Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Africa Back from my first African hunting adventure!!!

.....and all I can say is "It was AWESOME!!!!

I hunted with Cruiser safaris and I recommend them highly, esp. for anyone looking to do their first trip to Africa. I did the 7 day "package" which included gemsbok, kudu, and impala, and I decided early on that I wanted to take a wildebeest as well.
My first day we didn't bag any game, even though we saw TONS of animals of various species....at one point we had a herd of zebra and gemsbok thunder across the road in front of us, less than 100 yards away......it was just a magnificent sight! We did several stalks, but none came to fruition as either the cover was too thick to get a shot or we were busted by stumbling on other animals or a change in wind direction. In some ways this was a relief, as it was evident that this wasn't going to be a "fish in a barrel" shoot like a lot of high fence operations are back in the states.
We went after wildebeest and kudu then next morning, and we managed to stalk to within 100 yards of a nice bull and I managed to take it down with one shot, despite having some mechanical difficulties with my rifle (another good reason to bring two firearms). My P.H. just blew my mind with his ability to discern a single particular track out of the vast assortment of spoor in the ground.
So with my first African animal in the skinning shed, we went after gemsbok that afternoon and bagged a nice one, despite some poor shooting on my part (excitement and wind drift are my excuses, although they are poor ones). We had to do some follow up, and I was EXTREMELY thankful that my P.H. had the skills and abilities that he did, otherwise I'm afraid we would have lost this animal....but we quickly found it and ended the hunt.
The next day we went to some mountainous property for kudu; the wind was blowing and we were having trouble spotting game due to it's effects....so we did a little "mountain climbing" to get above the valley and see if we could spot any animals below. I'm glad I lost 35lbs before my trip, as I was able to reasonably keep up....but still had to take frequent breaks, at which point my PH would take the opportunity to glass below. We were getting ready to push on at one point when he exclaimed "THeres a bull over there!" I looked but couldn't see it....he positioned my rifle in the proper direction and I quickly found it in the scope. It seemed a far ways off, but my PH used his range finder and said that it was 250 yards away....I put the horizontal cross hairs on it's back and squeezed the trigger; at the shot the kudu swapped ends and headed back up the mountain, disappearing into the bush. Shortly after, I heard a heavy thud,and I hoped that meant I had made a good shot. My P.H. made his way to the other side of the mountain and I directed him to the spot....he went into the brush and came out and called me over. I made my way there and when I saw him I asked "Do we have kudu?", to which he smiled and replied "You have a kudu!"
The kudu fell at the top of the mountain in a spot surrounded by large boulders, so we had to bring it back down to the valley in pieces. We took it to the landowner's farm to hang it, then went back out to look for impala...we saw a small bunch in an open field so we stopped and had lunch and then did a stalk. The stalk was pretty much a classic stalk: we slowly made our way through some woods to within 100 yards of the herd, picked out a mature ram, and then waited for him to present a standing, broadside shot. At the shot, he dropped...but I didn't see him drop; I thought I had missed. But the P.H. saw him drop and assured me that he was down.
The last day I decided to go after a cow waterbuck; seems they had a few too many and I was more than happy to oblige in helping thin the herd a little. We found a few mature cows, but when we did stalks we were again busted by either one of the other cows in the group, or by zebra (again). Finally we found a group that was content to stay in the cover they were in....we circled it a couple of times until we saw the cow we were after and she gave us the opportunity for a shot. My P.H. went to the spot and pointed to an area just a few yards away and said "there she is!" A quick,clean kill.
Cruiser safaris bent over backwards to make our (my wife and myself)trip one that we will remember for the rest of our lives....I highly recommend them and if anyone has any further questions, please don't hesitate to P.M. me.

Congrats on the hunt. Thanks for the pics and the write-up. You just lived my dream.

Congrats
I agree African safaris are awesome

I hunted with Cruiser, back in 2008, and had an excellent hunt. Nice pics. Who was your ph?

When you going again?


maddog

Hans was my P.H.; I plan on going back in 2016 or 2017

Great write up and pics! Congrats! It makes me want to go back!

Eric

Thanks for posting! I really enjoy seeing pictures and stories from hunting in Africa. Hopefully I will be posting some new African hunting pictures and related stories in 2015 and 2016.

Glad you enjoyed your trip.

Great story, thanks for sharing.

Congratulations on a great hunt! Be careful with Oxi Logistics, read my post and see what happened to my trophies and please learn from my experience.

Those are some magnificent trophies! What were the rifles you used on the hunt?

I started using my Ruger 77 in .338 Win. mag & a 225 grain Nosler accubond handload to take the wildebeest; however, I had some ammunition feeding problems so I switched to my Interarms Mk X in .30-06 using a 200 grain Nosler partition handload for the other 4 animals.

Well done! Congrats!!

Might as well start planning your 2nd trip...it's addicting, for sure.

Great job! Beautiful animals!

Congrats on some fine trophies and a great adventure! Addicting isn't it?

....already have; actually, I was planning it on the airplane on the way home!

Very nice 16. Love the pics and trophies you took. Thanks for sharing.