First hunt of the season
 

After a four hour drive we arrived at the game farm. The good summer rains had been kind to the animals and they thrived in their thousands in the high grass. I took 3 big fat Impala and two Blessbuck and my buddy took the same with the addition of 4 warthogs (which I don't shoot). I had some puzzling problems with my Remington .375 in that it began shooting high over the backs of the game, despite being ranged in at the start of the hunt and not being jarred in any way. On going back to the range mid-hunt, I found it was shooting 17 clicks high at 100 yds. On re-setting the scope, it behaved well thereafter. Mounts were tight and it is a fairly new Leopold VX3. I used the 30-06 instead and it performed well with its ancient, and somewhat dim Weaver K4. It doesn't put the animals down with as much authority, but does the job.

Awesome.

That plains game will taste good on the braai.

The thought of it makes me long for a glass of cane and orange.

Good for you! Is their a bag limit or is it pay as you go?

That sounds like a fun hunt.

Good grief, you guys shoot some cannons!

No bag limit. Most of the hunting here is on private land, so you bargain with the landowner for the best deals. My Impala cost me about US$80 and the bigger Blessbuck about US$100 each. Accommodation about $20 per night and provide own food.

Not everyone. My favorite for larger animals is the .416 Rigby but the buddy with me this weekend used a .300 Win and a .223 for pig.

Is that a "local price" for animals in need of culling?

I did a hunt in SA back in 09 that I got a hella good deal on from an Ex Selous Scout, but no where that cheap!

I shot and ate everything I was after, bar Gemsbok.

I would love to get back for a Gemsbok and maybe an old Buff Cow in Zim if/when things ever change. And a couple of those scary looking Tigerfish.

We often see hunters paying BIG money to come down our waytoo...but the ease of hunting here means the cost is next to free as long as you have some local knowledge and a decent "bro network".

I was surprised to hear there's a spot of two in SA with Himalayan Tahr.

You can hunt Gemsbok / Oryx, Barbary Sheep, and Ibex in Texas and New Mexico.

The Gemsbok get pretty big, ~450 pounds.

Tasty, too!

TR

These are "Biltong" prices, not for trophy hunters, although you may get a trophy if you are lucky. Foreign hunters must use a Professional Hunter if they want to export their trophies, and the prices go through the ceiling then. If you come here just to shoot, I can take you on a similar hunt at similar prices, but getting trophies home will be a problem. You must remember that our Rand has been plummeting against the dollar these last few years, making everything more affordable for someone with dollars. Of course, if the full 5 star lodge with gourmet chefs and hunting only Rowland Ward of SCI animals is required, then there are many PHs who would be happy to relieve you of all your savings. Sadly, the Tahir has been completely culled from its Table Mountain refuge due to dippy conservationists who insist on only indigenous animals occupying the national parks. The Tahir has been there for over a hundred years, but they felt it must go. They feel the same way about the trout that have lived in the Cape rivers for a similar length of time. There are a few other places where one can hunt Tahir, but they are quite few now.

Yes, you are right, Gemsbuck are good eating. We mostly make Biltong from our game meat here and and old saw says that the good roasting buck are not good for biltong and vice versa. Gemsbuck and Eland taste much like good beef, but Kudu and Blessbuck are a bit gamey and make great biltong.

I only make biltong and dry sausage from my game. My family loves it for snacks and school lunches. My wife is a biltong eating machine and can flatten a bless buck a week. The three boys and their many friends take care of the rest. I love cane too and drink it with anything fizzy.

Yeah, I've heard about Texas having a rather substantial industry in exotic game parks for hunting.

Sadly the closest I've been to a Gemsbok has been the Oryx painted on the side of the Qatar Airways plane I flew on.

No joy.

We've had a few Saffie fellas in the green machine here who hook us up with biltong.

There's a few biltong making businesses going here. The good stuff makes large volume commercial Beef Jerkey strips taste like dog roll in comparison.

Shame about the Tahr......it's one of those species you REALLY have to work hard to earn....sometimes even for those with the unlimited budgets who Helo lift in above them.

I REALLY enjoyed my time in SA. Most of the time was in the Eastern Cape.

The last two on my list are Gemsbok and Buff to hunt and eat.

It would be nice to have both a Gemsbok rack and Buff(cow for cost) horns on the wall, but happy with meat in my belly!

Probably the best momento from that trip is the photos of tracking a leopard rolling up on a baboon troop.

Incidental contact with spoor while walking the ground glassing for the gemsbok I never got and other plainsgame.

We had time to burn so we pursued the leopard/baboon tracks just to see what happened(I have a strong interest in man/animal tracking) and it was like a chainsaw ripped through the troop...likely a day or two prior based on ground sign aging.

What a great trip.....and learning things like swinging a white rag over your head around the Wildebeast.

I very much look forward to getting back again someday.

I was very disappointed in jerky when I visited the USA for the first time. I had read about it in cowboy books and expected a superior biltong. I found it uneatable, but I suppose when you have set your stomach on something, and it tastes completely different to what you expected, the result is disappointment.