South Africa 2022

What a grand adventure!
Looks like you ands your wife had a wonderful experience!
Thanks for sharing the little details. So many people write only of the hunt and the kills, but the whole experience, including those little details are what brings the whole experience together.

My wife and I were to go to the Eastern Cape in 2018, but due to life's unexpected twists and turns, were not able to go.
My list included the 4 spiral horns - eland, kudu, nyala and bushbuck, while she was after sable and the 4 colour phases of springbuck.
Someday...we'll get the chance to go and make it happen.
As I told the outfitter for the trip we had booked; we were looking more for the experience than we were the trophies.
 
Awesome report and pictures. Well done. Thank you for taking us along and sharing.
Congratulations to you and your wife for a great adventure and memories.
Duane
 
Blkram-I was supposed to take an eland on my first trip in 2018 but had the opportunity to take a sable for the same price-so the sable came home that trip and eland had to wait. . . Check out the website for game 4 africa. I know they had a spiral horn special that includes your daily fees etc and is a very good deal. And as you can see the springbok slam is very fun. I would do it again! My next trip I want to try to take the reedbucks and a Vaal rhebok and maybe add the golden wildebeest to my other beests I’ve already taken.
But I think a Buffalo is my main goal so we shall see what I can afford in a year or two (or four)
 
One of the costs most people don’t consider when planning a safari is getting all those horns and skins back home.
One month and four days after we got home, the South African taxidermy company e mailed me a cost break down for dip and pack and crating. The total is $1680.00 which I wire transferred to them through the Wells Fargo app. I knew these costs before I came home as our ph showed them to us with the taxidermists price sheet. We also toured their facility. I am not having taxidermy done in SA.
I am having capes and skulls sent for most of the animals-did not keep the cape for the black wildebeest but did keep the tail and I did not keep the duiker cape as I have one already mounted.
Shipping costs will be next and I expect them any day now. Costs are based on size and weight. Air shipping is preferred but they can come by ship over water. It is supposedly cheaper-I’ll know more when I talk to the South African exporter.
 
Firebird said:
Blkram-I was supposed to take an eland on my first trip in 2018 but had the opportunity to take a sable for the same price-so the sable came home that trip and eland had to wait. . . Check out the website for game 4 africa. I know they had a spiral horn special that includes your daily fees etc and is a very good deal. And as you can see the springbok slam is very fun. I would do it again! My next trip I want to try to take the reedbucks and a Vaal rhebok and maybe add the golden wildebeest to my other beests I’ve already taken.
But I think a Buffalo is my main goal so we shall see what I can afford in a year or two (or four)
Click to expand...
Would be hard to pass up an opportunity on a sable!
Will check out Game 4 Africa; Thanks!
The other "slam" that I think would be interesting, would be the lechwe slam (3 species) in Zambia.
 
That is a lot of pennies down. I'm sure it's worth it, but it makes me take a second look at being able to afford a trip.
 
I think most people shoot 4 or 5 of their most desired trophies in 5 or 6 days so their s/h is not outrageous. I like to pull the trigger and I love to have the animals in my house so I am twice afflicted. Once they are home I just get
One mounted when I can afford it-not all at once for sure!
Tanzania and Zambia would be the ultimate safari. Prices soar the farther east on the continent you go but so does the experience. I would love to just do a plains game massai land trip-someday. . .
 
image.jpgimage.jpg
My crate arrived a short time ago. It shipped from s africa to my importer in California. They cleared it through customs and shipped it to utah to a USDA certified taxidermist. ( special thanks to Merlin!) He made an appt to have the warthog skull inspected and then it was cleared for me to root through the crate like a kid under a Christmas tree. The USDA guy said it was one of the cleanest pig skulls he had ever checked, also commented on how well the crate was packed. I have heard horror stories about high storage fees and lost trophies but I experienced none of this. There was a potential paperwork issue on my lechwe which was reasonably handled by the importer and exporter. My importer explained that having all the correct paperwork in place and no questions or problems would speed it through customs and on its way-and this proved to be true. One other issue was that Turkish air handles the air cargo. Turkey had a historical and disastrous earthquake and air support was necessarily diverted to support their home country.
I remained patient and let the appropriate parties do their thing. And now I have all my “stuff.” The pig and black wildebeest will remain skulls while the others hides and horns have been spread out among taxidermist friends to become shoulder mounts.
Now I can plan the next trip!
 
Good looking mounts. No doubt you're pleased to have them at last.
 
Firebird said:
Common turned out to be the hard one. There were hundreds and they were spooky and could run forever. We blew some stalks, gave up on others and finally sat under the only tree within miles to eat our sandwiches and eat the best July orange ever. Wik is always looking and pointing out these bonteboks or those hartebeest and finally he says he can see a big warthog. I can see the tusks through my meopta binos but through Wiks leicas, I can see them well-there is a significant difference at this distance. Significant.
We begin a stalk on the pork and get within maybe 500 yards when the springboks come between us and the pig. They are chasing each other and there are three bucks-all good on the edge of the herd. I’m on the sticks and Wik tried to range them. Tall yellow grass obscures the effort and finally we says the try it for 400. The shot goes high and the herd and the pig leave in a rush and a trail of dust.
Another herd, just dots on our left intent to follow the others run from another distant hillside to stand in front of us. At around 250 a good buck stops broadly. Just as I go to finish the trigger a doe enters the view through the scope. I pull the shot, catch the scope above my eye and still hit the buck. It’s back a bit (I hate that term) bit he goes down hard. It’ s a big bullet and a small animal and the bullet ranges forward to exit behind his shoulder. We didn’t know that at the time and when he stood up I was already to bust him again. But he lasted only a couple seconds and dropped on his own. The scope didn’t draw enough blood to show in the pictures and my two springbok were done in two shots. That miss was the only true miss of the hunt. The shot I thought I missed on the kudu hit his ear and entered his body somewhere. There were entries and exits on that bull I still can’t explain!View attachment 17386View attachment 17387
Click to expand...
That was one of my toughest as well!
 
Amazing hunt and pictures. Thank you for sharing. If I ever go back to Africa, I want to try the small 5, because the the challenge.
 
I guess I subscribe to the “bigger is better” grouping. There is a “tiny ten” collection that many hunters get excited about but I simply can’t afford to pursue those kinds of collections, but I also wouldn’t hesitate to shoot some of them if opportunity arose while hunting other animals!
Steenbok for example are not much bigger than the winter hares we hunt. So then consider how small their offspring are and how fragile, yet they are quite common and fun to hunt. Wonderfully dainty and fascinating. I have plans to do a pedestal mount with mine on a spare waterbuck horn, might be a fun addition to the room full of big, big game!
 
The wife and I travelled to High Prairie in Alberta today to attend their gun show. We have been attending this one for the past 12 years and always enjoy it. (was mostly looking to reconnect with a couple of vendors for scroll woodwork for a gift for my mother, and for molded ear protection; was successful on both counts!)

Also reconnected with the African outfitter that we had booked our 2017 trip with that we had to cancel...
He had some good news about the current rates for sable and the springbok slam for my wife and for the south african spiral horn slam for me...total package 2x1 will be less expensive now than the previous hunt we had booked, as the packages include the daily rates and trophy fees, and the sable is almost half the cost that it was in 2017...but that it is expected to start going up again very soon.
So we are now looking towards planning for the safari next March (exact dates to be determined) so we can take advantage of the kudu rut. Should be 10 days plus a couple extra for a trip to the Addo park and some fishing or a little bird hunting.
 
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