Hunting African Game with a .500 S&W Magnum

This story initially ran within the January 2015 problem of Out of doors Life.

I by no means obtained to hunt Previous Africa. That time was made clear on my first safari in 2004, which happened within the Limpopo province of South Africa. My looking accomplice and I had break up up; he went with our information and I took off into the bush with our tracker.

The tracker and I didn’t share a spoken language and needed to depend on hand alerts and different gestures as we stalked by the scrub searching for plains sport. But it surely didn’t matter. We had been each members of the looking fraternity and understood one another effectively sufficient.

As we moved slowly by the comb I stayed shut on his heels, my senses hyper alert for any trace of an animal. There was no strategy to know whether or not we’d bump right into a kudu, an impala, or a bunch of rhinos. The expertise was pure magic. It was Africa.

The tracker stopped and I froze in place. I seemed forward, scanning the bushes, however noticed nothing. Then I seen his proper hand slowly drift backward. I stared at it, making an attempt to interpret the sign. The hand saved transferring again as he reached into his pants pocket.

He pulled out his cellular phone and answered the decision with, “Hoe gaan dit? ”

So it’s correct to say my hunts in Africa all occurred throughout the trendy period. However even within the final decade, the looking scene has continued to evolve considerably. Final spring I made my fourth journey to Limpopo. I used to be drawn there for 2 causes: One was to see a daring new conservation venture in motion, and the opposite was to tackle African sport with a handgun. 

Borderlands

The Limpopo River types the border between South Africa and Zimbabwe. The realm is lush by the requirements of southern Africa. Mopane and acacia develop in dense thickets with patches of grass, brushy river bottoms, and rock kopjes additionally outstanding within the panorama. 

The area holds loads of sport that’s largely contained behind the excessive fences that encompass the massive ranches discovered there. Whereas the fences actually assist preserve the animals from roaming, in addition they operate to maintain individuals out — poachers and bandits specifically.

Zimbabwe was in full meltdown throughout my first journey, and the ranch house owners and employees by no means let their guard down. Tales of ranch invasions by determined border crossers had been widespread, and neither the landowners nor the invaders confirmed any mercy throughout these bloody encounters. Even stealing one thing as fundamental as firewood from the land might get a trespasser shot. Many ranchers feared leniency could be interpreted as weak point, and an invite for lethal incursion.

The turmoil of that point has subsided, giving strategy to extra minor offenses. The rolls of razor wire that shaped a no-man’s land on the South African facet of the river have fallen into disrepair. Elephants have trampled sections of the fence, making it simple for cigarette smugglers coming from Zimbabwe to cross Limpopo.

Nonetheless, the relative political stability is permitting ranch house owners like Hannes Nel to reassess how sport is managed. Excessive-fence operations are costly to keep up and retain a stigma amongst some hunters who don’t wish to shoot animals in an enclosure, regardless of how huge the enclosure could be.

Nel, who has lived in Limpopo for 34 years, reached out to a few of his neighbors to type a conservancy the place they’d take down the excessive fences to permit the animals to hunt out the very best habitat for his or her seasonal wants. Hunters have entry to the mixed acreage, and get to pursue animals below fair-chase circumstances.

“The conservancy isn’t just in regards to the wildlife, however in regards to the flora, the habitat, and the cultural heritage of the realm,” Nel says. “Whereas one of many targets is to create a sustainable inhabitants of animals, we even have a mission to take care of among the archaeological websites right here.”

The Maroi Conservancy was based in 2009 and included six properties that adjoin with Nel’s ranch. Since then, the conservancy has added different landowners to the combo and expanded to incorporate about 23,000 whole acres. 

“The primary couple of years had been simply cleansing up the land. Taking down the fences. Eradicating snares and conducting anti-poaching operations, and rising the variety of animals,” Nel says.

The Problem

The conservancy remains to be a younger operation, and my looking companions and I needed to work arduous for our animals. The duty was made more difficult by our selection of substances. We left our rifles at house and as a substitute spent the week toting revolvers topped with red-dot sights. 

Getting good accuracy from a handgun is way trickier than from a rifle. As with a bow, a handgun’s level of affect can shift radically relying on how it’s gripped. Handguns are additionally terribly delicate to follow-through. If the shooter doesn’t preserve deal with the gun’s sights and preserve even stress on the set off till the recoil subsides, hits past spitting distance turn out to be a dicey proposition. However with some follow to develop constant approach, taking sport out to 100 yards or extra isn’t troublesome.

When it got here to knocking animals down, our selection of caliber wasn’t any type of compromise. All of us had X-Body revolvers from Smith & Wesson, which had been chambered in .500 S&W or .460 S&W. I used the .500, however both caliber packs sufficient of a wallop to kill any animal on earth.

Topping a looking revolver with a red-dot sight makes for a pleasant pairing, however on the X-Body weapons the paramount consideration is reliability. The recoil on these beasts will shake a sub-par optic to items, breaking reticles, popping lens components free, and customarily inflicting havoc.

Whereas nobody can accuse the Eotech pink dots of being svelte, they’re powerful. Eotech’s background within the navy and police markets means their sights are constructed to resist the trials of fight and heavy-recoiling firearms. That they had no drawback dealing with the kick of the .500s and .460s.

To wield a handgun successfully, a hunter wants two different items of substances. One is a taking pictures stick for regular intention. Whereas not usually utilized by hunters within the U.S., taking pictures sticks are widespread in Africa, since sitting and inclined photographs don’t current themselves fairly often. 

To make use of sticks correctly with a handgun, the shooter ought to help the chin of the body (and never the barrel), which is situated simply in entrance of the set off guard, within the V of the sticks.

The opposite piece of obligatory gear is listening to safety. The muzzle brakes on the X-Frames do an incredible job of lowering recoil, however they throw off a shockwave that may take your breath away — in addition to your listening to — if you’re not sporting earplugs.

Walkabout

Each morning Chris Van Staden, my 34-year-old skilled hunter, Samuel, our tracker, and I might load up the looking truck and take off for a unique part of the conservancy. We might drive till we seen some recent tracks within the highway or noticed an animal off within the distance, after which hop out and stroll.

Samuel would select the spoor and we’d twist our manner by the vegetation, hoping to catch as much as no matter animal we had been stalking and take it unawares.

We ceaselessly climbed the kopjes to get a greater view of the panorama, although coming throughout a twisted pile of shed mamba snakeskin as thick as my forearm diminished my enthusiasm for scrambling up the rocky outcroppings.

At one level, I shot a big rock rabbit — a rodent that appears like an oversize marmot — for Samuel to take again to his village for lunch. The 40-yard shot let me know my zero was intact.

To Chris’ annoyance, the animals had been staying effectively out of sight and we didn’t have any photographs on sport for the primary three days. Then, throughout a midmorning stalk on a kudu we had noticed, we got here throughout a herd of impala bedded amongst some rocks. With the wind in our favor, we moved in shut. The herd began to stroll off, and I noticed ram quartering away at 90 yards. A single shot from the .500 dropped him and our dry spell ended.

Little did we notice that when we loaded the impala into the truck, the drought would begin proper up once more.

We hunted and walked day by day. We chased eland by dry creekbeds; adopted kudu bulls throughout woods of mopane, rooibos, and shepherd’s bushes; and performed hide-and-seek with waterbuck within the thick undergrowth alongside small streams.

Coming house one evening, we caught a big snake crossing the highway. Samuel bopped it on the top with a stick and I threw it at the back of the truck. Once I introduced it into camp, the opposite guides weren’t completely satisfied. “That’s a spitting cobra, you recognize,” one in all them stated because the snake started twisting in my fingers. I took it again exterior and let it go.

No hurt, no foul. Different hunters in my celebration fared considerably higher. By the tip of the week they’d taken impala, waterbuck, kudu, zebras, and warthogs. The revolvers had been getting the job performed.

Learn Subsequent: The Best Handguns for Big-Game Hunters

The camp was a complicated affair. It was arduous to really feel down coming again to camp empty-handed realizing that air-conditioned tents with good beds and scorching showers had been ready. Nel’s employees took excellent care of us, making ready meals with native sport and produce from the farm, whereas the hunters loved sundowners across the hearth pit.

Every morning I used to be looking forward to a reversal of our fortunes, able to settle the pink dot of my sight on an animal whereas thumbing again the Smith’s set off. I wish to report {that a} kudu bull stepped into the open on the final hour of the hunt, but it surely simply wasn’t so. He and his different horned kin remained hidden.

“That’s dangerous luck,” Chris stated, annoyed by our lack of success as we drove again to camp the final evening. However I didn’t see it that manner. It didn’t really feel like dangerous luck in any respect. It felt like looking.