The wife and I returned April 29 after spending 21 days touring around SA, Zimbabwe, and Botswana. I had originally decided to not do any hunting while on vacation but after negotiating with my better half we agreed to devote three days at the end of our trip to hunting as long as the accommodations at the hunting camp were nice. We were staying at some pretty up-scale photo safari camps prior to this, so Chattaronga would have a lot to live up to. It did not disappoint.
Neil Summers, owner of Bowhunting Safari Consultants, suggested the Krugers' operation at Chattaronga. He said their hunting was very good but their camp was especially nice - exactly what we were looking for. As it turned out, Neil came to visit the Chattaronga operation while we were there. He had just completed a successful bow hunt for elephant in Zimbabwe so it was good to see him.
The Kruger family treated us as if we were long-time friends and made us feel like we were home. I can't stress enough just how nice Philip and his lovely wife Tasmin, along with Philip's dad Johann and his wife Leanna were to us. It's a class operation all the way run by class people.
The hunting was great too.
Here are a few photos of the camp:
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very nice indeed- love the pics
Thanks maxwell. We took over 3000 photos using three different cameras during our trip and a few actually turned out fairly well.
Given the limitations of only hunting for three days and also given that April isn't the optimum time of year to be hunting I'm very pleased with what I got. I wanted a zebra more than anything but also would have been pleased to get a kudu and/or gemsbok. I was actually drawing on a +/- 52" kudu (according to my PH) when a wildebeest walked in front of him and ruined the opportunity. Later that same evening was when I got the wildebeest (shown below).
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While staying at the Dulini Camp in the Sabi Sands area (shares a fenceless border with Kruger Park) we had the rare opportunity to watch a leopard take down and kill an impala ram. We watched the stalk, the takedown, and then our ranger drove us the 50 yards over next to the kill as it was happening. I videoed the whole thing using my DSLR.
This first video begins perhaps 20 seconds after the leopard took down the impala. It lasts just under a minute. You will see the impala struggle to its feet and the ensuing wrestling match between the impala and female leopard ends up with the impala directly under my camera.
(http://i603.photobucket.com/albums/tt113/JCHavard/th_DSC_3158.jpg) (http://s603.photobucket.com/albums/tt113/JCHavard/?action=view¤t=DSC_3158.mp4)
I shut down the video only long enough to re-adjust the focus and zoom on my DSLR (maybe 15 seconds) and then started video recording again. The second video, below, shows the remainder of the kill. While the impala was kicking its legs I could have reached down and held them. The gray blob you will see in the lower left corner of the video is my knee. I was literally shooting directly straight down with my camera. This second video is just under 5 minutes, so from takedown to dead impala perhaps 6 minutes passed. During the kill the only thing we could hear (other than each other saying things like "holy cow!") was the labored breathing of the female leopard.
(http://i603.photobucket.com/albums/tt113/JCHavard/th_Leopardkillpart2.jpg) (http://s603.photobucket.com/albums/tt113/JCHavard/?action=view¤t=Leopardkillpart2.mp4)
Beautiful lodge and accommodations, John. A wife would surely be comfortable and pleased there.
Pretty neat to see a top predator in action. Six minutes to kill, makes a good arrow kill seem very merciful. But such is nature and the life of predator and prey. Thank you for sharing and looking forward to any additional posts from your 3000 - wow. By the way, congrats on the zebra and wildebeest.
Holly smoke John great pictures!!! That leopard encounter is once in a lifetime for sure!!
Beautiful Wildebeest and Zebra and your arrow looks like it went exactly where you wanted it :)
You got my blood pumping I leave wednesday and can't wait :)
Here are a few more photos:
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John, Thanks for taking us along. Some wonderful pictures to help with the memories. Congradulations on a great trip with your lady.
John,
Thank you for sharing the pictures. Looks like you had a fine time both hunting and with your camera.
John, Congrats on some fine animals on your hunt.
It looks like you and your wife enjoyed the trip.
Thank you for sharing some of your beautiful pictures with us.
Besides the Chattaronga operation (and my ACS RC limbs of course) I have to give a big thumbs up to TuffHead broadheads. My first shot on the wildebeest struck the upper leg/shoulder square on and literally shattered the bone. After the kill I was able to simply pull the BH out of the shoulder by hand because there was nothing left to hold it in place. The STEEL BH insert was bent from when the wildebeest jumped and broke the FMJ shaft. But when inspecting the broadhead that had shattered the bone it looked 100% like new. I mean, 100% LIKE NEW. The tip was pristine and the whole head was still shaving sharp.
The PH and Mr. Johann Kruger said they had seen many well-known broadheads (the most expensive ones you can imagine) have their tips curl when hitting heavy bone. Each year the Chattaronga operation guides 8-12 bowhunters who take cape buffalo with bows, so they have an excellent experience base with observing the best broadheads perform on heavy bone.
Mr. Kruger was so impressed he insisted that I sell him my broadheads. He wanted to recommend them to all of his hunters over any other BH he had ever seen. Kudos to Joe Furlong and his TuffHead broadheads!
Here's a shot of the broadhead that made the final shot on the wildebeest.
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You can't argue with results!!
I know you're useing "(and my ACS RC limbs of course)" but what was your draw weight, length and total arrow weight?
Kip,
My bow setup was drawing 50# @ 30", I draw a bit over 30", and my 31.25" to BOP Easton FMJ .300 arrows with TuffHead BH's weighed 725 grains. I was getting a consistent 165 fps with fingers given that combination. I got a complete passthrough on the zebra and you can see the results on the wildebeest above.
My in-laws own a ranch (grapes & cattle) near Paso Robles just down the road from SLO, so I get down to your part of the country occasionally. It's awfully nice there.
I understood you to say that you're leaving for Africa this coming Wednesday? Good luck and please share with us when you return.
John
John, you lucky devil! I've been to africa 3 times and have never been able to get a crack at a zebra! Great job! Awesome footage!
John!!
725 Grains!! That's a run away freight train. You long draw guys can really milk 50#s of draw weight.... I'm stuck with a whopping 27" draw so I don't have the pop with the same 50#s. I'll have to stay with the smaller game maybe 400#s or less ;)
I do a bit of hog hunting above Paso and around San Miguel (more hunting than killing) ... it is real pretty country! Maybe your in-laws have some hogs or deer on there place. I bet there is some pretty good dove hunting around those vineyard ponds :) If you find yourself in the area I'll buy the fish and a beer. Fresh caught right here and grilled on the dock.
Yes I leave Wednesday for Dubai then Tembo and one more hop to Richards Bay for the 2/3hr drive to the hunting area. I gave myself a sixtieth birthday present. I am really cranked up and excited about it!!
I'll post when I return but my photo skills are no where near yours .... Great story and fantastic pics and video!!
Kip
very nice..congrats on the Wildy and Zebra both very nice.
:bigsmyl: :bigsmyl:
Dang after seeing the pics, we're going to have to upgrade elk camp some. .. . LOL
Congrats on the fine animals!
Mike
QuoteOriginally posted by jonsimoneau:
John, you lucky devil! I've been to africa 3 times and have never been able to get a crack at a zebra! Great job! Awesome footage!
I have been twice and still no zebra for me either. I have one more trip in me and will probably look into these guys operation.
Congrats on a great trip and hunt!
Bisch
WOW, thank you for taking us along on your adventure. The videos are well worth the time to watch them. That "hunting camp" is a place my wife would fully enjoy too.
What beautiful pictures. And, a hunt of a lifetime. I'm soooo jealous. :)
Very nice!! Congrats :thumbsup:
Wow! Awesome animals!
Thanks for posting this John. My wife and I will be going there in 2013.
I've only made one trip to Africa and was able to bring home kudu, impala, bushbuck, and an aardvark. But I really want a Zebra . . .so I guess we start saving our nickles. LOL
Mike
Greg, you will love Chattaronga and the folks who run it. This was my first trip to Africa so I have no other hunting operations against which to measure or compare. However, like I said, we did stay in three different 4 or 5-star photo safari camps before this one during our trip and Chattaronga compares very favorably with them.
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Wow great stuff John. Thanks for sharing.
John,
Thanks for sharing. Africa is on my "bucket list" as well as my Wife's so your post is VERY interesting. Hope to be going within 2 years. Thanks again!
Todd
Africa should be on everyones bucket list. Not just the hunting of different animals but the experience of the continent. You will never forget the trip and always want too go back.
Mike
Yeah, I guess I could get by in those digs, really was hoping not to have to rough it so much though.
Incredible! Thanks for sharing and congrats on those beautiful animals! :clapper: :clapper: :clapper:
You nailed it Burnsie. It was rough. One morning there were only three different kinds of cookies/biscuits. Once we ran out of coffee in the blind on our morning sit. In fact one of the days I had to go almost THREE HOURS without eating! Despite the privation and hardship we managed to pull through.
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Just Outstanding.............
All I can say is WOW WOW WOW WOW WOW !!!!!!
Thanks for sharing your trip with us, I really enjoyed it. Your pictures are outstanding!
-Jay
Super cool John, I was just showing my wife those pics - planting the seed!
Amazing photos and story thanks for sharing.
Wow thanks for sharing that.
Those videos are amazing what incredible luck you had being in the right place for that!
Congrats on the animals too, good shooting!
Again John great trip!!!
The pictures alone made it great!!
Fabulous and a most memorable excursion.
Thank you for taking us along.
Thank-you for the pics and stories,loved them.
Leland
QuoteOriginally posted by John Havard:
You nailed it Burnsie. It was rough. One morning there were only three different kinds of cookies/biscuits. Once we ran out of coffee in the blind on our morning sit. In fact one of the days I had to go almost THREE HOURS without eating! Despite the privation and hardship we managed to pull through.
that's great, congrats and thanks for sharing!
Thanks to everyone for the kind words. As a sponsor it means a great deal to me when one of our customers takes the time to report (hopefully) favorably on one of our Dryad ACS bows. So as a customer myself I wanted to favorably report on the guidance and suggestions of Neil Summers with Bowhunting Safaris (a sponsor), and on the great performance of Joe Furlong's TuffHead broadheads (also a sponsor here). While at Chattaronga I suggested to Philip that they should consider becoming a sponsor here too. Good products and service deserve prominent mention and fair reporting.
Also, thanks to everyone who suggested Africa as a great destination. I was convinced before going over there but am even more so now. The experience was wonderful. And when we're all lying on our death bed all we'll have are our memories. They might as well be filled with good ones!
Thanks for the post and reviews, makes me want to go back even more.
What length limbs are you using for your long draw and the 17" riser?
katman, I was shooting our XL limbs. At the BH I like for those limbs on that riser (8"-8 1/4") I need a 60" string, so the bow is 63" AMO. That combo of riser & limbs is schmoooth out to 32" draw length.
The burning question for me:
How old was the wine? (!)
John,
Your pictures are absolutely incredible, terrific accommodations, trophies and trip, thanks for sharing and your recommendation. They will definitely be my list.
I would be interested to know what cameras you used to shoot these pictures. First rate. Congratulations.
Kev,
The wine was old enough to be consumed, that's for sure. Lots of very nice wines can be had from South Africa, and that's coming from a resident of California wine country!
Hud, most of the photos I posted were taken with a Nikon D300s with a Nikon FX 28-300 zoom lens. I did very little with filters and fudged little if anything on the computer after downloading the photos. Most of the remaining photos were snapped with a Canon PowerShot D-11. We also had a Canon S-100 pocket camera and we took a few photos with it. If we're ever fortunate enough to go back we'll take a second DSLR with equally long zoom, or perhaps even a bit longer.
John, those pictures are outstanding !! Thank you for sharing
Awesome pics! Congrats and thanks for sharing!
I love the video of the leopard.
Mike
What a great experience, thanks for sharing with us. Those pictures are amazing.
WOW John, you should be a professional photographer. Your pictures look outstanding. Thanks for sharing. Congrats on the Zebra and the Wildebeest also.
:thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup: :clapper:
Burton, like I said early on, if you take enough photos some of them are bound to turn out! A pro almost certainly wouldn't have blown as many as I did.
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John, The pictures are fabulous! You narrative and videos make a person feel like they were almost there.
I have been working on my wife to do the African experience your descriptions and pictures have her thinking.
Congratulation on you trophies! beautiful animals and excellent pictures depicting them.
You hunt was particularly interesting and personal to me as you used the Tuffhead broadhead in both of your kills. I am pleased and grateful that you chose the TuffHead and that it preformed well for you. While we have a lot of broadheads going to Africa yours are the first large African species reported down. Again Congratulations.
While I am always flattered when someone says good things about our products I don't usually contribute a lot to what guides and PH say as one is not sure what is motivating them. In this case I believe every word the PH said. :biglaugh:
Before I do go to Africa maybe I could get some lessons in photography from you. :)
Again thanks for using and mentioning our broadheads.
Wow! I don't know how I missed this until just now, but I'm sure glad I found it. Outstanding photos John! Sounds like the trip of a lifetime! And congratulations on a couple of beautiful animals. You can bet I am going to sit my wife down and make her look at this thread!
Absolutely outstanding! Africa is tops on my to go list. If only I can convince the wife to come along.
Outstanding! Thanks for sharing.
Thanks for sharing these outstanding pics and story,congrats for your games.
Joe and Joe, if you can swing the time and expense your wives would absolutely love Africa. It was a far reach for us, and that's why we had never been before. Now that we have gone we're already hoping to go back again someday. Definitely you should take the wife along on such a trip if at all possible.
What an absolutely epic journey...thank you for sharing the incredible pictures and story with us.
Best.
What an amazing trip and I got to go! Thanks John! :thumbsup: :thumbsup: