pix from south african safari

Firebird

Handloader
Jun 22, 2013
303
628
Ill add some others if there is interest but here are some of the wonderful animals I took on a late July safari with Game4Africa safaris near Grahamstown in South Africa. My brother and myself killed 20 animals, mostly me as I have less self control! We shared my .300 win mag remington 700 that some of you will recognize from the reloading forum. I put it in here with the red hartebeest which was surely my worst shooting of the trip and only brought to ground by a good PH and hard working trackers. The rifle and ammo performed flawlessly. -the shooters at times were either brilliant or struggling but we did not lose any animals and only missed a couple. Zebra may have been my favorite and after passing a duiker, I came to an understanding how hard they were to find and later in the hunt I did shoot one.
I should mention that Africahunting.com was one of the best sources of info I found on the internet and a dvd by Craig Boddington was the most useful overall safari tutorial I found. The internet is a beast because you must sort through a billion different opinions and biases.
People become devoted to their ph's like thier doctors. Africahunting offers many hunt reports and there is lots of good info there. I have much praise for Wikus that we hunted with and their property and will return to hunt with them again but there is also alot of Africa I still want to visit.
 

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Great pictures and congrats on the trip! Looks like alot of nice animals taken.
 
Very nice!

Hope the memories shared by you and your brother will be remembered fondly for years to come as you look at your mounts and photos of your trip.
 
Congrats, it looks like you had a great time.
I'm leaving for South Africa tomorrow for a 2 week plains game safari using a Model 70 in 300 win mag. I'll see if I can post some pics when we get back.
Can you tell us what you used in reloads? I'll be using 180 gr. Barnes TSX.
Wish me luck!
 
I used 200 grain trophy bonded bear claw. I bought loaded ammo and as a handloader, didn't care for the groups. So I pulled the bullets and gratefully found a load with very little effort that was excellent. My first "test" shots once we got there were touching in the bullseye. The ph likes to see that your gun can put bullets where they need to go. You will do well with your choice of Barnes!
 

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Waterbuck was maybe the toughest animal I shot. I hit him very well and the bullet crossed his vitals before breaking the off shoulder down low. He went almost 100yards and we saw him drop. He was the only animal that left a good blood trail and that was the furthest any animal went after being hit correctly. The tbbc was so tortured that the base was no longer round but oval but still very intact. The energy transfer was amazing. Hit them well the first time and you will have no problems, make a bad hit and you are in for a very long day.
 

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Really "otherworldly" when I look at pics from Africa. Beautiful animals1 Hope you had a blast! CL
 
Duiker was an afterthought and I'm glad I took one. I gut shot him-hair in scope, pull the trigger. Aim vague, hit vague. . . But the little jack russell tracking dogs made quick work on the little guy. Its the only trophy I had measured, since I wasn't there for the inches - and he was an awesome 5 inches! I killed two impala, one with field goal shaped horns and the other with diamond shaped, both wonderful, one of the funnest ones to hunt imo.
 

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My ph Wik was excellent and their property was a shooters wonderland. The diversity of African birds and animals to my way of thinking are its greatest resource. I'm already daydreaming about the buffalo we saw and going after one of them, which gives me a reason to buy a new rifle and then more time at the reloading bench and then more time at the range-its a magical cycle!
And I would go back just to see giraffes again, just like zebras, the wild ones are a whole different thing than the zoo version. It would blow my mind to be sneaking on a kudu or whatever and suddenly be 20 yards from a feeding giraffe and ask yourself how you didn't see it until just right now. Took hundreds of pix of giraffe but no interest in hunting one. Maybe an old broken down one someday. This pic I took at a photographic game reserve which is something that should also be done while you are there.
 

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Congratulations on your successful safari. Those are some beautiful trophy animals you took. Thanks for sharing the pictures!

JD338
 
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