By Dan Ritter
President Bug Band, Inc.

Every since I was a little kid watching Tarzan and Jane I always wanted to go to Africa to see all the big animals and the exotic people. As I got older and started hunting in North America, I would read articles about hunting in Africa and think “Boy, wouldn’t that be a real treat—someday I am going to do that”. Well, this year was “Someday”!
As Bug Band insect repellents have expanded through-out the United States I have been doing a lot of trade shows and at one show, I met Mike Foster.

Mike is a Professional Hunter, better known as a “PH”, and is affiliated with Johann Drayer of Grahamstown, S. Africa. Mike was interested in setting up Bug Band Insect Repellent distribution in S. Africa and I was interested in hunting, so we decided to book a trip for the end of June of this year. S. Africa is at the very bottom of the African continent, so their seasons are the exact opposite of ours—it would be winter that time of the year.

On June 26th, Vivian Carder and I set out from Atlanta, GA on South African Airways which took us to Johannesburg and then on to Port Elizabeth. At Port Elizabeth we were met by our new friend and PH, Mike Foster, who would be with us every hour of the day for the next two weeks. By the time we got our gear and started out of town, it was dark for our 1 ½ hour trip to the lodge. The Lodge is located in a pass in a low laying mountain area, with hills that go up to about 2,500 ft. The pass is Hellsport pass, so the lodge is appropriately called Hellsport Lodge, which is a very clean, neat and obviously a hunting outpost with all the appropriate décor. The Lodge is where you sleep and eat breakfast and dinner. Lunches are prepared at the lodge, but taken to the field while hunting.

On my trip, I had signed up for a “packaged hunt” which consisted of 5 animals—Kudu; Springbuck; Blasbuck; Warthog; and Impala. To that, I added a Blue Wildebeest. Every lodge has a shopping list of animals that are available in their area, along with a price for each animal, so you can add whatever your budget and allotted time allows.

All of S. Africa is fenced, so you hunt on very large farms. By large I mean the smallest one was over 18,000 acres and they went up from there, so we are talking many square miles. The land will remind you a lot of Eastern Colorado or Wyoming, with large rolling prairies, which goes into moderately high mountains. Also the land varies in vegetation from plain grass lands to large brush, to small trees, mixed with brush. Like here in the States, different game lives in different vegetation and geographic conditions, so you may hunt one animal near the lodge, but you may drive 100 miles or more to hunt another species.

All of our hunting was within a 2 hour drive of the lodge, which made it interesting from the viewpoint of seeing some of the country.
I chose not to take a rifle to Africa. I was told there would be a lot of hassle getting the rifle through S. African customs and it would involve a lot of paperwork. Now, I can tell you that is not the case and taking your rifle is not a problem if you fill out the proper paperwork prior to going. All of the other hunters I ran into took their own rifles and had no problems. The lodge I was at had various rifles you could use, all of which were very nice. I chose a Ruger using a 300 magnum Winchester round with a 180 gr. bullet and a 3 x 9 Leopold scope. This rifle had a muzzle break installed, so it was an extremely accurate firearm with very minimal recoil.

The first animal we hunted was the Kudu, which was at the top of my list. We didn’t get started hunting until late in the afternoon, so daylight was going fast, so Mike, along with Toto, our expert native tracker, Mike drove Vivian and me to the back of the lodge property, more or less on a scouting mission. At one point he stopped the truck and started looking at a hillside across a deep ravine, perhaps ½ mile away. He said “do you see those Kudu?” “No, all I see are trees and bushes”, was my reply. I soon found out it takes time to learn what you are looking for among the brush, and to see movement from a long way off.

We got out of the truck and starting walking through thick bushes that were perhaps 10 ft tall. After coming to a clearing, we stopped and watched the hillside, now with binoculars, which allowed even my old eyes to see various brown creatures grazing between the bushes, some with long twisted horns that could be seen above the bush. Once again, we started walking and continued stopping to look and walking some more, all on a steep hillside, opposite the hill the animals were on. When we got to within about 200 yards, Mike set up his shooting sticks and told me to look at the 3rd animal from the left, which he felt was a nice size trophy. Now it is getting pretty late in the day and the sun is almost down, so light was fading fast, which meant I once again had a difficult time seeing the animal he was describing. With the help of the rifle scope I was able to watch the Kudu grazing his way through the bushes, not aware that we were anywhere around.

Mike finally decided this was a good animal and told me to go ahead and shoot, but the view was very limited. With only the shoulder of the animal in view, I laid the cross hairs of the scope just above is left shoulder and squeezed the trigger. With a loud crack of the rifle, all of the animals scattered, including the one I was aiming at. We secured the rifle and started a high speed walk/run to the other side of the ravine, trying to remember exactly where the Kudu was when I shot. Toto, our tracker knew exactly where it was and started looking in the very low light for blood. Within a few minutes, he found one small drop in the dust—how he saw that, I’ll never know.

The rule in Africa is that if you wound an animal, it is the same as killing it, it goes off your list and if you want another one, you have to buy another one. That evening we looked until it was completely dark, with no luck. Mike said “I think you hit him in the leg and simply wounded him, but we will look again in the morning”. Needless to say, I had a very restless night. In my mind, I could see those cross hairs laying just above his shoulders and the trigger squeeze felt smooth, so I really wasn’t convinced I had only wounded him.

The next morning, after a fast breakfast, Vivian, Toto, Mike and I were once again headed to the area where Toto had found the blood spot. Within minutes, Toto found more blood and started tracking, 30 yards from where the Kudu was hit, he had fallen under a bush and we had walked right past him the night before in the low light. Much to my relief, the bullet had gone through both lungs and his heart, so he wasn’t wounded.

One of the great things about hunting in Africa is nothing goes to waste. The hunter gets the skull, cape and horns and the balance of the meat goes to the landowner who uses it for his family and staff. During our two weeks, we had wild game for dinner every night and it was outstanding. We were a little apprehensive about the meals to begin with, but soon learned to look forward to each and every one---you won’t lose weight on these trips.
Of the six animals I hunted, the Springbuck was the most difficult and took two days of serious hunting, but that is another story for another time.

Wild game in S. Africa is very plentiful and you see various species everywhere in the fields along the roads. For us hunters, it is good to know that all of South Africans have a dedication to not only preserving the wild animals, but increasing their numbers. Hunting has become a major industry and attracts thousands of hunters from Europe and North America every year. Major programs, both government backed and private, are expanding the game herds and improving the stock. They have a saying that “if it pays, it stays”, meaning that as long as hunting is bringing hunters and dollars to their economy, they will continue to improve the herds.

Our Bug Band Insect Repellent came in very handy, even though it was winter and I didn’t think bugs would be an issue. In S. Africa there is a small tick, about the size of a grain of pepper, and there are a lot of them, which burrow into your legs. The first day, was right at freezing in the morning, so I didn’t bother with insect repellent. After seeing the ticks, Bug Band spray on the legs and arms was standard procedure and ticks never bothered us again.
se that only death or bankruptcy will cure”. He is right, I plan on going back as soon as I can plan another trip, so we will see what comes first—death or lack of cash.