Africa Family Safari Fun

[Ridgerunner]

I’d like to share some photos and experiences from our family safari to Africa.  We just returned from two weeks on the dark continent and had the experience of our lives.  I’ll have to break this up into a few different posts over the next few days so bear with me. 

The first week we spent doing Mission work in the town of Oyster Bay on the Indian Ocean, interacting and seeing my kids with the local children without any prejudice to social economic status or race was very gratifying.  Each day we were challenged in new ways as we served those who have less materially than we do, but live a life with more joy and happiness than many in America do.  Families living in shacks that are the size of an American living room without running water or electricity was a daily reminder of how fortunate and blessed we are in America. 

After the first week we changed locations to out of Grahamstown in the Eastern Cape of South Africa.  The terrain here consisted of large rolling hills covered with thick brush, which all seemed to be spikey or thorny.  For this hunt I had two target animals for myself, Kudu and Impala.  Knowing that Kudu hunting can be very challenging depending on the time of year, I wanted to make sure that I had adequate time to get my target animals as well as have enough time for my kids to do some hunting as well.  I told each of my kids that they could have a cull animal, not knowing how long it would take them to harvest their animals due to the numerous challenges associated with young hunters.  My two boys had passed hunters ed last summer but hunts last fall did not produce for them.  My oldest daughter who in the past hasn’t expressed an interest in hunting did about 3 months before the trip so I wanted to make sure she got her opportunity.  And my youngest wanted a cape buffalo, I told him that wasn’t happening but we’d see what we could do.  Other animals for dad would be dependent upon how their hunts went and what the budget would allow. 

After getting to the ranch on Sunday afternoon a quick trip to the rifle range was in store where we all shot the rifles we would be shooting, I was using a Sako in 7mm, while the kids would be using a Sake in .243.  Suppressors on the rifle significantly reduced noise and recoil and everyone was hitting on target.  We were ready to go on Monday morning.  My PH told me that I was hitting the start of the Kudu rut just about perfectly as the big bulls were coming out of the brush.  My two ten year old boys were up and ready to go with me that morning as we took off for Kudu from the ranch.  That morning it didn’t take long to get into the bulls, as I spotted one with only his horns visible above the brush within five minutes of starting to glass.  That morning we put on over 3.5 miles through the brush and looked over 20 bulls before my PH told me to shoot that one!  The sense of urgency in his voice told me it was a very good bull as we had already passed on a number of bulls that looked good to me.  It happened very quickly as we had passed over a small saddle and were side-hilling when on the other side a big bull stood with his cows.  One quick shot and the bull went down.   When I walked up to my bull I was very pleased, especially since my boys were at my side for the entire hunt.  Although the hunt for Kudu was quicker than anticipated, I was thankful the pressure was off knowing it would allow more opportunities for other animals and excursions later in the week.  The previous week it had taken one of the hunters 5 days to finally get his kudu, but like I said, I think I hit the timing just about perfect.  Spent that afternoon hunting another part of the ranch where I passed on a big impala and at one point in the brush we were following leopard prints.  It was great to be out in the brush with my whole family as we explored this new country.  No more shots were fired on Monday, but Tuesday we would drive to another concession that was more open and better suited for the younger hunters.  Tuesday was going to be a very eventful day as we were going to attempt to get 4 kids their first animals. 

[Ridgerunner]

My kudu bull. 





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[elkaholic123]

Beautiful Bull Brian, congrats on your hunt and sounds like your family had a once in a lifetime experience...

[mfswallace]

  tag

[Rob]

Making me want to go back!

[pianoman9701]

Lucky kids. Our big family trips were to tick-infested cabins on Nantucket. It looks like you had quite a time! 

[jackelope]

Awesome, Brian. Really glad you guys had a good time.

[Bwana Bob]

Awesome Kudu Brian

[cedarriver]

 What an experience for all! Thank you Brian for doing what you do. Beautiful Kudu.

[DOUBLELUNG]

Very nice!  Keep sharing!

[Bob33]

What a great experience for your family.

[Mfowl]

  Awesome! Thanks for sharing!

[Ridgerunner]

Tuesday
Up bright and early this morning we headed up to a property that was a few hours away, the main reason for this is it is a lot more open which would provide the kids with a better opportunity for their first animals.  Upon entering the property we found a nice herd of young impala rams, my son Drew was first up and after a short stalk and a 75 yard shot his first animal was on the ground.  We pursued the remaining rams for a few hours but that only resulted in a missed shot for my other boy.  Changing gears we went after blesbuck.  We found a large herd and after a careful stalk Aaron put down his ram at 212 yards.  Just before lunch our PH found an impala ram that he really wanted me to shoot as this country has good genetics and this was a big ram.  Another short stalk resulted in a one shot kill on my impala.  Next up was my daughter who before this trip had never shot a full size gun.  We found a herd of 97 blesbuck and when this one separated itself from the herd she made a great shot on it.  Now we had 3 first time animals down, the only one who hadn’t shot anything was my youngest.  He had been patiently waiting his turn.  It took several different set ups with him but in the end we found an old blesbuck ram that offered the shot opportunity we needed.  After that it was time to call it a day, I was sure proud of the fine shooting had by the kids.  Loved seeing those big smiles on all my kids as they posed with their animals.  Fantastic family memories were made this day. 

[Ridgerunner]

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[Ridgerunner]

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[Ridgerunner]

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[Bob33]

Nice looking blesboks, and priceless smiles.

[washingtonmuley]

Congratulations man!!

[Jpmiller]

Pretty cool. Couldn't tell if this was the end of the story though lol

[DOUBLELUNG]

Memories for a lifetime, and awesome photos!

[Ridgerunner]

There's definantly more to the story, stay tuned........

[washingtonmuley]

There's definantly more to the story, stay tuned........

Can't wait to hear it. Would love to hear some do's and don'ts before I head over.

[jackelope]

Oh man...that is really good stuff. Thanks for sharing. Keep the pics coming!

[bowhunterforever]

Awesome! Thanks for sharing!

Congrats

[Ridgerunner]

Wednesday, we took a day off and didn’t do any hunting, we did go out on a night safari and saw lots of cool animals though.   We spent the day driving to and visiting with one of the children we sponsor through World Vision.  We were able to bring her and her mother some gifts and see first hand how the money we provide in monthly support is being used in that project, cool stuff.  Although the farther interior into the country we went, the poorer the towns, it was a rewarding way to spend a day and see more of South Africa. 

Thursday morning we went and saw some bushman paintings that were nearby.  It was pretty amazing to see the rockart that had been on the side of the cave for over 2000 years.  Looking out from the cave I wondered what the hunting had been like for those prior hunters in a very different time.  Thursday afternoon brought gusty winds, which made the hunting quite a bit more difficult, even with that though, we were able to down a warthog and found some impalas, I passed on a good ram late in the afternoon as I was trying to get my daughter on her second critter before I pulled the trigger again. 

[Ridgerunner]

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[Ridgerunner]

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[Jpmiller]

Hope the kiddos aren't spoiled on hunting now lol will make chasing deer stateside seem boring.

[Alchase]

That is awesome!
They will remember that trip for the rest of their lives.

[h20hunter]

  x10

[deerhuntr4885]

Man a man I jealous!  Waiting.......

[Gringo31]

 

[Ridgerunner]

Friday we spent most of the day chasing impalas around as well as warthogs, although the impala proved to be too much for my daughter, we did get another cull warthog.  We had some serious excitement this afternoon as my daughter and I were walking through a meadow and I saw out of the corner of my eye a very large cape buffalo bull.  He stood up to get a better look at us less than 30 yards away.  We quickly changed direction to try and put some distance between us without wanting to provoke him to a charge.  Thankfully he didn’t as he had several buddies with him.  Needless to say it took a little while for the adrenaline to wear off from that close encounter.  I will say that being that close to a mature cape buffalo bull with nowhere to escape was quite the experience.  After that experience my daughter was quite nervous of getting too far away from the truck. 

We also found a tortious this afternoon and spent a little time inspecting him up close, judging by his hissing he wasn’t too happy to have us close by.  Definitely a fond memory from our time in the bush though. 

[Ridgerunner]

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[Ridgerunner]

The final morning of the hunt I was able to find this impala ram which we had been hunting for a couple of days.  A great end to a great trip.


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[Jpmiller]

Did you get to eat any of the meat off of them. I've always wanted to try African game but never having been i haven't had the chance.

What of the animals do you get to keep? A couple of tanned hides would be awesome.

[elkoholic1]

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