SOUTH AFRICA: Huntershill Safaris August 2018 Plains Game Paradise

[One Day...]

My very own personal private "chalet"...

Full in-suite bathroom with flushing toilets and hot shower, daily full-service housekeeping, daily laundry, etc. Truly five stars setting and service, at a surprisingly affordable daily rate.

 

[One Day...]

A gorgeous Lodge, full of character...

With a full and complimentary bar. Just ask and you will receive.

 

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An endlessly kind and ever-attentive staff, ready to respond to you every request, and French-speaking and French cuisine trained Chef and Sous Chef who will feed you gourmet meals. Heck, I should know, I was born and lived 30 years in France!

If you like venison, you will find every night a different kind in your plate, or if you do not relish it, not worries, there is always a choice of non-venison dishes for you to chose from.

Came back late from a memorable hunt? Leave early for a unique hunting block? No problem. Max, the Chef, will cook you breakfast, lunch or dinner pretty much anytime.

 

[One Day...]

A fleet of modern, well kept, cleaned daily, top-notch Toyota Land Cruiser extended cab 'go anywhere' (truly, you will be amazed where these things can go!) hunting trucks...

 

[One Day...]

My very own 'tank' for 2 weeks. No old beat-up leaky rust buckets at Huntershill...

And I even got to drive it. So, OK, the steering wheel is on the wrong side, but nothing is perfect, right? LOL

 

[cpr0312]

Congrats on the hunt and thanks for sharing! Amazing kudu!

 

[Therack]

Congratulations on some nice animals. Thanks for sharing pictures of the lodge and accommodations.

 

[gesch]

Incredible! I am very impressed with your animals. What a trip. What rifle did you use? Bullet? How crowded was the camp with other hunters? What was that like? Were there internal high fences? This looks amazing. Great decision on a slightly longer trip than the norm. Was the travel manageable? Is the political situation concerning for the hunter? Thanks for allowing me to ask the barrage of questions. I am really interested in your report and experience. Thanks in advance for any answers.

 

[One Day...]

Incredible! I am very impressed with your animals. What a trip. What rifle did you use? Bullet? How crowded was the camp with other hunters? What was that like? Were there internal high fences? This looks amazing. Great decision on a slightly longer trip than the norm. Was the travel manageable? Is the political situation concerning for the hunter? Thanks for allowing me to ask the barrage of questions. I am really interested in your report and experience. Thanks in advance for any answers.

Rifle & bullet - I needed to shoot flat enough for the Mountain Reedbok, and hit hard enough for the Eland, and more than half the animals were elk-sized (Kudu, Hartebeest, Wildebeests, Waterbuck, etc). So, I took my Weatherby Mark V .340 Wby Stainless (true stainless earlier model, not the current silver coated carbon steel Weathermark); 26" barrel; stainless steel bottom; Bell & Carlson Medalist Kevlar & Aramid stock with full length aluminum bedding block and pillars; Zeiss Diavari Z 2.5-10x48 30 mm tube; drilled & tapped for 8x40 base screws; Talley bases and rings).
I shot Weatherby factory ammo with 250 gr Nosler Partition. The rifle is sighted +4" @ 100 yd; +5" @ 200 yd (horizontal cross hair on the belly line between 50 and 200 yd); zero @ 300 yd; -11" @ 400 yd (horizontal cross hair on the shoulder line a 400 yd).

Yeah, I know, some people say they do it better with 7x57 for everything, or 22-250 for all I know, and God bless them is they are happy with it, but I like to hit them hard. If there is one thing that 40 years in the hunting fields taught me, is that not everything will always go perfectly, and a big bullet with a lot of energy will never make up for poor shot placement, but it sure does give you an edge for 'any angle' follow up shots, all the way up to 500 yd if need be.

True, the .340 Wby recoils significantly, and few people shoot it well because probably few people shoot it enough. All I can say is that I shoot cloverleaf groups with it at 100 yd...

... and I shot 21 animals on this hunt, none of which went away. The only two follow ups we had were on the Kudu - the first shot quartering away at 300+ yd did break the shoulder but punched through just ahead of the lung; and on the Blue Wildebeest - which I shot on the trot at 300+ yd with stiff cross wind, and ended up hitting a bit far back. In both cases these were my mistakes for not correcting properly enough for the angle, run and crosswind, but the big .340 made them so sick that the Kudu offered follow up shots (it took 2 with the adrenaline in full flow), and the Wildebeest only went a few hundred yards before bedding in a bush.

The one thing I will do different next time is that now that I am almost done finishing up the lot of .340 Wby ammo I bought a while back (I buy 5 boxes at a time from the same lot in order to not have to re-sight the gun constantly), I will switch to the 225 gr TTSX factory load. If you reduce bullet weight by 10%, it reduces gun recoil by 20% (all other variables being constant). That will be good, although hardly necessary. More importantly, I love the 250 gr Partition, but advances in technology are such that the 225 gr Barnes X is now a better offering. By the time the Partition sheds its front core, in the first third of the animal width or the first quarter of the animal length, its rear core weighs much less than 225 gr, and I expect that the Barnes X will do everything the Partition did, and more in term of further penetration lengthwise in up-the-rear-end follow up shots.

Camp crowd - I was alone in camp for the first 7 days, then a dozen Mexicans and Spaniards showed up. This did not have any adverse effect at the lodge - Huntershill is well equipped to cater to large groups, nor in the field - the 100,000 acres are amply enough so that you do not see another hunting party during the day.

Internal fences - to the best of my observation, there are no internal fences. There are fences around different blocks separated by public roads (remember, 100,000 acres is a lot of space), and there are internal fences around the lodge to keep lions from eating clients - Huntershill runs a conservation program in addition to its hunting program (more on that later) - but buffalos, rhinos, etc. were free roaming with everything else on the property, and we spent days without opening or seeing a fence.

Travel - no question it is long, but well worth it, especially if you add a couple days of hunting to your package. The cost of additional days is peanuts compared to the cost of the airfare or the overall cost of the hunt, and it gives you a more relaxed time. You are not thinking "leaving" by the second day of your hunt. Some of the best $100 spent was on the pre-approved rifle import permit offered by Afton House. They waited for me at International Arrivals in Johannesburg, whisked me through police formalities, and checked me for the East London leg of the flight. That took a considerable amount of stress out of the travel.

Political situation - it would be naive to say that land expropriation without compensation is not a major item right now in South African politics, and, logically, people are worried. There was a report on TV of a large farm overrun by a mob when I was there, but this was in the farmland area, not in Eastern Cape. The government appears cognizant of the fact that a land grab would destroy the economy and ruin the country back to the stone age (see Zimbabwe that used to be the bread basket of Africa and now must rely on international charity to feed its people), but at the same time, in order to stay relevant after essentially 20 years of failed government and a strong push on its left side by the EFF (Economic Freedom Fighter), the ANC (African National Congress) is using liberally election-winning demagoguery and creating expectations which are going to be hell to bring back to reality.

 

[One Day...]

... so, to summarize the political situation chat, its impact on clients at Huntershill was absolutely zero. Like in every other countries (wink, wink) the political shenanigans and hyperbola of TV commentators are somewhat disconnected from day to day life.
We shall see what the future holds, but unless the government is crazy enough to launch a full fledged land grab - which is highly unlikely and which would likely result in massive civil unrest I would not want to be part of - it seems unlikely that the hunting industry will be affected. Beside, hunting 'farms' in Eastern Cape are essentially unfit for cultivation and are not the type of land targeted by the political agitators and demagogue promise-makers...
For what is is worth, I was in fact thanked by both the black Immigration Officer, then the black Police Officer who processed the rifle import permit promptly and courteously, for "coming to hunt and spend money in South Africa, which they really need and appreciate" (maybe not a word for word quote, but an honest capture of the meaning).

Tipping - The tipping rates for Safaris are well established (see guidelines offered by our host Jerome at https://www.africahunting.com/threads/tipping-guide.183/). I went on the generous side because I was genuinely happy and in my mind every dollar I gave was earned several times over, and people seemed pleased with my tips.
The one thing that annoyed me mildly was that virtually all airport security (police?) officers checking or releasing the rifle case overtly asked for tips, which I understand they are not supposed to do. My recommendation would be to either say no, which I had to do once I had exhausted my $5 bills - with the risk of seeing a 5 minute process then drag into a 2 hour stress test, or - more expeditiously, making sure that you have 10 $5 bills in your wallet reserved for this. I had not envisioned this, and I only had 3 $5 bills and I was not about to tip $20 for the hard labor of checking the serial number of my rifle.

Further questions/information - please feel free to ask any other question. I consider myself so blessed for this trip that the least I can do is help others have a similar experience. You can also contact Cherelene Greyvenstein, CheChe for her friends, at info@huntershillsafaris.co.za, I bet that she will be happy to answer any question.

 

[Adrian]

Congratulations on a successful hunt and trip.
I believe that Keith Warren's 'High Road' series has a few episodes at Huntershill when he hunts plains game.
Do a YouTube search and you will find them easily.

 

[Ridgewalker]

A grand safari with some excellent trophies! Congratulations and thanks for the photos and report!

 

[One Day...]

In this part, Part 3, I will share a few logistic details. Veterans of many African Safaris please disregard, this is provided for first time African hunters' benefit.

Since this was not entirely my 'first rodeo' I have a long standing packing checklist and packing method (to the madness LOL) that served me quite well, with a few adaptations.

Now, what you need to know to understand my somewhat anal perspective on logistics, is that in 2006 I ended up showing at the Prince George, British Columbia, airport for a 10 day Grizzly and Moose hunt, with ... just what I was wearing !?!?!? My rifle was destroyed at the Phoenix airport (see https://www.africahunting.com/media...rno-602-action-damaged-during-handling.65928/) and to add insult to injury my duffel bag was lost for 3 days.

So, now I travel in hunting clothes (at least I am dressed for it if nothing else shows up)...

... and I haul with me a carry-on backpack that contains everything I cannot reasonably do without for the hunt (assuming regular laundry)...

... and I hope (as a strategy LOL) that the main duffel bag will somehow make it, with all its goodies...

For an August hunt in Huntershill in South Africa's Eastern Cape, the following is critical:

1) Yeah, it is Africa, but it is winter in Africa, at the most southern end of Africa, and Huntershill (45 minutes northwest of Queenstown) is at 5,000 ft elevation. As indicated by a search at https://weatherspark.com/m/92839/8/Average-Weather-in-August-in-Queenstown-South-Africa it is cold before sunrise and after sundown. We had several white frost mornings and it even snowed on the Huntershill mountain one day. As you can see in most trophy pictures, mid mornings and afternoons are balmy enough for shirt sleeves, but a goose-down vest is welcome in the morning and evening, and we had a couple overcast days when a big insulated parka was quite justified. I am happy I took one.

2) Bring your own laser range-finder. I had mine and was happy for it. To my surprise the 4 PHs I interacted with did not have one. Now, they are pretty good at judging distances, in most cases, but no-one is perfect. This is not a big deal up to 200 yd, but things get quickly different toward and past 300 yd. And no, I do not advocate playing 'sniper' and shooting at 600+ yd as some 'hunting' (?) videos show, but most calibers points of impact will be anywhere from 6"to 12" apart between 200 and 300 yd, which is not a ridiculous distance to shoot at in open hills. 6" up or low will often mean a miss or a wounding shot instead of a clean shot. Never mind 12".

3) Bring plenty of ammo, especially if this is your first time in Africa. Unless you are a very, very hardened 'old-hand' chances are you will get excited, and chances are you will get anxious to miss opportunities as animals disappear behind bushes. That leads to hurried shooting and trigger jerks. One of the hunters who arrived during my second week shot his Impala 11 times! And do not think that this is uncommon. Heck, I 'inexplicably' missed a Red Hartebeest 3 times at 250 yd, to my growing amazement, until drying firing on the subsequent empty chamber revealed a fantastic trigger jerk. I would have sworn that I had been inoculated a long time ago against this beginner's mistake but I guess I had relapsed LOL. Realizing it instantly fixed the issue, but I cost me 3 rounds.
Also, expect to deliver many finishing shots on dying animals on the ground. It is just amazing how tough African game is and you will be surprised how often animals are still breathing when you get to them. Yeah, I know, you can finish off a dying animal many different ways (knife etc.) but I personally do not hunt them to see them suffer, so I humanely deliver instant painless death. Another dozen rounds by the time the hunt ends.

4) Do not even think about going to Africa without a quality pair of full-size binocular 10x or 12x if you mean to be hunting. Yeah, you can stroll along distractedly behind your PH and let him hunt for you and point what and when to shoot, but you would be missing the hunting part. Expect to spend 6 hours per day on your glass, so miscollimated, blurry, or otherwise poor binocs will get you a royal head-heck and you will miss most of the thrill of finding and judging the animals. Oh, and by the way, bring a glass cleaning kit including air blaster, retractable lipstick-style cleaning brush, cleaning fluid and individually-wrapped pre-moistened lens wipes. You will be amazed at how much dust your lenses will collect, and cleaning them with the back of your sleeve, will ruin them. Guaranteed.

5) Bring sturdy mountain boots with good ankle support. I used a pair of legendary Russell boots that are the absolute best for silent stalking, but that offer essentially zero ankle support. This is a good choice for African plains hunting in general, but a bad choice for Huntershill where you will generally hunt rocky hills strewn with ankle twisting rocks of all sizes. Light mountain hiking boots (not the Alpine expedition style! LOL) are best.

6) The quality of Iphone pictures is just amazing these days, but bring a good camera and several memory cards, and double-shoot all your trophy pictures with the phone and the camera. Beside giving you a back-up - just in case - in some mysterious cases phone pics will be better than camera pics, or vice versa.

Off everything I brought, illustrated in the above pictures, the things I ended up not using were:
- The gun tool kit. I will bring it again anyway because there is no predicting when screws go loose etc. I used daily the BoreSnake to remove any dust in the barrel.
- The advanced first aid kit, although I used the basic kit several times on myself and others for various cuts etc. I will still bring it again because it is hard to predict when the stuff will hit the impeller, and, having a military past, I do not exclude people getting hurt when guns are around.
- The lightweight bipod. Useless in the bush. But I used extensively my CamelBak to get a rock-solid shooting stance, resting on boulders.

The one thing I got wrong was the power plug adapters (to recharge the phone and camera). I had the new South African standard 2 small prongs adapters (similar to the European standard), but Huntershill (and most South Africa) still use the older 3 big prongs power plugs. Not to worry, Huntershill add an adapter to lend me.

 

[sestoppelman]

Congrats on a most excellent hunt! Great report and pictures.

 

[gesch]

Thanks for the detailed answers to my questions. I found all of the report really interesting and helpful. Your packing information is also most interesting.

 

[Ridgewalker]

Good info. My carryon and check bags are very similar.

 

[Nyati]

Congrats on your hunt Pascal, very good and interesting trophies !

Thanks for your report.

 

[Tom Leoni]

Salut, Pascal -

This is probably the best hunt report I've ever read--it preemptively answered so many questions I have. A couple things I'm still curious about: 1) did you use shooting sticks, and if not, did you find any sort of support especially for the longer shots? 2) Did you go by yourself or bring a significant other, and if so, does the outfitter have something cool to do for a non-hunter?

I want to congratulate you again for the excellent trophies as well as the fantastic report.

 

[One Day...]

Salut, Pascal -
This is probably the best hunt report I've ever read--it preemptively answered so many questions I have. A couple things I'm still curious about: 1) did you use shooting sticks, and if not, did you find any sort of support especially for the longer shots?
I want to congratulate you again for the excellent trophies as well as the fantastic report.

Hello Tom. Thank you for the kind words. Yes the PH had a set of sticks, the quick adjust 'Trigger Stick' tripod from Primos, and we used them extensively either standing or sitting depending on the bush height. Clearly sticks help in any position, but if you have not practiced with them (.22 lr is fine at 50 yd for basic practice) you will find that the sticks only stabilize the rifle, not your body, when you stand. I had practiced, so I knew that, and the hunt confirmed that past 200 yd, the sticks are not a miracle solution for shooting in a standing position when your body sways in the wind... Conversely, I can get almost bench-rest solid when using the sticks while sitting, but this limits their application in high vegetation on flat ground.

At Huntershill, most of the hunting actually takes place in hilly country, so, by far, the best shooting option is to use large boulders as field rests. Within a day we had our system tuned up. I initially carried my CamelBack mini backpack with water and a fleece, until the PH, Jason, asked me to let the tracker carry it, as apparently they consider it part of their job, and carrying it yourself could be misinterpreted as you not trusting them or something to that effect. So, the routine became that Strahli, our Bushman tracker, always picked up my CamelBack when we left the truck, and automatically laid it on the boulder I was setting upon. Leaning/wrapping as much of my body as convenient on the boulder, and resting the gun on the CamelBack with the fleece in it, gave me bench-rest stability and we were able to capitalize on a number of opportunities, because, yes, you can approach most game to less than 200 yd in the bush, but open hills are a different matter, and the big ones did not become big by being dumb and letting you come and set up at bayonet range ;-) Few of the shots came at less than 200 yd, a fair number came around 250 to 300 yd, and some at longer range. The Gemsbok, Kudu, Mountain Reedbok, for example, proved pretty shy, and the big males stayed way up on the hill sides...

 

[One Day...]

Did you go by yourself or bring a significant other, and if so, does the outfitter have something cool to do for a non-hunter?
I want to congratulate you again for the excellent trophies as well as the fantastic report.

No I did not. My wife actually loves the hunt, and she has pretty sharp eyes behind a set of binoculars, but she hates the killing...

Your question is a great question, and it is a perfect segue into a new part of this report: what else is taking place at Huntershill, that a spouse - or yourself - could like to do...

Well, there are the classic accommodations: nice swimming pool, outdoor lounge, etc. ...

... but much more interestingly, Huntershill also runs a conservation program so a spouse - and a hunter - can actually spend a lot of quality time viewing and photographing a lot of animals you would not expect in a typical 'hunting' property. For example:

Two lioness keeping watch on a rocky ridge....

While 'papa' is taking a nap...

Rhino roam freely on the property...

Hippo prefer to stay close to the water...

Buffalo look at you 'as if you were owing them money'...

Cheetah are notoriously camera-shy...

Giraffe are ever curious...

And Sable live in perfect matrimony...

Huntershill offer about any spouse game-viewing opportunity you may desire, with their own truck and guide, independently from the hunt.