South Africa 2014

I am lucky enough to have managed to broker a couple of days hunting while we're in Cape Town for Christmas and New Year. What I would say is that it is not easy to find people with whom to hunt in this part of that Cape and most are further North, anyway I found Joe da Silva of Capetown Hunting Safaris and Tours and he has done me proud.

I am lucky to have hunted a bit in Africa and as I don't want to repeat certain species at the moment what I could hunt was a bit limited so I decided upon Klipspringer, Cape Grysbuck and either a Duiker or a decent Sprigbuck depending on what we saw.

Joe collected me late on Boxing Day and we headed north to the Lesser Karoo, spend the night and then hunt on a privately owned farm. I will cut a long story short but we had a wonderful meal of South African filet beef (why is it so tender?!) and then got up at the crack of dawn to look for a Klippie. We were at it for 11.5 hrs before we saw a male that we were able to get close enough to a take a proper look at, let alone shoot.

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Tired but very happy we headed back to Dunbanville where Joe is based for the night.


We planned to hunt for Springbuck or Duiker the following day and I was hoping for a good Duiker to replace the rather mediocre one I already have. Anyway a half decent Springbuck so bagged him instead.

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My last day was set was set aside to try for the Grysbuck, I has been warned that normally they would suggest three days to try for these little chaps as they tend to come out only just before dark and as they are small are hard to find and nigh on nocturnal. At this point I am going to go out on limb as I am sure I will be hugely criticised for this but you have to be prepared to lamp these little guys. We started at 6pm and saw lots a animals which was to be expected as we were on a mixed arable and beef farm of about 2,500ha. I have never seen so many Duikers, big ones at that but didn't take one as what I really wanted was the Grysbuck.

We looked all over and when we did find one it was either young or a female...... Finally at 10.30 Joe said times up, we are 2.5 hrs from home we we have to call it a night so we started to head towards the farm road and there in a field with loads of beef cattle was what we wanted..

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He he isn't the biggest but is a very good example of his species and for clarification might make the Rowland Ward book.

So there it is, three super days hunting. If you are in Cape Town and can't get further afield or are short of time give Joe a call, he is a great chap and good company Home - Cape Town Hunting

Happy New Year

Patrick
 
hi Patrick, thanks for the write up. I love hunting in Africa and as we speak I am saving up to revisit in 2016. We had the most fantastic time last June culminating in the most intense Kudu stalk you could imagine. Would you agree that pound for pound Africa is very good value for money ?
TuskerView attachment 50895
 
What a lovely Christmas you had Patrick, was that your present to yourself lol.
Great photos and happy new year to you.
 
Tusker, I do agree that africa is good value but it is easy to be ripped off and told that xy or z is a good trophy when it isn't.

they were a present to myself and of course I have understated the cost.....!!

happy new year
 
What a great Christmas, well done on the trophies...you get more bang for your buck in Africa that's for sure!
 
Well done, sounds like a great trip. I like the Springbok. I have some family in Durbanville, so if decent PH is hard to come by in that area I'll try and remember the name "Joe da Silva" and maybe look him up for a Springbok hunt when I go visit my relatives!
 
Thanks for this great write up but I agree with Patrick A it is easy to get ripped off. I notice the prices quoted are in US$. Did you really pay these rates? When you look in the SA shooting magazines classified sections the prices quoted in SA Rand, especially in the Afrikaans adds, are a fraction quoted on websites for European and US consumption. The £ is particularly strong against the Rand and I get a bit peeved to be quoted about £500 for one Springbok when I know South Africans wouldny even pay the equivalent of £200. Is this just me or am I missing something?
Tarvie
 
Tarvie

the answer to you question is that the vast majority of domestic hunters want only the meat so are happy to shoot anything so long as it it good and heavy..

you can find cheap trophy hunting and I did but I didn't care for the fact that they wanted me to shoot off the back of the truck...

i did did pay the rates advertised and was very happy with them
 
Patrick,
Happy new year, I have some horned sheep I could organise a little hunt for you, just up your street they are in a 40 acre field.
 
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