Guys,

After traveling for the past 30 hours, I just returned from my first hunting trip to South Africa. It was an awesome experience.

I'm so tired that I can hardly put two sentences together right now but I put up a few photos on the bragging board. I will add more details/pics later. Hope you enjoy them.

Glad you made it home safe, sound, and successful Darrell!

Holy cow!! I posted the "welcome home", before I peeped the pictures. Now them's some big ol critters!! Congrats on another awesome adventure, but you better give us some details after you get rested a bit.

Check your PMs, Darrell!

Rest up, we will be waiting for details

Impatiently!

Congratulations. The Lord has truly blessed you.

Darrell, You did it in style with your handguns....Congratulations

A big congrats Darrell! Well done! Great animals and I can't wait to hear the details. Glad you had a successful/fun hunt.

Darrell. Fantastic effort and memories to last a lifetime. Congratulations.

Congrats awesome buffalo and bushbuck - two of my favorites.

Great photos. Congrats.

Love the pics and can't wait for the stories! Huge congrats! reflex264

Wow, the pics are fantastic. Looks like a very successful hunt. Congrats!

How awesome. I hope we could be so good in a few weeks

Thanks for all of the kind words guys, it was an awesome trip albeit way too short!

I began planning my first trip to Africa in 2011. I sought the advice of Handgun Hunter board members who had previously hunted Africa for outfitter recommendations and I received some great suggestions. After completing my research of outfitters, I made the decision to go with Andrew Renton of Kei River Safaris and booked the hunt through Wade Derby of Crosshair Consulting. Wade proved to be a tremendous resource for all of my "newbie" questions and the hunt and travel went very smoothly as a result of his advice. My main objective was to hunt cape buffalo and if successful I also wanted to hunt a few other species as well including kudu, warthog, bushbuck, and zebra.

After 1 1/2 days of travel, my wife Jennifer and I were picked up at the East London airport by Andrew Renton and his lovely wife Sharyn. We finally arrived at Kei River's hunting lodge mid-afternoon:


After getting settled into our room, Andrew took me to the shooting range to make sure that my handguns and optics had remained sighted in during my journey. My guns had survived the trip quite nicely and I had to make no sight adjustments.

I planned to hunt the buffalo with my 6" Freedom Arms 475 Linebaugh revolver loaded with a handload consisting of 400 grain WFN bullets over 24 grains of 2400 which produced a velocity of 1325 fps. For all other species, I planned to use my 6" Freedom Arms .454 Casull revolver loaded with 325 grain Swift A-Frames over a maximum charge of 296 which left the gun at 1400 fps. I also took some 335 grain WFN cast/W296 handloads which shot to the same point of impact as the 325 grain A-Frames in my .454. My plan was to take two revolvers/loads which would be "interchangeable" in the case of equipment failure and could be used on any species that I had planned to hunt.

After the range session, we still had a couple of hours of daylight, Andrew suggested that we do some glassing to see if we could spot game. After driving a short distance from the range, we got out and began glassing a huge drainage and spotted a small warthog and a troop of baboons but nothing on the “hit list”.

Andrew suggested that we walk to another area that warthogs frequented so I took along my 454 Casull. After waiting on stand about a half hour or so, a group of impala began entering the area. Andrew setup my Bog Pod shooting sticks equipped with their PSR shooting rest and I wondered what he was doing since impala weren’t on the hit list. He asked if I would like to take a female impala free of charge for the pot and I said “sure!" and got set up on the sticks. All of a sudden a ram began chasing the females through the trees and there were impala running everywhere back and forth in front of me. Andrew studied the ram a few seconds and told me to take the ram if it presented a shot since one of its horns had broken off slightly. Unfortunately, the ram wouldn’t stop chasing females and he disappeared behind a clump of bushes to my right. Since we were literally surrounded by impala there was no way that I could swing around and wait for him to emerge from the bushes. Andrew had me line up on a female in front of us and he whispered “85 yards”. I was able to settle the Trijicon RMR dot on its right front shoulder and squeeze off the shot. The impala jumped straight up in the air and ran in a semicircle back in the bush for about 40 yards. The bullet had center punched the shoulder and exited on the opposite side. I had my first ever African animal on the ground.


To be continued...

This better not be in weekly installments Darrell!! Not like a tv show! Lol. I'm looking forward to reading about the rest of your safari. Congrats again on a great looking hunt.

I shoulda sold that "extra" kidney and gone along as planned!

Can you get enough for a kidney to cover an African safari? If so, is there a doctor in the house?.................

Nice pics. Great Kudu, always wanted one of those.

After loading the impala in the Land Cruiser we headed back to the lodge. Andrew and I discussed the plan for the following day over dinner. I really wanted to go after buffalo but Andrew suggested that we hunt kudu on his property since the weather forecast called for rain/fog and the buffalo hunting area was 1.5 hours to the north at a much higher elevation.

The next morning, we drove to the ridge across the drainage that we had glassed the prior evening. The plan was for Andrew's hunting partner and tracker "Sutu" to glass one side of the ridge and Andrew and I would glass the other. We spotted several female kudu and bushbuck as well as one small bushbuck ram before rain and fog set in around 10:00 a.m. which made glassing impossible.

We headed back to the lodge for brunch and the rain subsided somewhat afterwards. In order to hopefully get below the fog, Andrew suggested that we head to an area on the Kei River that had recently been cleared for the afternoon/evening hunt. A group of female kudu and a nice bull had been seen regularly coming into the clearing just before dark to feed on the new growth from native saplings and grasses.

After arriving in the area, Sutu climbed up into the seat in the back of the Land Cruiser and spotted a group of kudu cows about halfway up the mountain which rose from the valley floor as Andrew drove slowly up the river bottom. Andrew continued driving past the group of kudu until he could park the Land Cruiser out of sight of them. We began thoroughly glassing the area and several small groups of kudu were spotted.

After awhile, Sutu spotted a kudu bull and Andrew studied it carefully. He said that it was an average bull but it had reached its potential and that we could make a go for it if I wanted to. I did! All of the kudu were slowly moving away from us along the hillside. We were able to get directly below the bull but a stalk up the mountain to get closer was impossible due to the thick brush and the number of kudu eyes/ears between us and the bull. The bull was only 248 yards away; well within rifle range but all I had was a 6" revolver. We had no choice but to wait and see if the kudu would work their way down the mountain to the clearing at last light and hopefully get a shot.

The group of kudu, including the bull, finally began slowly working their way down the mountain to feed on the succulent growth just before nightfall. They were coming down the mountain angling away from us and would enter the clearing too far away for a revolver shot if they stayed on their present course. With the bull leading the way, one by one the kudu entered the thick brush between us and them. Once the last kudu dropped out of sight we made our move.

We ran up the valley and setup in some brush in the area where we hoped the kudu would emerge. After a few moments, we looked to our left and a group of kudu was standing where we had just been! The bull wasn't among them and after awhile the group of cows began walking in our direction. Another group of kudu cows entered the clearing to our right and began to feed.

There was a patch of brush between us and the kudu approaching from our left and as the last cow emerged from the patch of brush the bull was bringing up the rear! He stopped directly in front of me at 94 yards but I didn't have a clear view of him and it was getting dark rapidly. He continued walking to my right as the two groups of kudu became one. The kudu were getting nervous and were beginning to look in our direction. The bull stopped and looked at us and I had the 454 Casull on the sticks, ready to go as soon as he presented me with a shot. After a brief moment, he turned broadside to face the cows and stopped. It was now or never.

I squeezed off the shot and the bull stumbled, regained his footing, and began running up the hillside along with all of the other kudu in the clearing. Andrew informed me that the bull had been standing at 126 yards and that it looked like a good hit. We listened for a moment and heard what Andrew said was the bull crashing.

Andrew radioed Sutu, who had been stationed at the Land Cruiser watching the mountainside from a different angle, and asked him to bring the vehicle and "Gotcha" (Andrew's tracking dog) to begin searching for the kudu. After they arrived, we walked a few yards into the brush and Sutu spotted the bull lying on his side. He had run about 125 yards from where I shot him. The bullet had entered the bull's right shoulder and exited behind his left shoulder.





Andrew phoned his cousin, who owned the property on which we were hunting, to ask for help retrieving/loading the kudu. Several of the farm workers came to drag the kudu down the mountain and load him on the truck:



This was a very challenging and exciting hunt and I was thrilled with my kudu.

If you've read this up to this point, thanks for hanging in there with me! More details to follow...

Awesome, great trip, very inspiring.

congrats cant wait to hear the rest

Thanks guys! Sorry for being so wordy. I'm killing two birds with one stone here; sharing my hunt with you guys and documenting the hunt so that I'll be able to remember the details years from now.

The weather gave us a break on the following morning and we finally headed north for buffalo. Andrew and I strategized during the the 1 1/2 hour journey. Andrew wanted to approach the buffalo without being seen because he said "if he sees you he will either spin around and glare at you or run off." He didn't like the direct frontal shot because of the penetration requirements of the shot. He asked how my 475 would penetrate and I told him that the 475 Linebaugh has an excellent reputation for penetration and that it actually out-penetrates many rifles. He said "that's great, how many animals have you shot with it?" I said "zero". I don't think that was the answer he was looking for and he said "let's try to get you a broadside shot."

Andrew informed me that there were two old bulls that were hanging out together separate from the main herd and they were the bulls that we were targeting. The remainder of the bulls were still with the herd and had not yet reached their potential. Andrew said that when we found the pair of bulls we would evaluate them and decide which one to go after. He asked what I was looking for in a buffalo and I informed him that I just wanted to take a mature animal with my 6" handgun; I wasn't picky!

When we arrived at the property, another tracker (whose name I don't know) joined us and both Sutu and he climbed up in the back of the Land Cruiser. We set out to begin searching for the pair of bulls. The trackers spotted one of the bulls lying in the shade by himself. We searched around the area but couldn't find the other bull. Andrew said "that's a good bull, what do you want to do? Do you want to have a go at this one or look for the other one first?" I had always heard a bull in hand is better than one in the bush so I said "let's go for it!"

Since he was lying down, Andrew sent the trackers around to approach the buffalo slowly, directly from the front. He hoped that the buff would stand and threaten for awhile without crashing off and would be distracted so that we could approach him from the side. Amazingly, this worked just as planned and the buffalo stood up and glared at the trackers. Andrew and I were able to move into position and I got set up on the shooting sticks on the buff's left side only 30 yards away. Unfortunately, his shoulder was behind a bush so I had to wait until he presented me with a clear shot. This was probably a good thing as it gave me an opportunity to get my nerves and breathing under control.

After what seemed like an eternity, as the buff continued to glare menacingly at the trackers, he finally inched forward enough to allow me a "quartering to" shot. Andrew whispered in my ear "do you see that crescent shaped scar on his shoulder?" I nodded. He said "put the bullet at the very lower right-hand end of that scar." The Ultradot settled at the edge of the scar and I squeezed off the shot.

The shot broke the buff's left shoulder and he spun to his right and hobbled off in a stiff-legged gait. We moved quickly to our left and found that the bull had merely gone out of sight, turned 180 degrees, and just stood there with his right side exposed. He appeared to be very sick. Again, the sticks came out and Andrew instructed me where to place my shot. Amazingly, he showed little to no reaction to the shot and made only a step or two forward. I fired two more shots into the chest/shoulder area and incredibly he just stood there soaking them up, taking only a step or two with each shot. He was very sick.

After what seemed like an eternity, he finally laid down on his left side. Andrew pointed out a spot in the bush where the buff's spine was exposed and he had me place a round through the spine for insurance. After the buff stopped moving completely, Andrew cautiously approached the downed buffalo with his .458 Lott loaded with 500 grain solids. If the buff moved, he would fire a solid forward into the chest from the back of rhe ribcage. He gave the buff a couple of hard kicks to the pelvis and the buff showed no reaction. He was finished.

The buff had traveled only 10 yards or so from where he had been shot but it had taken him a long time to realize that he was dead! After we collected our wits, Andrew wanted to winch the buffalo into a better area for photos and for loading on the back of the Land Cruiser.









After taking many photos with me and the crew, Andrew had me position the head of the buffalo so that he could snap a photo that showed the mass of the boss:


After the photos were made, it was time to load the buff in the back of the Land Cruiser. In order to make for easier winching, the contents of the buff's stomach were removed. I asked why they were not simply gutting the animal in the field and I was informed that the staff wanted to keep the entrails for eating!





We transported the buff to the skinning shed on the property where he was skinned, caped, and butchered. We headed back toward the lodge with the horns and cape and one buffalo filet for the following evening's meal. I was informed that the reminder of the meat would be sold to a local butcher. I plan to have a European mount of the skull and Andrew wanted the cape.

I reflected on what I had experienced on the drive back to the lodge and I was amazed at what I had witnessed. I would never have believed that a buffalo could soak up hits from the 475 Linebaugh at that range like he did if I hadn't seen it with my own eyes. These animals are incredibly tough and have my utmost respect!

To be continued...

Awesome read Darrell, apparently your writing skill is on par with your hunting skill.

Thanks Boot, I'm no writer but I'm still on South African time and can't sleep. I thought that I'd make use of the time and write down a few details.

I'll wind this thing up shortly...hope you're enjoying it.

All of that is so awesome.
Africa is on my bucket list.
I am very happy for you.

Fantastic trip and story Darrell! Keep it coming...

Let's see, by SA time you should have just finished lunch.

Wonder if the folks at work will be horrified if you have a "sundowner" or two today at lunchtime?

Tell them you're just readjusting.

I hope this is just part one in a series, with part two on bullets and three on optics ;^) You have just lived what many of us will never experience. And I would love to hear more about the guide, and handguns. It sounds like maybe he did not have a lot of expereince with handgunners, but you were honest with him, and that he made sound decisions/adjustments. Thank you for sharing this with us.

Craig

Simply awesome, Darrell!

Wow, I'm sitting in the hospital with my wife who just had surgery. I just read this to her. She spent several years in Africa when she was a young girl. It has been our dream to go to Africa with the whole family. Darrel, your story may be the catalyst for our trip. Thanks. Awesome story.

cfish2, I hope that your wife has a speedy recovery and that your dream of taking the whole family to Africa becomes reality very soon!

On the following morning, it was decided that we would stay on Andrew's property and hunt bushbuck and warthog. We began at the top of the mountain and worked our way down toward the Kei River, stopping to glass as we worked our way down. We saw female kudu and bushbuck and a couple of medium-sized warthogs that morning but nothing that Andrew wanted me to pursue. I snapped a couple of photos of the Kei River to help preserve the memory of this beautiful country:


Just as we were leaving the area we saw a small bushbuck ram just to the left of the rock cliffs in the photo above.

At mid-day, we drove out of the river bottom and headed back to the area that I had shot the female impala on the first day to sit and glass. On the way out we saw another small bushbuck ram with a female. After arriving at the area near the shooting range where I had shot the impala, we began glassing the huge drainage. We saw three different troops of baboons and a large herd of impala. As evening approached, we once again went back to the area that we had hunted during the morning and saw only one female bushbuck. We called it a day.

The following morning, Andrew decided to target warthog on a neighboring piece of property farther up the Kei River. We spotted a group of about 10-12 warthogs and there was one male in the group that Andrew wanted to get a closer look at. We stalked closer but by the time we got to the warthogs the male had vanished. We did manage to snap a photo of this pretty young lady and her children:


We pressed onward, once again descending to the Kei River stopping to glass for warthogs along the way. We spotted several warthogs (no shooters), a troop of baboons, and a herd of female kudu. Andrew had seen a huge male warthog in this area on a couple of previous kudu hunts so he wanted to stake the place out for awhile to see if he would show. Unfortunately, he never showed up so we decided to leave that area and hunt yet another piece of property for bushbuck for the evening's hunt.

And????

And then...

Once we arrived at our destination there was a group of bushbuck already out in the open feeding. There were three rams in the group (including one shooter) and several females. We parked the Land Cruiser and immediately began stalking the ram. We were using grass, brush, and terrain to hide our movements as we stalked. Just as we were closing the gap to get a visual on the feeding bushbuck, we heard a noise in the long grass to our right. It was a female bushbuck bounding back and forth so we froze! All of a sudden the ram that we were stalking ran right out in front of us and stopped and stared. We were caught completely off guard. Although I had my revolver in my hand and he was a mere twenty yards away, there was no way that I would be able to "quick draw" him. He made a barking noise and both he and the female disappeared in the grass and thick brush.

We sulked back to the Land Cruiser with our lips pooched and moved it to a location that would allow for a better view of the property and began glassing. We noticed that only the shooter ram and the female that he was chasing had left the clearing, all of the other bushbuck were still feeding. A group of blesbok also filtered into the clearing joining the feeding bushbuck.

Just before nightfall, the shooter ram once again entered the clearing, once again we stalked him, and once again we got busted. He refused to stand still long enough for a stalk as he was continually chasing the female. Andrew didn't think that we had spooked him too badly and said that we should come back for him the next morning at first light.

Darrell.....you're killing us.....!

Darrel, wife's fine and we enjoyed the hunt vicariously.

I am enjoying every minute of it. Several years ago I was to be the first handgun hunter that Caracal Safaris had ever guided. Two months before the trip I was hit with a life threatening desease that nearly got me. Still haven't made it to Africa but right now I will do it vicariously through you! Please tell us more. reflex264

Darrell, congratulations on this achievement. Thank you for your trust and for allowing me to play a small roll in the making of some fond memories of Africa. Welcome back! Wade

Thanks again for all of the congrats guys!

cfish2, glad your wife is doing great and I'm glad that you enjoyed the story up to this point.

Wade, thank you for all of your help...we had had an AWESOME time!

I'll wrap this thing up here:

The final day of my hunt had arrived and I still lacked bushbuck, warthog, and zebra. We left the lodge early and headed toward the same property that we hunted the evening before in hopes of finding the nice bushbuck ram that had eluded us twice already. We arrived at the hunting area just as it was beginning to get light enough to see without a “torch” (a.k.a. flashlight). We began glassing the clearing and several bushbuck were out feeding in the open. A ram was spotted and Andrew thought that it was our shooter ram so once again the stalk was on. The stalk went perfectly, we were able to approach within 50 yards of the ram and he never knew that we were anywhere around. Andrew studied him carefully with his binoculars since it was now lighter than when we had left the Land Cruiser. He motioned for me to back off. Unfortunately, it was the smaller ram and the larger ram was nowhere to be found.

We slipped back to the Land Cruiser where we continued to glass as the sun arose but unfortunately the shooter ram never revealed himself. We drove all over the property, stopping to glass all of the nooks and crannies where Andrew had previously found bushbuck in but we only saw one additional female. Around 10:00 a.m. Andrew decided to head to yet another property on the Kei River that he had access to in order to hunt warthog in the mid-day hours and return in the evening to hunt the bushbuck once more.

We arrived at the property and drove slowly down a road that descended to the Kei River. Andrew knew just where to look for warthogs and it wasn’t long before he spotted a small group consisting of two nice boars and several females and “squealers” in the drainage to our left about 200 yards below the road. The wind wasn’t favorable for stalking these two boars and he informed me that we should continue to an area near the river since there should be pigs out feeding there as well and we would have a more favorable wind. If that didn’t work out, we could come back and make a go for these two pigs.

We parked the Land Cruiser out of sight of the group of warthogs and set out on foot toward the river. Andrew’s hunch was correct, at a clearing just before reaching the river there were pigs feeding everywhere. We glassed for a while and found a boar in the group, similar in size to the two that we had previously seen. We were not yet in revolver range, so we carefully stalked closer. We got the sticks set up behind a bush for cover and we had the boar at about 85 yards. Everything was going as planned but the boar was heading behind a bush. I got the sticks adjusted for the shot, put in my earplugs, brought the hammer back on the 454 and waited for him to step out from behind the bush. All of a sudden I felt a slight breeze on the back of my neck and warthogs scattered everywhere.

We were disappointed to say the least but at least we had the other two warthogs back up the road to pursue. Unfortunately, the only pigs in that group that we found were a female warthog and three young pigs. Luck was not on our side with warthogs that day and it was about to get worse.

We planned to go back to the lodge for lunch, see if we could find the zebra that we had been seeing all week, and then come back immediately after lunch to see if the warthogs had settled down. However, as we began our ascent out of the river bottom, the Land Cruiser began spinning. Andrew checked to make sure that he had the four-wheel drive engaged and found that it was. What the heck? We had lost four-wheel drive capability and we had a lot of steep, rocky ground in front of us in order to get out of the river valley. We winched the Land Cruiser until we came to a flatter area where Andrew was able to get up some speed. Once he got going he told me to “hold on” and remarkably we were able to make it out of the river bottom; albeit at a high rate of speed.

Losing four-wheel drive capability meant that warthog hunting was officially over but at least we could still hunt zebra and bushbuck. We arrived at Andrew’s property and located the zebra with our binoculars standing with a herd of impala. We parked the Land Cruiser about 200 yards away from the zebra in the bush and began our stalk. We closed the distance to about 100 yards but the zebra was on edge. As we were trying to get setup for a shot, he picked up our movement and bolted and ran about 100 yards. Now he was really on edge. Once again we tried to get within revolver range and once again he made us out and completely exited the area. Our luck was not going so good.

We went back to the lodge for lunch and once again set out to hunt bushbuck in the same area where we had been seeing the nice ram. Upon arriving at the area there were several bushbuck feeding in the clearing including the small ram that we had stalked earlier that morning. Across the highway, on the other half of the property, we saw a group of about ten bushbuck including three rams.

Our binoculars bounced back and forth between the two groups of bushbuck when all of a sudden we spotted the nice ram in the same clearing where we had stalked him twice before. Once again Andrew and I set out after him with Sutu remaining at the vehicle to keep an eye on the big picture since Andrew and I would have to drop out of sight of the bushbuck in order to stalk them within range of my revolver. As we closed the gap, Andrew set my shooting sticks at a height which would require shooting off of my knees so that we could remain concealed in the tall grass. We got the sticks set up and Andrew quietly pulled all of the grass and twigs out of the way so that I would have a clear shot at the bushbuck ram that was feeding only 70 yards away. I pulled the hammer back, let the dot settle just behind his left shoulder, and squeezed off the shot. When the gun recoiled the bushbuck traveled three feet straight down!



This was truly a hard-fought battle. What a perfect way to end the hunt of a lifetime!

My wife and I had a wonderful time with the Renton family. Andrew, Sharyn, Cameron, and Tayla Jane are wonderful hosts and I can’t thank them enough for providing me with a lifetime of memories!

Simply wonderful! Thank you for sharing the details of your hun, Darrell!