I should start with I chose @KMG Hunting Safaris because of the way Marius responded to my inquiry about what I wanted to do on this trip. I had emailed four or five different companies with the same information. My wants, needs and the animals I was looking for and most of the responses seemed to be mostly a canned response or didn’t directly answer all the questions I asked. Not that they were rude or that they didn’t seem professional and I am sure they would have been good options, but Marius’s email had a true friendly feel to it which really sold his service to me and my girlfriend.
No matter how many questions I had when we were going back-and-forth setting everything up, his demeanor never changed and the emails were always friendly and informative. I also like that he would warn me when he was on safari so that I knew his responses may be a bit delayed.
I used rifle permits to do all the import paperwork and in my opinion it was well worth the money. The forms and actual process is not that difficult from what I was seeing. However when you throw that in with the travel, airline cancellations and trying to figure out all the other details, having someone else handle the paperwork was one less thing to think about. They met me at the airport outside baggage claim and took me straight to the firearm office, checked some boxes, signed some forms and good to go. They also were nice enough to take us right to the shuttle for the hotel and point out which one we needed and when it would come. Top notch service.
First night was uneventful, after the long flight from ATL to JNB we went to a hotel and I slept hard for 7 hours then got back up and headed to the airport to jump back on a flight to Cape Town. This flight would result in the only real issue I had all trip. Somehow, my rifle, ammo case and bag went missing. The firearms guy at CPT was less than stellar and honestly seemed like he was on something. The airline counter however went all out when they found out a rifle was missing, they called all over SA looking into it. Eventually it was worked out that my bag, the rifle case AND my ammo case were never taken off the plane due to the incompetent rifle guy. Mind you, my ammo case was an emergency orange colored pelican, not something easy to miss.
That plane was already back on its way to JNB, and they could not turn it around so I went and found a bar and killed a few hours and my girlfriend headed to the rental unit to get situated. The aircraft landed in JNB, unloaded, re-fueled and then heading back to CPT and luckily my rifle, ammo and bag were still on board and actually removed this time – by a different firearms person.
We stayed in Cape Town in a nice rental unit for a few days and got on the SA time zone and got over the jet lag. Some nice things to see there, Boulders beach and Cape of Good Hope were both interesting. This was also our introduction to the local wildlife, ostrich, eland and baboons just wandering around. Including a baboon deciding to trap my girlfriend in the bathroom at Cape of Good Hope, it just wanted to dig through the trash and left her alone. But she was a little shocked to come out of a bathroom stall and have one staring at her.
Safari Day 1
From Cape Town we flew to East London, where we were met by our guide Nick. We stopped at a few places on the way to the lodge and got a chance to kind of go over the basic plans and got to know each other. Nick is a very nice, personable individual who is absolutely passionate about hunting and guiding and it comes out when he talks. We could not ask for a better guide. By the way, if you know Nick is guiding you, bring him some mint chocolate candy.
We talked about Kudu a bit as it was the top animal I was looking for and he basically called what would happen on the Kudu hunt exactly. He said that it would most likely be a slower hunt with a lot of glassing and driving and we would have to have patience. He reiterated that they try to only target mature animals and that he would not put me on a sub-par or young animal. He held this standard up the entire trip.
Once we arrived at the lodge we again got to experience the animals wandering around, blesbok, impala, warthog and other animals were littering the fields around the lodge. We dumped our bags, got to meet Uncle Andrew and Aunt Debbie (the lodge owners) and received a quick tour of the lodge. Then we were off to confirm zero on my rifle after TSA had their chance to throw it around on the flights. I warned Nick I had built the rifle prior to reading that brakes were slightly frowned upon on Africa hunts, he took it in stride. Few (loud) rounds down range and I was happy. Nick allowed my girlfriend to shoot his suppressed 308 just in case she wanted to use it instead of my 300WSM. Later on she decided since she had had trigger time and many more rounds out of the WSM that she would stick with it.
Quick tip, if your barrel is threaded to the correct pitch suppressors will spin on. I am not saying every guide would be willing to lend you a suppressor for the trip, but may want to ask to save your ears and your guides ears. Additionally what blew me away was that the wait for a rifle permit in SA is months up to a year… But suppressors are over the counter. That night we sat around the massive fireplace and all got to know each other a little more and came up with a game plan for the following day. My GF and I were both very happy with the atmosphere, the evenings were always full of joking and stories and good natured ribbing. It very much felt like a group of old friends getting together every evening from the first moment.
Day 2
Up in the morning and a nice laid out breakfast, nothing huge but enough of everything and everything was very good with a few different options. I should mention here, my GF is VERY lactose intolerant, during the initial trip set up and back and forth I completely forgot to mention it. Aunt Debbie took it in stride and the rest of the stay the cooks made foods without creams or ingredients that had lactose. Even going so far as making her a separate or modified dessert at dinner when needed. Just another amazing bit of accommodation that was much appreciated.
We headed out to the trucks and met the tracking dogs Buddy and Boots and Themba who would be our spotter and tracker for the trip. When I say spotter I mean he sees everything, an inch of horn sticking up, he saw it. The toe of a warthog around a bush? Ya saw that too, and saw it when we were driving on bumpy dirt roads. I was amazed with how good he is, even with his binos that broke mid week he was still better than me at seeing things. Half the time I passed him my binos because in his hands they went to better use. I ended up leaving mine with him at the end of the trip to replace his broken ones. He is probably picking up animals 3 miles away in a thicket with them… Additionally Damien, one of Nicks friends also was riding with us some of the days we hunted and was an asset in seeing animals and working out plans of attack.
We wandered down to the overlooks to start glassing some of the areas and watching animals pop up. We were above a few clearings and different animals would move in and out, including a smaller Kudu. Nick looked at it for about half a second and dismissed it, it was not what we were looking for. That afternoon we were glassing another area and it was neat to be sitting above a clearing and watching a few younger impala rams locking horns and play fighting with some female kudu behind them.
Was a little mind blowing seeing the variety of game in such a small area and realizing what looks like a solid animal in my mind is actually small. I had to reset my thought process on selecting an animal a little at that point.
We bounced around a bit the rest of the day from various ridge line to ridge line and headed to another property where we ended the day glassing and watching a herd of female kudu feeding on a hillside until sunset then we headed back to the lodge. Dinner, some drinks and a warm fire and more joking, ribbing and stories commenced until bed.
Day 3
Breakfast, caffein, game plan – go.
We started bouncing ridge lines again and did that for a few hours, saw many animals and a few small kudu, but again not “the one”. We did that until lunch then went back to the lodge, ate relaxed for an hour and headed back to the area we ended the day at the night before. We wandered all over the property and glassed for hours without any sign of a great kudo, even took a small nap in a field glassing at the hottest part of the day when not much was moving. Even just sitting and glassing was interesting, and my GF was having a blast just spotting animals. There were so many animals to see, warthogs, impala, zebra, baboons… I know I said it earlier but just the massive amount of different animals is incredible to me.
The wind picked up a little just as the sun was starting to go down, so we decided to slow roll the return to the lodge when Themba started pounding on the roof of the truck and Nick had his binos up immediately, I could see a good looking kudu over nicks shoulder but didn’t have a great angle to view the whole animal. Turns out I didn’t need to, Nick was immediately telling me to get out and chamber a round. We managed to sneak in a little closer, and I got on the stick and got a great view of the animal, and it was what I was after.
With the wind all over and the longer shot distance we decided to try and move behind some brush out of sight and try to cut the distance down a bit. We ended up at about 260 yards and the animal was planted, it was watching us but not moving so I took my time and picked my shot placement (AKA I took a second and forced myself to calm down and breathe). Slow and steady pull back on the trigger until BOOM, I knew it felt good, I knew I had my drop right but as we know with recoil and racking the bolt to get the next round chambered, the sight picture usually goes out the window. I lost track of the animal, all I saw at impact was it hump up like a deer will do when hit solidly.
Nick told me which direction it headed and to be ready for a follow up just in case, but just as he finished his sentence I could hear Damien in the background “Its down!”. It made it 20-30 yards with a lung shot before tipping over.
The Barnes TSX I loaded punched through the animal and was unrecoverable, I would be curious to see how much it expanded and what the retention was. That would be the trend the whole trip, that bullet would punch through and out the other side every time.
Since it was right at nightfall we got some pictures in, Themba gutted the animal (saving the liver for later) and we started covering the animal up for the night. Since it was cooler at night it was fine in the field overnight and Nick contacted the land owner to ask for help the next day since they have a pickup with a winch.
Back down the rough road through the hills and to the lodge to another great dinner, and did I mention the fire place and drinks and endless good conversation? Had a few extra drinks to celebrate the kudu.
Day 4
Breakfast, and a lazy start since we needed to wait for the landowner and his tuck and winch. We got up to the animal and I took a few more pictures of close up details in the sunlight until the truck showed up. Loading with a winch was much easier than later animals by hand.
Once we were loaded we headed to the land owners skinning shed and Thimba got to work breaking the animal down. The GF and I were talking to the property owners and one was asking about the round I used, I got a 300WSM out of the truck to show him and his response was “you Americans and your weird rounds” we had a laugh about that and talked about the farm and the animals and kicked around how gun laws are different and how hard it was to buy ammo in SA. Great people and a fun little break in the day.
Once the cape and horns were ready and the meat in a freezer we headed back to the salt shed to drop them off and then had lunch before trying to find an impala. We headed to a new property that was different than the rest, more flat ground. We bounced around and glassed and took a look at one group that held an ok ram, not great so we moved on. We eventually spotted a good ram and started chasing, every time we got with a decent distance the group would bark at us and be gone, we kept at it until the ram just disappeared. Between all of us we could not figure out where it went so we packed it in and went back to the lodge since we still had many days ahead of us.
Dinner, drinks, joking around, sleep.
Day 5
Today we headed out for gemsbok and black wildebeest. This was a longer drive to another unit and it was drizzling all morning, promising a wet hunt. After the drive we started glassing areas and quickly found a herd of gemsbok and started working our way in. The old female that we had looked at as a shooter was extremely skittish and would pull the herd away every time we got close enough to take a shot. We hiked and used terrain features and brush to work our way in and every time she would bust us.
Part of the challenge was every time I got set up Nick would need to work through the herd, walking me into the correct animal to shoot. 3 from the right or 2 from the left, then they would stand behind each other so I had no shot. This trend went on for a few hours and multiple long stalks until the herd managed to get into the folds of the hills and all but disappear. It was still early in the day so we decided to go after black wildebeest and let the gemsbok herd calm down a bit or we could look for another herd that didn’t have a skittish matriarch.
When we started heading back we stumbled across a few sables and stopped to watch them, the body size and height were much larger than I anticipated. When I commented on the size and how the horns looked good, Nick said they were small and even if I was looking for a sable, they were not shooters which surprised me.
We had some water and headed to the area of the property that held wildebeest seeing a ton of springbok, blesbok and ostrich on the way. After a little bit of glassing Nick found a potential shooter and walked through a quick game plan. What I did not know at the time was that a male black wildebeest is extremely hesitant to leave its territory. The moment we popped out at the edge of the cleaning the females took off but the male stayed put and turned to look directly at us before showing why it’s called a “clown”. It started dancing and bucking around and shaking its head and tail giving us a good chance to look at it more.
Nick was looking at the large base of the horns and said it was a nice older animal, but he had reservations on shooting it because the horns were not quite symmetrical with the right horn hooked in a bit, I was fine with that because I like a little character in the animal. We decided to work our way around to get a good shot. It took some maneuvering and patience to wait for the animal to turn and it finally gave me a decently clean quartering shot and I got on the sticks and gave it one more look before firing. The Barnes bullet did the job again and it dropped right where it stood, we gave it a moment to see if it would pop back up but kicked briefly and then it stayed down so we worked our way in on it.
I was a little surprised at the smaller body size of the animal. I know everyone uses angles in photos (not me obviously) to make the animals seem larger so I should not have been surprised, but I was. Nick must have seen the curiosity on my face because he hesitantly asked “are you happy with it?”. I was, and am ,very happy with the choice to shoot it and the quality and size of the horns and their character. The surprise on my face was truly just a moment of “huh, that’s not what I expected”.
We loaded the animal up and took it to the skinning shed where we left Themba to break the animal down and get it ready for the salt shed and headed back out after that gemsbok. We started where we lost the herd that morning and slowly worked our way up and over the rolling hills to the edge of the small cliff we suspected they headed down to shake up. The spotter got a glimpse of them and we sat tight until Nick could get his spotting scope up and confirm it was the same one we were after that morning, mean while some blesbok had moved to the hill across from us and were staring right at us and getting jumpy, Nick confirmed it was the same herd right as they broke again, the same old female dragging them away. We tried to anticipate where they were headed and we ended up at a full sprint in wet conditions trying to get to a shooting position that would give us a chance. Well actually, to be fair, for Nick it was more of a jog since he is taller than I am and has giraffe legs. I, on the other hand, with my short legs had to hustle to keep up…
We got where we needed to be without biffing it on the slippery grass and rocks and I made a conscious effort to get my breathing under control, I knew it would potentially be a longer shot and I did not want to be shaky on the sticks. Nick got his binos up and located the target animal again and worked me in on her, I located her and tracked her but she was walking away and I didn’t have a good shot, until she turned almost broadside to look back at us on the next ridge over. Nick called out 320 yards and I adjusted my POA and touched a round off, after the muzzle blast dissipated I could hear the hollow “thwack” of the bullet hitting her and she dropped where she stood. Nick was a little worried the shot was slightly high and she might get up, so we took our time working our way in and I was ready for a follow up shot, which turned out not to be needed. I was a little high but still in the breadbasket.
We looked the animal over and I did see that she was a nice mature and older animal with her hip bones and spine just starting to show through a little. We took some photos and got a chance to really look over the horn structure and see the secondary growth Nick had been talking about.
We looked the animal over and I did see that she was a nice mature and older animal with her hip bones and spine just starting to show through a little. We took some photos and got a chance to really look over the horn structure and see the secondary growth Nick had been talking about.
We loaded up and took the animal to Thimba and the skinning shed and this time I got to watch Thimba break the animal down, it’s incredibly impressive the skill he has and how efficient he is. Once he was done we loaded up the gemsbok and wildebeest hides and horns and headed back to the lodge for a shower, dinner and some drinks by the fire.
It was sometime during this evening, joking around with everyone and enjoying great company, that I realized that there was no way this was going be my only trip to Africa.
Day 6
Day six was not one of my prouder days, like I mentioned I had my rifle built during covid. I hand loaded the rounds with powder poured to the nearest 1/10 grain and bullet seating was done with match grade dies using fire formed brass. I chronographed the loads and worked up the drop charts and corresponding scope holds. On a perfect day I could put 3 rounds in the same hole by the time I was done, and on a normal day I was sub-MOA.
All that said, I missed an impala.
Twice.
We spent some time on a piece of property looking specifically for a nice impala and It took us a while but we finally spotted one, we worked our way in on it and could not quite get a decent shot until it finally stopped in a thicket, I could see the head, neck and about 3/4 of the lung area. Not great but definitely within my skill range, or so I thought. It was a decently steep downhill shot and from what we could kind of work out after the miss I may have nicked a branch just right and deflected over the animal’s shoulder. Disappointing, humbling but not the end of the world, clean miss so we can keep hunting.
We require the animal and now it’s on a hillside across from us just shy of 300. Again, well within my skill set. I was still a little stuck on my last miss and I just over-thought the shot, mentally I just got in my own head and biffed it again. This time I drew blood – but we are talking a few drops, not a true blood trail and so we let the dogs loose. Watching them work is very fun, they know their job and they throw themselves into it full bore. They were unable to locate the animal either.
So after a ton of practice, load development and planning – it all fell apart when I had a bad shot and then let that bad shot get in my head. Embarrassing? Sure. Really more disappointed in myself than anything. However, I am not letting that ruin anything. It’s hunting and it’s not always going to go perfect.
Day 7
I had told my girlfriend I was more than willing to foot the bill if she wanted to take an Impala on this trip and she went back-and-forth on it and couldn’t decide if she wanted to, toward the end of the trip she made up her mind and definitely wanted to get some trigger time.
We had spent hours at the range getting her used to the scope, the drops and the functions of the rifle since it wasn’t one she was used to. She felt very comfortable with it and even though she had tried Nicks suppressed 308 out earlier she decided to go with mine. We spent the morning glassing trying to find the right animal and I got to play cameraman and pack mule for her on this hunt.
Nick spotted what he thought looked like a shooter so we started working our way in, right after we started walking Nick realized he wasn’t sure how she would feel on the sticks so we stopped for a couple minutes and made sure she was comfortable and knew how to adjust them if she needed to.
Once we got to the edge of the clearing I could see the animal. We knew it was the right one but it was facing away from us and she couldn’t get a good shot on it. Nick made sure she was ready and then gave a quick bark and it turned slightly towards us but still not enough to ensure a clean hit. She was comfortable with the rifle but not quite confident enough for a turned away quartering shot. Nick knew that and waited a second and gave another bark and the Impala turned completely broadside. I heard a quick “oh shit” from her as she finally got the full view of the animal, watched her take a slight breath and then fire.
Because the Barnes TSX is such a hard bullet it passed straight through the Impala and I don’t even know that the animal truly knew it was hit. Nick lost track of it because of the muzzle blast next to him and the angle it took into the brush, but I had watched it after the shot and it did not bound away like all the other Impala so I knew it was hit solid. Sure enough, 20 or 30 yards from where it was hit we found it down with no follow up needed.
Immediately after the shot I had heard Themba start the truck on the hill side and start coming down, he had full confidence that she would make the shot. We got the animal out of the brush it had fallen in and got some photos in. Uncle Andrew, who had been jokingly poking fun at her for not shooting an animal yet, showed up in the clearing and gave her a huge hug and congratulated her. Again just showing how much the lodge is like a family environment. We loaded the animal up and left it with Themba at the skinning shed and headed back to have lunch.
Day 8 and beyond
After the hunt we were headed to Zimbabwe and I needed to figure out my rifle situation. Marius was very helpful and recommended that we use Africa Sky hotel as a layover hotel because they have a rifle storage option. I am glad he knew about them and I highly recommend them.
The hotel itself is very nice, the food was very good and the staff was top-notch – although the bar was a little lacking. We had an issue with our hotel reservation in Zimbabwe and we mentioned it to the staff at the hotel. They jumped right in to try and help us iron it out since they spoke the language and we did not.
Our flight to Victoria Falls the next day was later in the evening and I asked the front desk about a late check out rather than sitting at the airport for half the day, they checked the reservation schedule and realized they didn’t have anyone else coming in and did not need the room so they told us just to check out when we wanted to with no late checkout fee. We really appreciated that we wouldn’t have to sit in the airport half the day.
When we checked out the front desk took my rifle case and locked it in a room, took my flight info down so they could ensure that they would meet me at the airport upon my return to Johannesburg even if I was delayed and they stored my rifle for 15 USD a day. When I stepped off the plane returning from Victoria falls Zimbabwe I was immediately met at the arrival area by their representative with my rifle case. He was nice enough to walk me over to the departure area and give me a quick brief on where to go for my flight out and where the firearms counter would be, which was much appreciated.
After all that it was time for a meal and the long brutal flight home, the individual next to me was twice my size and wanted to use 1/6th of my seat in addition to theirs. They tried to lift the armrest at one point since it was firmly embedded in their side, I put a stop to that real quick.
Customs in ATL were not too bad, a long line of hunters with firearms and bows who needed to show forms and have the weapons looked over by DHS/TSA to ensure they were really ours. This took a total of about 2-4 minutes a person. Also had to get my boots sprayed down by some disinfectant, so heads up on that. After that I boarded one more uneventful flight home where I dropped my bags, set my memory cards to upload to my server for editing and went to sleep planning my future trip to add more animals, and take another whack at an impala…
My lessons learned / non scientific observations for this trip were:
-I definitely overpacked. If you were so inclined, daily laundry service was available at the lodge I could have brought a third of the clothing I brought. I always tend to over pack though.
-I had my boots and a pair of tennis shoes but I wish I had sandals of some kind to let my feet breathe after being stuffed in the leather boots all day.
-Take a little more time after you shoot the animal to admire it. Nick never pushed us along to the next animal and he always let us go at our pace, but with the adrenaline and everything going on I didn’t really think through some photo opportunities beyond getting a good one with myself and the animal and a few shots of horns and such. I do wish I had stopped and taken a few more subject photos. You have plenty of time, make use of it.
-At some point when I go back in the next few years I may reconsider my bullet choice. I was using the Barnes TSX and it never really showed signs of expansion especially in the Impala, although it did the job every time. I might go with a ballistic tip of some kind next, I have to think about it and do some more research and load development.
-Even though I really appreciated having my rifle that I built for this trip during the covid shut downs, I don’t know that importing it and lugging it around would be worth it a second time. I did all the load development and shot the loads over a chronograph and as a result I knew the true bullet drops at every yardage, which made shooting longer ranges more accurate… But I think I would have been fine with Nicks 308.
-Next time I go I’ll be in a little better shape. I would consider myself in decent shape, but trying to keep up with Nick just showed me that I maybe should’ve put a little more work into hiking up steep hills. My saving grace was I live at a higher altitude so I am used to thinner air.
So if you are still reading I hope you enjoyed the write up, we had an absolute blast and checked a giant bucket list item off. I got to meet some incredibly hospitable and nice people, eat some awesome food and see animals in the wild that constantly surprised me and now I am trying to figure out when I can get back. Hoping 2024 I can make it happen and check a few more animals off the list.
Thanks too Marius, Nick, and Themba for all their work and help and also to Aunt Debbie and Uncle Andrew at the lodge for being incredibly hospitable and who are just wonderful people. When I finally nail down when I can go back it’s a very easy choice, I will be contacting Marius again. Link below for his web page