Africa 2.0

Hopeful, needed to par down the trip to a full week of hunting plus about 4days travel. Had planned on at least 10 days hunting. Still grateful I'm able to go. Last time I was unable to report from RSA. Perhaps that has changed.
 
SJB358 said:
Great shooting. 560 is some great stuff!
Click to expand...
I’ve gotten some pretty high speeds 3100 and change at 64000 psi. According to Dr. Mikes projections. But started getting some extraction problems with the #1 at those speeds. The difference in recoil, 3000 to 3100 was surprisingly noticeable. :)
 
salmonchaser said:
Hopeful, needed to par down the trip to a full week of hunting plus about 4days travel. Had planned on at least 10 days hunting. Still grateful I'm able to go. Last time I was unable to report from RSA. Perhaps that has changed.
Click to expand...
Nice shooting!
Best of luck on your adventure!
I look forward to hearing of it, and seeing your photos!

We hope to get to the range for a little trigger practice before our trip, as our range has been inaccessible due to snow and ice for a while.
We will be flying out of Edmonton on May 10th, and return on May 22nd. Arriving Jo'burg late May 11th and departing late May 21.
(9 days of hunting for Susan and I.
I'll be reporting on the trip a few days after I get home, as I must travel for work immediately upon my return to Canada.

Safe travels!
 
Well, Susan and I finally made it back to Canada yesterday!

A little extra unplanned adventure on our trip resulted in 5 weeks in the hospital in Bloemfontein, South Africa. (Motor vehicle accident while hunting on our last day of the trip. Thank God for keeping us from being more seriously injured, and having travel insurance!)
We are recovering from our injuries, and are in hospital in Dawson Creek for a bit yet while our doctors and physiotherapists perform their assessments, develop the recovery plans for us, and get us back to good health. It is really good to be back, closer to home, family and friends!

I will share more information about our hunt and the accident tomorrow.
(We had experienced 7 great days of hunting, and time with the outfitter, PH;s, staff and other hunters in camp, with Susan getting her white blesbok about an hour before the accident.

But wanted to take a quick moment thank everyone for their prayers and well wishes that DrMike reported back to us over the past few weeks!
 
Glad you are back closer to home, family, and friends. Wishing you both a full and speedy recovery.
 
Gil
So glad to hear that you and Susan are back home. Prayers to the both of you for a speedy and full recovery.

JD338
 
So we began our trip to Koranna Mountain Safaris on May 9th, driving from our home in NE BC, to my daughter's just outside Edmonton, Alberta. (8 hour drive)
We boarded the first leg of the flight at noon (Edmonton to Calgary) and then flew to Amsterdam via KLM airways. (over 9 hours between the 2 flights)
A short layover and we were off to Johannesburg and arrived just before midnight on May 11th. (over 10.5 hours)
We spent the night in Jo'Burg and were picked up by the Outfitter's son and PH, Haardus, the next morning after breakfast and made the 4.5 hour drive to the lodge in the Free State province, near Excelsior.

We started to see game as we got closer to the Lodge, including: ostrich, blesbok (common, white and copper), springbok (common, white, black, and copper), wildebeest (black and golden), sable, gemsbok (common and golden), red lechwe, eland, kudu, fallow deer, giraffe, lions, red hartebeest, and the little yellow mongoose (very cute, and fast!).

The sunset as we arrived was beautiful:

SA 2.0 Koranna Mtn Subset 2.jpeg
 
Our first day hunting included the trip to the range where we sighted in Haardus' LH Rem 700 in 308 Win for Susan to use on her hunt. As I would be hunting different animals in different locations, I sighted in the RH Sako AV in 270 Win.

We drove around mostly the first day scouting for our targeted species (me: eland, springbok, and red lechwe, and for Susa; black wildebeest and white blesbok). We did leave Susan in the Land Cruiser for a bit, being entertained by 4 giraffes, while the PHs and I hiked up the mountain a ways looking for eland. At first we saw a very nice waterbuck at about 230 yards, but he was not on my list; was still nice to see. We finally found the eland herd, but never did see the big bull known to be with them.
We saw lots of game (waterbuck, bontebok, warthog, scimitar horned oryx, tsessebee, blue wildebeest, baboons, black impala, and aoudad) and some really nice rams and bulls, but no shot opportunities really presented themselves, as we sorted through the herds to pick out the best animals of the correct species (e.g. the black wildebeest herds included a couple of King's bulls that were off-limits due to their breeding program and they wanted us to be aware of what to look for when identifying these particular bulls). After a few hours of scouting the two main herds, we had a good idea of the bull for Susan, and found a nice big bush by an old water tank where they would make a ground blind for Susan and her PH Eannis to sit in, not far from where the one targeted herd seemed to prefer to bed. There was a permanent ground blind in the area, but was a little far out from where the herd was bedding midday. We prepared the ground blind of rocks, and brushed it in so that they were virtually undetectable in the bush from any direction, for them to sit in the next day. We also checked on other ground blinds at a nearby waterholes to ensure that it wasn't flooded, and to clean it out of any unwanted snakes and spiders, for an alternate for Susan if needed. WE added fresh salt blocks near these ground blinds.

Susan and Eannis sat in the bush blind the next morning, and the herd bedded just at the edge of her comfortable shooting distance. They waited a few hours while the herd was bedded, and the targeted bull just did not present a shot opportunity. They were entertained in the blind by visits from the local yellow mongooses, guinea fowl, springbok and warthogs, yet remained undetected. When the targeted bull finally presented a shot opportunity, being on the far side of the herd, Susan had a clean miss.
Susan and Eannis sat in one of the waterhole ground blinds for the afternoon hunt, and were entertained by Egyptian geese, a herd of red lechwe and blue wildebeest.

I went with my PH and saw lots of other game, including a nice herd of cape buffalo, with a very nice herd bull!
I did make 3 stalks on red lechwe, but never did get a good shot opportunity on the targeted ram, with black on his chest and legs. Lots of fun!

The next morning Susan and Eannis were back in the bush blind, and the herd bedded on the other side of the blind, within shooting range. The springbok and wart hogs entertained them while the black wildebeest slept through the late morning. Unfortunately, they did not get any shot opportunities. They sat in the waterhole ground blind again in the afternoon, until a couple of large spiders made their presence known and Susan decided it was time to leave!

Finally, the targeted bull provided Susan with a shot opportunity at 150 yards from the bush blind on the third morning. She hit it a little low in the shoulder and it ran off with another bull, while the remainder of the herd went in another direction. We came to assist in tracking, and once we located the bull with some other animals about a mile away, it led us on a merry chase of about 3 miles until we were able to finish it, approximately 200 yards from where it was first shot!
SA 2.0 Susan's Black Wildebeest 2.jpegSA 2.0 Susan's Black Wildebeest 4.jpeg
 
It was on the third day of our hunt when i finally got some shot opportunities!
but I must be honest, I wasn't worried or frustrated as we were having aa great time seeing lots of game, seeing some great country, and enjoying or time with the PHs and other hunters in camp (a father/son from Edmonton who were having a great adventure and collecting some nice animals...not to mention a few run ins with cobras that we were most glad to not have had those encounters!)

The animals we saw on the third day included: roan, common reedbuck, Kings springbok, Hartmann's zebra, Burchell's zebra, and gray duiker. I got stalks in on bontebok, springbok, and red lechwe.
As they had not seen or shot a bushbuck on their, or their neighbouring concessions, in more than 20 years, I opted to go for a bontebok, as they were very striking with the distinct coat colouring. While we had seen these in the eastern cape, we had not gotten close, and the sun shining on their shining coats was very beautiful. I had also read on the conservation success story after our last safari, so was excited for this new opportunity!

We travelled to a neighbouring concession for the bontebok hunt, which as cool, as we got to see the lions (breeding program along the way at another neighbouring concession) and their roan and other antelope species.
We were able to get within 225 yards of a nice bontebok ram, and I made the shot of the shooting sticks. UNfortunately, the ram turned as the trigger broke and I hit it in the guts instead of on the shoulder as intended. I rushed my next two shots and made clean misses. The ram only travelled a little ways and bedded down. But he would not stay bedded, and kept getting up and moving, and rebedding over the next half hour. We did not want to push him in case he tried to stay with the rest of the herd. He finally moved into a little patch of trees in the middle of the plain and bedded down where we could no longer see his head. We were moving around on the trail to get closer and to the side of the brush patch, when he appeared out of it and stopped, and I was able to make a clean shot to end hiss suffering. He is a beautiful ram, with a great coat and nice black horns. Look forward to having his flat skin home later!

SA 2.0 Bontebok 3.jpg
 
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And a little later on that third day, we went looking for my copper and black springbok.

We tried an area on the main concession that had a couple of herds of springbok, including black, copper, white and common colour varieties.
We snuck along the creek bed for a ways to keep out of sight from the various other herds of game or single animals (gemsbok, blesbok, eland, waterbuck, etc.), and popped up from time to time to scan the surrounding bush and open arears. We ran into a young eland bull feeding on a tree in the creekbed at about 80 yards and got to watch him fee for awhile before he noticed us. Their alarm bark is very coarse and guttural! He wasn't overly spooked and kept stopping to look back at us, or come back to check on us, trying to figure us out. Was a cool experience!

Finally, we spotted one of the groups of springbok that included both black and copper rams, and we moved through the brush to get closer and look for a good ram of either colour. After a bit of maneuvering, keeping to the shadows and with the wind in our favour, we were 160 yards from two rams; a black and a copper! Setting up on the sticks, Deon told me to take which ever gave me a broadside shot, as both the black and copper were good rams, feeding side by side. I waited as they fed, and finally the black one presented at quartering to presentation. Deon gave me the go ahead to take the shot, and the herd exploded at the sound of the rifle. The black ram was hard hit and couldn't quite keep up with the rest as they ran off about 80 yards into some other bush across the opening. The black did not come out the other side. We slowly approached the bush with me ready for him should he jump up and take off after the herd, which he did. Unfortunately, at over 100 yards I wasn't confident in the shot opportunity offhand, and waited, moving closer to my right
so I could be ready if he appeared in a gap in the brush. A couple of moments later, he appeared in the gap, moving slowly with his head down, and I made the offhand shot at about 80 yards to finish him.

Walking up to him was cool, as I got to see his back hair all flared up as he expired. He is a beautiful little antelope!
My first shot had entered the lungs and exited the guts, as he had been quartering to, and the finishing shot was post on the shoulder, exiting the far shoulder.

We set him up for the following photo session.

SA 2.0 2026 Black Springbok.jpeg
 
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