Okay, here goes....Gennie and I decided to get married and hunt in South Africa. After much research and info gathering, we chose Arthur Rudman's Blaauwkrantz Safaris near Port Elizabeth. The first 2 days of the 10 day trip involved paperwork and planning for the wedding, and the wedding itself.
Now to hunting. First day of real hunting, we decided to try for kudu over oranges. That area had not been hunted at all in preparation for my bowhunt. With Wayne Rudman (Arthur's nephew_ as my guide, he genie and I sat over the orange bait starting at 2pm. There was activity in and out with on huge bull only 5 yds away but not in a shooting lane. Then there was a lull for about 30 minutes until a cow kudu came in and 3 buckles charged in off the top of the hill. I passed on the first 2 just appreciating the beauty and the as the bull I decided to take presented a clear shot at 33 yards. The shot was a little back and I got lungs and liver. He walked off and went about 130 yards and expired. denotive measure is 44 inches.
Next we went for impala setting up in a natural funnel and made a blind in some brush this afternoon was very cold and wet. Again setting up at 2 pm, we waited for just a few minutes and there were impala in sight. An hour or two passed before the one I killed came into range. As I was watching another ram at about 150 yards, POOF!!! There was an impala ram 22 yards in front of the blind, no noise, nothing...he just appeared. Wayne liked the looks of him and gave me the go ahead. Perfect shot both lungs and top of the heart. ran maybe 80 yards and expired in view. Took some pics and packed it up to warm up and dry off.
Wayne asked arthur if he would pull some strings and get permission to hunt a very exclusive property for warthogs. After some negotiation, Arthur aquired permission for me to hunt this property where only 10 animals are taken per year. This is an area mainly for ecu-tourism and I will not name it since they are not available for hunting to the public. Being assured there were some real "snorters" na the property, we decided to stalk the warthog. The area we hunted had dangerous game on the property as well, so just walking around was interesting. We found an area full of warthogs and decided to give it a closer look. After walking hm,aybe 100 yards, we were in the middle of many warthogs. Watching carefully looking for a true trophy, we found a really old boar but his teeth were severely worn down. We passed on him as well as 2 other nice boars. Deciding to move around some brush, I saw a huge boar moving toward the old guy with broken teeth. As the boar I killed moved in, there was no contest the old guy with no teeth won in a flash, sending mine out of the area in a hurry. But as he was exiting, we caught his eye, causing him to stop at a mere 20 yards. Problem was he was quartering toward and the only shot was a frontal (not my favorite position) Wayne encouraged me to shoot low under the chin into the vitals. The arrow went high, under his eye wart angling in to the vitals, so we hoped. after much searching and trying, we trailed the blood for about 2 miles and had to call it a day. We went back the next morning to look some more but to no avail. At lunch break, we got the call that the ranch owners son had found my pig. Slammed down the food and went to pick him up. I am not going to say what the tentative measure is but I will post when I hear from the scorer.
Being near the end of my hunt, I opted to try for the black wildebeest with a rifle. We hunted hard but did not fing a really good bull. The last day of the hunt, we headed to a different area and an old part of the farm where Wayne grew up. It did not take long before we found 4 really good bulls, problem was they were herding with about 30 blesbok.the blesbok busted us over an over. At one point we got withing 300 yards and Wayne asked if I wanted to take the shot but I passed as it was only noon. Deciding to stlak forward, busted again by the blesbok send the the herd and the wildebeest back up the hills. After being busted so many times, we decided to set up in ambush and wait. About 20 minutes later, here come the blesbok storminmg down the hilss at full speed abouit 200 yards away. I readied myself for the shot, planning on the beests to be running but instead, 3 of the 4 posed perfectly in 3 different breaks in the bush. Wayne studied them quickly and told me which one was the best. Again a quartering toward shot but I felt a little better with a 300 Win Mag and GS Custom bullets. Aimed and pulled the trigger, feeling great about the shot. The beest slightly stumble and then off in a dead sprint. We found plenty of blood for about 70 yards and then nothing!!!!! After some searching, Wayne found him 70 yards from the last blood. Upon inspection we found that the lungs were nothing but red jello and the heart was split in two. I still cannot believe how this animal rand that far with no lungs or heart. This may be my favorite animal of the 4 I took.
We had a great time and hope to do it again. With the quick education we got, I think we will avoid the Joberg airport at ALL cost but that is another story in itself.
Kyle
