Cape Buffalo Hunt with Shumba Safaris

This was a short notice hunt offered by Jan of Shumba Safaris and was aimed at raising funds for rhino anti-poaching units in the Balule Reserve. Balule is part of the APNR and is open to Kruger. Between the rest of APNR and all of Kruger, it is a huge piece of wild Africa. I have hunted in South Africa before in the Northwest Province and Free State, but the terrain here was different. At this time of the year, it was very green and the brush was pretty thick. I am not the experienced hunter as many of you here, but for me it was one of the most scenic places I have ever hunted. It has all of the Big 5 roaming wild. We ran into some huge herds of buffalo and also a lot of elephants. We did not see any lions, leopards or rhino, but ran into many fresh tracks of these as well as hippo and crocs.
My wife joined me on this hunt, although she spent a lot of her time in camp. Jan’s camp is set at the foothills of the Drakensburg Mountains just outside Hoedspruit and has all the modern amenities you can ask for (even wifi) without losing the rustic charm of an African Camp. I don’t really blame her for wanting to stay in camp rather than bounce around on the back of a cruiser. Food and service was also excellent.
I am not much for writing long hunt reports, so will let some pictures tell most of the story. Please excuse the quality of some of the photos. We are not professional photographers either.

Balule:

Skulls from poached rhinos lined up outside the warden’s office. Most have been hacked off with machetes and have portions of the skulls missing.



Wife outside the chalet.



Jan and Riaan (warden at Balule)














Rhino midden



We were looking for a Dugga Boy at least over 12 yrs of age. We were into buffalo by the hundreds and it was an awesome experience to be able to stalk these animals through the bush. We found our bull on day 2 of the hunt after a lot of busted stalks and looking over a lot of animals. He was at 25 yards at the shot and I took him with a 500NE double offhand. He didn’t go down right away and decided to charge us twice. It was extremely exciting to say the least and without going into a lot of details, it took 5 shots from the 500, all offhand, to take him for good, including an insurance shot and I was shaking with all the excitement at the end of it. It was all I had hoped for regarding a classic buffalo hunt (in my mind) with a double rifle.




I tried playing with Photoshop on this one. The color of the dirt is not that red.





The Team



I also took a buffalo cow. To find a suitable cow without calf, etc in the long grass was more difficult that I thought. It took us two days to find her. This time I used a scoped 9.3x62 and she fell where she was shot.




Eddie (Jan's friend) got creative while we waited for the truck.



We took a day to look around Hoedspruit and went to the Blyde River Canyon and the Cheetah Rehab Program.








We left Hoedspruit and spent a week in Cape Town. This was our first time there and we really enjoyed our time there. Beautiful landscape and lots to do. We drove down to Cape of Good Hope, did the wine route, hit the beaches to see some penguins, hiked Table Mountain and even went cage diving with great white sharks, which was an exciting adventure in itself. There pics are not strictly related to hunting, but figure some would enjoy. Moderators can delete if not allowed.










Many thanks to Jan, his family, Eddie, Riaan, Max, Calvin and everybody else involved with the hunt, for the great experience and wonderful memories.

Nice old bull. Great Pictures. Congratulations.

Excellent

Shark diving is pretty cool - I got to do it again

Mike

Great report & awesome pictures. Congratulations!

BTW what was the camera used to take those great pictures?

Seems like a great trip and hunt, with a trophy to be proud of. The money going to defend the Rhinos is awesome.

Thanks all.

Nakihunter - we had a few cameras with us. Can't tell you which picture was taken with which camera, but they ranged from an iPhone to a Nikon DSLR.

Excellent buffalo.

Awesome and congrats on a very fine buffalo and you did well to put down the charge.

What dreams are made of.

Good job love the pics and fine shooting.

Mike

Very nice.

Thanks for posting.

I see you have a preference for PH's named Jan D.
First Jan du Plessis for leopard and now Jan Dumon for buff. You have good tastes in PH's and even better luck. Well done!!

Outstanding! I hunted the Balule a number of years ago, and with it being part of the Greater Kruger, we saw and hunted some fantastic animals! I also fell in love with the Blyde River Canyon and the Cheetah Rehabilitation Reserve. All of that makes for a wonderful safari!

Outstanding hunt and photos sir! And with a double at close range. Indeed a hunt of a lifetime! What kind of double do you have and it looks like you were shooting CEB bullets? Thanks again for a GREAT report. jorge

great pics and an awesome buff

quote:

Originally posted by jorge:
Outstanding hunt and photos sir! And with a double at close range. Indeed a hunt of a lifetime! What kind of double do you have and it looks like you were shooting CEB bullets? Thanks again for a GREAT report. jorge

Great pictures of your experience! Congratulations! That looks like the DR "that can't be named"

Excellent report and photos!!!
Congratulations to you and your wife

quote:

Originally posted by txlonghorn:

quote:

Originally posted by jorge:
Outstanding hunt and photos sir! And with a double at close range. Indeed a hunt of a lifetime! What kind of double do you have and it looks like you were shooting CEB bullets? Thanks again for a GREAT report. jorge

Great pictures of your experience! Congratulations! That looks like the DR "that can't be named"

That is pretty funny. It indeed is a Sabatti. I didn't bring my rifles with me this time and used Jan's. But I do have an identical one in 470. So far I have taken 2 of the Big 5 with Sabattis and they seem to be working great for me. My 470 prints very tight groups at 50 yards on sticks and have about 200 rnds through it without any issues.. I have a trijicon RMR mounted on it.

Thanks everyone. If anyone spends time in Hoedspruit, I will definitely recommend taking the boat trip on the Blyde River Canyon. I only had a day to look around, and am sure there are more great places to see there. Very beautiful place.

Beautiful pictures, thanks for posting.

Very nice bul !! Well done Jan and aAR 79

Beautiful pictures and thank you for your contribution to defending the Rhino.South Africa has so much to offer those that want to do some sight seeing after a hunt.Thanx for posting.

quote:

Originally posted by AR79:
... it took 5 shots from the 500, all offhand, to take him for good ...

Should have used a 577NE!
Nice report and pics btw!

enjoyed the post...well done

AR 79 promised me he would do his long practised seal imitation when he went shark cage diving.

Looks like you & wife had a great time.

Thanks for sharing

quote:

Originally posted by Jan Dumon:
AR 79 promised me he would do his long practised seal imitation when he went shark cage diving.

Haha...that's right. Nothing like wearing a black wet suit, clapping and balancing a big red ball on my nose to attract some great whites.

Thanks all.

Congrats - thanks for sharing!

Nice hunt AR79, I did the hunt before you and enjoyed it immensely. The pics don't work for me though unfortunately........

Cheers,
Mark.