Date: Oct 22 2011 – Oct 29 2011

Outfitter: Infinito Safaris

PH : Frederik Cocquyt

Trackers: Solly, Richard

Rifle: 300Wby Ultra Lightweight & 300Wby Outfitter

Ammo: Handloaded Barnes TTSX Projectiles in Norma Brass

AIRLINES: Qantas Sydney to Johannesburg, SAA Jo’burg to Perth, Australia

For a little background I am in my mid forties, have hunted all my life and am what citizens of the USA would call a Rancher. Any sort of overseas hunt has been financially and practically impossible with a young family and demanding business until recently when the Aussie dollar achieved parity with the US dollar. This made what had once been a dream a possibility. Dangerous game was still a bridge too far for my means however a modest plains game hunt was an achievable target.
My African journey started with a day’s drive south from my home in Central Queensland to overnight at my hunting mate’s house in Brisbane. There we reread paperwork and worried over packing weights, check sighted our two 300Wby’s out to 300metres and talked of our plans for the next week. Mark Savage and I would be joined by his wife Shelly and 5yo son Tyler both of whom like me would be on their first foray to Africa.
That evening saw us all on the plane to Sydney; this to give us plenty of time to clear customs with the rifles the next morning. By 10.30am Mark, Shelly, Tyler and I were all strapped in for the 15hr direct flight to Jo’burg. Tyler was crook with a bad temperature poor little fella but he still travelled well. The same could not be said for his father who suffers from short attention span syndrome. We could not complain; the food and service was excellent and the company was great. Not to mention the odd shot of bourbon or rum.

Frederik Cocquyt, PH with Infinito Safaris met us at customs, saw us through the collection process then shepherded us out to the car for the 2hr drive out to our first camp. Champion bloke that he is he had an chest well stocked with cold drinks to lubricate our throats. Shelly abstained… Mark and I did not. We arrived at the first lodge on dusk, claimed rooms and then Fred cooked us a great meal on the coals in a traditional South African Braai. Sleep was welcome although my body clock was well out of whack, as I had been up for 30hrs. Mark predictably fell asleep as soon as he sat in a chair by the fire so at least he was consistent as this is what happens in Australia when we camp and hunt as well.





Next morning saw us up with the sun glassing the surround hills where Blesbok could be seen in the open. After a quick breakfast and another check sight for the rifles Fred and I headed out on foot to stalk a lone Ram seen on the horizon a mile from camp. He gave us the slip for a while but we snuck around in the rolling open ground and got within 90yds of him before he jumped up. Fred put the sticks down, I placed the rifle on them but then had to go up on my very tip toes to get the crosshairs on his chest front on. It all happened in the blink of an eye and honestly although the sticks are very stable I would have been much better in a crouch for that shot but we did as we had rehearsed. No matter as the TTSX broke his shoulder, exited his ribs then re-entered and exited again near his hip. Incredibly the tough bastard ran a few metres before falling. We gave him a couple of minutes to die but he then jumped up and ran again out to about 190yds where Fred put the sticks down again; and my quartering shot entered high on the last rib and exited at the shoulder destroying the backstraps on the way, damn it. My first African animal was down and he was a good one too. Then it was Shelly’s turn.



Mark, Shelly and Tyler arrived 15 minutes later, having heard the shot from camp. Young Infinito PH Dries and tracker Solly were close behind and after photos were taken Shelly and I swapped places; she now joining Frederik and Solly to walk the hills. And they did that till evening before she finally nailed her Blesbok with a fine shot from over 220yds. Shelly was using Mark’s 300Wby Outfitter shooting 150gn Barnes TTSX projectiles. A lot of gun for a little lady, but one she handles well. Mark and I had taken identical loads to SA so that we could each use the other’s ammo in the event of some luggage loss. We had been able to follow Shell’s efforts at a distance with the Bino’s from the vehicle for parts of the day and Mark and Tyler were thrilled to see her success, and Tyler amused himself by changing facial expressions for each photo.



The next day we all hunted together and moved to some high veldt country which was totally open with no cover at all. This ground had Blue and Black Wildebeest, Eland, Springbuck, some Zebra and Red Hartebeest.

And it was a bloody hard hunt as a howling wind, a gazillion rocks and zero cover meant everything could see us coming from miles away and stalking in was hard – particularly in thongs. To explain – Mark is a veteran MotoX pro and like most such people is full of titanium plates, rods and screws. His ankles are particularly bad and he very rarely wears shoes becuse the scres in his ankles rub boots badly. Only if hunting mountainous country will he don “proper” hunting boots... otherwise he hunts in rubber thongs. He also disdains lower visibility clothing and prefers to hunt in superhero t-shirts to prove that it can be done. And he gets away with this crazy approach by having excellent eyesight, very good hunting skills and much experience. Being an outstanding shot doesn’t hurt either. Mark hunts year around in Australia and has taken everything Oz has to offer bar Hog Deer, free range. His approach has also worked in SA before and now he was after Springbuck, Zebra and Black Wildebeest.


Despite his self-imposed handicaps Mark managed a great stalk and 320yard shot on a Springbuck off sticks… how he did this beats me as they are so tiny and I was flat to hold on one from 254. The wind was terrible and Springbuck are small so he grabbed a well earned Trophy.

There followed many blown stalks on Wildebeest, Eland and Springbuck before we finally found a mob of Hartebeest mid afternoon. They were on my list so Fred and I stalked in under the slope of the huge valley and managed to get within about 170yds of the mob before they busted us. Then for once luck was with me and the big male trailed out the back of the mob to get a look. Fred called the shot for me and the 300Wby screwed him over good and proper on a front on quartering shot. Wow I was happy – he was large, old and actually managed to make Rowland Ward Trophy standard. Doubt I’ll see a better one let alone get a shot at it. Another African classic off my list.



Late in the evening Mark and Fred got close to the mob of Black wildebeest and had a chop at one from 280yds and both he and Fred were happy with the shot and were expecting the body to be there when the dust from the circling and bolting mob cleared. But we searched until dark and could find no sign… we all heard the heavy hit from the shot a mile away however the scrub was thicker there and for once my mate did not get his trophy. The farmer reckoned he will find it though and hopefully Mark will get a skull mount out of it as it was a belter of a bull. After all the excitement and disappointment of the day we headed off in the late evening to our next hunting area in the bushveldt where we would spend the remainder of our short trip. Fred drove; Mark and I celebrated and commiserated in the traditional fashion.

The plan for Day 3 involved Dries, Solly and I heading off to a spot about 30-40 minutes from the main lodge in the hills looking for a Kudu Bull. Shelley, Tyler and Mark would spend a few days looking for Zebra, Kudu, Impala, Wildebeest and Warthog. They got onto a huge Blue Wildebeest early on and Mark watched through his binos as Shelley hit it hard in the chest with the 300Wby. The bush there was very thick and it took them a little while to find the dead Bull in the thorns but it was worth the wait as he was a Rowland Ward effort so they were justifiably very happy with that.



They then headed over to a game butchers not far away that Fred and Charl (van Rooyen, Infinito Principal)had an interest in and started to watch them dress it out before heading back to camp for brunch. Then spent the rest of the afternoon high on the mountain looking for Zebra and Kudu…………..Mark having shot both on an earlier hunt with Infinito nevertheless Shelly was keen on a Kudu for herself and Mark wanted a shoulder mount Zebra. However while there was a lot of walking done no game was taken so it was back to camp for the night for them.
Meanwhile I had actually stalked in on some Impala close to camp in the first light of day but no decent Ram was amongst them so we returned to the original plan and headed off to an area in the hills heavily timbered and owned by the natives. I hunted hard here for four days – walked off a lot of shoe leather and a few kilos as well looking for Kudu and Waterbuck. We saw a huge Waterbuck on the first morning and I let him go – do you think I could find him again later? There was a lot of Kudu here but while we could get close-ish to cows the bulls were a different story. I actually had the crosshairs on a great bull on the first morning but we were not sure whether it was a shootable mature bull or the younger bull he ran with as we had tracked both for some miles over the hills. I held off on the 300yd shot because we could not see his rack in the timber but when he ran and the other bull was already in front of him we realized that was an opportunity gone – would I get another? This was tough hunting in often steep country, it was hot & humid and there was every size of thorny Acacia tree and bush you could imagine to deal with. The trackers and native owners were great and put in a big effort to find me a bull but although we saw plenty over the next three days getting an opportunity on one was another thing entirely.

Day 4 was fruitless for us all although we tried hard.

Day 5 started very well for me – Dries the PH who I hunted with each of the last 4 days saw some good Impala in the early morning on the way in to pick me up at the lodge so Solly the tracker and I headed off into the Acacia after them. Lucky for me the Ram did not realize we were after him until too late and he caught a 150TTSX square in the shoulders. Not surprisingly this was enough to put him on the ground on the spot and I was a very very happy boy. This was an old and scarred Ram who had obviously evaded predators on two and four legs before but Solly did a great job to get me in range with the Ram unawares and the 90yd shot was simple as could be. Impala was the #2 animal on my list of classic SA PG so that was a load off my mind.



Then we headed after Kudu again. Midmorning day 5 I had a 350 yard chance but the massive bull was in long grass and while I could make out his outline in the grass I was not happy with the shot and held fire while I watched him ghost away. Those four days all featured very early starts and we would hunt until dark – I barely saw my friends as we would return just in time for dinner before falling into bed to await the next morning’s hunt. Here is a video Mark took on his phone of Thaba Nkwe lodge where Willie Roux was a very friendly host for 4 nights.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=afn3ShyvBIo#ws

Day 5 for Shelley and Mark, started with them getting in close to some Impala but no shots presented themselves for Shelly. One thing I forgot to mention which didn’t help for the last few days was the wind. It was blowing gusty in every bloody direction and countless times Shelley was caught out. Finally Fred and Shell decided to sit around a dam mid afternoon; they had seen Warthog, Impala, Waterbuck, Zebra, Duiker, and whatever else over the last few days but she just wasn’t able to get a clear shot. Anyhow this tactic worked well because an hour and a half later Mrs Savage picked off a nice Impala ram off the shooting sticks across the dam from about 100yards. And she was overjoyed. This was a relief for me also when I returned to camp later that night. I had been feeling a little guilty for shooting my own Impala in the area Shelly had been hunting for 3 days with no success, because there were Impala where I had been hunting. In fact later the same day (probably about when she got her own Impala) I turned down a shot on another Ram where I was looking for Kudu reasoning that maybe she could try for it the next day if nothing eventuated where they were.



The 6th and final hunting day had to be a good one and I was starting to believe that the Kudu would get the better of me. I had a moment though when we were sneaking into close range on a good bull and the thought came to me that win or lose that I was having a great time hunting hard and that this was what it was all about. And it looked like losing was the order of the day because the bulls gave us the slip again then. I had pretty much resigned myself to the fact and was in fact answering a text from my wife as we were high in the hill (and telling her the animals had won) who wanted to know how the last day was going before she went to bed back home in Oz as she knew that Kudu was the priority for me… when we finally got a break with the wind and got a clear look at the elusive bulls. I got one glance at them, leaned around a tree and had to take a fast left handed crack at the biggest bull as that was the only angle I could get at him. I had one shoulder to shoot at front on and that’s where I hit him from 80-90yds. The bulls scattered and bolted in the thorny brush and both Solly and Dries thought I had missed as the elusive animals silently cut their way back into the mountains. I was confident though that I had seen the biggest Bull stay on the flat ground and convinced them to look where I believed he had gone to ground. Solly found him within minutes. The shot had wrecked his offside shoulder but exited from the armpit so he was still mobile. Solly and I ran in behind him and as the Bull attempted to jump off I crouched on one knee and got a small window through the scrub and between the forks of a few trees. The bull jumped a log and the TTSX smacked him dead centre in the ehhhh... jewels... travelling up through his guts, lungs and chest to finish in his neck. He went down like I’d thrown a truck at him. Solly danced around like Fred Astaire and I was stunned… first that I had pulled off a couple of tough shots and second that I actually had my Kudu. The adrenaline rush afterward was huge and I was shaking hard. Dries and Solly were nearly more excited than me. Man was I happy. The animal I had lusted after for years was mine.


Getting the Hilux into there and loading him was a real job and we actually had to cut a heap of scrub with a leatherman saw to get in there. Unreal. We gutted and loaded him, drove to town for a burger and a drink and then headed back to camp to hear Mark and Shells’ story.

Their day started off in interesting fashion, they spied some Kudu cows but no Bulls, got close to Zebra but then had some Waterbuck cows chase them off and then after a small break sent a tracker up the hills and sat in a valley below to scan. Meanwhile the bloody baboons kept grunting at them and pissing Mark off so one of them that was sitting in a tree about 200yds away met the brunt of the 300Wby with the 150gr TTSX smashing its chest - that stopped the noise! And watching it out of the tree got a laugh from everyone.


A little after lunch we all met up, then for the last afternoon we decided to try our luck on a property with some good numbers of Nyala nearby. Although I had money left in my budget for another good animal I was totally happy with my efforts so was relaxed about the opportunity to try for Nyala. After the struggle for Kudu I doubted that we could be so lucky in the last few hours but just short of dusk a good old bull emerged from cover right in front of us. I wanted Mark to shoot – but he was musing over a Sable we had seen so he insisted I should have a go. Fred and I stalked in and within easy range Fred placed the sticks… and I got the shakes and actually bent his sticks I was gripping and leaning on them so hard!! So we moved a little closer and I got a grip on myself and smashed him quartering on through the shoulder and spine and he dropped instantly to the shot. Two nice spiral horned antelope for me on the same day!



We took photos as the light failed and then… Fred saw movement in the timber behind us. I threw Mark my 300Wby and he and Fred skulked off into the evening; Mark making his way through the thorns on thongs as usual. Shelly and I could not see much but 10 minutes later the 300 boomed about four hundred yards and Sav had decked an even nicer Nyala than me. His is Rowland Ward standard and has a massive body. We had been lucky with a couple of rippers on the last day and that was a top finish to a great hunt.



The next morning we got early word of the Qantas grounding debacle and had to jump an SA Air flight to Perth… got our rifles confiscated by Western Australian Customs… who then kindly sent them and our ammo to Brisbane for us. We caught a late plane to Sydney which nearly missed our connection to Brisbane and in fact one bag did not make it. Virgin couriered it out to us a few hours later. But basically Qantas cost us a lot of money and a few extra days to get home.

I have to thank Frederik and Dries of Infinito Safaris who worked so hard to get us our animals. The accommodation was great, the food and company was outstanding and the experience is one I will always remember and recommend to anyone. We took 9 different varieties, and eleven animals in total in 6 days of hunting. Neither Mark nor myself could be away from our respective family businesses for any longer than that and Frederik did his utmost to organise everything we wanted in such a small time frame. The trophy mounts will arrive in due course to join my small Aussie collection and now I have to plot, scrimp and save for my return. My wife and older children would love it; other African plains game are still on my list and a Dugga Boy is too...

I realise by AR standards this was a very modest hunt however I could not be happier with my week in South Africa.

What a great time and those nyala are outstanding. Great photos.

Mike

Thanks for the report.

I really enjoy your writing and the pictures are excellent.

Congratulations!

Great report and pictures! Hopefully you can work out 10+ days next time! Congrats!


maddog

First class. Well done all.

Great report, well done!

great report and well done. We all have our dreams and some of them are way beyond our wallets!

I hope I can do hunt like this with a buffalo added in Zim in 2013.

Alan, it was a pleasure hunting with you and you sure worked very hard for that kudu. Like you said the weather didnt really play along. See you next year.

Great report and Pictures. Well done!

Great report! Congrats and well done to all!

Congratulations on your hunt and thanks for sharing it with us.

Congratulations on the Safari
Well done

Oi Bondy! sorry I could'nt make it mate! Looks like you blokes and the lady had a first class time! I will def. not miss out on the next one....unless there are Buff involved again....

Thanks all for the kind comments.

Fred, you gave me a great week and I will be back.

Charl, I was looking forward to meeting you but next time maybe we will all be after Buff... or maybe something bigger ehhh?

i have done a lot of hunting with bondy over the years and he really deserved this kudu as he put in a LOT of work for it. also from myself and shell to fred and , thanks it was awesome the second time round as well................get some thongs though boys!!

Great report and pictures! Thanks for sharing them

quote:

Originally posted by battered:
i have done a lot of hunting with bondy over the years and he really deserved this kudu as he put in a LOT of work for it. also from myself and shell to fred and , thanks it was awesome the second time round as well................get some thongs though boys!!

You poofta aussie wanka! Only Battered can hunt in thongs. Mind you, we saw yer girlfriend in Mozambique. The one you dumped all those years ago with them little brats! She's working on a law suit, but struggle with the jurisdiction bits mate.....I told her I do'nt know you...

charl.........remeber your rule??? any hole is a practice hole..............you crazy african bastard.

seriously though, we wish u made this trip hey, better luck next time

Congratulations on your successful safari. Hunting with Frederik & Charl is indeed lots of fun.

Best regards. D. Nelson