some after thoughts on our Africa hunt

The guys (and Danielle) did a tremendous job, especially being their first Africa hunt and not knowing what to expect. We were all up against some daunting roadblocks from the very beginning. With Delta not flying to Africa we had to jump thru a lot of hoops to even get there. Most of us changed planes 4 or 5 times and just to get all our gear and guns to Joberg was a miracle. My guns (3 handguns) plus all my gear never made it. They were stolen, we think, in Qatar which is on the eastern edge of Saudi Arabia. There was a lot of confusion about this as at first the minister of Qatar thought I had tried to smuggle guns into that country. Apparently one or two people tried to hide my stuff in the freight section of the plane and not in the baggage compartment. I am sure those 2 men were executed when they were found out. The details of that took a couple of days to clear up and even toward the last day or so we still expected my gear to get to camp. That never happened. On the way back John Abraham, our PH and my hunting buddy for almost 30 years got a text from the Qatar minister where he apologized and insinuated we would get the guns and gear back. I sorely doubt I will ever see them again.

The guns and gear are items I can replace. The enjoyment of the hunt will stay with me forever. There are things not yet mentioned about the hunt that I need to go over here.

Dave Manson, head honcho of Manson Reamers, on his second Africa safari with me, took some really nice critters (that I don't have pics of yet), plus he also darted a Rhino. That is an experience most of us will never have. He is seriously thinking of going back for elephant next spring or early summer.

Erik Stenberg brought his son Nick again for their 2nd trip to Africa. They both took outstanding animals. Nick wanted to take all his with his bow but bowhunting in Africa means hours and hours of sitting at a water hole hoping that special animal will come in to drink. He got one of his animals he wanted which was an extremely nice Nyala. The rest he took with his 300 H&H rifle.

Erik spend hours trying to talk himself out of shooting a giraffe. Finally his trigger finger won and he took a great Giraffe along with several other record book animals. Erik used a couple of handguns, including a G-2 in 338 GNR that I ended up borrowing later in the hunt.

Michael Mendes also took several great animals, most of which will go record book. He brought a custom Freedom Arms in 454 that we did some work on to make it legal for Africa which is a barrel length of at least 8 inches. That was the gun I borrowed for my Cape Buffalo. He also used a 378 GNR in a custom G-2 on several of his animals

Stuart Marshall truly enjoyed his first African safari and took several great animals, most of which will go record book. I think they were all one shot kills.

Ray and Danielle Shepard enjoyed trying to out-do each other. The first day while making sure the guns were sighted in Ray had a rough time getting his rifle to sight in. This was finally traced down to a loose screw on his scope mount that was giving erratic accuracy. As Ray mentioned below they had a great time and I am sure they will be back in Africa again when they can.

The first few days with no guns or gear I opted to sit around camp and enjoy the African sun. I enjoyed seeing the faces of the group as they came in for our evening meal. They were amazed at the animals and couldn't quit telling the story of their kills and misses that evening and over breakfast the next day.

Finally after sitting around camp for several days I pretty much gave up on my gear getting back to camp, and decided to go hunting. I had one change of clothes and other than hunting in the nude I was forced to borrow pants and a shirt to hunt in. There was no extra footwear so I hunted the last couple of days in my house shoes.

There was an area near camp where some large Cape Buffalo had been seen so John and I decided to try and find them. Michael Mendes had taken his critters and offered to loan me his custom Freedom Arms in 454. I jumped on the offer and told John let's go hunting.

Following a trackers description of where he had seen the small herd of buffalo we drove all over the area and finally late that day found them. In the herd was a monster, much bigger than my record book Buffalo of a couple of years ago.

We got out of the Land Cruiser to try and get closer to them for a shot. At first we were maybe 65 to 70 yards in high grass. John asked me if I wanted to try to get up closer on them. The range wasn't bad but to hit his vitals I would have to put the bullet thru a lot of thick grass. I told him absolutely so we started walking straight toward them. The grass was hip high so there was no cover to hide behind. At about 30 yards the big buffalo knew we were there and snorted and pawed the ground letting us know it was his territory. John said let's try to get up to 25 yards or so, which we did. The buffalo was ready to either run at us or away from us. I could see the front shoulder so I told John to let me take the shot. At his OK I took the shot. At the shot I heard the bullet hit and the buffalo took off at a slow run. Not being sure of my shot with an unfamiliar gun I took a second shot. The buff ran maybe another 5 yards and dropped. The first shot had broken the buffalo's shoulder and the second shot, maybe 4 inches higher than the first had blown up both lungs.

We gave the buffalo a couple of minutes to die and soon heard the death bellow. Walking up to the buffalo I was extremely pleased with him. On a preliminary scoring he was tip to tip 49". My first buffalo that went number 1 for a while was 42", so this one should score very well.
After the pictures were taken it took 9 trackers and skinners to get the buffalo into the Land Cruiser.

With less than 2 full days left in the safari John talked me into trying for one of the very unusual Golden Wildebeest that were in the area. I figured what did I have to lose.

Knowing that the shots were probably going to be out there a ways I took Erik Stenberg up on his offer to loan me his G-2 chambered in 338 GNR. Soon we were back in the land Cruiser searching the area. The Golden Wildebeest were known to be mostly in the Kalahari Desert a few miles from camp. It took us most of the day before we found the herd. They were spooky and the closest I could get to them was around 250 yards and then the shot would have been with the animal facing us. That was too much in several different ways so we called it a day.

Heading out the next morning we knew the area the animals were in the day before and as we hadn't spooked them too bad we searched that same area. We were hunting in around 225,000 areas so they could be anywhere. But Lady Luck was with us an we found them within an hour of searching. We got out of the Land Cruiser and tried to do a sneak on them. The big bull of the herd knew we were there and was ready to run but was curious too. He trotted off level with us but the closest we could get was a measured 187 yards downhill. Not my favorite shot but I figured I had nothing to lose. Trying to settle the gun's forend in the shooting sticks that were sitting in shifting red sand, I took the shot. As always I never heard the shot but I heard the bullet hit. The Wildebeest ran a few yards to my left but still at the same distance and still downhill so I took another shot. At the shot the animal dropped.

Knowing we would have to wade thru heavy ankle high briars and thorns we opted in driving around to the front of the area where we had last seen the animal. Still having to fight our way thru the briars and thorns but nowhere near as bad as trying to the other way, we found the animal right about where he was at the second shot.

Not having ever seen a Golden Wildebeest before I didn't know what to expect but he was a true golden color with dark red stripes down his ribcage.

So only actually hunting 2 1/2 days I still had a great hunt and one I will remember for as long as I live.

Two of our original group fell prey to the ever changing rules on the Covid tests. Both Alcorn Russell and Doug Faith took the test but apparently the people that decide whether you can get on an international flight or not weren't satisfied. Both Alcorn and Doug were knocked out of a great hunt by a bunch of self centered wannabe Covid experts. Both Doug and Alcorn have hunted with me in Africa before and they were sorely missed on this hunt.

Even with all the hassles and lengthy flights and such it was still a great hunt and one that we will remember forever.