My African trip - July 2014. Pic heavy
Feb 19, 2015 23:43:43 GMT -5
strippitman and goosepondmonster like this
Post by donk on Feb 19, 2015 23:43:43 GMT -5
G'day, just back from 8 days hunting in Namibia with Harold Jacobz of Osombahe-Nord Safaris. I hunted with my brother and 2 mates and on my recommendation from my experience using them in the last 6 months or so, we all used ACP projectiles. The rifles we had were.....
Tikka T3 300WM with the 155g ACP
Weatherby 300WBY with the 155g ACP
Tikka T3 308Win with the 130g ACP and a
Tikka T3 270Win with the 130g ACP bullet.
Our animals wanted varied in size and it would be a good test for the ACP bullet. I told Mark what we were doing with his pills and where we were going, so he made us up some ACP shirts at short notice before we flew out.
We had some dramas with tickets and lost bags to get there, but we eventually made it and wasted no time in getting out for a hunt.
All pics in this post are mine (and my brothers) so once the other 2 guys send me some photos, I will add them later.
Our main camp for the first part of our hunt
Dinner area
Bar area
Near the entry. Got my brother and I keen on some big warthogs
Anyway, to the hunting. The first place holds lots of warthogs and I was keen to finally see some. Midday sitting around dams is the go and it wasn't long before hogs were turning up. Young immature males kept coming, then finally, my brother spotted one I couldn't see from my position. He soon walked out, caught our wind and ran off. When he stopped, I was ready and whacked him with my 300WM from only 50m. He dropped on the spot.
How he fell
Very happy with this fella
Some dam waiting entertainment
That ended day 1 on the animal front for my brother and I. The others shot their hogs that day too.
Early on day 2, my brother got his first chance on an animal. Red Hartebeest were spotted and stalked to within 130m. Our PH 'Boet' (pronounced like 'put' but with a B) got him ready on the shooting sticks and using his .270W, nailed him perfectly. The beest ran 60m and fell over dead. 2 from 2 between us, we were pretty happy boys.
Internal damage of the Red Hartebeest from a 130g ACP from a .270W
Same animal
That arvo was hog busting on the dam again where I shot mine. We had only just settled into our spot, when I saw a good boar through the bushes on the other side. After a short tense few moments as the boar seemed to think something was wrong, the .270 spoke again and this boar dropped at the shot also, shot front on in the chest. My brother was a very happy hunter that day.
That was day 2, so early day 3, we headed to the Kalahari for the remainder of our hunt. We passed a small shop on the way for supplies, in the middle of nowhere, selling all sorts of things
Wonder if Bob Jane is jealous of this blokes set up
Or if Bunning's is worried - don't think so. Argh, such quality :rofl:
One of the PH's rigs. It's actually a Pajero, somewhat rebuilt with solid metal
Once in the Kalahari, I got my chance on a Red Hartebeest pretty quickly. By the way, we hunted free-range, no high fences. At 213 paces, I slightly miscued my shot off the sticks, but had another ACP in him in no time at all, the PH Boet even surprised how quick I put a finisher into him. The animal only made 1 metre before shot 2 hit him and he fell over dead too. This was the only animal of mine that took 2 shots, all others were 1 shot kills which I was pretty happy with.
Very happy with this fella too. Franz our tracker in this pic too
I would have liked some more internal damage pics, but most times it was simply drop the animal to the skinning shed and continue on hunting.
My brother was now up again and after spotting literally hundreds (thousands over the next few days) of Springbok, Boet finally saw a big one while they were out looking on foot and I was still on the truck. I saw this bok while I was taking pics of a Vulture while I waited and when he ran in their direction, I wasn't surprised to hear a shot not long after and sure enough, they had a Springbok on the ground. 120m shot, animal went 20m. Another 1 shot kill for the .270
The Vulture
My shot again and just on dark, I got my chance at a Springbok too. We were out stalking and finally found a big one. As he walked between some thorny bushes, I smoked him as he went past. Instant dispatch. We got to him in time to see the hairs on his back rise, then fall back down again, all very interesting stuff. Oh, and a sniff too - it smells like caramel.
Check the damage from 300WM
The skinning shed a hive of activity that night when we got back and here's a Kudu bull shot with the 300WBY from my mate.
Thick horns on these buggers
Day 4 and on the lookout for anything, but Kudu mainly. Namibia is experiencing Rabies in their Kudu right now and numbers have reduced dramatically. I thought we would be looking over heaps of Kudu bulls, but it was far from reality after the Rabies. Anyway, there is always something to look at in Africa.
Oryx/Gemsbok were everywhere and this is how you see them first most of the time
A good Steenbok. I wasn't interested in shooting one at this stage.
A few zebra's about too, but not what we wanted
A really good Oryx cow, but we both wanted bulls
A busted, same as we get in northern Oz too I think
Hunting for Oryx
Day 4 ended up being a no shots fired day, despite seeing hundreds of animals.
Day 5 and I was first up as my brother had all of Day 4 and didn't fire a shot. We had both changed out Kudu animal into a Black Wildebeast as we thought we'd never bloody see one. Long story short, as we hunting in on a mob of 'blacks' I spied a Kudu bull off to our right, about 600m away. The Wildebeast were forgotten now and all our attention was on the kudu. Just as we topped the last slight rise, 5 friggen Osteriches spotted us and ran off at full tilt. The kudu was off in an instant as I got ready quickly over the sticks. It was already a 300m+ shot originally, but he was now much further. When he got to some cover, he turned and faced us, and watched.......and watched..............................and watched...............................................and watched some bloody more. I was stuck with rifle on the sticks watching it all through my scope, only the head and horns of the bull showing. For an hour and 20 minutes, I stayed like that, Boet with his bino's glued to his head, both of us not daring to move a muscle as the Kudu just kept staring, trying to suss us out. Our arms were killing us but Boet kept saying, "don't move." Finally, at the 80 minute mark, the bull moved 2 paces to the right, showing his frame behind a small bush. "Shoot him now" Boet said. "What, through the bush?" I said, not really wanting to stuff up on an $1100 animal. "Yah, quickly" in his deep Africaner accent. We had plenty of time to work out distances in our 80 minute wait. I thought 350m, Boet said 400m. I aimed about 4 inches below his backline, allowed for the slight left-to-right wind and let rip. "THUMP" was a bloody awesome noise to hear after such a long and exhausting wait, but where did I hit it? A second shot didn't present itself before he took.
We followed him up and found him stone dead 50-60m from where he was. We found him on his right hand side which showed us the exit hole straight away - right through the shoulders, about 20 inches lower than where I aimed. I couldn't have shot him any better if I tried. I was f***en stoked :mrgreen:
Another 1 shot kill for the ACP
Taking it all in
A very happy crew
300WM ACP with the Kudu exit wound at approx 400m
On the way back to the skinners shed, my brother was up for an Oryx with his .270W. They got to about 120m from a decent bull, quartering on. You have to aim low on these buggers as the top half of them doesn't have any vitals. He aimed on the shoulder and fired. The bull took off. We then saw the tracker Franz go to work, which was something to watch for sure. You've probably heard it before, but gee they can track like I've never seen before, it's unreal. 3km later, the bull was spotted. Boet the PH wasn't up for any more tracking so shot it twice with his 375H&H from side on. Both 300g Barnes X pills didn't exit from only 30m, these Oryx are bloody tough animals. On inspection, the .270 shot hit slightly back and most probably just missed the lungs. The bullet travelled just over 1 metre in the animal before pulling up on the skin just in front of the right rear leg. Boet and the other PH Harald couldn't believe how far a .270W with a 130g bullet had travelled so far. If only the shot had have hit the vitals. That Oryx was the one and only tracking job that my brother and I gave our PH and tracker in 8 days hunting.
130g ACP after 1 metre in an Oryx
They are big buggers
Next day, I shot my Oryx. On foot, sneaking through the Acacia's with Boet, we got onto a good mob. I saw an animal laying down, but Boet didn't. When I showed him, it was the bull. He yelled and whistled for it to stand up at around 80-100m and when he did, he stood front on. I shot him fair in the chest, but low like he told me. That bull went only 80m.
The heads were racking up when we got back
That arvo, we couldn't believe it when I spied another kudu bull. I stayed behind while my brother went forward with the PH. He grabbed my 300WM after his Oryx hunt, despite it only really being shot placement that made it run anyway. A high spine shot pinned it down, then a quick follow up had another kudu bull on the deck, we couldn't believe it. Our bulls weren't big, but with the Rabies going on and lack of animals, we were both bloody happy with our trophies.
An awesome sunset to finish off a great days hunting
The next morning, just after leaving camp and driving down the road, Boet saw a Jackal going flat out down the road( a normal road) Boet is a sheep farmer and absolutely hates Jackals. "Shoot the f***en thing, shoot it, kill it, kill it" he was really going on as he pulled the truck to quick stop. "OK, bugger it" I thought as I sent a 300WM at him as he flat knacker down the road about 200m away. It absolutely pole axed him.
You can see where I hit him by the blood trail and this is where he ended up, we haven't touched him yet.
Full length penetration, as you would expect on a fox sized animal
Later that morning, my brother shot another Oryx bull, with my 300WM. Slightly angling away at about 100m, the bullet went in behind the shoulder and lodged under the skin on the off side shoulder. 60-70m run and he fell over too. A big 38 incher.
Some skinning shed pics when we got back
I'm not really sure what animal this is as we mainly dropped them off and kept going
Happy with the ACP's - they just kept on working.
Young worker who probably wasn't so happy as they just kept on coming in between all 4 of us.
Some more random pics
Real close up
Having a kip on my sling :lol:
Yes, it's true, there are bloody thorns on EVERY bush
More animals
Nailed him
2 more Kudu bulls we saw
I shot one more Jackal (no pics) but shot more trophy that I never thought I'd shoot or be interested in, a Steenbok. They are dainty little things. I passed up bigger Steenboks at the start of the trip (like the one in the earlier photo) but am happy with this guy. Shot him with the 300WM too.
Plenty of damage on a small animal
This gives a good indication of their size
Our crew at the end of our hunt. We had an awesome time. The amount of animals over there is just insane and the variety has you constantly on the lookout for game.
The boys who used the ACP's in Namibia in our ACP shirts. My brother didn;t fit into his, so I swapped it for an HA Supplies one instead :mrgreen:
We left the skinners/trackers a couple of ACP shirts and my HA Supplies shirt as Harald gets plenty of Aussie hunters coming through the place.
I am still waiting for photos off the other guys of their trophies (we only got home 3 days ago) but the animals we shot were Warthogs, Red Hartebeest, Zebra, Impala, Kudu, Oryx, Springbok, Steenbok, Black Wildebeast, Jackal, Blesbok, and probably a few others that I can't think of right now. Photo's in due time.
Guys, we shot heaps of stuff with the ACP bullets in Africa, from small to big animals and they performed perfectly. I highly recommend them. Thanks for the shirts Mark and a great product :goodstuff: :goodstuff: :goodstuff:
Tikka T3 300WM with the 155g ACP
Weatherby 300WBY with the 155g ACP
Tikka T3 308Win with the 130g ACP and a
Tikka T3 270Win with the 130g ACP bullet.
Our animals wanted varied in size and it would be a good test for the ACP bullet. I told Mark what we were doing with his pills and where we were going, so he made us up some ACP shirts at short notice before we flew out.
We had some dramas with tickets and lost bags to get there, but we eventually made it and wasted no time in getting out for a hunt.
All pics in this post are mine (and my brothers) so once the other 2 guys send me some photos, I will add them later.
Our main camp for the first part of our hunt
Dinner area
Bar area
Near the entry. Got my brother and I keen on some big warthogs
Anyway, to the hunting. The first place holds lots of warthogs and I was keen to finally see some. Midday sitting around dams is the go and it wasn't long before hogs were turning up. Young immature males kept coming, then finally, my brother spotted one I couldn't see from my position. He soon walked out, caught our wind and ran off. When he stopped, I was ready and whacked him with my 300WM from only 50m. He dropped on the spot.
How he fell
Very happy with this fella
Some dam waiting entertainment
That ended day 1 on the animal front for my brother and I. The others shot their hogs that day too.
Early on day 2, my brother got his first chance on an animal. Red Hartebeest were spotted and stalked to within 130m. Our PH 'Boet' (pronounced like 'put' but with a B) got him ready on the shooting sticks and using his .270W, nailed him perfectly. The beest ran 60m and fell over dead. 2 from 2 between us, we were pretty happy boys.
Internal damage of the Red Hartebeest from a 130g ACP from a .270W
Same animal
That arvo was hog busting on the dam again where I shot mine. We had only just settled into our spot, when I saw a good boar through the bushes on the other side. After a short tense few moments as the boar seemed to think something was wrong, the .270 spoke again and this boar dropped at the shot also, shot front on in the chest. My brother was a very happy hunter that day.
That was day 2, so early day 3, we headed to the Kalahari for the remainder of our hunt. We passed a small shop on the way for supplies, in the middle of nowhere, selling all sorts of things
Wonder if Bob Jane is jealous of this blokes set up
Or if Bunning's is worried - don't think so. Argh, such quality :rofl:
One of the PH's rigs. It's actually a Pajero, somewhat rebuilt with solid metal
Once in the Kalahari, I got my chance on a Red Hartebeest pretty quickly. By the way, we hunted free-range, no high fences. At 213 paces, I slightly miscued my shot off the sticks, but had another ACP in him in no time at all, the PH Boet even surprised how quick I put a finisher into him. The animal only made 1 metre before shot 2 hit him and he fell over dead too. This was the only animal of mine that took 2 shots, all others were 1 shot kills which I was pretty happy with.
Very happy with this fella too. Franz our tracker in this pic too
I would have liked some more internal damage pics, but most times it was simply drop the animal to the skinning shed and continue on hunting.
My brother was now up again and after spotting literally hundreds (thousands over the next few days) of Springbok, Boet finally saw a big one while they were out looking on foot and I was still on the truck. I saw this bok while I was taking pics of a Vulture while I waited and when he ran in their direction, I wasn't surprised to hear a shot not long after and sure enough, they had a Springbok on the ground. 120m shot, animal went 20m. Another 1 shot kill for the .270
The Vulture
My shot again and just on dark, I got my chance at a Springbok too. We were out stalking and finally found a big one. As he walked between some thorny bushes, I smoked him as he went past. Instant dispatch. We got to him in time to see the hairs on his back rise, then fall back down again, all very interesting stuff. Oh, and a sniff too - it smells like caramel.
Check the damage from 300WM
The skinning shed a hive of activity that night when we got back and here's a Kudu bull shot with the 300WBY from my mate.
Thick horns on these buggers
Day 4 and on the lookout for anything, but Kudu mainly. Namibia is experiencing Rabies in their Kudu right now and numbers have reduced dramatically. I thought we would be looking over heaps of Kudu bulls, but it was far from reality after the Rabies. Anyway, there is always something to look at in Africa.
Oryx/Gemsbok were everywhere and this is how you see them first most of the time
A good Steenbok. I wasn't interested in shooting one at this stage.
A few zebra's about too, but not what we wanted
A really good Oryx cow, but we both wanted bulls
A busted, same as we get in northern Oz too I think
Hunting for Oryx
Day 4 ended up being a no shots fired day, despite seeing hundreds of animals.
Day 5 and I was first up as my brother had all of Day 4 and didn't fire a shot. We had both changed out Kudu animal into a Black Wildebeast as we thought we'd never bloody see one. Long story short, as we hunting in on a mob of 'blacks' I spied a Kudu bull off to our right, about 600m away. The Wildebeast were forgotten now and all our attention was on the kudu. Just as we topped the last slight rise, 5 friggen Osteriches spotted us and ran off at full tilt. The kudu was off in an instant as I got ready quickly over the sticks. It was already a 300m+ shot originally, but he was now much further. When he got to some cover, he turned and faced us, and watched.......and watched..............................and watched...............................................and watched some bloody more. I was stuck with rifle on the sticks watching it all through my scope, only the head and horns of the bull showing. For an hour and 20 minutes, I stayed like that, Boet with his bino's glued to his head, both of us not daring to move a muscle as the Kudu just kept staring, trying to suss us out. Our arms were killing us but Boet kept saying, "don't move." Finally, at the 80 minute mark, the bull moved 2 paces to the right, showing his frame behind a small bush. "Shoot him now" Boet said. "What, through the bush?" I said, not really wanting to stuff up on an $1100 animal. "Yah, quickly" in his deep Africaner accent. We had plenty of time to work out distances in our 80 minute wait. I thought 350m, Boet said 400m. I aimed about 4 inches below his backline, allowed for the slight left-to-right wind and let rip. "THUMP" was a bloody awesome noise to hear after such a long and exhausting wait, but where did I hit it? A second shot didn't present itself before he took.
We followed him up and found him stone dead 50-60m from where he was. We found him on his right hand side which showed us the exit hole straight away - right through the shoulders, about 20 inches lower than where I aimed. I couldn't have shot him any better if I tried. I was f***en stoked :mrgreen:
Another 1 shot kill for the ACP
Taking it all in
A very happy crew
300WM ACP with the Kudu exit wound at approx 400m
On the way back to the skinners shed, my brother was up for an Oryx with his .270W. They got to about 120m from a decent bull, quartering on. You have to aim low on these buggers as the top half of them doesn't have any vitals. He aimed on the shoulder and fired. The bull took off. We then saw the tracker Franz go to work, which was something to watch for sure. You've probably heard it before, but gee they can track like I've never seen before, it's unreal. 3km later, the bull was spotted. Boet the PH wasn't up for any more tracking so shot it twice with his 375H&H from side on. Both 300g Barnes X pills didn't exit from only 30m, these Oryx are bloody tough animals. On inspection, the .270 shot hit slightly back and most probably just missed the lungs. The bullet travelled just over 1 metre in the animal before pulling up on the skin just in front of the right rear leg. Boet and the other PH Harald couldn't believe how far a .270W with a 130g bullet had travelled so far. If only the shot had have hit the vitals. That Oryx was the one and only tracking job that my brother and I gave our PH and tracker in 8 days hunting.
130g ACP after 1 metre in an Oryx
They are big buggers
Next day, I shot my Oryx. On foot, sneaking through the Acacia's with Boet, we got onto a good mob. I saw an animal laying down, but Boet didn't. When I showed him, it was the bull. He yelled and whistled for it to stand up at around 80-100m and when he did, he stood front on. I shot him fair in the chest, but low like he told me. That bull went only 80m.
The heads were racking up when we got back
That arvo, we couldn't believe it when I spied another kudu bull. I stayed behind while my brother went forward with the PH. He grabbed my 300WM after his Oryx hunt, despite it only really being shot placement that made it run anyway. A high spine shot pinned it down, then a quick follow up had another kudu bull on the deck, we couldn't believe it. Our bulls weren't big, but with the Rabies going on and lack of animals, we were both bloody happy with our trophies.
An awesome sunset to finish off a great days hunting
The next morning, just after leaving camp and driving down the road, Boet saw a Jackal going flat out down the road( a normal road) Boet is a sheep farmer and absolutely hates Jackals. "Shoot the f***en thing, shoot it, kill it, kill it" he was really going on as he pulled the truck to quick stop. "OK, bugger it" I thought as I sent a 300WM at him as he flat knacker down the road about 200m away. It absolutely pole axed him.
You can see where I hit him by the blood trail and this is where he ended up, we haven't touched him yet.
Full length penetration, as you would expect on a fox sized animal
Later that morning, my brother shot another Oryx bull, with my 300WM. Slightly angling away at about 100m, the bullet went in behind the shoulder and lodged under the skin on the off side shoulder. 60-70m run and he fell over too. A big 38 incher.
Some skinning shed pics when we got back
I'm not really sure what animal this is as we mainly dropped them off and kept going
Happy with the ACP's - they just kept on working.
Young worker who probably wasn't so happy as they just kept on coming in between all 4 of us.
Some more random pics
Real close up
Having a kip on my sling :lol:
Yes, it's true, there are bloody thorns on EVERY bush
More animals
Nailed him
2 more Kudu bulls we saw
I shot one more Jackal (no pics) but shot more trophy that I never thought I'd shoot or be interested in, a Steenbok. They are dainty little things. I passed up bigger Steenboks at the start of the trip (like the one in the earlier photo) but am happy with this guy. Shot him with the 300WM too.
Plenty of damage on a small animal
This gives a good indication of their size
Our crew at the end of our hunt. We had an awesome time. The amount of animals over there is just insane and the variety has you constantly on the lookout for game.
The boys who used the ACP's in Namibia in our ACP shirts. My brother didn;t fit into his, so I swapped it for an HA Supplies one instead :mrgreen:
We left the skinners/trackers a couple of ACP shirts and my HA Supplies shirt as Harald gets plenty of Aussie hunters coming through the place.
I am still waiting for photos off the other guys of their trophies (we only got home 3 days ago) but the animals we shot were Warthogs, Red Hartebeest, Zebra, Impala, Kudu, Oryx, Springbok, Steenbok, Black Wildebeast, Jackal, Blesbok, and probably a few others that I can't think of right now. Photo's in due time.
Guys, we shot heaps of stuff with the ACP bullets in Africa, from small to big animals and they performed perfectly. I highly recommend them. Thanks for the shirts Mark and a great product :goodstuff: :goodstuff: :goodstuff:
Just another night at work for me and Monty will be back here again bright and early. 
