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The Klasserie hunt

The wind was not that hard in the face anymore, we climbed up the small kopje and raised our binoculars to search the area for Buffalo. But there was only a small heard with Zebras and we also saw a croc in the Oilifants river. We had walked for days around for days since I did not want to do this hunt in the bakkie but by foot.

It was three days since Frederik and his wife Charmaine picked me up at the airport and took me to this lovely place; Klasserie. The first day we sat around the campfire and was talking memories from our last hunt together and remembered the great braai we had that time.

But now it was hunting. We took some water and went on and crossed Klasserie river that was almost dry. On the other side we heard some noice that we believed were Elephants, so we decided to turn right and walk along the river bank were we instantly saw a beautiful Waterbuck. Valie judged it to 32 inch and wanted me to shoot, but for me the buff was the main issue of the hunt so we just went on and kept his trophy in our minds. However faith would later in the week give me the opportunity to take this guy.

As the sun was to set we walked towards the place were the camp would be situated this night. After some food we went to bed and I fell a sleep at once. A couple of hours later I heard something strange outside my tent. When I heard the roar I understood it was a lion heading towards the lapa. I grabbed my Winchester and checked it so it was loaded. I did not sleep any more before the sunrise.

The morning was all calm and we sat up in the bakkie that would take us to another part of the area from were we were going to walk back home. On the way I had chances for many nice photos of animals like Kudu and Hippo.

Just an hour after we left the bakkie the tracker found something that made him real anxious. It was only half an hour at maximum since a heard with five buffalos had passed this place, and it looked like there were not only one but three really big animals. We started to follow the tracks slowly and after a couple of hours we had contact. We crawled on to them to get a better look and when we were only hundred yards away we could easily see the big boy. We crawled another 40 yards and got behind a tree. I stood up and aimed at him with the Winchester 375. I had a good rest thanks to the Safari Ching Sling when I let the 380 grains Rhino bullet leave the barrel.

The bullet entered perfectly but there was no sign of reaction so I aimed again and went for the spine and he was down. What a feeling when I was standing for the photos. This would be something to remember for ever.

The rest of the week went on good and we took some more games but nothing that we could compare to the Buff.

It was with memories not of this world Frederik took me to the airport. As soon I got into the plane I was starting to shiver, what a hunt I had been on, it was fantastic how much it was possible to get for 55 dollars that was the price for the raffle ticket. Only minutes later I was sleeping…………………..

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Christer Hansson

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