We got the big bull on the salt and went and had a very enjoyable lunch. I think I had perma-grin the entire time.

Barry asked me what I wanted to do for the afternoon hunt. I told him that honestly I did not care; it had been so amazing that at this point we would just enjoy.

We talked about Impala, Eland, and Zebra and for fun Kudu.

I had not shot an Eland but for some reason I really wanted to go and look for another Zebra. The first one I shot was going to be a shoulder pedestal mount as I think they are one of the most amazing mounts I have ever seen. I would really like a rug but if we did not get one there were no worries either.

Eardley asked if I wanted to hunt for Bushpig and for some reason my thoughts kept going to Zebra. So Zebra it was.

Barry said he knew of a ridge that for some reason they liked to frequent in the evening when they were feeding. We went and checked it but did not see anything.

On the next ridge over we did see three Zebra and two White Blesbok. The hunt was on. After getting over there we realized it was an impossible stalk but looked back where we came from and there was quite a herd of Zebra so the stalk was back on.

We got to the bottom of the hill and were on foot from there.

It was not long before we had made it to the ridge line and started to carefully take each step until we could easily see the black and white legs of the Zebra in the bushveld.

I have to say; I am glad I am not the one judging a Zebra. I got on the sticks as they were feeding at less than 100 yards in the thick stuff. Barry was frantically glassing as they were feeding to our left.

Finally, he told me which one to get one and I told him all I could see was the left shoulder. He told me perfect and to take him 1/3 up the body. I touched the trigger on the 300RUM for the last time and the rodeo was on.

There was a big swirl of dust and the entire herd was on the run away from us. It was quite thick but we found blood immediately. I was praying after we walked 50 yards or so and were still seeing blood that we would not have to go and get the tracking dogs on the last night.

Benji stayed with the blood and the tracks while Puren and myself spread out to look. Fortunately before long I found the stallion dead on top of a big old cactus.

What a contrast between this stallion and the other one. This one is much more black than white compared to the other one.

We all had the customary handshake and I was just in awe at the Zebra before me and how this entire trip had turned out. Amazing!





What a trip. What can I say.

On the way back to the lodge we came across a Waterbuck ram that stopped to watch us and a group of Nyala bulls out feeding in a meadow.

What an ending to this trip.

I found out that Jef had an amazing day as well.

He ran across three Warthog boars first thing in the morning and took the best of the bunch. They then went looking for Zebra and he ended up getting two and different stalks. That was a truck full headed back to the skinning shed. Two Zebra and a Warthog.

More pictures and info to follow...

My Nyala bull on the right. He would take a few more steps forward and I take the shot.



My Blesbok is on the left. Eventually he would come down off the sky line a few yards and I would take the shot.

Jef's trophies.

If you get the Sportsman Channel I suggest watching Aim on Africa. Puren and Janine have been producing a new show and they just featured an entire episode on Kudu hunting with the Rudman's.

i dvr'ed that episode, havent had time to watch it yet. congrtas on an awesome hunt!!!!

Justin,thanks for the great writings on your fantastic hunt with PH Barry, you guys did take excellent pictures too.

Maybe I missed it, but I haven't seen anything about Jef's valiant attempts at hunting the elusive bushpig?
He spent three long,cold nights in the various blinds without luck.
Regards,

Jef did give it a go during the night for bushpig and it just never came together for him. He saw several porcupines and has better trigger control than myself as I would have gladly taken one of them as their quills are amazingly long.

Ironically, the one day out of four Jef did not pursue the bushpig another hunter in camp got one.

Pic of my Springbuck as he stopped and turned as if on que.



The Kudu that I was looking for was actually a big Duiker.



Not the greatest picture of Zebra #2 but sometimes it just does not work out perfect with the camera.



Kudu #1



Kudu #2

I have to say my first safari exceeded my expectations in so many way. It was tremendous and I was planning my return trip before I have even left.

As a side note; when returning home my duffel bag got lost. At least the guns arrived safely.

I received my trophies within the last month and I cannot thank Paul Smith enough. The trophies were in perfect condition. Packaged perfectly and arrived in superb condition.

A taxidermist friend of mine commented he had never seen a better job of the African stuff coming in. He said he had seen some horrible jobs but this was the best he had seen. Thank you Paul.

Benji and Barry were top notch in every way and we did a lot more walking that I had anticipated and it was worth every step. I cannot wait to hunt with them again.

The Rudman family is such an honest group of people. There were no hidden fees; or changes or anything that caught me off guard. They did exactly what they said they would do plus some. I cannot recommend them or their operation enough.

Thanks to all that took the time to read this long post and all comments are appreciated.

Justin

quote:

Thanks to all that took the time to read this long post and all comments are appreciated

Thank you for posting it!

A great story and well told.

Excellent pictures as well!

Thank you, LittleJoe.

Once again thank-you for your kind words Justin.Good,appreciating people like yourselves make it worthwile for us to conserve and manage our wildlife on private land like Blaauwkrantz.

Eardley, the place is fabulous and well worth every cent.

My only regret is we were there only 10 days; should have been 12 so we could have gone to the Karoo for a couple of days.

Kudu #2 is a very familiar pose to me. Spitskop at 281 yards for mine...

Eardley, do y'all have any bookings still open?

My long term goal is to take my son to Blaauwkrantz when he graduates from high school in a few years; assuming he keeps being a good kid and holds up his part of the bargain.

Eardly

Please give our best wishes to your mother and father for us.
We have very fond memories of our time with the whole Blaawkrantz family.

Warmest regards
Mario, Monica and Tyler

That was an incredible report!
I just e-mailed Zani about 2013.
You're the kinda fellow thats welcome at my fire anytime.

bwana cecil, thanks for the kind words. It was such an amazing trip. I cannot wait to go back. The thought of taking my youngster is what I am most excited about.

quote:

Originally posted by matt u:

quote:

Thanks to all that took the time to read this long post and all comments are appreciated

Thank you for posting it!

My sentiments exactly! Great story.

Great outfit!!!!!

Jef, my hunting partner on this safari, got some pics from Paul Smith his PH for the safari and taxidermist by trade. Paul owns Relive Africa and mounted Jef's Cape Eland and Springbuck.

I thought they turned out very well.

Now just to get them home.

My good friend Rocky put my Warthog in with the beetles and I was able to pick up the skull/tusks this weekend. I am still shocked how big of a skull they have.

I did find it interesting that on the right side of the upper jaw all the teeth are gone and part of the bone missing. I noticed this when he was harvested and on the salt but wondered what may have caused that. Needless to say he was a one side eating boar and it did not effect him much as he was very healthy and fat.







I am going to use composite tusks in the lifesize mount I will have done.

That was a fantastic hunt report! Excellent pictures too.

John, thanks for the nice comment.

I just got a couple of my mounts back and I have to show them off. Unfortunately the light in their temporary location is not the greatest so they are darker pics than I like but you will get the jist of what you are looking at. I think they turned out excellent. I decided since I am having several pieces done that I would spread them around to several of my good friends in the business. I know they are all capable and do a great job but I felt good about giving each of them a couple of pieces.

I am ecstatic with how the bushbuck turned out. His cape was in terrible shape, he was old and had little hair, roughed up pretty good but the mount is incredible in my opinion.







Sorry the Black Wildebeest pics are so dark. I will try and get some better light and post better pics.

LOVE that bushbuck!
Should have mine in August.

I just had to include a couple of pics of Jef's life size Bushbuck. It is so amazing in person. These pics do not do it justice as we have it in tight quarters while some painting is being done and then it will be displayed properly.

Very nice trophies.

The best hunt report in all my time on AR. LittleJoe good show.

littlejoe, I really like that full body mount bushbuck. Thats a super sweet mount. It makes me really excited to get my zambian sable back from paul. He's gonna full body mount it for me. Let me know when you get down there and check it out. I bet you get the sable bug bad. a 48" sable with 11" bases is impressive to hold in your hands to say the least. Im soooooo not looking forward to my taxi bill. You mind helping me out. Looks like you love paying giant taxi bills.

Tony, I don't dare go see your Sable. I will have the bug for sure. My wife is not a european mount person so I have to do a lot of shoulder mounts. Dang it. Glad she loves them, by far my preference to have them that way but as noted the taxi bill is way high so I am doing them a couple at a time.

FYI, I am emailing Jason back and forth on that Botswana deal. Cannot find any chinks in his armor.

Chesire, thanks for the kind words.

Beautiful report, great animals, I particularly like the photos of the animals prior to taking the shot. Well done.

Hi Joe,

You have done a superb recount of this excellent trip! I'm going to be there, God willing, in one month and one day! It'll be with my Dad and one of my brothers, and we are just so excited by the prospects of our first trip to Africa! I was practicing off the sticks today with my Ruger No.1 .300H&H. Can you please give me a bit of a summary, if you have time, of the shot distances? Here in the Top End of Australia, I find that shots average twenty to seventy metres. So I am hoping to get some good, close chances, like that kudu that walked into you guys!

Thanks! I am having trouble sleeping from all the anticipation!

Ben

Ben, you are in for the trip of a lifetime. The only problem is it goes by way way to fast.

The farthest shot that I was allowed to take was 304 yards in the big Kudu bull but that was after 10 days of Barry learning that I could shoot.

I would say the majority of the shots were in the 100-200 yard range. Barry never put me in a situation where it was a bad shot or a shot I was not comfortable with. I knew what I could do and we just did it. Tell them what you can do and they will plan and stalk accordingly.

Nothing can ever replace of the first day of being in Africa. I would love to experience it again tomorrow.

PH is great, trackers are great, dogs are great, skinners are great. Please tell Barry and Paul Smith hello when you see them.

What a place to go. Cannot wait to go back.

Thank you. I will. I don't know yet who our guide will be. But I have been in contact with Paul about our trophies already. Good, helpful bloke. As funny as this must sound, I haven't even done my first African safari yet, and I am already plotting and scheming my next!

Paul took care of all the trophies for dipping and shipping. My taxidermist said it is the best he has seen the hides and horns come home. Highly recommend.

As for ticks. I had never had an issue. There were hundreds of them on the Kudu and Eland but never got one in the field.

I am jealous and wish I was going with you.

Thank you. Were the ticks the tiny red ones or the easier-to-see grey ones? Cheers.

Another question, please, Joe: At the main area where kudu is the name of the game, are there any wildebeest, gemsbok or zebra? Or are these located at one of the other areas?

In the area we hunted Kudu I also took the following animals:

Nyala, Zebra, Impala, Blesbok, Cape Grysbok, Warthog, Black Wildebeest, Brown Bush Duiker,

There are Cape Bushbuck in the area as well and Jef shot his Eland in the area as well.

The ticks were the tiny red ones.