The 1884 hunt in "De Zuid Afrikaansche republiek"

[Gert Odendaal]

Then we have an example where great faith is set in German yeast, used by Johan to ensure he bakes great tasting bread..

 

[Gert Odendaal]

At one stage on another forum (now defunct) you started to show us how you made long leather strips from a cow hide and treated and stretched it have wide ranging uses, but never finished the tutorial which I assume was because of the forum issues. It would be great (and informative) if you could re-do that as it would tie in well with your hunt theme and could even have uses within the camp

Garry we will cover the whole subject of raw hide processing and making thongs in the near future..

 

[Gert Odendaal]

Making food , open fire camp food making processes are diverse as the hunters in a camp. We as South Africans , the farming community , hunters learned the art of camp fire cooking from our parents. Usually you will find in a South African household the man of the house will be the cook...we still are learning from the old people who really was great cooks around campfires...some photos of this activity in camp:
Willie Barnard is one of the best open fire cooks I have met, he really has great insight in what types of meat will combine to make a great dinner..here he used two fat sheep ribs around a Impala leg ...added onions, carrots , spices to create a delicious dinner:

 

[Wheels]

I feel like I am experiencing the hunt with you Gert. Thanks

 

[Gert Odendaal]

I feel like I am experiencing the hunt with you Gert. Thanks

Wheels, thank you kindly, it is much appreciated. I need to apologise for taking so long to upload /write the story..but uploading photos and videos really takes long...but I will complete the report in the next three days possibly..

 

[Gert Odendaal]

Elfriede and Renata really were great in the camp kitchen , it is great to have a women in the camp that understand what hunting is about...

 

[Gert Odendaal]

Containing /eradicating modern pollution:
As pointed out previously, we really try hard to eradicate plastic/modern items in our camp..we were fortunate in receiving a lot of hessian bags to store modern items out of view.Dr. Wallace Vosloo donated a lot of these great hessian bags to our camp box.Another strategy is to store proviand in bottles as well as in wooden crates.
Making copies from original items is another method to minimise pollution in the camp

 

[Gert Odendaal]

Camp food: We work in teams to prepare food for the camp. One team will cover the morning coffee and rusks, brunch and dinner ...this ensures the cooks are getting time off to participate in hunting...

 

[Gert Odendaal]

Since the date of our hunt had to be moved to an earlier time , we experienced extremely hot days , fortunately the evenings cooled down and the night temperatures were cooler. Due to this scenario we did not hunt any warthogs , since their meat will spoil . We made use of "mutton cloth" to cover the carcasses as soon as it was processed ..this really ensured our meat did not spoil. The processing of the carcasses were done early morning am later in the evenings. We succeed in hunting Impala as well as kudu ...

 

[Gert Odendaal]

Hansie Minnaar as always , never disappoint with his ideas ..he brought his two donkeys again to assist with retrieving game that was shot.

 

[Gert Odendaal]

Georg, who participated in this hunt as well really was a great asset in regards to educate us in reloading techniques with the most basic equipment. He spend a lot of time training and educating the youngsters to re-load...

It really was a great privilege to have Georg and his wife Elfriede Poppel join us on this hunt. Our appreciation goes as well to Volkmar and his wife Renate who really was a great asset on this hunt..the women was always without question available to assist in the kitchen en around the cooking pots...

 

[Gert Odendaal]

One of our members MC Heunis went with Georg Poppel to hunt for Impala and Kudu. Here is some videos of how we approach game when hunting and more video material of how we stalk when we hunt with muzzle loader and black powder rifles..since we do not shoot longer shots than fifty meters when we have a clear view on the vitals of a Impala or Kudu.
Stalking Techniques:

Reading tracks:

How to listen to the veld around you when stalking:

 

[Gert Odendaal]

Another camp activity we conducted was forging work. Forging practices was the mainstay of our Voortrekker People `s life...

 

[Gert Odendaal]

Another activity being the making of velskoene /leather shoes in camp. This practice was passed on from great grand father to all generations down the line, every young boy in a Voortrekker camp was able to make his own shoes from leather ..

 

[Gert Odendaal]

Then there was our music around the camp fire, Dr. Willie Barnard plays the violin like no other...

 

[Gert Odendaal]

Another important activity in a Voortrekker hunting camp was the making of bullets by casting it over the camp fire.

 

[bruce moulds]

gert,
seeing your grease groove bullets brings to mind another task the old dead guys had to do.
those bullets need lube, and they probably made it themselves.
any game you take would have fat around the kidneys, and when rendered down this becomes tallow.
tallow mixed with beeswax is as good a lube as you can get.
it is important not to overheat it, as it loses some of its properties .
a good starting mix is tallow/beeswax at 50/50.
some testing is required in hot weather as this mix might melt, and require a higher percentage of beeswax.
probably the old dead guys also had lanolin, and a little in the mix makes the lube stick to the bullets better.
if your bullets do not need sizing, you can either dip them in melted lube, or stand them in a tray and pour lube up to the highest groove and let it set.
then push them backwards out of the lube cake.
bruce.

 

[Gert Odendaal]

Good day Bruce, yes, you are correct , I believe there were a lot different techniques the old Boer hunters used. It really is unfortunate that not a lot of information on the every day day hunter /farmer was written by themselves of what /how they did it .

 

[Gert Odendaal]

Important rules of the hunt:
No shots further than fifty meters.
All hunting stops when an animal is wounded , all members look for and track the wounded animal.
Since every hunter hunts alone /with a fellow hunter we need hunters to be honest when they shot at game , when wounded , report back to the camp immediately.
Shooting at the range:
Our main sponsor for all black powder used in this hunt was provided by Johan Greyling who makes excellent high quality Black powder. Johan Greyling is the only licences manufacturer of high quality black powder in South Africa ...he caters only for hunters and black powder front loader canon owners.

The next photo will explain how important ZAR black powder is for the hunters in the 1885 Era hunting camp.
Georg Poppel, our German/Austrian hunter who participated in the hunt managed to get hold of two containers of ZAR high quality black powder...he was really reluctant to let go of these two containers we needed for re-loading in camp..

Hunters shooting their rifles :

 

[Gert Odendaal]

Kudu cow was hunted by Volkmar Bunge the last day of the hunt , a lot of rain fell the previous day and Volkmar`s hat was too wet to wear the next day when he shot the kudu cow...this is why he is wearing a "arm bush hat"