Travel Dates June 2 – June 17, 2007
Hunting Dates: June 7 - June 15, 2007
Area Hunted: South Africa – Songimvelo Nature Reserve, Inkomazi Game Ranch, Mauricedale Game Ranch
PH: Herman Coetzee
Species Hunted: Zebra, Impala, Kudu, Blesbuck, Sable, Bushbuck
Species seen but not hunted: Elephant, Cape Buffalo, White Rhino, Black Rhino, Hippo, Crocodile, Giraffe, Waterbuck, Eland, Nyala, Red Hartebeast, Blue Wildebeast, Black Wildebeast, Duiker (Common, Blue, Red), Steenbuck, Klipspringer, Warthog, Roan Antelope, Ostrich,
Rifle: .300 Winchester Magnum in Winchester Model 70
Bullet: 180gr Nosler Partitions – all pass throughs

I started researching hunts in South Africa and speaking with different outfitters and reading reports on AR in 2005. In January 2006, we booked our first safari at DSC after much convincing my wife decided she would come with me. We planned excursions and sightseeing ventures before and after to make the most of the time.

We flew out of DFW on Saturday the 2nd to DC where we spent two days. We had the TSA Supervisor from HELL who would not allow my Tuffpak to pass through a security screening. She claimed that the lock was not a certified TSA lock and when I questioned this she walked off and said she would not be checking the firearm. We had 1hr 15 minutes before our flight took off and I flew to Bass Pro Shops at Grapevine Mills to purchase another gun case. For those of you familiar with DFW airport and Grapevine Mills, I made it from Terminal B to Bass Pro, bought a gun case, and it made it back to the airport and TSA in 28 minutes. The other TSA representative gave me no trouble and we checked the firearm through without any further incident.

We boarded our flight on SAA and learned quickly what many of you have commented about SAA. Plenty of foot room, but the width of the seats are narrow. The plane smelled like a porto potty when we got on it and the temperature went from burning hot to freezing on the flight. I also didn’t care for the delousing (bug spray) that they do on the SAA flights arriving and departing the US. Bruce from Gracy Travel was waiting for us when we departed customs, picked up our permits at the SAP office and headed to the Afton House. Harry, Annelise and Louis, son-in-law was working for them and we went to the Ocean Basket that night.

We left the next morning, Tuesday June 5th, for Victoria Falls through Livingstone. Our tickets were never sent to us (we thought we had E-Tickets) and even though we had confirmation numbers, confirmed our passport numbers with the reservation, and everything else – SAA refused to give us boarding passes without the paper tickets. The only option for us was to repurchase our tickets which fortunately was the same price as we had purchased through our Travel Agent in the US. We were finally on our way to Vic Falls.

We really enjoyed Victoria Falls and on the 6th did a Morning Zambezi River Safari and we were the only boat on the river. We saw hippos, a giant Chobe Bushbuck on one of the islands, monitor lizards, crocs, and a lone elephant. The elephant sighting was something as we beached our small boat on the island and the bull was back in the trees. He came towards us stopping at 25 yards then 15 yards and finally got within 5 yards of the boat. At that point, we were a bit nervous and could here the boat go in reverse. The bull was probably used to people as he calmed down quickly and went about feeding, throwing dirt on himself (and us), and sniffing us. After about 8 – 10 minutes he moved on into the bush. It is simply amazing how an animal that large can disappear without a sound at such a short distance.











Back to Johannesburg where we stayed one more night at the Afton House. They had a big rain that day with hail on two different occasions and it was very cool – 35 – 37F – definitely not what we had expected. I’d like to say Annelise is just about the sweetest lady we have ever met. We had an early flight the next morning to Nelspruit where we were picked up to start our hunt. We loaded up our gear and headed to the Songimvelo – dropped off our bags, shot the rifle, and then on to the Reserve. We had Zebra, Impala, Kudu, and Blesbuck on quota at the Songimvelo.

I had mentioned a couple things at the beginning of the hunt and when we booked. We were not interested in shooting off of the truck, we wanted to spot and stalk the animals, and my wife was going to be with this the whole time. She loves to walk, hike, and I didn’t want her being left by the truck or way back as I wanted her to experience everything as well. The three concessions we hunted were 65,000 Hectacres, 37,000 Hectacres, and 24,000 Hectacres – we spent a lot of time glass from high vantage points and hunting the animals on foot – exactly as I wanted. I told him I am more interested in the experience and would rather go home empty handed on an animal if we couldn’t do it the right way. He said okay, we are going to walk a lot and spend a lot of time glassing – GREAT I said.

We arrived in camp around 1:00pm – unloaded our gear in the room, prepared to hunt, and headed out. We entered Songimvelo on the Southern Side near Badplaas and were assigned the Game Ranger (JJ) for our hunt. We went to sight in the rifle and it was 4†right at 100 after all the travel. We got it setup and after 6 or 7 shots and were hitting the 1.5†circle bull with three shots at 100 yards. For those of you that have not shot off of sticks, it is pretty different and was difficult at first for me. I was told that we would probably not shoot past 150 yards, but know what the gun would do to 300 yards.







Off we went on Day 1 – we went right after we entered to an enormous valley that the center had been burned 6 months earlier so the green grass was everywhere. We saw Eland, Zebra, Impala, Waterbuck, Blesbuck, White Rhino, and Giraffes intermixed in the burn. We saw one lone Zebra Stallion with 6 Eland and decided to try. We hiked through a dry creek bottom about 300 yards and when we rose above lip we saw they had moved off into the bush. We stayed on the Zebra and Eland for another 30 minutes – we setup once for a shot of 200 yards, but their was so much brush in front of the Zebra - I passed and we opted for a better shot. Finally they topped a ridge and were gone – we had zig zagged through the brush and probably had a ½ mile walk back to the road on what was the easiest walk we would have for the next 4 or 5 days.



We drove to another high point and glassed a couple of groups of small Impala Rams and then spotted 25 – 30 Impala Ewes with one big Ram 25†and very wide. Off we went, well they kept us at 350 yards – we had little cover or ground contour as they got up on a rocky outcropping and had the sight advantage. We backtracked a couple hundred yards and made a wide circle and they were meandering over the ridge.





We climb the rocky ridge in the picture above as quickly as we could, came over the top and they were gone. We figured they went to the right as anything to the left we should be able to see at least one of the Impala after we glassed for 15 minutes and nothing. Off to the right we went and they just disappeared in the draws and ridges. We hiked back a mile or so to the vehicle and it was getting dark – so we headed out. We saw a couple more Zebra, but after a short stalk they were all mares and colts – we got busted by three Giraffe looking over the Acacia at dusk on another stalk on Impala. We headed back to camp – it was a great first day.

Day 2: Began with a typical breakfast coffee, tea, biscotti style biscuits, cereal and yogurt.





Back we headed to Songimvelo – it was cold. -5C – I am so glad I brought my hunting jacket at the last minute instead of the lightweight jacket. We got to the reserve, signed in and were on our way around 6:45am. We went back to the burn area, but it was void of animals other than the Giraffes which were everywhere.



We went to a new area and I spotted four zebra about halfway up a mountain heading down into the valley. We stopped, glassed, and noticed there were 7 at the base of the mountain in the valley moving into the grassy areas to feed. We prepared for another stalk….we went about 250 yards using the trees and brush as our cover and the Zebra kept moving towards us. We went another 100 – 200 yards and setup for a shot – the Stallion was with 6 mares and colts spread between 175 – 200 yards. Herman setup the sticks and said the stallion is 175 – 180 yards on the far left broadside – take him on the shoulder in the triangle. I took the shot and he reared up, biting at his left side where I hit him. He fell and got up on 4 occassions never giving us more than just glimpses of him in the tall grass. We could hear him breathing and it was very labored – after 5 minutes the mares moved away and he was not with them. We went to find him and he was no more than 30 yards from where I hit him.

It was amazing watching them machete the grass down and setup the animal for pictures. As you can see on the picture – my shot was 8†right of the triangle on the shoulder – the gun was still off, but just thought I had pulled the shot a little while on the sticks.










As we finished pics we looked across the valley 600 – 700 yards and there were 4 Kudu Cows standing on the far hill looking at us – in the thicker brush we could see a bull, but could tell the size. We loaded the Zebra and took off after the Kudu. We got within 300 yards and were able to tell it was a shooter bull with very large curls as they were moving in and out of the brush on the ridge. They slowly moved back over the ridge and off we took at a fast walk. We slowly inched up the ridge and saw the cows moving down by the river 200 yards below us, but no bull. After 2 or 3 minutes of Glassing, the bull burst from heavy cover about 50 yards below us and took off into the river bottom.

We side-hilled for a few hundred yards hoping to see him, but he was gone – climbing down would have been tough as it was 50 – 60 feet of large rocks and pretty much a vertical drop. As we made our way out and around we bumped a 25†Waterbuck and another 8 or 9 cows and saw another 20 – 25 giraffe.

We headed back to the truck, dropped the Zebra off at the skinning shed for Shakes, and headed back out. Around noon we decided to find a place for lunch – as we rounded a hill and looked up into the draws, we noticed a number of Impala Rams. Herman said the two on the far hillside look good – lets have a closer look. We got a little ways to get a better angle and he says to take the Ram on the bottom, he is old and heavy. Sets up the sticks and tells me it is 250 yards. The wind is blowing steady at 20mph at this time. I look through the scope and say “That is a long ways†& I take the shot, the other Impala go up the mountain and mine heads down and sidehills. Lisa asks if I got him, I said I don’t know – the shot felt good, but he didn’t react like I thought. We get to where the RAM was at and started tracking. We find some blood and then 3†– 4†bone fragments and then some more 1†bone fragments the next 30 yards. Not a good sign – we follow the trail about 75 yards from the shot and 25 yards ahead we see the Ram under some brush moving his head – one more shot finishes him. First shot was 16 – 18†right – notice a trend! I just thought I made a bad shot as it was hard to hold steady with the wind and the sticks at that distance.

He ends up being just a shade over 22†and we take some pictures. We finally find a nice spot for lunch around 1:30ish.





The rest of the day we spend searching for Blesbuck and Kudu – mainly Kudu – but just saw cows, young bulls. We see lots of animals – Impala, Rhino, Cape Buffalo, Giraffe, Wildebeast, Hartebeast, Steenbuck, Duiker, Klipspringer, Kudu cows and young bulls, Blesbuck, and Zebra. When the sun set it got very cool and was freezing again that night.

Day 3: We put miles on our boots and truck looking for Kudu. We would get into some awesome looking country glassing the hillsides. It was -3C that morning and warmed to maybe 20C during the day, We saw four or five groups of cows and only one decent bull. We were having lunch and we looked up on the hill to our left and there was a bull standing in the middle of an opening. We grabbed the bino’s checked him out and thought he was a shooter at 600 yards. We grabbed the gun and off we went – we climbed the small hill and in the valley below was a White Rhino and Calf – we gave them a wide bearth – and headed to a vantage point to glass. The Kudu just disappeared – after 30 minutes of glass we headed back down. The Rhino was not happy we were there and we gave her a lot of room before she took her calf up the hill on the far side.

We saw some awesome country and a beautiful sunset









Day 4: We spoke with the Game Rangers at 6:30am when we entered Songimvelo and they told us the big Kudu bulls had separated from the cows and were in the mountains. When we asked again about where, they said the mountains. That was not quite the help we wanted, but we had today and tomorrow to look before our time was up on the reserve.



After three or 4 hours of looking – the game scout banged on the roof. Herman jumped out, got on the top, and a long ways out on the side of the mountain – the Game Ranger had seen a Kudu bull. We headed towards the bull and after a ways, we saw it wasn’t one bull, but two bulls – one shooter and one younger bull. – they were still far and went over the ridge. Over the next 30 minutes we climbed one ridge only to see the Kudu topping the far ridge – down the valley up the next ridge. Finally, we climbed another ridge and there were now 5 bulls feeding on the far hillside.

Herman said – it is a long ways, but you need to take the shot – 350 yards. We got setup, the rest was solid, I put the 300 yard crosshairs on the biggest bull – center of the shoulder. Boom! Miss….The bulls were looking behind them – I reloaded – felt like it was a perfect shot – BOOM! Miss….I said – that felt perfect and they said you are shooting over their heads. The big bull (57†– 58â€) – didn’t like the 2nd shot and moved down the mountain into the brush and out of sight. Two smaller bulls moved through and then the 2nd largest moved through.

Herman said he will go 53†– you should take him. I said I think they are closer and I put my 200yard crosshair on him and I saw the dust fly behind the shoulder. I reloaded as he spun and hit him again high middle of the body as the dust flew again. He went up over the ridge….off we went. We got to the top of the ridge and he was standing on the far side under some brush facing away. Herman said put another bullet in him wherever you can – I shot again and he took off running down hill went behind a big area of brush and never came out.

We hiked to that ridge and started moving downhill. The grass was chest high and could find no blood – we saw one of the horns sticking above the grass and find the bull laying. Herman and Shakes hiked back down to get the truck and JJ stayed with us on the mountain. Somehow, they got the truck up the mountain – we loaded the Kudu and then headed down. We are guessing it was a 1.5 mile hike across the mountains and another ½ mile to get to the mountains from where we started.





The local villagers showed up at the skinning shed after we were there for some of the Kudu meat. It was good to know nothing goes to waste. We had been seeing lots of Blesbuck, but no good ones on Songimvelo – the biggest was maybe 15â€. We decided to go to the Inkomazi, 37,000 Hectacre ranch, to look for a Blesbuck. We glassed a few groups of Blesbuck and then spotted two exceptional males. We picked out the larger of the two and made the stalk – using the hills as cover – we hiked 300 – 400 yards and came over the hill. The Blesbuck were 150 yards away and we setup the sticks to take the shot. He ran about 30 yards before expiring. He was by far the best we had seen all week.



We went back to the camp, loaded up and waited for our skinner to finish before heading to the Malelane Area to continue our hunt. While there, we watched two Ostrich sneak into the yard and eat lemons from the lemon tree. Watching the lemons corkscrew around their neck with one in the front and one in the back was hilarious. We had the 2.5 hour drive to the new concession that afternoon and arrived at dusk.

Day 5: Earlier in the week and again the night before, Herman and I had spoken about what I was looking for in a Sable. He said he had spotted the same sable twice over the last two weeks on the concession we would be going too. He felt he was about 40†long and the Horn’s went back more than up. He said he was in the same area both times, but the other 6 or 7 times he went through the area he never saw him.

After all of my shots being right, we both agreed to go shot at first light – I am glad we did – was 2.5†right at 25 yards and 10†right at 100 yards. We adjusted the gun and I put three shots 1†high from dead center touching each other at 100 yards. The gun was shooting well. Off for the Sable….we picked up our Game Ranger Vusi and off we went. Late morning we spotted some sable cows and calves. We drove away and headed back on foot as quietly as we could to see if we could spot the bull.

Like the Kudu hunt and seeing bull after bull across the mountains, all we could see was his horns moving back and forth above the brush and glinting in the sunlight. What a sight – Lisa couldn’t see so we pulled her close and pointed out the horns at 75 yards. We were close, but it was so very thick where he was. We slowly moved closer and he was moving closer to us as he fed. I turned the scope down to 4.5 (my lowest setting) and Herman motioned to load the gun. I did this as quietly as possible and we setup the sticks and the bull just materialized out of the brush. I don’t know if it was shock for the beauty of the animal, but with so much brush I could not tell where the neck stopped and the shoulder began. I didn’t want to make a mistake and he whispered, take him in the shoulder – we were close 35 yards in the shadows. I could not see the legs only the upper portion of his body, we moved 2 yards to our right and were not exposed – the bull moved and we thought we were busted but he continued to feed. I saw the top of the shoulder came down and fired.

He reared up and took off running full tilt and then all was quiet. They asked how did you feel about the shot, I said it felt perfect. We went to where the bull was standing, no blood no hair – OH CRAP! We followed the trail, no blood no hair. Finally, they found a broken blade of grass where he had run. About 60 yards from the shot, they found a very small drop of blood on the grass. I told my wife, this doesn’t look good – I thought I made a perfect shot. The PH, Tracker, and Game scout where now on all fours looking for broken blade of grass, 25 yards later two drops of blood – very small – 25 yards later another small drop of blood. We followed another 50 yards – my heart is now sinking and got to a road without any further sign of blood.

The trail branched off to the right and you could see fresh tracks going that way. Lisa and I are standing on the road marking where we exited the brush when she says – there is blood on tree by the V to the left. I said what, I am looking at the V limbs and see no blood and she keeps point it is right there. Well, the Game Scout heard what she said and came back to us - they had gone 40 yards or so and had found no sign. He immediately saw and so did I then, about 25 yards into the brush was a tree that had a big splatter of blood on it.

He looked down and called Herman and Shakes and there was a few drops of blood in the grass and then 5 feet later the trail was easy to follow. My sable was lying 15 feet from the tree Lisa had seen. It was a surreal moment and everyone was very excited. They said it was the best sable they had taken this year and he was the bull they had seen a few weeks earlier. His longest horn is 40†and the other is 39 5/8 with 9†bases. Shakes and Vusi kept telling me in Africaans “Big Bull†and Herman said we are going to take A LOT of pictures. The shot was perfect - top of the heart and both lungs complete pass through with a 1†exit hole. Not sure why he didn’t bleed, but the full spectrum of emotions wiped me out.

We took the sable to a huge dam and took probably 100 pictures in all kinds of poses. It was a very exciting time.







We still had a Bushbuck on the quota and I decided to call it a day around 4:00pm – we had seen a couple – but I just wanted to take in the whole week.

Day 6: Off we went the next morning to look for Bushbuck. We saw one or two, but could never get on them as they were moving much too fast. I saw a buck jump up as we were slowly driving and he moved down the creek bottom, but not running full tilt like all the others we had seen.

We moved into position and saw him standing 60 – 70 yards away in the brush facing away from us. I took a Texas Heart Shot and dropped him in his tracks and sadly the hunt was over. He measured 13 ¾ and I don’t remember the bases.



Back at camp, we had a lot of excitement. A Black Mamba 8'6" was killed 300 yards from our cabins.







That afternoon we drove to White River to drop off the animals with Life Form Taxidermy and Jerry gave us a tour of the operation. My wife had never seen anything like this and was amazed at all that goes into preparing an animal for mounting. We filled out the paperwork and stopped at the Deck Restaurant overlooking Kruger and Crocodille River at dusk to have a beer.

The next few days we did some sightseeing tours. Matsamo Cultural Village, Mpumalanga Panoramic Tour, African Silk Factories, stopped in Graskop for the world famous pancakes, visited Kruger National Park, and enjoyed the last three days in Africa. Saturday morning we started the long haul back to the US from Nelspruit to JoBerg to DC to DFW. We got home Sunday around Noon after 32 hours in planes and airports.



Blyde River Pinnacle



Gods Window



Bourke Potholes - Blyde River



Kotami River



Blyde River Canyon the Beginning



3 Zulu Huts - Blyde Canyon (can't remember correct name)



Blyde River Lake




Zebra



Baboon in Kruger



Giraffe and Baby




White Rhino and Calf

It was a great experience and we learned a lot. I was not interested in Warthog, Springbuck, Wildebeast, or Hartebeast which were on so many lists. I would have like Nyala, Waterbuck, and Eland, but when I decided on the Sable (even with the deal I was made) I couldn’t afford them as well.

My last memory will forever be the Deep deep blue skies with the red dirt. What a magnificent sight!

Great story and beautiful pictures!

Wow...what a trip! That is one of the best hunt reports I've ever read.

The pictures are awesome. It seems an odd time of year to have a mamba that close to human activity. Did they say anything about that?

TJB

Thanks!!! Excellent report and photos. Looks like you guys had a great trip.


Phil

quote:

Originally posted by Dr. Tim Burkhart:
Wow...what a trip! That is one of the best hunt reports I've ever read.

The pictures are awesome. It seems an odd time of year to have a mamba that close to human activity. Did they say anything about that?

TJB

Yes - the ranch manager drove over it with his truck and saw it dissappear in the grass on teh passenger side of the truck. He got in the bed of the truck with his sidearm drawn - he said the mamba reared up in teh grass. He said it was all slow motion and it felt like the snake was looking at him eye to eye. He rapid fired 4 or 5 time from his 9MM hitting the snake three times and then finished by shooting it through the head. It was the warmest day we were there and I guess it was sunning....

Nice trophies and some good pics. What camera did you use?

Nice photos. That's going to drive the dial up guys nuts trying to load them

Congrats on your first safari and a sable too! What's next?

I just went through similar routing as you but to Harare. I had no problem in DFW with my Tuffpak. That's ridiculous. I did dislike the fact that the counter attendants didn't show up until 45 minutes before our early morning flight to Chicago. That's just sloppy.

Good job on the sable! The pictures were wonderful as well. I find that scenery pictures rarely capture the beauty of a place, but yours were excellent!

WOW! what a trip. You really got some fabulous photos. That's the scenery H. Ryder Haggard was describing in his Quatarmain stories. Thanks for sharing.

What a fabulous report, and particularly excellent photos.

I hope you got that TSA supervisor's name--send a letter to their regional office. There's no such thing as a "certified lock."

quote:

Originally posted by 475Guy:
Nice trophies and some good pics. What camera did you use?

Canon EOS 20D (18x55 and 70x200 lens) and a Canon ELPH SD600

quote:

Originally posted by John Frazer:
What a fabulous report, and particularly excellent photos.

I hope you got that TSA supervisor's name--send a letter to their regional office. There's no such thing as a "certified lock."

I did get her name, but you know I would have won the argument but at what cost? The next flight was in 4 or 5 hours which would have messed up what we were trying to do in DC. Like my wife said, if this is our only glitch it is a minor one.

Great pics and story, my sonand I are off in 9 days for our first safari and we can't wait.

Great photography and Congratulations on your first outstanding Safari!

I also think it is fantastic that you brought your Wife with you so you could share those wonderful memories together. (even though I think she is way too cute for you)

quote:

I did get her name, but you know I would have won the argument but at what cost? The next flight was in 4 or 5 hours which would have messed up what we were trying to do in DC. Like my wife said, if this is our only glitch it is a minor one.

I agree you did a prudent thing under the circumstances. However, I hate to see them get away with this nonsense. Writing a letter after the fact may help the next guy who runs into her.

BTW forgot to mention that I cracked up over how your PH set up the sable photo!

TH,

Great report, nice trophies and fantastic pics. Glad you took some scenery in RSA. I don't think most people expect the beautiful vistas the country can produce.

Mark

Thanks for sharing your safari. The hunt report and photos were very well done. Congratulations on the fantastic sable.

TH,
Great job all the way around. Sounds and looks like a once in a lifetime expierence, but I bet it's not going to be.

Thanks for sharing,
Jeff

AWESOME pictures!!

Excellent Report and very nice pictures. The calm stream and red hills photo is great.

Great post and some really nice trophies. When are you planning to return? I know no one goes to Africa just once!
Brad

Good post, liked the photos...Bet you had to steady yourself a few times before taking the ele pics.. Nice trophies aswell.

Sounds like a rough start at the beginning with the TSA and SAA troubles but it ended with a picture perfect safari! Congratulations.

Good post great trip, although it seems you need a new travel agent, next time try Kathi!

Enjoyed that a great deal. Thanks for sharing, and congratulations!

Great pics! Thanks for posting them.

Enjoyed your report and the photos very much.