Just returned yesterday from hunting with Jim (JJ) Hack on his ground near the Limpopo in the Northern Province.

We had ten days chasing a variety of plains game in some very thick bush veld. Before I went over I was a little worried that this might be a ranch hunt of the wack and stack variety, but it proved to be exactly the opposite and in the end we all had a very challenging/ exciting hunt where every animal was worked for one way or another.

The Lodge where we stayed was extreamly comfortable, the service was great, and food was some of the finest i have eaten.

The PH's (including Jim) were all very knowledgeable and worked hard at putting each hunter onto decent trophies. The atmosphere during the hunt can only described as "fun" with plenty of humour from all sides.

Jim worked extra hard as he was also sorting out the behind the scenes stuff and coping with the minor hiccups that often come up on hunts. As a result of his attention to detail and the fact he is very much a perfectionist, everything went very smoothly indeed.

A have a few photos to post, but they need selecting and resizing first.

I used a CZ550 American in 9.3x62mm with 286grn Barnes X bullets and this was topped with a 4x32 Meopta scope in Warne QD mounts. The whole combo performed very well taking game from 20m to 170m with no problems, including some difficult quartering shoots I could never have done with a .308win type caliber.

I will post the pics and more details and a few thoughts on equipment ect when I get a chance.

Regards,

Pete

I look forward to your photos Pete.

Would you mind telling me where you picked up your ammo for your rifle? I am going to SA and Namibia in July and the PH, who is a friend of my dad's, has requested a couple of boxes of 9.3x62 286 grain ammo.

You may have trouble trying to import ammo that doesn't match your rifle....there is a new form for South Africa that requires a listing of firearms, ammo, etc . I would double-check to make sure you aren't stopped at the airport...unless you are shooting a 9.3x62mm yourself.

You can NOT take ammo, other than for the rifles you have with you. Limit of 200 rounds per rifle. TM

Ah yes, another example of RSA anarcho-tyranny.

Here they are ignoring the crime rampant in the country (mostly done by blacks, they pronounce it "blecks"), while pimping the law-abiding citizens, here represented by the mostly white foreign hunters.

This phenomenon started in Europe, and spread to the USA, and is now metastasizing. Several centers of excellence for a-t exist in our federal government, but the TSA is the most odious.

jim

Gents,

A few pictures and some details of the various animals taken.

The first couple of days I seemed to have no luck; everybody else had taken nice animals, but my PH kept on saying �too small� to everything we saw..Finally we chanced on this waterbuck on the third day and I took him with a broadside shot which was a little high due to brush ect and he ran about 150 yards before falling over.



This pig gave me the biggest scare of my trip. We stalked in pretty close (20m) in thick bush and I hit him with a quartering shot in through near side front shoulder and out through the off side ribs. He jumped in the air and did a 180 degree turn before hitting the after burners. There was no blood on the ground where he stood and it took several minutes of tracking by the PH to find the first specks about 80m along the trail; then there was nothing more and he also lost the track too. I was sure I had cocked the shot up, but after 45 minutes more of searching we finally found him stone dead about 200m further way. I can understand him running as he knew he was being stalked, but was trying to slink away; the lack of blood trail is more baffling however.




The Kudu was taken after a good stalk which resulted in me taking a 170m shot from the sitting position using my sticks. He was constantly moving as he followed the Kudu cows about; obviously love was on his mind. The shot was a broadside through the heart/lungs and he went about 30 yards with a hell of a blood trail. He measures aprrox 53� and to say both the PH and I were chuffed is an understatement!



We chased around after Gemsbok for nearly three days over two blocks of property before we nailed this one. To say they were skittish and elusive would not be doing them justice. We finally managed to stalk down wind and cut off a small group that was crossing our front in thick bush about 80 yards away. Most of the time all that was visible was legs or bums moving through the thorn scrub. This one paused for that last fatal look back and received a quartering shot that went from the near side ribs out through the offside shoulder again taken standing using my sticks.


The zebra was another animal that proved elusive and skittish and this mare was taken after a nice stalk on to a small party in thick brush. She dropped to the shot after receiving a broadside shot through the heart and lungs again taken off sticks at around 70m.



This wildebeest as taken on the last morning of the hunt in a stalk and shot virtually identical to the Kudu except it was quartering away from me. Again complete penetration with the Barnes X 286grn bullets and a massive blood trail for about 50m. As he was still moving his head as we approached I put another bullet in him to finish him off quickly, but it was not really needed.



Finally in the last ten minutes of light of the last day we came across this old Warthog. I head shot him from around 60 paces again using my sticks. This was the only animal I recovered a bullet from and it was found lodged in his spine. It had lost 3 of its 4 petals and I suppose could be classed as a �failure� but it did drop him where he stood first though�I think I could go back to Africa and hunt just warhogs they are that much fun to stalk.

[img]http://www.jesseshunting.com/photopost/data/500/168452ndwartyweb.jpg[/img]

So all in all I was pretty lucky and I had a great hunt. My CZ550 in 9.3x62mm worked flawlessly and seems to fit me like a glove. It was scoped with a Meopta 4x32mm and that turned out to be a perfect choice; I never felt under or over scoped and it just plain worked. I was toying with replacing it with a �better quality� S&B 4x36mm but now I am not so sure.

Regards,

Pete

Way cool...thanks for posting the pics...

Thank you for the information about the ammo guys, I didn't know about that.

Pete, those are some very nice trophies, I hope my trip is as enjoyable as your was. Thank you for taking the time to post the pics and stories.

Tony

Great report and fantastic pictures!

Pete, Good report and pictures. We never could get Rick, Charlie and Richard to make a thorough report on their trip. :-( Looks like you had the usual great time. Of all the animals, I envy you the Wart hogs the most. Still trying to get a good one! TM

Thanks, Pete ... it's fun to get these reports.

Pete, congrat's on those fine animal's!

Thanks everyone of the kind comments...

We saw a couple of very large warthogs at different times, but they managed to give us the slip. Actually I think I could go back and just hunt warthogs as they really are fun to stalk!

Regards,

Pete

Pete,

Thanks for sharing the stories and photos, glad you had a great time!

I've always enjoyed JJ's input on the site here, so am not surprised to hear your praise of his operation and professionalism.

NICE Kudu!

Very Very Nice!

God that looks like and awesome adventure ... there was a time I couldn't imagine wanting to hunt the dark continent ... Now I cannot imagine not trying it once!

Has anyone eaten Zebra??? ... Just curious what it would taste like (chicken?? <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />)... also, what would make a trophy Zebra?? Just curious <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" /> THANX

I didn't get to try Zebra but I was told it was pretty good. The food at the Lodge was outstanding; far better than most hotels I have been to in fact. We ate quite a bit of game including impala, kudu, and Eland. This was servered in a number of ways from sausages, to steaks, stews, stir frys and a few other ways and was often in some sort of sauce as well. In case people weren't keen on to much game, it was often interspersed with various fish dishes. It was easy to see how I put on 7lb! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/blush.gif" alt="" />

With regards the zebra trophy question, I think its whatever floats your boat. I want a youngish animal so the hide and mane would be in good condition for a rug, while other folks prefer a battle scarred stallion believing the marks will give the rug more character.

Regards,

Pete

Pete,

Those are some fine looking trophy's, congrats.

Sounds like you had a great time to boot.

Tony

Excellent safari!

Those are some great animals for sure.

Mike

I didn't realize partitions had "petals". The front half of the bullet usually blows off and the rest acts like a wad cutter (small exit holes and minimal wound channel). I think the wart hog is testiment to that. I don't see any big holes in your animals. Were you impressed with the bullet? Great safari and fabulous animals. The Waterbuck is something to behold. I have never seen the horns splayed out like that. You did well grasshopper <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" /> Flinch

Pete,
Great photos and great account of the hunt!!!

Where in Wales do you live? I lived in England for two years and loved spending time in Bedgellert. Especially, hiking around Snowdon and Treffan. Not to mention, I miss having roe deer and red stag in the freezer. I also spent a bunch of time near forfar in Scotland stalking stag and roe deer

Regards,

Ted Evans

Hi!

I just signed up for this website today. Thanks for the photo's and story. I went to Zimbabwe last August and had a terrific time. I too am happy with the performance of my CZ550, although mine is a 416 rigby as my hunt was for elephant and cape buffalo. I will post photo's soon if anyone is interested. Barnes 'X' s and solids performed perfectly.

Cont... For those who are displeased with the regulations in RSA, I took 5 guns including a .44mag pistol and over 1,000 rounds of ammo with me to Zimbabwe (most of it for my shotgun) with NO PROBLEMS! Also, my bull elephant hunt only cost me $11,000.00 and I added a 40 inch cape buffalo for an add;l 3K. I am going back!!

Thanks for the great report and pics. What a great time!

Flinch,

I was using 286grn Barnes X not Partions, hence my comment about the petals shearing off.

Was I pleased with the bullets performance? Generally, yes although I do have a nagging doubt about the way they performed on the two warthogs especially the first which ran a hell of a way despite being well hit. On the bigger stuff they gave tremedous peneration and as I said I only recovered one bullet from the whole hunt. I am convinced that a fair few of the shots I took would not have been feasible with conventional bullets in smaller calibers such as the .308win.

At the end of the day, I think the results on seven animals is too small a sample to draw any real conclusions on and as the Barnes are the first Premiums I have used, I have nothing to draw any comparisons with. I like the peneration they gave and I like the accuracy in my rifle ie sub1" groups when i do my part. Perhaps I might have had even better results if I had used the 250grn Barnes X??

With regards the lack of exit holes in the pictures, thats quite deliberate as is the lack of blood. The PH took quite a lot of trouble to make sure the pictures were "clean" and that included washing the animals down when needed. The only one we failed with was the last Warty. We were running very short of light and we simply could not stop him bleeding from the mouth...

Although my PH did a fairly good job of all this, JJ is extreamly good at it. I have seen many of his pictures and within the constraints of the light available, they are generally excellent. He attaches a very high importance to high quality trophy pics for his hunters and as good as he is, he is still striving to get them better.

Regards,

Pete

Ted,

I live just up the road from Llangollen, so I know the area you are talking about well. My only complaint about Wales is that it has virtually no Roe deer although they are starting to spread in, just not fast enough for me!

Regards,

Pete

Hi Pete,
I have been through Llangollen, you live in a beautiful part of the world!!! That was the one thing that I found interesting, there is very little game in Wales. There are roe deer thick as can be in Hampshire where I lived, but not so much in Wales. As you say, they are very prolific and hopefully their numbers will improve in Wales. If they do, I can't think of a more spectacular place to hunt than Wales. Do you have any stag in the mountains of Northern Wales?

Regards,

Ted