TKessel
AH veteran
- Joined
- Dec 29, 2021
- Messages
- 241
- Reaction score
- 393
- Location
- Hiland, Wyoming
- Media
- 8
- Hunted
- RSA Namibia
Outfitter - Data Safaris Limpopo SA
PH - Daniel “Data” Strydom
PH- Jaco Kruger
Personal rifles used Winchester 70 458, Remington 700- 375 H&H
Camp rifles- Ruger 77- 30-06 & 338
My wife and I have known Data for a few years as we both attend a few hunting conventions each year and have booths usually beside each other. I have hunted Africa twice before, once in 1989 and another time in 1999.
I thought I had Africa out of my system and have done about everything I wanted to do in North America, then all the sudden the African bug bit me once again!
After some long conversation with Data about buffalo and lion we decide to make the trip this year.
This report is not to bring up the CBL debate, nor wild vs free buffalo. I had the same reservations as most about lions and buffalo in SA. We discussed a lioness hunt and my concerns over many evenings while he was in the states. I felt he was brutally honest about different areas and ranches where we could do the hunt. He mentioned there was only one place that would suit my needs and once we were there and I didn’t think it would be what I wanted I could pay the daily rate and we could leave and hunt other animals we were after.
We ended up hunting in the Markel area and it was by far more than I expected. We didn’t get a clumps of the lioness until the third morning. We were in her tracks the previous days, but never got a clumps of her. I did connect on the third evening right at last light.
This hunt turned out to be 100x more than I expected.
This was my wife Teri’s first African trip. She is a licensed guide in Wyoming and has collected many animals here in the states. She was able to collect Kudu, Nyala, Wildebeest, Impala, Blesbok, Zebra and did some night hunting.
We discussed buffalo and his breeding, self sufficient plan of the herd. We had planned on taking a cull cow hunt while there, but ended upgrading to a bull hunt. With his operation he can take 8-13 mature bulls a year. I found these bulls a challenge to hunt and looked over some bulls that I would have loved to shoot, but was told they are too young. We eventually found a good bull and after a marginal shot on my behalf, tracked it and finished it.
Everything on this trip was first rate, both PH’s we great and we plan on hunting with them next year.
PH - Daniel “Data” Strydom
PH- Jaco Kruger
Personal rifles used Winchester 70 458, Remington 700- 375 H&H
Camp rifles- Ruger 77- 30-06 & 338
My wife and I have known Data for a few years as we both attend a few hunting conventions each year and have booths usually beside each other. I have hunted Africa twice before, once in 1989 and another time in 1999.
I thought I had Africa out of my system and have done about everything I wanted to do in North America, then all the sudden the African bug bit me once again!
After some long conversation with Data about buffalo and lion we decide to make the trip this year.
This report is not to bring up the CBL debate, nor wild vs free buffalo. I had the same reservations as most about lions and buffalo in SA. We discussed a lioness hunt and my concerns over many evenings while he was in the states. I felt he was brutally honest about different areas and ranches where we could do the hunt. He mentioned there was only one place that would suit my needs and once we were there and I didn’t think it would be what I wanted I could pay the daily rate and we could leave and hunt other animals we were after.
We ended up hunting in the Markel area and it was by far more than I expected. We didn’t get a clumps of the lioness until the third morning. We were in her tracks the previous days, but never got a clumps of her. I did connect on the third evening right at last light.
This hunt turned out to be 100x more than I expected.
This was my wife Teri’s first African trip. She is a licensed guide in Wyoming and has collected many animals here in the states. She was able to collect Kudu, Nyala, Wildebeest, Impala, Blesbok, Zebra and did some night hunting.
We discussed buffalo and his breeding, self sufficient plan of the herd. We had planned on taking a cull cow hunt while there, but ended upgrading to a bull hunt. With his operation he can take 8-13 mature bulls a year. I found these bulls a challenge to hunt and looked over some bulls that I would have loved to shoot, but was told they are too young. We eventually found a good bull and after a marginal shot on my behalf, tracked it and finished it.
Everything on this trip was first rate, both PH’s we great and we plan on hunting with them next year.
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