New member here and thought I'd post a hunt report from my hunt last summer with Owen Smith / Jimbah Safaris in the Eastern Cape. Owen is a semi-retired PH who I've hunted with several times previously. I had a 3 week break from school so I decided to go over and get a hunt in. My friend Alex had never been to Africa and I convinced him to split the hunt with me. Alex only had 3 animals on his original invoice but Owen felt like he needed to get the full experience, so he squeezed a couple extra animals into the budget.
https://imgur.com/a/28QJC2qI took my pre-64 Model 70 .30-'06 and a Ruger African in .416 Ruger. I used the .416 on the sable, one impala, and the buffalo. I was impressed with the 150gr Barnes TTSX bullets on my eland, finding two perfectly mushroomed bullets in the opposite ribcage after shooting him at just over 300 yards.
The buffalo was hunted in a very dense thicket by tracking. We followed him about 1/2 a mile and hadn't seen him, when suddenly the trackers duck and start waving us up. I was about 5 yards back, and get up beside the PH and he points at the buffalo and says "Shoot!" One shot offhand at 30 yards and he immediately collapses. The bullet had gone directly through his spine. Two more shots in his chest at 10 yards and he was done, all within about 20 seconds.
Alex got his kudu, springbuck, blesbuck, impala, and warthog for his first trip to Africa. Our taxidermy should be done in a few months and I'm excited to get that into the house. My dad is going to help build pedestal mounts for the sable and buffalo and I'll post updates when that all arrives.
