Dear all; my wife and I were in South Africa late April and early May of this year with Hotfire Safaris. Patrick Fletcher owner / PH organized everything for the trip and was our tour guide for 10 days touring after the hunt. During the 10 days I hunted my wife had her own guide, she came hunting for a couple of sessions and did some very interesting touring on her on with her guide. This proved to be a very successful arrangement.

My wife and I are very impressed with Mr. Patrick Fletcher and his operation Hotfire.

This trip confirmed a few well known facts; a barnes TSX pushed relatively fast works well, bullets in the right place make things expire quickly.

Shockingly I discovered that one can hunt Africa with great success with the following; a bubba buddy, stainless steel and fiberglass in a wissum.

I hunted with my M70 modified by Corlane Sports; .325 WSM, McMillan Stock, Swaro Z6 2-12, loaded with 180 grain Barnes TSX. My Leica Geovids as always proved to b a wonderful investment.

Shots ranged from 50 yards to 325 yards. species taken were; Impala, Kudu, Nyala, Black wildebeest, warthog, blue Wildebeest, Bushbuck, and Springbok. I had a blast hunting Impala and ended up shooting a few. Three bullets were caught but only one was recovered.

We spent a great deal of time glassing for bushbuck on Hotfire and despite lots of sign none were seen. We ended up heading to another ranch to hunt the bushbuck. We also hunted black wildebeest and springbok at lower elevations as these animals were not faring overly well at Hotfire. A few culls were taken as well.

The late April early May was a great time of year to be hunting; kudu, impala, warthog and I'm sure a few other were rutting. First time I have seen / heard Impala in the rut, awesome.

The touring was fantastic, fun and educational. It was nice not to have drive or navigate just relax and catch the sights. During the tour we hit Camdeboo Nat Park, The Valley of Desolation, Karoo National Park, wine country (also nice not to worry about what the legal limit is), Cape Point, Table Mountain, the garden route, Addo National Park, a private game reserve and ended with two days on the beach at Morgans Bay.

Food and wine were outstanding.

Now for what everyone really wants; pictures. Please feel free to let know if there are any particular details you want.

Thanks GRF

Pictures are a little out of order but I didn't feel up to fighting with photobucket tonight.

I will get some other photos up in a wee bit.

Looks like a great trip to me!

Thanks for sharing.

Guy

Great pics, and a wonderful hunt apparently. Congrats, and thanks for sharing.

Thanks Guy.

It was a truly grand time.

Thanks JG it was a blast, has we wondering when i can go back again

Congrats! That is an amazing Bushbuck.

Nice beautiful old Impala.

A Real trophy.



Looks like the rest was fun too!

Thanks for sharing! My brother and I hunted Hotfire a couple years ago, Patrick was a very gracious host, and his Canadian wife charming and welcoming. I had the great good fortune to take nice impala and a really good Eastern Cape Kudu on his property. We hunted hard, experienced wonderful wild and rugged country, and found some very good animals.
I could not be more pleased with my experience.
Glad you enjoyed your hunt!

Looks like a helluva lot of fun!

Nice report and great pics, thanks!

it twas a helluva lot of fun.

castnblast you are correct Patrick is a very gracious host. We missed Jennifer on this trip as she was back in Canada as she was trying to sort out some issues with RSA immigration.

ingwe the old impala had only one tooth left, he was well on his way out, i just sped him along a bit.

Spad, i'm glad you like the bushbuck, as it is the only one I have seen on the ground i have no perspective as to how good it really is. Patrick and the trackers were quite pumped. I am quite happy with it after all the effort involved.

Very nice trip, thanks for posting.

Sounds and looks great!

I hope you saved a couple of animals for later this summer. My wife and I plan to go this August.

Congrats on a wonderful safari.

donsm70

Donswm70; lots and lots of beasties left

Where are you going and who are you hunting with?

Great photos and trophys GRF. Thanks for sharing. Any chance of a play by play?

I really want a bushpig!

Clifford Myers of Weltevreden Game Lodge. Less than an hour out of Bleomfontaine (sp). We have a 5 day Cape Buffalo and cull hunt scheduled with Clifford and then on to Namibia for a 10 day plains game hunt.

Hopefully, many pics to follow.

donsm70

CharlesL; play by play the entire hunt or a specific animal or two?

Great stuff ! Very pleased to hear that you enjoyed our Eastern Cape!

Entire hunt or at least the highlights. I love reading the articles as well as looking at the pictures.

What a trip. Congratulations! Great photos!

Eric

How about the bushpig. I saw one and was not fast enough. It is one of animals that I really want.