Leaderboard

Limpopo Province, on the Limpopo River, May 2019 I received a couple of questions regarding my avatar so I thought I would post a little bit of information about the hunt for anyone planning a hunt in South Africa. I think it is important to mention that the majority of hunting in South Africa is conducted behind what is termed high fences here. The size of the high fenced areas varies greatly from small 4 foot fences to stop cattle and sheep movement to large scale “big 5” fences. This fencing also serves to protect outfitters and land owners from poaching and therefore their viability. You will struggle to find a property in South Africa or Namibia with no fences somewhere along the line, be it a park border, a high fence on a neighboring property, or a barrier to public roads. The land areas are generally very large so you may not even see a fence at all during your visit apart from entering or leaving the area, and the low fences do not hamper animal movements much. There are also a number of different ways in which you can hunt in South Africa - but all of mine has been traditional “Track and walk”. You would typically wake up and have a coffee and small breakfast at the camp before being driven to another part of the property known for the type of animal you are looking for and walk from there. For this hunt, I was at Maswiri safaris’s Beskow camp, a 5,000 hectare parcel of land in the far north of South Africa along the Limpopo river and I was after a nice bull kudu as my wife wanted some “decorative horns” to place on the coffee table. Similar to the Coues deer - a kudu is also referred to as the “Grey Ghost” and can sometimes be a nightmare to find despite their size. My friends knew about my target and as such bought me a couple of books (Peter Flack - Hunting the Spiral Horns) and magazines in attempts to assist. We walked for miles and miles, glassed for hours on the top of “koppies” (small rocky hills) without too much luck for about a week. We didn't even see cows. After another unsuccessful morning we made our way back to camp for a breakfast where I discussed going straight back out in the heat of the day and focussing along water points. We drove to a likely area and were dropped off with our backpacks, professional hunter and a tracker and slowly walked our way along. It wasn't too far from the drop off point (I’d say less than 2 miles) that the tracker started getting excited as he had seen a good bull. The path towards him was pretty open so we backtracked and went around another koppie, inching our way around to spot him again. And there he was with his head deep into a bush and perhaps a 100 shot with his shoulder exposed. We set up the shooting sticks, set up the rifle and turned off the safety. I slowly squeezed the trigger and down he went - my first kudu bull. It was only later when we looked at him that we realized just how great a bull he was - old as the hills, with ground down teeth and beautiful ivory tips. Of course - we now started to find kudu’s everywhere we looked for the remainder of the trip. For those of you interested, horn length for a Kudu measured in it's simplest form is taking the measurement of the longest horn from the base along the spiral ridge to the tip only and can be extremely difficult to judge in the field - factors such as how deep the curls are influence the final score greatly. According to a post on Africahunting.com titled judging Greater Kudu: “In terms of trophy size when it comes to mature Greater Kudu bulls, the holy grail is taking the elusive monster 60 inch plus (152.4 cm) Greater Kudu which is something that does happen to a lucky few, however it is the result of the hunting gods smiling down upon you. I would say that horns above 55 inches (139.7 cm) make for an amazing trophy, horns above 50 inches (127 cm) make for a great trophy, horns above 45 inches (114.3 cm) make for a good trophy and horns below 45 inches (114.3 cm) make for a beautiful trophy and great memories!” Mine doesn't have exceptionally deep curls, but measured 53 inches. Regardless of the measurement - my wife didn't get her decorative horns for the table - but he does sit proudly on my wall.

We had bad weather on opening weekend and got lucky on the second weekend. We were able to glass the herd bedded under an oak at 7:30 am and the herd didn’t get up til 9:45 am. Once they started feeding we began our stalk. Pops got off a 19 yard shot with the crossbow and I was able to get a 15 yard shot with the recurve.

Tessa had a tag for the Navajo reservation we had gone up on January 2nd to hunt it was brutally cold single digit temps and we did not know it but we both were in the early stages of covid. The first day found us looking at roughly 40-50 different bulls. The wind was blowing in the wrong direction for us to do much without spooking all the elk. The second morning we found a herd of bulls with several of them looking to be 390 plus. We had a target bull that was some where in the 380 range we probably could of had a good chance of killing him but elected to go after the bigger bulls. Well as luck or bad luck would have it this herd crossed into the park once in here you can not hunt them and amazingly they seem to know it. We waited all day for them to come back out but they did not. With us both feeling sick we decided to return home. On the reservation you have to have a guide the guide we was using had another hunter coming in anyway . We returned for the following Thursday morning things had changed dramatically, we saw about 10 bulls in the same areas we had seen as many as 50. After finding this bull about two miles away up a canyon with 3 other bulls . We put a plan together after a 1.5 hour hike we were in position for Tessa to be able to harvest this elk. He was just shy of 360 his teeth were wore down to the gums he had to be very old doubtful he would survive another winter. I do not know how many more hunts i have with her because she has a boy friend now i will cherish them all. She has an oryx hunt on the White Sands Missile Range next month. I hope she gets one i here the meat is excellent.

Why wait till the last minute to buy a tag. And yeah you’re right they are a pain, that’s why we go to azgfd and get our licenses and tags and it takes 2 minutes.

We finally found the pigs today in my normal honey hole again. Me and my son doubled up shot mine at 40yds and his at 25 yds. Had a blast good luck everyone its been tough!

12 beautiful healthy puppies born January 9, 2022 9 boys and 3 girls- versatile dogs $200 deposit (reserves pick) $800 when you pick up puppy - $1000 total raised around children and other dogs AKC- tails docked and dew claws removed. They will receive first round of shots, deworming and vet checked prior to going home (March 9) located in Chandler Heights/ Queen Creek (480) 707-8681 text or call

Forgot this was in our things from Michigan, no longer needed. Fits good, 6'1 and 240lbs Located in Catalina FREE! FREE! No holds unless you are on your way.

Plenty of big bulls NW of the airport below the Rim and it is pretty flat. There are also some nasty places if that's your thing.

If youre in the game for the 23 hunts, I wouldn't bother with another choice imo.

Spf

I have a 20 MOA base on this particular rifle, though that has nothing to do with the scope's limitations. The BT turret on the Swaro Z5 is designed to have 4 set zero's that are adjustable by the scope owner along with an adjustable zero stoop. The outdoorsman's and others offer a custom turret (mine is just a plain 1/4 MOA dial), but the design of the turret only gives you a maximim 13.25 MOA of adjustment upwards from the zero stop. It's a great scope, great optics, huge eyebox, reliable and repeatable (I've had it for 10 years now on my primary deer rifle with nary a problem) and the 4w reticle is simple and very functional. For me, the 13ish MOA keeps my hunting shots to under 750 yards which is probably about as far as I should be shooting @ animals with a 6.5x47.

This dude was chasing a doe yesterday.

Any young, responsible, intelligent, hard working, honest person with integrity these days could really be successful at a young age. At this rate you could start at the front desk of a Hyatt hotel and be GM in 10 years. Employers must be begging for competent people and willing to keep them no matter what it takes.

My father calls them COVID employees. They are people with a pulse that are filling job openings. They will take anyone willing to show up to work Last weekend I was changing oil in all my family’s vehicles and my large oil tank was full and needed to be recycled. I called Autozone and asked if their recycle tank was full. The guy said, “yeah we have a recycle tank.”. I said yeah I just want to make sure it’s not full before I drive over there. He said, “yeah man you’re good.” I put everything in my truck (about 6 gallons of oil drove over there and unloaded it all. when I started wheeling the oil tank through the store, the employee said, “our oil tank is full. they are coming tomorrow.” I lost it.

I’d rather have exploratory rectal surgery than have to buy anything regarding a thought process at either of the vendors the OP mentioned. I bought a rifle at Wally World when they were discounting hard a year or so ago, the “clerk” in sporting goods may as well have come from ladies lingerie as far as what she knew about selling a gun. I thought I’d have to renew my CCW permit before she finished. Big5 applicants seem to be Al Bundy clones as I’ve only bought tennis shoes there and finding a pair in my size seems to be a mental challenge for most of them. i agree with the mentioned comments , go to an actual sporting goods store where they train their personnel if you can’t make it to a GF office.

Idk how anyone could immediately discount sitting water in September like the above poster.

Griffin and I hit the road with high hopes and much excitement. We connected with 2 locals who volunteered to help us out. You never know what to expect. Does this mean here’s a dusty 2 track I once saw a deer at or rolling out the red carpet. We were humbled by the level of commitment to help us. Each day was filled with hours of glassing and holding out for a good one. We passed many bucks and held the bar high. Finally on day 4 we spotted a heavily palpated 4x4 about a mile away and 800-1000 feet higher. We watched him graze and knew he’d be the buck of dreams if we would be able to hang our tag on him. We formulated a game plan and off we went. 4.5 hours later we sat above the thicket. We decided to wait him out. Unfortunately the gray ghost gave us the slip and we never saw him again. It was an epic 2 hour hike out in the dark with our egos bruised but our hearts full of the experience. The next day was to be our last in AZ so we decided to take the first legal buck we saw. Finally on the opposite hillside we spotted a buck and moved into shooting range just as the buck disappeared into bottom. He was about 200 away. As we sat there picking apart the hillside just looking our local friend hissed “he’s right there!” 100 yards away the buck emerged from the thicket and stood quartering to knowing something was up. Quickly griffin steadied on the sticks and the crack of the rifle broke the silence. No buck in sight. We decided to give it 30 minutes and give it a look. No blood at all but we spread out and began grid searching. Just a few short minutes later we located the buck and the celebration was on! I want to say I’m so humbled to the 2 gentlemen who took time out of their schedules and spent 5 days helping us chase down the gray ghost we are forever in your debt. We came as strangers but now I consider you good friends! The hunting community is filled with good people who are the salt of the earth with kindness in their hearts! Cant wait to return to AZ next year!!

often we practice a lot prior to Jan (or another hunt), then because we are hunting every opportunity we get, practice can take a back seat, we shoot very little and fundamentals can slip- make sure you are practicing / shooting in Jan during the hunt. The curse after shooting at an animal is prematurely dropping the bow arm to get a better view of the arrow, follow through is super important. Good luck, been where you are multiple times in 28 years...

I felt the same way when I started with a bow.I could get close but not get a shot.IF it wasn't a bad angle it was getting winded.Then after 10 plus years I finally got a 12a tag and was in the deer and got a shot and hit the buck right in the shoulder and at 18 yrds at that .We looked for several hours for my buck and never found him .Only a drop or 2 of blood every 4 or 5 feet.It was a real kick in the nuts for sure .It made me really think about my setup and I switched to a fixed blade and will definitely aim for the second rib back .Keep at it and it will happen.

Pick a spot. Don’t look at antlers. If you’re good at that range CONSISTENTLY when practicing, it’s nerves. Pick a spot. Make your mind forget antlers, animal, etc.... focus on hitting the target. And it goes without saying don’t take shots on deer on high alert or bad angles. Targets don’t move, animals will. It took me six years of archery elk hunting to finally get a cow in the early 90’s. Then I filled almost every bow tag I had after that for years, it’s a learning curve.

Nobody would even steal that camera. 😀

The issue is they make new ones that are better for half the price

My room is in the starting stages still have a bear and bobcat on the way but it’s a start.

Well I've been back for a bit now and to be honest I kind of forgot about this post. We made it to Kodiak the morning of 29 Oct by way of ferry from Homer. We met the transporter on the other side of the island in Anton Larson Bay the morning of 30 Oct. The weather that morning was horrible and I was hoping that it was not the beginning of shitty weather for the week. Fortunately for us it was not. We got to Larsen Bay, our hunting area, about 1p.m. and decided to go for a hike and get a lay of the land where we'd be hunting. To say that the terrain is thick is an understatement. It took us about 2.5 hours to hike inland before we got to a "open" area where we could not walk through the thick alders/brush. Even in the grassy areas the grass was 3'-4' high so we had to bushwhack our way through everything. We were only out for a few hours that evening and saw tons of deer sign but no bear sign. Day 1-Started with a 3-4 hour hike to a overlook where we could glass the mountain sides around us. We did end up seeing a bear about a mile and a half across the valley. Here's where the dilemmas come into play......It would take us at least 2 hours to get in to shooting range and who knows if the bear would even still be there when we got into position. Safe daylight began at about 9:45ish and it was dark by 6pm. We found the bear at about 3:30 and had the hard discussion of not going after it because it would take us late into the night if we were able to actually shoot and kill it. We made the decision to come back to that area the next day and try to find him again. Day 2-Started with a 3-4 hour hike and we went in a different way to try and get a head of where we last saw the bear. We made it to the area where we were going to try and shoot the bear from the previous day. We glassed all day and could not relocate the bear nor did we see any other bears. We saw a ton of deer sign and also a few deer do it kind of gave us hope. They did want to shoot and deer yet and wanted to keep focusing on the bear. Day 3-You guessed it another 3-4 hour hike. Even though we didn't see a bear the day before we stuck to this area and in hind sight it was a bad idea. We didn't see any bear and very few deer though there was sign everywhere! This evening we moved the boat about 4 miles southwest down the shoreline. Day 4-We hiked along a stream but believe it or not after the first 1/4 mile the brush got thick again. There was actual bear sign here so we were on high alert walking through the brush/grass. We wanted to hike back to the lake where this stream originates but after 3 hours busting brush we still had a mile to go and decided it wasn't worth the time to get back there and only be able to glass for less than an hour. We ended up finding a bear on the mountains directly to the south of us but we had two problems......1 he was about 2 miles away and 2 he was on the reservation and we didn't buy trespassing tags ($200 per person) nor the tag to actually kill a bear on reservation land ($1,000). We had decided not to purchase either of the tags prior to leaving Kodiak. So we kept glassing until about an hour before dark so we could hike out. Day 5-Hiked along the river again and didn't see anything other than deer on this day. They decided that it was a bear or nothing so we glassed all day in multiple spots and never saw another bear. Day 6-Took the boat back to Kodiak....... All three of us had a great time but the bear just didn't want to cooperate. The other two were able to go duck hunting and got quite a few sea ducks in the evenings before it got totally dark.