01 July 2025, 13:19
Charlie64Springbok ‘Voorsit jag’ in the Karoo - the ultimate RSA group hunt!
."You spot a flash of white in the distance and then a second and third flash. Springbok! Slowly you raise your binoculars and scan the distance - 350 yards away and trotting in your direction. A herd of some ten to twelve springbok. You do not move. Your breathing slows. At 275 yards the lead ewe stops and the herd stops as if on her command. They look back in the direction they came from, checking for danger from behind. After moments, they move again, at a slower pace in your direction. You dial your rifle scope up to 8 and lean into the rifle, firmly resting on the short sticks, glassing for the springbok. Yor pick them up and make out a solid ram, third in the group. They are now slowly feeding towards you. Carefully you judge the distance - 200 yards. The ram is slightly quartering. You bring the cross hair up between his front legs and half way up his chest and allowing for the angle, you ease the safety off and, controlling your breathing, you take up the trigger and squeeze. At the shot the ram buckles, pronks and races 10 - 15 yards before his legs give out and he falls on this chin, kicking a cloud of red sand around him. The herd scatters. The white flashes disappear into the veld. Your ram is still. Your first! Oh the magic of driven springbok in the Karoo!" W Evans, African Hunting.
It took a while to put it together - a group´Voorsit jag` (read driven hunt) for springbok in the Northern Cape in South Africa.
My ´brother by a different mother´, as the saying goes, Coenie, who lives in Stellenbosch, owns a 3.500 h farm in the Karoo and runs some 350 - 400 springbok in three 1.000 h camps, along with some 50 plus gemsbok, a number of kudu that come and go and the occasional warthogs, plus a host of night animals - caracal, jackal, porcupine, springhare and rabbit.
The farm belonged to his mother in the day and she ran prize winning sheep on the farm and after she passed, Coenie took off the sheep and put in springbok - common, some black and more recently some copper bokkies. The camps are all low / sheep fenced as is the farm boundary.
I have hunted there a number of times over the years and my wife and I even fixed up a wedding hunt for our closest friends at the farm when we got married in RSA. Coenie was best man at the wedding. I simply love the farm, the old farm house and buildings, the three hunting camps, the Karoo landscape, the Karoo night skies and I simply love hunting springbok!
The springbok has to be ´the South African animal‘. It’s the name of the national rugby team - all other sports teams were renamed as the Proteas after apartheid ended, but Mandela agreed to retain the name `Springboks‘ for SA rugby. A century ago, there were hundreds of thousands of springbok that would migrate throughout the Karoo - that must have been a heck of a sight to see. Today they are spread across farms from the Free State down through the Eastern Cape and the Northern Cape and it is in the North that they thrive and are, in my opinion, really at home. A very special animal but perhaps underrated by international hunting guests.
Coenie takes off 50 - 75 springbok a year to manage the herds and for meat. Late last year I suggested to him to bring in a couple of Northern Cape qualified PH´s and I would try and put a group together and we could fix up 3 days of driven springbok shooting for an international crowd. And that is exactly what we did.
Rob and Ilsa from Texas, Sandra and Michael from Düsseldorf, Peter also from near Düsseldorf and my wife and I. A WhatsApp group and a half dozen phone calls made the preparation and planning easy and mid June we all found ourselves air bound for Cape Town.
We fixed up the group flights ourselves from Germany with Turkish Airlines via Istanbul to Cape Town with Rob and Ilsa flying United and Lufthansa via Frankfurt, the idea being they would stay with us a couple of days on the return leg. Flights were easy and we had no hassle travelling with firearms on Turkish.
Rob and Ilsa have hunted Africa a number of times, in fact we have hunted with them in RSA and Namibia on various occasions. Sandra and Michael hunted Namibia once last year and this would be Peter´s first Africa trip! And at the time of writing this, he is already talking about a return trip next year! ‚Bacillus Africa’ has struck again!
Rob and Ilsa arrived in Cape Town a few hours before us - without guns, they would use PH rifles. We arrived midday and with prearranged gun permits in hand, we had our bags and gun cases and within 45 minutes of landing we were on our way to Stellenbosch.
We had booked a Mercedes Sprinter bus with driver, Eugene, and trailer for the whole trip from airport pick up to airport drop a week later. A comfortable 15 seater bus with a cool box for water and beers and a trailer for suitcases and foodstuffs for the week. Everyone was very happy and very comfortable with the ground transport.
That first afternoon we visited Safari Outdoor in Stellies, the RSA equivalent of Cabelas. Jacques, the store manager, at our earlier request, held a short talk on springbok hunting in the Karoo, sexing animals, lambing, shot placement, vegetation, calibres, shooting distances out to 250 m and more. He laid out a full size springbok paper target and pointed out the vitals and the ideal shot placement. Useful and insightful information, especially for first time springbok hunters. Thank you Jacques and Safari Outdoor!
In the evening we all sat down together with Coenie and his family at the Fat Butcher, Stellenbosch´s best steak restaurant, and enjoyed a marvellous steak dinner with fantastic wines and grilled lambs tails as a stater - I die for them when I am in RSA! If you have not tried them then you must on your next RSA trip!
Wednesday it was up early and an 8 hour bus trip to north of Britstown in the Northern Cape. It is a long hall trip and we could not think of a way to shorten it except by chartering in but that was not really an option due to all the food, drinks, luggage and gear that we needed to take with us to outfit the week´s hunt. So a long bus trip it was to be, but the time passed quickly and we arrived late afternoon at the farm.
After quick introductions, we all unloaded our bags and gear into our assigned rooms and with only 45 minutes of shooting light left of the day, grabbing our rifles and shooting equipment, we all headed to the range to check our rifles and show Coenie and the rest that we can all shoot straight.
Ilsa and Rob had loaner 7 mm´s with match barrels and silencers. Coenie likes heavy guns and very accurate barrels. Anja was shooting her Blaser .270, Sandra and Michael we shooting .308s and Peter a Steyr .30-06, not an ideal Karoo caliber given, but he did well and managed longer shots with accuracy. I took and shot my Rigby Highland Stalker in .275 Rigby shooting 140 grain Hornady SSTs. Coenie also had a custom build .300 WSM with a NF scope which we used for gemsbok and baboon. Finally, there was a .22 for dassie hunting in the evenings. A good collection of guns and all bases covered.
My Rigby Highland Stalker in .275 Rigby or 7x57 Mauser as Coenie always likes to remind me! A joy to carry and fun to shoot!
The farm dates to the 1870´s with the original farmhouse being 5 rooms, a large bathroom and a veranda running the front of the building. Later the new house was built with 3 bedrooms, a dining room and large kitchen based on a fantastic coal burning Aga stove and hot water provided by a donkey boiler behind the kitchen. Some solar panels and a back-up generator provided light and power along with strategically placed oil lamps. A large BBQ pit and lapa round it off, where we would eat our evening meals and share stories by the fire over drinks into the night.
That first evening we enjoyed snacks and drinks at the fire and then a mouth watering Karoo lamb roast, with everyone getting to know each other and the laughter beginning to flow!
The weather was cold when we were there. Classic Northern Cape winter with night time temperatures hovering just over freezing and daytime temperatures around 15 degrees Celsius and sunny. Most mornings we were greeted by frost on the veld and icy fences and gates, with the sun then climbing throughout the morning skies and chasing the frost off the veld.
We would hunt a different camp each day, each of us being allocated a shooting area with strict instructions where not to shoot and safety first. Two farm hands, wearing orange blaze vests, were mounted on farm horses and walked and trotted through the camp where we were hunting keeping the springbok on the move, whilst a third staff member did the same off of a motorbike. Christian, Coenie´s son was out and about on his quad, checking on everyone and picking up the shot springbok and dropping them at each hunters spot. The PHs accompanied us in the veld, sitting with us and helping to spot the springbok as they moved amongst the sagebrush and pointing out shot opportunities.
The first day of hunting, we took up our seats in the veld around 10:00 in the first camp, a tough camp to hunt with a river bed and dense trees running through the camp where the game tends to seek cover. We would hunt to 13:00 and then stop for lunch. The farm workers did well to push the springbok out of the river bed and into and around the camp. Everyone had some shooting, with shots being taken from 50 to 360 meters.
The guideline was 3 rams to 1 ewe, looking to take out 75 % rams and 25 % ewes over the 3 days. Headshots if 100 % certain, otherwise just behind the shoulder would do fine.
It was just wonderful, sitting on a ground chair with my rifle on a deadrest ‚Death Grip` tripod, seeing individual rams and small herds of springbok moving and pronking across the veld in the winter sunlight! Some larger herds of 30 plus buck were also out and about. Life is good!
I managed to take a couple of rams including an old, old ram, which was one of the highlights of the hunting for me. Anja shot 5 springbok with the other group members shooting 1s and 2s.
Another highlight was Peter shooting his first African animal, also an old, old springbok ram, with scars on its face and worn horns and teeth. An awesome first bok to take! Peter was duly ´blooded´ and bravely chewed and swallowed a piece of the liver in keeping with South African tradition! We have all been there and done it and he too is now part of it! Well done Peter!
We finished the day with 9 springbok and, after pictures, loaded the springbok onto the Toyotas and headed back to the farm.
After watering and feeding the horses, the staff got on with skinning, gutting and getting the carcasses into the cold room.
The hunters and family members enjoyed drinks and a wonderful oxtail potjie around the fire!
An excellent first day all round and everyone now had an idea of what to expect on days 2 and 3.
The PHs had fun issuing penalty drinks / shots at the fire - someone had shot a bit far back, someone else kept on standing up to look around like a meerkat, someone did not see a herd of springbok pass 50 m behind them and a few other amusing anecdotes! All good fun and laughs!
The following day was basically a repeat, shooting the second camp in the morning with the guns spread throughout the 1.000 h accompanied by the PHs and the farm staff on horseback and motorbikes keeping the animals moving. I shot 4 rams and 1 ewe, with 1 ram requiring a follow up head shot. I had a great spot under a thorn tree with 360 degree views. A herd of 18 gemsbok passed some 20 m by me with the wind in my favour and they did not pick me out.
Ilsa, sitting to the north of me, took 4 springbok with her husband shooting 5 rams! We put down 19 springbok on day two. The farm hands would pick up and field dress any springbok they came across, commenting on good shot placement or jesting on a shot too far back or through the meat!
"Shoot behind the shoulder does not mean shoot 15 inches behind the shoulder!"
All in good humour!
We enjoyed a tail gate alfresco lunch in the veld - vetkoek and mince (very traditional) and warmed up oxtail stew with G&T´s and champagne for the girls and cold Windhoeks for the guys. And then it was back to the farmhouse.
The ladies then went off on a `Girls Hunt` for dassies, coming back with 5 dassies including a monster of a bear dassie! The farm workers were happy, as they eat dassie when they can get it!
The boys went to the range and had fun shooting a .223 AR and various Glocks and Walters at paper targets and large sour lemons off one of the old lemon trees! If life gives you lemons, shoot them !
And then we all enjoyed a traditional South African braai, with skilpadjies, boerewors, steak, lamb ribbikies and more washed down with cold Windhoek lager and great red wines! The catering was simply wonderful from start to finish!
The final day´s hunting we hunted the third camp, again pretty much a copy paste of the first two days, other than my seat was a cooler box full of beers. I had a tough stand and after only one herd of springbok came flying by, they had my wind, I sleeved my rifle for the duration and enjoyed a couple of beers, enjoying the veld and watching the others that I could see through my Swarovski binocs. Rob took a nice ram to wrap up his hunt.
And Anja was full hands on, quad driving and picking up her shot springbok including this `head shot` ewe taken with her Blaser .270! Day 3 and she was on a high!
The hunting ended with a braai and drinks in the veld and photos and pictures of the helpers and the full group. All good fun.
On the second and third mornings Ilsa and I went out with Coenie and David, one of the PHs, and we each took a gemsbok. Ilsa shot a solid older cow with a good head, mine was a young cow with an abnormal head that Coenine had told me about weeks before. A good one to take out of the gene pool.
That afternoon before dinner, the guys went out for a rock hyrax hunt, each taking a dassie before the sun set and the darkness fell on the Karoo. Dassies with a .22 shooting at 30 to 50 m - great fun! I am having mine done as a full mount for the study desk in Sandton! Why not!
David and Coenie took Ilsa out on the last afternoon before sunset for a black springbok ram. They spotted a good solid ram and Ilsa put in the shot. It was a solid lung shot and at the hit ram bolted around the koppie, melting into the brown and rust coloured sandstone rocks. However darkness beat them and they did not find the ram. But Coenie and David were out early in the morning and found the ram about 100 m from where Ilsa shot him. A good solid black bokkie to end her hunt!
Peter went out a few times early mornings with the .300 WSM to try for baboons that live high up in the cliffs in the first camp. He did not get one although he had a close miss at 680 m! His longest ever shot and a huge shot in anyone`s books!
The farm workers did a great job skinning and processing all the animals and were always smiles and laughter! They were not only rewarded with dassies, tripes, livers and other meats for all their hard work! Big thanks to them all.
After three days of a traditional ´voorsit jag` like they used to do in years gone by and which some farms still do today, we put down a total of 50 springbok, 3 gemsbok and 8 dassies between us! Everyone shot safe and everyone had the greatest time. It was a wonderful hunt full of laughter, friendship, superb food and fun times in the veld and around the campfire!
Sunday, it was up early and the bus ride back to Stellenbosch, stopping at a traditional `Padstal` (farm stall) near Three Sisters for coffees and snacks. A second stop at Karoo Animal Art Taxidermy to drop off some skins and heads and then back on the road. We got in to Stellies in the evening and had a simple meal at the Brauhaus before crashing into bed after the long bus drive.
Our last day in RSA was spent visiting Babylonstoren, a large private farmstead near Franshoek, with amazing gardens, a huge hot house, fruit trees and a super collection of cycads! Then followed a wonderful lunch at the Haute Cabriere wine estate and then a private tasting at the Oldenberg Estate. We ended the trip with a superb BBQ / Braai at Coenie’s home with all his family and their meerkat! Very special!
This was a unique trip / hunt. This was a hunt not advertised by outfitters or agents - I am not knocking agents or outfitters at all, they do great jobs and I use them frequently as many of us do. But rather this hunt was something we put together for family and close friends, planning meals, sites and all the who what where and how`s, bringing in the Northern Cape PHs to cover the paperwork and the international guests. Everyone came together from day one and there was laughter, smiles, zero your buck is bigger than mine or any of that, just outright fun and friendship!
The hunting was great, the farm is awesome and like a look back to the way it used to be. Coenie and his family, the farm workers and staff, the PHs and Eugen our bus driver all did a fantastic job! Thank you all very much, we know how much work goes into making trips like this happen!
The other wonderful thing about this trip was seeing Peter experience Africa for the first time and seeing him with his first game animal. Memorable. Sandra and Michael hunted Namibia once before this trip and it was also great seeing them experience RSA and the Northern Cape and the springbok hunt. And Rob and Ilsa had a great time too and another memorable hunt in RSA. It gives me great pleasure taking people on their first hunt and I hope Peter does return again!
A big thanks to Rob, Ilsa, Sandra, Michael, Peter and my wife for all coming along and helping to make this hunt happen!
Our 2025 "Voorsit jag" in the Karoo - it was a special one!!
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