Pictures from South Africa

Springbok at 80-90 yards standing


Warthog at 35 yards.


Kudu at 350ish, kneeling shot.


Jackal at 100 yards standing


Blesbuck 340ish sitting shot (Corrected distance)


Blue wildebeest 155 yards proneish on a rock


Eland sitting and shooting off of a rock under 200 yards.


Springbok at 395 yards, shooting off a termite mound.

Warthog is my favorite.

That's awesome! Congrats
Bamabow

Great collection of trophies. A fantastic safari. Congratulations on a successful adventure.

Fantastic photos of some beautiful animals! I am looking forward to hearing how "swiftly" the FrankenRuger dispatched African game.

Outstanding shooting, trip of a lifetime!

You done good Ernie!

Great Hunt!!! congrats!!! More info please?

Beautiful group of animals and handguns, looks like you hand a fantastic time. Now, when do we get the full write up?

Awesome photos

A hunt I will never be able to make but I enjoy seeing you do so well.

I'm still not home yet.
Right now I'm so tired I couldn't tell you if it was 15 or 16 (edited...It is 16 animals) animals but I know that for at least nine of the kills I used the Bog-Gear (sitting, kneeling, and standing).
I learned a lot of things.
Since there was no stand hunting, or just get out of the vehicle and shoot over the top of it, hunting or ground blind hunting--all spot and stalk or still hunting.
Most of these animals do not hang around very long and the springbok are like squirrels on crack.
I walked from 7 to 10 miles per day and one day we went 12 miles.
I need a flexible, yet light, yet stable, shooting rest that is quick to change from sitting to standing or kneeling.
The Bog Gear is too slow to switch quickly from sitting, kneeling, and standing.
There was almost a handful of times where I missed a opportunity when I ran out of time to make the shot by 2-8 seconds
The only time I used my bipod (The one exception was my Highwind blesbok) was when it was on a big rock or on a termite mound.
Next time I will probably go with the cartridge no larger than a Winchester short mag or a short action ultra mag in 6.5 or 7mm.
We had a couple of guys using 6.5 creed Rifles ( 130 grain in 140 grain accubonds) and they did as good as anyone else.
This included Eland, Waterbuck, Gemsbok, and kudu.
I think a lighter recoiling specialty pistol will make it easier to shoot in positions other than prone.
The grass was fairly high there.
The price for a 16 animal package in six days of hunting was $3750, and that included six large animals and 10 small animals. Blesbuck and springbok are considered small animals.
For South Africa, this is a bargain.
You can also upgrade on a specific animal if you ever want to.
The food and accommodations were wonderful.
When you're being guided by a professional hunter that kills 300 to 400 game animals per year, you are being led by someone with experience that far surpasses the majority of hunters little alone PH's.
Ranch surpasses 50,000 acres.
Big Water Safaris
http://www.bigwatersafaris.com/about.html

Looks like a great time,and some good shooting as well, congratulations.

Congratulations!

Great photos Ernie, thanks for sharing! Looking forward to hearing more details when time permits. Congrats again!

Ernie, you had one heck of a trip! Those are some beautiful trophies that will supply stories for years to come. Congrats!

Great shooting, great trophies, and great photos. I want to go back so bad. Thanks for the link. That was a very reasonable price.

Very cool...congrats!

I didn't realize how good the price was until I started talking to others about what they paid in Africa or South Africa.
One friend who goes on guided elk hunts here, made mention he paid that much for a guided bull elk hunt.

good for you.......

Nice going Ernie!

Awesome job!!!!

Amazing. Congratulations on a successful and impressive trip.

That looks like the trip of a lifetime. Congratulations!

Way to go Ernie....

Great shooting! Looks like an amazing trip!

Awesome job!

You're making me jealous.

The three most special animals for me was the Waterbuck (XP), Springbok (revolver), and Jackal (Revolver).
The Waterbuck would be an obvious one, since it is a trophy of a lifetime.
What made it more difficult and memorable was the problems I had to overcome to make the shot. First, there was brush everywhere, and we needed to try to find way to thread the needle/bullet. Prone wouldn't work, so then I tried seated to no avail. Animals were 167 yards away. Trying to hurry and not move much or quickly. Adjusting the legs out on the Bog Gear for a double kneeling shot while staying low was kind of funny after the fact.
Once I have the Bog Gear set-up, my bolt won't close. This became frustrating but we took our time figuring it out. My scope cover had rotated was was barely hindering the bolt. That was ever so quickly ripped off, never to be seen again! Thinus made sure of that.
Todd (friend from the states) and Thinus (PH) were way more worked up over all of these adjustments than I was. I just knew I wasn't going to make a bad shot in the attempt to take a trophy of a lifetime, since Thinus said it was the largest Waterbuck he had ever seen outside of a national park.
Once The XP was finally hot, and ready to go I still needed to make a few small adjustments to ensure I did not clip limbs. That Waterbuck amazingly stayed where he was. I still had a number of limbs to navigate around, but found a small opening and took the shot, and that 750 pound animal went down about 20-40 yards or so from the shot.

The Springbok was another animal that popped up when were actually still hunting along the river for a Kudu. Springbok are kind of like squirrels on crack out there. Seems like they are always running and jumping. Every day after I shot the Waterbuck, it was like I became the "Waterbuck Magnet." This was Thinus' description as Thinus and I literally saw hundreds of them in total (all in different locations), every day. It was surreal. As we had another waterbuck encounter, one was a very good trophy in the 40-50 yard range, we had a large Kudu bull blow out of cover, that was closer to us than the Waterbucks, never to give a shot opportunity.
We kind of assumed that might be it for the area were in, but we continued to take our time outside of the heavy cover from the river. 20 minutes or so later we see a small white spot that looks out of place-Springbok!
Now we are stalking in a semi-open area, using shrubs and trees as cover trying to get into range with the Franken-Ruger. We get into that 80-90 yard range and I set-up and make the shot from the standing position. Thinus was again overjoyed that were able to accomplish the stalk and kill with a revolver. The Springbok was an old man at that, as you can tell a lot of his hide is worn down in areas.
The large male Black Backed Jackal was one of the last animals I took. Since we were not going to do any night hunting for them (Which they do), my expectations were pretty low. We were still hunting on the shore of the river, primarily looking for warthog, and possibly a Kudu. I can't tell you why I wanted a Jackal so bad, but I did. I don't coyote hunt very often here in the states. We had been ever so slowly making our way along the shore, staying close to cover in search of hogs, when I noticed movement-Jackals (Three of them). They were over a 100 yards away and they were hunting. They headed for the edge of water and some grass near the water and some topography his us from their sight. We set up the Bog Gear (standing position) and the Franken-Ruger was ready to roll.
They stayed hidden from our sight, and Thinus asked if I wanted to move closer?
I declined, as I was afraid if we tried to get closer, they would likely pop out of cover and catch us unprepared to shoot, and the opportunity would be lost. We stayed put and waited.
Sure enough one of them came our way and stopped right at 100 yards in some of the green grass that was by the water.
I got as steady as I could and made the shot. One thing I noted is that every time I shot the FR standing with the Bog Gear my shot went a little high and a little left. I do not have this problem sitting or double kneeling.
To be able to do the "sneaky sneak" on a Jackal with a revolver in the daytime was priceless. My first shot was a little left and high and exited right in front of his hindquarter on the opposite side. I did a finisher shot on him. If that hadn't been required I am pretty sure I would have had a shot on a second Jackal, as these guys had no clue we were there.

If I ever get the chance to go back it will be in South Africa. We hunted in Namibia, and they didn't allow handguns. I bought the initial package at a "Whitetails Unlimited" banquet. It was for 2 hunters and 2 observers for 3 days, plus $1,000 for each hunter towards trophy fees. I bid on this and got the package for $1,600.

Of course we added 4 more days of hunting, plus two days in Johannesburg sightseeing and nice restaurants. My total cost including flight, shipping of trophies, taxidermy work and any other essentials was right at $11,000. This was for 6 head of game, including Red Hartebeeste, Impala, Greater Kudu, Springbok, Gemsbok, and my favorite, Warthog.

While not cheap, you can't go to Alaska and hunt brown bear or moose for that. Even a really nice guided elk hunt will run around 6 or 7k not including tags, travel, or taxidermy.

As I said, next time will be in SA, with rifle and handgun, and I would probably settle for "Kodak Moments" vs taxidermy.