M@tt

Marked as sold

I have a lightly used LabRadar (~2 years old, and has only accompanied me to Ben Avery) with case, trigger, sight installed on top and planning plate for sale. I like the panning plate as it is low to the table, but if you would prefer, I can swap out the panning plate for a sirui tripod with ball head instead. I have included pictures of both - but only one will be included in the sale. The radar was purchased new from Midway and I am the only owner. I am based in Northern Phoenix, AZ near Cave Creek should interested buyers wish to see the unit before purchasing. $450 shipped within the USA. I will take PayPal, personal check, or USPS money orders. Matt

I am from South Africa originally - and yes, there are loads to choose from. Its actually pretty challenging to summarize, but from a South African "viewing safari" perspective: If you are staying on a private game lodge - your safari drives are included in your daily rate. Generally 2x per day, before dawn and late afternoon going into the evening If you are touring a National Park (like Kruger National Park) there are a number of companies that will organize day trips in game viewing vehicles. These generally enter the National Parks at park opening time and will drive around for a set period. They generally have radios and will respond to sightings as others find them. I would encourage you to read up on these companies and their ratings before booking with them If you are self touring (ie driving yourself around) - most of these National Parks offer walks, night drives etc from one of their camp sites that can be arranged directly with them a day or so in advance If you are hunting in South Africa - your PH may be able to assist with some game viewing activities as well - esp if a famous national park is nearby. There are also others that operate outside National Parks - and will take you to scenic sights or along famous routes. As trphyhntr mentioned - be smart about it, do your research and ensure you book with someone reputable. Africa is a stunningly beautiful country - but be safe about it 🙂 I can offer some help from a South African perspective - but less so on other countries in Africa. Feel free to reach out via DM 🙂

I have to start this post with a huge thank you and shout out to @CatfishKev. The man is such a gent and frikken amazing at glassing. It’s a privilege to be learning from you bud! I truly have learnt so much from our outings- here’s to many more! I managed to get some time off work to assist Kev for a weekend on his son, Caliche’s hunt and do some scouting for this hunt. This one was actually my friend’s first big game hunt in Arizona and he’d asked me for some help, of course I reached out to Kev as well 🙂 We arrived on Thursday evening, filled with hope which was actually well placed, as we found about 16 bucks during this trip. On Friday morning we glassed up 4 buck in a meadow. They weren’t big, but they were also a bit beyond a comfortable shooting range. Friday afternoon we visited a different spot where we glassed up some more smaller bucks and quite a few herds of does and fawns. We were also caught in a rainstorm that resulted in one of the most vivid double rainbows I can remember seeing. Saturday morning had us in the same spot, this time with Kev’s hunting pal Bucky the Boston Terrier in tow, where we found 2 beautiful big buck, who were feeding towards us. We made some plans to put our hunter in position but they picked up on something and turned back to where they came from. Feeling our cover blown we visited another area- no deer this time, but we found quite a few javelina and coyotes. Saturday afternoon had us in another spot- loads and loads of does and fawns but no bucks this time. Sunday morning was our last chance. We went to our most promising spot where Kev glassed up a beautiful buck before it was even light. A big Roman nose, big bodied and a good rack. We put a plan in place, but devastatingly bumped some does who ran straight to the buck who hightailed it with them. Feeling rather dejected, we returned to the glassing point to resume the search. We glassed up some sparring spikes very far away, and with the thinking of something is better than nothing again, hatched a plan to put our hunter in position. This time I stayed with Kevin and we guided him in. He managed to get extremely close (from where we were it seemed almost archery range) while they continued. While this excitement was going on- we spotted 4 additional buck, 2 of them certainly big bucks making their way straight to where our hunter was currently hidden. We excitedly told him to wait for them and our anxious wait started. They kept coming closer and closer and it seemed like they were about to step on him while we continued waiting to hear a shot. The hunter then excitedly told us he could see one. It was one of the smaller buck, and the bigger two were still approaching… The smaller one however knew something was up, he backtracked around a bush to get a look from the other side and fortunately one of the big bucks stepped forward and into our hunters target and we finally heard a shot! We waited a few minutes, watching for any movement before we packed our scopes to make our way down to find our happy hunter- with a beautiful, hugely bodied, mature buck. I’m almost convinced it was the buck Kevin had spotted first thing. What a beauty for a first time AZ hunter!

I dont have a full brick of large rifle to swap - would you be keen to swap out a couple of sleeves for CCI 200, large rifle? Alternatively - I'll happily pay, but honor Chuckster as first to reply?

So awesome to read - and great to spend some time out with you guys! Congrats on a super cool buck!

Hey Donny - that was my first search before I posted here actually. I thought I had found a stockist (Peter Hofer Jagdwaffen out of Austria) - but they responded to say that they no longer have it in stock. If you are aware of any stockists online with the book in stock - please do pass on the information 🙂

Would anyone have a copy of Wayne Grant's Into the Thorns that they would be prepared to sell? Does not have to be in mint condition, but preferably free of damage. The books details are as follows: Into the Thorns: Hunting the Cattle-Killing Leopard of the Matobo Hills Hardcover Author: Wayne Michael Grant ASIN ‏ : ‎ B005K24GXK Publisher ‏ : ‎ Mag-Set Publications (January 1, 2008) Description: Hunting the Cattle-killing Leopard of the Matobo Hills. 2007 Zimbabwe. 569 pp, profuse color ill. This book was published by African Hunter magazine—they really know their stuff—and so does the author, PH Wayne Grant, who has many awards, including Professional Hunter of the year. He has plenty of dangerous game experience. If you’re seeking a really good book about leopard hunting, there is plenty of leopard hunting here. INTO THE THORNS is very well written and produced. It’s a book we enjoyed reading and are proud to recommend. Wayne is still very active in the professional safari business.

@jl3255 It is still available

Hi there all, I am selling my Remington 700 with customization in .308 My reason for selling - I have too many overlapping calibers and I do not reach for this one in the safe for some reason. Only really looking to recover costs of upgrades. Its particulars are: Action: Remington 700 SA SPS Tactical .308 bolt face (not blueprinted or trued) Barrel: Proof Carbon Fiber Sendero light .310 1:10 twist 20” Stock: Stocky’s NextGen UltraLite Carbon Fiber VG2 in Viper Western color Trigger: Timney Elite Hunter Rifle Trigger 40X Weight: 8 lbs 7 with scope (Leupold VX-5HD) Round count since additions: 41 rounds Please see pictures of the rifle and some close ups of its components. The rifle seems to prefer bullets in the 165 grn area fired with varget powder - I can share load data. Scope is not included in the sale Sold

Just giving this thread a little bump

Replying to @PRDATR - 8 lbs 7 - with scope on (leupold vx-5HD) Replying to @Rubberduckie - no, its the standard Remington SPS Tactical .308

41 rounds since addition of the stock, trigger and barrel.

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.

@nateNAU Absolutely- please let us know how you get on!

Hi there all, I am selling my Christensen Arms Ridgeline in .280 AI. I have had a custom built and no longer have need of this rifle. I had the custom built while this one was with Christensen - who rebarreled the rifle and bedded the stock. I have no rounds through this rifle since myself - only Christensen's gunsmiths have fired this rifle, so it is effectively new. I have attached the target pictures received from CA - the ammunition used for these tests was Nosler Trophy Grade 160 GR accubonds and 140 GR accubonds. I don't have any of this ammunition - but do have 10 rounds of Nosler 150 GR ABLRs that can go with the rifle. The rifle has the steel thread protector, steel brake as well as a titanium brake (pictured on rifle). I also have some Talley low mounts for this rifle that I will include. I am based in North Phoenix, Arizona if you would like to view the rifle. Looking for $1700 or closest offer. Price drop $1600 or closest offer.

It has been sold. it was a righty 🙂

Please note price drop, rifle is still available

Continuing with some South African hunting stories - here is one from the Kalahari, this time from a Erin Game Ranch. Erin was a 6,000 hectare farm awarded to the Komani San community in 1999 and is managed purely as a hunting farm employing the local San community members. It is a stunningly beautiful example of rolling sand dunes typical of the Kalahari. This is an amazing place to visit with friends and is my group of hunter’s favorite destination for kalahari hunting. The Kalahari is a desert, and winter hunting whilst generally beautifully mild during the day is staggeringly cold at night. It is not uncommon for bottles of water, or the kettle to completely freeze overnight. There is accommodation at Erin in the form of permanent tents erected over a wooden base - but do not think that these are a warm haven at night - a cold temperature rated sleeping bag and thermals are a necessity. Evenings round the fire will see you well bundled up and huddled perhaps closer than you should be to the fire. Track and walk hunting here is somewhat different to the bushveld of Limpopo and generally involves sneaking quietly up a sand dune until you can see what's in the “street” between you and the next dune. Once you have a decent vantage point - time is spent glassing all areas of the street before crossing to the next dune and repeating the process. It's amazing just how much you can miss - and how the more beady eye’d and wary game has spotted you from a good few dunes away. Red hartebeest generally have a look out on a dune and may be 1 or two dunes away at first - after crossing a street they can be quite a lot more than that despite your stealthy approach. Shots in the Kalahari are, in my experience, generally a bit longer than in the bushveld (between 200 and 300 yards - and occasionally more). I had travelled to the Kalahari the previous year and not managed to successfully get a gemsbok, so I was rather determined this time. I was on my own with a tracker and we crossed many a street without luck. Eventually we found a lone bull, which makes judging size incredibly difficult. He was bedded near to a blue wildebeest at first - who spotted us while we were still far away and galloped off. The gemsbok noticed this and made his way over the next dune. We crossed the street and stealthily made our way to the top where we found him again bedded. After making sure he was a decent old bull we set up a prone shot over my backpack and took a shot which thankfully counted. Approaching a “downed” gemsbok can be a bit nerve wracking as a swipe of those horns will make you reconsider your life choices rather swiftly. Thankfully he was down for the count - and my first gemsbok bull was in the salt, and he was a perfect choice, nice and old with worn down teeth. I wasn't actually planning on taking another gemsbok, but with space in the freezer at home, I set out to try again. This time we came upon a large herd beautifully bedded in the middle of a street. We were able to leisurely glass the entire herd and identify a beautiful old cow with wide spread sweeping horns as our target. Unfortunately, on moving to a shooting position, a springbok we hadn't seen, bedded only some 50 paces away, saw us, whistled and sprinted away which got the gemsbok herd to their feet. They however only walked away and when the cow we had identified offered a clear shot - I took it. She showed no reaction to the shot other than sprinting off with the rest of the herd, but thankfully tumbled in a cloud of red dust only a few paces away. For those of you who appreciate trophy size, the simplest method of measuring Gemsbok horns is the measurement of the longest horn from the base along the front of the horn to the tip only. Quoting from Africahunting.com, from a post titled Judging Gemsbok / Oryx: “Anything over 40 inches (101.6 cm - one meter) for a Gemsbok / Oryx bull is exceptional. In terms of trophy size, when it comes to mature Gemsbok / Oryx bulls, I would say that horns above 35.5 inches (90cm) make for an amazing trophy, horns above 31.5 inches (80cm) make for a great trophy, horns above 27.6 inches (70cm) make for a good trophy and horns below 27.6 inches (70cm) make for a beautiful trophy and great memories! Females Gemsbok / Oryx will usually have thinner horns all the way from the base to the top. Female horns have a tendency to get a bit wavy towards the top. They are hunted very seldom and usually only if their horns are exceptionally long.” One of my hunting colleagues managed to obtain a magnificent Gemsbok bull measuring 43 inches. My bull is not in that league, he measures 32.5 and my female measures 37.5. Here are the completed mounts alongside some springboks:

I'm no outfitter or land owner I'm afraid and not currently offering any hunts at either of these properties 🤣 I do have contacts in South Africa who would be far better suited to provide advice. That said, I would wholehearted endorse both Erin and Maswiri as a destination of choice for hunters aspiring to hunt in South Africa. Maswiri actually has a decent social media presence that you can have a look at, even some videos on Youtube. If I were to put forward suggestions for you - they would have to be based on what it is you would like to achieve? Bushveld, desert, big 5 etc. As an example, Maswiri offers a 7 day package that includes transfers to and from the airport, 4 trophy animals (1x wildebeest, 2x impala and 1x zebra), accommodation, meals and drinks, trackers, skinners and permits for $3000. They have other packages that include the spiral horn slam (kudu, bushbuck, eland and nyala), also for 7 days for $9500 amongst others. Erin doesn't offer "international package" hunts provided in dollars that I can find - but should this or another desert type of hunt be on your agenda, I would suggest about 5 days at this location with a days travel on either end for targeting springbok and gemsbok and also eland, wildebeest and hartebeest. These would obvious be plains game hunts - a big 5 type hunt (buffalo, elephant etc) require a lot more leg work on the ground and time to prepare for your arrival as there are potentially quotas and tags that need to be bid for and organized - I would provide slightly different advice if this is something you would want to pursue... Footnote though - these are my opinions and based off of my experiences and thoughts of what would be most fun and memorable. I mentioned in my first post that a hunt in South Africa can be quite cost effective for international visitors - should you book the hunt mentioned above and a different species crosses in front of you, it would be a quick discussion with your PH to tack it onto your bill. For any of these hunts - I would suggest thinking about your preferences, reaching out to trustworthy outfitters that you can find recommendations on and especially in these times checking on international travel requirements. I would be more than happy to chat and even find some recommendations through contacts in South Africa. I hope this is helpful!

Very interesting question. I don't think there are many properties that would let you hunt for free in South Africa - at least that is my experience. There is generally a daily fee for a hunter, and an accommodation fee as well, the majority of my hunts and hunting friends prefer to do our own cooking, but there is sometimes a catering fee or all inclusive fee if you would prefer to be fed as well. There is also a fee for the animals you harvest - which for some species is trophy quality dependent (in other words, longer horns - so using this thread as an example - >40", 35-40" etc). Hunting South Africa can be extremely cost effective for an international visitor - and multiple species can be taken for a reasonable price. It also boils down to what you as a hunter prefer - my preference is for as wild an experience as possible and for that reason we return to the types of places we do. These places generally offer some sort of accommodation or facilities for camping, a large area of hunting land that enables us to walk for miles without bumping into each other and animals that are not habituated. When you find properties that offer these you make sure to make friends with the owner 😄 We have hunted Erin I think for about 4 years now, and some of the people in our group have hunted Beskow (from my kudu post) for nearly 20 - I plan on visiting South Africa in 2021 just in time for the annual Beskow hunt 🤣. Send me a pm if this interests you - I'll take you through some of the specifics if you'd like.

Oh it will be very noticeable - a South African one always is! 😂

A recent transplant (2020) to northern Scottsdale, Phoenix, AZ 🙂

Yeah, I had seen it done before and wanted to try copy it. Absolutely- good point! They really are amazing and high on a lot of hunters lists for a reason

Just bought some bullets from briant_az, super easy, quick and a nice guy to deal with 👍