SOUTH AFRICA: My First African Adventure With Wild Wildebeest Safaris

[Jay Bucher]

In 2017 while attending a Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation Banquet I purchased a 5 day safari. This hunt had been donated by Kannas Kannemeyer of Wild Wildebeast Safaris. Fast forward to almost a year later.

The big adventure was about to begin!


Departed Jacksonville,FL on 3-31-18. Arrived in Atlanta,Ga and then left for the 15 hr flight to South Africa. Arrived in Johannesburg on 4-1-18 and was met by my PH Jacques Kellerman. 4 hr truck ride and we arrived in Limpopo.


Day 1 started at the range to make sure my rifle had survived the trip....all good.

The very first day was an awing experience.


I learned very quickly that these guys (Wild Wildebeest) are there to help you get the best of what you are looking for. And not to just shoot the first of whatever comes along. They hunt, they stalk and work hard to make your experience the best it can be.

Day 1....

Impala

Blesbuck



I will definitely go back. Would highly recommend a trip with Wild Wildebeast Safaris.

Several things I would recommend if your considering a trip like this.


Be open minded to the animals you want to hunt. I had a predetermined list. But after I saw them in person and the other numerous possibilities....my list changed. After Day 1 I wanted a Kudo


Take the advice of your PH. This is what they do. And love doing it

 

[CAustin]

Congrats on your hunt and thanks for sharing the report.

 

[gillettehunter]

So did you take any additional animals? Sounds like you had a good time. Congrats
Bruce

 

[Jay Bucher]

Day 2 we went we went after a kudo. We saw several kudo cows and wildebeest through out the morning. We also saw a heard of eland. Jacques said there was a very big eland bull in the group. At the time I had no interest in an eland. We hunted the rest of the morning for a kudo. We saw two big kudo bulls. Jacques told me to shoot the bull on the left. I could only see one of the bulls. When I finally could see the bigger bull he was changing zip codes. I never got shot at him.

Later that afternoon we saw some wildwildebeest. Jacques saw the big eland again. He asked what he needed to do to talk me into taking that eland. He assured me it would be a great trophy. After a brief discussion we went after the eland. We headed of through a couple hundred yards of sticker bushes. When we got through it I was bleeding from both arms and legs. I think Jacques had two small scratches. We thought we were busted by the wildwildebeest. We found the eland watching us. I had a frontal shot. I heard the bullet smack him and he took off. I was able to shoot him again in the shoulder before he hit the thick stuff. Jacques and I were able to get in front of him while the tracker, David followed him. I put one in the crease and he dropped liked a ton of bricks.

 

[Nyati]

Congrats Jay, nice Eland you got there !

 

[cpr0312]

Congrats and thanks for sharing!

 

[Mark Biggerstaff]

Congrats! Very nice Eland!!

 

[LivingTheDream]

That eland is special, congratulations!

 

[enysse]

Great choice on shooting that eland! It's very nice, I assure you!

 

[peras]

Congratulations. Tonie runs an excellent outfit.

 

[MAdcox]

Very nice Eland, congrats

 

[FLhunter7]

Congratulations and beautiful trophy cool to see someone from around me (I live in St Johns) go on an African safari.

 

[Jay Bucher]

Thanks, I live in St Johns as well.

Jay

 

[Ridgewalker]

Please go on! I’m enjoying this! You’re doing great!

 

[rinehart0050]

Great looking trophies- congrats! Lets see some more!

 

[Jay Bucher]

I was able to get a wildebeest on really cool piece of property.. It was a huge open plain. There a couple of herds of wildebeest. After we watched them for a while Jacgues gave me the go ahead. I finally had a wildebeest down. We spent the rest of the looking for another impala. Jacques assured me we could find a larger ram. We saw a lot of impalas. We watched a group of about 10 rams. A few of them were fighting. It was very cool seeing this. He gave me the green light on a ram he estimated was 24". It turned out he was a little off. It was 24.5". I'm still waiting the pictures from Jacques for the impala.

I found out that Jacques was into bass fishing. We had talked about bass fishing, so we went bass fishing. I couldn't believe they use the same lures/worms I use in Florida. If you anyone from Florida you know they like to catch a bass. He caught his largest bass to date. We spent the afternoon catching bass. It was a cool part of the trip I never expected.

 

[JES Adventures]

Great report Jay, thanks for sharing the experience. Congrats on the great trophies.

 

[Dr Ray]

Nice blesbok.

 

[lil 2 sleepy]

I hunted at wild wildebeest with Jacques last year. Great guy, and some excellent trophies. Congrats on your hunt.

 

[cls]

Thanks for the report, great trophies. So when are you going back????