John & Julie Svihel - Hunting in South Africa 2010
Good friends and old clients John & Julie arrived in South Africa to hunt with us again in 2010 on the 24th March after a misunderstanding and waiting for them at the airport the previous day!!
We planned the hunt to start in Limpopo at Waterberg proceed to North West to hunt rhino and ending in the Western Cape at Bergplaats Hunting Farm. I visited John & Julie earlier this year at their beautiful vegetable farm in Minnesota and most of the planning for the hunt was done then between hunting and snowmobiling while there.
The hunt started early the morning of the 25th after sighting the rifle and having a few good laughs about John missing the target twice!! (all planned to see the reaction of the PH’S)
While hunting at Waterberg John bagged a few good trophies including warthog, jackal, nyala, common reedbuck a huge blesbuck and baboon. Please see photos below:
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Trophy Warthog
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Big Blesbuck
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Common Reedbuck
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Trophy Nyala
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Jackal
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The crew with Rhino
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Trophy Gemsbuck
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Klipspringer
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Mountain Reedbuck
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Kalahari Springbuck
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Springbuck
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Trophy Duiker
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Bat Eared Fox
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Camp meat Springbuck
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Monster Steenbuck!!
On Monday the 29th we transferred to NorthWest to green hunt a Trophy Rhino Bull the next day. We had a few very exciting and close encounters with the rhino and at one stage John was less then 10 yards from the rhino before he took off!! (The rhino not John) It took us a few hours and a lot of running and stalking to get close enough for the shot and he eventually took the shot at about 25 yards. The bull was very big with a 28″ length and it all ended very well.

The crew with Rhino
On the morning of the 31March they drove to the Western Cape with PH Wiehan as I could not join them having to leave for a hunting expo in Italy. While hunting at Bergplaats Hunting Farm, John bagged a few very good trophies including a monster Steenbuck. The report below are from the farm while having a great time there:
On Wednesday the 31st of March 2010 we welcomed our first trophy hunter to Bergplaats, John and his wife Julie Svihel, from Minnesota in the USA. They where accompanied by PH Wiehan Buchholz and his tracker/skinner Philemon.
They arrived late on the Wednesday and after a great meal it was off to bed and up early the next morning.
On Thursday the 1st of April we first headed off to the shooting range to see if the rifle was still sighted in and after a few shots and a few small adjustments, we went off for Gemsbuck (Oryx), & eventually bagged one late the afternoon.

Trophy Gemsbuck
On Friday the 2nd of April we started the day brilliantly by bagging a good Klipspringer,only an hour after we set off, but the day was far from over. Later that afternoon we bagged a good Mountain Reedbuck.

Klipspringer

Mountain Reedbuck
We decided to go try for Springbuck before Lunch and with everything going our way we quickly bagged a Kalahari Springbuck and after taking photos we went to have lunch. After lunch we headed out for Springbuck again and late the afternoon we managed to bag a great Common Springbuck.

Kalahari Springbuck

Springbuck
On Saturday the 3rd of April Julie went off to the KKNK in Oudtshoorn to see some of South Africa’s art talent, but the hunting continued with John and the morning he bagged two Common Springbuck and late the afternoon he bagged a good Grey Duiker.

Trophy Duiker
On Sunday the 4th of April John and Julie decided to see more of our beautiful country and took a trip around the Garden Route, as well as bunjying Bloukrantz, which is 216 meters high, while Julie enjoyed it and said she would do it again, John on the other hand said it was the first and a last time and they would never see him again.
On Monday the 5th of April they were still taking in the sites of our beautiful country and arrived late the afternoon, we decided to go try for Jackal, Bat-Eared Fox and Caracal, as we had done all the other nights, but without success.
On Tuesday the 6th of April we headed out for the last Springbuck of his package and soon bagged a good Springbuck with skew horns, that afternoon we decide to rest and have a good night session that night. We started the night great by bagging two Bat-Eared Foxes and to our luck the Jackal decided to come out this night, we must have seen at least 8 Jackals but unfortunately John didn’t manage to bag one.

Bat Eared Fox

Camp meat Springbuck
On Wednesday the 7th of April we started looking at where John had shot at some Jackal for any tracks but without luck. After lunch we took John and Julie off to see God’s Window and on our way we spotted a massive Steenbuck and after John asked Willie if he can shoot it he bagged this monster Steenbuck.

Monster Steenbuck!!
On Thursday the 8th of April they were all off early the morning back to Johannesburg Airport to catch there flight.
It was the first trophy hunter and it went really well, bagging some great trophies and having a good time at Bergplaats and of course enjoying the food, so it will certainly not be the last.
It was great to have John & Julie hunting with us again and can’t wait to hunt buffalo with John in Zimbabwe later this year. As Julie said she thinks that John must apply for dual citizenship in South Africa as he just can’t get enough…!!
From all the staff at World to Africa we wish you all the best with your farm this summer and thank you very much hunting with us again.
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