Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Africa Out of Africa..... with pics

Well, We got back from our hunting trip with JJHack in Africa several days ago and are still unpacking and unwinding. We had an absolutely wonderful time, 12 ft. pythons and black mamba snakes not withstanding!



As you can see we had a very successful hunt in terms of animals bagged, 11 total. Warthogs, two, are not shown because we saved only the teeth. I consider them all excellant trophies but for those who count such things, they tell me my wildebest exceeded the minimum for Rowland/Ward book by an inch or so.



I must say that we were well pleased with all aspects of JJ's operation. Food, service, amenities, even the other hunters were all first class and well appreciated. Now some caveats,
Yes, we hunted behind what I would call a "high fence". Total acreage was app. 37,000. That's 64 square miles! I am a firm believer in fair chase so had some trepidations about a fenced operation. I rountinely watched warthogs, impala and the smaller antelope species pass under the fences at will and while I did not witness it, they told us that Kudu and Waterbuck can and do easily jump over the fence at will. So, while there was a fence there, it certainly was not an airtight enclosure and did not inhibit the travel patterns of many of the animals. Home range of many of the animals are way less than 64 sq. miles also, so many are born, live out their lives and die without ever seeing the fence. All that being said, I would probaly still rather hunt without a high fence but in this case, it does not present a huge moral issue to me.
Now on to more pics....
JJ catching some rays at lunch time at poolside



My wife hunted some but did get tired about midway so, just to help her out, I went ahead and shot her Kudu for her.



Here's mine...



Both are sub-50 inch although we did see several mid-50s, just never could get on 'em. They don't get old by being stupid!

Last, but certainly not least is my Gemsbok. He taunted and teased us for 15 or 20 minutes, going in and out of brush and circling before I finanly could get a shot off. Nerve wracking "foreplay".



We both used rifles twisted up by Matt Bettersworth over at Hill Country Rifles and were well pleased with results. Mine in .338 WM and hers in .308. I really like that .338, mild to shoot and really thumps them hard. One other thing we did that I think helped out a lot is, we went a few days early and did the tourist two-step with a tour guide. We went to Pilanesberg Park and did a lot of game viewing, which got us used to looking for the animals and the habitat they prefer. Flights over and back are NOT fun but doable. I'll add more pics as time permits but all in all the trip was wonderful, eye-opening, and very memorable.

Well done! Looks like you had a great time. Did you re-book yet? <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

La,

Nice pictures and I enjoyed the write up. Lokking forward to more pic's. Glad your wife could go with you. It sounds like she enjoyed the trip too.