nhunter84 Report post Posted June 12, 2014 Just got back from Africa. This was the main critter I was after since I really enjoy hunting over hounds. Ill post some more pics later. 4 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
AKretschmer Report post Posted June 12, 2014 That's Awesome! Congrats! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
camoremi Report post Posted June 12, 2014 Wow that's pretty cool. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Will K Report post Posted June 13, 2014 SWEET...... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Flatlander Report post Posted June 13, 2014 What in the world is that? Excuse my ignorance I am just a desert rat. 2 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
firstcoueswas80 Report post Posted June 13, 2014 Awesome caracal! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
rcdinaz Report post Posted June 13, 2014 What a great trophy, congrats! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
tjhunt2 Report post Posted June 13, 2014 What in the world is that? Excuse my ignorance I am just a desert rat. as I was thinking the same exact thing. More pictures please! TJ Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Mocha1545 Report post Posted June 13, 2014 Awesome Whachamacallit. Waiting for more pics and the story containing species.... Congrats! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
nhunter84 Report post Posted June 13, 2014 My wife and I went on Safari in South Africa with Chappie Scott and Jeff Ford. I had the privilege of working at Chappies place when I was in high school for a summer. So when my wife said she wanted to go to Africa I set it up with Chappie and told him I wanted to hunt caracal over hounds and actually get to go with the dogs. A few months later my wife and I were on our way. Afte r 17 hours on the plane from DC to Joberg we finally made it. The next morning we flew into Port Elizabeth and headed straight to Addo Elephant Park to help get my wife an idea of what we would be hunting. Addo is the second largest national park in south Africa and as you can imagine loaded with game that is not at all afraid of vehicles or people. We spent a couple of hours looking around and then headed to the mountains to their family ranch. We hunted on large tracts of ranch land that were all low fence cattle ranches where the game is free to move about as it pleases. First day hunting we woke up very early and drove about 40 miles to an area where a good mature kudu bull had been spotted. We glassed for an hour or two right at first light but did not find what we were looking for. At this point my wife and I decided to hike into a canyon that was about 1.5 miles off the road up a fairly large mountain/hill. Once we were looking into this steep canyon I pulled out the 15s and got to glassing we saw numerous kudu cows but no bull. We headed up the ridge to the next glassing spot and I picked out a herd of kudu with a nice bull in it. We stalked in to about 280 yards but could not get a clear shot through all of the brush. After several hours of watching him bedded I decided to try and have our skinner push him up the hill. Of course this did not work and the kudu headed straight for the bottom of the canyon with my wife and I sprinting down our side trying to find a clearing to get a shot. Luckily we managed to catch the bull going through a clearing and made a good shot on the run at about 100 yards. This is a cape kudu they are smaller and much darker/more vivid coloration than greater kudu. More to come tomorrow and next week. 3 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
gonhunting247 Report post Posted June 16, 2014 That's an awesome cat and a great Kudo! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
lucky2hunt Report post Posted June 16, 2014 Awesome! Love the caracal, we trapped for them but never could get one to come in. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
nhunter84 Report post Posted June 17, 2014 The next day was spent looking for black wildebees or vaal rhebok. We saw numerous vaal rhebok but none good enough to consider making a stalk on. We did manage to find a good sized herd of the blackwildebees in a basin and my wife and I made a stalk. We climbed up one canyon and came over the ridge and were looking down onto the herd at about 300 yards. I spotted a good bull on the far side of the herd and got my wife to where she could see him. At this point the wind started to shift and next thing we know the whole herd was running. We never could get close enough after that. The rest of the day we looked over all types of plains game and saw some awesome blesbok but decided we didn't want to try for one of them as I had already shot one when I was younger. No animals on day 2 but a great day. Day 3 we spotted a group of black wildebees at the top of a basin about a mile and a half from the closest road, My wife and I loaded our packs and made a plan. The wind was blowing very hard this morning. After a long hike up the mountain we popped around a knob and saw the herd. It was a bachelor group of bulls and we saw a very old heavy horned bull on the left side of the group at 370 yards. We laid down and got steady. We guessed on what the wind would do to the 7mm mag and took a shot. The bullet connected just a touch back and after 3 quick follow ups we had him down. 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
nhunter84 Report post Posted June 18, 2014 Day 4 started off heading to a large wildlife ranch that was going to capture some sable to move up to the Limpopo province. Since I am a veterinarian I thought it would be cool to go and watch/help the vet do the game capture and give all the medications and sedatives that they use to transport sable. The vet flew in the chopper and darted about 14 sable while my wife and I helped with the ground crew and giving extra sedative and antibiotics as they became sedate. Was a pretty neat experience. Ill try and post some pictures of the helicopter and sable later. That afternoon we headed back to the high country to continue to look for a vaalrhebok. We had seen a decent one on day 2 so we headed back into that area. We glassed to the head of the canyon and saw a blesbok that the vaalrhebok had been running with 2 days prior. We could not pickup the vaalrhebok in the binoculars though. These critters have amazing eyesight and are very wild, so I decided to sneak into the head of the basin where the vaalrhebok had managed to escape through on the second day and get setup while I had the skinners start walking on the ridge at the bottom of the canyon. My hope was that the vaalrhebok would see the skinners coming and try to exit the area the same way he had 2 days prior. As the skinners worked their way up the ridge I heard my wife on the radio say that the blesbok started moving my way and that 2 vaalrhebok had joined him. She couldn't tell whether there was a male in the group though. So I laid patiently in the shade and picked them up as they dropped over the ridge into the basin I was laying in. I could tell one was the male we had seen prior, but the distance was 440 yards with a stiff breeze. I decided to wait and see how close they would get. Eventually the blesbok started to move again and the vaalrhebok followed. When they stopped to look back to see if the skinners were still coming their direction I ranged them at 390 and decided to attempt the shot. The recoil knocked me off target and I heard my wife come over the radio saying he went down. She stayed as a spotter to talk me in to the spot it dropped as these guys are very small and the grass was quite long. We found him in short order and the skinners/trackers could not have been happier that it was a one shot drop on this animal. 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
stanley Report post Posted June 18, 2014 VERY awesome pics and stories!!! Thanks for sharing with the site! S. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
