Bambistew
Well-known member
Day 3
We decided to give the eland and wildebeest a rest for the morning. We planned on going to the area where Leigh had killed his warthog to see if we could find my dad an impala or kudu, and look for one of the other big warthogs they’d seen the day before. This section of property is about a 15 min ride from camp, most of which is on a paved road. Jabalani and I rode in the back of the bakkie and about froze to death getting there. I think it was about 60 degrees that morning.
We no sooner pull off the secondary road leading to the property, and I spot a massive bushbuck walking along the edge of a field. By riding in the back of the bakkie, you get a better view of everything… I slapped on the roof of the bakkie to let Quinton know that I had seen something, he couldn’t see what I was looking at, but knew it must have been good for me to be that excited. We quickly piled out of the bakkie and Quinton, dad and Jabalani took off in the direction of where I had seen the ram. I stayed back to keep my eye on the area where he was last seen. They guys walked about 300 yards or so out to the spot, and inched their way along looking for the ram in the thick bush. They gave up after about 15 min, figuring that it would be better to come back later in the evening in hopes of finding him again. While they were out looking for the ram, I spotted a massive nyala bull walking through the bush. After seeing that bull, I as having serious second thoughts about hunting eland. Luckily he disappeared before I could talk myself into shooting him.
Everyone returned to the bakkie and we continued down the road for about half a mile or so, stopping about 300 yards short of a small water hole. We unloaded, gathered our rifles and headed off into the bush toward the waterhole in hopes of catching something coming or going from. We spotted a small duiker ram, and a few impala but the baboons had spotted us and given the alarm, so if there was anything around they were likely gone before we could even seen them. We passed by the waterhole and continued in the same general direction until we got one of the small river beds, we traversed the bed to the other side, and upon climbing up out of bottom we spotted a huge warthog walking along in the bush. Dad didn’t have his rifle loaded, and when he opened the bolt to load a cartridge the pig was less than 15 yards away and heard the noise, spooked and ran off.
We climbed up to the other side of the river and still hunted the large sandy flat on the other side. We spotted a few small nyala bulls, a nice kudu bull, and warthog, but nothing offered us a shot. We hiked around in the bush for probably close to an hour before heading back toward the bakkie. On the return after crossing the river again, we peaked over the bank and spied a duiker ram. He was a very nice ram, and I was willing to try for him. He was darting in and out of the mopane trees and was not offering a clear shot. Finally at about a 125 yards, he stopped facing directly away from us. I lined up the 375 on his tail and squeezed the trigger. At the shot he jumped into the air and took off running away from us. I was a little surprised that a 30 pound animal could take that kind of punishment from such a large rifle. Luckily the big bullet didn’t destroy him too badly. We let him sit for a bit and walked up to find him dead.
Duiker
We snapped a few pictures and hung him in the shade and continued hunting up the river. We spotted a few kudu in the river bed, but just small bulls and cows.
Kudu in the river
We slipped around them and continued up the river following the sound of impala grunts as we hunted. There were 3 different groups of rams fighting and chasing each other the best we could decipher all within about a 500 yard radius, it seemed like we’d finally get to an area were we thought we had heard them and we’d hear them 3-400 yards away again. Finally after nearly 2 hours we caught up to a group rams chasing each other in thick mopane. There were 5 or 6 in the group, 2 of which were very nice rams.
Dad and Quinton inched forward, set up the sticks and dad waited for a shot. We continued to watch them for 4-5 min before the biggest one stopped in an opening offering a shot. Dad took aim, fired, and the ram dropped. He then hopped back up and took off running directly away from us. We didn’t see him go down, but figured he must not have gone far because the other rams were milling around, and it appeared to us that they were even trying to gore him while he was down. We snapped a few pictures and sent Jabalani for the bakkie, and to pick up my duiker on the way.
Dads impala
We loaded up the animals and headed back to camp, happy with the outcome of our mornings hunt, it seemed our luck had finally changed. On the drive out we got to the same area where we’d seen the bushbuck that morning, and I spotted some warthogs in the same field. I tapped on the roof of the Land Rover for Quinton to stop. In all I think there was 5-6 pigs in the group. I got a quick glance of a monster pig, and immediately pulled the rifle out of the rack and started climbing down. Quinton didn’t have the same view of the boar as I did and asked what I saw, I told him it was a monster and we need to try for him. We quickly walked over to a low depression along the edge of the field and made our way about 150 yards closer. The pig was with another nice boar. They were both wallowing in a mud hole created from a leaking irrigation pipe. The were too busy playing in a mud hole and hadn’t noticed us. It took a few moments to get the boars sorted out, and finally he was clear. I lined up the 375 and squeezed the trigger. At the shot he slammed into the ground, port side first. The bullet had caught him square in the shoulders, but a little high clipping the spine. We hurriedly walked up to him and put a finisher in to end it. We were immediately awestruck at the white teeth poking out of his lip. Later we learned that this was the other big pig that Leigh and Benji had seen the night before. We took a few pictures and lined up the whole circus act for a few. We were definitely hungry for lunch now! Those cheese, tomato, jelly, and butter sandwiches where not cutting it.
warthog
That afternoon we climbed a vantage point and sat for about 45 min watching the large sand flat near the dry creek. We spotted lots of game, including impala, wildebeest and eland, but there were no bulls with the eland. We decided to head for the creek and still hunt to see what we could stir up. We ducked in and out of the river bed but didn’t seem much other than impala, and a glimpse of wildebeest.
Impala in rut
We heard two rams fighting, clashing their horns together and barking at each other. We moved in close, with hopes of seeing them and possibly getting a shot off. We managed to get within about 150 yards or so before spotting them in a clearing. We could see the rams sparing and chasing each other back and forth. My dad was on the ready, waiting for a shot opportunity, when all of the sudden one ram lowered his head and started chasing the smaller ram. They were coming directly at us, and ran by at less than 10 yards. I sat back, flipped off the safety and if one happened to stop, he was going to take a 300grain slug to the ribs. Neither one stopped, but we heard them for the next 10-15 minutes grunting at one another and running around in the bush. By this time it was getting dark so we returned to the bakkie and made our half hour drive back to camp.
Leigh and Benji returned successful yet again with a nice kudu! The luck they were having was impressive!
Leighs kudu
Day 4
Dad, Quinton and I hunted the central part of the property which consists of a large sand flat with thick mopane, acacia and baobab trees. We followed fresh eland tracks for about 3 miles in a big loop but couldn’t catch up to them. Quinton thought the eland would likely go to the same area where we’d seen them the first night. We parked near a windmill and started walking through the tall grass, we ran into a small herd of waterbuck cows.
We continued for another mile or so and decided that the eland must have slipped around us to the north. We radioed Jabalani to bring the bakkie around and we decided that we would head back to camp for lunch. About half way back to camp I spotted an impala standing in the shade about 50 yards off the road. I tapped on the roof for Quinton to stop, and we hopped out and found fresh eland tracks in the sand in the road. We figured they would probably be holding tight in the trees due to it being cool that morning. They probably wouldn’t be far.
We followed the tracks about 300 yards through the brush and I spotted bits and pieces of eland standing about 60 yards in front of us. We quickly crouched down and verfied the wind direction. Quinton and I crept up a little closer to see if there was a bull in the group, we spotted what looked like a bull, but through the thick bush we couldn’t make out how big he was. He was no more than 30 yards from us. We had the wind in our favor so we crawled 5-7 yards closer, which allowed us a better angle and saw that it was a very nice bull, might have actually been the one I killed I’m not sure? We were about 2 miles from where I shot mine…
I didn’t have a clear shot through the brush, there were just too many limbs and I couldn’t see enough of the bull to determine where the trees stopped and he began. Our only option was to wait him out. We waited and watched for about 5 min or so before the herd either smelled or saw us and moved off. We quickly picked up the tracks and gave chase for the next hour, we traversed down out of the hills, across the sand flat and the dry creek and back again. We finally caught up to them, but as they filed across an opening about 150 yards in front of us, cow after cow single file walking, the bull was no longer with them. CRAP he gave us the slip and must have circle back behind us! We sent poor Jabalani back to get the bakkie again, about 45 min later he returned and we headed back to camp for lunch. On the way back the Land Rover stalled out and died going up the hill. I learned that Jabalani is a better tracker than driver. When he tried to restart it the turbo wouldn’t engage so we were stuck moving along at a crawl in first gear with about 3 miles to go… We radioed camp and Benji headed our way to pick us up, I think mostly to rub in the fact that he drives a Land Cruiser and not a crappy Land Rover.
We returned to camp for lunch and make a plan for that afternoon. Leah decided that she wanted to hunt for zebra so we arranged for that. We were going to hunt the other side of the property in the hills where Benji said he had seen a big lone eland bull many times before, this also happened to be where the majority of the zebra hang out. Leigh, my dad and Benji were going to look for the bushbuck we saw the morning before and Leah, Quinton and I would be hunting together
We spotted 5-6 zebra not to far from camp, maybe 10 minutes after we left, we quickly gave chase on foot, Leah almost got a shot, but they spotted us and took off. We quickly returned to the bakkie and hopped to drive up the road about a mile to get in front of them with no success. However Quinton figured he knew where they were headed so we continued toward a secluded valley in the hills. We continued on to the back end of the property until we got near a high point, sending Jabalani up to have a look. He returned about 20 min later saying he had spotted the zebra, a few eland, and wildebeest about a mile away in a large draw. We parked and started hiking in the general direction coming upon a large open ridge. We spotted a heard of gemsbok feeding in and out of the tree’s, with them was the zebra, wildebeest, and kudu. The eland were on the other side out of site. We watched them for about 10 minutes; the zebra were too far for a shot.
Just then… we were spotted by the gemsbok and everything took off in a flurry of dust, snorts and grunts. It was starting to get dark by that time and we figured we might as well call it a day.
We returned to camp and waited for the others to get back. It was probably an hour after dark before they returned. Leigh had taken a very nice old bushbuck down in the river property, near where he killed his warthog. I’m not sure if it was the same ram we saw the morning before, but it looked similar.
Leighs bushbuck
We had kudu loin for dinner, it was a little tough, but pretty tasty, we also had impala loin, which was very good, and much more tender. I think Benji was a little embarrassed for feeding us the tough meat. Because two nights later we had loin out of Leigh’s kudu and it was fabulous.
We decided to give the eland and wildebeest a rest for the morning. We planned on going to the area where Leigh had killed his warthog to see if we could find my dad an impala or kudu, and look for one of the other big warthogs they’d seen the day before. This section of property is about a 15 min ride from camp, most of which is on a paved road. Jabalani and I rode in the back of the bakkie and about froze to death getting there. I think it was about 60 degrees that morning.
We no sooner pull off the secondary road leading to the property, and I spot a massive bushbuck walking along the edge of a field. By riding in the back of the bakkie, you get a better view of everything… I slapped on the roof of the bakkie to let Quinton know that I had seen something, he couldn’t see what I was looking at, but knew it must have been good for me to be that excited. We quickly piled out of the bakkie and Quinton, dad and Jabalani took off in the direction of where I had seen the ram. I stayed back to keep my eye on the area where he was last seen. They guys walked about 300 yards or so out to the spot, and inched their way along looking for the ram in the thick bush. They gave up after about 15 min, figuring that it would be better to come back later in the evening in hopes of finding him again. While they were out looking for the ram, I spotted a massive nyala bull walking through the bush. After seeing that bull, I as having serious second thoughts about hunting eland. Luckily he disappeared before I could talk myself into shooting him.
Everyone returned to the bakkie and we continued down the road for about half a mile or so, stopping about 300 yards short of a small water hole. We unloaded, gathered our rifles and headed off into the bush toward the waterhole in hopes of catching something coming or going from. We spotted a small duiker ram, and a few impala but the baboons had spotted us and given the alarm, so if there was anything around they were likely gone before we could even seen them. We passed by the waterhole and continued in the same general direction until we got one of the small river beds, we traversed the bed to the other side, and upon climbing up out of bottom we spotted a huge warthog walking along in the bush. Dad didn’t have his rifle loaded, and when he opened the bolt to load a cartridge the pig was less than 15 yards away and heard the noise, spooked and ran off.
We climbed up to the other side of the river and still hunted the large sandy flat on the other side. We spotted a few small nyala bulls, a nice kudu bull, and warthog, but nothing offered us a shot. We hiked around in the bush for probably close to an hour before heading back toward the bakkie. On the return after crossing the river again, we peaked over the bank and spied a duiker ram. He was a very nice ram, and I was willing to try for him. He was darting in and out of the mopane trees and was not offering a clear shot. Finally at about a 125 yards, he stopped facing directly away from us. I lined up the 375 on his tail and squeezed the trigger. At the shot he jumped into the air and took off running away from us. I was a little surprised that a 30 pound animal could take that kind of punishment from such a large rifle. Luckily the big bullet didn’t destroy him too badly. We let him sit for a bit and walked up to find him dead.
Duiker
We snapped a few pictures and hung him in the shade and continued hunting up the river. We spotted a few kudu in the river bed, but just small bulls and cows.
Kudu in the river
We slipped around them and continued up the river following the sound of impala grunts as we hunted. There were 3 different groups of rams fighting and chasing each other the best we could decipher all within about a 500 yard radius, it seemed like we’d finally get to an area were we thought we had heard them and we’d hear them 3-400 yards away again. Finally after nearly 2 hours we caught up to a group rams chasing each other in thick mopane. There were 5 or 6 in the group, 2 of which were very nice rams.
Dad and Quinton inched forward, set up the sticks and dad waited for a shot. We continued to watch them for 4-5 min before the biggest one stopped in an opening offering a shot. Dad took aim, fired, and the ram dropped. He then hopped back up and took off running directly away from us. We didn’t see him go down, but figured he must not have gone far because the other rams were milling around, and it appeared to us that they were even trying to gore him while he was down. We snapped a few pictures and sent Jabalani for the bakkie, and to pick up my duiker on the way.
Dads impala
We loaded up the animals and headed back to camp, happy with the outcome of our mornings hunt, it seemed our luck had finally changed. On the drive out we got to the same area where we’d seen the bushbuck that morning, and I spotted some warthogs in the same field. I tapped on the roof of the Land Rover for Quinton to stop. In all I think there was 5-6 pigs in the group. I got a quick glance of a monster pig, and immediately pulled the rifle out of the rack and started climbing down. Quinton didn’t have the same view of the boar as I did and asked what I saw, I told him it was a monster and we need to try for him. We quickly walked over to a low depression along the edge of the field and made our way about 150 yards closer. The pig was with another nice boar. They were both wallowing in a mud hole created from a leaking irrigation pipe. The were too busy playing in a mud hole and hadn’t noticed us. It took a few moments to get the boars sorted out, and finally he was clear. I lined up the 375 and squeezed the trigger. At the shot he slammed into the ground, port side first. The bullet had caught him square in the shoulders, but a little high clipping the spine. We hurriedly walked up to him and put a finisher in to end it. We were immediately awestruck at the white teeth poking out of his lip. Later we learned that this was the other big pig that Leigh and Benji had seen the night before. We took a few pictures and lined up the whole circus act for a few. We were definitely hungry for lunch now! Those cheese, tomato, jelly, and butter sandwiches where not cutting it.
warthog
That afternoon we climbed a vantage point and sat for about 45 min watching the large sand flat near the dry creek. We spotted lots of game, including impala, wildebeest and eland, but there were no bulls with the eland. We decided to head for the creek and still hunt to see what we could stir up. We ducked in and out of the river bed but didn’t seem much other than impala, and a glimpse of wildebeest.
Impala in rut
We heard two rams fighting, clashing their horns together and barking at each other. We moved in close, with hopes of seeing them and possibly getting a shot off. We managed to get within about 150 yards or so before spotting them in a clearing. We could see the rams sparing and chasing each other back and forth. My dad was on the ready, waiting for a shot opportunity, when all of the sudden one ram lowered his head and started chasing the smaller ram. They were coming directly at us, and ran by at less than 10 yards. I sat back, flipped off the safety and if one happened to stop, he was going to take a 300grain slug to the ribs. Neither one stopped, but we heard them for the next 10-15 minutes grunting at one another and running around in the bush. By this time it was getting dark so we returned to the bakkie and made our half hour drive back to camp.
Leigh and Benji returned successful yet again with a nice kudu! The luck they were having was impressive!
Leighs kudu
Day 4
Dad, Quinton and I hunted the central part of the property which consists of a large sand flat with thick mopane, acacia and baobab trees. We followed fresh eland tracks for about 3 miles in a big loop but couldn’t catch up to them. Quinton thought the eland would likely go to the same area where we’d seen them the first night. We parked near a windmill and started walking through the tall grass, we ran into a small herd of waterbuck cows.
We continued for another mile or so and decided that the eland must have slipped around us to the north. We radioed Jabalani to bring the bakkie around and we decided that we would head back to camp for lunch. About half way back to camp I spotted an impala standing in the shade about 50 yards off the road. I tapped on the roof for Quinton to stop, and we hopped out and found fresh eland tracks in the sand in the road. We figured they would probably be holding tight in the trees due to it being cool that morning. They probably wouldn’t be far.
We followed the tracks about 300 yards through the brush and I spotted bits and pieces of eland standing about 60 yards in front of us. We quickly crouched down and verfied the wind direction. Quinton and I crept up a little closer to see if there was a bull in the group, we spotted what looked like a bull, but through the thick bush we couldn’t make out how big he was. He was no more than 30 yards from us. We had the wind in our favor so we crawled 5-7 yards closer, which allowed us a better angle and saw that it was a very nice bull, might have actually been the one I killed I’m not sure? We were about 2 miles from where I shot mine…
I didn’t have a clear shot through the brush, there were just too many limbs and I couldn’t see enough of the bull to determine where the trees stopped and he began. Our only option was to wait him out. We waited and watched for about 5 min or so before the herd either smelled or saw us and moved off. We quickly picked up the tracks and gave chase for the next hour, we traversed down out of the hills, across the sand flat and the dry creek and back again. We finally caught up to them, but as they filed across an opening about 150 yards in front of us, cow after cow single file walking, the bull was no longer with them. CRAP he gave us the slip and must have circle back behind us! We sent poor Jabalani back to get the bakkie again, about 45 min later he returned and we headed back to camp for lunch. On the way back the Land Rover stalled out and died going up the hill. I learned that Jabalani is a better tracker than driver. When he tried to restart it the turbo wouldn’t engage so we were stuck moving along at a crawl in first gear with about 3 miles to go… We radioed camp and Benji headed our way to pick us up, I think mostly to rub in the fact that he drives a Land Cruiser and not a crappy Land Rover.
We returned to camp for lunch and make a plan for that afternoon. Leah decided that she wanted to hunt for zebra so we arranged for that. We were going to hunt the other side of the property in the hills where Benji said he had seen a big lone eland bull many times before, this also happened to be where the majority of the zebra hang out. Leigh, my dad and Benji were going to look for the bushbuck we saw the morning before and Leah, Quinton and I would be hunting together
We spotted 5-6 zebra not to far from camp, maybe 10 minutes after we left, we quickly gave chase on foot, Leah almost got a shot, but they spotted us and took off. We quickly returned to the bakkie and hopped to drive up the road about a mile to get in front of them with no success. However Quinton figured he knew where they were headed so we continued toward a secluded valley in the hills. We continued on to the back end of the property until we got near a high point, sending Jabalani up to have a look. He returned about 20 min later saying he had spotted the zebra, a few eland, and wildebeest about a mile away in a large draw. We parked and started hiking in the general direction coming upon a large open ridge. We spotted a heard of gemsbok feeding in and out of the tree’s, with them was the zebra, wildebeest, and kudu. The eland were on the other side out of site. We watched them for about 10 minutes; the zebra were too far for a shot.
Just then… we were spotted by the gemsbok and everything took off in a flurry of dust, snorts and grunts. It was starting to get dark by that time and we figured we might as well call it a day.
We returned to camp and waited for the others to get back. It was probably an hour after dark before they returned. Leigh had taken a very nice old bushbuck down in the river property, near where he killed his warthog. I’m not sure if it was the same ram we saw the morning before, but it looked similar.
Leighs bushbuck
We had kudu loin for dinner, it was a little tough, but pretty tasty, we also had impala loin, which was very good, and much more tender. I think Benji was a little embarrassed for feeding us the tough meat. Because two nights later we had loin out of Leigh’s kudu and it was fabulous.
