SOUTH AFRICA: KMG Hunting Safaris & Kudu Dreams

[Ragman]

Good read. Glad you had a good time in the EC.

Thank you. It was everything that I had hoped and more!

 

[cagkt3]

Catching up on my reading, great hunt and thanks for sharing!

 

[WMU05]

Good stuff here.

Great hunt and nice report. Thanks for sharing.

 

[adgunner]

Ragman, congrats on your hunt, it was a great read .... I should be able to add on to the porcupine and bushpig saga once I finally get some time to write things up. Glad you had such a great time with Marius and KMG!

 

[KMG Hunting Safaris]

Ragman, congrats on your hunt, it was a great read .... I should be able to add on to the porcupine and bushpig saga once I finally get some time to write things up. Glad you had such a great time with Marius and KMG!

Did you notice any quills missing from Aaron's porcupine?

 

[Tim Blackwell]

@Ragman, have enjoyed following your report and bringing up fond memories. Great words and some wonderful trophies that you achieved, and I'm hardly surprised you had a good time.

Marius was probably just happy not to have another lot of Aussies in camp plying him with Rum!

Cheers
Tim

PS...I know what you mean about those hounds. My girls kinda took a shine to them too, as they were missing their mutt back home......

 

[cls]

Great report, thanks.

 

[adgunner]

Did you notice any quills missing from Aaron's porcupine?

I must say Ragman's porcupine looks quite complete. Is that how it is suppose to look?

 

[KMG Hunting Safaris]

@Ragman, have enjoyed following your report and bringing up fond memories. Great words and some wonderful trophies that you achieved, and I'm hardly surprised you had a good time.

Marius was probably just happy not to have another lot of Aussies in camp plying him with Rum!

Cheers
Tim

PS...I know what you mean about those hounds. My girls kinda took a shine to them too, as they were missing their mutt back home......

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Uhhm.... those aren't my dogs in the photo. I only breed killers.

 

[Tim Blackwell]

Uhhm.... those aren't my dogs in the photo. I only breed killers.

I could say the same about my kids. Well, at least one of them!

 

[Ragman]

Uhhm.... those aren't my dogs in the photo. I only breed killers.

Who's dog is this then?

 

[Ragman]

Ragman, congrats on your hunt, it was a great read .... I should be able to add on to the porcupine and bushpig saga once I finally get some time to write things up. Glad you had such a great time with Marius and KMG!

Looking forward to it. Heard quite a bit about your porcupine adventures! If I can ever make it back, bushpig will be on the menu!

 

[Ragman]

@Ragman, have enjoyed following your report and bringing up fond memories. Great words and some wonderful trophies that you achieved, and I'm hardly surprised you had a good time.

Marius was probably just happy not to have another lot of Aussies in camp plying him with Rum!

Cheers
Tim

PS...I know what you mean about those hounds. My girls kinda took a shine to them too, as they were missing their mutt back home......

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Thanks Tim. While my hunt was progressing I was thinking of the similarity with yours. And those dogs were in grave danger of being stuffed in Tina's suitcase!

 

[Nosler guy]

Great lookin' hunt there Ragman - was away from the internet for a while and missed your post/report, just stumbled onto it now. Really like the Nyala and great Waterbuck - congrats on a couple of outstanding trophies

 

[SilentArcher]

Day 3

Now that the spiral-horns were in the salt, it was time to turn our attention to Waterbuck. We would be hunting the same farm as yesterday so we drove to the main yard to pick up Doug again. The area where we hunted the Kudu wasn't very far from the yard, but the part of the property where the Waterbuck lived was an hour drive away. That's driving on the same piece of property for an entire hour and I don't think we hit the end of it then! This farm was a working livestock farm with hundreds and hundreds of Angora goats as well as many sheep. Tina was particularly enamoured with the Angoras as they were quite woolly at the time.

When we came to the area that we were to start hunting, we parked the bakkie and started walking along the "road" and stopping every once in a while to glass. One spot in the road we were walking had a nasty hole in the one track. Inside the hole was a large stick pointing upwards. As Lloyd would be following up with the bakkie, Marius and Doug made a pile of rocks so that he would see the hole without driving in it. Doug was a pretty straight-faced fellow that I had been trying to get a smile out of for two days without success. So when they were finished stacking large rocks, I picked up a little robin egg-sized stone and set it on the top of the pile. I gave Doug a big stupid grin and a thumbs-up and said "I helped"! Finally I got a laugh out of him!

Soon after, either Marius or Doug (I forget which already) spotted a little group of Waterbuck. There was a bull and a couple cows and they were close. Marius slipped off his boots and instructed me to do the same. I figured that there was an awful lot of sharp, pokey things on the ground to be walking around in sock feet, but when hunting in Africa you do exactly as your PH says. As we snuck towards the Waterbuck's location I could hear them start to trot away across some rocks. We topped a little rise and they were standing less than 100 yards away. The bull looked good to me, and I figured that this was going to be an easy shot compared to yesterday's 250 yard poke. Marius was looking through the binoculars without setting up the sticks and I thought that I hoped I didn't have to make an offhand shot! Then to my surprise, Marius turned and shook his head. Not big enough? He replied that he was a good bull but "A Day 8 bull. Not a Day 3 bull". Gotcha. He called Lloyd on the radio and before I knew it, here he came with our boots! I slipped mine on and figured that I'd lace them up when we got to the bakkie, but to just let you know what kind of a guy Lloyd is, he stopped me and tied them for me!

The second area that we tried also produced some Waterbuck cows. After a short time scanning the area with the binoculars, Marius spotted a bull laying in the shade under a tree about 300 yards away. This bull deserved a closer look, so we snuck in closer, all the while being careful not to alert the cows. We finally got to a spot where we could get a good look at this bull, but this one was also not ready yet. We crept back to the truck and let the bull continue his nap. By now it was lunch time.

After lunch, we went to a third area. This place I found particularly scenic and enjoyed walking through it. As we walked along we came upon a very good warthog. I was almost tempted, as this one was bigger than the boar I shot in Namibia, but we were on a Waterbuck mission. However, Marius said that he had a guy coming in that wanted a trophy warthog, so he figured that he would be bringing him back here. As the afternoon progressed Marius pointed to his nose and whispered that he could smell Waterbuck. We slowed right down and stayed alert. As we started to crest a small hill, Marius suddenly went down and motioned for us to do the same. He told me to move up beside him but to stay low. When I reached him, he told me where to look and as I peaked over the edge of the hill, I could clearly see the neck, head and horns of a Waterbuck about 130 yards away. However, his entire vital area was covered by the bushes he was standing in. He was not aware of us, but was facing our way so we had to be very careful. Marius decided that we would wait to see if the bull would take a few steps to expose his shoulder. I asked if that meant he was a good one, and Marius just nodded and gave a thumbs-up. At this point it was a touch past 4:30pm. Getting late. After a half hour of waiting, the bull still hadn't moved. We were now starting to get concerned as the light was just starting to fade. Marius made the decision to send Lloyd and Doug way around the bull. The plan was for them to just talk at a normal volume so that the bull would hear them but not spook right away. However they hadn't gotten far when some female Waterbuck started moving out. This caused the bull to finally move, so we had to quickly get set up on the sticks. While we were sitting and waiting Marius had told me to really concentrate on my shot because I wouldn't get away with a bad shot on a Waterbuck like I did with my Kudu. I kept that in mind as I put the crosshairs on the bull and squeezed the trigger. At the shot we heard the thump as the bullet hit home and the bull bolted into the bushes to the right. Seconds later he came flying out to the left, across an open area and them back behind some trees. As we discussed the shot, Marius said that he thought he saw him go down. We were running out of daylight, so headed straight to where we last saw him. Sure enough we found him laying dead after a 100 yard death-dash. Marius declared "You don't know what you've done here. That is a Proper Chief!" He was right...I probably didn't truly understand. But I do know that I was very happy with him! Beautiful bull.

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It's only the end of Day 3 and four of my six animals are done. Have to start thinking about making an addition!

Wow looks like you have had an awesome hunt with Marius so far! That is a Whopper Waterbuck, congrats Aaron!

 

[gillettehunter]

Thanks for sharing your hunt with us. The East Cape is a great hunting destination. Congrats on some nice trophies. Looks to me like your part of the family according to the dogs....... Nice pics. Good writing.
Bruce

 

[Ragman]

Great lookin' hunt there Ragman - was away from the internet for a while and missed your post/report, just stumbled onto it now. Really like the Nyala and great Waterbuck - congrats on a couple of outstanding trophies

Thanks Brett. How did your hunt go?

 

[Ragman]

Wow looks like you have had an awesome hunt with Marius so far! That is a Whopper Waterbuck, congrats Aaron!

Thanks Rocky, was a great experience. You need to get a report done for your last hunt!

 

[johnnyblues]

Curious how big was your waterbuck? I know mine was a good one yours looks great too!

 

[Nosler guy]

Thanks Brett. How did your hunt go?

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