Back From South Africa...Report

[Drew]

I haven't posted in awhile as life has been extremely hectic but I just wanted to give a post action report of my hunt in the Limpopo Valley region of South Africa.

I took my M355 on this hunt and I must say it performed flawlessly. The bow was set up with a Nikon Bolt scope, TT single stage trigger, and Xcaliber Flemish string. My arrow blanks were spine matched Zombies from South Shore, which I built up with 92gr inserts, 3.5" zebra wraps, black and white zebra Blazers, and half-moon Lumenoks. Broadheads of choice were VPA 3 blade 150's and 175's. I would not change a thing with this set up and couldn't be more pleased!
All six animals taken were one shot kills and complete pass through's with the longest shot being 22.5yds and the longest track about 250yds. Most animals were down in under 50yds. I didn't give the trackers much of a workout but it was interesting watching them work. Actually I should rephrase, one shot failed to exit completely...it was a quartering away shot on one of my Impala...it had it's head lowered and the shot went in perfectly but may have been deflected by the brisket. The arrow went in 1/3 of the way up the body on a line right between the front two legs (basically perfect), and also went through it's neck and deflected off the spine. The last 2/3 of the arrow was sticking straight up out of it's neck when we found it. The entrance would was huge on this animal, easily 4" long. Oddly, this was the animal that ran 250yds.

I ended up being lucky enough to take a Kudu, Zebra, warthog, and three Impala. I took three Impala because their horn structure was so different and they were the most skittish/wary (besides Zebra - talk about wary!). All animals were hunted over water as it was extremely dry, dirt like flour dry.

I couldn't believe the diverse wildlife I saw while there. Kudu, Impala, Nyala, Blesbok, Sable, Springbok, Waterbuck, Blue and Black Wildebeest, Duiker, Steenbok, Giraffe, Eland, Mongoose, Vervet monkey, Baboon, Warthog. I highly recommend going if you ever get the slightest chance. Something I'll never forget that's for sure.

Pics...

Kudu


Zebra


Zebra exit wound


Warthog


Impala I


Impala II


Impala III

[vixenmaster]

Hot dang big congrats to you. Go to photobucket n download n bring'em here. This Forum always says quota filled. I used to do the properties then got a photobucket acct.

[GrassyKnoll]

Wow Drew,
Looks like you had an excellent time.... Congrats to you on a great hunt...

Beautiful animals...

[bubba]

A super hunt for sure. Congratulations sure hope to see some pictures posted. A Kudu wow.

[Drew]

Pics should be visible now. I sure hope so anyway!

[TheBig1]

Thanks for sharing Drew! That's some great stuff right there. Congrats on all of those amazing trophies.

Chad

[xcaliber]

Congrats on a hunting trip of a lifetime. You done good Drew!

[amythntr]

.....all of the above rolled up into one big wow!



Anthony

[Onetimeonly x-->]

Hey man I was wondering what you've been up to? Been trying to catch up and see what's what? Who would have thought an overseas hunt would be more priority. Fill me in when you get a chance I'll have to check out the mounts when their done. Congrats Drew, awesome...

[paulaboutform]

WOW! That must've been the most amazing trip. Absolutely amazing! Congratulations and thanks for sharing. That's still the dream, to go hunt plains game on the dark continent someday! Was the travel there uneventful? ....no one trying to extort money from you at airports, safety concerns?

Paul

[nchunterkw]

WOW!! WHat an awesome trip that must have been! Hohw much of the meat did you get to eat and what was your favorite?

[Drew]

Ask away fellas I'll try to answer all questions...

Flight was uneventful. I used a double bow Tuffpak to pack my bow and most of my hunting clothes/gear. Since it looks like a golf club case no one messed with it. My brother in-law used an aluminum rifle case and his lock had been cut off. So there you have it. Also DO NOT travel through the UK or Amsterdam with any kind of hunting gear. They will take your ammo and/or Broadheads out of your gear and you will be crap out of luck. This was the common theme on all of the African hunting forums. We flew from Detroit to Atlanta to Joberg. That last leg is 16hrs...brutal if not in business class (thankfully I was! God bless my wife for having so many delta points!).
I felt very safe, but we didn't spend any time in the city. As soon as we landed we were met and jumped in the van with our gear for a 4.5hr drive to base camp.

The way the camp worked, the chef prepared game meat every night/meal. The first two days in camp you are eating the previous groups kills. After two days they start serving meat from your kills. The best in my opinion were Wildebeest and Kudu. From what I was told Eland is most excellent as well. The rest went to the skinners/trackers and the local community. Which they sold to for roughly $2/kg. Think about that...some of the best game meat on the planet for less than a buck a pound. While here we eat industrial raised beef for $21.99/lbs for a Piedmontese fillet.

Not to promote anything but if you would like to know how to do this on a budget go to a SCI banquet and bid on a hunt. That is how this all came to be. If you want details on how much it ran etc. pm me.

Again, I really cannot say enough about the VPA Broadheads. The PH's had never seen it before but were very impressed after I spend 10mins digging one out that was buried 3/4 of it's length into an ironwood log. after going through an Impala. And it still spun true, all it needed was sharpening.

The M355 was more than adequate. If you were going to go after Giraffe or dangerous game I would go up to the M380 or the M405 as the minimum weight arrow is 950gr and I believe 100ft/lbs.

The other thing to take note of is all of the vitals are further forward on the African plains game. Behind the shoulder is too far back, so you shoot straight up the center of the leg. And don't take shots further than 25yds on Impala and Warthog. They are way to skittish and fast, even with crossbows they did not recommend it. I highly recommend getting the book The Perfect Shot. It shows all of the typical African species with shot placement and the skeletal structure and vitals superimposed. Very useful.

And finally, study, study, study, what trophy animals look like. Don't shoot the first day, take lots of pics instead and review them with the PH's at night so you learn how to rate animals. They told us this and I still had buck fever the first day and shot my Kudu. He is a fine animal and was what I wanted in regards to width but I saw many later that week that were much larger.

This definitely ruined me for deer hunting here in Michigan where you can hunt days and not see anything and a good day is seeing a dozen. The action was literally every 20mins and at times I had 50-60 animals of 3-4 species in front of me at one time. And let me tell you it's really hard to keep track of one ram Impala in a herd mingling about while all these eyes are on high alert. I played tag with that second Impala for 40mins, moving back and forth between shooting windows, setting up shooting sticks, and had to actually look away to calm my heart and breathing before taking the shot. It was AWESOME!!!

[SEC-ond 2 none]

A BIG Congratulations. Great stories and pictures.

Stephen

[georgiaboy]

Congrats on a hunt of a lifetime!!

[mr meat]

WOW!! Congrats on the hunt!