SOUTH AFRICA: Father & Son Trip With Leopard's Valley Safaris In The Eastern Cape

[Wiley64]

Once the duiker was collected, we head back to town to grab lunch, and regroup before we head out that afternoon for zebra and bushbuck and nyala. We arrived at an old nut farm about 30 minutes away, and decided to split up to make the most of the day. I was looking to let the 375 bark again on a disco donkey. The terrain continued to change to a truly tropical looking paradise, resembling east Africa with large vistas and rolling expanses of lush green growth. Antony was as excited as I was the get some reps under the belt of the 375, and as we climbed a small hill, I spotted a bunch of zebras 60 yards away. We went to neutral before we came into view of the herd and the truck rolled all the way back down the hill, hoping they had never seen us. We got out and stalked for a couple hundred yards and realized they were almost surrounded by beefmasters. Even though we got within 40 yards of them, we couldn’t get a clear shot, and eventually they sensed something and moved off.



Antony and I agreed that would have been too easy anyway, so we continued our search and relocated the group again a few hills away, this time we had much more breathing room from the start, and Antony said the plan would be to stalk to their hills adjacent ravine and shoot across it. As we began our stalk I realized how addictive this all was. I could do this every day. Once we finally got to the best visual angle, we realized the wind wasn’t great, so Antony set up the shooting sticks and told me to take the one on the left, and said the distance was 160 yards. He said that zebra have a natural bullseye baked into their coat, a black triangle forms on their shoulder, so just aim at that and you’ll be in the heart lung area.



I put the cross hairs on the black and white triangle and squeezed the trigger. Boom-thwap! I saw the zebra stumble hard as it wheeled around and took off after the shot, I knew I had my zebra. We walked down there and found my zebra 30 yards away, stone dead. Perfect shot, the 300 grain Barnes tsx had hit the heart. This was going to be a fantastic rug! What a day.

 

[Wiley64]

 

[Wiley64]

It was pointed out by several people that saw this zebra that there is a cross or sword on the zebra’s pattern. Super cool.

We used a tractor to get the zebra to the skinning shed, then head out and glassed hillsides for bushbuck, but only found females. We did spot a herd of Cape buffalo. That will be for next time.

 

[Wiley64]

We rendezvoused with my Dad and Bossie, just after he had taken a breathtaking nyala. These things are stunning. What a day in the eastern cape! Another one shot kill for ice man!

 

[rinehart0050]

Awesome sables! Congrats on all the success!

 

[Wiley64]

We had a great dinner that night of fried Cobb, their favorite local fish from the Indian Ocean. It was outstanding. The following day, the plan was to put both me and my dad in a position for duikers and bushbucks. Antony is a bushbuck fanatic, and it shows. We drove about 20 minutes from town to our destination. The farm we were hunting was more like the Scottish highlands than Africa. Getting to meet the landowner is a neat experience, he gave us some advice on finding a nice ram and off we go. We started the morning sitting on a hillside about a mile from the beach, glassing the rolling golden hills piece by piece. This place had plenty of both bushbuck and duiker, as well as oribi. Finally, a duiker presented a shot opportunity and after a brisk walk up over the hill, iceman sent the 173 grain SPCE to the promised land. We collected the duiker and drove around the farm a bit in search for bushbuck, we saw several females but no males.

We were glassing towards the ocean, on the pinnacle of this property lies a ship beacon, and on the slopes of that beacon there was nice bushbuck. Antony made a plan, and we drove within 500 yards of the big bushbuck. Antony used the spotting scope to confirm he was indeed a shooter, he said “the color is magnificent on this ram.” My dad and bossie stayed behind in their truck and watched as the bushbuck whisperer and me head up the most majestic looking hill you can imagine. There were a lot of animals on this hill, so we had to play some cat and mouse to not spook the other bushbuck and scare away the big ram. We got to about 250 yards and Antony said this is probably as close as we can get, you think you can make this shot? I said yes. Antony set up his spotting scope with his phone camera to record and watch the shot, he said it’s important cause bushbuck can be so dangerous when wounded. I had to shoot sitting down cause of all the eyes on us, but the shooting sticks made it manageable. My heart was pounding as we waited for him to clear the other animals and turn broadside. Once the bushbuck got into position, I aimed about 3 inches over its back and squeezed the trigger. “You missed low ross, reloaded and shoot again”, I racked the 375 HH mag and sent another 300 grains of copper up the hill, this time I aimed a body’s width over its back. I heard the WACK of the bullet hitting and saw the bushbuck jump high in the air. “Ross he’s on the right, you hit him, but he’s still up and he’s not a happy camper, get another one in him, it doesn’t matter where.” I had only had two shells in my gun, so I yanked the 3rd out of my Murray leather cartridge slide, racked it, and put my scope a foot over the back of the bushbuck and let it fly, he was mad as hell, his tail curled up white and he appeared to be ready to skewer whoever came near him. My 3rd shot was true, and entered front of his rib cage, delivering enough energy to put the little devil down for good. As we walked to the bushbuck, I laughed as we noticed you could see whales breaching in the nearshore waters of the Indian Ocean. Soon my Dad and Bossie were able to join me and Antony on the hill, and they set me up for pictures that really capture the essence of this hunt.

 

[Wiley64]

After we handled the bushbuck, we drove to town, had lunch, and picked up our bags to head back to the Karoo. We had a late dinner, and crashed. The next morning kudu and oryx were on the menu at desantis sana. The weather was fickle all week, high winds and rain had hit the Karoo while we were gone, the name of the game was to find places that were protected from the wind. I was hunting with my dad and bossie today. Dad was looking for gemsbok and I was after a cape kudu. As we pulled through a photographic area we rolled up on a group of lions on a fresh gemsbok kill, by fresh I mean the gemsbok was still kicking. We got out and took video, awestruck by the king of beasts.

 

[Wiley64]

We got into the conservancy and made a big loop toward the back, the wind would be better there. We saw a few kudu but nothing big. We came up on a thickly wooded hillside that had some kudus milling around in the shade. One of the trackers spotted something and the intensity of the Afrikaan told me I should get ready to stalk. Bossie told me we’d have a short stalk the road to look at a big kudu hill. We got within 230 yards and Bossie said this is as close as we can get, it’s 230, you think you can make that shot? I said yes. He put the sticks up and I belt the crosshairs just a touch over the hump on the kudus back, planning on the drop to put the bullet right in the shoulder, about a foot down. I squeezed the trigger and heard the bullet hit and the kudu collapse. I was overcome with emotion. My dad ran down the road and hugged me and I told him the kudu dropped in his tracks. The kudu picked his head up and I sent another one into his neck. When’s we go to if he needed one more and it was done. My big kudu hill was in the salt. My shot had been high but the 300 grain tsx did enough damage so the bull was anchored. It was all over within a few minutes, and I was proud to have gotten him.

 

[Wiley64]

 

[Wiley64]

Once the recovery team had the kudu handled, we had time for lunch, and made a game plan for the afternoon. Dad was still in th evenings to get out of the wind. So we got out and walked a couple miles to see what we could turn up. Before we got to the gemsbok the tracker and Bossie got clearly excited about something on the upper part of the hill, it was a group of mountain reedbok. As we stalked closer we went out of our way to not spook a group of water buck, then bailed from the road and went up the hill to make our final approach. There was a big one in there and after waiting a few minutes for the right angle, my Dad put a perfect shot on it from 180 yards with me filming over his shoulder.

 

[Wiley64]

Last hunting day. We got up and rolled out at 7:00. Gemsbok and springbok are all e had left. We head back to the giant conservancy we’ve been hunting. The weather was perfect, clear skies, cool, and not a breadth of wind. Bossie was excited and said all the animals would be moving. We hit the ground running, as soon as we arrived at the spot where the lions had caught the gemsbok, we spotted the big male right off the road, and Bossie was able to capture this amazing image on our way to hunt that morning.

 

[Wiley64]

Back to hunting, we got to the conservancy and immediately spotted two groups of gemsbok, as well as a large herd of elephant on a hill. Bossie picked a group with more size to it and drove us to the base of a thick hill. We quietly stalked through the mid morning due to find a good vantage point. The closest we could get was 190 yards, which was a chip shot for ice man. The biggest bull offered him a quartering shot in the warm morning sun and he hit it perfectly. It ran about 100 yards and piled up. My dad had his whole list done, without any drama. What a trip for ice man!

 

[Wiley64]

 

[Wiley64]

Since it was the last day, we didn’t want to hunt late, so as soon as the recovery crew arrived for the gemsbok, we hit the flats looking for my final animal, a springbok. We glasses a few groups before the right situation presented itself to Bossie. There was a group feeding in the open near small cliff in the middle of the flats, so we drove around to within half a mile and jumped it up the gentle slope to what would likely be a 200 yard shot on the largest ram. My dad came along and as we got closer Bossie said there was a really good ram to the far right, we crept up to the cliff edge and he put the sticks up, told me it was about a 200 yard shot. I have the springbok a 8 inch holdover and squeezed. He dropped instantly and before I could even process my excitement we were at a full sprint to get a picture with it before his white flare went away. I was huffing and puffing by the time I got to it, but the cotton candy fluff patch did not disappoint. My dad got the stalk on film from behind me as well. What a way to end the trip!

 

[Wiley64]

We feel very blessed to have gotten to enjoy such a great safari. My dad had the time of his life, Dave and Nikki were wonderful hosts, and Antony and Bossie are first class professional hunters. We are already planning our next trip.

 

[schmijar]

Good thing dad brought a lot of cigars!

 

[AZDAVE]

Nice trip, dad and son hunts are special. The bushbuck and blue diker are my favorite of the animals you hunted.

 

[gillettehunter]

Good shooting and some nice animals. Sounds like a wonderful hunt. Love the outward flare of your Kudu. Some great additions to your trophy room.
Bruce

 

[bo4elk]

Thank you for sharing your hunt. All great animals and photos, excellent write up. One photo in particular really stands out to me - the double sable photo. Both incredible animals and together in the same photo is rare. Add your dad to the picture and it becomes priceless. That's one to blow up, frame and put on the trophy wall next to the sable itself.