DAY 2
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We got out of bed nice and early again and we were on the road by around 5:00. With the weather looking to be a lot better, we expected quite a few numbers of animals to be going towards the plains, in order to heat up a bit after a few days of stormy weather. We were going to have a sit under one of those large camelthorn acacia trees as camouflage, and see what would wander in our direction. It was not long before a big herd of blesbok with a few nice males were being spotted. On this property, the blesbok genetics are of exceptional quality. We saw dozen’s of Rowland Ward viable blesbok on the property. When a herd would be passing by, it was deciding which horns were the whitest, which ones looked the biggest. Before long, my brother was on the sticks and starting to single one out.
His shot rang out, a good hit once again, and after a small run, the blesbok collapsed. Walking up to it, my brother could not contain his excitement. Old, white and worn down horns, with his normally brown coat also turning silvery. His longest horn later measured 17 5/8 inch long. All the necessary pictures were taken and then we drove back to camp for breakfast. Yesterday’s festivities and the lack of sleep had rendered us quite hungry, and a breakfast of wildebeest liver, onion’s and garlic would be most welcome!
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After having a hearty meal, we went out for a drive to the property next door, also belonging to the same owner, which contained a bit more exotic species. Colour variations and camels even. The latter were there, only because the owners’ wife is fond of them for some reason.
Anyway, we would go and have a look, not really for hunting, but rather Henry wanted to go check up on some of the buffalo there. We just enjoyed being in the sun, getting heated up ourselves, while we were studying the different characteristics of the buffalo in front of us. We spotted a few old cow’s and tried to find out if they had any dependent calves with them. There were at least two, who clearly had their best days behind them, but with one it was not clear if its calf was old enough to be independent. The other one, also had a calf around it, but it looked to be older. She was in particular bad shape. Ribs showing, hair loss, growths on its belly and between its front legs. Although she had difficulty keeping up with the herd, each time they would stop, she would be shuffling to get to the middle, well protected by the other buffalo. It made it hard to be able to follow up with her.
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With the sun reaching its high point, we decided to abandon for now and return to camp for lunch and a siesta. After we had rested a bit, Henry came back to tell us that the one cow that had the younger calf, was not okay to take just yet. The calf was too young and still dependent.
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DAY 3
We got up at 3:15 and we were walking to the tree blind already by 3:30. It was windy, it was cold, not much was said. Due to it being overcast and very windy, we saw no animals for the first 3 hours of sitting there in the freezing wind. Henry and Frederik were secretly cursing us Belgians under their breath I’m sure. A group of female eland did make its way slowly to us, with one female who spotted us and walked in a circle around our blind. She was only about 10m away, but since she could only smell us, but not figure out what we were, she just slowly walked away again.
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After this fun moment, it was calm again and we could not see any animals in the vicinity. Another hour or so, and then we would retreat to hot coffee and a fireplace. Suddenly Henry leapt from his chair. With bino’s in hand, he strode a few paces forward and looked into the tree branches. We were all up, understanding that there was something special there, when the word came. Black mamba.
As is the case for most tourists, we were more trying to get close to have a look and a picture, than worrying about the danger of a black mamba slithering around above our heads. It was only a small one, 100-120cm perhaps, but Henry wouldn’t have it around and it was quickly dispatched.
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After this bit of excitement, we hurried back to camp to get the shivers out of our legs and hands. The weather stayed bad, and it took some time before we got out of camp again. Luckily the weather had cleared up quite a bit and, soon enough we were again striding through the bush. We walked straight from camp into the first direction that seemed interesting. With the sun breaking through, by around 9:00 we started to see tails whipping through small holes in the vegetation. We had stumbled upon a group of wildebeest. We started following them as they were gently grazing away from us. Frederik stepped in front and started talking in hushed tones with Henry. Straight in front of us, Henry had identified a black faced, big bossed blue wildebeest with worn tips. From what I heard afterwards, he was checking for approval with Frederik, who nodded his agreement. The sticks came up, and I put my Heym 375H&H carefully on it.
The bull was facing to the right, almost fully broadside, gently grazing and then taking a few steps. It was not difficult to pick him out. He was about 80 meters or so from us, completely unaware. I took my time, picking a spot just on the shoulder. There were still a few other wildebeest behind him anyway, so there was no shot just yet. A few moments later, he stood clear and 350grains of lead were sent on their way. A good hit, the bull took off running to the right, reconsidered and turned back to flee towards the left with the rest of the herd. Two hedgerows further and we could just see him tip over, legs kicking. Upon arrival, I marveled at the thick bases, exactly what I prefer. Not a huge width, but very thick.
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While we were busy making pictures, we noticed a few warthogs running by in the distance, and we quickly grabbed our gear, to see if Diana would smile again upon us in such a short time. However, no such luck, and we called the truck to come from camp, to pick up the wildebeest. We would continue on and try to follow the tracks of some giraffe, impala and oryx to see if we could catch up.
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This proved to be more complicated than we thought, and it seemed that they were always a step ahead. The weather also started to turn again, overcast, with thunder and lightning in the distance. While moving through the bush, we all suddenly all felt our heart stop. Just as we were trying to get through some vegetation, just at our feet, 3 buffalo bull’s sprang up from their rest, looked at us, and ran off! Henry and I who were in the vanguard of our little group, could have touched them with the end of his shooting sticks and I with the end of my barrel! Talk about getting a dose of adrenaline going. None of us was prepared for this encounter, all rifles were slung and we were not ready, nor even able to react in case one of them would have turned our way. We had a little scare, but it soon turned to laughter.
On we went, but with thunder clouds gathering again, we decided to get back to camp.
DAY 4
After having found a regulating load for my .500NE double rifle the day before, I told Henry about wanting to find something that would be worthy of shooting with this rifle. Perhaps a blue wildebeest, or an eland or buffalo cull, anything that would make it a nice challenge to try to get in close, and shoot with the iron sights, that would be fun to do.
The decision was made to start walking from camp and have a look around what would be possible to approach. After a short ride to get ahead of the wind, where we passed a big Eland bull, we dismounted and started walking in the direction of the eland bull. We were about 1.5km away at this point, starting from the edge of the property and walking in the general direction of the eland, or whatever else would be possible. With the heat still very much present, and lots of herds of animals hiding in the bush trying to find some shade, we had to be extra quiet. Our sight was limited to inwards of 100 meters most times. We snaked trough the brush, so quiet that often Henry would forget we were still behind him. Suddenly we all froze, we saw some impala horns through the brush and the bino’s started to come into action. We could not quite see the size of the group, and could not make out if we were looking at the vanguard or the stragglers. There were also oryx, blue wildebeest and even some hartebeest mixed in the group.
The plan was to get in front of the group, as a decent impala ram had been spotted. We snuck from a hedgerow of acacia to the next, trying to get in front. But we underestimated the size of the herd and with so many eyes, ears and noses all around us, we got spotted and the whole herd took off. We just stayed motionless, with the hope of being able to make a second stalk on them a bit later. It took a good while for the whole group to stampede past us. There were many hundred’s of animals part of the group. Mostly females, calves and young male’s.
We picked ourselves up again and continued with the stalk, the tracking now made easy, due to all the hundreds of prints we could follow. About a half an hour later, with the bush having calmed down and us stalking silently, Henry froze. So did we all. A few seconds later, he motioned for us to get behind some more cover and turned around. Eland he said, just ahead about 100m away. They were in a gully in the shade of some surrounding trees. The gully had only two entries, on opposite sides and we were just about looking into one entry. In front of us was a white sandy bowl, with hardly a blade of grass to hide behind, with at the end the gully. We could only see horn tips, so we had no choice but to get on our hands and knees and crawl forward. Frederik and my brother would stay behind, while Henry and I would try to close in. To our left there was another rise in the terrain, like a low dune. We started to crawl forward.
On the .500NE no sling was mounted, as I could not trust the sling mounts. Crawling with a rifle then becomes complicated, and can only be done by putting it in the dirt every step. From the long crawl for my brothers’ blue wildebeest, I had learned that it was best to crawl with the buttstock first, in order to avoid getting dirt into the barrels. However, now I had to do this with the rifle loaded as well, relying only on the safety. This also meant that with us crawling straight away from my brother and Frederik, that those loaded barrels were pointed straight backwards, something I corrected as soon as I could by putting the rifle at an angle. Still another thing to worry about. For these kinds of missions, where you have to be loaded up at the beginning of the stalk, but there are lots of awkward positions to take, is where a cocking safety like with a Blaser S2 or a Krieghoff double rifle would be ideal. But for now, I would need to rely on the 100 year old safety.
After about 30m of very silent, very slow and methodical creeping forward, checking through the binocular’s if the eland had not moved, I saw Henry starting to turn his face slowly to the left. We were at the middle of a crest of dune’s (for lack of a better term) and we came into sight of the herd of impala, blue wildebeest, oryx and hartebeest that we had chased away an hour or two before. They were grazing in the field next to us and could spot us any time. Although I didn’t dare lift my head up to have a look, I understood from Henry’s reactions that it was all or nothing now. So as fast as possible, while still making the least amount of movement, we tried to get through the crest and leave it behind. We must have been successful doing so, as we reached a point about 25m from the entrance of the gully. Henry started to observe them through the binoculars and slowly started to put his sticks up right, while he was still on his knees. Without needing to get an explanation, I had moved directly behind him and had put one foot down already, kneeling on only one leg now. However, the group of eland bulls had grown restless, as the herd to our left started to get agitated. Likely the herd was now able to smell us, although they could not see us. While I was starting to get up to the sticks, one of the bulls turned back and looked straight at us. Henry said to go ahead and take him, but by the time I was upright (I had to be upright, as the terrain was still hiding their bodies when in the kneeling position) they had started to gently trot off. No shot could be taken, and we were obliged to observe their behinds in detail. A stalk that failed in its target, but a great experience nevertheless. I will not forget the burning sand under my hands, small rocks cutting into my hands, the stillness of the hot midday air.
With that stalk over, we pursued the eland a bit more, but they and the larger herd had had enough and all ran for the plains. So far for that plan. We decided to get back to camp and think about our next plan. Henry suggested we go looking again for the buffalo cow with the bumps. Her calf was old enough to be able to survive on its own.
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We geared up, my brother would take my Heym in .375H&H and I the .500NE. Frederik would be carrying his 458Lott and Henry his own .375H&H bolt action. We were more than prepared! Arriving on the other property, it did not take us long to find the buffalo herd again. The old buffalo cow was spotted quickly and I suggested we drive a but further away to stalk into the herd. The tension was rising a bit, because even though these were buffalo on a game farm, they were still buffalo. And for my brother it would be his first DG hunt. After the many campfire stories, we all had our anticipations.
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After a short stalk, we caught up with the herd and spotted the buffalo cow quickly. Her calf was eating grass in the neighbourhood, confirming definitively that it would survive without its’ mother. We tried to get the first approach going, but with us away from the truck, their reactions were much more vigilant. With the herd consisting of about 50 animals, there were many eyes and ears directed to us.
As soon as we would get within 70m of them, they would start to move away again. We could see the cow clearly struggling to keep up with the herd, each time they moved. Once, her calf even ran back to go get her, before the two rejoined the herd. However, as soon as the herd would stop, she would move into the middle, where it would be impossible to take a shot. A crafty, old cow for sure. We played this game of hide and seek a dozen more times, but with the sun setting, we had to give up.
Another great experience, as I too had never hunted buffalo before. I had seen buffalo rearing during my first safari in South Africa, about 3 years before and had since then developed a bit of an uninterest for the species. Even though we were on a gaming farm, so the animal obviously could not run off, it was still a good bit of sport, trying to outsmart that old lady and put her out of her suffering.
That evening, as we had not had much success yet with the herds of plains game, trying to get one shooting from the tree blind, I made the lovely suggestion to do it the proper European way. Arrive at the blind a good 1 to 1.5hrs before sunrise. That seemed like a good idea at the dinner table, so that’s what we did. So when is sunrise in North-Western province in November? At about 5:00…
Fabulous selection there. We are going to Amsterdam this Saturday to visit Cigaragua and Hajenius.
