gillettehunter
Well-Known Member
I miss Africa. I especially miss the rock doves in the morning. I miss the animals, the OH's and the focuss on hunting. Wish I was still back.
I have generally been able to afford Africa about every other year for a while. Been fortunate to have the funds to go in 2020,2012 and again this year. Tsala had been on the radar for a while. Spent a night with my taxidermist in Idaho and talked about their operation so I decided to go. Rouan set me up with a great deal so I started planning.
My wife elected to work on another project. I invited several different people to go. Some interest but only one that committed to going. Then last Christmas season I worked in Shreveport La and one of the business owners sons had an interest. I wound up with 2 from the Austin area deciding to go with me this year. About 3 weeks pre departure the one fellow from Gillette cancelled going with me. Left me with the Texas boys.
Last Feb my daughter and her husband informed my wife and I that they were ready to quit managing our little jewelry store in Miles City Mt. So we needed to plan a going out of business sale. The sale dates overlapped my Africa trip. We arranged to replace me for 3 weeks of the sale. The sale consumed all of my time for weeks preventing some of my normal safari preparations. I worked 6 days a week for 6 weeks getting ready for that and then full time plus with the start of the sale. I was counting the days until I could leave!
Finally on the evening of May 5th I left Miles City to get to Gillette. The 6th was spent tying up loose ends and final packing. On the 6th I left for the airport at 3:45 am. Check in went smoothly. Arrived in Denver and then off to Newark. Uppon arrival there I had a text message that the Texas boys had problems. One had forgotten his passport and they missed their flight out. They were going to miss the first 1 1/2 days of hunting! Ouch.
I set this up as a "cheap" hunt. 5 days with @TSALA HUNTING SAFARIS and 10 days for me with Willie whom I hunted with back in 2020. The texas boys initially were going to hunt 5 days with Tsala and 5 with Willie. Then due to business meetings they shortened the back end down. Flight availability made it to where they would only be able to hunt 2 days with Willie. My flight out of Newark was full. Food was, well it was airline food. I slept very little and was glad to get to Joberg. Luggage showed up and I headed out to arrival hall. Rouan met me there and off to SAPs we went. 1st hunter in the office from that flight and first one out. Had all of the paperwork so things went smoothly. Always glad to be done with the red tape!
Off to camp just over 2 hrs out. Tsala is located in the Waterburg Mtns and is at around 4300 ft elevation. They started some steaks as soon as I arrived and I made it to bed around 10 PM. One other hunter was in camp. He is an AH member and was there on a cull hunt and I believe he added a trophy or two. I'll let him speak up if he wants to. We hit it off and enjoyed each others company.
I woke before the alarm. I could hear the birds including a rock dove that always tells me that I'm in Africa. We had a light breakfast. My Ph was to be Janus. He is a new PH. I may of been his first overseas client. What a PITA I must of been for him. I think that this was my 7th trip to Africa. I had tould Rouan I'd like to try and better some of the trophies that I had taken in the past including Kudu, Nyala and Bushbuck. When you hunt Africa sometimes plans change. This year has been very wet. In fact it rained on us which is unusual this time of year. The bushveld was VERY thick. One pic I have shows the grass over my head. I have another where it mostly obscures a Nyala.
Because of how thick everything was I didn't see a Bushbuck in 5 days hunting. Not a one. I saw 4 Nyala rams including the one above. None were as good as the one that I already had at home. I didn't see a really large kudu either. I saw one briefly that would be generally be considered a shooter. So we did what any good hunter should do and we took what Africa offered.
We met for a light breakfast at 6 am. Just after I got to the boma for breakfast I could hear an Impala ram making a fuss nearby. I walked down the road and caught sight of him a short distance away. Great start to the hunt.
Janus, Rouan, Herman and I went to check my rifle. A couple of shots and a small adjustment and we were off. Herman's job is to check on animals daily. He knows the animals there better than anyone. He kept Janus and I from getting lost. They have the area around the lodge game fenced. It is about 1600 acres and is hunted some. Plenty of hiding areas. Rouan offered me a cull Zebra for a great price. Because of conditions I thought that was a good option to have.
Not far out of camp we spotted a Zebra. tried to get on it but nothing doing. I figured this wasn't going to be easy. We moved out into the main farm which has around 10,000 acres and has a couple of mtns in it. We started driving. Saw Blue wildebeast, Impala, marbled Impala and black Impala. Those blacks looked pretty cool...... Then I saw a zebra down a fork in the road. We pull well past and start a stalk back down the road. We set the rifle up on my tripod just barely looking down the road. There are 2 zebra feeding side by side. Once the back one clears Janus gives me the go ahead and I shoot. Bang, whop and down goes the Zebra. The he gets up and takes off. What the heck. We walk the 75 yds to where he went down and pick up the trail. We go about 25-30 yds and there he is dead.
I'm using the same rifle/bullet combo as the last 2 trips. It works so well I can't bring myself to change it up. I have a 7mm SAUM in a titanium action by Lone peak arms. The barrel is a 25 inch Bartlien with a 1 in 8 twist. I'm shooting 180 grain Berger VLD's over RL 26 powder and Fed 210 primers. I'm getting 2900 fps. My scope is a March 2.5X25X42. This combo just flat out kills animals. I'l post a pic of the zebra and continue the story later
I have generally been able to afford Africa about every other year for a while. Been fortunate to have the funds to go in 2020,2012 and again this year. Tsala had been on the radar for a while. Spent a night with my taxidermist in Idaho and talked about their operation so I decided to go. Rouan set me up with a great deal so I started planning.
My wife elected to work on another project. I invited several different people to go. Some interest but only one that committed to going. Then last Christmas season I worked in Shreveport La and one of the business owners sons had an interest. I wound up with 2 from the Austin area deciding to go with me this year. About 3 weeks pre departure the one fellow from Gillette cancelled going with me. Left me with the Texas boys.
Last Feb my daughter and her husband informed my wife and I that they were ready to quit managing our little jewelry store in Miles City Mt. So we needed to plan a going out of business sale. The sale dates overlapped my Africa trip. We arranged to replace me for 3 weeks of the sale. The sale consumed all of my time for weeks preventing some of my normal safari preparations. I worked 6 days a week for 6 weeks getting ready for that and then full time plus with the start of the sale. I was counting the days until I could leave!
Finally on the evening of May 5th I left Miles City to get to Gillette. The 6th was spent tying up loose ends and final packing. On the 6th I left for the airport at 3:45 am. Check in went smoothly. Arrived in Denver and then off to Newark. Uppon arrival there I had a text message that the Texas boys had problems. One had forgotten his passport and they missed their flight out. They were going to miss the first 1 1/2 days of hunting! Ouch.
I set this up as a "cheap" hunt. 5 days with @TSALA HUNTING SAFARIS and 10 days for me with Willie whom I hunted with back in 2020. The texas boys initially were going to hunt 5 days with Tsala and 5 with Willie. Then due to business meetings they shortened the back end down. Flight availability made it to where they would only be able to hunt 2 days with Willie. My flight out of Newark was full. Food was, well it was airline food. I slept very little and was glad to get to Joberg. Luggage showed up and I headed out to arrival hall. Rouan met me there and off to SAPs we went. 1st hunter in the office from that flight and first one out. Had all of the paperwork so things went smoothly. Always glad to be done with the red tape!
Off to camp just over 2 hrs out. Tsala is located in the Waterburg Mtns and is at around 4300 ft elevation. They started some steaks as soon as I arrived and I made it to bed around 10 PM. One other hunter was in camp. He is an AH member and was there on a cull hunt and I believe he added a trophy or two. I'll let him speak up if he wants to. We hit it off and enjoyed each others company.
I woke before the alarm. I could hear the birds including a rock dove that always tells me that I'm in Africa. We had a light breakfast. My Ph was to be Janus. He is a new PH. I may of been his first overseas client. What a PITA I must of been for him. I think that this was my 7th trip to Africa. I had tould Rouan I'd like to try and better some of the trophies that I had taken in the past including Kudu, Nyala and Bushbuck. When you hunt Africa sometimes plans change. This year has been very wet. In fact it rained on us which is unusual this time of year. The bushveld was VERY thick. One pic I have shows the grass over my head. I have another where it mostly obscures a Nyala.
Because of how thick everything was I didn't see a Bushbuck in 5 days hunting. Not a one. I saw 4 Nyala rams including the one above. None were as good as the one that I already had at home. I didn't see a really large kudu either. I saw one briefly that would be generally be considered a shooter. So we did what any good hunter should do and we took what Africa offered.
We met for a light breakfast at 6 am. Just after I got to the boma for breakfast I could hear an Impala ram making a fuss nearby. I walked down the road and caught sight of him a short distance away. Great start to the hunt.
Janus, Rouan, Herman and I went to check my rifle. A couple of shots and a small adjustment and we were off. Herman's job is to check on animals daily. He knows the animals there better than anyone. He kept Janus and I from getting lost. They have the area around the lodge game fenced. It is about 1600 acres and is hunted some. Plenty of hiding areas. Rouan offered me a cull Zebra for a great price. Because of conditions I thought that was a good option to have.
Not far out of camp we spotted a Zebra. tried to get on it but nothing doing. I figured this wasn't going to be easy. We moved out into the main farm which has around 10,000 acres and has a couple of mtns in it. We started driving. Saw Blue wildebeast, Impala, marbled Impala and black Impala. Those blacks looked pretty cool...... Then I saw a zebra down a fork in the road. We pull well past and start a stalk back down the road. We set the rifle up on my tripod just barely looking down the road. There are 2 zebra feeding side by side. Once the back one clears Janus gives me the go ahead and I shoot. Bang, whop and down goes the Zebra. The he gets up and takes off. What the heck. We walk the 75 yds to where he went down and pick up the trail. We go about 25-30 yds and there he is dead.
I'm using the same rifle/bullet combo as the last 2 trips. It works so well I can't bring myself to change it up. I have a 7mm SAUM in a titanium action by Lone peak arms. The barrel is a 25 inch Bartlien with a 1 in 8 twist. I'm shooting 180 grain Berger VLD's over RL 26 powder and Fed 210 primers. I'm getting 2900 fps. My scope is a March 2.5X25X42. This combo just flat out kills animals. I'l post a pic of the zebra and continue the story later
