I recently hunted in South Africa with J.P. Kleinhans Safaris. I recommend them without reservation. Thought you all might enjoy the pictures.
Sure! We started with the kudu. No luck on the first afternoon,but the next morning we spotted one with several cows. He saw us too. It became a guessing game as we tried to guage where they were going and get ahead of them. Finally after quite a bit of effort we were able to position ourselves for a shot of about 225 yards from the opposite hill. I remember thinking that I only had one job to do and that was make good shots so I was super deliberate in focusing on squeezing the trigger. It was a standing shot from sticks. The 30.06 I was shooting had a suppressor,and I was just sure I had a good hit. You could hear the bullet make contact. The brush was so thick no one could tell though. One of the trackers thought he had found a track some 400 yards away and I began to get that sick feeling, that I had missed or worse yet wounded the animal. The guide decided to send a tracker up to the place where the kudu had been standing at the time of the shot to look for blood. "I found him" sounds about the same in Africaans as english. He had only gone about 20 yards. Perfect shot. High fives all around!
The second animal we encountered was the impala. We got on him at about 200 yards. When I clicked off the safety and pulled the trigger nothing happened! It was not my rifle and had a three-position safety. I was rattled as I fumbled to click off the safety and missed him clean. We hunted for at least another hour and then J.P. Grabbed my shoulder and pointed. "That's the same one" he exclaimed. We were in a different place but the impala hadn't moved much. J.P. Said "250 yards" the wind was REALLY blowing. J.P. Said "aim for the back hip" I am a HUGE believer in trust the guide, so I aimed exactly where he said. BOOM. DRT! I will never forget J.P. Shouting "That's how you kill an impala! " Perfect shot. Easily one of the best I ever made.
Day 3 found us in a completely different area. It reminded me a lot of New Mexico. J.P.s brother Mel was the guide. We drove and glassed for quite a while and then Mel whispered " there he is" . I have hunted for a lot of years with lots of people, but these guys ability to spot game was uncanny. Mel had locked on to a female gemsbok and was excitedly trying to get me to see the male behind her. I saw him through the Swarovski's about the time the female saw us. She ran across the base of the mountain. Mel was sure the male would turn and go straight up, but for some reason he followed the old female. I put the crosshairs of the 300wm right where I would on a whitetail and let one fly. Mel said it was hit a tad back. I aimed directly for the shoulder and anchored the animal. Apparently the vitals of some of the african game are forward a bit from what I am used to in the U.S. Who knew? What a beautiful animal in a beautiful place.
Next up was the wildebeest. We started the day with a drive to a new area and got into a compltely different terrain. Before us was a vast plain with ostriches and monkeys ,some zebra and even a few giraffe among other things. What was not there was wildebeest. Mel deduced that they must be up the mountan which towered over the plain. So up the mountain we went. It was a steep rocky climb by truck,but when we got up there the view was awesome. It was not unlike where we hunted in New Zealand. We glassed and saw some blesbok on which we made an unsuccessful stalk. Late in the morning Mel spotted the wildebeest and got very excited. It was a bachelor group of seven old bulls,any one of which was a shooter. We spent an hour trying to gain an advantage, but they were always ahead of us and out of range. We lost them for a while and then Mel said ( I'm not going to repeat what Mel said, but the gist of it was the wildebeest had given us the slip and run all the way down the mountain.) They looked like ants through 10 x50 binoculars! Mel had a plan. So down the mountain we went. We were driving along a road with brush on either side. Mel had sent the tracker in to try to push them across the road ( by road i mean dirt path). Mel had me in the bed of the truck which had chairs built in and a padded shooting rest. My son John was riding up front with the guide. I thought the chances of ever seeing any of those bulls were slim to none. Then John,my son told Mel "stop I saw them!" We backed up and there in the clearing were all seven bulls facing us at 60 yards! I leveled the crosshairs of the 300 on the center of the chest of what I thought was the best one just as Mel leaned up from behind me and said I was on the right one. The big rifle did the job. Mel found the bull 15 yards from where I shot it. He kept shouting "You are the main peanut in the pack!" I have no idea what that means, but I was dang proud of that bull.
The final day we drove forever to a place entirely unlike any of the others. We were hunting a huge field which rose gently up to ancient round boulders giving way eventually to jagged outcroppings of rock . Sheep grazed just below us and the Indian ocean was shimmering in the distance. We were in search of blesbok. We couldn't have been driving for more than a minute or two when out of a shallow ravine stepped what Mel assured me was a MONSTER blesbok. We jumped out and kept the only bush around, between us and the animal. He stopped walking at about 125 yards. I dropped him in his tracks. Mel had a fit and told me repeatedly that the blesbok was my best trophy. Summary What an adventure! If you get a chance to go, GO!!! J.P. Kleinhans safaris is first class. We were going to meet J.P. And Craig Boddington for a beer a few days later at the airport, but there was a family emergency that kept J.P. From it. The accomodations,hunting ,food,staff you name it , were outstanding. The only thing I would not recommend is having a kidney stone attack before boarding the sixteen hour flight home. When we landed in Atlanta I was delerious with pain. I don't even remember most of going through customs.Good thing my son was there!
That's one heck of a trip and some good looking animals! Congrats and those are some awesome pictures!
