SOUTH AFRICA: Family Hunt In The Kalahari With JKO HUNTING SAFARIS

[Inline6]

On our first trip to Africa, my son, Chance and I talked about going back (we were only 3 days into our hunt). On the plane ride back, we decided we wanted to hunt lions. (**DISCLAIMER** Everyone has their opinion. I'm not asking for a debate. This is our story. If you are against CBL, I respect your opinion. I ask you to show the same respect to us. If you feel like you must comment negatively, you should move on from this report).

We made plans with @JKO HUNTING SAFARIS, since Jacques was so great the first time. It was a no-brainer for this time. Chance and I told our stories, and everyone saw our pictures. They were intrigued, and my wife acted a little unsure about the 22 hours of plane rides, not including layovers. My oldest son, Troy was not interested in spending the money to go, but thought it looked fun. My youngest, Grant, asked when he could go. He is a very competitive person, and he was not thrilled that Chance was able to hunt all the animals he did. I did the best job I could explaining to an 8-year-old that his older brother worked his butt off for over two years, saving every dime to pay his own way. I told him when he was able to do the same, we would talk about it. Over the course of two years, Troy and Chance both graduated from college. Chance and I started planning our hunt. My wife, Kim said she was unsure of us hunting lions. She is a very good mother, we talked about it. She was uneasy about it and did not say much more about it.

We booked the hunt and put down our deposit. Kim said she thought she really wanted to go on this trip. I told her that if she wanted to go, both her and Grant needed passports. We started that process, and Kim talked to Troy. He thought it sounded like a fun trip, so he decided to come along too. We went to DSC to meet up with Jacques, and that sealed the deal. @TravelExpress booked the flights, and our family trip was in full send.

The experience for the last trip helped me to understand what we needed to work on to get ready for this trip. Sticks, we needed practice off the sticks. I have a suppressed 22lr that we practice with in the backyard. Grant has always been a good shot, and he had never shot off sticks. He watched me, and in typical kid fashion, I know how to do it, dad. Okay, we had groundhog (10"X5") set up at 50 yards, and he made all his shots. We did that for several sets. He was pretty confident; I could see his elevation was not as tight as it should be. So, several sessions of this, he felt like he could not miss. We moved to a 3" circle, told him if you can't go 10 for 10 on it, you can't shoot any animals. Up to this point, he has only shot at larger targets. He misses every shot, I pick up the rifle and free hand, and go 10 for 10. Now, he realized it was not as easy as he thought, which was my goal. Over the course of several months we trained very hard. We all did, on the last session. I told Grant (G), if you can’t go 3 for 3 on the 3” plate with the 6.5CM. You will not get a shot on a live animal. He went 3 for 3 from 85 to 150 yards. Kim did extremely well too.

Day 1
We boarded our flight (United) in Nashville and flew to Newark. We had about a 2.5-hour layover. Our flight to Joeburg was delayed about 30 mins. We boarded the plane and settled in without much fuss. I learned my lesson on the last trip. I took a muscle relaxer when I got on the plane. I was awake for 2 hours, slept for 10 and was up for the last 3. My body was not knotted up when we landed. Everyone but Grant and I had a hard time sleeping. Africa Sky met us as soon as we got off the plane. We did their VIP treatment, worth every penny. Our passports were stamped, and we were SAPs within 10 mins. It took a little while for our rifles to get there. Everything at checkout went very quickly. They loaded us up, and we were on our way to the hotel. We did not get there until 19:45. Check-in was easy, ordered our dinners, brought our luggage to the room, and went to dinner. We all had filets, and everything was great. The beef had a different texture than any filet I have eaten. The grain was a little thick. It was tender and cooked to our request. Dessert, everyone tried something different. It was great. I have read about how nice Africa Sky was and it lived up to all the reports. Kim was good with staying there for our trip. We checked out the fire pit and called it a night.

Day 2

The time difference always messes with me. I was up rather early, got dressed, and walked to breakfast. We were all there a little after 0600. While we were eating, our waitress said our driver was there ready to pick us up. We were pleasantly surprised. We did not think he was going to get there until 0830. We were on the road at 0730. We started our 7-hour drive to the Kalahari Desert. We stopped at a restaurant for a late lunch, and I ordered ribs that were all in grams for the sizes. I ordered the middle one, and Grant and I were going to share it. I thought I was getting half a rack. It was almost a full rack. It was not bad, not great, definitely not Texas BBQ. We finished up there and pressed on. We arrived a little later than expected. We had enough time to check the zeros on all of our rifles. I sent the last shot with my 458Lott at last light. My boys were impressed with the fireball that was coming out at the end of it. We gathered around the campfire and enjoyed some stories, Dinner was ready. We had a chicken dish and dessert. Everyone enjoyed some drinks and called it a night.

Some of the animals we seen on the way to the lodge.

 

[Inline6]

Day 3

We started our hunting, it was a very unique experience. We are hunting the same place as the lions hunt. You now have different circumstances. Your head is on a swivel. It is an experience that is hard to describe. It is also one of no two people who will have the same take. Kim was more than a little nervous, rightfully so. She is a great mother, and she was worried about our littlest one. Jacques and I assured her things were good. She was not happy (I could see that and hear it in her voice). The morning started cutting tracks and looking for lion footprints. Impala was on Grant's list. We found a nice ram. We made a stalk on it, threw up the stick, and it was facing us. Grant was on him and shaking hard! I knelt, braced the sticks, and gave him my shoulder to rest his elbow. Every two or three seconds; I feel him shake hard. Jacques asks if he is comfortable with the shot. Grant says no, we wait for 1 to 1.5 minutes for it to turn broadside. No luck, it bounces. Jacques saw it did not go far. It is in the grass. We stalk to make another attempt. All we can see is his head and the top of his back. Every now and then, the wind was blowing on the grass. Jacques said to Grant, "You can shoot through the grass." Grant was not comfortable. He said it. The impala bounced, and we headed back to the truck. I wanted to thank Jacques. He was very patient with Grant, and it built trust with Grant quickly. Jacques and I have had many conversations about our children in the past. I have seen him interact with his little ones. He is a great father to them; I could see that then. The way he handled everything with Grant is just more proof of it. It was a little of a back story when Grant and I were working off the sticks at home. We had conversations, one thing we talked about. if you are unsure of a shot. No one will be mad at you for saying so. A PH will be more than happy for you to tell them that, than to chase a wounded animal. He was able to experience that firsthand. I'm proud of Grant for making the call. He is mature for 11.

We load back up and head back out. We come across 2 Golden Wildebeest bulls. Jacques asked if anyone would like one. Troy says he does. So, we get ready to do our stalk. We stalk about 200 yards to get into position, Jacques sets up the sticks, and Troy lays his rifle across them. I'm filming from this point. He has a good broadside shot. He takes it. See dirt fly up, and the bull kicks and runs off. We look at the video and see he misses just in front of it. We walk back to the truck and see if we can find where they are when. Jacques was able to find them, and we stalked to the again, this time, the bull is quartering towards us. Jacques asked him to put it on the point of the shoulder. Troy squeezes off a round. I see the bull react to the shot, did not hear a whack, you could tell it was hit. We started tracking it and found some light red blood. Nothing dark or any bubbles in it. We started looking for it, and we went about 500 yards. Went back to the truck and got on the seats for a higher vantage point. We drove to where Jacques and the tracker saw them. Troy and Jacques made the stalk this time. Everything was spooked. There was no need to have an extra person to get busted. I watch through the binos as the approach. I could see them and the Wildebeest in the thicker brush. They stopped and got on sticks, some Impala more amongst the Wildebeest, Troy did not have a shot, due to that and the Wildebeest got away. Kim and I were both sick about it for Troy. Jacques assured Troy not to worry, my friend, we would find him. It was later in the day that we headed back to camp for lunch. We rested for about an hour and headed back out to look for it. We searched high and low. As we're searching, we came across a nice blesbok. Jacques asked me if Grant would like to shoot it from the rack. The grass was high here from the sticks. Grant would have a hard time making it happen. Grant hops from the back rack to the front rack with me. I loaded up the rifle for him and we lay it across the support, Grant said he can't get high enough. luckily, Chance's jacket is right there. We quickly folded it up and put it under his butt, now he is tall enough. Grant sets up on it, Jacques tells him to take the one on the left, then we wait. Take the one on the right it is a little bigger. Grant takes it off the safety and squeezes the trigger. Bang, he quickly reloads another round. The blesbok takes two steps and goes down. Grant is all smiles, ear to ear! High fives all around. As we walked up to it, we noticed it was hit a little further back than it needed to be. Jacques showed Grant on the shoulder where it should have gone. When we rolled it to the other side to see if it existed. It had a hole in the center of his shoulder. Jacques said, "Never mind, Mr. Grant, you made a perfect shot." We took pictures, Chance, and I were impressed last time with the effort @JKO HUNTING SAFARIS goes through to take great pictures. Kim was able to experience it, and she was also impressed. After pictures, we loaded back up and started searching for the Golden Wildebeest. We were unable to find it before nightfall. Troy was upset with himself. I could see it; I told him I had seen Jacques and Johaniss (the tracker) find animals I could not believe. Keep faith. They will find it. We had a good dinner. We shared in some storytelling and called it a night.

 

[Mekaniks]

Excellent! Thanks for sharing. Cant wait for the rest

 

[Inline6]

Day 4

Wake up early, and what do I find, Trump had an assassination attempt. WTF! Not only an attempt but connected! I could not believe he was hit in the ear! That is freaking LUCKY! That was the topic of breakfast.

We got loaded up and headed out to look for lion tracks. While we were doing that, we were also looking for Troy's Golden Wildebeest. We found tracks and knew they were fresh. We started scanning the area. In all the tall tan grass, we could see what looked like a black bush. It was the main of a male lion. Jacques asked before we left who was going first. I told him that's easy, Chance goes first. We loaded rifles and started our stalk. The wind was perfect. We were 500 yards away. As we started, the big male got up and started walking away from us. Chance's face, you could see it. He looks at me and says he is so big! The big male was not in a hurry, and he acted like he did not know we were there. We picked up the pace, and we were walking in sand. Our steps are very quiet. We can close the gap. We are close enough that Jacques makes some noise, so we do not catch it off guard. The lion turns back, gives a perfect broadside shot, turns quickly, and heads to the thicker brush. We catch up to it. The big male gets behind some thick cover. We move around to find a better angle. Jacques sets up the sticks, and Chance settles his rifle on them. I'm on the left side of them knelt, for the best angle for me, back the power down to 1 and flip on the red dot. Jacques explains to Chance where he wants him to place the bullet. Chance flips off the safety, places his finger on the trigger, the hammer drops, and the lion growls bolts forward, Chance reloads, and Jacques tells him to shoot it again. Chance sends one clipping its back. The lion stopped moving. It is down. We measured the distance 12 yards. One thing that stuck out with us last time was the effort @JKO HUNTING SAFARIS went through to make sure the pictures are as perfect as possible. Nothing has changed in that department. This is a special moment, and knowing pictures are the only trophies that would be able to take back from this beautiful lion. We felt like we did the first time. They did an outstanding job capturing great images for us.

Now that we have Chance's Lion in the salt, we head back to camp to drop him off. On the way there. We spot a single Golden Wildebeest amongst some Kudu. Jacques glasses it, ask me to show him the video again to look at the horns and face. The animals move off, we cut the off, and Jacques glasses them again. He whispers to me, I think this is our guy, I just need to be sure. The animals get nervous and move off again. We again cut them off Jacques glasses some more, looks at me get ready I need to confirm I'm quite sure this is the one (I'm sitting in the high rack, so his side so we can talk). Have Troy move beside me. The only rifle we have is Kim's 6.5CM. We catch up to it. Jacques says, "Shoot it." Before we could get a round in the chamber, it takes off again. Jacques hurries around to cut it off before it gets in the thick stuff. The Wildebeest stops we have a good angle, Jacques tells Troy to shoot, he lines up, and he is having a hard time with it. The rifle has a very effective brake. I have ears in, Troy does not, so I use my hand to cover his ears. I notice I'm messing him up, and I release a little pressure. He shoots, the Wildebeest runs 5 yards to the left does a 180 and runs another 7 yards back. It stops (I can see it was hit well and very sick at this point). Jacques says, "Shoot it again, Troy takes aim very quickly, sends the round, and the bull crashes down, it was DRT shot." As we walked up, I saw a hole in the top of it back. Okay, he spined it, that why he dropped like he did. The other round hit a little back, connecting with the back of the lungs. Jacques walks up and says the same thing, I thought... only see two bullet holes. Johanss said something to Jacques and pointed at the bull’s head. Troy had shot the bull right below the bottom of the ear. That's why it dropped so fast and hard. We were all relieved, and I came to find out Troy's first shot was high and clipped the top of its back. Jacques did one heck of a job finding this guy! We took pictures and headed back to camp for lunch.

After lunch, we headed back out to cut track to try to figure out where my lion was. We see some springbok. One is a pretty good ram. So, Jacques, G, and I get ready for our stalk. We got to the 120-yard mark, sticks go up, and we set the rifle in the sticks. G gets behind it, and the grass is too tall. G can't take the shot. This is the second time this has happened to us. We walked back to the truck and started looking for lion tracks. We spend an hour or so doing that when we spot some ostrich, the group has a big male in it. This is one on Grant's list, so we give it a go. Jacques pulls up some pictures of an ostrich and shows him where to shoot it. We spent 45 mins stalking this group. G lines up on him several times. They just are not staying still enough to take the shot. Now, all the females and younger males are ahead of the biggest male. They are walking right behind a bush at a quartering away angle not far from being straight. I whisper to G if you have the shot, take it. He flips the safety off and sends one. The bullet connects with the bird, and he stumbles around for 3 yards and crashes down. High fives go around. G looks at me excitedly, dad. I led him just like in fortnight, and it worked! I LOL, Jacques looked at me with what is going on look. I told him what G just said. Jacques got a good chuckle out of it, too. We take some amazing pictures and get it loaded up. These birds are heavier than I was expecting! Very cool trophy, and G informs me that he would like to mount it so that it appears to be flying out of the wall....this should be fun.

Now that the ostrich is down, we cut tracks for a few blocks that Jacques thinks the lion is at. So far, he has been given us the slip. It was dark by the time we finished. It was very noticeable when the sun went down, and the temps dropped quickly. We get back to the lounge in very good spirits. I'm not sure at the time who was sicker about the Golden Wildebeest, Troy, or Kim. All I know, they are much happier now. We eat dinner, and I watch the drinking and listen to the storytelling. We stay up later than we need to. This is part of the experience. Building bonds with good people. We will have plenty of time to sleep on the flight back.

 

[Inline6]

Day 5

We checked for tracks, and this lion is giving us the slip. This is turning into the experience I was hoping for. The tracks do not last long in the sands. As we were cutting new tracks around different blocks, I noticed some zebras. I snapped my fingers to get Jacques attention. He looked at me in the side view mirror. I point in the direction and whisper zebra to him. He got on glass and saw a good one. Jacques, Troy, and I get out and start our stalk. Jacques lent Troy his 30-06 that was suppressed, Troy did not think he was going to be shooting anything today, so he left his rifle at camp. (I don't think I will have to remind him again after this trip) We start heading for the place we think they are going. Jacques glasses, see the direction of movement, and we make our plan. We slowly work our way into position. our plan is starting to fall into place. The first zebra crosses 150 yards in front of us. Several others now cross, they do not know we are there, Jacques sets up the sticks, Troy places the rifle on them. Jacques whispers to Troy the zebra he needs to take, Troy takes aim. Jacques tells him to shoot, with the suppressor on the end of the rifle, there was no doubt about the bullet smack! The zebra ran about 20 yards and fell over. Troy put it on the backside of the shoulder 165SST did a great job. We took pictures, the skinners picked it up, and we went off to look for lion again.

It's getting a little later in the evening, we have been checking watering holes and our tracks to see if we see any signs. As we are working our way to another water pan. Jacques spots a nice impala ram. Another animal on G's list. We hope out and start our stalk. There are some blue wildebeest in the area. After a couple hundred yards in, the Blue Wildebeest takes off. The impala stays around. We try to work our way around to get a better angle on the ram when it slips over the ridge it was on. Jacques whispers, "Let's take a quick look; sometimes they stick around." We worked our way to the ridge, which was another 150 yards. Jacques starts glassing and spots the ram. He throws up the sticks, I place the rifle on them, and Grant finds it is the scope. Jacques tells him where to aim, Grant takes up the first stage of the trigger, the rifle barks. We watch the ram drop after two small bounds. It was a quartering shot, went into the front shoulder, and stopped 6" in front of the offside rear leg. I would guess 24" of travel, which made me feel better for the task to come. We take pictures and get it loaded up and head back to camp for dinner and get our game plan for tomorrow.

(Weight was 72.12grs)
When we were visiting Jacques at his booth at DCS my wife talked to him about shooting a giraffe. I was talking with @Backyardsniper when this conversation between Jacques and Kim took place. So, I talk to Jacques and asked him how in the world is Kim going to kill a giraffe with a 6.5CM? He looked at me and said, not to worry, I have a suppressed 375H&H. We will let her shoot it with that. Will not be a problem at all. That's the back story, now we are on this hunt and somehow Grant was brought into the conversation about hunting a giraffe too...I told Jacques Grant brained a bison on his 8th birthday. I have confidence he can do it with a giraffe, too. Then Chance steps up and says he would also like to hunt a giraffe. Jacques eyes gave one of those looks. Well, I have never taken 3 giraffes in one day, we will try. Grant looks at me and says that tomorrow we are going “giraffing”. We all got a big laugh at it. We had another wonderful dinner they had some drinks and told more stories. Called it a night, it was going to be an early morning.

 

[Inline6]

Day 6 Giraffing

We left camp early 05:45, we were going to a different concession. It was about a 2.5-hour drive, we were right on the Botswana boarder for several miles. Did not think we would be this close to the border. It was an interesting drive, you really appreciate the roads in America that's for sure! We make it to the new concession, for me the drive itself was worth it, found it interesting how the sand colors change, the grass and trees change. It still cracks me up to see all these high fence ranches that use smooth wire with rebar post. I know that their labor is cheap, and obviously it works.

Jacques meets with the ranch manager. They have a conversation and I'm not sure what you call the boss of the trackers and skinners. That guy jumped on the back of our truck with Johanss and G in the middle, they sat on the far backseat. Chance, Kim and I sat in the middle seat. It was a really nice place, we had to drive around a while to find the first group of giraffes. Jacques glassed them, all cow with some younger ones. We move to the next group; Jacques finds an old bull. He asks who is going first? I answered immediately, Kim goes first, then G, then Chance. Was not sure how it was going to happen and how skittish the giraffes would get with some pressure on them.

We hop out of the truck, Jacques shows Kim several pictures of where she needs to aim. Jacques true to his word grabs his suppressed 375H&H. He turns on his the firedot, which Kim really liked and we start out stalk. We work our way from tree to tree and get to the 120 yard mark. Sticks go up and Kim places the rifle on it. Jacques whispers to her the one to take, Kim is on the correct giraffe. Jacques tells her to take to shot when she is ready. At this point in time I'm thinking to myself that Kim is A. not going to feel anything when she shoots or B. she is going to kill both Jacques and myself for letting her shoot this rifle. Kim sent the round making a good shoulder shot. The bull walks about 75 yards and crashes down. Kim tells our boys that the rifle didn’t kick at all and Dad is buying me one like that. (so now I'm on the hook for a 375h&h rifle for her, lol). They are incredibly big animals, their face is very soft, head is very large and heavy. We take our pictures and enjoy the moment. Luckily the ranch had a unimog with a hydraulic lifting arm, making loading and unloading much easier.

Before we took pictures of Kim's giraffe Jacques grabbed Grant and showed him on the shoulder where he needed to aim. I looked at Jacques and said are you sure. Yes sir, just bring your rifle to back him up. I said not a problem other than I help G steady the sticks and he rests his arm on my shoulder... Jacques said bring your rifle and we will see. I'm thinking in my head, we had a complete pass through Golden Wildebeest, had a good 24" on an impala, so that should be adequate for penetration the vitals. I have confidence that G will make the shot. So off we go to find another bull, we drive around for another 20-30 mins and find another good bull. G, Jacques and I start the stalk. There are 5 bulls in this group, Jacques finds one that is by itself. We make our way towards it. Jacques ranges it 127 yards. Sticks go up, I place the rifle on the sticks. G gets behind the rifle, I have Jacques my 458Lott, the backup rifle... G gets settled in, lines up on the mark. He says he's on, Jacques asks are you comfortable with the shot? G, yes sir. Then take it, G takes the shot. You hear the whack of the bullet impact, the giraffe is instantly sick. We tell G to reload and shoot again. By this time the bull is behind some bushes, G is looking through the scope saying he is walking back and forth, he was rocking back and forth. It was less the 45 secs before the bull tumbles to the ground. The bull fell from one shot with a 6.5CM. I'm sure there will be people who comment that it was inadequate for that size animal. All I can say was the round performed, and placement was key. When it was skinned out they tried to find the bullet. I should have taken pictures, I was not thinking. The bullet passed between two ribs, went through to first lung, the top of the heart, and the through the second lung. It did not hit the offside ribs. I'm not sure if a 6.5CM has taken an animal this large with a shoulder shot before? I know people who have culled with a 243 and brained them. Regardless, it goes to show with the correct bullets and good shot placement are key. While on our way to look at G’S bull Ockie sees another really good bull. They call for Chance to come and get his.

Chance and Johanss show up a few minutes later. I stay with G while Jacques, Okie, and Chance stalk the other bull. G and I watch as they get into position, we hear Chance shoot, then he shoots again, and again. They walk up to the big bull and give it an insurance shot. Chance was using his 375 Ruger. In true brother fashion I could hear G say under his breath "mine only took one". Have to love competitive brothers!

(The unimog with G and Chance's giraffes)
Kim and Troy come over to check them both out. We take some good photos and the unimog comes to get them both loaded up. I looked at Kim and asked her what in the world are we going to do with 3 giraffes in the house. We will figure that part out later. In the meantime we are enjoying the moment as a family. As we finished up the pictures of the last giraffe, I wink at Kim and look at Jacques. Jacques Troy just told me he wants to hunt a giraffe too. Jacques gives me that look like WTF, and then I tell him I'm just messing with him. Jacques was damn sure ready to do it, you could see the relief on his face when I told him I was just jacking with him.

Now all the pictures are taken, we go to a little outdoor bar area. Jacques and Okie go to check on the skinners and see how the progress is going. They come back and cook us a nice lunch on an open fire. We eat that and for a little while longer. Made for a nice relaxing afternoon. We go back to the skinning shed to check on the progress and load up what we can. to our surprise they have made good progress. They have Kim's completely done, Grant's and Chance's are 75% done. We are going to have to spilt up because we can't all fit into one vehicle. I offer to stay back with Okie so they can get on the road. We all wanted to see the 6.5CM bullet. So, we stayed a little longer to try to find it. Unfortunately, we were not able to find it. We did see the damage and the organs the bullet passed through. That little bit of extra time we waited around for that got us closer to being done. We were so close now we waited to go together. It was about another 15 mins and we started loading down the cruiser with 3 giraffes worth of capes and legs. It was a little longer drive back with the additional weight. We made it back well after dark. Everyone was pretty worn out for the day. After another delicious dinner and dessert, we called it a night and turned in.

 

[AZDAVE]

Nice writeup so far! Like the detail in the giraffe roundup. I will warn you that wives hunting the rifle collection grows. My wife started with a 7x57 and now has 8 from 22 to 375. She is now eyeing one of my 416's. Very rewarding watching your better half and kids have a very successful hunt.

 

[cpr0312]

Congrats so far and thanks for sharing, look forward to more! @JKO HUNTING SAFARIS always produces for his clients!

 

[7mmFan]

great write up and thanks for sharing. Awesome that you got to have this experience with your family!

 

[Wheels]

Best way I have ever seen to load a giraffe. Thanks for sharing your memories.