20 August 2007, 19:56
FriedrichHunting the Small Karoo, june '07
Two months ago I had my first African hunting experience. I couple friends of mine have been hunting plainsgame for some years now with PH Thys Prinsloo. Their stories and enthousiasm made it impossible to resist to join them this year.Although they are very fond of their 7x64 and .300WinMag-rifles, I decided to bring my trusty Sauer 202 Stutzen in 9,3x62 with me, as it is the hunting rifle I fel most comfortable with. The scope is the Zeiss Victory Varipoint 1.1-4x24. I also really liked being able to remove the buttstock, since I like to avoid a long rifle case between my luggage.
We were going to hunt Springbuck, Impala, Greater Kudu and Mountain Reedbuck. Eland and warthog were available but requiered a couple hours driving ...
On the first day, we hunted springbuck. First I shot this ewe ...
... but later that day quite a nice buck came down the valley.
We really enjoyed our lunches in the open ...
During the evening, the newbies had to do a little ritual, wich included drinking a shot 97% Wodca and eating springbuck balls, neither of wich was really unpleasant.
Next day, we went looking for warthogs. Being the youngest of the hunting party, the long stalk didn't couse me to much trouble ...
... and got rewarded at the end of the day. Sadly, the others went back to the lodge without any succes.
Our next priority was the Kudu ... Few already shot a nice mature one the previous years, so we all hoped to get some decent chances this year.
After two days we only got one cow, and almost got disappointed. Still, towards the evening, a herd approached en almost overran me, as I was hiding behind some small rocks right in their path.
The Lapua Mega 285 grains-bullet did his job well, although I had to shoot the one bull in the herd completely frontal. He dropped in his tracks, but after five minutes he regained consciousness, so I finished him off with a Woodleigh solid in the neck.
The PH had a little tradition to give a present to to the most succesfull hunter in a given party, in this case a sculpture of the big five ... It will get a nice place amongst the shoulder mounts of the springbuck, warthog and kudu!
