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Just Got Back from South Africa


Redfish
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Awesome trip. Once-in-a-lifetime experience, with the wildlife, the culture, the politics, and of course the hunting. It was considerably more difficult than I anticipated, with long, nerve-wracking stalks and incredible patience required when hunting the waterholes. In then end, I took six animals, four of which will end up in the study: a kudu, two gemsbok, blue wildebeest, waterbuck and eland. I would highly recommend all avid archers to plan such a trip. Not as costly as you might expect. It may be hard to sit in my tree stand this fall waiting on a nice whitetail...................

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Awesome trip. Once-in-a-lifetime experience, with the wildlife, the culture, the politics, and of course the hunting. It was considerably more difficult than I anticipated, with long, nerve-wracking stalks and incredible patience required when hunting the waterholes. In then end, I took six animals, four of which will end up in the study: a kudu, two gemsbok, blue wildebeest, waterbuck and eland. I would highly recommend all avid archers to plan such a trip. Not as costly as you might expect. It may be hard to sit in my tree stand this fall waiting on a nice whitetail...................

 

:wacko:

 

What, no cape buffalo or rhino with the bow? :D

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:wacko:

 

What, no cape buffalo or rhino with the bow? :D

 

Saw plenty of buffs, even had one lay down 15 yards in front of the blind for about an hour. I wasn't willing to cough up the cash necessary to take a cape buffalo. I've got a cool picture of the buffalo laying in front of me.

 

There were rhinos in our area, but we never saw them. I don't think I could kill a rhino, too cool. The eland I killed was almost as big as a buffalo anyway, about 1400 lbs. The stick and string made short work of the eland. I watched it go down about 70 yards from the shot.

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Saw plenty of buffs, even had one lay down 15 yards in front of the blind for about an hour. I wasn't willing to cough up the cash necessary to take a cape buffalo. I've got a cool picture of the buffalo laying in front of me.

 

There were rhinos in our area, but we never saw them. I don't think I could kill a rhino, too cool. The eland I killed was almost as big as a buffalo anyway, about 1400 lbs. The stick and string made short work of the eland. I watched it go down about 70 yards from the shot.

 

I hope you are getting the taxidermy work done in the states. Africa taxidermy is inconsistant and sometimes they will even send the wrong animal back.

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Too cool Redfish, too cool. I never could get into a bow but that's just freakin' awesome!

 

If one of you could give me a link and a quick tutorial, I could post some pics on some file-sharing site.

 

The trip would not have been the same with a rifle. Having these awesome animals within 30 yards at the blind was fantastic.

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I hope you are getting the taxidermy work done in the states. Africa taxidermy is inconsistant and sometimes they will even send the wrong animal back.

 

I'm having my work done over there, but we went to the taxidermist's operation. Second largest in South Africa, like 30,000 sq ft of shop space. They make their own forms for each animal individually and they come highly recommended by my outfitter/PH. He uses them exclusively. May be a gamble, but the PH has too much at stake to risk recommending a crappy outfit to his clients. He will also supervise the work himself as he visits the shop. I'm saving about 30% over having it shipped/dipped and sent here to be done by a local guy. Plus, I don't know any taxidermists in OK that have extensive African experience. I'm afraid all my mounts would end up looking like colorful whitetails.....................

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  • 1 year later...
I hope you are getting the taxidermy work done in the states. Africa taxidermy is inconsistant and sometimes they will even send the wrong animal back.

 

I got my mounts back about a month ago. Took 15 months but the taxidermist in RSA did a fantastic job. All of the mounts are spectacular. Shipping cost more than the taxidermy. Both together were still cheaper than having everything dipped and shipped then mounted in the US. I'm very pleased and going back next summer to finish the spiral horn slam. Still need the bushbuck and the nyala.

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:wacko:

 

What, no cape buffalo or rhino with the bow? :tup:

 

My wife's boss went on a African hunting trip. They were tracking a cape buffalo that was apparently wounded. He was hiding in some thickets and came charging after them the "pro hunter" the accompanies the group told every body to shoot the beast or he may kill someone. So they shot him but during the chaos somebody also shot the African guide in the leg. The pro hunter told the group to just to leave him there. :tup: My wife's boss would have nothing to do with that at got the guy to a hospital in fact two hospital ( I guess African hospital are chit holes) and paid for the guys medical bills.

 

:lol: sound like a fun time.

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I don't think I could kill a rhino, too cool.

 

So, if the kudu, two gemsbok, blue wildebeest, waterbuck and eland had been cooler, they'd still be with us? Hopefully, that'll be a lesson to all the geeky animals. :wacko:

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I got my mounts back about a month ago. Took 15 months but the taxidermist in RSA did a fantastic job. All of the mounts are spectacular. Shipping cost more than the taxidermy. Both together were still cheaper than having everything dipped and shipped then mounted in the US. I'm very pleased and going back next summer to finish the spiral horn slam. Still need the bushbuck and the nyala.

 

Awesome!

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Yeah, but was it a greater or lesser kudu? Either way, sounds like quite an experience.

 

It was a greater. Not a big bull. In fact, I passed several bigger bulls earlier in my hunt, but ended up taking this one late.

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That's real hunting right there. How do you ship a dead animal back to the States?

 

3 month quarantine, then the taxidermy process is completed. They build a huge, custom crate and each shoulder mount is placed in the box, like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle. Each is bolted to the side of the crate which is then filled with some obnoxious stuff that meets Customs requirements. My crate came back with eight heads in it. My friend's warthog, eland bull and waterbuck came back in the same crate.

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