Hunting with Lochi in South Africa

I understand that J.P. Lochner (Lochi) is a regular poster on this board. I have just returned from 12 days in South Africa hunting with him, and had a fantastic time.

In general, Lochi is excellent. About Lochi, in general. He is a director of a large engineering firm, has a wonderful family and is a very cool guy. He is not a minor leaguer trying to “do something†with hunting. He has accomplished a lot in life outside of hunting, and pursuing guiding safaris as an avocation, out of interest rather than financial necessity.

He and his “crew†took excellent care of me, from airport pickup to airport delivery, and everything in between (including clubbing in Jo-Burg with one of his younger associates!), everything was handled well.

I will post as much detail here as my poor typing skills and fatigue from travel will allow.

I did not do a varmint safari per se, but more of a traditional hunt, with plains game as the goal and varminting as an extra.

Flew into Johannesburg on South African Air from Atlanta. Absolute breeze with the firearms through customs, etc. I was met by Wimpy, a fellow engineer and PH friend of Lochi’s. Wimpy is a very cool guy. You will not find a more pleasant fellow to hang out with. We were off to the gun shop, where Wimpy was well known, to pick up a few things and where his buddies spent about 20 minutes rechecking my rifles after the travel.

Then we were off to another, KILLER gun shop, the Powder Keg, to shop a little more. Very cool selection of unique rifles, like you see only at the better shows in the States. After this, we stopped by Wimpy’s house, where I showered, and met his lovely wife and 2 children. Wimpy is a solid family guy with a great family. Then we were off to pick up Jaco (pronounced Yahkuu), Wimpy’s brother and out camp “skiveyâ€- the guy who would cook and clean and take care of all loose ends.

Jaco is also an engineer, and I met his wife and children- all very warm and charming, and they obviously loved their Dad. It was great to be with two guys whose wife and children stood out in the street and waved goodbye to you as you headed off, children jumping up and down saying BYE Bye Dad Bye……Jaco is such a keen hunter, he just enjoyed being in the bush and hanging out.

These guys are white South Africans, who are Afrikaner (descendant from Dutch) hence the somewhat funky names.

We arrived at the hunting concession in the Freestate about 9 pm. It had been raining so everything was wet. We were met by Nell, the manager. Nell is a big, friendly guy of about 60. He had a roaring outdoor fire going for us, and we had beers and got acquainted.

I won’t go too much into the hunting here, perhaps in a later post BUT I will say it was great. My first day I shot 3 species of animals, and after 4 days there ended up shooting 8 animals, plus birding and varminting. Lochi joined us at the concession, and we called predators one evening. He really knows his stuff and did well. We didn’t call more because I was so tired of hunting and stalking all day. The Freestate concession is wide open, rolling hills, with shots from 212 yards (for a one shot kill on Black Wildebeest) to 120 yards on a Springbuck after an excellent stalk/crawl led by Lochi. Yes, I missed some too…………

We then trundled off to a concession in Limpopo. At my request, I spent an evening in between in J-Burg, staying at a nice hotel and running around with Jaco to clubs til 2 am….In case you are interested, the girls are very attractive and VERY friendly, much more so than in the States, for all you single guys who wanted to know….

Limpopo was far more exotic and charming. Our host was Tom Laas, a retired SAA pilot, who had a lovely home on a huge piece of property. (The Freestate concession was about huge, and the Limpopo concession was 3 kilometers by 4 kilometers, so plenty of room to hunt). We arrived at 3 pm and were hunting by 3:45. I bagged a waterbuck at sunset, led by Lochi and the tracker, Kristoph, a black SA.

We had merry times around the fire for 3 days, joined by Tom’s wife, son and grandchildren. All in all, very friendly and homey, and I felt more like a relative than a client.

I can post more if anyone is interested. You can hunt and shoot all day – some days we started at 5:30 am and stopped when dark, and shoot varmints to your hearts content. My recommendation is:

Go
Go with Lochi
Have a great time.

Animals bagged:

Blesbok (3)
Blue Wildebeest
Black Wildebeest
Springbok (2)
Gemsbok
Eland
Hartebeast
Water Buck

Varmints- Dussies, ground hogs, jackal, as well as guinea fowl and duck

More on Lochi & Hunting Africa

Had some more time to think about the trip. Hope you guys don’t mind the long post- let me know if this is helpful- I can stop or continue.

Random thoughts: Really enjoyed the beers around the fire, as well as getting a little tight in a few restaurants/clubs with Lochi & crew. Good guys.

More on Lochi- he did triathlons until recently, and is quite fit. He and Wimpy & Jaco are all ex- SA Army guys, with very interesting stories about military adventures. Ask em if you go.

Wisdom/things I would do differently:

Equipment:

I went back and forth about what rifle to take, in hindsight, I would have taken my lightest weight 30-06. I never once thought about or noticed recoil, even when firing Lohi's .338...running shot...eland.....150 yards...For me, I would prefer, absolutely, to take a synthetic/stainless rig, with a detachable magazine. I am a die hard wood/blue guy, but 10 days hunting in Africa, in and out of vehicles, the bush, rain, etc, and you need a durable weapon. All the guys there hard synthetic/stainless. Better yet, I will take a .375 or .338, plus the .22 mag or whatever for the small plinking on varmints/birds. I hunted guinea fowl by opportunity- see one- shoot one, with my ,22 mag. Fun.

Detachable mag: allows to reload with one in the spout and empty quickly for traveling in vehicle. I shot 2 animals from one set up. The first was an unplanned great opportunity. The second was the gemsbuck I write about below, that got away- a supposed follow up 2nd shot on it turned out to be me pulling the trigger on an empty chamber as he was posing for me. With a detachable mag, I could have easily reloaded in between animals. True, could have unchambered my round in the Rem 700, pushed it down, pushed in another round, then chambered one in the pipe, but much easier with a detachable mag e.g. Browning A bolt/Sako

Less clothing, 2 sets of hunting clothing is enough. In Limpopo, you don't need a hat, you are in the "bush" and I mean bush, underneath a canopy of foliage, so you will receive little sun. (I brought 3 hats-waste of space).

Probably would select light weight but sturdy long sleeved shirt and long pants. Some guys hunt in shorts, t shirt and sneakers...but the thorns etc (acacia-3 types as Lochi pointed out) really snag you. I jumped off the truck and got an inch long thorn all the way into my knee...even with long pants.

Boy did I bring great binocs......Leicas 10x40.....and boy did my neck hurt, forgot the shoulder harness, and anyway, these were way too heavy, and overkill, already bought a replacement lightweight fit in the pocket pair for next trip.

Boots- bought some at the Powder Keg gun shop in Jo-Burg really great, brand is Courteney, cape buffalo skin, best I have owned. Visit this shop if you are a gun nut.

Ammo- bring lots, 30-06 Remington corelockt 180 grains about $60 a box of 20 there!!!!

Always carry a flashlight. no matter what time your hunt starts..lost a waterbuck at dusk, found it the next day 25 meters from us, in the bushes- we had no "torches"

Sightseeing:
Would do more...was very keen on hunting, next trip I will go to Cape Town or decompress at a nice hotel. Recommend the Rivera hotel in Jo-Burg, on the river, $80 a night, very nice.


We would walk 2-5 hours a hunt, so be in good shape, with comfortable clothes, shoes etc.

My only complaint, I reiterate, was the rifle, Rem 700 BDL wood stock, binocs and clothing were too heavy, so I was hot and cranky a lot.

Communication with PH:

Definitely need to sort this out in advance. Lochi would say “get ready†which I took to mean….ok…think about sort of unslinging your rifle..look around for something resembling an animal to shoot…..For Lochi, “get ready†meant “Shoot!!!â€. I am used to hearing TAKE EM- we sorted this out.

Also, tell the PH that you may not see the game at all, much less which one he recommends…..often times, I, without “Africa eyes†would have no clue which animal or where he was looking so he would say “past the green hump next to the brown tree at 100 metersâ€â€¦and to my surprise I would then see a big ass antelope trying to look inconspicuous……

Also, I wear glasses, so switching from glasses to binocs to scope etc caused delays.

I hate to admit, but once I even thought we were lining up on kudu when they were actually waterbuck…happened so fast, after that I asked Lochi just to obviously say “waterbuck, 100 meters, 11 o’clock, in the solitary bush thereâ€

Also, define what animal quality you want up front. We hunted kudu for 2 days. A bull crossed the opening and the African guide and Lochi said “young bullâ€. I took this to mean it was a non-shooter. Turns out I would have been happy, at that point, and for only $500 trophy fee on this size horns, to bag a kudu bull of any description-the farm owner had a really cool set of progressively larger kudu horns, from young bull to huge bull, and I would have shot if I understood I could have em….communication problem.

Another issue, all those guys speaka da Afrikaanss, as well as English, and they had a tendency, especially Lochi and the black guides, to talk a long time in Africkaans, which left me out of the loop. I pointed this out to Lochi and he corrected it.

Specify the hunting you want to do:

Some days I wanted to walk and stalk all day. Some times I felt the intuition to set up in a clearing and wait. One morning I was dead tired after starting at 5:30, and talking business on the phone back to the states til 2:00 am, so I just wanted to go back at 11 am and sleep.

How to shoot (for lack of a better heading):

I noticed in the beginning, I had a little buck fever, jittery reticule, and so-so shot placement. And I would fire, then look up and say ‘did I get it†or look for some feedback on the shot e.g. good placement.

Toward the end, after losing a gemsbuck, chasing it for 2 days, not getting it BUT paying for it, I switched to steady shots, better placement, and filling the thing with lead as long as it kept moving (within reason)- well, kidding aside, I was much more ready to put a second or third shot into an animal, to put it down, rather then stand there looking at it asking ?????did I get it????how was it?????DUH

Africa animals die HARD. With the 30-06 I shot a leg off a hartebeest, put another round up the pipe on it, then it ran about 2000 yards, then took 2 .22 mags (back up rifle in truck) to the head, and was still alive….

Also I used 180 grains, next time 220 grain bullets…

Ok enough, hope it is interesting

jehand,

Welcome to the AR forum.

Very nice report, sounds like you had a great trip in SA with Lochi. Congratulations!

BigBullet

Sounds like you had a great time. When you get a chance please post some pictures. I would love to see the animals you were lucky enough to harvest.

graybird

Wow, great posts...very informative. I would also love to see some pictures if you have them. Congratulations on your animals. I am very excited about my SA trip next year after reading this. =)

Thanks for a fabulous and informative post. I just got the wifely green-light for Africa, and though I haven't booked anything, I'm getting my gear in order. As you can imagine, I have about a thousand questions:

1. After my last two hunts, Leica 7x42's are starting to seem like overkill. I'm considering Leica 8x32's. What did you choose to replace your 10x40s?

2. You said "in hindsight, I would have taken my lightest weight 30-06" and 220-gr. instead of 180-gr. bullets. What did Lochi and the other hunters think of your rifle/ammo combination? Also, you mentioned a 338 or 375 for a return trip. Have you decided against a 30-06 or it it just too much fun to keep trying to figure it out?

3. What of kind of scope did your rifle have? What kind of ammo did you use and at what range was your rifle zeroed? What kind of ammo will you take next time? Will you zero the same way again?

4. Were most of your shots offhand or did you have time to assume a more stable position? What kind of shots would you practice most before your next trip? What else would you do to prepare for your next trip?

I know I probably sound like an annyoing kid brother asking all these questions, and I appreciate your patience. Thanks, Okie John.

AR Thanx Joel, for the recommendations.

Mind If I tell the members about your eland?
It was an animal that was in an area where it was not supposed to be. Once he is gone, he will be gone forever, so shooting opportunity would be limited. The landowner offered it to me personally, thinking it is not the kind of shot to risk with a foreigner
I passed the special discount through to my client; that is if he wanted to accept it. Joel accepted and the hunt was on.
The few standing opportunities were very far and at awkward angles, no dead rest. Then suddenly it ran towards us, past us and away from us.
Joel: “Running shot?â€
Knows-it-all PH: “No!â€
Joel: “Running shot?â€
Knows-it-all PH: “No!â€
Joel: “Running shot?â€
Know-it-all PH: “Yes!â€
Boom goes the 338 WM (he borrowed mine) and down goes an eland with a perfect spine shot.

Normally you would expect the client to brag with his PH’s shooting abilities. In this case it worked the other way round. I would probably have missed.
Lochi.

Thanx Joel, for the recommendations.

Mind If I tell the members about your eland?
It was an animal that was in an area where it was not supposed to be. Once he is gone, he will be gone forever, so shooting opportunity would be limited. The landowner offered it to me personally, thinking it is not the kind of shot to risk with a foreigner (grin).
I passed the special discount through to my client; that is if he wanted to accept it. Joel accepted and the hunt was on.
The few standing opportunities were very far and at awkward angles, no dead rest. Then suddenly it ran towards us, past us and away from us.
Joel: “Running shot?â€
Knows-it-all PH: “No!â€
Joel: “Running shot?â€
Knows-it-all PH: “No!â€
Joel: “Running shot?â€
Know-it-all PH: “Yes!â€
Boom goes the 338 WM (he borrowed mine) and down goes an eland with a perfect spine shot.

Normally you would expect the client to brag with his PH’s shooting abilities. In this case it worked the other way round. I would probably have missed.
Lochi.

quote:

Originally posted by okie john:

2. You said "in hindsight, I would have taken my lightest weight 30-06" and 220-gr. instead of 180-gr. bullets. What did Lochi and the other hunters think of your rifle/ammo combination? Also, you mentioned a 338 or 375 for a return trip. Have you decided against a 30-06 or it it just too much fun to keep trying to figure it out?

3. What of kind of scope did your rifle have? What kind of ammo did you use and at what range was your rifle zeroed? What kind of ammo will you take next time? Will you zero the same way again?

4. Were most of your shots offhand or did you have time to assume a more stable position? What kind of shots would you practice most before your next trip? What else would you do to prepare for your next trip?

I know I probably sound like an annyoing kid brother asking all these questions, and I appreciate your patience. Thanks, Okie John.

Hi Okie John

I would like to give some advice if I may.
1. SHOOTING POSITION

Joel took most of his shots from shooting sticks, but he also made some very good offhand shots.
Practice offhand if you are going to be hunting in the bush, also for a quick 2nd shot in open grassland as even a bad placed 2nd is better than only one marginal shot.
Sitting on your bum resting your elbows on your knees can be very stable if practiced. Good if the grass is not to long and the trees are low.
Shooting of sticks in standing, kneeling and sitting position.
Take couple shots in prone position preferably shooting down hill.
If you can get some African animal targets practice your shots on them.
2. Zero Distance
I always Zero my rifle on 200m, that way you shoot a little high at 100 and a little low at 300. The less you have to worry about distance the better.
Joel had a good 30-06 and his ammo worked well nothing wrong with his combination, but you can always go better no matter what you have.(In my humble opinion the 338 Win is the best rifle for medium to large plains game if the chances off running into thick skinned animals are small. The ammo is also available in South Africa. I have a 338 Lapua.) Joel is comming back for DG that is the reason for the 375.
When hunting with light weight medium calibre rifles you will not feel the difference in recoil while shooting at game, but when you have to carry a haevy rifle all day you will feel the difference on your shoulder.

Wimpie
Joel practice with your 375, your buff is wayting

All hands check in -- that's rare! Thanks for the replies. Lochi, I'll get an email out to you in the next week or so. Thanks again, Okie John.

Hey

Lochi AND Wimpy! Who is running the engineering firm?

Let me try to address questions.

[how to spell
1. After my last two hunts, Leica 7x42's are starting to seem like overkill. I'm considering Leica 8x32's. What did you choose to replace your 10x40s?

On the binocs, I got some Leica Untravid 10 x 25 BR, small enough to fit in the front shirt pocket, but clear and sharp

2. You said "in hindsight, I would have taken my lightest weight 30-06" and 220-gr. instead of 180-gr. bullets. What did Lochi and the other hunters think of your rifle/ammo combination? Also, you mentioned a 338 or 375 for a return trip. Have you decided against a 30-06 or it it just too much fun to keep trying to figure it out?

Lochi got kind of sick of me asking what rifle to bring. He kept saying bring what you want we'll sort it out. I considered everything from a 7mm-08 to a 300 Win Mag. He didn't ever ask about my ammo. What do I think...more is better. I was worried about recoil, shooting so much so I brought my wood stock Rem 700, would have preferred to bring the Rem 700 Ultrlight titanium, after walking 5-7 miles a day....I decided on the .375 because it has about the same recoil as Lochi's .338, whose recoil I hardly noticed anyway, it is a relatively flat round, and it puts the animal down. Nothing worse than losing an animal. I will also bring some kind of .22 mag again, or maybe a Sako Finnlight .308 for the small stuff. But in some areas, you don't know what you will jump on a given hunt, so why not have all you need. I read "African Rifles" by Gregor Woods, Safari Press, writes for Magnum magazine...his analysis is....375 is great all around caliber. If you are a great shot, take a .22-250, but the rest of us need all the help we can get/buy/find/stumble upon

3. What of kind of scope did your rifle have? What kind of ammo did you use and at what range was your rifle zeroed? What kind of ammo will you take next time? Will you zero the same way again?

My 30-06 had a Kahles 3-9x36. Very happy with it, very clear, covered in raindrops and dirt, and still performed very well. Next time, maybe the Zeiss will make the trip 3-9x42, or even a slick fixed 4 power to macho it out. Never really had use for the high mag.....or extraordinary light gathering. Wimpy...we ranged in for 200 meters as I recall......with Jaco setting up the cans on the fence after...remember Great White Hunter?....Seems Wimpy sighted in his monster .338 too...anything unusual happen when you did Wimpy????? Yes I will zero the same way. I rfer to the book referenced above, and after consideration of the kill zones of the animals, if you are zeroed at 200, but pop an animal at 100, ...maybe you are 1-2 inches high...so what, still in the kill zone

4. Were most of your shots offhand or did you have time to assume a more stable position? What kind of shots would you practice most before your next trip? What else would you do to prepare for your next trip?

Most were on sticks, but I found my shooting really improved, and many times I preferred offhand, as in sitting on the backside, propped on knees. Of course Lochi, after a stalk, saw me sit up and do this, and started to say, hey you don't look too stable, why don't you try...crack..one dead steenbok (do what is comfortable for you). I found the sticks to be a little weird sometimes because you are not ever on flat ground, so you usually are hunching over or squatting to sight in on the sticks...and then they shift or a stone turns over under them. In Limpopo, Lochi gave me the advice not to wait for the guide to set up the sticks, just takes too long, too much fiddling. From Realizing you have a shot til the animals books out, I had between 2 and say 7 seconds..counting in my head and reliving some shots...so the less you fuss with the better.

Really, even some shots on sticks I didn't feel comfortable with...next trip I will be more willing to tell the PH this and reposition or pass rather than take a bad shot.


Next trip: I will practice reloading my damn rifle quicker.......I will, or rather have found better suited clothes-lighter and with plenty of pockets. I will bring less "crap", get all my inoculations sooner, plan on a few days of socializing...Lochi don't tell Katya....synthetic/stainless rifle, gun cleaning stuff will be brought along, better camera- I brought a small digital and the photos were lousy..next time it is the traditional, big reliable great photo snapping Canon slr with real film.

I will bring two ultra light gun cases for transporting the rifles from tent/chalet to vehicle, and bouncing around n the vehicle..oh and I will bring my girlfriend, or a reasonable facsimile.........

I'll try to post some photos

A bit more

Lochi, maybe you can load the photos from your site, as I don't have mine loaded on any server.

I agree with everything Wimpy says..offhand if in the bush is the way to go...most shots may be under 100 yards anyway

As I already said, I will be, next time, quicker to out a second shot in an animal to put it down, clear up communication rules with PH....

Lochi, you would have popped the eland in one of those "awkward" opportunities I passed on...

Can O boast about WImpy's PH skills? Big old blue wildebeest, pushed out of the herd, batchin it with his mate...great brindled skin, but we couldn't get close, so I tried a shot of about 220 yards, downhill..thoght I missed, but we heard a splat, maybe the round hitting behind the animal????

Wilde takes off...Wimpy says let's go..we clamber around for about a mile through here and there, even stepped on a white cooking pot in the middle of nowhere???? We sneak up on some bushes and there on top of a poppie (?) (hill)..and about 30 yards away are our two old friends, backs to us, upwind, grazing...POP one nice wilde rug for me. I don't know how he knew they would end up there.

Mind you, we had no sighting of them for our 1 mile 30 minute excursion, Wimpy just led me to a spot, through the bushes we see them just below us

Great job.

Another Wimpy story. We had a great idea that we would get off the truck and set up ina gully and eventually the black wildebeest herd would come our way. So we got let out. And we set up. And waitied,and they came, sort of, then they ran away, then they came, and ran away, then the light rain turned into a DOWNPOUR..and no sign of the truck......As we are standing in a gully in a downpour, with no cover, the belsboks present themselves above us, I pop one and down he goes...DId the truck hear the shot? No they are miles away singin Motown tunes to the radio, while we wait, and wait...seems we discovered the flaw in our plans, no mechanism to get those guys to come back for us.

FInally, I reach into my pocket adn find a packet of jelly beans, which brightened our mood. Then the sun came out, and the truck came. Kinda fun...

Gentlemen, thank you again for your gracious and generous replies. Please keep the stories coming. Okie John

Lochi's photo:

This animal died hard! A nice photo but not my best hunt.

First, I missed the shot. Downhill and one of those shots on the sticks that I was NOT comfortable with...and Lochi and I were not communicating well....but it was I that missed the shot. The herd took off, We walked to the truck loaded up and drove around as best we could to find them...later another shot, quartering away, I hit him but literally blew his right fore-leg off. The hartebeast ran for about 2000 yards....finally got another shot..from behing, just to put him down,,it did but he was still very much alive, then switched to the 22 mag between the eyes (note the blood on forehead) and it was still alive, so 22 mag behind the ears....while Jaco was setting him up for the photo he was still moving around....4 shots and still kickin. Pretty day, I remeber this like it ws 5 minutes ago.