For members of the single actions forum, I'm sorry for the repeat of my 2015 South African hunting report. I wanted to share the hunt report with the members here as well.
I was fortunate enough to return to Africa this year and once again I hunted with Andrew Renton of Kei River Safaris. My weapon of choice for this hunt was my Ultradot equipped 454 Super Redhawk carried in a Barranti Custom Leather holster. The first animal that we targeted was eland and we played cat and mouse with a group of three bulls for 2 1/2 days. Day three was a miserable hunting day complete with wind, fog, and rain.
We located the group of eland bulls in the afternoon and began stalking them during the intermittent periods of fog and rain. Incredibly, as we stalked the eland, this troop of baboons allowed us to pass within 100 yards and didn't spook too badly, allowing us to continue to approach the eland.
The baboons seemed to know that I had a short gun and that they weren't being targeted. We were able to get to 130 yards of the eland before they spotted us and got ready to bolt. This was outside of my comfort zone but I was setup on my Bog Pod PSR and the red dot was steady, high on the largest bull's right shoulder to allow for bullet drop, so I squeezed off a shot. The bull reacted well to the shot, almost giving a mule kick as the 325 grain A-Frame rocked him hard. All three eland then traveled single file down the mountain and were swallowed up by the fog.
Given the eland's favorable reaction to the shot, both Andrew and I felt comfortable that we would soon find the eland. Two hours and about a mile of tracking later, we weren't so sure. Darkness was setting in so we decided to back out and resume the search the following day. After a long sleepless night, we set out to find the eland. Andrew had a suppressed 300 Win Mag rifle and I was carrying a 375 JDJ that I had borrowed from my buddy Zeus, since that gun would allow me to make longer shots than the revolver. Our tracker, Sutu, spotted a group of four eland bulls high on the side of a mountain. As we examined the group of bulls, we soon discovered a bullet hole along with smeared blood, low on one of the bulls' right shoulder and we knew that we had found my bull. Unfortunately, we were only able to get to 300 yards from the eland and Andrew made a great shot on the running eland, hitting the eland in the neck which finished off the wounded animal.
I was at my lowest of lows. It was a feeling that I detest, screwing up a shot on such a magnificent animal, causing unnecessary suffering but I was very thankful that the ordeal was over. As we examined the point of impact of my bullet, we were all amazed that the eland was able to survive. These are incredibly tough animals.
After the eland was retrieved, we continued to hunt gemsbok on the property for a couple more days but getting within revolver range proved to be quite difficult on this property due to the thickness of the brush. There were so many animals on the property, it was difficult to stalk an animal without spooking other animals between you and the animal that you were stalking! Since we were burning hunting days rapidly, we decided to abandon the gemsbok hunt and move to an area a couple of hours away that was more open with broken cover to allow for quieter stalks. It was hard to leave the property since we were seeing so much game. In addition to eland and gemsbok, we saw impala, springbok, hartebeest, wildebeest, warthog, mountain reedbuck, kudu, nyala, waterbuck, and a small herd of these:
After we said goodbye to our wonderful hosts we headed out for our next destination. I had hunted the property two years ago; it is the property where I shot my kudu with my Freedom Arms 454. This is a free-range property and I wanted to hunt targets of opportunity instead of focusing on any particular species. There were kudu, nyala, impala, warthog, duiker, and blesbok on the property among other species.
The first shooter that we encountered was an impala ram. We approached to about 70 yards of the ram and Andrew set up my Bog Pod PSR. I got set up on the sticks and put a 325 grain A-Frame high into the impalas left shoulder as he quartered to me at a steep angle. The shot broke the shoulder and the impala ran in a semicircle and expired quickly.
After the impala was loaded into the Toyota, Andrew wanted to check out a spot where a group of blesbok were known to hang out. It didn't take long after arriving at the area to spot a group of males lying in the tall grass. We used a bush to hide our approach and Andrew set up the sticks at about 65 yards from the bedded blesbok. I got on the sticks and Andrew whistled in order to get the blesbok to stand. This worked as planned and Andrew told me which animal to take. I steadied the red dot as best I could on the blesbok's left shoulder and sent a 325 grain A-Frame on the way. The blesbok ran for about 30-40 yards and expired.
On day 8 of the 9 day hunt, we spotted a male warthog in a clearing while driving into the hunting area. Andrew drove the vehicle past the clearing out of sight of the warthog, killed the engine, and let the vehicle roll to a stop. He grabbed the sticks and we made our way back to the clearing. The warthog was still there, unaware of our presence. Andrew set up the sticks and I prepared for the 93 yard shot. The warthog was standing at the edge of the wood-line of the clearing, quartering away hard and I put the red dot on his left side between his front and rear legs. At the shot, the warthog ran a few yards into the cover at the edge of the field. Andrew and I ran toward the wood-line and approached the area where the bushes were shaking from the dying warthog. Not wanting to take any chances, I put another A-Frame into the warthogs spine.
Later that morning, Andrew spotted an nyala bull from the vehicle so we stopped and glassed the bull from a distance. Eventually another nyala bull came into the clearing, then another, then another! Andrew wanted to try to take the largest bull so we set out after them on foot. We were about 130 yards from the the group of bulls when all of a sudden the wind shifted making the nyala very nervous. They walked straight away from us, up over the ridge, and out of sight. Andrew didn't think that they weren't spooked badly so we circled around to the left of the area we thought they would be and attempted to get in front of them. After glassing the area for awhile, Andrew made an amazing spot on an nyala bull standing in the shade under a tree. As we continued to watch the nyala, another bull revealed himself as well. It was apparent that this was the group of bulls that we were after so we attempted to get closer to them. I was setup on the sticks about 100 yards away from the group when all of a sudden the largest bull in the group stepped into the clearing. He was walking so Andrew stopped him with a whistle and I squeezed off a shot.
The nyala reacted well to the shot, his front legs weren't working well as he ran about 20 yards out of sight into the brush along with the rest of the group. Andrew radioed Sutu and asked him to bring the vehicle to us. While we were waiting on Sutu, we continued to watch the area where the nyala had just been when Andrew spotted an nyala bull that was feeding. What the heck? I had just shot an nyala bull and now there is one feeding only 30 yards or so away from where we had shot him? We weren't sure what was going on, so to be safe Andrew sent Sutu and his tracking dog "Z" into the bush after the nyala. Once Sutu turned Z loose, nyala scattered in all directions. Amazingly, he zeroed in on my bull and he bayed him in a log jam almost immediately. Sutu and I approached the wounded animal and I was wound tight, ready to shoot. Sutu is a man of few words but he said "wait". He needed to verify that this was indeed the wounded bull and once he got verification he said "OK". I sent another A Frame into the nyalas left shoulder while he faced us from only a few yards away. This time he dropped at the shot.
I was amazed with Z and the job that he had done. My first shot had hit the nyala low in the chest in the crease of the left shoulder. I didn't see how the nyala managed to stay on his feet and I gained even more respect for the tenacity of African game.
Andrew and I spent our last hunting day hoping to capitalize on a kudu, warthog, duiker, or whatever presented us with a shot opportunity. Unfortunately the game animals didn't cooperate and my time in Africa came to an end. I had a wonderful adventure with Kei River Safaris and I hope to hunt with them again someday, hopefully soon!
