I have been on 5 previous hunting trips to Africa and it was time to enjoy one with my family. My wife Angie and 14 and 12 year old daughters, Ariel and Bailey, accompanied me on a combination sight-seeing and hunting trip.

We departed Tulsa, OK on June 15 and were met by our dear friend, Shelia Heath, fellow forum member Don Heath's wife, on June 16th in Harare and discovered only our guns cases arrived and our bags were still in Jo'berg. During our short stay in Harare, Don and Shelia took us to a lion rehabilitation center and a game park for game viewing. 1.5 days later our bags arrived and we were ready to begin our adventure. We departed Harare June 18th and drove to Bulawayo to meet our outfitter and for a trip to Dingwall Ranch. We arrived too late in the day to hunt on the 18th and began the hunt the next morning. Dingwall has a nice lodge and is currently being managed by the owners stepson, Peter. Dingwall is American owned and thus not subject to much poaching or resettlement at this time. It has a good assortment of common plainsgame with great herds of impala, zebra and kudu. It has a fantastic population of sable and we saw some huge males during our 1.5 days on the ranch.The terrain is most flat, with thick bush and a bit of riverine growth along on of the boundaries. The morning hunts were unsuccessful despite a number of good stalks by both my girls. The game was just too spooky for their skill levels at this time. The evening of the 18th while my eldest was playing hide and seek with impala and zebra herds, her younger sister was the first to kill and animal. Bailey shot an impapa as her first African animal while hunting with the ranch manager and her mother. She used a CZ 7.62 x 39 carbine loaded with factory Golden Bear 123 grain hollow points and made the kill shot at about 50 yards. She was also able to make a second shot before the animal was down and both shots were in the kill zone. The rifle and ammo performed wonderfully. Unfortunately Ariel was unable to make a kill while at Dingwall, despite some great efforts on the part of her PH, Don Heath. However, it was a great experience for her to experience African style hunting vs. stand hunting which is what she does primarily at home. We had a great time at Dingwall and enjoyed the company of Don, his wife Shelia, their beautiful 2 year old daughter Johanna, Barry, one of the investors in Dingwall and Peter the manager and learner PH of the lodge.

We departed Dingwall for Victoria Falls with Don on the 20th, and said goodbye to Shelia and Johanna, who were off to see her folks in Bulawayo because she and Don didn't want to expose Johanna to the chance of malaria in Victory Falls. It was a great drive to the falls and my wife and daughters enjoyed getting to see the countryside during the trip. Shortly after arriving and checking into the Victoria Falls Hotel, we were off for an elephant back safari prior to dinner that evening back at the hotel. We all enjoyed the elephant back ride and took numberous photos of the game we encountered as well as a baby elephant they brought to the reception area after our ride. The next morning we were up early for a trip to Zambia and a helicopter tour of the falls. Not only were the sights of the Falls fantastic from the air, but we were treated to a great view of the largest bull elephant I have ever seen and a very impressive herd of old Dugga boys from the air. The remainder of the day was spent touring the National Park and Falls and doing some shopping for unbelievable bargains on wood and stone carvings. Don was a perfect guide and he and his contacts in the industry did a first class job of setting up my trip schedule. We capped this portion of our trip off with a sunset cruise where my family got close up views of hippo, elephant and crocodiles on the Zambezi. Vic. Falls was hit with a power outage the next morning which was to only hardship of the trip to this point. Don took us to the airport, helped smooth over a serious overwieght charge on our baggage and saw us on our way. Be aware of a new scam at the airport. The officials checking my guns out of the country tried to charge me a duty on the ammuntion that had been expended on the trip. I ask to see the regulation and advised them I had never been charged this fee in 5 previous trips and they let it go, but still ask for a bribe to make certain my gun cases were loaded on the plane. I didn't pay the bride and the guns made it to the next leg.

After departing Vic. Falls on the 22nd we flew to Durban via Jo'berg. I was the only person at the SAPS office and had the completed permit, outfitter invitation letter, personal motivation letter and 4457 and it still took a bit over an hour to process my permit. Then there was the silly requirment to check my gun in then out for my trip to Durban. We were met in Durban, which has to be the most confusing airport in RSA, by my friend John Harris and driven to his beautiful private home in a very nice neighborhood overlooking the Indian Ocean in the distance. John runs Southern African Safaris and has some fantastic dangerous game hunting in Mozabique, great bird hunting in the Free State and wonderful free range hunting for common plains game and great nyala within an hour of Durban. We were met at John's house by his wonderful wife, Deanie and their son Colin, who my youngest daughter immediately fell in love with. They treated us to a wonderful dinner, great dogs to play with and a good nights rest. The next day John had scheduled a tour of a Zulu Village to see their traditional dancing and then on to Tala Game Reserve where we were able to see huge herds of plains game as well a white rhino and cape buffalo. The next day we toured Durban's Aquarium and got to visit the beach and dunk our feet in the Indian Ocean. That evening John and Deanie invited friends to share dinner with us and we were treated to a wonderful evening meeting some new and interesting folks. The next morning we departed for John's concession near Unzinto up the coast from Durban.

This ranch is known as Montezuma and is a good sized chunk of ground. If my memory is correct it is in excess of 7500 hectares. It is a cattle and sugar cane ranch. It is low fenced and has good populations of kudu, impala, blesbok, zebra, nyala, warthog, wildebeeste, steenbok, duiker, bushpig, bushbuck, waterbuck and giraffe. It is a beautiful area surrounded by Zulu villages. We stayed in a 100 year old farm house sited on a bluff overlooking the ranch and an endless series of hills to the horizons. The terrain is hilly, but the ranch has a good series of roads and despite the bush there many grassy opening similar to alpine parks seen in the Rockies. When we stopped to sight the rifles we had a herd of zebra, impala and blesbok within 100 yards of us. The hunting is wonderful and the terrain of the ranch really lends itself to spot and stalk hunting on foot. John did a wonderful job of finding me a trophy nyala the first eveving, which I killed at about 175 yards with Ariel's rifle. The next morning he was able to guide Ariel to kill her first African animal, an impala, which she shot with her Ruger M-77 International in 308 loaded with factory Hornady 150 grain Interbonds at a range of a bit over 170 meters. Both she and Bailey were able to cleanly kill blesbok later that morning. Bailey used her CZ and Ariel, by chance was carrying John's son's, Colin's, Musgrave 308 when her shooting opportunity arose. Bailey made a shot of about 125 yards and Ariel's shot was about 180. Later than evening I did a mercy killing on an old, but nice impala using John's pre-64 Winchester in 30.06 loaded with GS 180s. The next day in rained from 4:00 a.m until late in the night, so we took the girls back to Durban for some shopping and lunch at the mall before returning to the ranch. The next morning it was cold and windy, but John was able to find a herd of zebra and after 1.5 hours of cat-and-mouse he finally got Bailey in position for a shot. She placed a perfect heart shot on her old battle scarred stallion, but he just didn't know he was dead until he was knocked down 3 times after having collected 4 375 H&Hs from me for back-up. A short time later John was able to stalk up with Ariel and put her in position for a perfect heart shot as well. Both the girls used the Ruger and factory loads. I was impressed with the internal damage the Interbonds did. Bailey's shot passed through at the top of the heart and Ariels shot tore nearly half of the heart away. Those animals completed our hunt. I was very proud of the way the girls hunted, the stalks they were able to complete and the way they shot and handled thier firearms.

After leaving the ranch we again returned to John's home for a relaxing evening prior to preparing to depart the next day for home. Montezum is the finest ranch I have ever hunted in 5 previous trips and I loved the fact it was low fenced with naturally occuring game populations. If you are looking for one of the best hunts you can have in South Africa, in a very pretty area and with a great PH, please contact John Harris at Southern Africa Safaris. John is a member of this forum and posts under 500NE.

John dropped us at the airport the next afternoon and after going through a similar silly process of checking my guns in and then out again we boarded the flight home. 29 hours hours after leaving Durban we were finally home. A 4 hours delay in Dakar and a 3 hours mechanical delay on a NW flight caused us to miss our connection to Detroit. After a world class fit by me, NW booked us on an overbooked flight to Minn, gave us $40.00 worth of airport food vouchers(which was insulting) and finally got us home on the smallest jet I have ever been in for such a long journey. They are the worst airline I have ever flown for customer service.

I doubt I will ever take a firearm to RSA again unless I cannot borrow one. I thought I had to take them this time because my daughter are petite and I feared a full length stock would be difficutl to manage. However, Ariel did fine with a full length stock when she had to do so and I suspect Bailey would have done as well. The firearm licensing process in Zimbabwe is still painless and one of the few things done right in that country. Everyone still has their hands out for a bride at the gun counters in RSA and Zimbabwe and it gets a bit tiring dealing with the imcompetence and indifference of aircarriers and airline personel on both side of the ocean. I will say the new configuation of the Airbus seemed roomier than when I first flew in one in 2005 and SAA's in air service and food wasn't too bad. Knowing what I know now, I would avoid NW and would not Depart from Dulles. Also, New York Customs was as painless as any re-entry I have ever had and the only problem was the Airport police and TSA had to dig through my bag to make certain the ammunition was packed separate from my firearms.


Bailey and impala from Dingwall


Ariel's impala



Bailey's blesbok


Ariel's blesbok

Bailey's zebra



Ariel's zebra


Proof the old man can still shoot


I think this says all it has too.

Perry

Sounds like a great family adventure, you guys sure jammed a lot of cool activities into the trip. I like family vacations like this too...keep everybody moving and make the most of the time. One of these days I'll get my wife and daughter to Africa on something like this. Well done! Looking fwd to the picts Perry. Bill

2500 photos?

Post them all!

Congratulations on your trip!

Come on Perry. You know we like pictures, it's not fair to post the story and no pics! Shoot, some of us can hardly read!

Sounds like a fun hunt. Great experience to take your daughters along.

I look forward to the photos.

Sounds like a great trip (airplane and SAPS problems aside). I look forward to the pictures.

Perry,

Very nice report...Tell the girls outstanding performances in their shooting abilities... Hunters they are...

Mike

Sounds like a great hunt and adventure vacation with the family. Kudos for getting them involved and looking forward to your pictures.

Perry, thanks for posting about your family's trip/hunt. What a great experiance for the girls.

Keith

Dan,

I was with 3 first timers armed with digital cameras and multiple smart cards. You couldn't yawn without a flash going off.

Perry

Great pictures! Now post the other 2495 of them!

Seriously, it is good to see your girls out there hunting and having a great time.

I love it! We need to see more!

Those are a couple of the prettiest young ladies I have ever seen. They must take after their uncle Brian...

Good photos boet. Good story too, though it was better in person over a G&T.

Brian

Great story and thank you for sharing it. I have to agree, when I go again, I will rent a firearm. To much hassle here. In Zimbabwe, it has been 4 years, I never had a bit of trouble, I even accidently left one round to my 7 mag in my camera case, while going through the screening at the Vic Falls airport, the xray caught the one round. I almost fainted, the security person gave a long look and said that I needed to remove it. I took it out and had no idea what to do with one round,my suticase and gun case had already gone to the tarmac and was waiting to be loaded on the plane, so I asked him to just throw it away. He said, no, no, I will put it in your suitcase, I was flabergasted, he walked out on the tarmac, with my direction, located my one suticase, unzipped it, and dropped the round into my ammo case, taped it back up and zipped it shut. He came back with a big smile and told me to be more cautious. I gave him a $20 tip for his efforts and he babysit me the whole time I was in the airport. He made sure I was the fisrt to board.

But when I returned to the states, a Delta ticket agent, told me my ammo was improperly packed, needed to be a metal box, not plastic! Go figure I told him. It was one of two twenty round boxes I had left home with, and now they were not legal. And he only picked up on one box. So I took it out of the suitcase, looked for a cop, handed it to him, told him my dilema, he took it, thanked me, and said he knew some one that shoots a 7mm. THe agent just kept giving me the evil eye, then he scolded me again, and let me go through the baggage check. Never agiain! Next trip, I rent a firearm.

Perry,
WTG Dad and girls! Peggy and I enjoyed the report and pictures. I think that may be the best Father/Daughter picture I've ever seen!

Good on your Girls and You!

Great father/daughters photo. I love the bumper stickers. Congrats
Jeff

I know you were puffed up with pride as the girls went about business. I am not afraid to say I had to hide for minute and clear my eyes after Kate got her Kudu.

Times like this are what most can only dream of!!!

Dulcinea

It was a great couple of days and a privilege and pleasure to guide those 2 young ladies. Kudos to Perry in training both of them to place their shots where they were needed with minimal fuss. Boy, are they competitive!
Perry, Bailey's Blesbuck scores higher using Rowland Ward by a quarter inch but Ariel's Blesbuck scores considerably higher using SCI, that ought to create a bit of confusion in camp
You are going to have a tussle trying to sneak out of the house on any future african safaris, the bug has bitten those girls good and thoroughly.
Later,
J

500nitro,

It was a pleasure to hunt with you and get to spend time with your family. I am so grateful for the way you coached my daughters during their hunts and the efforts you expended to make their first trip to Africa memorable. They were planning a return on the plane home and haven't stopped talking about the trip. Now I will never be rich.

Your concession is fantastic and your organization made the slight hardships fun. I hope you have a terrific remainder of the season.

Thank you again!!!

Perry