Africa... it never leaves your system!

[lucky2hunt]

Before my 2009 hunt in Africa I told my husband “let’s just go once, I’ll hunt then it’ll be out of my system”. Boy was I wrong…. I couldn’t wait to go back, the awe and wonder of the Dark Continent kept calling me and there were more animals on my wish list that I didn’t get last time. I bugged and bugged until my wonderful husband relented and said, “Book it”!

 

The Professional Hunter we went with last time has become a wonderful friend, we never considered going with someone else. We booked a 10-day archery hunt with Zingeli Safaris and Louis Stoffberg.

 

The flight over is tough, 15.5 hours from NYC, ouch! With all the anticipation of great hunting the flight becomes a bit more tolerable.

On our list for the first camp was a Bushbuck and a Bush Pig, after a short nap, we get to it. Louis is known throughout South Africa as the “Bush Pig guru” he has had articles written in magazines about his ability to hunt the elusive bush pig. The pigs are nocturnal so you have to hunt them at night; the method he uses is a lot like how he hunts leopards (which Louis also excels at). The pig comes into feed in the pitch dark; Louis has a green light set up that he turns on low then can make it brighter. We sat in an Ameristep popup, pitch, pitch dark, I am nervous as all get out! I can hear the pigs, see them, but they sense we are there we wait for the male to make a mistake and turn broadside, after about an hour he turns, Louis tells me to draw. I do as I’m told, but there’s a problem… I can’t find my peep in the darkness; I’m bobbing my head all around but can’t find it! I letdown, make a bunch of noise doing so and the pigs bust out of there. Ugh I feel so bad, I know I have let Louis down! We head back to camp so I can get some much-needed rest.

 

The next morning we hunted bushbuck from an elevated blind.

After watching many females and young bucks come and go, I’m able to take a very nice bushbuck.

continued....

After photos and lunch it’s time to take another nap, jetlag is killing us! I can’t sleep because I keep thinking of messing up the bush pig shot. I go out and start practicing my shot, I close my eyes and draw my bow, find my anchor spot, open my eyes and “bam”, there’s my peep! I shoot like that for about 50 shots, until I’m comfortable knowing that my peep doesn’t move, I do! I just need to find my anchor point and my peep will be there! We go out to the bush pig blind and wait for dark. They come in cautiously, they know something’s up, and we wait patiently, finally after over an hour the male presents a shot. I close my eyes, draw my bow, anchor, open eyes, pick a pin and squeeeeze! “Wait did I shoot under him”? They all take off; it is so quiet I hear my own heart racing. All of a sudden they come back, I hurry and try to nock and arrow but it is so dark I can’t tell which nock goes up, I’m shaking like a leaf and I can’t figure out what I’ve done wrong. As Louis looks out of the blind he realizes that all the pigs have come back…. Except one! The big male is missing! We wait for the others to finally move off on their own and get out of the blind to look for the arrow, sure enough there’s blood. Louis looks around some but it’s so thick and very dark we decide to come back in the morning. I was nervous but after watching the video it looked like a good hit, boy delicious South African wine flowed that evening by the campfire!

 

After a longer than anticipated tracking job and with some help from a group of simply amazing trackers we find my Bushpig!!! I was so relieved. After inspection, we figured I hit a little far back on a hard quartering away shot. I was happy non the less my first ever elusive bushpig was ‘in the salt’!

LOL check out the shirt!!!!

We headed back to camp to pack up and move on to our next camp, another 6 hours away! There we met the owners Sarel and his wife Adel, what a great couple and a beautiful camp!

continued...

[lucky2hunt]

We spent the next 8 days sitting blinds and taking some amazing animals…

Red Hartebeest

Waterbuck

White Blesbuck

Gemsbuck Male

Springbuck

We did sit a particular blind waiting for a monster black wildebeest; we sat there 4.5 days, a total of 36 hours. The wildebeest are really jumpy critters; the wind was blowing most of the time so they were even more wary. Never got a shot at one, but not for a lack of trying!

Blind

One More-sat here by myself, shot my Springbuck

I had an amazing time, even though it was freezing cold most the time! My last morning in the blind was 32*. As always the people were the best, the food was fabulous (mostly wild game), accommodations top notch, and seeing so many different animals was incredible!

 

Thanks always goes out to the guys @ Bull Basin Flagstaff, they help me know that my equipment is ready to go and perfectly tuned!

Thanks to VPA who make the Terminator Broadheads, they were awesome!!! I shot 8 times and retrieved 8 animals, the broadheads preformed perfectly, they are solid, tough and deadly!

The biggest thanks to my husband Roger, once again he helps me achieve my dreams and then encourages me to keep dreaming!

[firstcoueswas80]

Very nice bag of animals! I can not wait to go back and have a plan very much so in the makings for 2013 and have already started saving the ever important greenbacks!

[Coues 'n' Sheep]

Simply Awesome! Really makes me long to head back to Zim! Congrats!!!

[Red Rabbit]

Looks like you will be keeping a taxidermist employed for another year. Congrats on a nice trip. I like the springbuck best.

[Chef]

Great set of trophies!

I love the pig and the red hartebeest the best.

Congrats on another fabulous and memorable trip!

[CouesWhitetail]

Woo-hoo!!! AWESOME!! Great trip and your husband is a wonderful guy making all your dreams come true like that!

Excellent job making all those shots, especially the one in the dark!

 

And thanks for supporting sponsor Bull Basin with all your archery needs! and nice shirt!!

[AZbowhntr]

That is an awesome job shooting everything with a bow. You have a couple there that I have never seen before. Never heard of the bushpig. Congrats

[tjhunt2]

Congratulations Ilene on your trophies. You are blessed to have such a great husband to support your dream. The pictures were all great. I can't imagine how hard it must have been to sit for hours watching other game and waiting for a certain one to show. I'm glad to hear you and Roger made it home safely and thanks for sharing with us.

 

TJ

[DCS]

Ilene,after going to Joberg. in July, I can relate to the long flight.It finally turns into a endurance test.Very nice trophies,very nice shooting.Cliff

[Pine Donkey]

Thats a great collection of trophies! Thanks for sharing with us.

[anthonyrmatthews]

Awesome story and pics! Thank you for sharing with us Ilene..

[cramerhunts]

Very cool! Congratulations on some great trophies and thank you for sharing your story and awesome pictures with us.

[izquik72]

Very cool

Thanks for sharing

[bonecollector]

What an awesome trip, Congrats on all your trophies.