South Africa: A Dries Visser Safari Adventure

South Africa: Hunting with Dries Visser Safari's Sept. 2006

About Sept/ October 2004, one of my hunting buddies, Todd Kluth, and I were talking about places and things we = need to hunt before time passes us by. The discussion led us to hunting Africa some time soon. Well, with one of us startin= g to get up in age, me, we decided to do some research and book a hunt for 2006.= Our research led us to Gene Wensel, who many of you= have heard about or read his many articles on hunting. Gene books hunts for Dries Visser Safari's. I contacted Gene and before it was o= ver I had committed Todd and myself to a hunt in = South Africa for 2006. Deposit money was sent in to lock in our hunt. Since we booked our hunt early, we h= ad our choice of hunt dates and settled on a 10 day hunt for late June and ear= ly July. We choose that timeframe because we had another out of state hunt in = late August and did not want too much time off from work so close to each other.= The same year we had booked our hunt, Dries Visser donated a 10 day hunt for auction at the ABA banquet. It was a package hunt that Todd ended up bidding on and eventually= was the successful bidder! The fact that I had committed both of us to Gene's 2= 006 hunt could have been a problem, but it wasn't an issue whatsoever. Gene and= The Visser's are quality people and they made it wo= rk for our hunt dates. So we were good to go.
From that point forward Todd and I pretty much shot our bows nightly and ba= sically every weekend. We also bought numerous DVD's from Dries Visser Safari's as well as others on hunting African animals. It was extremely hel= pful to see the setting for the hunts, how the animals acted around the blinds as well as just seeing the animals themselves. I also got Keith Robertson's bo= ok, "The Perfect Shot" which really gives you a good picture of the various animals' anatomy. The DVD's were terrific for game recognition, shot placement and helping us prepare ourselves for what to expect in the blinds. Keith Robertson's book is really worth it too. Dries V= isser has a number of DVD's that are really good. There is another DVD that is a really good one too. It is made by Dave Holt called "Africa with Stick and String". In my opinion you can't watch too many of the DVD's. They are a great help and may help settle you down for that first sh= ot from the blind when you have that first African animal right there on top of you! The adrenaline just erupts!
Our flight was booked through Gracy Travel Inte= rnational. Right before we left for South Africa, I mean like within a couple of weeks= , SA Airlines changed there departure and arrival hub in the US from Atlanta to Washington Dulles for all their flights. The changeover was going to occur while we were in Sou= th Africa! So that meant our return flight itinerary had to change. I contacted Gracy Trav= el and they took care of all the return flight itinerary changes, which Todd &= I were extremely happy about.
A couple of days before we were to leave Todd called me at 5am to remind me= not to make plans for the next two weeks as we were going to be in South Africa= on a hunt. I told him I really needed that reminder as I wasn't quite as brigh= t in my old age as I used to be and thanked him for that helpful reminder. I mean really, what are friends for anyway. Since I hadn't got to bed until 1 am t= hat morning due to a problem at work, I went back to sleep. At 5:20am I got ano= ther phone call from another "friend", Ray Dressl= ar. Ray was thoughtful enough to make the effort to call early to remind me not= to forget about packing my bow for my bowhunt to <= st1:country-region w:st=3D"on">South Africa! What wonderful, caring friends I have! After laughing = abit I advised Ray I was going back to bed as I was at work until 1 am that morn= ing and needed to get a little bit more sleep before I went to work that mornin= g. Ray, being the responsible and accountable person he is, immediately said t= hat Todd had put him up to making the call. What a guy!!
Finally it was time to go!
We took a red-eye out of Phoenix @ 10:30 p= m on June 23 to Atlanta= . From there we flew to Johannes= burg, South Africa- 17.5 hours in flight, arriving about 10:30am on June 25. Once we cleared customs we were met by a rrepresentative from <= span class=3DSpellE>Gracy Travel who helped us get our return flight itin= erary re-confirmed w/ SA Airlines to ensure we would have a flight to get home on. Dries Visser had us picked up in the terminal w= /o a problem. We ended up staying the night in Johannesburg as other hunters travel arrangements had them arriving at 11 pm that night. It's a 4-5 hour drive to the Visser's concessio= n so it was decided to leave early the next morning. Our arrangements for our overnight stay was set up by Dries Visser, and = I'll tell you, we had a terrific home cooked dinner, including dessert, that nig= ht by our hosts. It was great.
We left early on June 26. We got to see quite abit of the country during the drive north to the concession. I think we all really enjoyed the drive to the hunting concession, seeing the different towns, si= tes and country. We arrived at the hunting lodge about 10 am roughly. What a ne= at place! Beautiful landscaped areas, brick paver walkways, outdoor dining/ BS area and an inside gathering room w/ a bar and= all kinds of mounted animals that has to be seen to appreciate. There is a real= ly nice archery range that has marked distances for practice and to make sure = your equipment is still shooting okay after the tender care given by baggage handlers during the trip. You can shoot both field points and broadheads on the range.
As we were unloading our luggage we met our PH, Hein L= ottering. Hein asked what we wanted to do. With no hesitation whatsoever, Todd and I = both said we wanted to go hunt!!! Hein suggested we have a quick lunch and than = we would be on our way to our blinds by noon. Todd and I had booked our hunt a= s a 2 hunters x 1 guide. So that meant one of us had to be in the blind by hims= elf that first day. It ended up being me. What a day it was for both of us!! I = was dropped off at the blind and got myself settled in. In just a manner of abo= ut 30-40 minutes I had male and female Waterbucks come in. They were soon foll= owed by a herd of female Gemsbok with a young calf. I could not tell which cow w= as nursing so I decided to not shoot. They were there for over 90 minutes when= a pretty nice bull Gemsbok came in. The horns are fairly defined between the = male and females once you see them together. But your best ID is looking for the penis sheath to ensure the Gemsbok you are looking at is a male. The bull m= oved all around the area and bedded twice before he finally gave me a shot @ 24 = yds. 24 yds is really a p= retty long shot for the set ups Dries has at his blinds. Anyway, for my first sho= t on a game animal in Sou= th Africa, I was really "locked" = in. I squeezed off the shot and watched the broadhead hit the bull at the lower 3rd point right above the front leg. At the strike of= the arrow the bull reared up on his hind legs like a stallion, pawing into the = air with his front legs. I could see the arrow had gone all the way through his chest cavity and was hanging by the fletch on the far side. He took off hard and went out of sight quickly. Boy was I excited. I even forgot to move the camcorder over to record the shot that Hein had set up, (didn't turn it on either) so I didn't get any footage of the shot. I called Hein on the radio= and gave him the good news. Hein called Leffa, our tracker, to meet him at my blind. Todd and Hein were at my blind w/ Leffa within 15 minutes to help track the animal. We = found the bull about 70-80 yds away from where I had = shot him. After congratulations and pictures the Gemsbok was loaded and taken ba= ck to the farm for processing by Leffa. Hein scold= ed me, in a friendly way, for not turning on the camcorder to get video of the sho= t. Being able to view the video of the shot is important as it allows the PH to review the shot in slow motion to confirm the location of the hit on the animal. It's really a great tool plus it records the whole experience for y= ou. I assured Hein I wouldn't let it happen again. At 3 pm I was settled back in the blind waiting to see what else was going to show up. It didn't take very long, less than an hour, before I had some Waterbucks came back again, cows= and a pretty nice bull. It was getting late in the day and the shadows were get= ting pretty long. The Waterbuck bull had been at the water for quite awhile, but= he wasn't one I wanted to shoot. He was nice, but a regular type bull. I was watching him standing there when all at once his attention was clearly rive= ted on an area to my near right. I looked out the shooting portal in that direc= tion and saw another Waterbuck bull that was really, really nice. The smaller bu= ll went right to him at a trot. I wasn't sure what was going to happen, but I = knew that if the big guy came in, there was going to be an arrow in the air for sure! After some posturing by both of them, the large bull came straight to= the water, very quickly too. He was standing broadside @ 13yds when I pulled my Hoyt Ultratec back. Just as I started to settle= d the pin on him, he moved, so that his butt was facing me, so I had to let down. Wit= hin 20 seconds he moved back to his original location. I was at full draw befor= e he stopped and was just starting to squeeze the trigger on my release when he knelt down to drink. I repositioned the pin and squeezed off the shot. The 3 blade Rocky Mtn Titanium was a little forward of where I wanted it to be, but it drilled him pretty good. He just smoked out= of there. I watched where he went until he was out of sight, than called Hein = to let him know I had just shot a Waterbuck. Hein had already called the farm = to have me picked up, so he instructed me to let them know I had an animal down when they got there and they would track him for me. What he didn't tell me= was he was busy tracking a Kudu bull that Todd had shot just about the same tim= e I was shooting the Waterbuck! About 10 minutes or so after I had called Hein a truck pulled up and it was Dries Visser Senior himself with a couple of trackers. He introduced himself and said he was th= ere to pick me up. I introduced myself and thanked him for coming to pick me up, but advised him we needed to track my Waterbuck first, which of course surprised him. It was close to being dark now, so we tried very quickly to = see if we could find him. There just wasn't enough light left. Dries called Hein and let him know we were going to need the Jack Terriers to help track the bull. When Hein arrived with the dogs, I relayed what had happened. Of cour= se his first response was "Let's look at the video……" I = had to explain again how excited I had gotten which caused me to forgot again to turn it on. I think Hein was starting to think I wasn't the brightest lightbulb in the chandelier. Anyway, with Hein's help= and the dogs, we found the Waterbuck in short order. When Hein and Dries Sr. wa= lked up on the bull they both exclaimed what a nice bull it was. I knew for sure than he was a good one. Once we loaded him up in the dark we headed back to= the farm. It wasn't until we got back that I found out Todd had killed a Kudu b= ull! And a darn nice one too! What a way to start our first hunt in South Africa! The first day and we had 3 really nice animals down.
The next day Todd was the one to be by himself in the blind. Hein and I wen= t to a different blind where he thought we had a good chance to get a nice Impal= a. We had a crusher buck come by at about 80yds about 8-9 am. But he never came close to giving me a shot. He was really nice too. This was a slow day by t= he normal standards there. We had some Warthogs come in, no shooters, Waterbuc= ks and some female Impala's followed by a flock of Guinea Hens you would not believe. There were so many Guinea Hens, they raised a dust cloud with all their running around chasing and fighting with each other. About 1 pm, roug= hly, we had a herd of Impala's come in, about 40 in total. There was a very nice buck with them. The whole herd came into the water and mineral lick at the = same time. You talk about a tough shot! Impala are milling and moving every which way. They don't stay still for a more than a few seconds. They fight for sp= ace amongst themselves at the waterhole and the mineral lick. It's really somet= hing to see. I know I pulled back and let down on that buck probably 3-4 differe= nt times until he finally gave me a clear shot. The shot was about 14 yds. At the shot he took off with the herd as hard as= could go! The 3 bladed Rocky Mtn blew right thru him.= The whole herd was blowing and "growling" like you wouldn't believe. = They are really noisy when excited. I watched him hauling butt with the herd off= to our right through the side portal of the blind for about 100yds. Than he ju= st piled up right in the middle of a two track road! Boy was I excited again, = 2nd day of hunting and I had 3 animals down with 3 shots!
The next day Hein took me to a different concession for Kudu. Todd was goin= g to hunt by himself again. We were in the blind for a couple of hours but only = had some smaller warthogs and a few female Kudu's come in. We saw a Hartebeest = go by about a 100+yds from us. He never stopped covering country. At about 10a= m a nice boar Warthog came in that Hein said was a shooter. He was 17yds broads= ide at the water. I set my sight for 17 yds and set= tled the pin right at his shoulder and squeezed off the shot. It hit exactly whe= re I was aiming. He didn't go 70yds before he was down kicking up a dust cloud. = Hein did not want to disturb the area by us walking over to him, so we let him l= ay where he was. We had cow Kudu w/ some smaller bulls at the feeder on and off all day long. The big bulls were staying away. Hein earlier had some concern about our scent and had lit some Zebra dung to help mask our scent. It must have worked as finally the bulls started coming in. They are the most regal looking animal you can imagine. They are also very, very spooky. A bird fly= ing or anything would cause they to jump and mill around or run off a short distance. It was really starting to get late when we had 3 bull Kudu come i= nto view. It seemed like it took forever but finally the bulls made it to the feeder with the cows. The Bulls used their horns to clear space with the ot= her Kudu. It is really something to see. They just whack other Kudu with their horns to let them know they haf to move or ther= e is going to be trouble. It's really neat see. It must have taken close to 20 minutes for the bull that Hein wanted me to shoot to give us the shot. The blinds here were different than the others as they had dark glass over the shooting ports, not the shoot thru netting like the others had. So to shoot, the portal door has to be opened. We had opened it up two times earlier, on= ce for me to range some spots, and another time for some reason I've forgotten. Anyway, there had not been any problems whatsoever. This time however, with= the Kudu bull right there @ 11 yds, the portal door decides to creak as Hein slowly opened it. Hein froze at the sound. The shooting portal window was only open about 70 degrees and bull was staring right at us. He didn't stop staring at the blind or move for about 5 minute= s. Finally he went back to feeding. I whispered to Hein that I could make the shot with the window where it was at. So Hein slowly ducked down out of the way. I settled the pin right above his front leg at the lower 3rd point and squeez= ed off the shot. The bull just spun out of there and took off at a hard run directly away from us into the brush. I asked Hein if the shot looked good.= It happened so fast he didn't get to see it either so we checked the video in = slow motion. You could clearly see the shot was absolutely perfect. We both knew= he was going to go down in short order. Hein called Leffa= , our tracker, and told him to bring the truck. While we gave the Kudu time, = we went and got the Warthog I had shot earlier in the day. Hein took a few pictures, reminding me that in the poicture I w= ould be the one with the bow, than we loaded him into the truck. Hein and I went= to track the Kudu as it was really starting to get dark. Hein was leading as we tracked through the low brush. We went about a 100+ yd= s when Hein saw the bull piled up in the grass just ahead of us. He turned and said "There he is". I was so excited! I don't have the words to describe to you how I felt at that moment. You travel thousand of miles, sp= end some pretty big bucks, hoping for the opportunity to shoot your #1 animal a= nd it happened! He was a nice one too. We started walking towards him, taking about 5 steps, when about 60 yds beyond the Kud= u a small herd of seven BIG Cape Buffalo got up. I stopped dead in my tracks and immediately started looking for something significant to climb. I started looking in earnest when Hein said "This isn't good!" Well, Hein e= nded up yelling at them and clapping his hands loudly. I wasn't sure if that was= a good idea or not! I was still looking for a tree to climb. After a short st= are down by the buffalo, they decided to run off, much to my relief. So we fina= lly were able to get to my bull. He was absolutely gorgeous!! I couldn't have b= een happier! He was as good as Todd's Kudu with beautiful full curls and ivory = tips that tipped out at the top. What an animal! So now I have been in Africa for 3 days and I had 5 animals down, unbelie= vable!

I ended up having to slow things up as far as taking anymore animals. I con= tinued to hunt but was more focused on getting a really exceptional Warthog or Imp= ala. Even though I didn't shoot anything for the next few days, I was not bored = for sure and continued to have opportunities that I choose not to take. Two days before our last day I told Hein that I wanted to try for a Wildebeest that = had come in to one of the waterholes I had been sitting. I thought he was a pre= tty good one but would like to have him confirm it before I took the shot. The = next day Hein was with me in the blind. Wildebeest are hard to judge if you don't see them regularly. This was also the same waterhole we had seen that big Impala at. So I told Hein that if the big Impala came in I would try to take the shot if it was presented. We sat all day with lots of animals coming in, but nothing I wanted to shoot and no Wildebeest. Finally, late in the pm a = herd of 20 + Wildebeest came to the waterhole. The bull I had seen previously st= ayed back while the cows came in and worked the mineral lick and drank from the = waterhole. Finally the Bull came in. Hein confirmed it was a good Bull. There was a problem though due to our looking directly into the setting sun. It made looking out the shooting portal, where the Wildebeest were, really tough. My best sight picture was achieved by backing into the blind as deep as I could from the portal to reduce the impact of the setting sun. I was actually at = the back wall of the blind. This really limited my sight picture to a very narr= ow slot. I told Hein if the cows clear I could make the shot. It really took q= uite abit of time watching, waiting, but finally the= Bull was by himself at the water. I concentrated on the spot I wanted to hit with the sight pin and started my squeeze on the trigger of my release. Just as = the arrow rocketed from my bow, a cow backed up from the right, into my sight picture. Neither Hein or myself could tell where the shot had gone, we just knew the bull had been hit. After things settled down, Hein put the video camcorder on slow motion and we reviewed the shot. We could clearly see the arrow flying right towards the Bulls lung/ chest area when suddenly the cows hind quarter comes into view from the right and just brushes the arrow flet= ch as it passes by. This kicks the rear of the arrow to the left and that's the way it strikes the Bull, the arrow angling to the right, a little sideways.= The Bull had run off and was out of sight. Hein and I followed the direction the bull ran off, but there was very little blood for the first 50-60 yds. As it was getting dark really quick, Hein had me= go back to the blind and get things ready for us to be picked up. Hein continu= ed walking the tracks down to see if he could find the Bull. When Hein came ba= ck he said the blood trail picked up the farther he went, but he thought it was best to let the Bull go overnight and we would pick up the track again in t= he morning. I totally agreed.
The next morning, 6:30am or so, we dropped Todd off at a blind and went bac= k to see if we could find my Wildebeest. To make a long story short, Hein and Leffa worked their butts off to find that guy and we finally did around noon. He must have just died as he was not stiff and everything was good. I can't tell you how hard Hein and Leffa worked. They crisscrossed all kinds of country while I would drive to a pic= k up point and wait for them. It was a great effort by them and greatly apprecia= ted by me.
Todd and I ended up taking a total of 14 animals, Todd took 8 while I took = 6. We both could have very easily taken many more. It was a great time for bot= h of us. We easily saw 400 to 500 animals with 15-18 different species making up that total. Food was plentiful and really good! Our accommodations were fir= st class. Nice rooms with your own bathroom and shower. Your room is cleaned daily, the bed is made and your linen is changed. Your laundry is also done daily. The staff is terrific, they will see to your every need. It is very clear they want to make your visit a complete success and as comfortable as possible .The evening gatherings at the fire pit or the great room are fun times. All the Ph's, Michael, Stephan, Hein, Dr= ies Visser Senior & Junior plus all the hunters are t= here telling their stories for the day as well as memorable other tales. It's a great time. If your thinking you might want to go to South Africa to hunt some tim= e, GO!! I can confidently tell you Dries Visser Sa= fari's will not disappoint you. Our hunt with Dries Visser's<= /span> Safari's was as good as it gets. You will not be disappointed.
Here's what we used for equipment:

Todd: Mathews set @ 70#s; Carbon Express CX300's; broa= dheads- 100 gr 3 blade Rocky Mtn Titaniums and 100 gr Stee= l Force 4 blade Sabertooth.
Mine: Hoyt Ultratec set @ 67 #; Carbon Express CX300'S (my arrow are 27"); broadheads- 10= 0gr 3 blade Rocky Mtn Titanium's.

You can contact Gene Wensel @ 641-693-9100. Dri= es Visser Safari's website is www.dvisser-safaris.co.za.= His email address is dries@dvisser-safaris.co.za.