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The infinito prise

Back in January i saw a tread on removed
It sounded too good to be true, so I put my name in the hat and with the twist and turns of lady luck, I was the third one drawn but the only one to be abel to go.
I talked to the supreme powers at home, and got informed that of the dates frederik have given me, my presence was not needed at the spot in august, so I booked with them at once.

Now I had 5 months to spare before going and they were spend pestering you all with dumb questions on this forum and roebuck hunting. I shot 3 roebuck and a fox during the summer with my 9,3x74 double rifle http://forums.nitroexpress.com/showflat.php?Cat=0&Number=86079&an=0&page=3#Post86079

I felt ready for anything that could walk or crawl or run in Africa, except I didn’t ask the right question for a newbie African hunter(we will get back to THE question later).
So with the tickets booked I started to look at what I should pack for the 6 hunting days, thankfully both charl, frederik and all you guys said no more than 2 changes of clothes, and I followed that to some extent. THANK YOU ALL I still ended up with too much but nowhere near what I would have had without the advice.

The 20 aug. came all of a sudden and after a calm and pleasant tjeck in of the gun case, I just boarded for zurich and joburg, now I’m 6,1” and coach is all I can afford, but I think there is a special section in hell that develop air seats, oh well it was only for 14 hours….
Arriving at joburg early morning on the 21st I felt like I had been to saeed’s place and shot a box full of the 577. But It got better and better as soon as I got out into the the airport terminal.
Getting through the passport, costums, etc. went fast and easy and lo and behold there was frederik waiting for me to make sure that the gun procedure went smooth, it took all of 20 minutes and we were on the way to the camp.

Day one:

Arriving in camp around 11, after a nice drive with frederik from the airport, I was shown my chalet(house) and got changed into some other clothes and unpacked the gun.
I was introduced to a couple of Welchmen that was going home that same day, we had a good chat and I got to spend the midday hours in good company. When frederik drove the gentlemen to the airport, charl and I went to the lane to make sure the rifle were still hitting where It should, it did, so we went for a drive to see ,if anything was stupid enough to be seen by me.(you got to see it to shot it) let me just take a break here to explain something for the people that haven’t been to the lowfeld(pronounced lowfelt) it is REAL thick.

In this picture there is a lot of wildebeest at about 40 meters range.

So we drove around for awhile looking for animals, talking(im good at that) and charl told me about how they did there hunting in Africa, it was either walking around until we saw something suitable and then stalked it until we got a shot, Or drove around until we spotted the animal from the car and then stalked from there on.(sounds a lot more easy than it is)

After a few hours of driving and looking, suddenly a warthog appeared some 40 meters in the bush and I got down from the car and crept in towards the pig, two new lessons for the price of one, African flora is really mean anything that grows got thorns at least 4” long and African animals travel in at least pairs and there is always a set of eye’s looking in your direction.

So the pig was about to spook and I made a wrong decision, so I took the shot. We heard the bullet hit and the pig showed clear signs of being hit. Since I stopped smoking a month before this trip I didn’t wait for the usual period of a smoke. And we went after it expecting it to lie in the bush after a few meters. It didn’t and I was to learn something about African animals and how hard they are to bring down compared to the European species.

We tracked that pig for 1,5 hours and 600 meters in thick bush until it became to dark to see anything. so we drove home, me with a very heavy heart about that pig. On the way home we drove past a field belonging to the farmer where a few porcupines were eating away at his crops and charl asked if I would mind shooting one of them as a favor to the famer, who’s grounds we were hunting so I took the shot of the bakkie as these animals were going full bore as soon as they saw us. missed with the first shot, connected solidly with the second. Thank god for doubles.

Day two :

A mixed feeling waking up to beautiful Africa, on one hand I already loved it here, on the other the lousy shot on the pig last night really got to me.

So frederik, sully(tracker) and I left the camp at first light, and went on the track of the pig again. After 3 hours and all in all 8-900 meters tracked, even sully had to give in, much to his dismay.
So we drove back to camp to get breakfast and to make a plan.

We hunted from the truck most of the day, with plenty of exciting stalks in the bush. and I must admit, that the only reason, that my bag was not filled in the next two day’s is because I had a hard time adjusting to the quickness that one has to shoot to connect in the bush.

After a good siesta we went out again but on foot this time and hunted until nightfall. After a good dinner and a beer I fell like a log and slept like a baby.

Day three:

Out again at sunrise, driving around looking for game, mornings are cool, so I was glad I brought my tweed jacket. Although it earned me a few funny looks in the airport. Lots of good stalking but no success in the shoot game area. We went back for the siesta and were both a bit downhearted about the missing outcome.

After the siesta we went back out with renewed energy, and hunted our asses off. After chasing after a herd of bleesbuck for an hour a shot on a nice buck finally presented itself and I got on the sticks and missed clean……….. Although I felt like spending the reminder of my trip jumping up and down on my gun, frederik got us on track again and after half an hour of stalking we got close to them again, with a few fast moves to get a clear shot we got a good eve in the sights and I let go. it jumped forward as for a good heart bullet and ran into the bush, by this time I really was so unsure about my shooting ability, so we ran to the place where she was hit and looked for spoor. NOTHING NOTHING and NOTHING, darkness closed in on us fast and frederik just went into the bush and after a few minutes he callede out for me to come fast, so I ran in there as fast as I could and there it was, still breathing, ready to run in a second so I took the shot that it presented, the texas heart shot, and nothing happened so I shot again, and it went down.

Three shots of 286 grains of 9,3x74r first shot went just behind the shoulder taking out both lungs and the heart and liver. The two next shots went through it length vice breaking up stuff as it went along. These animals are as tough as they come.
Back home to the camp in victory, super braij and a few beers to many, nothing fake about that smile.

Day four:

Again up at sunrise, and out walking, but this day, a bit lighter In the feet after the success of yesterday. Uneventful morning except a super cheeky zebra that heard the rumor that I don’t shoot equine, the rumor is true so It went along its merry way without a scratch, taking with it the impala ram we had been stalking for an hour…

Siesta time again and I fell asleep with a smile, the last thing I remember was the smell of the smoke from the firepit.

After a good rest and a great lunch we went out again to look for warthog and bushpig we drove and stalked the areas around the irrigated fields and surroundings besides the fantastic birdlife that made me daydream about my 12 gauge shotgun. the place had lot’s of pig sign and I saw quite a few, but they were either too small or too fast(a lot of the times BOTH) so we were working our way down a small road looking for something interesting, when sully noticed a track in the sand.

That made the mood a bit more intense, and we slowly went further down the road, looking behind every bush, and in the very last minutes of the day, the cat walked out on the road some 25 meters ahead of us, we all froze at the sight and I got a small nod from frederik. The gun came up and the shot hit it where it should, and after a short victory dance I could take possession of my first African cat.

Day five:

We got out a bit late on day five, as i used to much of the night sitting by the firepit and looking at a perfect starlit sky, with a beer in my hand. It was warming up quickly now and each day got a bit warmer than the day before. So we spend the morning hunt chasing impala and they proved as elusive as ever, and damn fast when we found them. But a nice bleesbuck crossed the road in front of us at about 150 meters distance, the sticks went up and I took careful aim at the shoulder and blew the shot………

By now I was sure that the rifle had some kind of defect so after careful examination I found that the regulation device in the mussel end was lacking the solder around it and it had properly moved. So we set up a quick target and lo and behold the group at 50 meters were around 6 inches instead of the nice 1” cluster I was used to. I have most likely banged it against the truck or a rock, solution were to set the scope for the left barrel and hunt with a single barrel, until I got it home to repair it.

We went back for our midday rest and went out a bit early, to sit and watch the irrigated fields as the animals migrated back and forth from the bush to the fields. It was so beautiful just sitting there enjoying Africa and the slow pace in the heat, that I was already missing it although I shouldn’t leave for a few days yet.

As dusk was slowly coming, we rose and started to stalk the rim of the field looking for pig’s. the pig’s were there, but too fast for my shooting. We saw a major boar but he was running like the hounds from hell were after him, and if he kept that speed he will be in my neighborhood within the next couple of day’s. we pressed on along the rim and I saw a movement to my right, it was a good size pig moving through the bush, it would cross the road a bit further out, so I ran as fast as I could to a point where I would get a shot and waited a few seconds for the pig to appear. It ran into the road about 110 meters away from me and stopped, looking straight at me. I shouldered the gun and the second the crosshairs settled on the neck I fired. We heard the bullet strike and the pig went down at once. At last my pig and this one stayed…

Day six:
Today I was blessed with both charl and frederik as my PH’s and sully as the tracker, they considered it a personal flaw, if they could not guide me to a nice impala. So we had our work cut out for us, the past week the impala had been fast and furious, without presenting much of a shot before they were gone. So we drove out to see if we could find a good flock with a ram or two. After about ½ hour we found a decent herd, but after a long stalk, charl decided we could do better than the ram in this herd.

So we pressed on, driving and stalking whenever we spotted a herd big or small, but no luck, until we jumped a herd driving around a corner. Charl and I jumped out at once and stalked into the bush after them, after a short stalk a magnificent ram(to my eye’s at least) walked out into a clearing followed by a eve that chose to stand behind him making a shot impossible. But we were not seen and the wind were in our favor, so I just kept the ram in the crosshair’s waiting for that clear shot, although it felt like forever, it was possible only a few minutes then the eve walked on leaving the ram open for the shot, he only went 10 meters after the shot, and I could at last sit and look at the trophy, that really means Africa to me.

After we loaded the impala into the truck, we went back for lunch and paperwork which were all done in a very efficient way and after that, frederik and I took a drive around the farm just looking at the wildlife there.
Coming back I had the pleasant surprise being invited to a braij that evening at the farmers place where I shot the pig, the evening was over all to soon with excellent food and good company.
Next morning we went to joburg airport at 4:30 because my flight was at 7:15.

To put a cap on this story, I would just like to thank Charl and frederik from the bottom of my heart for this fantastic adventure, it really meant the world to me. To all others that are still reading after this rant, I can recommend infinito-safaris with all my heart, they are a first class operation. So until next year(yes I have already booked).

Best regards

Peter

Edited by NitroX (02/05/12 07:30 PM)