2025 Season at MPETI SAFARIS OUTFITTER

[MPETI SAFARIS OUTFITTER]

The 2025 season is in full swing and off to a great start! We hosted several hunts in March, including one from an AH member who took us up on our buffalo, nyala, and warthog special (https://www.africahunting.com/threads/buffalo-nyala-and-warthog-hunt-tiger-fishing.89228/). We will post some pictures of hunted animals, scenery, the accommodations, etc. as the season progresses. For those of you not familiar with Mpeti Safaris, our primary lodge is located in KwaZulu-Natal, adjacent to the Pongola Nature Reserve but we do hunt many other areas within South Africa also. We cater to one group at a time which gives Ruan and I the opportunity to customize a safari to your specific needs and allows us to participate in every client's vacation. Thank you for looking and please reach out to us at any time to discuss hunting, fishing, or touring South Africa.
Conrad

 

[MPETI SAFARIS OUTFITTER]

As I mentioned, we really kicked things off in March. Below are pictures from our second buffalo hunt of the season. On this hunt we had the opportunity to host an AH member who wanted to hunt a buffalo and pursue a red duiker. While we have quite a few red duiker, they can be elusive and sometimes require quite a bit of patience. From the pictures you will see he certainly accomplished those two trophies and saved enough time to make the most of several additional opportunities that presented themselves. Not only did he take an extremely old buffalo and phenomenal red duiker, he added nyala, warthog, and common reedbuck; all outstanding trophies. He certainly "took what Africa gives you" and I think it is fair to say we enjoyed this hunt as much as he did!

 

[yhc]

My wife and I are looking forward to joining you and your team in a few weeks, Conrad.

 

[Fatback]

I’ve spoken with Conrad multiple times about the possibility of a hunt with him. He has been great to speak with and very responsive when answering questions. Best of luck the rest of the season and congrats to you and your hunter on some awesome animals.

 

[DmacD]

I've booked a Buffalo hunt with Mpeti for September, my first. My pal is joining me for his first plains game hunt there as well. We're really looking forward to it!

 

[MPETI SAFARIS OUTFITTER]

My wife and I are looking forward to joining you and your team in a few weeks, Conrad.

We are looking forward to it too and can’t wait for you to get here. We are having amazing amounts of rain right now so you will see what Jozini dam looks like when it is full!

 

[MPETI SAFARIS OUTFITTER]

I’ve spoken with Conrad multiple times about the possibility of a hunt with him. He has been great to speak with and very responsive when answering questions. Best of luck the rest of the season and congrats to you and your hunter on some awesome animals.

Thanks for the kind words! This forum is filled with such great people and it’s always fun to get to talk with everyone.
Conrad

 

[MPETI SAFARIS OUTFITTER]

I've booked a Buffalo hunt with Mpeti for September, my first. My pal is joining me for his first plains game hunt there as well. We're really looking forward to it!

Yes, we are looking forward to it also! It’s always fun when there are several hunters pursuing a variety of game.
Conrad

 

[gearguywb]

Anxiously waiting for July!

 

[MPETI SAFARIS OUTFITTER]

Anxiously waiting for July!

Yes, it is going to be great having the opportunity to host you and other AH members this season!

 

[SDicefisher]

We hunted with Mpeti last year and had a wonderful time. Great hunting, amazing scenery, and the chance to catch some tigers on a rest day was next level fun. The folks at Mpeti worked very hard to provide an awesome experience, so much so that we will be returning to Mpeti in a week and it cant get here soon enough.

 

[MPETI SAFARIS OUTFITTER]

We hunted with Mpeti last year and had a wonderful time. Great hunting, amazing scenery, and the chance to catch some tigers on a rest day was next level fun. The folks at Mpeti worked very hard to provide an awesome experience, so much so that we will be returning to Mpeti in a week and it cant get here soon enough.

It was great getting to hunt with you, your father, and family friends last year. That common reedbuck was a stunner! I look forward to meeting your entire family and getting to hunt together again. Safe travels and see you soon!
Conrad

 

[MPETI SAFARIS OUTFITTER]

Hello AH Community. I hope many of you have already had successful hunts and even more of you are still looking forward to some this season! We were fortunate enough to just wrap up another hunt from an AH member who booked the buffalo hunt special we recently offered on AH. I can't say enough about Wayne and his wife, Diane. It was such a privilege to get to know and spend time with them. Wayne took some great trophies and certainly "took what Africa gave him" as he added some animals as the hunt progressed. Below are some pictures from his safari and I will allow Wayne to fill in the details. Good luck to everyone as the season progresses!
Conrad

 

[Fatback]

Some fine looking animals right there. Congrats to all involved.

 

[MPETI SAFARIS OUTFITTER]

Some fine looking animals right there. Congrats to all involved.

Thank you!

 

[JWayne]

Thank you Fatback. The quality of the animals is the direct result of the high standards of Conrad Fick. He will pass on an inferior animal and put even more work in to get an animal that you can be proud of.

This was my first African hunt. When I had a video conversation with him 6 months prior, I knew he was my professional hunter and that Mpeti suited me perfectly. No bred animals, no animals shipped in, all wild in their natural habitat. A 12,000 acre concession (I hope that is the right word) which abuts a 70,000 acre preserve. The animals flow back and forth between these two properties. Also, most shots are within 100 yards. This is what I wanted, to hunt the animals close up with no long shots. Spot and stalk, the old fashion way. I started hunting at age 66, I have been hunting 8 years now, learning from guides and whatever I could glean from anywhere, so I am still steep on the learning curve. To all you guys and gals who grew up with it, I am probably more like your 15 year old nephew out hunting with you. I would say I learned more hunting during my week with Conrad than I did the previous 8 years. By the way, the closest shot was 33 yards and the longest 154 yards. 5 of the 6 animals were 60 yards or less.

Most people, as I understand it, start out with a plains game hunt, then in the future will do a dangerous game hunt. In my case, in my mid 70’s, I did not feel like I had the time to take the standard approach, had to get it in, so dangerous game it is on the first hunt. It was a package hunt for Cape buffalo, Nyala, and warthog.

Conrad had a nice plan for me. To hunt plains game first with my 416RM, then the Cape buffalo hunt after or at least after an animal or two. Get me comfortable using sticks and the 416 in that environment. One fortunate thing for me is that I have no recoil sensitivity, so shooting the 416 did not feel any different to me that my smaller calibers, except it feels more like a push and I find it quite doable.

 

[JWayne]

So we arrive at Mpeti about 2:30pm and go right to the range where we sight in the 416 and 300 WSM. All is good, then we go out looking for animals. There was a slight drizzle. Not much happening that afternoon, so back to the comfortable lodge where we had a great dinner and some nice brandy and coke drinks, lekker lekker.

Next day officially Day 1, it was raining. Not hard but enough to get pretty soaked after 1/2 day of hunting. I gave my rain gear to my wife Diane, I had rain resistant jacket and pants which proved pretty good, but not perfect. Back to the lodge at lunch for a change of clothes and then back out again. We did see an Impala here and there but none that were up to Conrads standards. Then we found one, Nice sized male with beautifully shaped horns. We began the stalk in the rain. At about 50 yards, he set up the sticks, and I took aim. “Shoulder” Conrad whispered and I pulled the trigger of the 416 and “click”. Not one hour before, Conrad instructed me to rack another round and take a second shot should a cartridge not fire for any reason, and that is what I did. Good broadside shot right on the shoulder, the Impala ran about 50 yards and dropped. Conrads dog, Diesel, an amazing animal and a huge part of the team, found the Impala. I looked at the round that didn’t fire and no primer strike. What I experienced was the infamous “Blaser click”. I was unaware of this phenomenon until that moment. The issue is, when you are loading a round quietly, the bolt will occasionally not be fully engaged but will look so. The fix is just to hit the handle forward, which you can do quietly, and the issue is resolved. I do this now after every cartridge is in the chamber as insurance. As a side note, the impala is delicious.

Drop off the Impala at the skinning shed and off we go, still Day 1. Still raining and we spot a massive Nyala (I say we, but it was either Conrad or his professional hunter apprentice Henno, who has a keen eye for game and is a valuble asset all around). We stalked to about 60 years, sticks up, safety off on the 416 and the whisper “shoulder”, boom, good shot, ran off in the bush 50 yards again and dropped. This one had horns measured at 31 cm so it was truly a massive animal. Beautiful animal. Back to the shed we go.

 

[JWayne]

Still Day 1, still raining, heading into the afternoon when Conrad says, “there is a massive Waterbuck, do you want to shoot it?” To which I reply, “sure” which was a more of a American slang way to say yes, with some uncertainty as to what I meant, but that cleared up quickly as we got out of the truck and began the stalk very quietly and carefully. The male waterbuck had his head in the bush eating when we set up the sticks for the 416. That unusual white ring on the butt of the waterbuck the only thing visible. Then he backed out and began walking away. I was on him with an excellent scope picture when Conrad made a “bah” sound, the waterbuck turned to see what it was giving me a slight quartering away shot and the whisper “shoulder”, bang, good shot, about 50 yards again, off into the bush, Diesel made the find about 50 yards in and down for good.

Day 2, raining cats and dogs, no hunting today, so we made the 40 minute drive to Pongola, a city of about 20,000 about 50 miles south of Mosambique, where there is a taxidermist. Huge operation with a phenomenal show room, wish I had taken some pictures. Every African animal you could possibly think of was in that showroom and you really can get an idea of just how big a male lion is and just how frightening and jacked a hyena is. We stopped at this wonderful lodge over looking the river for a wonderful lunch.

 

[JWayne]

Day 3. Rain is over for the rest of the week. Manla, the tracker, joins us. Conrad says, “lets go find a buffalo”. We spend a good part of the day looking by truck. Then, in at the afternoon, we see tracks leading into thick bush. The buffalo track more or less in a line. So we did a wide circle to see if there are tracks going out. The answer to that is no. So we start the stock. My wife Diane joins us. In the eight years I have been hunting, although she always travels with me and stays at the lodge or the motel, this is the first time she has actually gone out on a hunt. Courageous of her I thought. But she wanted the adventure. I am going to say most men I know would not have stepped out of that truck. So we are getting closer and we can smell them and hear them but not see them. Conrad estimated about 40. They are close. They bellow very loudly and sound pissed off to me all the time. As Conrad says “they are not lovers”. As we are slowly moving closer, a cow appears. She sees us and is agitated. We walks up to us at 10 yards, and is acting aggressively and seems likely to charge, Manla drops on his back so Conrad can make the shot over him. She suddenly turns around and trots off. We just chill under a tree allowing everything to settle down. I stood behind Diane and put my hands on her upper arms and she is shaking. Terror. Henno takes her back to the truck and its a good thing she went back because it didn’t get any better from there.

We started moving in closer to the herd. At 33 yards, we see a huge bull. He turns to face us. His eyes are red with anger (didn’t know they did that). No time to set up sticks, rifle went on Manlas shoulder, getting ready for a frontal shot when the bull turns to his right and gives me a perfect broadside, then the familiar whisper “shoulder” and boom, dropped him right in his tracks, didn’t move a yard. The cows surrounded him to protect him and the bulls started attacking him on the ground. We waited, they moved off, he could not get up but was breathing, and one shot to the lungs. We were a fifteen yards at that point. To ensure that he was dead, at Conrads instructions, I loaded a round in the chamber, touched his eye with the end of the barrel, no movement, and we knew that he was dead.

 

[JWayne]

Day 4. We switch rifles to the 300 wsm. We spot a nice blue wildebeest in the shade of a tree and stalk to about 40 yards. Set up sticks, they were unstable for me. The wildebeest with a nice broadside facing right. I take my eye off of it to stablize the sticks and take off the safety, get back on the sticks and fire. Wildebeest ran off, something wasn’t right. I took me a few minutes to realize that, while I was fiddling around with the sticks and taking off my safety, the blue wildebeest had done a complete 180. I had shot it in the butt. If you look at a wildebeest broadside, you will see that the shoulders and head are huge and the backside is slim, so this was quiet a feat to mistake the butt for the head. Not one of my proudest moments and I felt bad about wounding him. There was a blood trail, so Conrad and I split off and headed back to the lodge to minimize the crowd. Henno and Manla tracked the wounded blue wildebeest. After about 600 yards, they found him and Henno made the final shot with the 300wsm. In fact, I missed the butt and he was gutshot. So fortunate for the amazing tracking skills of these two wonderful men. So lucky not to have lost him.

Day 5. Next on the list was Zebra. This was by far the toughest animal to stalk. On day 5, we got to within 60 yards on a stalk, set up the sticks, good view of the shoulder, pulled the trigger and, nothing, no bang, never works that well when you leave the safety on I discovered. But that was it for that day. I blew that one.