Dan and Celine from Florida, United States returned for their 3rd family hunt with us. Their daughters, Morgan, Natalie and Abby accompanied them on their 5 day hunt and 12 day vacation in South Africa. It was great fun to be reunited with our old friends and see how their daughters have evolved into keen hunters and nature lovers.
It was a mixed trophy hunt and management hunt. I fitted a suppressor to my 7x64 for the hunt, making the lower recoil perfect for the girls.
Celine wasted little time in hunting her target animal, a gorgeous nyala bull. It was a perfect afternoon and the bull was spotted browsing in a riverbed. A careful stalk later, Celine had the nyala of her dreams.
Morgan had more challenging hunting conditions on her black springbok hunt. The first shot missed but we were able to put in another stalk on a different herd, her shot this time was perfectly placed in the centre of the springboks chest.
The family wanted to view elephants and other big five animals in the wild whilst hunting and we moved camp on the 3rd day to our concession in Graaff Reinet. We got extremely close to a young impala ram. His horns curved sharply inwards, this undesirable horn shape making him a perfect cull impala. The ram was browsing in a thicket 20 yards ahead and we set the sticks up with Natalie on them, moving 1 foot at a time until the thick bush opened allowing for a clear line of path for the bullet. Natalie obliged, the impala ram crumbling on the spot from the neck shot.
Later that afternoon we stalked a large herd of eland, hunting a management eland cow for Morgan. The herd was grazing continously and it was challenging to identify and get Morgan onto an animal before other eland would move into her line of fire. We waited patiently and let the herd move onto the plain below us. The shot was longer now, 230 yards but at least their wasn't a danger of hitting another eland by mistake. The eland ran 30 yards before expiring. It was an old, long horned eland cow and was a perfect management eland hunt.
The following morning, we were hunting blesbok for Natalie and were lucky to find a herd of bachelor blesbok in a stalkable position on a very open plain. Using a wooded riverbed as cover, we moved to within 180 yards. Natalie's shot was perfect.
Hunting red hartebeest has been challenging this year, the water and grazing is plentiful and predicting their behaviour has been difficult. I was surprised then when we spotted a lone hartebeest bull on our first real attempt to hunt one with Dan. The hartebeest was grazing close to a herd of burchells zebra, the additional eyes offering him some protection. We hiked in below them. Unseen, we waited for the hartebeest to clear some bush in front of him. A short while later he took a step forward on his feeding path and a window of opportunity opened up on his vitals. Dan wasted little time, the 7x64 round did it's job and the hartebeest barely took a step before expiring on the steep mountain slope. I dare say the hike up to where he lay was as challenging as the hunt itself and we were all left gasping in the cold Karoo morning air. It was well worth it!
Dan hunted a cull black wildebeest cow that afternoon. It was a perfect stalk. We spotted them grazing near the river and following the water's edge for a half mile, we came up on their position. Dan obliged again with a perfect shot.
The day ended well with an elephant sighting on the way to the lodge for drinks and dinner.
Celine and the girls headed to Graaff Reinet the next morning with Lindsay for a day of pampering at the Africology Spa at the Drostdy Hotel. They had lunch in the gardens of the historic Cape Dutch styled hotel and met us back at Karoo Wild Lodge that afternoon. Dan and I had a fun start to our hunting day. We bumped into a rhino and calf and the young rhino calf put on quite the show for us, prancing around and coming to within 15 feet of the vehicle. Not wanting to upset his rather large and grumpy mother, we moved off in search of impala. After a busted stalk on the edge of an open plain, we spotted a large herd moving up into the shade at the base of a mountain. Uitilizing a steep mountain road, we got above them and stalked to the edge of a small plateau, peering down at them. The impala ram was in perfect position, totally unaware of our presence. Dan's bullet found it's mark for the last time on this safari and we packed up and returned to our lodge.
The Oswald family set of for the surfing mecca of Jeffreys Bay early the next morning. They rode horses on the beach, did a quad bike adventure and got to rub shoulders with some famous celebrities at the annual international surfing competition in Jeffreys Bay. It was amazing to see them again!
Pictures of the Cull / Management Animals
