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South Africa – KwaZulu Natal Hunt Report

Well folks I just got home from my trip to South Africa and I would like to give a short report. It will only be short and not many photos just yet - as I am planning to submit a couple of magazine articles about the trip and hunting.

In short.... it was awesome - I think the best hunting I have ever done! I have never had any intention of hunting RSA in the past, as I just have no interest in high-fence hunting for myself... but after a lot of research and some very good tips, I found the right guys to hunt with - a company that specialises in free-ranging hunting, only - NO high fences, at all. I just HAD to go and check it out!

I hunted for seven full days, the hunt was mainly for the three local (Natal), indigenous, spiral-horned species – kudu, bushbuck and nyala – plus whatever else I could get a bead-on. Lucky it was a seven day hunt and not five days as I busted my arse around the mountains for the first five days, without getting any of those three. Even Andrew, my guide, was getting noticeably antsy and probably wondering who this Aussie with incredibly bad luck was!! Then on the 6th day I got (REALLY) lucky and managed all three in the one, glorious day. Along the way I also picked up a smallish female warthog for camp meat, a nice impala ram, (nice one for that area) PLUS a really huge blue wildebeest bull. Actually the wildebeest hunt itself was probably the highlight of the trip for me.... true!!

With the three spiral-horned animals – I sure got what I was after - old mature animals. The kudu is a massive, old, broomed-off bull, he may not be the biggest ‘scoring’ kudu for sure but he was an enormous animal (went 250kg fully dressed). The bushbuck was an ancient old buck with a chunk of horn missing and blind in one eye from fighting and possibly on his last year. The nyala was a great old black bull. After nearly a week of disappointment with the spiral-horns, the planets just aligned and all our plans came together. All were running shots in heavy cover and steep country – except the nyala that was walking fast and the bushbuck that was running in a river bed.

Everything about the hunt was absolutely first-rate. We hunted with Crusader Safaris, who operate at this private conservancy on the Umkomaas River in Natal, as well as another in the East Cape and other related areas too. My wife and I were looked after so well and we just had a blast!! This Umkomaas hunting conservancy, actually called the Nkoxweni Conservancy, that we were on is a collective of more than a dozen interconnected, white and Zulu-owned properties, separated only by cattle-fence. These properties range in size, 2000-15,000 ac and Crusader themselves now own one of these properties and implement the wildlife management plan... to give you an idea of the continuity of this conservancy and the hunting on offer.

In that area you are looking for animals coming out of thorn-brush slopes and the thick gullies, where the antelope bed, are almost impenetrable - a lot like sambar country! You have the three spiral-horned species mentioned present, plus wild Burchell’s zebra, blue wildebeest, warthog, bushpig, waterbuck, (loads of) impala, common reedbuck, common duiker and giraffe. 1.5-2 hours away you have other low-fence conservancies (more flat country toward the central Drakensberg foothills) - with many of those species above plus Eland, Red Hartebeest, and blesbuck.

To my way of thinking the Umkomaas hunt is EVERYTHING a discerning Aussie deer hunter might be looking for - that is if you like those spiral-horned antelope and challenging country. Great, tough hunting country...plenty of glassing to be done and required - from glassing vantages I probably spotted just as many animals as the other guys, so a good set of bino’s is essential if you want to really participate in the hunt. This area is more of a specialised hunt, their Cape (Baviaans River) conservancy would still be a super hunt, just maybe a little easier and more variety of species.... Umkomaas is a 'hunters hunt'!

The camp is on Crusaders own property and consists of a lodge building, dining tent, two covered safari-style tents and they have just completed two new thatched chalets for clients. It is a very comfortable camp, while having the look and feel of a real wilderness camp. Crusader staff at the camp were great and just couldn’t do enough for us. Invariably property owners involved in the conservancy would drop-by in the evening for a beer and a chat, or we would see them while hunting. That was a very nice interaction and demonstrated just how well the hunting program is working in the conservancy area!

Mark Rohde and I (through Australian Shikar) are the exclusive agents for Crusader in Australia, so anyone who is interested in this incredible, inexpensive, truly free-range hunting in RSA - can contact either Crusader directly or Mark or myself. I can’t tell you how excited I am about the prospects of these hunts and having a bunch of Aussies go down there.

Special thanks from me to all the Crusader staff and to Danny Galea (Outdoor Sporting Agencies) for supplying the test ammo that I took (Hornady GMX) and a Zeiss Duralyte scope - both went REALLY well - and thanks also to Tony Saros for helping me out with a mount base for my Sako at short notice.

Cheers all
Matt

Ancient Bushbuck