Hunt Dates 25-29 June, 2013
Travel Agent Steve Turner/Travel With Guns (esp Nanette)
Country South Africa
Outfitter Bushwack Safaris
PH Patrick Reynecke
Area Limpopo
Gun .375 H&H custom by Mark Bansner
Ammo 300 grain Federal softs & solids

This was my second trip to Africa with “the most interesting man in the world” --- oh, and by the way, I’m actually Hunter’s-Wife now as we wed in June, 2011.


He had taken me on a ten-day hunt with Charlton-McCallum Safaris in 2010 and despite heroic efforts to outsmart the lions by our PH, Rich Tabor, I ended up buff-less. Mostly, to be honest, because I missed my only chance at one in the last hour of light on the very last day. To make matters worse, he had waived hunting his hippo and croc to maximize my chances. (He must love me… we came home empty-handed and he married me anyway.)

So this was going to be my redemption tour. He wisely decided to start with a plains game hunt in South Africa to warm me up for a repeat run at buffalo. [Look for hunt report II on that part of the trip.]

The bound packet we received ahead of time from Steve Turner was detailed and laid out everything we needed to know about our trip. We flew into Jo’berg and were met by Henry with Rifle Permits who expedited the process of importing our firearms. Also waiting on us were Patrick and Leisel Reynecke who greeted us warmly and got us loaded up for the drive to the hunt area. After taking us to dinner followed by a brief stop at their home in Rustenberg to drop off Leisel, Patrick drove us on to the Madikwena Game Farm in Skuindrif, Groot Marico.

Our accommodations there were lovely. Although we were in a self-catering chalet, Patrick had arranged for our meals to be prepared and we were quite spoiled when the owner himself, Robert Reader, prepared all our meals. He turned out amazing gourmet delights between the kitchen and braai, all served on our patio overlooking the firepit.

Hunting Day One found us on a neighboring game farm to hunt the kudu on my list. The morning resulted in me on the sticks twice but with no good bull kudu in the sights. We had a lovely late brunch at the Madikwena Croc Inn, and then returned to Willem’s farm where we fairly quickly came upon two decent bulls. I took aim and was delighted to drop him with a decently placed hit. Even better was discovering he had non-typical horns which I find really appealing. We tried for warthog as the day ended, but ran out of time.


Hunting Day Two we stayed at the Madikwena Game Farm. We rode a lot and walked a lot including the use of a tracker to seek a blue wildebeest in its usual hangout, but had no luck. Following another nice brunch at the Croc Inn, Patrick quickly made a new plan and moved us to a different game farm. We were looking for anything on our list, but especially impala and blesbok. We spotted two good blesbok eventually and I was able to connect with one… it was an ugly shot, but it did the job. We kept after impala but either saw only slow females or extremely skittish males who just wouldn’t stand still long enough, darn ‘em.


Hunt Day Three, we returned to Callie’s farm from the previous afternoon. I still had impala, wart hog, and blue wildebeest on my list. Same old story on the impala. No luck on the wart hog. And I was beginning to think the blue wildebeest was a figment of everyone’s imagination. As we were running out of time, we resorted to using a blind at the dam to maximize my chances. Impala came… no bulls. The grandfather of all warthogs came… and went the wrong way. The blue wildebeest was so close we could hear it/them repeatedly make that chuffing sound. Light was fading. We snuck out to stalk the wildebeest, but I simply couldn’t make that dark face out in the thick bush fast enough before, poof, he was gone. And time was up.

So I only ended up with two of the five animals on my contract. But five had probably been ambitious for a three-day RSA hunt to begin with. Patrick graciously offered us time to leave those three on “credit” with him for a hunt next year. And we would definitely hunt with him again.

We were very aware of the pretty good hit that Patrick took here on AR some time back. We had already booked with him and he was more than willing to address those issues with us in the communications we had with him. Patrick proved himself to be a well-mannered host and capable PH who hunted hard and maximized every bit of the available hunt time. He is licensed and has experience hunting/guiding in Tanzania and Botswana as well. We stand behind our choice of Patrick for our RSA hunt and enthusiastically recommend him to others. I would respectfully ask that if you still have an ax to grind over the previous issue, you don’t do it on my hunt report, please. Thank you.

We returned to Jo’berg and Tambo to fly out for the second leg of the trip to Zimabawe. That’s hunt report II, if you’re still with me.

Nice report and great attitude!

Great way to warm up for phase two!

Sounds like you've got your man fooled so far,
just let him shoot game now & then and he'll hang around awhile. Congrats on getting married too.
Nice report, pics won't open for me this time. Enjoyed your last one in 10 very much.
Good luck,
George

Agreed, great attitude and one day would very much like to share a campfire with you folks. Best of luck with your Buffalo.

Congrats! thanks for sharing!

Observations while hunting with Hunter's Wife To Be in RSA:

1.Patrick Reynecke is a superb PH and outfitter,I would highly recommend anyone to hunt with him from 1st timer to experienced hunter. He ran a great camp,was a great PH and generally fun to be around.
2.The decision to take this short hunt to RSA was perfect for Hunters Wife To Be,she got her feet wet,took two animals and had a ball.It also let us get over the initial phase of the travel.
3.Hunting RSA is fun,can be a challenge and is still unpredictable even on a game farm. What ever we were hunting seem to have advance notice and the animal we were NOT hunting thought they were posing for "Galmour Shots" and took great pains to pose for us. We saw 2-4 kudu that were in the 55" to 58" range,also saw some huge wart hogs but I did not shoot in hopes that HWTB could get a shot.The animals we did not take this go round will be on the list next year for sure.A great time all the way around.
Thanks
Wesley Timmerman

Angie & Wesley,

Thanks for sharing your experience and kind words.

I should mention to the readers and community of this forum that Angie did some great shooting, especially on the Kudu...damn!!, did that animal went down...

Thanks Angie & Wesley for being a great hunting couple and companions.

Cannot wait to see you in 2014 again!

quote:

Originally posted by wesley timmerman:
Observations while hunting with Hunter's Wife To Be in RSA:

1.Patrick Reynecke is a superb PH and outfitter,I would highly recommend anyone to hunt with him from 1st timer to experienced hunter. He ran a great camp,was a great PH and generally fun to be around.
2.The decision to take this short hunt to RSA was perfect for Hunters Wife To Be,she got her feet wet,took two animals and had a ball.It also let us get over the initial phase of the travel.
3.Hunting RSA is fun,can be a challenge and is still unpredictable even on a game farm. What ever we were hunting seem to have advance notice and the animal we were NOT hunting thought they were posing for "Galmour Shots" and took great pains to pose for us. We saw 2-4 kudu that were in the 55" to 58" range,also saw some huge wart hogs but I did not shoot in hopes that HWTB could get a shot.The animals we did not take this go round will be on the list next year for sure.A great time all the way around.
Thanks
Wesley Timmerman

thanks for sharing, what an experience!

Nothing like sharing a safari with someone you love.

I hope you both enjoy many more safaris together.

Great! I wish I could get my wife to hunt with me.