Kimberley 2022 Hunt

[264WinMag]

We are a close group of friends that have an annual hunt in the Kimberley area. The hunt happened a bit earlier this year. My hunt last year didn't go very well, with two missed opportunities on eland. I put in some effort in terms of range time and practicing from shooting sticks since the beginning of the year.

We left early Wednesday morning and arrived on the farm around 13:00. We spent the afternoon sighting in rifles with some members having to shoot more to get use to their rifles since last year. We camp on the farm, and we setup camp before sundown.
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The farm is relatively large, but they had lots of rain like the rest of the country. Therefore that was certain area of the farm which was inaccessible. We did try to access certain areas but was met with some resistance ;)

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I set off the first morning around 05:30 with sunrise being 06:20. I have always wanted to be in position before sunrise to be able to survey the area for kudu and any other quarry (as per Messor's advice). We were ins position as the sun came up and had a great view of a valley from a high vantage point. The farm is characterised by a number of koppies and lots of large rocks. We saw a large kudu bull with his cows approximately 700m south of our position. We planned a stalk and started to approach them. We managed to get within 90m of them, with the assistance of the high grass scattered trees. We first saw one of the cows and a very young kudu bull. While observing them, I noticed the backline of the large bull to my left. He was hiding in a thicket and as I moved to get him into the scope he bolted. We thought they were the only animals in the area and were just starting to follow the kudus when my hunting companion spotted a group of swartwildebees that did not bolt with the kudu. I opened the shooting sticks, my friend ranged (176m) and I was able to open my hunting season. The Viper Flex shooting sticks worked as advertised and they provide a very stable platform to hunt from. After the shot, we also realized that a group of bwb was also in the bushes. Never assume that all the animals leave when a group runs away. The animal was recovered and we retired for brunch
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The afternoon hunt, was in the same area. We hiked to the koppie where we observed the kudu in the morning to find a group of impala grazing. They were unaware of our presence and my friend opened his hunting season with my 375 and I was able to take a second impala with 308.

I was really keen to hunt an eland, and we set off early the next morning to an area where they were observed by our hunting party the previous day. Within 20minutes of setting off I managed to take a large impala ram (dressed weight 39kg). We had to drag the ram 600m to the road where the vehicle could recover the animal. The exercise clearly outlined my unfitness and the guide had an apt expression for the occasion: "Die trek laat mens vinnig "dou" (sweet).

We hiked for 40minutes when we spotted the group of eland cows. We were standing on a ride and they were on the opposite ridge. We had to leopard crawl down the ridge to the lower parts to prevent being seen. Eland was just below the two trees left top corner of the picture. Left the 308 with my friend and opted for the 375 for the stalk. As we started the stalk we saw a lone red hartebeest bull between us and the eland. We had to sit down and wait 10 minutes hoping the bull would move away quietly. The bull quitely moved away and we could continue the stalk.
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We crawled through the steekgras for 200m to the lower area. where we maned to stalk further to closer trees. We flushed three warthogs which luckily did not spook the eland. We were able to stalk within 120m. I opened the shooting sticks behind cover and slowly moved out until I has a clear view of an eland cow. She was stand broadside, chewing cud. I managed to sheet her just below the ear and saw her fall. I quickly cycled the bolt as the group broke up to find a cow looking back where the first cow fell and was able to take another cow. The two shots were shot within 10 seconds. Luckily the recovery vehicle could pick up the animals where they lay without too much hassle. I am standing where the first eland fell.

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I managed to shoot a kudu bull the afternoon on top of a koppie which further underlined my fitness levels.

Top of koppie
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Bottom of koppie
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Saturday morning I learned a very important lesson.

A cold front moved in Saturday morning with the promise of more rain. We managed to stalk a group of black wildebeest who was lying down in an erosion gully. We managed to stalk within 130m and I was shooting my 308 with barnes 150gr TTSX. The one bull was lying broadside facing to the right. I wanted to place the shot just below the horn between the eye and ear. I compensated for the distance (the rifle is zeroed at 200m) and pulled the trigger. The bull's head fell as if taking a nap but still lying on his feet. I opened the bolt and as soon as I took the rifle of the shooting sticks the bull jumped to his feet and took off away from me. I managed to place a poor shot in his right back leg which made him turn to the left, down a gully. I ran closer and managed to get another quick off-hand shot as he came out the gully. The third shot nicked the top of his back paralyzing his hind legs. I tried a head shot and bull moved his head as the fourth shot broke. At this point, he was quite ticked off at this stage and spotted me and tried to move closer on his front legs. I struggled to get a spare round out of the ammo pouch and managed to end the affair with 5th shot. The first shot nicked the bottom of the horn and exited out the eye on the opposite side. The brain sits very high with these animals
Lesson learned: if an animal just lowers his head after a headshot and remains to lie on his feet, shoot it again.

It started raining Saturday night and we were almost forced to stay an extra day with a very wet and slippery farm road. The rest of the group managed to also hunt their bags and the hunt ended on a high note.

[264WinMag]

The bwb dressed out 80kg


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[Skaaphaas]

Great write up! Congrats on a successful hunt.

[Pirate]

dis 'n meneer van 'n SWB daai...

[Kouros]

Thank You for sharing.

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[TStone]

Good write up. Well done!
That is a good black wildebeest. Your experience on the black wildebeest demonstrates the risks of brain shots, I'm glad you got him.

[Antlion]

Great write up.

[oafpatroll]

Thanks for the writeup. Makes me more and more keen to break my long furred game famine.

[PaPaBeeR]

Nice hunt. I hope you have enough freezers.

[AJR]

Great write up.

+1