Outfitter: Jan Dumon, Shumba Safaris
Date: February 20th - 27th 2016
PH: Eddie O'Reilly
Area: Balule Reserve, South Africa (and we added two buffalos on private property)
Calibers: 9.3x62mm & .458WinMag
Ammo: Jan's hand loaded Rhino Bullets

My brother and me saw Jan's anti poaching offering here on AR. Since we always wanted to hunt in the greater Kruger with open fences and because of Jan's good reputation we decided to go.

Getting to Jan's place was easy and we arrived at his Lodge in the later afternoon. Quickly fired some shots to see if the rifles are in.





Maybe some words to Jan's camp: It is a nice good maintained camp with really everything you need and even more. To be honest, for my brother and myself, Jan's camp was maybe on of the most luxury ones we ever stayed at.

The dinner was taken together with the family what we enjoyed a lot and the food was really good. Jan's wife organized great hospitality where Jan provided a lot of great entertainment by his stories.

After a great first evening our first hunting day started early. Eddie picked us up every morning. The first morning started with some paperwork and afterwards we picked up on of the wardens and started the hunt.

The first day we saw a lot of tracks and did some stalks but either we just found cows without huntable bull or the bulls just left our area into another reserve.

The next day was more or less the same just without the paperwork.

Since we battled to find a decent bull in the first area we decided to change the area which turned out to be the right decision.

On our 3rd hunting day we saw two decent bulls walking in some hilly terrain on the other side of dry river. While we were making a plan and deciding where they might go next we just found another group of bulls that has crossed the river and slowly moving up the hill. Eddie decided together with my brother to make a circle and to get to the Buffalos before they reach the top op the mountain. As it was my brothers turn I stayed a little behind with the trackers but after a short period of waiting (which felt like forever) we heard a shot and after a while we could hear Eddie that we should come down with the camera.

My brother shot a nice old buffalo bull with deep curls





We got this buffalo very early in the day, the only problem was that it was some distance to the next road. So getting the buffalo out of the bush took a while.

While the boys were busy with skinning we received a call from Jan that on a farm close by an injured Bull needed to be taken down and if we would be interested to help and what should I say, of course we were. So we decided to pause the Balule hunt for the rest of the day and tried to find the injured bull.

We could find the injured bull relatively fast but to get a clear shot on him, turned out to be impossible. We tracked him for the rest of the day and came close a couple of times but the terrain was just too thick to get a good shot at him.

The next morning we decided to start really early to try again the area we hunted the first two days. We knew buffalos where there but they seem to leave very early, so our plan was to get there before they leave. It turned out that Eddies idea was exactly right. While we were on our way to check the first waterhole, we spotted buffalo. So Eddie and myself get off the car and tried to get close to them. Although the stalk was not very difficult it was exciting to be that close to buffalos. Additionally we had some look that the bull we wanted position himself brilliant and one shot in the chest was enough and after running about 20-30 meters the buffalo tumbled and fell.







After taking care of the buffalo we decided to search for the injured bull from the day before. We searched the whole morning but just couldn't find any sign of the bull. While we had lunch on the main lodge of the property my brother spotted the buffalo, dead, killed by the hyenas.

While the owner had some strange attitude to hunting, we were not allowed to hunt the hyena's what was our first choice, the owner offered us to shoot two buffalo bulls on his property for good price.

So we decided to shoot two more bulls which we got on the same day and the day after.






We had a great time with Jan and Eddie and we enjoyed ever second of the whole hunt. Jan and Eddie are two great guys with great humor. Jan and his family create a very comfortable atmosphere and make the whole hunt to an unforgettable experience. Although we have not planned anything yet, I am sure we will return one day to do more hunting with Jan and Eddie.

Sehr Gut! Aus Geseichnet! I have the same Blaser safari rifle that will be with me in Zambia in 4 weeks.

Looks like an awesome hunt. Those R8's are (slightly ashamed to admit it...) growing on me.

Great buffs!

Thanks for posting.

Congrats!!!

Well done!!!

Best regards, D. Nelson

Gnarly beasts.

Waidmannsheil!

How many of those buffalo fell to the 9.3x62?

It's actually pretty refreshing to read of a property owner who DID NOT want to shoot the hyenas! A lot of it may have had to do with the difficulty of getting permits. Also, they breed very slowly, not like lions, so offtakes of hyena must be very carefully managed.

Please elaborate on the ammunition you used in the 9.3x62.

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Love the bosses on that first buff ! Congrats / WMH on a great hunt and thanks for sharing.

Charlie

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Loved the pics of the buffs. I could almost smell the evil old bovines.

Great story and pics.

BH63

quote:

Originally posted by Black Lechwe:
Waidmannsheil!

How many of those buffalo fell to the 9.3x62?

It's actually pretty refreshing to read of a property owner who DID NOT want to shoot the hyenas! A lot of it may have had to do with the difficulty of getting permits. Also, they breed very slowly, not like lions, so offtakes of hyena must be very carefully managed.

2 of the Buffs fell to the 9.3 x 62. Its probably one of the most underrated calibers if married to proper Bullets. The hand loads were 286 grain Rhino softs at 2 200 fps

The Hyena situation had nothing to do with permits actually. The Landowner just doesn't allow the hunting of Hyena on his property.

The Hyenas had ripped out the testicals of an old Buffalo bull. Anti poaching spotted him and told us about it. They looked for him to put him out of his misery but could not find him. Eventually we found him not 100 yards from camp where the Hyenas had finished him off during the night.

"9.3x62. Its probably one of the most underrated calibers if married to proper Bullets"

That's why I got one!

Thanks for clarifying on the hyena. Still refreshing that they aren't persecuted. I love hyenas. Impressive that they took down a buffalo bull.

quote:

Originally posted by Black Lechwe:
"9.3x62. Its probably one of the most underrated calibers if married to proper Bullets"

That's why I got one!

Not a Blazer though ! Lol

Seriously , its been years since I had someone in camp with one. I was pleasantly surprised with this rifle. What caliber is Biebs taking to Zambia ?

quote:

Originally posted by Jan Dumon:

2 of the Buffs fell to the 9.3 x 62. Its probably one of the most underrated calibers if married to proper Bullets. The hand loads were 286 grain Rhino softs at 2 200 fps

Your bullets did an excellent job. A have a pictures of the recovered bullets that your guys found



Two days later I shot a Wildebeest with the exact same rifle and the only difference was the bullets. The barnes we recovered in the wildebeest seemed to have performed less.

Nope, mine is a Voere. I chose it because it was made of walnut and steel, and has express sights for the buffalo I'm hoping to get.

The calibre appears to be making a comeback. Which is great because it also means more ammo available.

quote:

Originally posted by FFemtRN5287:
Looks like an awesome hunt. Those R8's are (slightly ashamed to admit it...) growing on me.

I only can recommend to buy one that it is a take down makes traveling very pleasant.

Thanks for the info Jan. Rhino's are great. The 286 gr was the designated weight for the 9.3 in the early 1900. No need to scratch further. If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

Jan- great looking bulls. Need to do this again. Congrats to the hunters. Eddie is looking good..

Very nice buffs, Gerac. Did a similar hunt in Balule in March and much admired PH Eddie O'Reilly, who is a true Afrikaner despite the name. Falsely accused Jan Dumon of putting two Irishmen together what with Timothy Carney and Eddie O'Reilly hunting

Hunt lasted less than an hour and a half, but believe all will agree that this old boy merited the decision. Rifle is a 500/450 Nitro with my handloaded Woodleigh 480 grain soft nose bullets. Finisher was a solid.

Best, Tim

Pix or two:

Gentlemen some very nice Buff there. Jans camp looks great.

Great buffalo! I hope this anti poaching hunt is offered again!

quote:

Originally posted by 1BigDeer:
Great buffalo! I hope this anti poaching hunt is offered again!

Anyone interested in a free range hunt like this with funds going to anti poaching efforts are welcome to PM or e mail me. These might be short notice hunts.
Knowing that your hunting dollars are applied to fighting the poachers and interacting with the guys on the ground is a very rewarding experience.

Congratulations nice bull

Congratulations on some super Cape Buffaloes!

Gerac, Congratulations and thanks for the excellent pictures and story. I am going to check out Shumba.
I can see that you had a high quality hunt.

Also, I too like Rhino bullets. My boys and I have killed about 30 large plains game with them in 7mm and 30-06. They proved to have consistently excellent terminal performance. All the recovered bullets looked much like your recovered bullets - perfect.

I don't know why the 9.3x62 gets so little credit. "just a farmers gun from the old days..." Ya, right. It looks to me like a well proportioned cartridge with ballistics right in the sweet zone for good clean kills. I'll bet that it is pleasant to shoot as well.
Brian