SOUTH AFRICA: Kemp African Safaris

[enysse]

bushpig

 

[cpr0312]

bushpig

That will get the blood pumping pre safari!

 

[enysse]

I never had a bushpig in my sights before!

 

[enysse]

brown hyena

 

[cpr0312]

brown hyena

Man, your PH is really getting you pumped pre safari, that's great that all the critters your after are there and on camera!

 

[enysse]

leopard

 

[lwaters]

Looks like you are going to have a great time.

 

[rinehart0050]

Nice leopard!! It would be really hard to not have a "slip of the trigger finger" if one of those guys came within my sights!

 

[Rob404]

Happy Hunting and have a safe trip Eric

 

[Neale]

Eric, Take your woolies as it will be cold at night in the blind. Good luck.

 

[AZDAVE]

Well if the calendar isn't being disingenuous, you should just be getting back from your safari Hope you had the greatest success and a amazing trip. A little money at a time in your safari fund and before you know it you will be introducing your new family to their first trip to Africa. I wish you all the best in life, when you find the "RIGHT" person life is just so mush better. Look forward to hearing your hunt report. The list for our safari next year has about two thirds the same kritters for my wife and myself.

 

[enysse]

Member of AH, I apologize for not posting my hunt report in a timely fashion. I hope to knock the report out now. First of all I want to thank Kemp Safari for the great adventure.
These are some of the pictures right out the back door of the lodge.

 

[enysse]

I can chart in Cerner and Epic all day and all night but when it comes to posting picture from the camera and multimedia well the "the struggle is real". Today it's below zero in Wisconsin, I think I'm starting the third time I've gotten the flu this season so I've got bad tremors, fever, sinus stuffiness and GI issues.....last winter was a breeze compared to this year.......

 

[BRICKBURN]

Life happens.
I’m ready to read what you’ve got.

 

[enysse]

We were hunting in the Waterberg Region of the Limpopo Province. It's very beautiful! The food and lodge was excellent! We had wild game, which was wonderful. I believe we had waterbuck, blue wildebeest, impala and zebra per my request. I'd rather eat what I shoot any day over super market food.

 

[cpr0312]

Some nice views! Look forward to more!

 

[enysse]

Well before I flew out on June 18 th, I was trying my camera I used on previous trips and it was not working. Very frustrating to say the least. I picked up a cheap camera before I left but it was working subpar. The pictures above are from that camera. For most of the rest of the report they are from my guides camera.
Well things started off cold in the Limpopo, I of coarse looked at the future forecast before flying out but the weather report I received was highly inaccurate. They reported lows of 10-12 C, well I can tell you it was only that warm one night out of the ten nights I was there. It was cold, like 2-6 degress C, windy and damp. This weather prolonged the baits but the game was not moving well in the night. The one night it was warm the game was moving very well.
This was a 24 hr kind of hunt. Meaning we hunted when ever we could but since we were hunting for the small night critters were sitting in a blind a lot from sunset to early in the morning. I usually called hunting at 0300 AM but some night we stayed up all night. It just got to cold in the early hours and the game was not moving at all. We did have trail cameras running out. They were good for telling us what was hitting the bait. Some of the times were relevant but it varied a lot!
Thanks to changes before my hunt, which were out of the control of Kemp Safari. It was going to be difficult to hunt a red duiker and sharps grysbok due to permit changes. Yes, we could hunt them but the area was 3-3.5 hrs away from where we were hunting the night animals so that was not convenient. We did try to get a spotted hyena permit but do to changes that was not possible this year either. We changed strategies and I hunted some cull animals. It was exciting and added a lot to the hunt.
I didn't have a practice range before my hunt to practice my shooting. I was using my 7mm Rem Mag in the Winchester Super Grade rifle. I was using 160 gr. Swift A Frame. I was also using the guides 12 gauge shotgun and 223 Rem which had a silencer. The ammo was PMP and worked well for night hunting. It didn't destroy the animals upon impact. My shooting was very good up close but at distance I was poor. I'm not sure if it was my changed eye sight or lack of practice or both. I missed plenty of long range shots at baboons. We saw plenty of them and I ended up messing up every hunting opportunity. That is my fault, I take responsibility for actions.

We hunted a beautiful piece of property for the cull animals. I could cull kudu cows, impala, wildebeest, waterbuck and zebra based on my PH's judgement. I had 3 PH's on this hunt, all were excellent. Below is picture of Matt Kemp and me with a blue wildebeest I shot at 75 yrds strongly quartering to me on sticks. We were looking slightly into the sun. The blue wildebeest didn't go far at all.

 

[Rob404]

Keep posting Eric, and it isn't any warmer here in Ludifisk Land

 

[enysse]

The culling we did serve two purposes. The wildlife population was over populated and needed thinning. The meat could be used for eating and be sold at market. We also needed lots of bait. We were feeding a lot of night animals. The leopards, civet cats, genet, hyena, bushpigs and warthogs were eating a lot good protein meals. If we had a permit for leopard it would not have been hard to fill. That being said we tried to stay out of the leopards way. The area we were hunting the cull animals had good populations of other game. We saw nyala, kudu, mountain reedbuck, eland and klipspringer in excellent trophy quality. I personally had a klipspringer at 40 feet that looked between 5-6 inches. He would have been a puff of fur with my 7mm at that range. I didn't get a picture of every cull animal. We were hunting hard.
We dropped the blue wildebeest above off for skinning and heading out again. We were not gone for about 10 minutes and a big stallion zebra stepped out in front of us. I got out and took a frontal shot at 50 yard s or so. It fell dead in less than 20 feet. I kept the zebra skins, to make rugs for my house. I didn't keep the wildebeest because I don't have room at my house and I was trying to lessen my taxidermy bill. I don't have a picture of that zebra.
We continued to hunt further in the property. We came across this old impala male and I dropped him with one shot about 100 yds away. His horns are worn down, I think he was around 16 inches, maybe more.

 

[enysse]

We threw the impala in the truck and kept hunting, since we were deep in the property. We came up on herd of blue wildebeest shortly after this impala and somehow I missed one twice at 200 yrds. I was not sure of the range but that is my guess. How I missed to his day I'm still scratching my head. I think I wasn't holding the gun tight enough and let it jump at the shot.
We were heading back to the front of the property. This property has a LOT of wildebeest. All of sudden we ran into a herd of a bunch of wildebeest at 100 yrds. I was able to shot two. I shot and drop one, swung the gun and dropped another one trying to escape. I will tell you that 7mm is deadly with proper shot placement. I got to find that one bullet I recovered. @PHOENIX PHIL will be interested to see it. It looks more like a Core-Lokt than a Swift A Frame.