Ruan Bouwer
AH senior member
- Joined
- Sep 19, 2013
- Messages
- 68
- Reaction score
- 125
- Location
- South Africa
- Media
- 21
- Articles
- 3
- Member of
- SAHGCA
- Hunted
- South Africa, Botswana
The ultimate hunt. We depart to my uncle's game farm on Thursday, 12 June 2014. The game farm is in Vaalwater, Limpopo (South Africa). I can't wait! I haven't shot anything for some time now. And the best part of all? I broke 2 fingers with rugby just before the trip!
We arrive at Nieuw Gelderland (my uncle's farm) at about 5pm Thursday afternoon. It was a firm hunt, so we unpacked all our stuff at the farmhouse, lit the fireplace and we waited for my dad's colleagues to arrive at the farm. One of his four colleagues were already there, so we still waited for the other three. Interesting thing, my dad & his 4 colleagues/partners all drive Toyota Hilux's! The hunt was for the partners and their families. So everyone brought their wives, and two of them have little girls, age 4 & 5. When they all arrived, we helped everybody to unpack, and the last colleague came at about 9pm. We had so much fun that night, we put the music loud & we partied 'til about 2am that next morning! We went to sleep, and with just a little sleep, my dad wake us all up at about 5:30am. He makes us some nice coffee and gives us some of the previous night's pap & vleis.
We depart to Koshari Game Ranch, about 30km from my uncle's Farm at about 6:30am, and we arrive at about 7am. We meet the owner of the ranch at the farmhouse & lapa, where he tells us about the farm and informs us about what we may and may not shoot. He also informs us about 4 Cape buffalo bulls walking on the ranch, and he says that they won't normally do any harm. I got a cold shiver down my back! We decide to split up in 2 teams. The paths split up in 2 and one goes left, one goes right. We take the one to the left. I am shooting with a 7x57 Ruger MKII with 175gr PMP's. We just fitted a new silencer, the AimZonic Predator. So we get on the bakkies and into the bush!
It's about 9pm when we go into the bush. We look for some blue wildebeest, eland or impala, we were actually hunting for meat. We drive for long, without any luck. We came across some blue wildebeest a few hours later. We get off the bakkie, and we start stalking them. They start running, and I wait for them to stop. But nothing, they keep running. We get back on and start driving again. A few minutes later, we come across a big blue wildebeest bull, but as soon as we get off, he takes off. So we get back on the Hilux, and we start searching again. The guide sees an impala herd, and we stalk them. Through the bush, thorns, trees, everything, they hear us and off they go. With a half negative heart, I start walking back to the bakkie. The walk feels like a marathon.
Later that day, about 11:45am, we come across a small group of zebra stallions. My dad asks me: "Do you want to shoot a big stallion?" (In Afrikaans of course! ) and I said yes, please, I would love that! We get off the bakkie, get the Primos™ Triggerstick, find a comfortable position, and my dad tells me that I should shoot the one at the back. I get comfortable, I pick up my rifle, and I aim...but then, they run! Now I'm not very positive anymore! We get back to the bakkie, and we start driving.
Not even 3 minutes later, we find a huge group of zebras at a little waterhole. We quickly get off, get the shooting stick, I reload and I take aim through a tree. I look through the scope to see if I can find a nice big zebra. They start running, but they stop again. I see a big mare facing my way. She is standing with her chest etc. facing me. I take aim, breathe out...BOOM! It's a solid shot right in the chest! It hit her in the heart & lung. Me and the tracker start looking for her. There she lies - not 30 metres from where I shot her! A perfect heart shot. We call the others so they could load the massive mare, but they only arrive about an hour later, because the other 2 walked very far after blue wildebeest, and took long to get back to the owner's bakkie. We load her, and go back to rest. We just drive around the corner and there they stand - the 4 buffalo bulls. They even come at the bakkie! They are somewhat aggressive. We take photos, and arrive at the bush camp & lapa. We rest there, drink a cooldrink (well, only I had a cooldrink - the adults had beer!!) and we return to the bush at 14:30. We find nothing, and decide to return home. We had an awesome day - I downed my zebra (I dreamed about shooting one for very long!) and one of my dad's colleagues shot a nice blue wildebeest.
I had the best trip of my life - thanks to my dad, Oom Dean (farm owner), Charlie (tracker) and everybody that went with us on the trip!
-Ruan Bouwer (13)
We arrive at Nieuw Gelderland (my uncle's farm) at about 5pm Thursday afternoon. It was a firm hunt, so we unpacked all our stuff at the farmhouse, lit the fireplace and we waited for my dad's colleagues to arrive at the farm. One of his four colleagues were already there, so we still waited for the other three. Interesting thing, my dad & his 4 colleagues/partners all drive Toyota Hilux's! The hunt was for the partners and their families. So everyone brought their wives, and two of them have little girls, age 4 & 5. When they all arrived, we helped everybody to unpack, and the last colleague came at about 9pm. We had so much fun that night, we put the music loud & we partied 'til about 2am that next morning! We went to sleep, and with just a little sleep, my dad wake us all up at about 5:30am. He makes us some nice coffee and gives us some of the previous night's pap & vleis.
We depart to Koshari Game Ranch, about 30km from my uncle's Farm at about 6:30am, and we arrive at about 7am. We meet the owner of the ranch at the farmhouse & lapa, where he tells us about the farm and informs us about what we may and may not shoot. He also informs us about 4 Cape buffalo bulls walking on the ranch, and he says that they won't normally do any harm. I got a cold shiver down my back! We decide to split up in 2 teams. The paths split up in 2 and one goes left, one goes right. We take the one to the left. I am shooting with a 7x57 Ruger MKII with 175gr PMP's. We just fitted a new silencer, the AimZonic Predator. So we get on the bakkies and into the bush!
It's about 9pm when we go into the bush. We look for some blue wildebeest, eland or impala, we were actually hunting for meat. We drive for long, without any luck. We came across some blue wildebeest a few hours later. We get off the bakkie, and we start stalking them. They start running, and I wait for them to stop. But nothing, they keep running. We get back on and start driving again. A few minutes later, we come across a big blue wildebeest bull, but as soon as we get off, he takes off. So we get back on the Hilux, and we start searching again. The guide sees an impala herd, and we stalk them. Through the bush, thorns, trees, everything, they hear us and off they go. With a half negative heart, I start walking back to the bakkie. The walk feels like a marathon.
Later that day, about 11:45am, we come across a small group of zebra stallions. My dad asks me: "Do you want to shoot a big stallion?" (In Afrikaans of course! ) and I said yes, please, I would love that! We get off the bakkie, get the Primos™ Triggerstick, find a comfortable position, and my dad tells me that I should shoot the one at the back. I get comfortable, I pick up my rifle, and I aim...but then, they run! Now I'm not very positive anymore! We get back to the bakkie, and we start driving.
Not even 3 minutes later, we find a huge group of zebras at a little waterhole. We quickly get off, get the shooting stick, I reload and I take aim through a tree. I look through the scope to see if I can find a nice big zebra. They start running, but they stop again. I see a big mare facing my way. She is standing with her chest etc. facing me. I take aim, breathe out...BOOM! It's a solid shot right in the chest! It hit her in the heart & lung. Me and the tracker start looking for her. There she lies - not 30 metres from where I shot her! A perfect heart shot. We call the others so they could load the massive mare, but they only arrive about an hour later, because the other 2 walked very far after blue wildebeest, and took long to get back to the owner's bakkie. We load her, and go back to rest. We just drive around the corner and there they stand - the 4 buffalo bulls. They even come at the bakkie! They are somewhat aggressive. We take photos, and arrive at the bush camp & lapa. We rest there, drink a cooldrink (well, only I had a cooldrink - the adults had beer!!) and we return to the bush at 14:30. We find nothing, and decide to return home. We had an awesome day - I downed my zebra (I dreamed about shooting one for very long!) and one of my dad's colleagues shot a nice blue wildebeest.
I had the best trip of my life - thanks to my dad, Oom Dean (farm owner), Charlie (tracker) and everybody that went with us on the trip!
-Ruan Bouwer (13)
