Holy shit you guys, lol’d my ass off. Thanks for keeping this place awesome in my absence.
I have lots to catch up on and share, and I will tomorrow. In short, I had a great time, dominated everything, and can’t wait to go back someday.
Greg, that last post was hilarious, and Main, congratulations my friend. That’s awesome, can’t wait to read the write up!
[quote]inkaddict wrote:
Holy shit you guys, lol’d my ass off. Thanks for keeping this place awesome in my absence.
I have lots to catch up on and share, and I will tomorrow. In short, I had a great time, dominated everything, and can’t wait to go back someday.
Greg, that last post was hilarious, and Main, congratulations my friend. That’s awesome, can’t wait to read the write up!
[/quote]
Oh hai ink
[quote]inkaddict wrote:
Holy shit you guys, lol’d my ass off. Thanks for keeping this place awesome in my absence.
I have lots to catch up on and share, and I will tomorrow. In short, I had a great time, dominated everything, and can’t wait to go back someday.
Greg, that last post was hilarious, and Main, congratulations my friend. That’s awesome, can’t wait to read the write up!
[/quote]
oh shit hes back!
YAY! Daddy’s back!
Let’s get started with a pic of some of the thorns I had to deal with out there…
HE HAS RETURNED!!!
I’ll get the text out of the way, and pics later.
Flew out of PHX, into ATL (3 hours), then ATL to Johannesburg, South Africa (15.5 hours). We got to our hotel the first night, where I had a few Castle Lagers (Sorry Greg, I didn’t see “Tusker”, but Castle is the SHIT!), ate some steak and springbuck, then worked out in the hotel “gym” just to say I got in a workout, haha. The next morning I dominated the buffet (I took lots of food pics, don’t worry), and we got picked up by 2 of our PH’s (professional hunters).
We drove 3.5 hours to the Limpopo Bushveld, which is just south of the Botswana border. We went into the lodge, saw our rooms, looked around a bit, and hit the rifle range. I was good, only had to make minor adjustments and I was ready to rock. I went out with Zirk (the boss PH guy) and my dad. Dad wound up shooting a wildebeest that day, but we couldn’t track him because there was no blood trail. Went back the next morning and still couldn’t find him, but that afternoon I got my first opportunity. I was stalking a warthog that ended up seeing us and turned to run away. We crept forward, and Zirk spotted a big old impala.
“Shoot!” he said, and I did, but missed. I wasn’t on shooting sticks, or the truck rail or anything, just offhand and missed. He jumped over a fence, and I got another shot off. Texas heartshot, dropped him. The old boy didn’t want to let go, so the tracker choked him out. I got a pic of it, because I thought it was cool that my first African trophy was getting choked out. We went back to the lodge that night, and my brother and another guy had all gotten impalas. Sweet! Had a chicken/rice dish for dinner that night, and several beers. Life is good.
Next day was my dad’s day to shine. He wound up popping a zebra, warthog, impala, and nyala before I got a chance at anything! That evening I took a shot at a running warthog (those fuckers are fast, and don’t stop for shit!) but thought I missed. As we were tracking it, Zirk signals me over. I saw a nice blue wildebeest bull, but had no sticks to shoot off of. Shooting sticks, tripods, make your rifle much more stable than shooting offhand, and I was concerned with taking an offhand shot at the tough SOB.
AHA! I said, there’s a tree about 15yds in front of me, and if I can get to that tree to use as a dead rest, I got this no problem. I crept up, the whole time with this beast watching me. Set up, checked for confirmation on shot placement, and nailed him. He bucked up in the air, and took off. 70yds away, deader than shit. Mufasa’s revenge was achieved. Then, we saw a drop of blood, indicating I did hit the warthog, and he was found the next morning after the jackals had eaten a bit of his ass.
That’s alright, I got him and he was a good sized one. My camera died when taking pics of the wildebeest, so the next few days of pictures I need to retrieve from others still. Got DRUNK this night, stayed up 'til 2am, woke up at 5 for more fun! Haha, love this place!
Didn’t shoot the next day, but went out with a different PH and different guy in our party. He got a wildebeest that day, and that was it. Had fun tracking it, I was getting pretty good at it by now. Pretty uneventful day, but still so awesome being out there and tracking animals and such. I was getting good at spotting game in the bush now, but nowhere near as good as the PH’s. Those guys could spot a needle in a haystack, and tell you what’s what. Crazy.
Next day I hunted with my grandpa, and I got my second impala. Great shot, no tracking necessary. He got a huge warthog right at dark, which was awesome. Back at camp that night, we had impala and wildebeest for dinner. Ho-ly-shit is wildebeest good. Fuck!
Next day was with my brother, in a fucking dust storm that reminded me of Iraq. Sucked ass, and didn’t get a shot all morning. That afternoon, Pieter (the PH we were with now) spots a big waterbuck bull in the bush, so I set off with him to see if I could get a shot. We crept up into the thick shit, about 75 yds away, but couldn’t see shit. Finally I saw a tail wag, and noticed it. Big animal, but had no clear shot. His shoulder was hiding behind some brush, so I had no shot.
Pieter asked me if I was confident in my shooting, to which I agreed, and he told me to shoot a leaf. 1 leaf, flickering in the sunlight, he told me that if I shot there, I’d get the kill. I trusted him, shot THE leaf (I checked, and it was gone) and nailed him. Took a second shot to finish him off a little ways off. When loading him into the truck, we sat it up on his ass and the last bit of air in his lungs came out his mouth…RIGHT IN MY FACE.
I thought he was alive again for a second, freaked me the fuck out, and everyone was LOL’in about it. Haha. That night at camp, my dad and this other guy Ray both came back with waterbucks, but mine was bigger 
I’m sure I’m skipping some stuff, but these are the highlights.
Next day was the second to last full day, and my brother and I wanted kudu. Both of us wanted them. The morning was a lot of stalking, but no bulls were seen. That evening we set him up in a blind with a tracker, and I went with Pieter to another watering hole in hopes that 1 of us would get lucky. Well, my brother bagged a huge kudu, and I had a perfect shot on one as well. It’s a long story, but in short, I shot through 2 wire fence lines and between 2 trees, with about 1 second of time to make sure it was a clear shot.
Boom, roasted. We both shot them within 45 minutes of eachother, and it was epic. Back at camp everyone was amazed that we both got a shot. Think we had zebra wrapped in bacon that night. Holy shit, I ate 5 portions dude, and shit was I full. haha
Last full day was with my brother, stalking wildebeests all fucking day. He FINALLY got a shot later that afternoon across an open field, 350yds away, and he nailed him. Fucker dropped in his tracks. I was VERY impressed, as was everyone else. Kudu and cape buffalo for dinner that night, amazeballs for sure.
Last day was driving back to Pretoria, paperwork, lunch (I had steak, and it wasn’t nearly as good as any of the game we ate), and to the airport. Popped a sleeping pill on the plane back to ATL and slept 8 freakin hours! It was great. Got home Saturday morning and my wife and 2 girls were there to greet me, with signs and everything. It was priceless, seeing my 5 year old’s face *tear! Rested and recovered the rest of the weekend, but can’t WAIT to go back someday!
Thanks for keeping this log full of win, I LOL’d a lot when I checked it yesterday! I’ll put up a few pics now, saving the “gruesome” ones for PM’s I guess. I don’t want to offend anyone (haha, right…)
ALMOST walked right into this fucker. It would had hit me right in the face, and was the size of a playing card.
All gruesome kill shots must be posted.
It is the law.
[quote]inkaddict wrote:
I’ll put up a few pics now, saving the “gruesome” ones for PM’s I guess. I don’t want to offend anyone (haha, right…)[/quote]
post em all!!! hahah
sounds like a bad ass trip man. Simba would be proud to know that his fathers death did not go unavenged
didja get to bring all the meat home?
and when is the bar-b-que?
Seriously, post them! What kind of pussy log is this?
Also, what did you do with all the dead animals? Did you eat them ALL? Did you mount them? (giggles) What did that pig taste like?
EPIC!
Hey good to see you back safe and sound…
zebra wrapped bacon?
epic.
I’ll post 'em
Edgy, we cut out and ate most of the filet’s. The rest of the meat got taken to be sold off locally I think. Sadly, you can’t export that meat into the states.
Maschy, I ate so much fucking food, but the 4-5 hours of stalking/tracking the last several days made it so that I came home 1# LIGHTER than when I left. Fucking crazy, because I ate so much that several people there were like WTF bro?! Also, the warthogs that were of good size to shoot, taste like shit, so we didn’t eat them. I thought you’d be upset with me for that. I DID eat lots of bacon though, so that’s ok, right?
Thanks MiM, good to be back. Epic trip was epic.
Pics to follow
