I took Alek, my 16 year old son, to South Africa for the first time in July 2011. It was the third time for me. To say he enjoyed it was an understatement. He has hunted since he was 7 years old. I told him this was his passage into manhood.

Travel Dates: July 7th-9th and July 22nd 23rd

Dates hunted: July 9th-21st
Wingshooting: Free State - just outside of Tweespruit – July 9th-12th

Plainsgame:
Stormberg Mountains - Eastern Cape – July 12th-July 16th
Kat River – Eastern Cape – July 16th-21st

Outfitter/Hunting Company: Stormberg Elangeni Safaris (my second time with them)

PH: John Sparks (one of the partners in SES)
Cameraman: Danie Els
Trackers: MK (main guy), Rara, and Alec

Rifles:
Son: Tikka T3 308 Winchester with Weaver 2-10x38mm V-Series and 165 grain Swift Aframes loaded by Superior Ammo
Dad: Mauser 98 GEW in 8x57 with Weaver 3-10x40mm Grand Slam and 200 grain Nosler Accubonds loaded by Superior Ammo.

Optics: Burris Signature Select 10x50 (Dad) and Cabela’s Euro 10x42 (Son)

Animals Taken:
Son: Black Springbuck, Black Wildebeest, Blesbok, Blue Wildebeest, Mountain Reedbuck, Impala, Gemsbok, Warthog, Cape Kudu
Dad: Waterbuck, Impala
Birds: Guinea Fowl, Duck, Geese, Pigeons

Animals Hunted, but no taken: Bushbuck, Duiker, Steinbuck, Bushpig, Vaal Rebuck, Red Hartebeest
Animals Seen, but not hunted: Eland, Nyala, Red Lechwe, Fallow Deer, Giraffe, Cape Springbuck, White Springbuck, Common Reedbuck, Baboon, Monkey, Porcupine, Cape Hare, Aardwolf, Cape Springhare, Tortoise, Zebra, Cape Buffalo, Caracal (3 times!)

Lost and Wounded Animals:
Antelope: NONE
Birds: MANY (we couldn’t have missed that many birds!!!  )

Our hunting kicked-off when we landed in Bloemfontein on July 9th. John, Danie, and MK picked us up at the airport and headed East to a 40K farm outside of Tweespruit in the Free State. This is where we spent the next four days bird hunting. The farm is owned by Manny Olrich who runs cattle and crops. He also does some plainsgame hunting there, but the focus is on the birds. He supplied our O/U 12 gauge shotguns and ammunition. My son and I are not the best shots when it comes to wing shooting, so we could have downed a lot more birds had we been experts. There were some other hunters in the log book for May that took 4 digit numbers of birds. We might have taken maybe 30 birds in total, but we had a great time and that’s what counts. And the May timeframe was supposedly much better than early July!





We started off the evening with a duck hunt around a pond and some wetlands. We sat in some impromptu blinds made from rebar and camo burlap. We took several ducks, but the majority did not arrive until there was essentially no shooting light.

The facilities at Manny’s ranch were very nice. My son and I each had our own private room and adjoining bathroom. Our rooms and bathrooms all came off of a shared entry hall. John and Danie slept in an attached round building that had its own bathroom as well. We had snacks and drinks in the bar every day. Breakfast and dinner were served in Manny’s dining room by his girlfriend, Mariel; a fantastic person and cook. We felt very at home.

The next morning (and subsequent mornings) we awoke to a frost. The temperate dipped into the high 20’s F every night, but warmed to long sleeve shirt/light jacket weather by midday.
We spent the morning hunting Guinea Fowl. We were on them, but as they flushed, they were all too far away from us. Alek, John, Manny, and I were all hunting. We also jumped a number of Steinbucks along the way. We then turned our attention to Pigeon hunting. We found a corn field that the birds were working and setup along fence line for several hours until they started returning to Bloemfontein for the evening. My son rested that evening and I went duck hunting.












The next morning we returned to the same place to hunt Pigeon and did quite well. They started arriving around 11 am and continued through 3 pm. We then spent the rest of the day and evening hunting Guinea Fowl in two different spots and were quite successful. They are a bit bigger, slower target than a Pigeon!

That evening we went to local pub in Tweespruit for some drinks and to sign our names on the wall.




The next morning we got in a quick goose hunt. Unfortunately, the geese were not landing where they were the day before even with our decoys. Our blinds were rather impromptu and probably alerted them as well. It took my son and me both to bring down one Goose. He hit the ground with a hard “thud”.






It was off to the Stormberg Mountains after packing up!

It was about a two hour drive to the Stormberg Mountains. It’s not one of the regions you hear about in South Africa, but it is certainly extraordinary. It is located between Aliwal North and Queenstown. The elevation is in the 7K foot range. We were extraordinarily lucky with the weather. It had been one of the wettest winters on record, but we had absolutely perfect weather when we were there. Hard frosts in the morning, warming to medium/light jacket weather during the day with absolutely clear skis and a slight breeze. A few days after we arrived back in the states, they received several feet of snow in this area and closed some of the highways!

The terrain consisted of mountains, high altitude plains, and valleys. The only cover was rock outcroppings and some minimal, rolling elevation changes. The good news was that the animals were easy to spot, but the bad news was that it worked to their advantage as well. It is a truly beautiful place!

We stayed at the Bramstone Lodge, an old renovated building from the 1830’s. It was very comfortable for our breakfasts, dinners, and sleeping.






When we arrived, we pulled our rifles out for the first time to check zero. They shoot several inches higher due to the altitude and we cranked them down a bit.

The next morning, July 13th, we started out looking for animals. We immediately found a large herd of Blesbok in a valley, but were unable to get close enough for a shot. After this, we moved into a larger area that was a wide valley surrounding by mountains and hills. This is where the fun began.




We saw large herds of animals in the distance, but crept slowly to the edge of a rocky outcropping hoping for a chance to catch some animals close in. We did just that. We spotted a lone Black Springbuck ram about 140 yards below us. John sat up the shooting sticks and Alek pulled off a perfect shot and dropped the old ram on the spot! This made for some good mojo! John smeared some blood on Alek’s face for his first African antelope!






Next we moved our attention to the Black Wildebeests in the valley below us. We spent several hours at unsuccessful ambushes, with lunch mixed in. It was approximately 5 hours later until we finally put a successful stalk on a lone undistributed bull. We believe he was much calmer as he did not have an entire herd pushing him around like during previous stalks. Again, Alek make a crack shot at 250 yards. The bull bucked high into the air as the shot passed through his vitals, but missed both shoulders, and ran 60 yards before collapsing in a marshy area. Not a bad start on our first day of plainsgame hunting!










On our way out we managed to hit a soft spot in the ground. What looked like a small hole (probably a squirrel or hyrax) collapsed and opened up under the left rear wheel into a very big hole dropping the Landcruiser to the frame. After two unsuccessful attempts, we found a third rock that was sufficient to use to the winch on. It was tilting up out of the ground towards the end, but we managed to get the Landcruiser out! Remember, there were no trees.




The next morning we decided to look for two old Blesbok rams that had been seen all season long. Unfortunately, we did not find them, but went into a different area and found several large herds of Blesbok and Black Wildebeest. Again, it was wide open and we had to use the terrain contours for cover. We eventually were able to separate a small Blesbok herd with a mature ram from the others. As he was walking up a side of a hill, Alek made a clean shot from 250 yards and dropped him on the spot. Three for three. It can’t ask for much better than that!








More excitement came after the hunt. We retrieved the Blesbock and planned to drive a short distance to setup for the pictures. Unfortunately, we got stuck in the mud not once, but twice. After un-sticking ourselves the first time through a combination leaves, rocks, and an iron pole we hammered into the ground for the winch, a tractor happened by and saved us on the more serious second “stuck situation”! As I mentioned earlier, it had been a very wet winter.




After lunch, we decided it was time for Dad to try for a Black Wildebeest. I already had one, but loved hunting them on the plains. Needless to say, I was not as fortunate as my son and we could never get closer than 380 yards for a solid broadside shot on the bull we wanted. He stopped a few times at around 250 yards, but he was always facing directly away from us. Had I had my 300 RUM instead of my 8x57 20” barrel Mannlicher, he would have dropped at 380 yards like a wet bag of mud!




The next day John decided to drive a short distance, around 40K, to a nearby lower area that had a different mix of animals and terrain. It was a bit warmer and had a mixture of open areas, draws, and thick acacia cover backing directly to a contiguous set of high mesas. Little did we know what a grand day it would turn out to be!





The lower acacia covered area was very thick with Impala and Springbuck. We started off the morning driving into the hills that transitioned this area to the mountains. It also allowed us to see better into the lower areas. We saw a massive herd of Eland moving higher into the mountains. It was very impressive. We soon found a lone Waterbuck bull that we put a stalk on. Unfortunately, he was not what we were looking for.

We started back down to the lower elevations and started looking for a nice Blue Wildebeest. We came across several large herds, but didn’t see anything impressive. We eventually spotted seven bulls together in some thick brush and put a stalk on them. We eventually found them several hundred yards later on edge of the bush and open plains. We would have been able to make a good shot from cover, but we had spooked a group of Warthogs that set the bulls on the run. We retrieved the truck and started off the direction they moved.
After much maneuvering and searching, we finally found the bulls in an open area. Luckily they had stopped amongst a larger herd of Blesbok and other animals, calming them down. We made a direct approach and Alek took a shot from the sticks at 250 yards. The largest bull went down hard on the spot and stayed down for nearly a minute, before getting back up and trying to rejoin the herd. We determined later that the shot had gone over the vitals and under the spine. Alek tried to take a shot when we got back up, but there were too many animals behind him for a clear shot.

He was injured enough that he couldn’t keep pace with the other six bulls. And then, all of the sudden, he got an adrenaline boost and headed back to the bush he originally came from. We hurried back into the truck to keep pace with him in parallel, but not cut him off or push him. He eventually slowed down near some brush and a marshy area – still about ¼ mile from the thick brush. This is where the Alek learned the other name for the Blue Wildebeest – the “poor man’s buffalo”!

I was the first to hit him a second time from about 200 yards with a 200 grain 8x57 Accubond while he was moving. It rolled him over hard onto the ground. We thought “done.” He got back up and stood behind a bush. I could have easily hit him, but we thought he was going down. And then zoom, he took-off like there was no tomorrow. I hit him again on the move. John hit him twice as well. He went down. I stayed back to cover any exits the bull might have cooked up and the rest of the party went into the brushy marsh. When they got close enough, Alek put in a heart shot for insurance. Two lessons from this: shot placement for any caliber is critical on Blue Wildebeest and they can soak up lead bullets like a Cape Buffalo if wounded! We triumphed, though, and we moved in for pictures.




We dropped the bull and MK clean and skin the animal and made our way a quite lunch spot in the bush. After lunch, we headed back up into the hills to look for afternoon game. At one point, John stopped to the truck to adjust his rifle case and noticed an old, old Mountain Reedbuck ram moving up the side of steep hill near the truck. The ram had stopped to watch us and perhaps believed we couldn’t see him. Alek saw him just fine. One shot from 140 yards and the ram dropped without moving.






After we dropped the ram off with MK, we spent several hours looking Impala and Red Hartebeest. We eventually made our way to a tight canyon where we spotted a herd of Impala in some thick trees. It was getting late, so we had to make the stalk count. We spent the next hour or so crawling, trotting, and running. At one point we lost the herd, but found them and allowed them to rest and move slowly to a higher area to feed as the sun starting setting. We approached behind a natural earthen dam-like ridge and Alek, while lying down, made a perfect shot at 180 yards and dropped a nice Impala ram. There was one ram that was a bit heavier, but this one had the classic parallel shape of the horns. It was dark by the time we retrieved the ram and took pictures. What a day! Three great trophies. It was back to Bramstone Lodge for dinner.




That night dinner was very quiet. Alek and Danie skipped dinner and went to bed. Robbie (one of the partners in SES) and his wife had left earlier that day for Grahamstown, so it was just John and I. We had some excellent Warthog curry for dinner!

The next morning we got up early and packed for the Kat River. We had been blessed with great weather and magnificent trophies in the Stormberg! Even though I never saw the Vaal Rhebuck I wanted. Next time.




We arrived at the Kat River Conservancy. It is located Southwest of Fort Beaufort and encompasses a large area of multiple properties that form a conservancy. The elevation was much lower, around 1,000 feet with significantly more cover. The first thing I did was give Rara, one of the head trackers at the conservancy, a new pair of boots I had brought for him. We had hunted together in 2006 and he was a very delightful chap. We sighted in our rifles to adjust for the elevation change and then started-off on an afternoon hunt.






We started in an area very close to the lodge. John had been seeing a lone Gemsbok bull all season long, but could never get close enough. We very quickly found a large herd of Gemsbok and unsuccessfully pursued them for over an hour. As we got back into the Landcruiser, I spotted an Impala. When John looked at the Impala, he noticed the lone Gemsbok bull several hundred yards behind him in the trees. We spent the next hour stalking the bull, had two opportunities, but could never connect. We decided not to pressure him and come back in the morning.

That night John, Danie, and I sat for Bushpig. Murray (one of partners in SES that owned land in the conservancy along with John) and Rara had been running several baits for us. We had a big sow come in shortly after the moon rose, but the wind gave us away and she turned around. Alek and I hunted Bushpig several more times while at the conservancy, but were never successful on a trophy pig. I managed to shoot a small one that we ate for dinner and Alek accidently scared two large ones away when handling his rifle. Next time! I really want a full mount Bushpig!

The next morning we want back to the same area to look for the Gemsbok bull. We found him walking and grazing slowly in a deep canyon and setup an ambush several yards ahead of his intended path. John sat us in some thick brush on the side of a hill and we waited. It took a long time for the bull to transverse to the appointed ambush point. Alek was very calm. John and I almost died from anticipation! From a sit on the sticks, Alek hit the bull at 180 yards. The bull was slightly quartering as the bullet entered in front of the right shoulder, went through the top of the vitals, and broke the left shoulder. He took the hit hard and ran 40 yards on three legs and lay down. Alek put in a heart shot for insurance, though the first shot was a mortal wound. We didn’t want a repeat of the Blue Wildebeest!






After dropping off the bull for skinning and having lunch, we headed out to look for a large Warthog that John and Murray had been unsuccessfully hunting since April. We had not driven more than two minutes when we saw the big boar and a sow feeding in a semi-open area. Without slowing down, we kept driving and parked downwind about ½ mile. We then made a slow stalk back to where we saw the Warthog. It was very noisy underfoot and we had to be extremely careful not to make any noise. We approached to within 70 yards and Alek drove a bullet between both shoulders and the old boar dropped on the spot. Pumba was down! John could not believe our good fortune!




Alek spent the remainder of the afternoon at the lodge. John and I spent the remainder of the day looking for a mature Red Hartebeest and Bushbuck.









It was time to hunt Kudu. It was our second full day at the Kat River Conservancy and John was concerned that the full moon would be a determinant to our efforts on Kudu. We drove to far point on the conservancy that had very different terrain from the rest of the areas, very steep, closely spaced hills, and extremely thick and tall cover. It was actually quite beautiful, but very hard to spot animals in and to navigate. We started the morning by sitting on a hill side and glassing the surrounding hills for about an hour. We saw some Kudu moving, but not as many as expected and no large, mature bulls.




We moved down to a lower area to look some more and spotted a large lone bull walking on his own. We quickly put a stalk on him by using the hillside foliage for cover, but one broken stick gave us away and he moved off quickly. After this, we put MK out on a hilltop to cover an area and Rara drove us to a nearby hill. We walked down the steep hill into a setup that had to large hills forming a canyon with a stream running through them at the bottom. The cover was very thick on both hills. We sat for about two hours and watched the opposite hill. We heard Bushbuck bark several times and saw some Kudu cows, but no bulls. We then hiked to the bottom of the canyon and backup to the top of the adjacent hill. We then got a call from MK that he had spotted some Kudu. Luckily Rara met us with the truck and we drove to MK’s location. We parked the truck out of sight and went down to join MK. He had spotted a group of Kudu bulls and cows far away on a large hill. We decided to have lunch and then start a stalk.

Right when we started to pull the lunch from the Landcruiser, we spotted another bull to the left of the group that was quite large. We decided this was the one we would go after. We finished lunch and started the stalk. John, Danie, Alek, MK, and I worked our way down through the thick cover. We had to stop several times because the noise alerted the herd of Kudus. We eventually made it into the narrow valley between the hills. It had taken us 2+ hours to cover four hundred yards. We worked our way to within 250 yards of the Kudu. It was getting late. The cover was so thick, all we saw was the bull’s horns and sometimes complete head on the side of the hill. There was no way we could get closer or get a better angle. We sat up the sticks. Alek was on the sticks for almost an hour before the bull stepped into an open area. The foliage still went up to the bottom of the old Kudu bull’s stomach, but it was all that Alek needed. The Tikka cracked and the Kudu jumped up hard, turned around, ran 10 yards, and fell. The bullet had broken his left shoulder, gone through the vitals and stopped just below the surface of the skin behind his right shoulder. Who needs a magnum for Kudu? When we got to the bull, he turned out to be very old. We estimated 12 years or better. He teeth were completely worn down, his mane gone, wounded in his left eye, and had a completely split right ear. This was his last winter.









From when we first saw the bull to when we got to him, 4.5 hours. What an incredible hunt!


The next day Alek decided to stay in the lodge. He had triumphed on the hardest and best trophy of the safari. It was my chance to go and look for a nice Waterbuck, one of my favorite African animals. Some folks want to hunt Kudu on every trip. I want to hunt Waterbuck on every trip.

That morning was a bit misty, so we started a bit later than the other days. We went to an area on the conservancy where the Waterbuck liked to gather. It wasn’t as thick and rocky as the other areas we had been hunting, but had a lot tighter and closer elevation relief. The thick cover was at the base of the small draws between the rolling hills. This is where the Waterbuck liked to lie in the day.

There were seven of us looking for Waterbuck: John, Danie, Marcus (one of the land owners in the conservancy), our three trackers (MK, Rara, and Alec), and me. As we found groups of Waterbuck over the wide area, we dropped off the trackers to watch them during the day. I spotted a big bull in the morning for a brief second and then he was gone. No one else had seen him. At one point, I even started to doubt myself.

We spent whole day looking for Waterbuck and eventually returned to an area where we had dropped Alec to set atop an old windmill to get a better view of a valley. He had seen an old and young bull together. We never saw them again, but I did spot my bull from the morning and everyone agreed we should put a stalk on him.

John, Danie, and I started a stalk to a low ridge across from where we saw the bull. We sent Alec and Rara around back the long away to ensure he didn’t escape unseen over the ridge of the hill he was on opposite of us. Eventually the bull and two cows were startled, presumably by Alec or Rara, and ran from cover. We kept adjusting our position and moving parallel to them, but they would never stop for a clean shot. We then saw the two cows run over the backside of the hill and thought the hunt was over. However, John was not convinced and he moved up to look from a different angle. While he was looking for the bull, I looked into the draw between the hillside the bull had been on and the hillside we were on and saw him looking through some brush at Danie and me. He had not seen us earlier and while the cows made their escape away from us, he moved down the hill and towards us. My Mauser went crack at a 160 yards and the bull took the full force of the bullet and ran 10 yards and laid down in thick brush. Earlier in the year John had an incident where a quite dead Waterbuck jumped up and charged. John shot him between the eyes at point blank. When we found the bull, he was still alive, but not moving. One more insurance shot in the heart just in case.






The next day we looked for Red Hartbeest, Bushbuck, and Duiker. While we found many Red Hartebeest, none were old mature bulls. In late afternoon, while walking, we came upon a herd of Impala below us in a clearing. While I already had a nice Impala, this ram was nicer and almost identical to my son’s ram. One clean shot at 170 yards dropped him on the spot. I plan to mount both Impala’s together on a pedestal.




The last full day of hunting we spent looking for Bushbuck and Duiker. Unfortunately, we were not successful. We did come across a large troop of baboons and waited for them to move towards us, but the wind and their advance scouts gave us away. There was one big old male in that group. He would have looked nice sitting on the couch with a hat and Xbox game controller in his hands (I think that would be a cool mount).




The next morning we were up and off to the airport in East London.

We could not have had a better hunt. Perfect weather, great stalks, magnificent trophies, and fantastic people!


Our sincere thanks go to John Sparks, Danie Els, MK and everyone at Stormberg Elangeni Safaris for making this hunt possible and making it a memory of a lifetime for Alek and I!

Wow, great report and pictures there. You and your son will share those memories forever.

Well done guys, congrats!

Great hunt. I just loved that kudu. Great for the boy!

Impressive blue wildebeast, congrats. Did I notice sign of a scope bite on your sons nose?

quote:

Originally posted by 505 gibbs:
Impressive blue wildebeast, congrats. Did I notice sign of a scope bite on your sons nose?

The scope bite was from sighting in - first time it has ever happened. A good "scar" from the trip!

Thanks to everyone for all of the other kind comments. BTW, we plan to have the Warthog done in a full mount.

Great to see a father/son hunt report! Congrats on a great safari and some superb trophies. Well done!

Also, tell your son "gig 'em" from an old Ag, class of '81!

I finally got some videos made. I have a 90 minute DVD, but here is the 2.5 minute compilation I did of all the animals we took. Enjoy!

Video

Sounds like a great hunt. Enjoyed the video as well.

Love that Free State and Eastern Cape country! Great pics and fantastic hunt!

quote:

Originally posted by Austin Hunter:
I finally got some videos made. I have a 90 minute DVD, but here is the 2.5 minute compilation I did of all the animals we took. Enjoy!

Video

The Bio Diversity and hunting in the Eastern Cape is unparalled.The vistas can change from open flats to thick rivirine bush in a matter of half a mile.
Its real hunting. Great pics and great video.

This is why I say you need to have a rifle that can do 300yds when hunting the eastern cape.

Great report. One of the best. I love the terrain and accomodations shots. Thanks.

Fantastic photos and report. Thanks for taking the time for sharing.

looks like you guys had a great time!!! I hope there are many more hunts in the future for you two.

Ed

I really enjoyed the detailed report and fine pics. My family and I just returned from a trip to the East Cape. My fifteen year old son shot some nice animals as well so I know what you are feeling Austin. Well Done....

quote:

Originally posted by bwanajay:
I really enjoyed the detailed report and fine pics. My family and I just returned from a trip to the East Cape. My fifteen year old son shot some nice animals as well so I know what you are feeling Austin. Well Done....

We look forward to the report!

Absolutely wonderful report and pics!!!
A most treasured time afield for both father and son! A very big congratulations to the both of you

Roland

Awesome report and scenery. Thanks for posting!

Thanks for the video and the hunting report. Great shooting by both of you.

AustinH,

Spectacular report, great trophies, wonderful experiences, superb photographs and all shared with your son...he will remember the experience for life and it gets no better than that as a father. Thank you for sharing the experience with us.

Paul

Life is what but memories,& you sir have some great ones with your son now,good on you,excellent hunt & report,thanks for letting us share.

Looks like a wonderful trip. Thank you for the report and pictures!

Congratulations on a great hunt and father/son experience! Thanks so much for the fantastic report and photos. I think you've got a lot of us thinking seriously about taking similar hunt in the East Cape area. I really like the diversity of game available, not to mention environments to experience.

We went in July 2011. It was sub-30's most nights and warmed up during the day. very nice weather. If you notice, we have on heavy jackets most of the time.

Nice report and pics - Thanks for sharing

quote:

Originally posted by gbax:
Nice report and pics - Thanks for sharing

Great scenery! Those a real nice Vaal and mountain rhebucks - they don't come around that often. I still want to get a Vaal.