April 4, 2008
May 6, 2008
August 3, 2008
Aaron in Africa
August 3, 2008
Wow, it’s been
awhile since my last blog but as many of you know I have spent
the past 7 weeks in my favorite place of all, AFRICA!!! It
seemed as though I was becoming a permanent resident, but I knew eventually I
was going to have to leave. So here I am, back home and trying to catch up
on the 500 emails and phone calls that were awaiting my return. All I know
is that I better get it in gear though, Corey and I leave for Mongolia on August
14th, and that’s just around the corner!
Anyway,
back to the important stuff, the hunts. Guys I gotta tell ya, this might
have been my best trip ever! First off I spent 16 days in the Save Valley
Conservancy of Zimbabwe with Glenn Stockil, and
Shangaan Hunters. Again I set my sights on another lion,
trying to get one step closer to my ultimate goal of harvesting 10 lions.
I was trying for my 9th, and I knew this conservancy gave me a good chance to do
that. After 10 days, we still had no lion, but were feeding every cat in
the county. We had already gone through 3 giraffe and 2 zebra, and my
baiting funds were getting limited. I literally saw 26 lions throughout
the course of my hunt, guys I am telling you, that’s
unbelievable! Finally on the 11th night, I shot a huge male with a fabulous
mane, and monstrous body that tipped the scales at 503 pounds. Just prior
to the hunt, Jon LaCorte from Nikon sent me a
new 2.5 x 10 Monarch rifle scope. He promised me I would
be blown away by the new optics, and man was he right!! I shot the lion at
10:30pm, in the dark, with less than a half moon, and no artificial light.
With my Leica binos I could make out the lion,
but could not see anything distinctive. With the Nikon scope though, it
was a whole different ball game. I was able to clearly see the lion, and
make a tremendous shot at 80 yards, in the dark!!! Honestly I have never seen a
scope with light gathering capabilities like this, so if any of you are in the
market, give the Nikon products some consideration! Of course I was using my
favorite gun as well, the stainless .375 Remington Ultra Mag
you see me with in all my pictures, and I shoot 270 grain Barnes Triple Shock
bullets, loaded by John LaSala, owner of Safari Arms Ltd. Together this is
the most lethal combo I have ever used on big, dangerous game, period!
(Please note, it is legal to hunt at night, and with artificial light,
on private land in Zimbabwe)
With only a few days left
Glenn and I decided it was time to try and concentrate on the buffalo, so off we
went. As my luck generally goes it took a couple more days to connect, but
on day 15 I shot a wonderful old dagga boy. He was only
40 yards, feeding towards me with his head down and I shot him
through the top of the back. He went down right in his tracks and never
moved an inch. This time the video footage is awesome, up close and
personal. My cameraman did a fabulous job, and we will have some great
footage to show you guys on our 2009 promo DVD. With only
1 day left I wanted to try and get a Klipspringer, it’s one
animal I still hadn’t taken yet. At about 3pm we finally
got one to stand still long enough and I managed a 90 yard shot, straight up
hill with a solid from my .375 RUM, great fun!!! Hunters I am going to tell you
this! I have never been to a nicer place, our lodge facility was incredible, the
food was great, and most importantly the hunting at Senuko
Lodge in the Save Valley Conservancy was awesome!!! I saw hundreds of buffalo,
elephants, lots of plains game, 26 lions and even a leopard. You need to
consider this location for your next African safari, I guarantee you will not be
disappointed!
After Zimbabwe it was onto Namibia to meet up with
Nick Mundt, and the crew for Michael Waddell’s new “Bone
Collector” tv show. Nick is co-hosting the show with Michael and T-Bone
Turner which will start airing January 4th, 2009. Michael has been a
friend of mine for quite some time so he asked Global Hunting Resources
to help arrange some of the hunts for the new show. So there we
were, in Namibia with a truck load of guys including, hunters, the PH,
Hentie Van Heerden of Van
Heerden Safaris, the cameramen, two of them to be exact and the
trackers. Thankfully Hentie’s truck was new,
I’m not sure anything else would have held up!! Our plan was to
hunt mainly plains game, Nick & I would be the shooters, with Steve Finch,
producer of “Bone Collector” and Steven Boulware running the
cameras. Nick was looking to shoot any and everything, but I was mainly
after a Mountain Zebra, as I have already taken all the other species we were
hunting. Namibia is a beautiful, and very safe place for hunters.
The Van Heerden’s run a fabulous operation, and hunt some of
the most picturesque places I have ever seen in all of Africa. In roughly
10 days of hunting we made an awesome TV show, Nick took Kudu, Oryx, Zebra,
Springbok, Steenbok and a Jackal. I got lucky and managed to get my
Mountain Zebra near the end of the hunt, and I also took 2 huge Kalahari
Springbok’s, much bigger than the one I shot in South Africa in
2004. We had Leopard on license as well, but only had 3 days to hunt for
him at the end, unfortunately it didn’t pan out.
Don’t miss the show in January, it’s gonna be
great!
Lastly, it was back to Zim for 2 days, then
to Botswana for Elephant & Buffalo. This time, Waddell met Nick and I
in Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe where we spent a couple days fishing for
Tiger’s on the mighty Zambezi river, and visiting one of the 7
natural wonders of the world, Victoria Falls. Oh ya, Nick and Michael
tried to get me to Bungi jump off the bridge over hanging the
gorge at the falls, NOT HAPPENING, period!! Now I must give them their props,
both of them took the plunge, and we captured it all on film. Some say
bravery, I say insanity, but you make your own decision. To me
it’s kinda like jumping out of a perfectly good
airplane, DUMB!!! Anyway, after a couple days of screwing off
in Vic Falls we were off to Bots. Michael & I were doing the hunting,
while Finch and Nick ran the cameras. I was slated for a Buffalo &
elephant, while Mr. Waddell would try for his first buffalo with his
muzzleloader! Jim Shockey, who is also a
client of GHR would be joining us
towards the end of the hunt, as he was currently in Zambia on a
hunt for Sitatunga, also arranged for him by
GHR.
Day 3 had us on a
huge herd of buffalo, to this point I had already shot 4 previous bulls, so
without question Michael was up first. Botswana has some huge buffalo, and
the area we were hunting was no exception. Our hunt was scheduled with one
of the best outfitting companies in all of Africa, Swanepoel
& Scandrol Safaris. We were hunting CH1 & CH2,
more commonly referred to as the Chobe Enclave. The area
was huge, roughly 1.2 million acres, but more impressive was who was going to be
our guide. The Blackbeard’s are legendary in the lore of
Botswana hunting, and Ronnie Blackbeard is the leader. At 66 years old,
Ronnie has spent the past 45 years guiding and hunting in this beautiful
country, his experience is second to none. I knew of his reputation, but
honestly I didn’t know that we both shared the same obsession
in life. Mr. Blackbeard lives, breathes, sleeps and eats, LION
HUNTING!! Man, had I died and gone to heaven or what?? Hunting with a
legend like Ronnie, then finding out that he has a passion for lions, what a
pleasure this was going to be. I thought I had a lot of lions with 9, but
Ronnie figures he personally has shot over 300, ya that’s
right, 300! Can you possibly imagine that? Plus he figures between clients and
himself, he has shot over 1,200 elephants! One thing was for sure, Michael and I
were in good hands. We worked the herd for about and hour, trying to get a
look at some of the bulls, and trying even harder to get a good shot.
Using a muzzleloader makes it a bit tougher, but honestly we
were way over confident with the new load, and didn’t use our
heads. Finally Michael got a clear shot at 50 yards with the bull
quartering at us, and made a perfect shot right in the crease. It looked
great to me, I was just over his left shoulder, and the camera was to his
right. I thought for sure he was a dead buffalo, but several miles later
and hours of slow, methodical tracking, it was obvious that the bull was not
mortally wounded. As is the law in most of Africa, if you draw blood, you
own it! So it was a costly mistake for both Michael and I, but unfortunately
these things sometimes happen. Now it was up to me, I still had a buffalo
on quota, and of course the elephant, so we focused on “Jumbo”. In the
first 6 days we saw without question, over 500 elephants. It takes only
one visit to Botswana to see not only the devastation the elephants have caused,
but just exactly how over-populated they truly are. The estimated carrying
capacity of elephants in the country is roughly 70,000, currently the actual
population is about 150,000. They are WAY over populated, and looking at
the country, it’s very evident. If something
isn’t done about it, I assure you, the elephants will
eventually ruin the habitat of the entire country.
Finally day 7 was the day of the JUMBO. In the past week we
had passed on lots of bulls, many in the 40 – 55 pound range, plus one in the
high 60’s, but his left tusk was busted off just past the lip. On day 5 we
had a huge bull get away from us, he was easily 55 inches out of the lip, with
beautiful matching tusks, but unfortunately he got back to the park before we
could get a crack. With only 3 days left in my hunt and a buffalo tag
still to fill, I was willing to take a mid 50’s bull, especially if it was good
on film. At 10am we found him, only ¼ mile off the road with two of his
younger buddies as the lookouts! We knew he was easily in the mid 50’s,
especially his right tusk which was at least an inch thicker than the
left. Approaching the bull, we were doing everything not to alert his
little buddy right in front of us, but unfortunately we did. As he got a
bit fidgety, the big boy became aware of us, and started to get a bit
upset. Elephants have poor eyesight, but good hearing and an excellent
sense of smell. Our problem was once again the same as in Namibia, we had
a total of 9 of us on the stalk, try keep that many people quiet,
impossible. As we got within 50 yards he kept turning to face us, rather
than standing broadside and giving me the nice side brain shot that I was
wanting. This was not my first elephant, but it’s not
like I have shot bunches of them either. I felt confident with any shot,
including a frontal brain, but I was hoping for the side brain, as it is an
easier shot for sure! The bull however had other ideas and as we continued to
move with him, he would continue to turn and face us each time he stopped.
Finally we moved a bit closer, I ranged it at 48 yards, Ronnie and I decided to
take the frontal brain shot. Again I had my trusty .375 RUM, this time
with a 270 grain Barnes monolithic solid. The 12,000 pound bull never knew
what hit him! Instantly he dropped in his tracks, I bolted forward and shot him
again just above the left eye, but it was unnecessary, he was dead on the
spot. Now I am going to brag about one thing though, the cartridge and
bullet performance. The 270 grain projectile, custom loaded by John LaSala
from Safari Arms Ltd, actually exited just above the bull’s
right shoulder. Meaning the bullet penetrated through the entire skull,
plus another 3 feet of elephant, something that even our legendary guide said he
had never seen before, ever!!! Guys, if you have never tried the line of
Remington’s Ultra Mag. cartridges you are really missing
out. Just two days later I shot my 5th buffalo, this time at 120 yards,
and he folded right in his tracks as well. I shot one lion, two buffalo
and one elephant, all with the .375 RUM and all 4 took only one shot, pretty
impressive I thought! You’ll have to watch for all the hunts on
“Bone Collector”, this coming January 2009. Michael, Nick and I were doing
back flips, everything went great, and we had lots of great stuff for the
shows. Next year we are going to try and get Michael his buffalo with a
bow!!!
As I was wrapping up my hunt with a nice 40” buffalo on day
9, Jim Shockey was arriving in camp. Michael, Nick, Jim
and I shared a couple of beers together around the camp fire that night, telling
stories, and thinking about the next great adventure! Jim started his hunt a day
early, and with one day left in camp, I headed out with him. He was here
with us in Botswana for two reasons, eland and elephant. Although the
elephants were plentiful, the eland were not. I guess
Jim’s just a lucky guy though, by 9am that first morning, he
had a beautiful 36” Livingston Eland on the ground. Another great trophy
with his muzzleloader, and now it was time for the
Elephant. The next day we had to leave, but 6 days later Jim connected
with a great bull. Apparently he’s a 60 pounder, and the
muzzleloader king had his prize. This however
wasn’t the last hunt Jim had booked through
GHR, he immediately left for S.A. This
time trying to complete his BIG 5 with a rhino dart hunt, with a bow of all
things. He completed his task, and his goal. Congrats to Jim, and
thank you for trusting much of your big game hunting needs to Global
Hunting Resources, we appreciate it!
Two weeks from now
Corey and I leave for mongolia, I WILL keep you updated as to how things
go. Until then, if you are in need of a hunt, we still have different
options available for this fall, plus different hunts available around the
world. Give us a call, we will be happy to help!!
Thanks
& good hunting
Aaron Neilson