South Africa 2025

[Rainier10]

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

100%, gold wildebeest and wart hog were my two have to have animals. And yes the taxidermy bill is going to be huge. The trip really can be as expensive or inexpensive as you want it to be. For me it is pretty expensive having four of us here but it is what it is. This is a once in a lifetime trip, not just hunt, that my family will remember forever. You can’t put a price tag on that.

I will forget the costs in a year or two but will never forget the experience and time spent with my wife and kids.

[Dan-o]

UNREAL

[Timberstalker]

Awesome!
Thank you for taking us along on the ride.

[jrebel]

Looks like a ton of fun!!  Great animals being taken so far. 

[Rainier10]

I know it’s late for you guys but we had an epic morning. As I said before we split up today. Mike was headed out for waterbuck and warthog. We headed to a citrus farm that doesn’t allow hunting. They had bought a huge chunk of land that has water rights and used those rights to put in a citrus farm. South Africa exports tons of citrus products to Russia and China.  Anyways they only use a small portion of the property for the citrus farm.

They have a very aggressive blue wildebeest that they wanted removed. He has great brindle which is the striped coloring on the sides. My outfitter nines that I really liked the defined brindle and that was more important to me than horn size. He actually used that to our advantage. He told the farmer the bull didn’t have big enough horns but if he would let us also shoot an impala for free we would take care of the blue wildebeest for him. This property has huge impala, 23” impala. The farmer agreed as long as we used suppressed rifles.

We arrived and immediately saw the wildebeest. The brindle was amazing. We decided to hunt for the impala first and then go after the wildebeest. We came across a pair of Nyala bulls and a single cow and noticed in the background a group of impala. There were multiple rams and two really nice ones. My wife got out and put the sneak on them. She made a great double lung shot and the impala died within 100 yards. It’s just so hard after all the years of putting it behind the shoulder to actually aim at the shoulder like they want you to. With that said double lung does the job.

We put the tape to this beautiful ram, it is 25 1/4”. Absolutely amazing. I may be doing a life size mount of this very special impala.

[Rainier10]

Next up was the aggressive wildebeest. He was running with an ancient cow that had crazy wide horns. This guys horns were narrow but his body was massive compared to her and his coloring was everything we wanted. My youngest was up next. She had dropped her zebra with one shot and was looking to do the same with this blue. Everyone said be ready for a follow up shot as these guys can take some lead.

She had a nice broadside shot but the bull moved just before she could shoot. We followed him to some shade trees and only had a frontal shot. This had to be spot on and once again the bull moved before she could settle in and feel comfortable.

Finally we got on him and he was quartering towards us. She put the crosshairs just in front of the shoulder and completely rocked his world. On impact his head went down as he bucked and kicked never putting weight on the right front. He expired writhing 75 yards.

I gave her a huge hug as she was shaking in my embrace with emotion.  Walking up on him was so awesome. The stripes were so defined, his chest and shoulders just massive.

We checked the time and it wasn’t even 9am yet. We had left the lodge at 7am.

[Rainier10]

And as icing on the cake I got this photo from Mike before we made it back to the lodge.

[Dan-o]

That Wildebeast is beautiful!!

[Rob]

There is something regal about a big Impala Ram.  Nice animal!

If you don't go full body, consider a wall pedestal.  I really like the way the shoulder looks - I am pretty sure all my wall mounts will be wall pedestals going forward.

[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

100%, gold wildebeest and wart hog were my two have to have animals. And yes the taxidermy bill is going to be huge. The trip really can be as expensive or inexpensive as you want it to be. For me it is pretty expensive having four of us here but it is what it is. This is a once in a lifetime trip, not just hunt, that my family will remember forever. You can’t put a price tag on that.

I will forget the costs in a year or two but will never forget the experience and time spent with my wife and kids.

Not sure I can think of a time I gritted my teeth and payed the money and regretted it, but I can think of lots of times I wish I’d forked over the cash when I cheaped out. Good decision.

[Karl Blanchard]

Heck of a trip sir

[Rainier10]

Evening hunt went well. Saw a ton of wildebeest, a total of 8 bulls. Was squeezing the trigger on one and he started to walk so I let up. He turned towards me giving me only a frontal shot. Wind was gusting and I just couldn’t hold steady. I was on him but back and forth. Not a chance I was willing to take.

The herd moved and while looking for them we found a bachelor group of four bulls in a small valley.  No wind and a good bull broadside at 100 yards. I squeezed the trigger and hit him in the shoulder hard, he came out the other side of the bush bucking and kicking, I stayed on him but something seemed wrong. My guide said I don’t think that’s him. We moved to the side of the bush and could see a tail flickering from the ground. Bull down.

What a day, three great animals with three great shots.

[Rainier10]

And Mike got a lechwe.

[Rainier10]

Getting an early start tomorrow, hoping to get a gemsbok, common springbok and a black springbok.

[Bob33]

The golden wildebeest is beautiful.