Wow, it is good to be hunting again!

With my season now at an end I thought I might share some pics and stories about this year’s hunts.

Our first official hunt of the season was with long-time clients and friends – Cody and TJ from AB Canada. Cody and his brother hunted with us the first time in 2016 at which time he told me about his dream to one day hunt Cape Buffalo.

In 2017, when I was at the Calgary Boat and Sportsmen’s show in Calgary, Cody visited me at my booth and introduced me to his mom – a darling lady – whose only request was that, should Cody ever come hunt buffalo with me, I should please take care of him…

Well, the hunt was originally planned for 2020 and due to COVID moved on to 2021 – which also didn’t happen… So in April 2022 Cody and TJ finally made it over…

We were lucky to find a very nice buffalo bull, late on the first afternoon. Cody shot it with his .375 and everything looked good. But it disappeared into the thick stuff together with the rest of the herd and it had gotten dark so quickly, we couldn’t go look for it that night.

Convinced we’ll find a dead buffalo the next morning, we returned – only to find the spot where it had been standing that previous night with very little blood as evidence that it had been wounded.

What ensued was a 3 day ordeal on the tracks of the wounded buffalo before rain wiped away all the tracks and we had to give up.

Cody was devastated and so was I.

Examination of video footage of the original shot showed that his bullet had clipped the branch of a sickle bush tree. As we never recovered the bull we will never know where exactly it was hit but it is probably still walking out there today…

After spending almost 4 days trying to find the wounded buffalo and with no fresh tracks or sign to follow, we had to call it a day and concentrated on finding TJ his Sable. That went without incident, and he shot this beautiful 10 year+ old 42” bull.


As we continued with our hunt for a Nyala for TJ, I could see that Cody was in a dark place. I felt terrible for his sake and a plan needed to be made but I did not know quite how or what. Meanwhile the hunt for TJ’s Nyala was successful.



Then a miracle happened (details of which are not important at this stage), and a new proposal could be made to Cody re a buffalo hunt.

We hunted for the next several days for buffalo without success. In between rain and other factors things just didn’t work out. Then finally; on the last hunting day, we returned to the property we had wounded the first buffalo on. This was our last opportunity and everything came together. With no branches in the way to deflect bullets, Cody’s shot was spot-on and the buff was dead.



At roughly 8 years old, the buffalo we got was not as old as I would have liked it to be but for a “last day buff” it was good enough with a spread of over 42”.

Lynn from Idaho and his charming wife were up next and the animals were cooperating as pictures below show. Highlights were a 56” Kudu, very good Red Lechwe and more than decent Sable.








To be continued…

Nice report on what looks like, a Great hunt. Some very nice trophies!

I met Kris at the Edmonton Boat and Sportsman’s show in 2019 and he’d booked a hunt for 2020 but that didn’t work out, so he and his friend Mike ended up coming in 2022. Mike’s primary target was a big Lion so we hit the road to a lion hunting concession in the Kalahari. We spent the next two days tracking down Lion on 12,000 acres near Tosca in the North-West Province.

When the Lion saw us, it let out a tremendous roar jumped up and turned to us – a charge imminent. Mike’s Pedersoli double in 9.3X74R proved to be the right medicine for Lion.



When an opportunity became available to hunt a Lioness as well, Mike didn’t think twice as he was now hooked on hunting Lion. The Lion hunt was not easy but hunting Lioness proved to be even more challenging. Resident PH – Seun Griesel – knows his stuff though and Mike connected with a beauty.



Meanwhile Kris also got to do some hunting and connected with a Zebra and Gemsbok.



With the Lions in the salt it was time to head up to our ranch – Sabrisa – up in Limpopo Province where over the next days we got quite lucky.

Wow....very nice!!!

Well done Chris. Some nice animals there.

Ken from BC and his family were up next. I met Ken at the SCI Calgary hunting show in 2019 and as he later told me, he decided to book with CT Safaris because he was looking for a private and exclusive experience for him and his family as opposed to being in camp with strangers. We first travelled down to Cape Town for a 3 day tour, exploring the winelands and Cape Peninsula before heading up to Sabrisa.







Drew’s 30” Waterbuck was just one of the highlights during this hunt.

Then our clients and friends from Utah visited again. Alan has been putting groups of hunters together for us for the past four years and their annual visits are now an institution.

Alan’s 5” Klipspringer:


Ken’s 54” Kudu:


Alan’s Mountain Reedbuck:


Ken’s Zebra:


Ken’s Impala:


Vicena’s White Blesbok:


Ken’s Nyala:


Lot’s of fun, many laughs and we’re looking forward to next year’s hunt!

Jeff from Michigan was first to jump at an opportunity for an incredible deal on Cape Buffalo I advertised here on AR a couple of years ago. His first hunt for Cape Buffalo 10 years ago in Zimbabwe didn’t work out as planned as his Buffalo was wounded and never recovered so the pressure was on to find him a good bull.

We hunted hard for 3 days, seeing lots of buffalo but not one that met the standards that I had set for myself and for Jeff.

Well Jeff didn’t only get an incredible deal but also an incredible Buffalo bull. The Buffalo dropped on the spot from Jeff’s spine shot and it was all over.



He added Sable to the Buff package and connected with a nice one.

Then it was time to welcome Gordon and Sheralyn from Nebraska on their third hunt with CT Safaris. During Gordon’s first hunt with me back in 2013, he got a very nice Buffalo next to Kruger National Park but as the Buffalo hunters amongst us know, it becomes an addiction…

We first hunted for Crocodile and got a nice one out of the Mogol River without incident.



The Buffalo hunt turned out to a little different to what was planned…

While my trackers were busy checking out tracks at one of the waterholes, I received a WhatsApp advising that a client was killed by a wounded buffalo just the previous day in an area not far from us. As I was sharing this new info with Gordon and Sheralyn, Clive – one of my trackers – called me on the radio and told me that he had just seen a lone buffalo bull laying down – not far from the waterhole where we were.

I told Sheralyn to stay in the truck while Gordon and I went to go investigate.

We found the bull that Clive had seen shortly thereafter. I set Gordon up the sticks for a 50 yard shot and he squeezed the trigger of the custom .450NE Double he had built himself. He hit it a little low though and the buff took off into the tick stuff.

Decided to get my dogs in and shortly thereafter I heard DT (my Jack Russel) bark. Saw the buffalo again and both Gordon and I fired at it. It took off again…

A short while later I heard DT barking again and we ran up to where he and Resi (my GSP) had the Buffalo bull bayed. It was clearly quite sick at this point but still very much alive. Again, both Gordon and I fired at the Buffalo – which was at this time probably not more than 20 yards from us in the brush.

I remember hearing Clive say: “He’s coming” as the Buffalo came charging from behind the bush… Gordon and I fired almost simultaneously and the Buff crashed into the dirt.



Afterwards, we measured the distance from where Gordon and I were standing to where the Buff had fallen. It was less than eight yards.

The rest of Gordon’s hunt went without incident and he collected:

Sable


Nyala


And Waterbuck

Fredrik from Sweden was up next. It had been a lifelong dream of his to hunt Cape Buffalo and he also responded to the buffalo package hunt I had advertised here on AR in 2020. The originally advertised hunt had already been sold but when Fredrik told me about his passion to hunt buff, I just had to help him make his dream come true and worked out a deal for him.

On our way to a waterhole one afternoon, we spotted a lone buffalo bull laying down in the bush – about 50 yards from the road. We drove past it, got our rifles ready and sneaked back to where we’d seen the buffalo. We saw the buffalo, but it took some careful navigation to find an opening in the bush for a clear shot at the bull.

The buffalo winded us and by the time we had found a clearing to shoot through it had already gotten up and was facing us directly at about 30 yards. It took a few steps towards us, and Fredrik’s .416 Rigby did the talking. We found the buffalo less than 50 yards from where it had been standing – dead as a doornail…



In addition to some cull animals, Fredrik also got a nice Sable during his hunt.

When Rob booked his hunt, he asked me about the suitability of a .45-70 for Cape Buffalo. Having quite a bit of experience with lever action rifles (I’ve hosted and hunted with several levergun enthusiasts over the last 17 years or so), my answer was yes, it will do.

After 3 days of hunting hard for an old, worn-down buffalo everything came together. Just after daybreak on the fourth morning, we found a herd of buffalo making their way towards the vlei (wetland) and amongst them was exactly what we were looking for.

Rob’s first shot hit the mark and he quickly followed up with a second. The results below speak for itself.



Over the next days Rob also collected:

Sable


Waterbuck


Impala


Blesbok


Red Lechwe


Note received from Rob after his hunt:

Chris and Sabina,

I would like to express my thanks for a great hunt with you and look forward to returning again. Everything on this hunt exceed my expectations. I hope both of you are well and enjoying your time in Cape Town.

The accommodations on this safari were wonderful. I really enjoyed my chalet and appreciate the staff that cleaned my room and did my laundry every day. The food on this hunt was superb! Sabina is a great cook and I really enjoyed every meal. We had a nice mixture of wild game meet and I really appreciate all the effort Sabina went too in preparing some of my buffalo meat.

The quantity and quality of the animals seen and harvested on this hunt were exceptional. Every animal I took was an older mature bull with massive horns. The buffalo I got was 12 years old and was missing a few teeth. Trackers Sammy and Josias were great to hunt with and their tracking ability was outstanding. The hunting areas were very large and I really enjoyed seeing giraffes every day!

I looked forward to spending time with Chris and Sabina around the fire every night telling stories and laughing a lot. Taking our meals around the fire every night was most enjoyable. Both of you really made my trip special. Thanks again for hosting me and look forward to seeing you again!

When Simon (from the UK) learned that, in addition to hunting safaris, we also offer horseback riding and tours to our clients, he decided to book a buffalo cow hunt for himself and his son, horseback riding here on Sabrisa for his wife and daughter and a tour of Kruger National Park afterwards.

The girls had a great time guided by Sammy (the guy with the bicycle helmet).





While Simon, Ben and I concentrated on finding a buffalo cow and hunting some cull animals in the meanwhile.



Hunting buffalo cows is every bit as (if not more) challenging than bulls. Cows walk in herds (more eyes) they are very, very aware so getting close is not easy.

We hunted hard for several days and I put several miles on my Courteney boots before we finally connected.

Simon had asked me before if I’d ever seen a buffalo drop on the spot with one shot from a .375 and my answer was – only when it was hit in the spine.

The opportunity we finally got placed us at about 60 yards with a buffalo cow facing us head-on. Simon’s shot rang out and the buffalo dropped like a sack of potatoes – right on the spot.



We then headed off to Kruger and checked into our villa in Marloth Park. Marloth Park is located on the South-Eastern corner of KNP and I prefer the serene and quiet surroundings to those of the rest camps inside KNP.



We were lucky to see all of the Big 5 as well as African Wild Dogs during our tour of the park.





We even got to see a Yellow-billed Stork using a Hippo as a surf board outside Lower Sabie!

Very nice results!

Two days after dropping Simon and family off, I was back at the airport to pick Ken from Texas up for his second hunt with CT Safaris. Ken brought his son – Jacob – over in 2017 and we had a great hunt for plains game.

This time around, Cape Buffalo and Sable were the main species on the wish list. Ken was however open to also hunting other game once that was done.

So we started off hunting for an old hard-bossed buffalo bull and over the next days we saw many buffalo but we held back, awaiting an opportunity for one that we liked.

There are different methods of breeding with African game. One of these methods is referred to as a so-called “closed system” where you put a breeding bull in camp with a group of females, and once the offspring is weaned, they are removed from the camp they were bred in, the males are separated from the females and then put into separate camps where they are left to mature to the point where they can again be captured and sold on game auctions or released into hunting areas.

Another method is referred to as an “open system” where one or more breeding herds (males and females) are released on a game ranch and allowed to breed the way nature has intended for them to do.

Years ago, a breeding herd of Sable was introduced here on Sabrisa Ranch in a so-called “open system”. I decided to let nature take its course and have the fittest survive as opposed to breeding intensively with them in a controlled environment. There are risks associated to this breeding method as you can lose animals when they fight for dominancy or from predators and disease. But from my perspective, this is a more natural way of breeding game. The animals that do survive (and their offspring) build up a natural resistance against disease as opposed to the game rancher having to control it with medicine and having to feed them all the time.

Over the years, I’d seen how some of the offspring of the original breeding herd had developed into some decent trophy material and last year we could harvest two Sable bulls on Sabrisa Ranch (one turned out to be 44” and the other measured 46”).

The only challenge we had hunting Sable on Sabrisa was that the Sable seemed to favor a section, right in the back (the mountainous part) of our ranch where it was hard to get to by vehicle and took some extra effort to get there on foot…

I was therefore quite excited when I got a call from my lead tracker (Sammy) on the radio one afternoon as Ken and I were sitting down for lunch, to say that he’d just seen a Sable bull at the foot-end of the mountain and that we should get over there in a hurry. My bride was not as excited as what we were as she had just laid out a beautiful spread for us. But in my opinion, shooting a Sable on Sabrisa Ranch was much more important than eating warm food so I had Ken get his gun while I got the shooting sticks and off we went…

We found the group of Sable in proximity of the waterhole where Sammy had seen them – the bull slightly separated from the rest of the herd. Ken’s high shoulder shot dropped the Sable in its tracks.



So we continued with our search of a buffalo bull for Ken…

A couple of days later, everything came together early one morning. As we were driving up a trail, we saw a lone buffalo bull on our left. We drove past it for a bit, got our guns ready and made our way back to where we’d seen the buff on foot.

The breeze was steadily in our favour but when we got to the point where we could see the buff, there was some thick stuff obscuring its vitals. The buffalo solved that problem for us though, as when it saw us, it turned and took a few steps towards us. Ken’s .375solved the rest of the problem and the buffalo was down.



What this buffalo bull might have lacked in spread (by some’s standards) was made up for by its solid boss and age. A beautiful 10-year old bull…

With buff and sable in the salt, we continued hunting and collected:


Red Hartebeest


A more than decent Impala

And


A nice Nyala

This brought an end to another very successful season – thanks to the support and loyalty of our CT Safaris customers and staff.

Looking forward to next year!