SOUTH AFRICA: Northern Cape With Namaqua Safaris May 2022

[Uncle Sauce]

Great report - enjoying!

 

[gillettehunter]

5/22 second to last day.
Willie is determined that we’re going to get a Fallow. We leave at 7:45 and head to Fallow hill. We arrive there and find no Fallow. A herd of Rhebuck are still in the area and we take a quick look at them. Nothing we’re wanting. Off we go back to the area by the owners house. We switch to the landowner’s truck with his son driving. He knows where the Fallow have been hanging out. We drive to the West and I spot some Fallow perhaps 1/2 mile away. There is a dry stream bed that goes towards them, but the son says they will stand for the truck so we drive their way. The Fallow head up the hill……..
I’m a little frustrated as I wanted time to look and make a stalk. Instead we drive to the base of the hill as close as we can get. I bail off. Range is just under 400. I dial my scope and proceed to miss. Has me concerned as the shot felt good??? What the heck. There are 3 bucks and a half dozen does. They move up the hill and stop at 484. I dial up some more and prepare to shoot. The herd moves up the hill and then my buck separates enough for a shot. Boom. Whap and he is DRT! I feel a surge of relief. As we walk to the buck I’m not thrilled about no stalk on this fallow. When we get to him I get a close look.
He is a very mature buck that has fully participated in the rut. He has broken most of his points off and shows he earned his right to breed. I’m glad I had the chance to hunt him. I believe the one I missed was significantly bigger.
I’ll always remember the horns shining in the setting sun. I have several animals that I never killed that I saw or missed. A mule deer and a Marco Polo ram….. They haunt my dreams occasionally. That’s part of hunting. We don’t alert get what we go for. Gives us reason to return and try again……. Gives us something to dream about and aspire to. It’s…. Well it’s a part of the hunt and hunting.

Willam packing the fallow back to the truck.

 

[gillettehunter]

The evening hunt is devoted to a Vallie. I had both knees replaced about 5 yrs ago. Still some pain, but I can get up the hills. Hunting the Aoudad I “tweaked “ my left knee. Willie has noticed me limping at the end of our last couple of walks. As a result he has determined that I won’t make it in to where his best Vaalie lives…..
So he makes arrangements to hunt a property that he hasn’t been on in a while hoping we can find a ram near the road.
In the late afternoon we pick up a hired hand and off we go. We see several herds including one with a buck with very narrow horns that looks to be close to 9 inches. Pretty good Vaalie.
We check a couple of other places hoping to find something better. No luck so we decided to backtrack and see if he’s still around.
We get to a point where we can see him. He is 274 yds away. Pretty close for a Vaalie. We get out and set up on the tripod. They get nervous and move off a ways. Then he makes the mistake of stopping to look back. Boom whap. He’s only wounded. Doesn’t give me a decent follow up and ducks into a shallow draw. No way he can get out without us seeing him. We walk up and jump hip out of some rocks. Boom and thump as he hits the ground.
They are such interesting trophies. They have fur like a rabbit and not hair. Their huge eyes reminds you of how good their eyesight is. Incredible animals.
This one has a very narrow space between his horns. Little different than most. Fully mature ram.

Sunlight in my eyes have me squinting…..

I feel a little like I somehow cheated getting him from next to the road. My last one was an epic hike and a long couple of days. Something to remember for the future.
Bruce

 

[gillettehunter]

Last day we got up and left at around 8 am. I had all of the important animals. One possible add on was a Steenbuck. I already have a pretty good one on the wall so I was looking for a monster or nothing.
Went off to a farm owned by a friend of Willie. He had seen some fallow that we could hunt at no charge if we could find them… Willie thought we arrived too late to catch the fallow in the field. Frustrated me. Let’s leave earlier then…. We walked around to the end of the field. 3 Vaalies and a couple of Steenbuck. Nothing we’re interested in.
We then headed back to the farm where I killed my Fallow. We had to stop and look at Fallow hill to see if the big buck was back. He wasn’t. Just a herd of Vaalies. We drove to the farm and picked up his son and the farm truck. Away we went.
Saw a couple of female Steenbuck as well as doe fallow. Then I spotted a male Steenbuck. Nice little ram. Willie said to shoot. As I looked he seemed about the size of the one on my wall so I elected to pass. We moved on to a fenced “Lucerne” field. I think it’s alfalfa. Had a high fence around it. There were 3 Vaalies and several Steenbuck inside the fence.
Nice and green and the animals loved it. No big males so we headed out into the “pastures”. We would drive and stop and glass as we moved through the area. Willie bad seen what he figured to be 6 inch Steenbuck in this area in the past. We saw perhaps 20 Steenbuck but not the big one we wanted. No luck.
We returned to our lodge for the heat of the day. Went back out in the evening. A little walking and a bit of driving. No luck. Few youngsters but not the big one we hoped to see..
Bruce

 

[Trogon]

Really enjoying your hunt report @gillettehunter as well as your photos of your animals! Valle Rhebuck will be on my hunt list next visit to SA. Beautiful animals.

 

[lockingblock]

I have forgotten one important detail from the first evening hunt where the gemsbok was wounded. The Texas hunter is a good shot. He thought he was on with his shot. Upon examination of his rifle’s scope he found some movement. I always bring a torque driver with me with some bits to fit tongs and bases.
He was able to retighten his scope. It was back on when we checked it the next morning. I have had a issue where I used the driver on 3 of my 10 international trips where I brought my own rifle. Not a bad idea to bring one with you….
Bruce

The last outfitter I hunted with included a spare scope, rings, and mounting tools, on his recommended gear list. He said that he sees far more scopes and mounts fail than rifles.

I locktite all my screws and paint pen a witness mark to visually see if they move. It's paid off a couple times when screws walked out a bit.

Interestingly, this is also the reason that hand made guns have all the screws at full tight when they point towards the muzzle...so you can look at them and see they are tight.

 

[Biddleman]

Really enjoyed your report Bruce. Sounds like you had a grand time. That Vaalie is a hum dinger!!

 

[gillettehunter]

Glad you enjoyed the report. Time for typing them out gets a little tight at times…
Bruce

 

[gillettehunter]

Let’s finish this off. Departure day we got up around 4 am and left our last accommodations. Headed to Cape Town which is about a 4 hr drive to the airport. We left time to exchange $ to rand. Just easier for Willie to do it that way.
Also a covid test was needed. No problems on both accounts. All settled with a minimum of Gus. On to the airport. Pretty straight forward. In to ticketing. Had to pay extra for the rifle transport on airlink. If you do be sure and KEEP THE RECEIPT!
After I was seated on the flight the came and asked if I had paid. I said yes. Then a couple of minutes later they pulled me off of the plane to ask if I’d paid and looking for a receipt. Luckily I had mine available. Ok flight to Joberg. Had to collect the rifle and do the check out exercise. Then get the rifle back to the airline. PITA. A good computer system with someone who knows how to run it could speed things up….
Flight to Newark was fine. Customs was normal procedure. The new to me part was after checking my rifle through Customs they hauled it to TSA with us hunters trailing along to unlock cases. That was more efficient.
Then on to Denver and a long layover there. Back to Gillette at 10:30 pm. Home at 11. Next day I was off to Montana to finish our GOB at our jewelry store there. I think I slept in my own bed 4 nights in the month of May. Little different for me.
Feelings about the hunt are a little mixed. Not uncommon. Some parts were great and others not perfect. It was a good trip. If you’re hunting the Southern part of RSA then Willie is worth contacting. His trophy prices are often similar to some places cull prices. I was very pleased with a number of animals that I killed. The experience is most important but some excellent trophies is always welcome.
I’m already missing the doves in Africa. I miss the fires at night. I miss the companionship. Not sure when the next trip will be. I expect there will be another………. We’ll see where the next adventure is .
Bruce

 

[Uncle Sauce]

Congrats Bruce!