Here are some beautiful males taken over the last few weeks. You will notice the thickness of some of the necks that are inflated over this period.

The Cape kudu has a coat more marked and dark than his cousin of the North.
The Cape kudus are simply magnificent at this time of year!

Come quickly and join us for an unforgettable safari…

Come and visit us booth 213, and for those having the Sportsman Channel, we are on right now with Extreme Outer Limits for an other 4 episodes in South Africa

Please note that WE HAVE MOVED from our usual corner booth in game call hall to BOOTH 6429 in Main Outfitters Hall

Come and visit us to check all our show specials!

First time in Canada for Grand Safari with well known Canadian professionnal hunter and Outfitter Michel Langlois from Grand Chelem Aventure.

Come and visit us on our booth 719 to discover all our different safari options.

Good to hear that you enjoyed the Extreme Outer Limits African episodes done with us in South Africa.

We’ll soon have the great pleasure to see some of you over in South Africa, for all the others, let’s stay in touch until next year, same time same place!

Come and check our 2012 brochure, we’ll be here the whole week-end.

Yankee Sportsman’s Classic
20th Annual  January 20 – 22 2012 – Champlain Valley Expo, Essex Jct., VT – Booth # 213

Le Salon National de la Pourvoirie
26 − 29 Jan 2012 – Montréal, CANADA  - Booth # 719

Eastern Sports & Outdoor show
4-12 Feb 2012 – Pennsylvania Farm Show Complex – Harrisburg, PA – Booth # 6429

The Springfield Sportsmen’s show
23-26 Feb 2012 – Big E West Springfield, MA – Booth # 213

GRAND SAFARI is on US TV!

That was Jürgen’s first time, wouldn’t miss that tradition for nothing hey …

Harvesting a rhino in South Africa contributes greatly to protect the whole rhino population in the country.

That old cow with this great trophy gave us a very challenging hunt this weekend. She has always been wilder than any other rhinos since arriving on our concession about 8 years ago. A few times in the past, she would have liked to modify the shape of my Toyota while protecting her offspring! Hunting springbok on her territory was sometimes a bit … sporty should I say. We all knew her short sense of humor, and when we decided she was part of our game management plan, and needed to go, who ever was gonna harvest her would not only get a great trophy but most probably a very interesting hunt.
An Eastern Europe hunter that we will call Vladimir for our story, was up for the challenge. Usually, we would see that rhino every second day without looking for her, but it is only on day 3, after driving around for about 230 km, that we found her with a young bull … less than 3 km away from the lodge! It is now 18:30 and we only have about 30 minutes of good light left for the day. We quickly get within 30 meters of the beast when the curiosity of an other big female pushed her to come and snig us a bit closer. At 10 meters away, I had no options but to throw a stone on her nose, making her run away in a cloud of dust following her very young calf. Our big female and the young bull followed, stopping frequently to find out where we were. We run from tree to tree to get close again quickly, time is against us. Rhinos can’t see well but they can hear and smell remarquably well. She runs in a circle into the wind to find us, when she does, she runs in the opposite direction. When she sees movement in her comfort zone, she charges towards it. We also have to run in a circle to stay away from her wind. It is like a ballet amongst the acacia tress there. The size of Vladimir’s eyes then tells me a lot about the situation he is experiencing right now. No time to explain everything, especially with that language barrier, the translator will have some catching up to do later …

Last try, same scenario and they finally run away into the darkness…

We decide to have an early start at 05:00 the next day. We had a bit of rain last night, and we are trying to establish the direction given by the last tracks. There is a fair amount of rhinos on this concession, and it takes time to go through all the close by waterhole to find her again. I give radio to my 3 trackers and send them on to the top of the hills while we will drive around them. Owen calls, he found her on the foot of the hill. We leave the 4×4 in the distance and approach on foot. Soon I can see the long and shiny horn in the morning light, she is still with the young bull, pretty relaxed. Wind is good, soil is soft from the rain, we have to come right this time… but all of a sudden she lifts her head towards us and runs the other way amongst the acacia trees. Thorns on her skin are making pretty much the same noise as on my vehicle! I take the spoor followed by Vladimir and we soon find them in thick brush. They will run a few times, we would catch them up, pretty much the same as yesterday late afternoon, but this time in quite thick cover. Vladimir is starting to like this kind of rhino hunting …. and then we lose them. No more tracks, gone … Call the trackers and we all walk up and down looking for clues. Owen calls on the radio. He found 2 tracks going through a little stream towards the “2 dam” little valley. It is a lot more open there and I decide to climb the nearest hill to overlook the whole area. If they are still in there, we’ll see them. 20 minutes later glassing everyway we can, still no rhino… impossible, they have to be here somewhere. I sent the 3 trackers beating all those little bushes with not much hope to find the beasts, and guess what, 3 of them fly out of the last bush above the second dam. It is a big male, and our big female and the young bull. And they run and they run, luckily tracker Smiley was still on top of a big hill and he can follow them in his binoculars.

We have to start from scratch again, who said rhino hunting was just a formality?

3 hours and 15 km away, we think we know where they should be hiding, after going through quite a few options along the way. We are now going through the plains where we are all convinced to find our trophy rhino. Can’t find her, so I decided to speed up the process by getting on top of the big hill where we could glass the whole area at once. I am now speeding up a bit to get to that bad very steep road when someone is knocking on the roof saying “Stop Stop Stop!!). This is what I have been waiting for … it is Gazi, he saw the big female and the young bull 200 meters away, hiding on the edge of acacia bushes. A quick look and YES, this is the one. Don’t even need binoculars at that distance, her horn is so long that it cannot be mistaken with an other rhino. I grab my rifle, Vladimir is already walking behind me, ready as ever… 200 meters, 150 … we get to about 80m in not such a good wind. I am worried the wind could swing and they would run away again. Quick look at Vladimir with my thumb up asking for approval, he head goes up and down for a yes, I secure the shooting sticks in the ground, Vladimir adjusts the Sako .375 H&H Magnum and squeezes the trigger. The 300 gr solid bullet reaches its target, the beast jumped and ran straight, typical reaction for a heart shot.

We start walking around to get closer in a good wind, soon I spot the young bull, stocked in a bush looking back from where the shot went. I can now also see the big rhino lying down, it was indeed a heart shot… Owen and Gazi are now back with us, we wait a bit longer and decide to go and get our rhino. 15 minutes and a few dozen stones later, we manage to chase that young bull away after a few milk charges… we would have had action all the way to the end during this rhino hunt!

Emotion takes over the adrenalin rush, the trophy is superb, Vladimir’ has just achieved one of his wildest dreams, harvesting a rhino on foot.

We’ve hunted everything together, so many stories to share. This bush roamer, always in a good mood, will leave a big empty space in my life. Domino follows me every way this morning. So long Xolilé, you’re “up to date” to move to the “yellow side” my friend…