Hunting in South Africa

Mckay Jensen
7 days ago
7 min read

This will be my longest post yet because there is so much to cover, none of which really fits into any other sections like food reviews or photography. This was simply an adventurous hunting trip to the Limpopo province in South Africa.

I am going to breaks this down into sections rather than days. I am going to skip over most of the travel because it was long and grueling both there and back. Lots of hours in a plane and just as many in airports. We flew into Polokwane, the nearest city to the lodge and hunting properties and from there we drove the 2 hours got settled and got some rest. The lodge was pretty nice.

The first few days were the slowest as far as the hunting goes, first day we went out and sighted in all the rifles and then headed out for a hunt. That first day it was pouring rain for much of the morning. Saw some massive Baobab trees and just enjoyed driving around in the truck.

I had some success that morning as well, shot my first impala. It was a pretty simple kill, spotted it on the road, stopped, got the sticks out and found a nice shooting lane. He stopped about 85 yards out quartered towards me so I shot at the chest. It was a good shot but he took off and died 15 yards away after smacking into a tree that actually broke its neck. Got some good photos with it and that was the last animal I shot for a few days.

If you zoom in a bit on this video you can see the impala run after I tagged it.

We didn't hunt on Sunday but instead we hung around the Limpopo River and did some things there. It actually turned out to be one of my favorite days while there. When we first rolled up to the river we spotted a big crocodile on the other sides banks and a hippo hanging out in the water. We had some lunch and sat on some catfish rods for a bit. I only caught a really small catfish but it was fun, we lost some big ones because of our line breaking and even lost a rod. We used birds and squirrels for bait. That was fun too, I went out and shot a bird with a 17 HMR and hooked it up as bait.

After a few days of getting skunked I started getting a little doubtful that I was going to get all of my animals. It was already day 5 and I only had 1 of my 4 downed. The other guys all had some luck but I couldn't get any shots off. That all changed starting with a day 5 evening hunt. We were out driving along the river and we spotted a big ol sow warthog and I had a good shot on her but they discouraged it because she had some young with her and they prefer not to kill the factories for more animals so I passed. After seeing another handful of pigs including some big males I was getting frustrated because they all ran off far before I had a decent shot.

So when the chance came I took it. We saw a boar cross the road in front of us and the truck sped up to get to where it crossed and I spotted it. I am not even sure if the truck had stopped yet and I slammed the bolt closed and threw the safety off as I stood up and swung the gun to my right. Within a second or two of me spotting the warthog I had already squeezed off a shot. The truck had just stopped, it was a freehand and rushed shot and the pig was in some brush and trotting but I placed that .308 right where it needed to be. It ran a few yards and thats it. Really cool hunt, the pig had a huge body but the tusks arent huge but it is still a cool trophy and great story.

My fortune started to change from there, could also be slightly because of the weather and the moon turning. A gemsbuck was the main reason I wanted to go hunting so that was on top of my list. Days 6,7 and 8 we were targeting them specifically. Once or twice we saw and stalked a few young males but I passed on them because they weren't big enough. One of these stalks we crawled through thorns and bramble for quite a ways just to not shoot but it was a fun stalk. On that same ranch there were 3 or 4 lions but it was a huge ranch so we didn't expect to encounter them. One late evening we spotted a nice mature male gemsbuck but the truck spooked it. It was a nice one so we decided to pursue and try and track it down for a shot. This was in an area where we had seen lion tracks the day before but we went for it. Unfortunately the gemsbuck pulled a fast one on us and walked us in a circle and then its tracks disappeared so we went back to where we started, only to find fresh lion tracks on top of our tracks we just made.

We decided for we should try a different place where there was a waterhole that we found and knew gemsbuck would be if there were any in the area. We got to the water at about 9 am on the first day and saw some tracks. When we snuck up into this water hole there was a herd of about 25 cape buffalo and that was super cool to see, once we spooked them off it sounded like a thunder storm crashing through the brush, so cool. We sat there until dark, no sight of any gemsbuck but they don't need to drink every day like most animals. We saw a bunch of cool animals come to the water though, from elephants to tsessebe. Then an absolute monster of an impala came in and I couldn't resist shooting it too. I used a 416, which most people would know as an elephant gun. Its all I had but it did the trick, it was an easy 30 yards and I dropped it in a heartbeat. At this point we were in a blind with dirt floors and again, this rifle was massive and the second I pulled the trigger my ears blew up and the dirt on the floor was thrown in the air and it left a layer of dirt on everyone, my pants were covered, it was a cool experience. That was the end of that day.

Got a nice video of the shot

DJI Action 2 view

The next morning we came long before the sun came up so we wouldn't miss them we hoped that the gemsbuck didn't drink at night or they wouldn't be back for a while. When we got there we looked for tracks and saw no fresh tracks and at that moment I knew we were going to get one because they were going to need water sometime during day. After a very slow day with no action at the water hole a heard of at least 40 Impala came to drink, it was fun to watch the male chase them all around and they were in every direction of the blind of us making all kinds of noise and running around. After a few more animals came in out stepped a massive gemsbuck and my heart instantly started to pound, it was a monster.

She came in right to the water and started to drink but she spooked when she heard the dirt move as I moved into position and she started walking away. We waited a minute hoping she would come back but I saw her from another angle going back into the bush so our guide said we should go outside the blind to see if we could get a shot. Once I stepped out we saw her, about 65 yards away almost broad side walking into the bush. I didnt have much time and I knew it so I took the safety off, pulled that .416 to my shoulder and with iron sights and freehanding took the shot. She instantly turned and ran but as she took off I could already see heavy bleeding. The adrenaline made my legs shake, I'd been waiting for that shot the whole trip and was in overdrive once the chance came.

We gave her a half hour and then started to track her, it was a pretty easy trail to follow, her tracks were apparent and there was an awful lot of blood to follow, she made it about 100 yards before she dropped. We found her, brought it back to the road and the hunt for the gemsbuck was over. It ended up measuring 41 inches which is a very nice trophy.

Here is what it looked like from inside the blind

The last animal on my list, duiker. A rather small and pretty cute animal. We actually were at another waterhole waiting on a warthog for someone else in our group when a duiker came in. He wasnt sticking around and he barely gave me a shot, he didnt even look like he was going to drink but kept on walking, luckily I had the gun ready and shot right as he entered my shooting lane, he went down instantly as a .30-06 was more than enough for the little guy.

I used 5 or 6 different guns on this trip to get all my animals, so much fun and I got some amazing trophies, stories and experiences under my belt. Even just being in my hunting gear and driving around looking in the binoculars was so much fun in and of itself. I made a list of some of the animals we saw throughout the trip that I didnt mention already:

Bat eared fox
Mongoose
Golden variants of the gemsbuck and Wildebeest
Franklin
Ginea fowl
Rock python and Black mamba
Ostrich
Hippo
Black impala
Monitor Lizard
Egyptian goose
African wild cat
Civet
Cape Buffalo
Sable

There were also a pile of other birds like the yellow billed horn bill, kori bustard, white backed vulture, sand grouse and a bunch of other pretty ones

Lots of our animals that we hunted we ate for lunch and dinner: