Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Africa I'm JGRaider and I Suck

Well, in case you haven't noticed, I'm a very simple minded guy! I've had that Tikka 695 for 14 years and have handled/shot/hunted it quite a lot. I am very familiar with it. I had shot enough aoudad (a pretty tough animal) with it to know that the caliber choice should be fine. I've also shot enough aoudad with partitions and accubonds to know that they're pretty tough and reliable. The accubonds are slightly more accurate in this rifle than the partitions so I decided to just run with those. Now here's the controversial part for many, I'm sure......I had been told by some anonymous sources with mucho experience in Africa that African plains game are given this "extremely tough and hard to kill" stereotype, but in fact it is probably a slight exaggeration. My one and only trip to Africa last year, armed with the PH's 30-06 and 180 partitions confirmed that when put in the correct spot, African plains game will go down without much fuss. When hit incorrectly, they will not go down and are likely to carry the mail for a long time. I made one terrible shot on an oryx, pulling the shot into the neck and no bone was hit. The animal was bleeding some (the African trackers are absolutely unbelievable) and I was able to put a finisher in him 1.5 miles later thanks to the trackers. Anyway, I felt confident enough in my rifle, which is proven to be very accurate with the 160AB/Retumbo load, that I had no doubt at all if I could put one on the money there would be no problems. I was fortunate enough to do that on the other 11 animals and the farthest one ran was about 70 yards before falling over. I was very impressed with the .284 AB's to say the least. I think they behave basically like a "tipped partition" for the most part, which is high praise because I consider the partition to be the finest, most dependable hunting bullet ever invented to this day. Was that long winded enough for you?????

That was perfect, exactly the reasoning I was looking for.

Thanks and congratulation on a super hunt. You did a great job with your photos snd narrative. I thoroughly enjoyed every word and picture.

DF

Nice. Did you find the hunting a challenge?

And to add to EdM's question, what about physical conditioning? Did you work on that or are you enough of a "Hoss" for that to not have been an issue...

DF

I found the hunt to be very challenging in several ways. I only had one instance on one of the wildebeests, in which the stalk was under 1/2-1mile. That one only required a roughly 1/4 mile stalk because we happened to find a lone, old, bull that had apparently been kicked out of the herd. Obviously sneaking up on a lone set of eyes is easier than the alternative, which leads into one of the more challenging aspects of, at least, my limited experiences in Africa. There always seems to be 10-40 pairs of eyes watching. An 800 yards stalk can easily turn into an hour or more. Several of my stalks took 1-2 hours due to the number of eyes and the fact that the animals always seemed to be moving around, doing whatever the do. The mtn zebra stalk lasted a total of app. 7 hours and many miles. We were in range 3 times during that time frame but had no shot due to brush being in the way. A combination of arthritic knees and the up and down the sandy and rocky terrain made it most difficult for me. The grass was also knee high and it helped hide the rocks, so footing was very, very tricky as well. As far as actual physical conditioning, I'd say it helped that I have now weighed 225lbs instead of the previous 250lbs for about a year. Navigating the flat, somewhat sandy ground, accompanied by the fact that it was a slow process, really never bothered me much. You do have to be on your feet for sometimes several hours though.

To sum it up: Mtn Zebra was very tough for me, kudu moderately so, rest of plains game taken was not easy, not exceptionally tough physically, but very time consuming and mentally I had to stay in the game at all times. You never knew, during the stalk, what you'd stumble into, besides the fact that every bush out there would rip your skin to shreds, so you had to pay attention to that as well.

The whole package was a truly unforgettable combination.

JG,

Thanks for taking the time to write the story of your adventure, and especially for posting the pics.

Also enjoyed that you took the time to mention that you were satisfied with your gear.

Thank you JG!
I don't come to this forum much at all but your title sucked me in...

Last week I was flying to Anchorage and there was a fellow that had just returned from a 40 day hunt in Namibia!!!! 40 days!
Last year he went for 30ish....

What a fortunate guy!

Dave

You do suck, but I really enjoyed your report and pictures.

Congrats JG, a fine trip and I enjoyed the story.

Awesome hunt!

JG,
Congrats on a looks to be great hunt. Who did you end up hunting with? As to our previous conversations, we hunted with Kowas. Our PH was named Mathews. I only have seen one picture of your PH this far, but I think it is him. They also used the same Mahindra trucks that you are hunting out of?

Toby Joe

YOU SUCK ZEBRA BALL'S!
Didn't even know you were going.

Great thread.

someday..........

Yes Sir, A hunting trip done right.

Congratulation, I'm happy to see you had a great trip.

Looks like loads of fun.

Not just a chit eating grin but a world class chit eating grin. Congrats on a great hunt and write up.

Best

Man that was amazing. I really appreciate your story, pictures and thoughts. Looks to have been an amazing trip for you. Congratulations.

+1



DF