You can sleep when you’re dead…

DSC01074

Our client in right now is a cat hunter. THAT’S RIGHT! A big cat slayer (for the few of my friends that are diehard cat lovers). Anyways, so we are up all night (and most of the day for other things) spot lighting and hunting for cats. We (the workers) have been getting 2 hour sessions of sleep twice/24hours for a couple of days now. He’s here for 4 more nights. I might have to die just to get some bloomin’ rest…

The good news! We finally shot a couple of things last night. He got a Genet and a really nice porcupine. Unfortunately he missed on a Civet.

***Photos soon to come.

Time for me to get a whopping 3.5 hours of sleepy time. Better than two though! 😉

-The Jonny

Cookin with Jonny, Yeah!

DSC01130

Video update filled with rambling and all sorts of info!

The compression settings I am currently using on my camcorder limit the video length to 30 mins, so that explains the cut off. You’d think I could finish a video in less, but yeah, no. Haha.

I woke up in the middle of the night to have this posted for you guys ASAP. It’s 3:04am right now and tomorrow is going to be a busy day with lots to do, so you’re welcome! But enough rambling! Go watch the video for more rambling…

Cheers!

Someone call a taxidermist?

What’s this!? TWO posts in one day? You got that right! This one is just a quickie though…

This post is for our most recent foreign clients Anthony & Chris. I thought they might like to see where their trophies are at this point. I dropped these off about two weeks ago. Cheers guys!

DSC01101

DSC01102

DSC01100

After every set of foreign clients leaves, shortly afterwards the skins, skulls and horns need to be taken here. It’s about an hours drive one way and I’ve made this trip several times already. It’s towards Pongola and the people that run this place really know what they are doing. I have a lot of respect for them. They actually make some very nice looking mounts.

Cheers!

-The Jonny

A kid in a candy shop…

DSC01114

Time for another thrilling update!

Hey everyone, I hope you are all doing well. I am fine and despite the recent cold snap for a few days that came with some light rain, we are coming right back to the very warm and dry weather.

I actually got to spend a number of days in town at Izak’s parents house in Vryheid about two weeks ago. During that time they went to Pretoria for a few days so I was able to stay and watch over the place and get some much needed R&R. Even though I was confined to the house for the most part it was good to just sit around and do emails and watch movies with the front door open and the cool breeze blowing

Front_Door

So getting back to my candy… by that I mean animals up for hunting. As I’ve previously mentioned the neighbor has a baboon problem amongst other problem animals eating/destroying his crops. There are also some bushbuck on the list. As far as we are aware there are two males and one female. Now I can tell you that I have had the female in my 300 win mag’s sights three times now, and even did a few mock trigger pulls on it while my mouth quietly whispered a *pkeeeww*. However, I have only seen one male and it was from a distance and only for a couple seconds while it ran through a gap in the bushes/trees but everyone says it’s a real monster. So I’ve put around six solid days of hunting in down there and I will continue to do more as I can. Fortunately October isn’t too busy here on the farm and I should be able to log many more days down there.

But check out a lil “hide” I made in some pine trees. I bent and snapped a few limbs and cut some smaller ones to make a nice lil hole looking out exactly where the bushbuck and other animals like to cross.

DSC01119

DSC01120

DSC01118

DSC01126

Sorry for the grimmace in the one pic, I was in hunting/serious mode haha. I’m actually planning on going out there in about an hour (3pm) just to beat the worst of the mid days heat. I’m really hoping I can catch a glimpse of him today and give him a niiiiice dirt-nap! Haha 🙂

As you can see from the pics though, I have a nice shady spot to relax in with a good branch for a rifle rest. If I take the shot, it’s probably about 115 yards away (rough guess). You’ll need to see some of the videos I’ve been taking to get a better idea of how it looks there but there is only a small strip of dirt between the water dam and the fence, so the animals on this side of the farm don’t have many other options of travel. This should be fairly simple… Famous last words lol.

The deal with the neighbor is that he just wants half the meat of anything I shoot. Which I almost cannot believe. I’m not entirely sure what the going rate on a bushbuck is but I’m fairly certain it’s one of the more expensive animals. Also they are a bit harder to hunt since they tend to stick to the REALLY thick dense bush and you usually only see them right around sun up or sun down.

While I’ve invested so much time sitting in that hide a few things have happened. I’ve been ambushed by donkeys, had a close run in with what looked something like a baby tree snake that was about 5 feet from me and finally I got some nice quick footage of some zebras over the fence in Ithala Game reserve hanging out in the wind.

Here’s the short zebra vid:

As for the donkeys, I kept hearing this rustling and strange blunt animal noises I didn’t recognize over my right shoulder just across the water. There are some tall reeds over there so visibility was horrible. I would get tired of trying to see what it was to no avail and would just put my attention back to the bushbuck area. The noises continued until I couldn’t take it anymore. I had to break cover and find out what the heck that was. The rustling was too great I thought to myself, it must be some cool animal plowing through the vegatation over there. So I waited and watched, and kept my rifle ready… There! It’s getting closer and heading for that gap in the reeds! Now I’ll finally see what the heck this animal is… I raised my rifle to my shoulder and… $#!7!!! I cursed. DONKEYS!?!?!? You’ve got to be kidding me. That was what I broke cover and built up all that anticipation for!? *mumbles* – Lousy, stinkin donkeys.

DSC01129

DSC01128

DSC01127

Then another time as I was actually taking a lil break in the mid-day heat, I lied back and was closing my eyes while the breeze washed over the many branches and reeds around me. Then I got a strange feeling and opened my eyes and just kind of peeked around a bit. And that’s when I noticed that baby green snake that was about 15 inches long and extremely thin winding across a branch that was going towards me. We both seemed to notice each other at the same time and froze. Several thoughts went through my mind in a split instant, but as soon as I started to get up it turned around and zipped away faster than I ever would have expected. He seemed a heck of a lot more afraid of me than me of him.

Seconds later I wished I would have had time to snap a photo of it, because that would have been great for this little short story, but unfortunately you’ll just have to use the photos above to help imagine it. I never saw him again but it made me think of two things. One, we are heading into snake season and the babies are beginning to hatch and roam around. Two, it’s amazing that sort of sixth sense we tend to have when someone is watching you or when something is wrong, or maybe when danger is near. I’ve learned to always trust my gut instincts, because they have NEVER let me down.

And finally, I leave you with *Drum Rolls*

Frog.

DSC01125

Cheers!

Short Walk and short update…

It was a good opportunity to get this footage on my walk back to where I stay on the game ranch. Unfortunately it was spur of the moment and I was only able to capture this with my little Sony point and shoot camera which takes great photos and such in normal lighting but doesn’t take the best low light footage. I had to render this footage with the whites blown out a little to take some of the darkness away. This made it a bit grainy but now you can actually see a bit. The original footage was essentially just blackness for a good portion of it. I am also testing out a new compression that brings the file size down extensively. This will help greatly with upload times but I’m not sure if I want to sacrifice the quality of the video. We’ll see what viewers think and I will adjust from there.

Towards the end I give a quick update on a few things that have been happening recently.

I spent a few hours getting all this ready so I hope you all enjoy it a bit. I have TONS of photos and a few stories I’m still trying make time for.

Here is a very short video of a thunderstorm that recently rolled through while we were having a little get together/braii outside.

Cheers!

Find The Frog…

You may have to search for it, but I promise it's there.

Ok, let’s be honest here. I am backlogged on about 20 posts I would like to put up. But I’m going to give you guys at least a solid update today.

Our Spanish client just left and we will have two Americans coming in this Sunday, so right now we have a few days in between and fortunately for once there isn’t THAT much to do on the farm. I have however been ordered to have 3 bushpigs hanging in the freezer before Izak gets back. He told me he wants me to shoot a nice one for myself and then two more younger ones for meat for the camp. I’m not sure exactly when he is returning but I think I have about 2 weeks or so, possibly more. Either way I will be spending a lot of time down in the orange grove on our neighbors property by myself, in the pitch dark in a lil tent hide till the early hours of the frigid morning. They have a night scope on a rifle that I believe shoots a 30-06 Springfield. Hopefully that is enough wallop for these tough lil piggies. I would actually love to use my 458 Lott on one of them but being in the dark with the open sights isn’t going to work too well. To tell you the truth, I would love to use this thing on ANYTHING at this point. Some of you might hate me for saying this, but I’m actually pondering taking a giraffe with it . I’m just eager to see how it performs.

I have already finished my other “jobs” to get done while he was gone. I fixed some light bulbs around some of the buildings on rickety, swaying ladders that should probably be thrown away or destroyed forever haha, and I repaired the red Honda dirt bike from some crash damage (not me) that it had. It had several bent and broken parts including some levers and the shifter. I also put in a new battery for it because for a while I was having to get it rolling and then drop the clutch to get it started.

Also, I have done more long distance driving in the last month than I have in my entire life. Several days of 14 hours on the road. The clients I took to Hluhluwe I drove straight to the airport when they were leaving and that was a 9 hour drive, as well as tons of 6 hour one way trips to either pick up or drop clients at Joburg airport from the game farm. Now many of you that know me well know that I’m not into energy drinks. Well I have had to rely on a few of them recently to get me through these long days on the road. I can’t pull over and nap when there are clients with me. And more importantly, most areas you wouldn’t want to pull over anyways because you might get car jacked or mugged/killed etc.

Enter Red Bull:

Red Bull Gives You Heart Palpitations!

“Wooooooooooooo!!!!!” is what the caption should read and would express how I was feeling lol. So does it work? Yes, but caffeine and all that has a strange effect on me in large quantities. I get more jittery than anything else because I don’t usually consume much of it. Either way with that and pumping loud music I made it through the journeys safely.

—————————————————

About a month ago I finally had a couple spare hours just before sunset to go and sight in the 300 Win Mag I brought along with me.

A Weatherby in 300 Win Mag.

A Weatherby in 300 Win Mag.

So I grabbed one beer and some targets and went off to our “shooting range”.

DSC00699

Wouldn’t you know it!? It DID get out of whack! By a good bit too! I’ll show you the target here:

DSC00701

The very first shot was the one that is in the upper left just off of the paper. After that I adjusted the scope mostly downward and just a little to the right for starters. The next two shots are the ones touching in the middle left on the paper. The fourth shot is the one in the center of the upper left black square. After that the next 3 shots came in this order: Dead center but just to the right, and then the two that are touching just above dead center and to the left a small amount. At that point I was satisfied enough that it was shooting a little bit high from the center point and I believe it was just me who pulled the last two shots slightly to the left of the center line. So that’s about where I wanted it without going through too much ammo (I only was able to bring 40 rounds).

The last cartridge I saved for my dear friend Mr. Castle. He’s seen better days…

The can was filled with loose sand. Bullet hole just below the word "Lager".

The can was filled with loose sand. Bullet hole just below the word “Lager”.

Check out that exit wound! This was a bad day to be a beer can.

Check out that exit wound! This was a bad day to be a beer can.

I love how it flayed out the metal into so many petals. It’s almost like a piece of artwork . I placed the pieces of the bullet (Federal Power-Shok 180 grain soft points) on the rock as well. I dug them out of the dirt bank.

————————————————-

Some South African guys struck a deal with us “the farm” to use their heavy duty CAT grader to grade our main dirt roads and in return the two guys wanted to be able to shoot a blue wildebeest and an impala each for biltong and dry wors. Well the one guy I took out hunting (I was able to guide him which was pretty cool) towards the climax moments of our stalks soon insisted that I must take the shot for him. I am in no way teasing him or speaking badly of him but he told me how hes a bad shot, and how even his friends make fun of him. So with much persistence he finally persuaded me to shoot for him. I thanked him immensely and we both got everything we could hope for out of the hunt .

Keep in mind this was just non-trophy meat hunting so I’m not showing you these pictures to brag of horn size or this or that, it’s simply about the memories and the experience. It was very nice of him to let me take his animals for him.

DSC00765

DSC00761

DSC00769

I also shot his female impala but it was a head shot so I didn’t bother with the gore.

And later that night, we celebrated by the fire with the classic South African drink. Brandy & Coke!

DSC00777

DSC00774

We had a really good time, and these were some nice guys. Excuse the one blurry shot but I had to get creative and hung the camera from a tree branch to get a nice angle of all of us but it was swaying in the wind a bit.

As always there is plenty more to tell but I have spent half the day on this post and I am very pleased I managed to put up a bunch of pictures and even a video for everyone! =)

If I can I will continue with something like a “Part two” tonight. I need to keep working on the cape buffalo story too *gulps*. Apparently everyone is really on edge for that one and I’ve been getting some requests/inquiries about when it will be ready. As I mentioned before, the big thing with that is having time to edit all the vids and then compress and upload them. The 3 minute video I uploaded today for this post took a little over two hours to upload so you can imagine how long it takes for anything that is a bit longer. I usually have to leave my computer on overnight and do it while I sleep.

Ok, I’m off to go put bait out for the bushpigs and swap the memory card on the trail camera. Hopefully the big piggy will start coming in more regularly because I have a bullet with his name on it .

He’s lucky for this weekend though because temperatures are supposed to drop to around freezing and I’m sorry but there’s no way I’m sitting in a blind for 6-8 hours in those temps! Things should get warmer starting Monday so I’ll start hunting then.

And hopefully we can eat dinner soon tonight, because my stomach is-a-grumblin!

I hope everyone is doing well!

Cheers!

-The Jonny

Another Trip to Joburg…

The Perfect Day

Well here we are again, wrapping up our last night with another set of clients. This can only mean that someone has to drop them off at the airport. These are a bunch of people from Alabama and other parts of the East Coast of the USA.

They were mostly bow hunters and were successful getting the animals they wanted on this trip. Let me tell you, sitting in a blind for 4-6 hours is very trying if you are extremely behind on sleep. You’re eyes feel like they weigh more than a dozen elephants sitting on a flatbed truck!

There has been a lot of ups and downs lately but I am happy to say that I am still hanging in there and doing my best. I’ve learned a lot, and more importantly I have also learned that I have much, much more to learn…

Phongola River - KZN - SA

I hope you all have a great day.

Cheers!

-The Jonny

Thunderstorm in Hluhluwe…

Hey everyone,

This is a vid from just a few days ago. The description on YouTube should tell you mostly everything you need to know about it.

class="aligncenter
These were my two lucky guests I was escorting for the remainder of their trip in SA. They were tons of fun and really great people.

All I had with me with my little Sony point and shoot to take the vid. The storm got much worse just after the video stopped but you can see how often already the lightning was flashing.

Enjoy!

-The Jonny

Holy Smokes…

Tiger Lodge, Natal

Hey everyone!

My deep apologies for being away for so long. I always say I am extremely busy but this has been ridiculous haha. I am so behind on sleep, but am still alive and well. Currently we have a couple American guys from Tennessee here and they have shot 22 animals in total between the two of them this trip including a lion and a buff. I wish I had time to tell you all more but I have to be awake in 6 hours and I may be driving these clients into Joburg. I’m not looking forward to that 5hr + drive. Normally it’s good to get out but I really dislike driving when you are tired/sleepy.

There are a ton of stories I am behind on but just as a teaser, I was able to recently shoot a Blue Wildebeest and an impala for this one guy who didn’t want to shoot. I have a few pics of the wildebeest and will eventually post them.

I’ll leave you with one other recent pic =)

Tiger Lodge - overlooking the dam

Oh alright-alright! A few more… I’m getting ahead of myself though because these pictures below were from a 4×4 event I went to but it was on a really nice property in Vryheid.

Miller Time...

DSC00805

DSC00809

DSC00810

CHEERS!!!

PS: While I’m here, I guess I should mention something that is kind of a big news. I got my Visa extended!!! It still has to be processed by the Gov here but essentially they said now that I have started the process I will be able to legally overstay my Visa no matter what they decide to do with my extension. The guy who helped me also let me know that it should go through just fine and they should be able to get me another 90 days no problem. Assuming there are no hiccups. What? Here in South Africa??? Naaaah! Never! Haha.

Goodnight!

ZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzz’s

-The Jonny