My latest trip to Africa

[tburkes]

I took my wife and daughter to Africa as a graduation present for her.

 

We got back at the end of August from two weeks in SA. My wife and daughter had never been, I'd been once in 05. This was a graduation present for my daughter and we had a great time. This was her first time doing any serious hunting.

 

I want to start out by giving a shout out to Gracy Travel. When we went in 05 I didn't know about them and so spent about 4 hours in line in SA trying to get my rifles taken care of. With Gracy, we bought the airline tickets, also travel insurance, and had them do the fire arms paper work and meet us at the airport. If I remember there were about 15 people picking up firearms in the SAPS office. There were two of us guys that the Gracy representative met. This guy, I think his name was Kevin, had our paper work in hand, walked into the office, worked his way up to the guns, grabbed our two cases and handed them to us and told us to open them for the inspector. We did this and were out of the room and on our way inside of fifteen to twenty minutes at the maximum. I would highly recommend that a travel agency such as Gracy be utilized to avoid the potential FUBAR situation that can happen without their services, and the piece of mind is worth it too.

 

I had GAP build my daughter a 7mm-08 and she shot 140 Barnes Triple Shocks. I shot a 300 RUM with the 180 Barnes DPX Triple Shocks. We took 17 animals, 2 Gemsbuck, 2 Kudu, 3 Zebra, 1 Blue Wildebeest, 1 Bushbuck, 1 Waterbuck, 1 Blesbuck, 5 Impala, 1 Jackal

 

Both rounds performed very well. We recovered 3 bullets from each rifle and they all opened up like they should. The three bullets on the left are the 180 DPX Barnes from the 300 RUM, the two on the right are the 7MM-08 140 Barnes TSX.

 

 

 

The main animal she wanted to take ever since we started talking about a safari has been a Zebra. He Zebra hunt consisted of a 5'2" woman almost running to keep up with a guy who's about 6'5" through about 400 yards of brush until she got within range. The zebra was standing in a fire break and broadside until she got into position and turned to face directly toward her. She was on her knees with her rifle on the Trigger Sticks breathing like crazy to catch her breath when she made the shot. The Zebra fell straight down and rolled over and never moved. To say we were happy is quite an understatement. She said she could go home right then and be happy, and this was only the second animal she shot.

 

We recovered the bullet from the Zebra and had a local jewelry maker put this Silver cap and loop on it for her. I think it came out really nice. There probably aren't many women running around with a bullet from one of their kills hanging from their neck.

 

 

 

 

Here are a few pictures we took

 

Gemsbuck. He ran a bit on the first shot and stopped when she hit him again. Pretty good bullet placement I'd say.

 

 

 

 

 

Here's my Gemsbuck

 

 

 

Some more of the trophies

 

 

 

My daughters Kudu, her rifle had wasn't available when he stepped out so she shot it with my 300 RUM,

 

 

 

This Kudu was shot near Kruger Park about 25-30 years ago. The world record is something like 73 inches and I was told that this bull measures a little over 75 on one side and about 73.5 on the other side. I have no reason to doubt the people telling me about this. I wish I'd gotten a picture of the Kudu to the right of him since I was told he's a 62 if I remember right and he looks small next to this guy.

 

 

 

 

 

A very old Zebra, his top teeth were worn off into the gumline. No one had ever seen a Zebra this old. I hit him in the shoulder and he turned to run so I hit him in the rear end, hence all the blood around the back leg.

 

 

 

I love to hunt Kudu. I guess I'll hunt them every time I go over.

 

 

 

 

My daughters Zebra, fell DRT with a shot to the chest in a facing on shot.

 

 

 

We were sitting at a water hole for Warthogs when this guy came in. I got several really good pictures of him.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

If anyone would like any details about the hunt, accommodations, etc. I'll be happy to answer any questions to the best of my ability.

[Snowz]

Wow fantastic pictures, looks and sounds like you and your daughter had a fabulouse time and one to remember forever.

 

The necklace was a nice touch and like you say probably the only one like it.

 

I better start saving the pennies for a trip with my boy, he's 16 months now so by the time he's 18 i might just afford it

 

 

atb Richard

[TonyH]

Great hunt, interesting photos - thanks for sharing it with us.

TonyH

[SteveW]

Fantastic pictures Tony, and many thanks for sharing.

Congratulations to your daughter on her graduation, a truly memorable trip for all the family.

And welcome to UKV.

Steve

[Guest Admin 10]

Thanks for sharing this Tony and a belated welcome to the site.

 

 

The barnes work very well don't they, nice touch having the necklace made.

 

 

Wil you be having the trophies mounted at home?

[brown dog]

Tony,

 

Wow! :)

 

 

(And I'm making a note of that necklace for my daughters - great message to would-be boyfriends! )

[Millwall Paul]

Congratulations on a great hunt. I bet your daughter really did have the time of her life. I love hunting Kudu too, that shoulder mounted one's amazing. Where abouts were you hunting? Those mounts are going to make one amazing trophy room! I'll have to save hard to get back over there as looking at these pictures make me wish I could afford to go back right now.

[lancslad]

Welcome aboard T....................youve got a load of people jealous with that little lot...........

 

What do they do with the zebras? are they eaten.....probably a stupid question?

 

Would love to do a Kudu.

[Chris-NZ]

All good stuff. I need to get out there and give it a go- some great variety in game.

 

Chris-NZ

[varmartin]

Fantastic images T...That is a trip of a lifetime, but some how I think you will all be back ..

Welcome to UKV.

[foxing2night]

Firstly welcome to the site,

 

What fantastic photo,s,, certainly a trip of a life time and one that you and your daughter

will never forget,,,,,

 

All the best from Wales, Darrel

[LONG RANGE CAPT]

Some Great pictures and thanks for sharing.

 

Kind Regards

 

Rob

[alled12]

Great photographs. and a very nice memento for your daughter of your hunting trip. I would love to hunt there, I have only holiday'd there unfortunately. I was offered the oppurtunity of zebra while I was over there, unfortunately my partner at the time made me promise that I wouldnt shoot anything on that trip. That might be why the at the time bit appears in that last sentence. What length are those kudu heads, they look pretty good?

[Zaitsev]

I'd echo Tonys comments re using a specialist travel agency or firearms handlers at the airport. They are worth every penny you pay for them. We used an outfit called Bangy who were reccomended to us through PHASA. Excellent service.

 

Some great photos there. I like the one of the Kudu peering round the bush.

[tburkes]

I don't know how long the Kudu horns are, we never got a tape measure out the whole time. The PH said they'd be at least 50" though.

 

We used a travel agent for tickets, trip insurance, medical insurance, and firearms permits. The first time I went with my dad in 05 I was responsible for all of that, talk about stressing out, it was no fun at all and entailed about a 3.5 to 4 hour wait to get our rifles. This time, no problems at all with anything, in and out super quick and the piece of mind of having insurance for the entire trip too.

 

That's the only way to go in my opinion.

 

Zaitsev, that Kudu was estimated to be 12 years old and the land owner wanted $6000 USD for him. I actually saw him the first time we hunted that pasture and he spooked off before I could get a shot at him. I only found out later that the land owner was wanting that much for him. I told my PH that if I had shot him and then the land owner tried to tell me he cost that much I'd have told every one of you guys to F&*k off. There's no way I'd have paid that. He is a beautiful animal though. Oh yeah, the pasture was 18,000 hectares inside the fences, so I wouldn't classify that as anything other than fair chase.

[Harlowmenace]

Very nice shooting there, looks like you all had a fantastic time.

Which part of S.a. We're you shooting in?

I mainly shoot around koedoeskop, thabazimbi or waterberge

I have been there shooting many times, I am quite fortunate as my wife's family has a game farm there and farm land.

They also know other game farmers who if the family's farm doesn't have the species that I want on it they sort out shooting for me on some one else's farm.

Off there again at the end of July but not shooting this time, or so the wife thinks! Lol