The super late hunt report.

So this hunt report is considerably later than what is normally submitted here on AR. The short story is it has been an incredibly busy time for me from the successful completion of this hunt back on May 31, 2016 to the present, but now with time one my hands it’s time to get something out to all you readers.

Safari Hunting Company – Rosedale Safaris and Tru-Reflections Taxidermy, Grahamstown, South Africa
May 17 – 31, 2016
Owners - Charl & Julia LeRoux
PH – Charl Leroux
Trackers – Kwir, Leon and Rocky (the later 2 only with us on limited hunt properties)
Travel – Airlines and Hotel booked thru Lori & Jennifer Ginn of Travel Express in Hamilton, Montana
Airlines – Delta and South African Airlines
Meet & Greet Service – Adele Janse van Rensburg, owner, Hunters Permits Africa
Rifles used:
Mossberg Model 1500, .338 Win Mag, my own handloads with 225 gr. Nosler Accubonds
Ruger M77 Hawkeye, .270 Win, my own handloads with 130 gr. Nosler Accubonds
Animals hunted:
A List - Sable, Mountain Reedbuck, Fallow Deer (2), Bushpig, Red Lechwe
B List – Zebra, Cape Bushbuck, Warthog, Impala, Ostrich
Animals seen – more like what DIDN’T we see, everything from elephants (side visit here @ Addo Elephant Park), cape buffalo, gemsbok (hundreds of these), red hartebeest, bushbuck, warthogs, impala, red lechwe, fallow deer, zebra, blue wildebeests, giraffe, baboons, vervet monkeys, ostrich, mountain reedbuck, lions (wife saw these at another game park), hippos, nyala, kudu, waterbuck, steenbuck, common duiker and others I’ve missed here.
Animals taken – everything on both lists with the exception of the bushpig and the addition of blesbok

Some background on this trip includes the planning and initial deposit paid for this hunt was done in Jan. 2014 as a result of meeting Charl and Julia at their booth at the Western Washington Sportsman’s show held annually in Puyallup, WA. The drive on my part was looking for a chance to go after a sable antelope, what I consider to be one of Africa’s most majestic plains game animals. Over the course of my discussions with them at their booth and talking with other operators at this show I constantly found myself going back to them and in the end placed a deposit with them for a hunting trip for a sable and a few other animals, this thus becoming my “A” list as outlined above. This trip would now become my fourth time to have the opportunity to once again hunt on African soil. Of course in the beginning my better half was not pleased with the booking of another trip, especially for the sable as most of you know they don’t come cheap no matter where or what country one choses to pursue one in Africa. In the end tho, after care discussions and additional encouragement from Charl and Julia over the next two years, my wife come along for her first trip to Africa as an observer, a trip that in the end for her turned out to be fabulous, enough that she is willing to return, but I get ahead here.

So time passed slowly, but soon enough we were finally on our way to Africa on May 17, 2016 for 10 days of hunting, first near Kimberley (for the sable) and then later for the rest of the time outside of Grahamstown, South Africa, the home location for Rosedale Safaris. Our long flights started out on Delta airlines in Seattle to Atlanta to Johannesburg where we spent our first night (in the City Lodge Hotel adjacent to the airport proper). We chose to purchase seats in the economy comfort section for the long overseas portions of all flights, while not as nice as business class, still made for a better flight than be in regular economy. A short note about the meet and greet, while Adele and here Hunters Permits Africa is a new company (about 10 years), she was recommended by Charl and did a superb job in getting rifle permits sorted out and waiting and helped with transitions to and from connecting flights in both directions. The best part was I was able to E-MAIL her all needed paperwork instead of mailing or using expensive courier services, this was great and made life easy. After the hotel stay it was back to the airport proper and getting on the South African Airways flight the next morning for the short 1 hr. and 15. min flight to Kimberley where we were met by our PH, Charl LeRoux. From here we had about an hour’s drive to the first hunting area where we would take the time needed looking for a sable and stay in the lodge of a friend of Charl’s while we hunted here. As things turned out, our stay here was short, just one night as on the first morning out I was able to shoot a wonderfull sable bull that measured out to 41 in. This was accomplished with my .338 Win Mag rifle, with one shot from about 150 yards.


After this we moved our hunting base to Charl’s farm outside of Grahamstown, SA, a six hour drive from Kimberley during which we saw terrain and vegetation changes from the drier Northern Cape area to the wetter and somewhat greener and denser cover of the Eastern Cape. On arriving at the Rockwood Farm, we again met up with Julia and were introduced to the great accomodations in the newly renovated guest rooms of the farm house. Since jet lag was still part of our lives and then the long 6 hour drive to the farm it was decided that the next day would be a touring day and this was when Charl took us to the Addo Elephant Park for a day of sightseeing. This huge national park cannot be covered in its entirety in only one day, but we gave it a heck of a shot and the quantity and variety of animals seen was un believable. I should also let the readers know that the first night we spent in the Kimberley area also afforded us the chance to see hundreds of animals on the property where the sable hunt was conducted. To say that the wife was impressed is really an understatement, she (and myself too of course) saw many many animals, some near, some close (like the herd of Cape Buffalo that were within 50 yds of the truck at one point).

Well after the park tour, then the hunting would begin again for me and the sightseeing and general touring for my wife (in the capable and expert hands of Julia, Charl’s lovely wife). While Rockwood Farm is not a large property (about 700 acres, with NO fences on two sides) and some hunting was done here, Charl has been a PH for many years and has access to or knows numerous other land owners in this part of South Africa and thus several times would drive to other properties to hunt for some specific animals.
Each hunting day was a success, whether any animals were taken or not, just being in the bushveld and not knowing exactly what surprise one could fine made for great days afield and often with animals bagged.
Listing how each day went in any detail here will result in a lengthy read here, something that’s I’ve already done in a journal of this hunt on a day by day basis, something that is close to two hundred typed pages. If you really want to read something of that length send me a pm and I’ll see if I can figure out how to email a copy to those interested. If you ask and I send this, don’t be a literary critic, for I’m no author and this journal I’m sure is full of literary mistakes and such. Ive shared this journal with a few friends and family and they have been impressed and awed by it.

Anyway, just let me saw that the rest of the hunting was good, over the next days I shot a mountain reedbuck, red lechwe, brown and black fallow deer stags, a spotted fallow hind, a doe and ram impala (this is going to be a unique and creative dual wall shoulder mount) and unexpected late evening cape bushbuck (final recovery of it was in the pitch dark by light of a cell phone only), as disatorous if ultimately success full ostrich hunt ( my worst shooting performance on the trip, just where does one aim on this bird, with its basketball sized body covered with feathers on those two stilt like legs), another plains zebra (I could hunt these ever time and in fact I have taken one on ever trip, this one being number 4 in total), and a on the small size warthog (having passed on at least two other chances for a bigger tusker, but focused on something else at the time). In addition to the regular hunting I did, Charl’s half-brother invited us to participate on a half day meat cull hunt on a nearby ranch, and I was given first shot opportunities on some of the targeted animals, Now this cull meat hunt was in no way about trophy hunting, it was all about thinning herds that were over grazing capacity on the farm. Any and all animals seen were on the cull list, young, old, male, female with all the animals duely recovered and going into the meat market system here in this part of Africa. While I had some initial chances at some zebra and blue wildebeest, between the skittishness of the animals and the newness to me at least of this style hunting or shooting, I missed on these chances. By the end of this hunt tho I did have two common blesbok to my credit and will have those horn sets as a reminder of this chance hunt that I was part of. If you paid close attention in the early part of this report, a bushpig was also on my desired list, an animal that is typically hunted at night over bait, I have to say here that I didn’t get one. During the one chance we had to sit over a bait, late in the hunt, I missed both chances at a bushpig, the first because the snick of the rifles safety being taken off was loud enough to spook the first pig on the bait (some 80 yds distant from where we were sitting and watching), and then actually shooting under the second pig later that same evening, my only feeble excuse being that I just didn’t get the crosshairs of the scope, in the dark, correctly on the pig thus missing that shot.

Some quick notes on my rifles, both of these having been to Africa before on other trips. I found that the Nosler Accubonds performed well, all shots with the exception of the one on the sable were pass thrus, and the recovered slug from the sable still weighed 139 grs from the original 225 grs. In the end only 3 animals were shot with the .338 Win Mag, the sable, red lechwe and zebra. My .270 was used with great effectiveness on everything else and with the exception of the ostrich and the female fallow deer all animals were taken with one shot. Distances ranged anywhere from 70 yds (warthog) to 220 yds (2nd hit on the ostrich).

Some other final comments include praise to Julia and her helper, Tabisa, for all the great meals that were prepared for the table. Evening meals always include some of the game that was harvested while hunting here. With there only being myself and my wife in the camp and Charl and Julia, meals were always small affairs with lots of time to reflect and talk about our respective lives and dreams. Tabisa work as the housekeeper was also first rate, she took excellent care of our room and did the laundry on a daily basis. While I was there for the hunting and my wife did come out a few times on the truck for some of the hunts (as an observer of course), I can’t thank Julia enough for the time she took to really make this trip special for my wife. She took my wife into town for simple shopping excursions (resulting in lots of fabrics making the trip back to the USA) to going to another nearby game reserve for additional wildlife touring with the wife seeing her first lioness and cubs and hearing the pride male roar across the landscape, something I’ve yet to see or hear in my prior trips to Africa. It was great, enough that a return trip with Rosedale Safaris is certainly in the cards for us both in a couple years (gotta save that $$ first, ya know).

Another departure on this trip was my decision to leave my taxidermy work, and there is a bunch, with Charl and let it be all completed by his Tru-Reflections Taxidermy business. I’ve seen prior examples of his work he did for other US hunters and had the chance to tour his showroom and work facilities for this and meet some of his staff, all contributing to my decision to leave the work with him. How that all turns out remains to be seen, but I feel good about that decision.

Of course no AR hunt report is complete without pictures, so here is hoping I can figure out the posting of those as part of this. The order of the pictures posted reflects no particular order of take, other than that the sable was the first animal taken, I’ll just be glad to get them loaded.











In the end wishing all the readers have had a pleasant read of this adventure of mine, wishing you all the best in your present and upcoming adventures, not just in Africa, but where ever and since we are getting close a great upcoming holiday season

Willi,
Spokane Valley, WA

Looks like I got the picture thing figured out, got pictures in with this now, most towards the bottom of the report.

Great report, thanks for posting it. I'd love to get a Cape Bushbuck like yours. I'm jealous, it has two horns!

Looked like a great hunt. Thanks for the report.

Great stuff and the Sable is a beauty. And well photographed.

Those South Africans are some of the most hospitable people on earth and are masters at putting together a safari that meets all your needs and desires.

The bushbuck is also a cracker.

Well done!

Reading some other reports, especially about taking notes on a hunt created the itch to re read my own report again. Bad part was fining spelling errors, but didn't fix them since there are part of the report. Kinda nice to re-live my own hunt again thru the report.
Willi

Great report!

That is a stud of a bushbuck.

I'm going to have to look up "Hunters Permits Africa", it would be great to email all the permit paperwork.

Awesome!
Thanks for sharing.

Ski+3