Post by boxhead on Jun 30, 2012 10:50:26 GMT -5
The gang, my dear wife and three sons (13, 21, 23), and I returned last weekend after having a wonderful time with Andrew Renton and his family hunting a beautiful area of the Eastern Cape. It had been ten years since my wife and I last hunted in SA. An email to Wade Derby (Crosshair Consulting) two or so years ago with a query resulted in his recommendation for Andrew with, "please, just trust me on this". I did and without question made the right decision as all of us enjoyed every minute of the trip. Prior to the hunt we spent a bit over a week on photo safari in bush camps in Botswana (Muchenje Lodge in Chobe) and Zimbabwe (The Hide in Hwange) and on to Vic Falls for a couple of days. We then flew into East London arriving around 9 PM and were picked up by Andrew and one of his PH's Martin.
The next morning had us checking our rifles. Rifles brought included a pre-64 358 Win shooting the 200 gr TTSX, a Walther Model B Mauser 7x57 shooting the 160 gr AB and, for a bit of fun, an open sighted Erfurt Mauser in 8x57 shooting the 180 BT. We found that both scoped rifles shooting well off from where I had left them in the States. The receiver sighted Mauser was still dead on.
As I was only going to hunt 2 maybe 3 species the plan was for the boy's to hunt paired up and myself and wife tagging along with all of us rotating so we could spend time with one another, something that happens little these days given that we are well spread out with the two oldest in different universities and myself here in Kazakhstan. This worked out well though we did find ourselves short a rifle at times as we split up a bit more so Andrew and PH Clint kindly offered the use of their's, a suppressed Sako 7mm Rem Mag and a suppressed Mauser 300 Win Mag, when needed. The boy's dug shooting the suppressed rifles. So off we went with all desired animals taken short of mountain reedbuck. The little buggers just were not cooperating. This was all great spot and stalk hunting on vast properties in rugged terrain that I had no idea existed in the Eastern Cape. We ended with four days in Cape Town and while having dinner I asked everyone what they thought of the hunt, a unanimous fantastic in various forms with my youngest son Tony summing it up well as "A+ Dad". Another post to follow and maybe a bit more on the Botswana and Zimbabwe experiences later. Here's some of the game taken by the boy's.
The next morning had us checking our rifles. Rifles brought included a pre-64 358 Win shooting the 200 gr TTSX, a Walther Model B Mauser 7x57 shooting the 160 gr AB and, for a bit of fun, an open sighted Erfurt Mauser in 8x57 shooting the 180 BT. We found that both scoped rifles shooting well off from where I had left them in the States. The receiver sighted Mauser was still dead on.
As I was only going to hunt 2 maybe 3 species the plan was for the boy's to hunt paired up and myself and wife tagging along with all of us rotating so we could spend time with one another, something that happens little these days given that we are well spread out with the two oldest in different universities and myself here in Kazakhstan. This worked out well though we did find ourselves short a rifle at times as we split up a bit more so Andrew and PH Clint kindly offered the use of their's, a suppressed Sako 7mm Rem Mag and a suppressed Mauser 300 Win Mag, when needed. The boy's dug shooting the suppressed rifles. So off we went with all desired animals taken short of mountain reedbuck. The little buggers just were not cooperating. This was all great spot and stalk hunting on vast properties in rugged terrain that I had no idea existed in the Eastern Cape. We ended with four days in Cape Town and while having dinner I asked everyone what they thought of the hunt, a unanimous fantastic in various forms with my youngest son Tony summing it up well as "A+ Dad". Another post to follow and maybe a bit more on the Botswana and Zimbabwe experiences later. Here's some of the game taken by the boy's.
