My First Safari

[McKenzie Sims]

It all started in 2006 I believe it was March or even February and I was at a log home show with my parents in Idaho. Now I was 10 years old and did enjoy seeing some of the cool log home booths but again being 10 I’d imagine I was getting bored until I ran across a booth of a South African outfitter with two very nice South Africans sitting in it. Now I truly wish I could have remembered who they were because at this day I’d so gratefully love to thank them for taking the time to talk to a 10 year old and for starting a fire that burns brighter in me today. As we talked I asked what the age requirement was to hunt in Africa and they simply replied there wasn’t one I just needed to come with my parents and prove I can shoot. Now with Wyoming having an age limit of 12 and may other western states being similar I couldn’t believe my ears. So this got the wheels going and I told my parents these guys said you don’t have to be 12. We could go and I could hunt. Now I’m not sure if my dad was just tired of me going on about it but he said okay if you make the money to book my flight he would book the trip. Even with this being in 2006 flights we’re not cheap I believe they were in the $1,700-1,900 range so I quickly went to work selling lemonade and cookies out front of the house as soon as the nice weather came about. This wasn’t the best business model as I live in a small town and the number of people that drove past our house on a daily basis wasn’t that great and selling lemonade for a quarter was not going to strike me rich contrary to what I had believe in the planning stage. So plan B was the annual 4H livestock show and sell pigs. I’d been doing 4H for a few years and would show two pigs and sell one at the sell as that’s all you could sell, actually during that time I was trading the second pig to shoot a Bison. Key note always trying to make a hunt happen! So when it came time to sell my pig in August of 2006 I had done some good campaigning for this auction. At the time this part of Wyoming was in a booming stage of oil and gas and big companies like chevron and BP were here so there was some money to chase. I had gave out invites, dinner tickets and a healthy stack of drink tickets to hopefully persuade someone into maybe having a few to many cocktails and buying my pig. I was late in the sale evening, like almost dead last. I was worried as this might have back fired maybe everyone had already gotten to far drunk and spent all their money. So as I entered the sell ring and the auctioneer started calling out bids, a smile quickly grew upon my face as he kept climbing $500, $700, $1,000 $1,5000 $2,000 $2,000 and finally slamming the hammer down at $2,800. I quickly placed my big back in his pen found the woman who had bought my pig, gave her a huge hug, looked at my dad and said book the trip I got the money. Thats where the planning began of my first Safari!

 

[McKenzie Sims]

We had arrived very late into Port Elizabeth and upon arriving we come to find that all our rifles and a bag each are still in Atlanta. Luckily, we had enough bags to have clothing to hunt in. (This was when we packed the kitchen sink and didn’t know how a Safari camp worked. Will talk about this more in a future post.) So after the missing bag issue was squared away with the airlines off to camp, we went with the reassurance from the airline that the bags would arrive. It was just over an hour’s drive to the hunting camp. The drive was done in the dark, and when we arrived into camp it was knocking on the early hours of the morning, so we had yet to see what Africa looked like. Arriving at camp we quickly got settled into our comfortable chalets with the attempt to get some sleep. I’m not sure if it was jet lag or the excitement of being in Africa but not much sleep was had, and we were up early awaiting the sun to light the African landscape. Once daylight started to come we were welcomed by a low celling of cloud cover with a light rain, fog, and mist. The little landscape we could see around camp was eye opening and almost just a little teaser of what we were to experience over the next 7 days.

 

[Firebird]

I’ve eaten a 4h pig or two, and that is a darn fine way to get started-In life and in this story! Please continue sir. . .

 

[McKenzie Sims]

I’ve eaten a 4h pig or two, and that is a darn fine way to get started-In life and in this story! Please continue sir. . .

Thanks for the comment, I will be adding to this thread to get this story told over the next few days!

 

[Papa72]

 

[Mark Biggerstaff]

Popcorn is ready and so am I for some more. Thanks for sharing your story

 

[CAustin]

Keep it coming.

 

[Philip Glass]

McKenzie,
I enjoyed hearing you relate this story on the PH Journals podcast. Although I was fortunate to under take my first safari in the EC at 25 I'll admit to being jealous of you doing it at 10!
I did take my youngest son at age 11 on his first And my oldest at age 17. I believe any international trip at an early age is a real eye opener and can change your perspective in m ay ways.
We seem to have a lot in common from business interests to 4H livestock projects!

Regards,
Philip

 

[McKenzie Sims]

Popcorn is ready and so am I for some more. Thanks for sharing your story

haha Thanks appreciate the supportive comment.

 

[McKenzie Sims]

Keep it coming.

about to add another story to it! thanks for the support!

 

[McKenzie Sims]

McKenzie,
I enjoyed hearing you relate this story on the PH Journals podcast. Although I was fortunate to under take my first safari in the EC at 25 I'll admit to being jealous of you doing it at 10!
I did take my youngest son at age 11 on his first And my oldest at age 17. I believe any international trip at an early age is a real eye opener and can change your perspective in m ay ways.
We seem to have a lot in common from business interests to 4H livestock projects!

Regards,
Philip

Glad you liked that episode with Dylan, I had so much fun talking with him.

That is so awesome that you took your boys over to experience it I am sure they had a blast and learned so much more. I think out of traveling the world I have far out learned what they teach you in school about just how real life works. Do you have any threads with photos from that trip you and your boys took?

Thanks for the Support!

 

[McKenzie Sims]

We had just began to sit down for breakfast that first morning and I’m not even sure if the full group was at the table yet from sorting what gear had arrived out from the missing bags, long days of travel, and late night we had just had but I was just about to indulge in a bowl of cornflakes when our PH Louie walked in off the Phone and said who would like a Caracal? I jumped at the chance and soon we were off in the Landcruiser, we arrived where a dog handler was waiting for us on the road not far from camp. We all got out of the truck following the handler very quickly down the hill into the bush, soon the sounds of baying dogs grew near. Once we got to the tree it was pure chaos it seemed like every dog in South Africa was at that tree, I’m sure it was just 10 dogs, but it sure seemed like more at the time. I was quickly handed an old double barrel side by side 12 gauge shotgun, that I’m sure would just fall apart if you shook it hard enough. I had never hunted with hounds before, and I had never shot a double barrel shotgun before so during the excitement and due to my lack of shotgun knowledge I stretched my trigger finger clear to the front of the trigger houseing and I’d like to say squeezed but I’m sure I just jerked with the pure adrenaline happening and in doing so I pulled both barrels. Luckily a caracal cat is a smaller cat in size and the shot wasn’t difficult because I’m sure I missed half the cat even with pulling double. After our tracker smiley climbed up into the tree to pull the caracal out, we got to look at my first African animal and the first of the trip for the group. I could not believe it I was on the board in Africa with a very cool and unplanned experience. The hook had been set.

.

 

[McKenzie Sims]

After the caracal was loaded, we were back off to camp to finish a light breakfast then go to the range to shoot the camp rifles as ours had not arrived with us in Africa. Now I’m not going to lie and say I remember the exact calibers these camp rifles were, but I believe the one I ended up shooting was a 270. We settled in at the range and after everyone was confident in the rifles off, we went on our first day of Hunting in the eastern cape of South Africa.


I’ll attest to this having used camp rifles. Most camps have good accurate rifles sure they might not be your custom rifles with all the bells and whistles, but they get the job done. If you know how to shoot and work a rifle using a camp gun will be no problem for you. I used this camp rifle the entire trip even after our guns showed up because I was shooting it well and was having great success with it.

We first set out in search of blesbok, several of us in the group were wanting a blesbok and near the camp there was a couple properties that had hundreds of blesbok. So this is where the hunt really started.

 

[Philip Glass]

Glad you liked that episode with Dylan, I had so much fun talking with him.

That is so awesome that you took your boys over to experience it I am sure they had a blast and learned so much more. I think out of traveling the world I have far out learned what they teach you in school about just how real life works. Do you have any threads with photos from that trip you and your boys took?

Thanks for the Support!

Jasper will be going to his third African country with me in July as we hunt Zim together. Here is the link to the 2022 Safari that was his second. Just look for the curly haired blonde!

SOUTH AFRICA: Frontier Safaris - Eastern Cape Safari 2022

Frontier Safaris - Eastern Cape Safari 2022 It has been a real joy for me to organize groups of hunters to join me on safari. Whether it is South Africa, Namibia, or Zimbabwe I have enjoyed bringing others along with me to share this adventure of a lifetime. This hunt has been planned for a...

www.africahunting.com

 

[McKenzie Sims]

Jasper will be going to his third African country with me in July as we hunt Zim together. Here is the link to the 2022 Safari that was his second. Just look for the curly haired blonde!

SOUTH AFRICA: Frontier Safaris - Eastern Cape Safari 2022

Frontier Safaris - Eastern Cape Safari 2022 It has been a real joy for me to organize groups of hunters to join me on safari. Whether it is South Africa, Namibia, or Zimbabwe I have enjoyed bringing others along with me to share this adventure of a lifetime. This hunt has been planned for a...

www.africahunting.com

Awesome I’ll be checking this out today!

 

[Sue Tidwell]

It all started in 2006 I believe it was March or even February and I was at a log home show with my parents in Idaho. Now I was 10 years old and did enjoy seeing some of the cool log home booths but again being 10 I’d imagine I was getting bored until I ran across a booth of a South African outfitter with two very nice South Africans sitting in it. Now I truly wish I could have remembered who they were because at this day I’d so gratefully love to thank them for taking the time to talk to a 10 year old and for starting a fire that burns brighter in me today. As we talked I asked what the age requirement was to hunt in Africa and they simply replied there wasn’t one I just needed to come with my parents and prove I can shoot. Now with Wyoming having an age limit of 12 and may other western states being similar I couldn’t believe my ears. So this got the wheels going and I told my parents these guys said you don’t have to be 12. We could go and I could hunt. Now I’m not sure if my dad was just tired of me going on about it but he said okay if you make the money to book my flight he would book the trip. Even with this being in 2006 flights we’re not cheap I believe they were in the $1,700-1,900 range so I quickly went to work selling lemonade and cookies out front of the house as soon as the nice weather came about. This wasn’t the best business model as I live in a small town and the number of people that drove past our house on a daily basis wasn’t that great and selling lemonade for a quarter was not going to strike me rich contrary to what I had believe in the planning stage. So plan B was the annual 4H livestock show and sell pigs. I’d been doing 4H for a few years and would show two pigs and sell one at the sell as that’s all you could sell, actually during that time I was trading the second pig to shoot a Bison. Key note always trying to make a hunt happen! So when it came time to sell my pig in August of 2006 I had done some good campaigning for this auction. At the time this part of Wyoming was in a booming stage of oil and gas and big companies like chevron and BP were here so there was some money to chase. I had gave out invites, dinner tickets and a healthy stack of drink tickets to hopefully persuade someone into maybe having a few to many cocktails and buying my pig. I was late in the sale evening, like almost dead last. I was worried as this might have back fired maybe everyone had already gotten to far drunk and spent all their money. So as I entered the sell ring and the auctioneer started calling out bids, a smile quickly grew upon my face as he kept climbing $500, $700, $1,000 $1,5000 $2,000 $2,000 and finally slamming the hammer down at $2,800. I quickly placed my big back in his pen found the woman who had bought my pig, gave her a huge hug, looked at my dad and said book the trip I got the money. Thats where the planning began of my first Safari!
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Thanks for sharing this McKenzie. It is wonderful to see how hard you worked and applied yourself to make your dreams come true....at such an early age. GOOD ON YOU!

 

[McKenzie Sims]

Thanks for sharing this McKenzie. It is wonderful to see how hard you worked and applied yourself to make your dreams come true....at such an early age. GOOD ON YOU!

Thank you Sue!

 

[McKenzie Sims]

While hunting our Blesbok we never struggled to find them as on these cattle farms they were everywhere however I struggled in making it happen on many opportunities. This was my first big game hunt I had no real-life experience of getting on the animal and making it happen, so a few good opportunists went by because I was slower in getting setup and from over thinking about of it. During the course of the day my dad had taken a nice Blesbok, and I believe another member of our group got one as well and with the day was coming to an end I managed to make it happen collecting my very first African Antelope species the Blesbok.

A few facts on the Blesbok:

The Blesbok is part of the Damalisc group of antelope found in the Boviadae family, they are a medium sized antelope that have a big white bles down their forehead that has a horizontal brown stripe that divides the bles above the eye’s. Bles stands for blaze in Dutch that surely was part of the name giving.

The Blesbok is a subspecies on the Bontebok also found in South Africa.

I haven’t hunted a Blesbok in my recent Safaris, but I will say they are a fun hunt that can be challenging as they can be in big groups with lots of eyes.

 

[Scott CWO]

Glad to see your dad is a man of his word. I did the same for my son. When he was five years-old he said he wanted to hunt Dall’s sheep. I told him then that I would take him sheep hunting if he did good in school and got a college degree. He did and I took him sheep hunting last year in the Yukon.

 

[gillettehunter]

You started off pretty early in life! Thanks for sharing. Looking forward to more. Wish I could of started my African hunting sooner. Good job.
Bruce