Last Updated on Wednesday, 10 February 2010 03:00
Written by Tim Crites
Wednesday, 10 February 2010 01:42
Tim Crites May 2009
This was my 3rd trip with Angus Brown Safaris. And as always it was quite good. Being as I am somewhat of a rifle/ballistics nut I decided to take a couple different rifles this time. The 416 Rigby was quite a lot of fun and worked perfectly on a nice Buffalo cow. As we were tracking the Buffalo we could hear Hippo down on the river making for some real nice background noise. A bit of tracking, a bit of crawling, a soft and a solid later and we had our Buffalo.
Next we spent a few days spotting, stalking, avoiding monkeys, then not spotting Bushbuck. But in the end we spotted quite a nice Ram with two Ewes at quite a distance. We began our stalk in a nice swampy area. What every hunter hopes for in a stalk. But an hour or so later we had a nice Bushbuck. Which Reon and I then proceeded to carry 800 Meters to the truck. No kidding! I measured it with GPS. At the 1/2 way point while Reon was scouting our best route I cut a pole and tied the Bushbuck to it with one of my socks that I had cut into strips. Then we carried it together the rest of the way. Haha, unfortunately we do not have it on video.
Oh yes, not only did I bring two different weapons, I also brought my wife Tracy. She had a great time at the fire in the evening and enjoyed meeting everyone. She also shot a Blesbuck. Which was a first for her. She has deer hunted with me before but has not attempted shooting anything herself. Yet with Reons help she did quite well. And had a nice time in Newcastle with Elmay.
After giving us the slip on a couple of occasions we finally outmaneuvered a nice Eland bull. Which the 9.3X62 performed admirably on. Followed by a blesbuck, Black Wildebeest, and Springbuck. Wonderful caliber!
Next we went into the hills after some Baboon. Angus proclaimed to have hurt his ankle but "wished he could go". After climbing up there a few times I think perhaps I should have hurt my ankle as well, haha. Boy oh! Lots of fun but very tough hunting! Also here is where the old 9.3 may come up a bit short. The few times we managed to outsmart them I got kills at ranges well over 250 yds. This was not what was envisioned when the 9.3 was invented let me tell you. Squeeze the trigger, take a drink of water, then look through the glasses to see where the bullet impacts. But when that 286gr. Nosler does get there, it settles the argument convincingly. I can honestly say that Baboon, in this environment at least is the smartest, most difficult thing I have ever hunted that did not shoot back. We had a great time, great hunting, great food, and am looking forward to our next trip!
