SOUTH AFRICA: First Safari In The Eastern Cape With KMG Hunting Safaris

[PARA45]

Beautiful color on that blue, almost brown. What are you going to do with the animals taken, shoulder mounts or European skull mounts? That kudu deserves a shoulder mount.

 

[BourbonTrail]

Eastern Cape is definitely on my list after these pictures.

 

[PARA45]

Eastern Cape is definitely on my list after these pictures.

God willing, I'll be hunting the Eastern Cape next year.

 

[Uncle Sauce]

Beautiful color on that blue, almost brown. What are you going to do with the animals taken, shoulder mounts or European skull mounts? That kudu deserves a shoulder mount.

Well, the plan definitely changed as the hunt continued! Originally I was going all Euros with quite a few full skins.
Then after I got the kudu I decided on going with a shoulder mount on that one. I won't spoil the rest of the report but I figure I'll have maybe (2) shoulder mounts and a mix of flat skins & back skins. The good thing is the skinner was caping for full skins (since that was what I had planned) so I do have some options. I still need to work out the details with the taxidermy company.
Marius helped me out with info / details so that was helpful in deciding what to do.

 

[Uncle Sauce]

Eastern Cape is definitely on my list after these pictures.

There is definitely some beautiful country where I was!

 

[BourbonTrail]

God willing, I'll be hunting the Eastern Cape next year.

Plenty of time to determine your cigar load out

 

[JOHN GRENZ]

Really enjoying your hunt report and photos! Great animals in the salt so far and looking forward to the next days report. Especially as we are hunting the same ground next month when Nick picks us up in East London on June 7th.

 

[kdenn]

Excellent report and photos! thanks for posting. looking forward to the rest.

 

[Uncle Sauce]

Really enjoying your hunt report and photos! Great animals in the salt so far and looking forward to the next days report. Especially as we are hunting the same ground next month when Nick picks us up in East London on June 7th.

Nick will take great care of you. Ask him to take you to the 'Giant Warthog' spot - You might have better luck than I did!

 

[Uncle Sauce]

Excellent report and photos! thanks for posting. looking forward to the rest.

Thank you - Glad your enjoying!

 

[Uncle Sauce]

Day 6 – Sunday

Up again early with a fitful nights sleep dreaming of warthogs laughing and joking about my poor marksmanship the day before. A light breakfast and onto the neighboring property in search of the monster pig that I had missed a couple days prior.

Picked up the tracker and proceeded to glass our known 'Hog Heaven' but no large pigs appeared. Drove and glassed all day but didn’t see any hogs worth putting a stalk on.

 

[Uncle Sauce]

Day 8 – Tuesday

On to another property in search of bushbuck, blesbuck, possibly nyala and of course pigs. Left early to get there for sunup and picked up the property PH and off we go.

Had some intermittent light rain with decent wind and we glassed hard and covered a lot of country. The property was known for its bushbuck and I can see why! Didn’t see much most of the day except for some impalas that weren’t really moving.

Weather started clearing up late morning but we still weren't seeing much.

Finally early afternoon we spotted a few young Nyala bulls come out way above us behind a dam. We started out on foot, hugging the treeline and keeping the dam between us and them. We worked in below the dam and crawled up the dam to watch the young bulls in the hopes that a larger bull would join them.

I was laying down with my bipod watching the young bulls for awhile when all of a sudden they perked up and started watching the treeline. Nick told me to be ready since it could be another bull coming. We couldn’t see the treeline since we were laying down with just our head above the lip of the dam and some brush was obstructing our view back to our left. Then Nick says he spotted a large bull coming. After a minute I could see him as well. He was walking very slowly like he had arthritis! – Nick told me later that’s how they act when they are asserting themselves. Good thing he was walking slow because I had a small window of visibility between the bush on my left and a large thistle on my right.

Nick gave me the range at 155 yards and told me to take him any time. I squeezed the shot off and it felt good but the Nyala jumped like a rodeo star and took off into the treeline. We waited a few minutes and then went to look for him. No blood was found and I’m sweating it a little even though I knew it was a good shot. A few more minutes and he was found about 5 yds. in the tree line.

After a round of congratulations and photos we continued to glass the rest of the day for bushbuck but only a couple females were sighted so back to the lodge we went.

Apppetizers at Outspan

 

[PARA45]

Wow, another whopper. That is one stud of a Nyala, congrats!!!!

 

[Uncle Sauce]

Wow, another whopper. That is one stud of a Nyala, congrats!!!!

Thanks @PARA45 - I was glad to have him. Such a beautiful animal!

 

[PARA45]

Thanks @PARA45 - I was glad to have him. Such a beautiful animal!

Kudus & Nyalas are my two favorite antelopes. Next year I'll be chasing Nyalas.

 

[gillettehunter]

Nyala are beautiful animals. Congrats on a nice trophy.
Bruce

 

[Ragman]

Nice Nyala! I envy all you guys with your pics of dry haired Nyalas...when I shot mine with Marius, it stumbled and rolled long enough that it fell into the river. So my pic is with a soggy bull!!!

 

[Uncle Sauce]

Nice Nyala! I envy all you guys with your pics of dry haired Nyalas...when I shot mine with Marius, it stumbled and rolled long enough that it fell into the river. So my pic is with a soggy bull!!!

Thanks Ragman! Wow - Did Marius jump in after it and retrieve it for you!?

 

[Bill DeHaan]

Fantastic Nyala! Your report and pics are really getting to me. I am so looking forward to my time there in a week.

 

[Uncle Sauce]

Fantastic Nyala! Your report and pics are really getting to me. I am so looking forward to my time there in a week.

Thanks Bill - Best of luck on your trip, I'm sure you'll have a great time!