Bush Buck success!

In spite of the heavy rain we have had success with our quest for a bush buck. They are the smallest of the spiral horned antelope that includes the kudu and the eland here in South Africa. The bush buck weighs in at 130 pounds on average and trophy horns start at 13" in length. The area they live in is impossible to describe as it is a thick twisted tangled mess beyond belief. My PH Clint Gower of Wild Horizon tells me that nothing is too small for a bush buck to get through and  I believe him. We hunt them as we would hunt whitetail back home, hitting the ridges early and hoping to spot one out sunning himself. The ram is a big fan of sun and that is why the weather has made it tough. We saw a nice ram close yesterday but he walked straight away not giving me a chance. Today we watched one feed out and I made sure of my shot.
As Clint said bush buck hunting is hours of boredom that culminates in seconds of panic. A very worthy trophy.

Northern Spot and Stalk Day 3

Well tonight started off with some quick action. I had one small boar spotted within minutes from the truck, watched him for a while and got some good video. Soon after I went on to spot another bear on a reclaimed road covered in clover. At about 2130 I was headed down a clover covered pipe line when I noticed a bear about 550 yards off the bear looked good real good. Going into ultra sneak mode I got in about 50 yards from the bear. While getting the camera set up I notice some movement to my right and sure enough its cubs. 3 of this years 10lb cubs are about 35 yards from mom playing at the base of a large poplar tree. I watched and filmed the bears for a while then made my way out with out being detected. I went on to see one more small sow and with fading light I made my way back to the truck. I was pretty excited as I came around the last bend 500 yards from the truck when I spotted 2 more bears feeding on clover I could tell right away one was a good bear. But with only 3 minutes of legal light left (by my watch) It was much to dark for the camera and cutting it to close for my comfort. I watched the bears eat their way back into the woods. I'm certain this is the same boar and sow from the other night. I just hope they give me one more shot tomorrow as I'm back to work on Thursday.

Oh and on a side note all the fur is looking in great shape for this time of the year.

Matt

I love Mondays... in South Africa!

Life has been at a whirlwind pace here on the Eastern Cape in South Africa. Guy and Clint have been the best hosts and PHs. We have hunted impala, warthog and Mountain reed buck in the last couple of days. Monday morning we started after Sandi's Burchell's Zebra. Zebra are one of Clint's favorites to hunt as there is no reason to rush out the door bright and early! Our trackers Twoboy and Sipiwe and Anton found us two old stallions on top of on of the ranch's mountains. It took us two hours to stalk in close and when we broke cover of the Acacia trees we were within 90 yards of the first. He never saw us but two warthogs in the tall grass bolted scarring a flock of birds into his partner and stampeding him, taking along the first, saving his bacon. We got several minutes of awesome footage while waiting for him to step forward and expose his chest.
Borne up by mixed feelings of a blown stalk yet high on the close encounter we returned to the truck where Anton had spotted another herd miles away in the valley bush veld. We made the trip over and nearly blew it when we popped up out of the valley to find the herd had moved while we traveled. A careful stalk got us into 184 yards of the old stud and Sandi made sure of her trophy with the RMR .338WM  putting a 185 grain Hornady GMX into the chevrons on his shoulder.
This was the trophy Sandi traveled so far for and her definitive African trophy.
We have now moved to another concession where we are chasing bush buck and gemsbok. The weather has taken a turn for the worse with rain predicted for the next couple of days. Bad news for hunting in Africa. I'll keep you updated.
PS. We took the trophies into the taxidermist's and he scored my kudu bull. He will shrink some but right now he has monstrous 11" bases and 55 1/2" x 55 1/8" long deep curled horns. Wild Horizon is the place for top quality trophies and personal professional one on one hunting where you deal with the owners and aren't just a number in a high volume setup.

Northern Spot and Stalk

Just to keep you guys updated with the bear situation.

Down South I had some major issues with bear baits with a late spring, lots of hunting pressure and how fast things greened up, my baits never got the bears they should have. One only had 3 different black bears all season and the other only 2 bears. So after 9 days and 8 nights of camping and hunting we had officially struck out on the baits. When I got home fellow pro staff Luke Viravec got ahold of me and said I better get up north for some spot and stalk. So after a 14 hour night shift dealing with a fuel spill a car crash and several drunks and one drug overdose. I filled the coffee cup to the brim and was making miles to my old stomping grounds. The first day I saw a total of 5 bears one was a good boar Luke and I figure he was close to 400 lb. Problem was we ended up right on top of him but the time we spotted him and he made his way off the pipe line by the time we had the camera set up.

Last night I tried a different area but things were even slower I had one small sow spotted at 2145 and then another juvenile boar right at last light.

I think tonight I will head back to the area where we had seen the larger boar and see if I cant spy him again and make true on my stalk. I have 2 more night to make it happen.

The bears don't seem to be moving till 2100 so I have been getting lots done at Mom and Dads while they are gone Including sighting in my 270wsm and leveling 2 coyotes in the yard!

Matt

T.J. Schwanky Voted Best Outdoor Columnist in Canada
On June 4, 2011, author T.J. Schwanky received top honours from the Outdoor Writers of Canada for his Spike Camp Musings column, titled Pack Dogs, in Alberta Outdoorsmen. In addition to his win in the Magazine Column category, Schwanky also took home second place honours in the Ducks Unlimited Wetlands Appreciation Award for a feature that appeared in Alberta Outdoorsmen and third place for a photo titled Yukon Dreams that also appeared in Alberta Outdoorsmen.

The Outdoor Writers of Canada is Canada’s oldest professional writing organization and each year the group recognizes Canada’s top outdoor communicators through their National Communication Awards. Schwanky has taken home numerous awards for his writing and video work in the past but this is his first win in the Magazine Column category.

While you were sleeping!

Yesterday we moved from the north to down about 4000 feet and 300 km to a new concession. Here we are hunting zebra, impala, warthog and kudu.
This morning we hit the thorn encrusted forests early and climbed to a high vantage point known as the pimple. I was struck at how hard it was to see animals in the thorn thickets. Great optics like our Zeiss binos are a huge asset and even at that I was amazed at the abilities of our PH's Guy Swart and Clint Gower and the trackers. With their patience and guidance the forest slowly gave up its secrets to our prying eyes. Kudu and eland were the first to show along with monkeys and warthogs. We made a stalk on two different bulls only to turn them down when we closed the distance. Teach me not to bring the Zeiss spotting scope! Finally we spotted one at a great distance that was the bull Clint was looking for. In his words "When you see a good one it blows your hair back!" Our stalk took us through the Acacias and at one point the impala were blowing like whitetail deer around us. Eventually we got the shot and I hammered my first kudu bull. At over 50" he is a spectacular example of a Eastern Cape Kudu with deeply corkscrewed horns.
We finished the day with a warthog stalk that was turned awry by a jackal.
God what a country and what a time we are having with Wild Horizon.
Tomorrow we chase Zebra and impala!

Day two

 The day started with us skirting the edge of the caprock high above the canyon walls as the first sunlight started burning the frost off the ground. Our target was Mountain Reedbuck. A loner animal they are sometimes  found in small family groups of two or three. The trick is to see them before they see you. We weren't fast enough on the first one and were treated to his whitetail like flag streaking up the rocks above us and over the top. Several km later Anton the tracker spotted a good ram (crazy to call a Reed buck male a ram!). We worked our way into 200 yards and Sandi missed the shot at an extreme uphill angle, she overshot the diminutive creature. Our penance was several kilomteres more of rock scrambling and nearly getting pushed off the trail by a bluie wildebeast charge. Why they were stampedeing wasn't clear and the blue is on my list there just wasn't time to do anything. Wildest Africa, when a herd of theose critters stampedes past!
Later in the day bedraggled and headed back for a very late lunch we topped a canyon wall to look down on a unsuspecting heard of blue wildebeast. A huge bull was in the herd and Guy said he was a great trophy. We worked our way down into the rocks to with in 200 yards and I smashed a Hornady 185 grain GMX bullet in Superformance ammunition through his boiler room. To my complete amazement he beat the rest of the herd out of the trees and down the trail another 100 yards before staggering hard and going down. I walked down and gave him another from 40 yards to finish the job. When they call the blue the poor man's buff they aren't kidding that bull lived for the 15 minutes it took me to get to him all the while blowing bloody froth from his nose and mouth.
Anton found both the bullets and they performed perfectly. The 200 yard shot is a perfect mushroom and the other shed petals right at the hide on the farside after slamming through both shoulders. My RMR .338 WM claimed my first African animal. Sandi of course put the first notch on it yesterday with her black. Today we have been chasing Mountain Reed Buck again and haven't found a ram only ewes.