Outfitter – Chris Troskie

Safari Company – Chris Troskie Safaris

PH – Chris Troskie

Location – Thabazimbi – Limpopo Province

Dates – April 24th thru May 1st, 2006

I recently returned from my hunt with Chris Troskie in SA’s Limpopo province. This was my first trip to Africa and I had an awesome time. I started making inquiries about hunting in Africa at the end of December last year and Chris’ name was given to my by a friend so I sent him an email and was impressed with his quick and informed response. He also offered to call me and speak to me personally over the phone which was something I appreciated. A couple of emails and phone calls later I had booked my first (and now definitely not last) African hunt.

Day 1

I arrived at Johannesburg International on the Atlanta flight. Chris had arranged for Air 2000 to handle my firearm importation for me so a guy from Air 2000 met me at the shute and took me straight through customs and to the SAPS office where Chris met me. There was a slight delay at the firearms office as my rifle had not come through yet by the time I got there but once my rifle arrived I was out of there in 5 minutes.

We arrived at the hunting camp – Khokwane near Thabazimbi at around 4pm. I found Chris and his staff very hospitable and we had a great time around the fire that night. The camp was very comfortable and consisted of 3 air conditioned chalets with bathrooms en suite. For some reason I really wanted a giraffe and Chris told me that he knew of an old bull that had broken out of a game farm in the area and that the bull was now walking on another one of his hunting concessions so he suggested that we go look for it first thing in the morning.

Day 2

Chris woke me at 5am and after a light breakfast we drove to a game farm approximately a 20 min drive from camp. It started getting light as we arrived at the hunting area which is 12,500 acres in size. There was a gate at the entrance to the fenced hunting area and once inside, Molefe (the skinner) got behind the wheel and Chris, Jacob (the tracker) and I got onto the back of the truck. I should also mention that this was the last time I saw a fence for the day (except when we left the concession of course. We had driven for about half-an-hour when Chris saw fresh giraffe tracks on the road and told Molefe to stop the truck. Jacob, Chris and I got off the truck and we started walking the tracks. I was carrying my Browning .300 WSM loaded with factory 180gr Winchester ammo. Earlier on the shooting range, Chris suggested that I should go for a brain shot on the giraffe and I’m not sure if he made this suggestion because he thought the SWM wouldn’t be up to the task on a heart/lung shot or whether he was just confident in my shooting abilities. Either way – I was happy to oblige. After tracking for about an hour Chris pointed ahead and I saw the giraffe approximately 50 yards from us. Jacob set up the shooting sticks and as he was doing so the giraffe turned his head and looked directly at us. Chris calmly set me up for the shot and whispered: “That’s the bull I was talking about. Shoot him right between the eyes.†The 180 grainer went where it was aimed at and my first African animal was down.


Day 3

The following morning we drove to another farm – about 30 minutes from camp. Shortly after entering the property we saw a herd of Impala and Chris saw a nice one. The ram ran for about 40 yards with its lungs shot to pieces – my second African animal!



En route to the skinning shed, Chris saw a nice blue wildebeest and asked me if I wanted it. I was starting to think that this was way too easy and I declined the opportunity – something I regretted later. After dropping the impala off at the skinning shed, we continued hunting for kudu but, although we saw plenty of tracks we didn’t get one that morning. That afternoon we drove to the same hunting area and late afternoon we saw a kudu bull upwind about 600 yards plus form us. As the bull was walking towards us, we decided on ambushing it. We stalked up to about 200 yards from the bull and then sat down waiting for it. I took the bull with a heart shot from about 80 yards at which it jumped straight into the air, ran for about 15 yards and then expired.



Day 4

I took a waterbuck early the following morning and it dropped in its tracks with a spine shot. We spent the afternoon looking for zebra and Blue Wildebeest and although we saw some wildebeest we never got an opportunity at one. I started regretting not taking the one we saw the previous day.



Day 5

I got a 23†Red Hartebeest on the morning of day 5. I shot it from about 100 yards where it was lying down and it didn’t run more than 20 yards.



We were still looking for zebra, but they seemed to have another agenda and I finally took a blesbuck in the afternoon. The first shot was a bit low and it started running with its front leg blown off. We tracked it for a while and after some anxious moments I finally got a running away shot at it which brought an end to things.



That afternoon Jacob saw a warthog about 200 yards away and when checking it out Chris saw it was limping and had a snare around its one leg so he asked me to take it. It dropped dead at the shot and gave me confidence in the Browning again after the slight mishap with the blesbuck earlier on. It wasn’t a big warthog but it was for free so I didn’t care.



Day 6

We spent the day looking for gemsbuck, wildebeest and zebra but didn’t have any luck.

Day 7

This was my departure day but as my flight back only left in the evening we decided to go hunt again in the morning. Chris said the area we were hunting was good for bushbuck and suggested that we walk the riverside to look for one. As luck would have it we saw a 16†ram and I took it – fortunately another clean kill.



I also finally got my wildebeest on my last day and am going back next year with my family for gemsbuck, zebra and the others I didn’t get this time around.



Summary

I had a great hunt getting 9 species in 6 days of hunting! Chris’ outfit is well organized, he uses excellent accommodations and he’s a great guy to be with. He clearly loves what he’s doing and is very knowledgeable about the animals he hunts and their habits. Although he does most of his hunting in Limpopo, he also offers hunts in other parts of SA and Mozambique by arrangement. He was kind enough to introduce me to AR and assisted in setting me up on the forum. I hope to be contributing more in time to come.

Mike,

Welcome to AR and congratulations on your first safari. You certainly took some nice animals.

Regards,

Terry

P.S.
I edited your post and put in a link to Chris Troskie Safaris' website.

Congratulations on very nice trophies and your first, not last, safari!!! Great report and photos too.

Best regards, D. Nelson

An extremely productive 1st safari. Congrats on such a wonderful hunt. I really like the mass on the red hartebeest.

Congrats again,

Way to go!!!!
Now you are hooked and will never be the same.
Go ahead and get a second job so you can pay for your newly acquired Africa habit.

Sounds like a great hunt. Super report.

Thanks,

JPK

Lots of good looking animals. Sounds like you had a great time. Thanks for the report.

Doug

Congratulations and thanks for the report and pictures.

Nice report and super success!

Thanks for all the comments. I sure had a great hunt and it definitely won't be my last. In fact, I have already booked next year's hunt.

Now you've gone and done it. Chances are you will think more and more about that safari as time goes by and one thing will lead to another and.... Welcome to the club of those who wish they were somewhere else for most of the rest of their lives.

Great photos...that hartebeest is a Pig! Looks like you had a great hunt.

Congratulations on a great first hunt to Africa...it won't be your last I'd bet!

For some reason I really want to take a giraffe too. That one you took has a nice dark color - I really like it.

Are you doing a full body mount??

Thanks for the great report and Congrats!!

Brain shot on a giraffe eh? I would like to see one come crashing down. What did that look like? Most of those giraffe seem to take 1/2 a box of shells and a lot of recovery time and distance.

Now you've gone and done it!! I can't stand to wait the one more month I have till I get to go over there!!! A giraffe is #1 on my list as well.. Looks like you got a good old, dark bull.
Great looking Kudu as well. How long is he??

Congrats on a great first safari and some really good animals.. You are now offically hooked!
And welcome to the forum.

Mike,

Some real nice animals...that bushbuck is just super looks close to 16 inches...

Welcome to AR and you have just been bitten by the African bug...You will never be the same...



Mike

Congratulations for a great safari.Juan

Great report and pics!

quote:

Originally posted by Riodot:
For some reason I really want to take a giraffe too. That one you took has a nice dark color - I really like it.

Are you doing a full body mount??

Thanks for the great report and Congrats!!

Yes, It was an old black bull. I'm having it shouldermounted (fortunately I have the space for it) and the back skin tanned.

quote:

Originally posted by yukon delta:
Brain shot on a giraffe eh? I would like to see one come crashing down. What did that look like? Most of those giraffe seem to take 1/2 a box of shells and a lot of recovery time and distance.

See the sun behind us in the photo? Well I shot the bull from the same direction that the photo was taken from so I had a bit of a hard time aiming at first. All I knew was that before I pulled the trigger the giraffe's head was in the scope and afterwards it was there no longer. Then I heard Chris say: "Well done!" and felt him slap me on my back.

Chris was real well organized and the recovery team was there in minutes. They recovered the giraffe inside 4 hours!

quote:

Originally posted by retreever:

Some real nice animals...that bushbuck is just super looks close to 16 inches...
Mike

Tanks, the bushbuck measured 16" exactly.

quote:

Originally posted by Scottyboy:
Great looking Kudu as well. How long is he??

The kudu looks bigger than what he is. He measured just over 50". Chris said that we could get bigger ones but I also really liked this one and decided to take it.

Hey Mike,

Thanks for your report and welcome to AR!

You did real well on all those animals man. Look forward to seeing you next year!

Cheers

PS. Thanks for the link to my site Terry

That red hartebeeste is a hog. Either that, or you have a very wide lens. Waterbuck is nice too. How big was that?

Nice hunt!

I have hunted with Chris 3 times, and he is great. Was Charmaine the cook at the camp?

Has the bush thinned out after the rains? Did you consider baboon? Chris and I chased em for days,, and I missed a shot on a big brute. I'll get him next time!

Mike300wWSM,

Congratulations on your first African huntind trip and nice trophes too.

Hamdeni

quote:

Originally posted by AnotherAZWriter:
That red hartebeeste is a hog. Either that, or you have a very wide lens. Waterbuck is nice too. How big was that?

Thanks, yeah the hartebeest was nice (23"). Here is a better picture


The waterbuck went 28".

quote:

Originally posted by 404WJJeffery:
Nice hunt!

I have hunted with Chris 3 times, and he is great. Was Charmaine the cook at the camp?

Has the bush thinned out after the rains? Did you consider baboon? Chris and I chased em for days,, and I missed a shot on a big brute. I'll get him next time!

Yes, Charmaine was the cook - very nice!

The bush was pretty thick in places but Chris told me that it was looking better than what it did a month or so earlier. (Apparently due to late rains)

Glad to hear you enjoyed yourself when hunting with Chris. I had a great time as well.