Back from Africa

[hunting4sanity]

My first trip to Africa turned out to be an amazing experience. Getting there was a bit tedious, from home to hunt was roughly 11,000 miles and 44 hours, airplane seats are not designed for that many hours of use, but once there I loved every minute of the hunt. My brother and I hunted with Kido Safaris in KwaZulu-Natal and for anyone interested in hunting South Africa I would recommend them without hesitation. After finally arriving, the rest of the first day was spent checking rifles and then just getting to know the area and seeing some African wildlife.

I knew the weather would be hot, but hey, I'm a farmer and I'm used to working in the hot summer sun. After hunting hard all day on a sunny day that reached 104 degrees I decided this farmer spends more time than he thought in a nice air conditioned John Deere on those hot summer days. On the second full day of hunting I got a shot at my first ever African animal and thought it was very fitting that it was a kudu. After committing on this hunt I made a kudu target to practice on at home and then my kudu was the first thing I put crosshairs on in Africa. The first animal for my brother was also a kudu. The first few days were very hot, but productive.

[hunting4sanity]

It was surreal to be hunting these animals I had only seen pictures of and read about, now it was happening. We also had to be aware of where other animals, like elephants and rhinos, were at to avoid any unwanted run-ins.  The trackers, Elias and James, were unbelievable in their ability to spot game. One day as Elias seemed to be concentrating on the opposite side of the canyon, I spotted a group of impala and proudly blurted out "impalas!" In his unique cadence and accent Elias quietly said, "yes, 6 females." I quickly glanced back to 'my find' and sure enough, 6 females happily feeding away. I swear the guy had eyes in the front, back and sides of his head. Over the course of our trip we hunted in blistering heat, cool light rain, pounding heavy rains and loved every minute of it.

[hunting4sanity]

Hunting Africa is certainly different from a western DIY hunt, but by the sunset of our last day I was already planning how to get back there and hunt again.  Thanks to all those on this forum who helped answer some of the many questions I had as I prepared for this great hunt.

[bowhunterforever]

Looks like you had a awesome hunt Nice trophies

[Boss .300 winmag]

Sweet hunt right there!  so what does giraffe task like?

[Bmcox86]

Man that's a lot of kills, is it pricey to bring all the hides back?

[hunting4sanity]

As to what giraffe tastes like I can't say, the giraffe meat was headed to a nearby town/village the name of which I can't begin to pronounce.  It was amazing as big as a giraffe is, the only thing left behind was about 20 lbs. of the gut pile, on most all the other animals they utilize everything - even all the gut pile.  The best tasting meat of the ones we did try was kudu, in my opinion.

[bugs n bones]

Nice job, I love hunting africa

[stevemiller]

very cool,welcome back.Are you having taxidermy done there or shipped here?

[hunting4sanity]

very cool,welcome back.Are you having taxidermy done there or shipped here?

I'm having the taxidermy done here in the states, I've heard both pros and cons to having it done there in Africa, but the consensus seems to be that the best chance for a long-lasting quality mount is to have the taxidermy done here.

[stevemiller]

cool,I think I would do the same.How long was the hunt package?

[Timberstalker]

Wow. Very cool. What a great set of memories.

[runningboard]

very cool,welcome back.Are you having taxidermy done there or shipped here?

I'm having the taxidermy done here in the states, I've heard both pros and cons to having it done there in Africa, but the consensus seems to be that the best chance for a long-lasting quality mount is to have the taxidermy done here.

1st what a great looking adventure thanks for sharing.
2nd I had my taxi work done there in SA by a guy trained in Thompson Fall Montana. guy switched 2 of my capes out and no easy way to rectify as it 1000s of miles + nightmare to return. told myself it would be better to have them done by someone who sees them all the time, I have seen some blue wildebeest done stateside that looked all goofy, color not right, etc.
again looks like you had a great time, when you going back?

[Bean Counter]

Outstanding! Welcome home and good job on the writeup and photos. What was the total animal count between the two of you?

[hunting4sanity]

cool,I think I would do the same.How long was the hunt package?

The arrival day we checked our rifles and used our cameras on a few critters and on the departure day we hunted for about 3 hours and then had to get going, in between we enjoyed 8 full days of hunting.

Outstanding! Welcome home and good job on the writeup and photos. What was the total animal count between the two of you?

We each got 9 animals.  It wasn't by design but we each got a kudu, a zebra, a nyala, a springbok, and two impalas.  I also got a common reedbuck, a giraffe and a black wildebeest.  My brother, Rob, also got a warthog, a blue wildebeest and a gemsbok.