At least you know what happend and can sleep better at night knowing what happened.... and he's come'n home!

[Caveman]

Looks like a pretty nice bull! I'm no expert but I'd say it's right around that magic 48"

[BCRiverBoater]

Good news Trent. Did they tell you how far the critter was from where you shot it?

I am waiting for answers on where he was found etc. I heard it may have been by this one water hole and blind. If so it would be about 1.5km from where he was shot. When we tracked him he covered some serious ground. We went about 1 km in the other direction from where he was shot then he looped around and went about 3 km in the other direction. That would have put him well past this water hole. So he covered some miles. If he was actually found here then he lived the rest of the week we were there as we went by this hole daily and sat in the blind thinking he may come for water. But if he was tucked back in the trees we may not have seen him?

I will never really know how and when he died but at least he was found. I hate to leave an animal out there!!!

As far as scavengers...only the odd lynx or jackal but they do not have many on this concession as they do a good job of trapping and baiting to keep them out of there. And there are no big birds in this area either. Just the odd black and white crow but in the ten days we only saw one or two. This also made it hard to look for a dead animal. Up here you wait one day and the ravens are on an animal.

Just happy he is coming home!!!

[Spy]

That's awesome news! I think he's going to be taller than you think! A very nice trophy indeed! it's not often the horns make a forth curl and it looks like they are close to being there!M guess would be 49 for the left & 48 for the right! Thanks for the effort you put in to telling this story! It sure brought back allot of good memories.

[BCRiverBoater]

The taxidermist e-mailed me today and when they sent a guy out to pick up the horns they got a rough estimate on length from Bertus. They told me 53". I will believe it when I see it but wow. Very good if it is 50" plus. Man am I ever grateful they found this magnificent animal.

[REMINGTON JIM]

Excellent news for you BCRB ! And if they break the 50" + mark even better !! a real record ! Congrats ! :) Cheers RJ

[SHAKER]

Inches shouldn't matter...... You got'em finally. It's always good to know what actually happened. By the way I'm enveous of you getting to do this type of hunt... I know my turn is come'n though.

[Spy]

I knew he was going to be tall but over 50 inches is awesome ! Well done on a good trophy !

[BCHunterFSJ]

I just got back from my hunt in Argentina and have finally had time to read your stories and admire your photos. It all brought back great memories of my own hunt with Bertus. It is truly a real fun place to hunt!
Congratulations on a great hunt...

[BCRiverBoater]

Thanks. And congrats on your trip to Argentina. That is the other place on my list to visit and hunt. They wife really wants to see the country.

[Blainer]

I'm leaving in 9 days for South Africa.

[BiG Boar]

Very Jelous of you Blainer. Wish I was over on the dark continent now!

[BCRiverBoater]

I'm leaving in 9 days for South Africa.

This will be the longest 9 days of your life. I know the weeks leading up to our trip just kept dragging on. Good luck and I know you will have a blast. What are you hoping to shoot?

[bruin]

I'm leaving in 9 days for South Africa.

Have a blast there Blainer!

[markt308]

really well done thread! congrats on a crazy good trip

[BCRiverBoater]

Thanks. Took me days and days to write this thread. Was thinking maybe it was a little overkill. Haha

[silvertipp]

thanks for takeing the time to share this hunt with us, congrats on a great hunt
what do they do with all that meet did you get a chance to try any of it?

[BCRiverBoater]

We did try quite a bit of it. Most of it was very good but the black wildebeest was a little tough. Okay really tough!

Some of the meat is given to the trackers, skinners and farm hands. Some of the meat is given to the landowners where we hunted. The PH's took some meat as they all make a lot of sausage and jerky. Then what ever meat was left over is sold to the local meat markets. Nothing goes to waste in this country and I mean nothing. The stomach and intestines are all used as well by the locals.

[silvertipp]

thanks for the answer i would have never guessed they would utalize so much of the game,you keep refering to ph, im asumeing he is your guide ,would you clarify that please

[The Dude]

PH means "Professional Hunter". A paid guide.

[Blainer]

This will be the longest 9 days of your life. I know the weeks leading up to our trip just kept dragging on. Good luck and I know you will have a blast. What are you hoping to shoot?8 days now
looking to knock down:gemsbok,kudu,blue wildebeest,black wildebeest,warthog,antelope,springbok&blesbok

[BCRiverBoater]

Yes "PH" stands for Professional Hunter or guide.

Looks like you are after the same animals I took minus the zebra. I wanted a good warthog but knew the area I was hunting does not produce very many decent hogs. Taking both wildebeest was a nice touch to the trip. They are neat animals when you see them in the wild.

[Blainer]

1 more sleep
This feels like Disneyland for Big people!

[Scuba_Dave]

Take a box of ballpoint pens with you...And socks. If you venture outside the confines of the large cities in Africa they dont have access to these as much as you would think. You can barter a LOT with ballpoint pens and socks. If you have like one of those $2 pens that writes REALLY nice, you can pretty much get what you want lol. And this one sounds really odd...But tampons if I do remember. Really expensive there, and if you tip your cleaning maids with them you will be treated like a god. I think thats pretty much for anywhere but Europe, Canada, USA. But 100% bring pens and socks

[BCRiverBoater]

Just talked with the taxidermist and they are way ahead of schedule. They are hoping to have our trophies packed and crated in August. Originally they were hoping for October which would have only been 8 months. Now we may get them back in 6 months. They must not be as busy as planned.

I can not wait to get my first up close look at my kudu!

[thumper1]

Like people anywhere - the way to their hearts is through their children! Bring along a couple of soccer balls (deflated of course) for the kids!

[264mag]

I am planning an African hunt in the next couple of years. I am at ground zero at this point. Where would you suggest I start my research and planning? Is there a forum like HBC out there? It seems very overwhelming.

Thanks everyone

[BCRiverBoater]

You will have a trip of lifetime. Africa is unbelievable when it comes to animals and scenery. As far as research I would start with this site. Many, many members have been to Africa in the past and continue to travel there. I bought my hunt through an auction so quite frankly I did little to no research for my trip. I bought the hunt then did the research. lol Little backwards but it worked out just fine.

[BCRiverBoater]

Taxidermist is now in contact just finlazing everything for shipping. Should have the animals within the next 4 weeks. Can't wait to see them and finally get my hands on my kudu. I will have some more pics to take once they are in place.

[BCRiverBoater]

I guess I jumped the gun. 10 days ago they called asking for us to wire money so they can finalize the shipping. We asked for pictures before wiring the money and they said they needed 2 weeks to finish up for pictures. So we should get to see pics any day now then a few days to wire money. After that they said about 3 weeks for paperwork from exporting company and shipping to Canada.

[BCRiverBoater]

Well I received some pictures of my trophies. I finally got to see my kudu for the first time and it looks great!!! I can not wait for the e-mail stating they are on the plane.

[BCRiverBoater]

http://i724.photobucket.com/albums/ww250/BCRiverBoater/Africa%202012/TrentsDuikerGemsbuck.jpg

[BCRiverBoater]

http://i724.photobucket.com/albums/ww250/BCRiverBoater/Africa%202012/TrentsKudu.jpg

[BCRiverBoater]

Will be a pedastal mount when complete.

http://i724.photobucket.com/albums/ww250/BCRiverBoater/Africa%202012/TrentsThreeWayMount.jpg

[BCRiverBoater]

Will also be a pedastal mount when arrives home.

http://i724.photobucket.com/albums/ww250/BCRiverBoater/Africa%202012/TrentsZebra.jpg

[BCRiverBoater]

Doesn't do this one justice in this picture. It was a very big hartebeest and look more impressive in the kill photo I posted earlier. Hope it looks better in person as I am a little disappointed right now.

http://i724.photobucket.com/albums/ww250/BCRiverBoater/Africa%202012/TrentsRedHartebeest.jpg

[BCRiverBoater]

Not a good angle for this picture. Does not do a blue wildebeest justice but will look great in person.

http://i724.photobucket.com/albums/ww250/BCRiverBoater/Africa%202012/TrentsBlueWildebeest.jpg

[BCRiverBoater]

Very unique animal and one you need to see in the wild.

http://i724.photobucket.com/albums/ww250/BCRiverBoater/Africa%202012/TrentsBlackWildebeest.jpg

[Bear Chaser]

Wow. That zebra pedestal looks awesome.

[TyTy]

If and when you post up more pics of the animals or mounts. Could you please show lots of that red hartebeast. I think they are just the most unquiqe looking animals and yours seems awsome. please some side shots. Good to know it was a good trip with buddies.

[BCRiverBoater]

If and when you post up more pics of the animals or mounts. Could you please show lots of that red hartebeast. I think they are just the most unquiqe looking animals and yours seems awsome. please some side shots. Good to know it was a good trip with buddies.

I just looked through my photos and realized that all of my Red Hartebeest photos are all from the same angle. I attached two more photos but to get a side shot it will have to wait until he is on my wall. He was very big compared to any we saw that trip and was bigger than over 30-40 we saw at the taxidermist shop. Also the PH, land owners son and friend and the trackers all wanted in the picture. This was the only animal that everyone wanted to be part of so I am thinking it was very respectible. But you never know. It was a hog and not on my list but when I saw him I knew I wanted him.

http://i724.photobucket.com/albums/ww250/BCRiverBoater/Africa%202012/Hartebeest2.jpg

[BCRiverBoater]

http://i724.photobucket.com/albums/ww250/BCRiverBoater/Africa%202012/Hartebeest3.jpg

[Geo.338]

Doesn't do this one justice in this picture. It was a very big hartebeest and look more impressive in the kill photo I posted earlier. Hope it looks better in person as I am a little disappointed right now.

BCRB . I hear you on that . Not to say it is not a great mount , but it seems that no animal looks as good as it did just before it met it's end . I think you will be ok with it .

Nice shots !

[Caveman]

The one thing I've noticed, is that the taxidermists over in South Africa have a tendancy to blacken the horns, where I prefer the color they were in the field. You Hartbeast for example is red in the field but black in the mount. I didn't see one in the field in that color. The Kudu looks dark but at least the underlying color is still there. Don't get me wrong they all look good, just an opinion. I'll be conveying to my taxitdermist to leave the color as close to natural as possible. The wildebeests look way closer to you mounts in the field. The pedestals look awesome.

[BCRiverBoater]

I totally hear you Caveman. I do not like the black horns either. I even asked the taxidermist about it after seeing the photos but I did not get an answer. I like the natural look. Even if they would just clean off the red sand and then shine them up. They look fake to me. It looks fine on the Springbuck as they are very black to start with but I liked the greyish rubbed look on the Blue Wildebeest and the reddish look on the Hartebeest. Next time if there is one I will stress this as well.

[BCRiverBoater]

Finally got my trophies home late last week. It was a little bit of a run around to get the trophies to Calgary and then the paperwork was a bit of a hassle. I talked to so many people from several agencies and they all gave me a different answer on what was needed. Never the less I was missing a few minor things for the Canadian Border Services but they were very helpful and help pull a few strings. When it was all said and done I got the animals within two days of touching down.

The quality of the work was very good. I was a little nervous of having them done in SA but the cost savings and reviews from this taxidermist helped convince me. The hides are in good shape considering that African animals have very little hair and the heat you are dealing with when prepping and salting. I have heard so many horrors stories. With the lack of hair it is hard to hide stitches and bullet holes etc but they did a very good job. I am glad I had them done in SA as the work wouldn't have been much different here and at triple the price.

I do not have them up yet as still working on finishing the basement. I did hang the kudu as it is in the stairwell upstairs. Looks awesome! I will post some pictures once they finally get on the wall. So glad to have finally got my hands on him after not seeing him on the ground. Even the wife is starting to warm up to it. lol

[1/2 slam]

Good to hear. Looking forward to seing the mounts.
My wifes uncle just got his hides and horns. Used Ron's wildlife service out of Richmond...Flawless service. I'm off in July. A year delayed but looking forward to it.

[Gateholio]

Doesn't even look like the same hartebeest.

[BCRiverBoater]

Doesn't even look like the same hartebeest.

No it certainly doesn't. I was very disappointed. However the one I was sent is my hartebeest. The horns are much darker but it is the same one. However it still does not look as impressive as it did in the shot from the field. I will post some pictures once I get them up on the walls. I could take some of them on the floor but doesn't so them justice.

[Kudu]

nice write up there - glad you enjoyed your to visit to my homeland..

[BCRiverBoater]

Haven't logged on in a long time. Had to go back and revisit this thread from years back. Can't believe I had time to post such a long story.