South Africa 2025

[Rainier10]

So today they wanted to take us to Jeffries Bay to see the beach and do some shopping then go and see some monkeys. I told them we didn’t come all this way to do shopping and they said no problem. Most of the time when wives and kids come they are not into hunting. My situation is certainly not normal as my wife and daughters live to hunt and photograph animals. At the end of this hunt I will share some of the photos my daughter took of all the different and spectacular things we saw.

So we started the day looking to fill some of the animals on our list. Mike had seen four nice Nyala bulls the night before in a field so we went there first thing Tuesday morning. My oldest daughter was back up as the shooter. We rounded the corner and the field that had been full of Nyala, blesbuck and impala the night before only hel one Nyala. It appeared to be and old Nyala with a wounded/blind right eye. It just kept feeding towards us from left to right not seeing us to his right since he was blind in that right eye.

At 73 yards she squoze the trigger as the Nyala fed quartering to her. It punched the right shoulder hard and dropped it right there. When we walked up on it the left eyed was all hazy and I thought to myself “am I confused?, I thought the right eye was hazy.” Flipped the Nyala over and the right was hazy too. This Nyala was so old it had gone blind. We opened its mouth and the teeth were almost all gone. J  it st a great specimen to take.

[Woodchuck]

So awesome man. Can't wait to see more.

[Rainier10]

After finishing photos and loading the Nyala we decided to head towsrds the skinning shed back at the lodge as it was going to get warm. On the way we saw two kudo and decided one of them was pretty good. They were both bedded and we would have to hike to get within 300 yards. Bit of a poke for my youngest so I was going to be the shooter. We left them all at the rig and took off. JP said we had to go alone so we didn’t make too much noise and push anything out of the brush and into the kudo. He also said if we bumped a warthog out of the brush to shoot that and we would worry about kudo another time. After dropping down into the valley and then cresting the next ridge we saw a bigger kudo facing right at us only 150 yards away. We quickly setup the sticks and I centered the sights dead center of its chest. A light squeeze of the trigger sent the 300 win mag straight into the boiler, boom whap, the kudo never moved, stoned him right there.

The tracker brought the girls down with the truck and they weee durprised to see the kudo. They had heard the shot and the hit but watched the two kudo run away. They assumed I must have found and shot a warthog.

This kudo was broke off at both tips, the right side much more than the left and had what looked like a third horn starting out right between its eyes.. Lots of photos and then we loaded him up and really put the pedal to the metal to get both animals back before it got too hot. This was all before 9am.

[Dan-o]

Nice Rick!!!!

[Bob33]

The mass on the kudu horns is outrageous. Wow that's a nice animal.

[Rainier10]

Since we were done so early in the day we did head to Jeffries Bay for some authentic South African BigMacs and fries. The bigmacs were actually bigger than at home. We checked out dolphin beach a popular surf spot and then headed back to the lodge.

For the evening hunt we wanted to try to find a warthog. We found tons of impala, one black impala,,lots of blesbuck, one white blesbuck, kudo cows, one blue wildebeast ,one male warthog, three female warthogs and four baby warthogs all in the same field. We watched the field all night hoping a bigger male would show itself but none ever did. On the way back to the lodge we did see about 30-40 monkeys in the trees at the edge of the meadow. They were grey with white faces.

What an epic day.

[Rainier10]

We are relying 100% on the guide for what animal to shoot, they all look great to us and of course will be the biggest whatever on our wall. We will only have one kudo, one Nyala or whatever so nothing to compare to once we get home. So if the guide says that is a blesbuck but we can do better we pass and when he saw the sable and said I know that’s not on you list but that is a great sable we shot. Same with the kudo as we were hiking to shoot the bigger kudo and saw the even bigger kudo he said you need to shoot this one instead so I did.

These guys are seeing these animals daily and really know their stuff. It really is conservation at its finest. Shooting the blind Nyala is a prime example.

[Jpmiller]

For whatever reason warthogs more than any other animal in Africa do it for me, hope you smack a good one! The taxidermy bill sounds like it will be higher than the guide lol

[bugs n bones]

More

[Rob]

Since we were done so early in the day we did head to Jeffries Bay for some authentic South African BigMacs and fries. The bigmacs were actually bigger than at home. We checked out dolphin beach a popular surf spot and then headed back to the lodge.

For the evening hunt we wanted to try to find a warthog. We found tons of impala, one black impala,,lots of blesbuck, one white blesbuck, kudo cows, one blue wildebeast ,one male warthog, three female warthogs and four baby warthogs all in the same field. We watched the field all night hoping a bigger male would show itself but none ever did. On the way back to the lodge we did see about 30-40 monkeys in the trees at the edge of the meadow. They were grey with white faces.

What an epic day.

This is plains game hunting in Africa to a T.

"well, we started out looking for X, and we saw 6 other game animals that we could have shot as well"

The presence of quality game animals in Africa is astounding.

Imagine that you are on a quality Elk hunt.  There are amazing elk everywhere and you are just trying to find the right one.  While hunting you see a trophy mulie, a herd of 20 Pronghorn with a monster male, and some Javalina.  The guide says, "would you like to shoot any of those animals?" "Why yes, yes I would thank you very much!"  It is so easy to go over budget with all that temptation!  I have discovered that I am a weak weak man when it comes to adhering to budget.

I am also amazed at the game trackers.  I look at a stream bed and see tracks from 15 different species all going different directions.  how they are able to pick out a specific animal and determine where it is going and trophy class is beyond me.  they take tracking skills to a whole new level.

[Ridgerunner]

Beautiful trophies, especially the Nyala, that is one animal I did not take but wish that I had.  Next trip its priority #1. 

Jeffreys Bay is a cool place too.  I can still remember eating pizza from a wood fired oven under a large tree in the courtyard.  It was very good. 

[OutHouse]

Rainier!

This is crazy awesome. And your Kudo buck, I think that's coolest type of "buck" I've ever seen. Thanks for sharing!!

[Rainier10]

It’s Thursday morning here getting ready to head out for the day.

Quick update from yesterday. We spent the day hunting zebras for Mike. Long day in the sun but he was able to close the deal on two great zebras, one in the morning and one in the afternoon. We chased some impala but they were super skittish.

Pretty sunburned from yesterday. Going with long sleeves and a thick coating of sunscreen on my face and neck today.

We are splitting up today as my family is going after blue wildebeast and impala while Mike goes after waterbuck and warthog.

Food yesterday was amazing again. I’m not sure I’m ever coming home.

[Rainier10]

Mike’s zebras. These guys do a great job of taking photos.

[Rainier10]

Since we were done so early in the day we did head to Jeffries Bay for some authentic South African BigMacs and fries. The bigmacs were actually bigger than at home. We checked out dolphin beach a popular surf spot and then headed back to the lodge.

For the evening hunt we wanted to try to find a warthog. We found tons of impala, one black impala,,lots of blesbuck, one white blesbuck, kudo cows, one blue wildebeast ,one male warthog, three female warthogs and four baby warthogs all in the same field. We watched the field all night hoping a bigger male would show itself but none ever did. On the way back to the lodge we did see about 30-40 monkeys in the trees at the edge of the meadow. They were grey with white faces.

What an epic day.

This is plains game hunting in Africa to a T.

"well, we started out looking for X, and we saw 6 other game animals that we could have shot as well"

The presence of quality game animals in Africa is astounding.

Imagine that you are on a quality Elk hunt.  There are amazing elk everywhere and you are just trying to find the right one.  While hunting you see a trophy mulie, a herd of 20 Pronghorn with a monster male, and some Javalina.  The guide says, "would you like to shoot any of those animals?" "Why yes, yes I would thank you very much!"  It is so easy to go over budget with all that temptation!  I have discovered that I am a weak weak man when it comes to adhering to budget.

I am also amazed at the game trackers.  I look at a stream bed and see tracks from 15 different species all going different directions.  how they are able to pick out a specific animal and determine where it is going and trophy class is beyond me.  they take tracking skills to a whole new level.

You are so spot on with all of this.