SOUTH AFRICA: Second Hunt With KMG Hunting Safaris

[Sand Rat]

Or could be when you hit yourself in the face with a post banger!

Looks like the result of heading back to the Eastern Cape and leaving your son in the UK! I thinks Louis punched you in the nose.

 

[Dudders]

We return to the lodge for lunch and to prepare for the afternoon I sort out my bag make a cup of tea Marius comes over and asks could we skip lunch and head out now, as he needed to get fuel and sort out a slow puncture on the truck. Ok by me he also promised to pick up some hot pies in town to eat on the way, so we skip lunch at the lodge and head off. fuelled up and with pies in hand and with tyre sealant deployed we head off again half an hour out of Grahamstown we meet up with our guide waiting for us on a dirt road we follow for another 10 minutes and pull off into pasture land this was dairy country well maintained fields lots of grass and alfalfa all under irrigation, the fields were surrounded by narrow gullies covered in thick thorn and scrubby brush perfect for bushbuck as we drove around it did not take long to spot the first bushbuck out feeding in the pasture, we stop and take a look we all agree its worth closer inspection we set off using a lone bush to cover our approach, we reach the bush and the two PH's look over the bushbuck a bit of hushed chat between them and Marius turns to me and says you ready he's a nice ram . We crawl forward from the bush to a small track way which has mounded earth down both sides so we will shoot from there I line up and wait for the bushbuck to turn broadside as he does I shoot he runs in a circle wobbles and drops to the ground, but his head stays up we wait what feels like an age no change the only target area visible is the head and neck we try and gain a better angle using Marius as a gun rest again shoot and the bushbucks head drops. I reload and we begin to approach the second shot had found its mark . It was a nice looking buck with needle like tips to the horns

The pastures we hunted over

The soil here was very sandy with no stones or rocks which wares the horns to a sharp point most bushbuck from this area have these sharp tips.

 

[Dudders]

Just because you can never see to many bushbuck photo's

 

[Brent in Az]

Marius seems to be pretty good at finding those big Bushbuck. Might have to nickname him the "Bushbuck whisperer"

Super nice trophy!

 

[Sand Rat]

Love the bushbuck Richard! Still trying to convince Sandy I have unfinished bushbuck business @KMG Hunting Safaris aswell. Look toward to the rest of your report.

 

[Dudders]

Love the bushbuck Richard! Still trying to convince Sandy I have unfinished bushbuck business @KMG Hunting Safaris aswell. Look toward to the rest of your report.

Thanks Robert, I would not of thought Sandy would take much convincing

 

[Dudders]

So Day three of the hunt we were after bushbuck again today, we travelled to another property about an hour away where we spent most of the day scanning the opposite valley side for signs of bushbuck we all split up with different areas to watch and kept in contact by radio. Today was a strange day where nothing seemed to want to move the blesbok and the mountain reed buck we saw never moved the whole time we were there, everything seemed to have laid up for the day. Late in the afternoon we cut our losses and headed back to the lodge were we set a blind up over looking some oranges for baboon which we would try for in a few days time. It was interesting that the other hunters in camp also commented on the fact they had also seen almost no animals today and those they did we all laid up as well. But that's hunting

 

[johnnyblues]

Yes love your bushbuck. Need mine to complete my spiral slam. Pressure on Marius! Lol

 

[Dudders]

Day Four. The pursuit of bushbuck continues again today this time we travel to a property I had visited on my last trip and was looking forward to the return I had seen a nice bushbuck here last year so keen to return. the down side today was it was going to be hot very hot 34 centigrade we scan the valley sides looking for bushbuck after a while we take a walk down into the valley and onto the opposite ridge to look onto the shaded side of the valley it was now very hot we spotted a female bushbuck in the shade 20 meters in front of us waited a while then she noticed us and took off it was now almost to hot we walked to the bottom of the valley and tried to walk along the small stream in the bottom but it was to hard going for Marius and we cut back up the hill to the track we had walked in along and called Lloyd to come and collect us I was relieved as I was not looking forward to walking back up that hill again. we returned to the owners farm where we sat in the shade of the trees had our lunch and rested our eyes waiting for the heat of the day to pass.

 

[adgunner]

Congrats on the bushbuck, love the sharp tips!

 

[Dudders]

It cools of and we set out again we go and sit in the shade overlooking an area that had been cleared of scrub and was covered in rough grass there were three nyala bulls each stood in the shade of there own bush two were young but the third looked good but on a closer inspection one horn was twisted the wrong way other wise he would of be a very nice bull with a good shape. After a while the bulls slipped away and we decided to go check out some other areas as we travelled down the hill side we stopped to look over some waterbuck in the field were nyala, blue wildebeest and some of the farm cattle as we looked Marius suddenly spotted something stood in the middle of the cattle there was a bushbuck Marius could not believe it was to far away for an accurate appraisal but it looked like the horn spread wide at the top which either means very old or still young as we look the bushbuck lies down behind a tiny bush in the shade, we turn the bakkie around and head back up the hill to drive around to the far side and approach from behind and above the bushbuck.

 

[RogerHeintzman]

Dudders, some very nice critters you harvested, Your Bushbuck is one in everyones dreams, I have one just the same and have the Spiral Horn Slam.
I will be hunting with Marius this August for the Cape Grysbuck, Oribi (if permit comes thru) Blue Duiker, Copper Springbuck to finish my Slam and more.
Thanks for sharing.

 

[Dudders]

We park the bakkie at set off on foot we walk down the track to where it enters the field and have a quick scan around between us and the bushbuck is a group of water buck two males and a quite a few females and a few nyala females as well for good measure. Marius decides we should use the available cover and try and pass to the left hand side leaving the animals the option to run hopefully uphill away from us and the bushbuck. We use the cover to move left handed towards the waterbuckas we clear the scrub and move into the open four sand grouse burst up from in front of us Marius whispers about nearly needing a new pair of shorts. As we make our way left handed we are aided by a gentle depression in the ground which obscures us from the bushbuck we make our presence known to the waterbuck who must of been in on the plan as when slowly walked away up hill perfect we continued down the slope to get within range of the bushbuck Marius checks with Lloyd that the bushbuck is still where we last saw him and from his vantage point high above us he confirmed it was still there. As we approached where the bushbuck was we bumped another group of females we backed up to give them space and they move off up hill all apart from one who heads towards the bushbuck luckily she does not go to far and turns to watch us we move up to around 180 meters away from the bushbuck who is still lead down facing away from us Marius begins a closer inspection as the bushbuck stands up Marius is taking a long time to look over him I am thinking to myself. Marius turns to me and whispers " He is borderline a young animal " it wasn't until he stood and turned his head he could really see the lack of mass of the horns, then Marius said " he would be smaller than any bushbuck I had already taken. " we both watch him through our binoculars and watch as three warthogs run up to the bushbuck and chase him away we both look at each other Marius says "did you see that " we both could not believe it every time the bushbuck stopped the pigs would run up to him and move him on they did this several times until the bushbuck had enough and trotted off, we turn and begin to walk back up the hill the sun dropped behind the hill as we reached the bakkie, we had a drink and went to collect Lloyd. We had a last look across the valley Lloyd spotted a male baboon sat in a tree not to far away so off we set to try our luck, the next time we saw him he was running across the next valley, we walk back uphill and decide that's enough for the day. It had been a long hot day we had been up and down hills that are more like mountains in temperatures up in the 30's and sweated buckets. we arrive at the lodge in the dark grab our kit and head off for a shower only to find the water was off there was a problem with the feed from the main reservoir on the farm louw had been trying to fix since he had returned from his hunt that afternoon. baby wipes and spray can would have to suffice for now.

 

[Dudders]

We walked down to the fields on the left of picture up and down the slope where the scrub is in strips to the stream in the bottom out of sight and back and similar in the afternoon not for the faint hearted.

 

[Dudders]

During our evening meal we discuss our plan for the next day we decide to take it easy and will sit in the blind we set out the other afternoon and see if a baboon will come in to feed and plan the rest of the day from there.

 

[Dudders]

I wake in the morning to the sound of roaring lions from the next door property it is strange how they sound so much louder inside my room than outside it. I try the shower but still no water but there is a trickle from the tap over the sink so things are looking good. we have breakfast and head out to the blind, we collect more oranges for bait on the way. When we arrive all the oranges from the other day had gone, we restocked and headed to the blind while Lloyd took the bakkie and drove on to hide further up the valley. It was not long before our first and only visitors of the day arrived a troop of vervet monkeys who proceeded to munch their way through the heap of oranges even ignoring Marius's best efforts to scare them away. It was an interesting way to spend the morning watching those pretty little monkeys. by 11 o'clock we had had enough and called Lloyd to come get us. we returned to the lodge as we arrive we are greeted by graham who was pleased to tell us the water was on he had checked the showers and they were working. with that news me and Marius grabbed our gear and headed off to shower just in case the water went off again .

 

[Dinsdale]

Hunted same dates with KMG last year, fond memories.

Enjoying report.

 

[Brent in Az]

Sounds like some good times down in the East Cape.

 

[cpr0312]

Congrats on the bushbuck!

 

[johnnyblues]

Sounds like your enjoying your time.