BLOG: Africa Photos

[NateR]

From Matt's blog:

On July 4th, Joey and I left for Africa. We flew in to Johannesburg and then took a jumper flight to Port Elizabeth. All of our hunting was done in the country of South Africa. Joey and I had a great time, I got homesick, but Joey didn't want to come home when the hunt ended. Here are the photos of the animals that we hunted.

My blue wildebeest:


My kudu:


Joey's kudu, also called the Grey Ghost of Africa:


Joey's trophy bushbuck:


Joey's impala:


My red hartebeest:


Joey's gemsbok:


My gemsbok:


My eland (the biggest antelope on the planet):


Joey's zebra:


My black wildebeest:


Me, Joey, and my cameraman Blake:

For my equipment, I used a Browning Medallion XBolt, chambered in .300 Win Mag. I shot a Barnes 180gr, all-copper bullet and I topped it with a Nikon 4-12 BDC reticle. Joey shot a Browning Micro Midas XBolt chambered in 7mm-08. He shot a Barnes 120gr, all-copper bullet and was topped with a Nikon 3-9 BDC reticle.

The Browning gun shot great, the Barnes bullets did their job well; but to be real honest I could not have done the trip without the BDC reticle. With those animals moving close and then sometimes running away, if my guide could get a range on them I could quickly look down and see what reticle to put on them.

This was the reticle as I looked through my scope, so between 100 and 534 yards I had a place to put my scope. Like I said before, I dont' think my hunting trip would have been nearly as successful without Nikon's BDC reticle. I shot trophy animals and to do that I had to use a little bit of range. Very few shots of mine were under 300 yards. Like everything else, I think confidence plays a big part in that. I'm very confident in my shooting and looking back I think I did great, but having the right equipment played the biggest part.

The Bible verse for this week:

-matt

[VCURamFan]

Man, those beasts were massive! Joey did a heck of job.

It's good to have a Matt Hughes Blog again!

[Bonnie]

They all look so huge. What do you do with the animals afterwards?

[VCURamFan]

Originally Posted by Bonnie

They all look so huge. What do you do with the animals afterwards?

That debate has lasted centuries...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fYiCPmwOV4A

[Bonnie]

Originally Posted by VCURamFan

That debate has lasted centuries...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fYiCPmwOV4A

I wasn't sure how to "phrase" my question.

[matt hughes]

Originally Posted by Bonnie

They all look so huge. What do you do with the animals afterwards?

in Africa when you kill any animal the ranch keeps the meat and the hunter gets the hide and skull. when we were there we ate meat from hunts before us so we did get to try different animals. everything we had tasted very good. i think thats a good way to do it though. if i would have got the meat of the animals i would have donated it to a village. they waste nothing over there and have plenty of need for food.

[Bonnie]

Originally Posted by matt hughes

in Africa when you kill any animal the ranch keeps the meat and the hunter gets the hide and skull. when we were there we ate meat from hunts before us so we did get to try different animals. everything we had tasted very good. i think thats a good way to do it though. if i would have got the meat of the animals i would have donated it to a village. they waste nothing over there and have plenty of need for food.

That's great, no waste.

[County Mike]

Those should definitely make your trophy room a lot more interesting. The racks on those animals are very impressive.

[rearnakedchoke]

Originally Posted by VCURamFan

Man, those beasts were massive! Joey did a heck of job.

It's good to have a Matt Hughes Blog again!

man .. that is the first thing i thought of .. absolutely huge ..

[kevint13]

So for these hunts, were you just hanging out in a field or in a blind? Or did you do a lot of walking or driving to find the herds?