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RifleandReel · Joined: 31 Oct 2005 Posts: 27 Location: South Africa

Between June 3rd and June 10th this year 10 lever action enthusiasts joined us on safari in South Africa's Limpopo Province. We had an excellent time and several great trophies were taken including a 39" Eland, 56" Kudu, 19" Blesbok and several others.

I thought I'd share some of the pictures with members of this forum...

SCI Gold Medal Eland (Al from California)

Blesbok

56" Kudu

Blue Wildebeest taken by Tom from Colorado

Impala

This Caracal was shot in broad daylight

Impala taken by Regan from Missouri

Mark from England brought his .450NE double - built by himself especially for this safari to kill this Blue Wildebeest

Josh from West Virginia's Blue Wildebeest

JJ's (also from West Virginia) Impala

Jim's Zebra

Regan's Wildebeest

16 year old Devin (Colorado) killed his first African animal - a Zebra Stallion on his first hunting day

Later Devin successfully hunted this Impala Ram

A DVD containing some great hunting sequences and stalks was made of the hunt which we would like to share with members of this forum. So we are offering free copies of the DVD to the first 2 members of this forum who send me a PM with their address details.

Good Hunting!

Chris Troskie

kevin davis · Joined: 23 Apr 2006 Posts: 292 Location: texas

very nice!!!! what calibers were you using and what bullets? i can't wait to get to namibia. :thumbsup1:

RifleandReel · Joined: 31 Oct 2005 Posts: 27 Location: South Africa

kevin davis wrote: very nice!!!! what calibers were you using and what bullets? i can't wait to get to namibia. :thumbsup1:

Amongst some of the calibers used were a .308 Marlin (on the Eland, Blesbok and an Impala), .348 Winchester (Zebra), .375 Ruger, .338, (Kudu, Wildebeest, Giraffe), .270 (Zebra, Impala, Wildebeest), .300 Win Mag (Caracal, Wildebeest, Steenbok). .45-70 -(Warthog, Impala, Wildebeest). Unfortunately I cannot recall the bullet weights and brands of all the ammo used. And I know I am missing at least two lever action calibers.

kevin davis · Joined: 23 Apr 2006 Posts: 292 Location: texas

i cannot imagine the logistics necessary for 10 hunters at once. thanks for the reply. i enjoyed the pictures a second time around.

RifleandReel · Joined: 31 Oct 2005 Posts: 27 Location: South Africa

kevin davis wrote: i cannot imagine the logistics necessary for 10 hunters at once. thanks for the reply. i enjoyed the pictures a second time around.

Thank you sir, I have to admit that the logistical part of the hunt was a challenge but one that we managed to overcome with relative ease. The most challenging part logistics-wise was getting everyone from the airport to the hunting camp as the 13 clients arrived on three different flights (first one at 06:30 and the last one at 16:30).

Once there, my fiance (partner) the PH's and other camp staff made sure that everything ran smoothly.

Don Fischer · Joined: 24 Mar 2005 Posts: 2070 Location: Antelope, Ore

Don't know weather to yell at you for not checking in more or tell you nice pictures first. I'll risk it, nice picture's! There's something about Africa that must tear on everyone, I know it does on me. I usually always check out what's on the Africa site's but somehow this escaped me for a few day's. Of course I was gone a couple of them.

Do you have Bongo where your at? I've read a bit about them in the past and they really are mysterious animals. I understand they are fairly rare and inhabit some really heavy forest's.

Welcome back stranger! Stop in again,,,,,,,soon!

RifleandReel · Joined: 31 Oct 2005 Posts: 27 Location: South Africa

Don Fischer wrote: Don't know weather to yell at you for not checking in more or tell you nice pictures first. I'll risk it, nice picture's! There's something about Africa that must tear on everyone, I know it does on me. I usually always check out what's on the Africa site's but somehow this escaped me for a few day's. Of course I was gone a couple of them.

Do you have Bongo where your at? I've read a bit about them in the past and they really are mysterious animals. I understand they are fairly rare and inhabit some really heavy forest's.

Welcome back stranger! Stop in again,,,,,,,soon!

Hi Don, yeah I've been away for a while - partly because I've been busy hunting and partly because I recently moved my operation to ranch e bought in Limpopo where my internet connection hasn't beenvery dependable. With that problem solved (hopefully) I'll try to contribute to this forum more regulary.

We have no Bongo here in the Southern parts of Africa. The Western Bongo only occurs naturally up in West Africa (Camaroon, CAR, Gabon, DRC, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Nigeria, Sierra Leone Sudan and Togo and the Eastern variety occurs in Kenia. They are indeed rare and very sought after as trophies.

Regards,

Chris

maddenwh · Posted: Wed Aug 01, 2007 3:16 am Post subject:

Someone used a .348 win... Wow, what I would give for one of those old boys. I'm a big lever action guy myself with a 35 remington, 30/30, 2 45/70's, 358 win, and a .444 marlin.

RifleandReel · Joined: 31 Oct 2005 Posts: 27 Location: South Africa

maddenwh wrote: Someone used a .348 win... Wow, what I would give for one of those old boys. I'm a big lever action guy myself with a 35 remington, 30/30, 2 45/70's, 358 win, and a .444 marlin.

Yeah, that .348 has quite a bit of history behind it and it still works very well. My favourite lever action calibre is the .45-70. :thumbsup1:

huntquest · Joined: 01 Aug 2007 Posts: 82 Location: Colorado

Congrats on all your success!!

91xlt · Joined: 15 Mar 2007 Posts: 173 Location: Phila., PA

EXCELLENT!!!

I wanted to take my 45-70 guide gun with me, my PH suggested not to due to the area we where to be hunting being much to open, not to much bush.

BUT NEXT TIME!!! :yes:

Great trophies! Well done!!

That Eland bull is nice. what did it score for SCI. The one I shot was a 87 3/4, yours had to score around 100 or so I would think.

atomikall · Joined: 27 Aug 2004 Posts: 1942

Amazing pictures man Looks like that was a hunt of a lifetime congrats to all of you on your animals.

maddenwh · Posted: Sat Sep 01, 2007 11:11 pm Post subject:

I noticed several bolt actions in the pics. I guess you guys are not opposed to branching out occassionaly. Also, do you recall how far away the fella with the 450 was when he shot his wildabeast? I've always thought that one usually needed to take longer shots with these critters. He didn't have a scope on it, judging from what I saw in the pics, so it must of been a heck of a stalk and/or shot. I really won't shoot at anything past ~150 yards with my doubles. That's r
truly awesome that he made the gun himself and regulated it well enough to shoot it that straight... maybe you could put in a good word for me...? :yes: :yes: :yes:

RifleandReel · Joined: 31 Oct 2005 Posts: 27 Location: South Africa

maddenwh wrote: I noticed several bolt actions in the pics. I guess you guys are not opposed to branching out occassionaly. Also, do you recall how far away the fella with the 450 was when he shot his wildabeast? I've always thought that one usually needed to take longer shots with these critters. He didn't have a scope on it, judging from what I saw in the pics, so it must of been a heck of a stalk and/or shot. I really won't shoot at anything past ~150 yards with my doubles. That's r
truly awesome that he made the gun himself and regulated it well enough to shoot it that straight... maybe you could put in a good word for me...? :yes: :yes: :yes:

Nope, we certainly aren't opposed to branching out. Although this particular hunt was arranged for levergun enthusiasts; everyone was told they should bring the rifles they feel comfortable shooting with hence the bolt action rifles in some of the pics.

Mark (with the .450) shot 2 W/beest and was less than 80 yards from them on both occasions. I saw him shoot good groupings at 100 yards though. He is an avid deer stalker from the UK and these skills as well as the fact that we were hunting in fairly dense terrain made it possible for him to get close enough.

I'm sure I can put a good word in for you...

cam69conv · Joined: 22 Oct 2006 Posts: 651 Location: Summit, IL

:o :o :o What??!!!!!! you mean someone was allowed to hunt in Africa with less than a .375 H&H mag? Say it aint so!!! According to MANY, that 338 or that .270 just wouldnt be allowed by the PH's in Africa!! LOL Sorry just couldnt resist. I was just told the other day that I was foolish for downing a Cape with my .444. It just didnt have the "power" required for such an animal. I guess that Cape didnt know that since it dropped with one shot through the lungs. 150 yard shot and recoverd the 200 grain coreloc in the offside skin. Nice pics. As Im sure you gathered by now Im a devoted leverist (not so much that I dont own a bunch of bolters to though ::neener: )