I got back Monday from 15 days in South Africa. What a wonderfull and exciting region!! Joburg is at 5,500 feet and Hippo Creek where the shoot was, was at 6,000 feet! It was a little tough getting used to the altitude. Also, I had a Hippo of some 400 Lbs sitting next to me for 13 hours on the flight from Paris to Joburg. I had a back and neck ache for over 3 days and I still get occaisional spasms.
King George was in fine form after the fall and winter hunts. He pulled away on day 3. We did have three days of breakage, poor reffing, broken machines etc.... But on day 4, everything wen't well. BTW, as it was the first major event at the club, JF Palinkas and Costa Helkas had to redo the squad schedule 4 times and once on day 2, as the girl forgot that there were 3 extra squads in the FITASC Sporting.
Booze was very cheap: a double Johnnie Black, a soda and a gin and tonic for Kate (GD's wife and her birthday) was only $5 CDN!
We were invited to a pigeon and dove shoot on a large cattle farm. it was as goos as it gets! They were coming and going all day. As soon as the Township, some 2.5 Km away heard the shots, the locals came to pick up the shot birds. The deal is: they pick up the birds and keep them while policing up the grounds of all empties and cartons. We fed the entire township for a few days! GD was amusing hymself shooting birds at over 80 yards! I managed to shoot some over Tony Manvell's head some way out. I wish that I could shoot clays as well as live birds!
On a side note, the locals were shooting cylinder and skeet on the Compak (5-stand) even with targets out to 50 yards! I shot skeet and IC on the Compak and IC and LM on the FITASC Sporting, smoking rabbits at 45 measured yards! The air is very light and all the shells pattern very tight!
Pictures of the event and South Africa are in my website:
http://www.sportingphotosshop.com/
Next year, they are supposed to have the Compak near Cape Town and the Sporting at the Victoria Falls in Zambia. I will make EVERY effort to go!
Regards,
Henry
King George was in fine form after the fall and winter hunts. He pulled away on day 3. We did have three days of breakage, poor reffing, broken machines etc.... But on day 4, everything wen't well. BTW, as it was the first major event at the club, JF Palinkas and Costa Helkas had to redo the squad schedule 4 times and once on day 2, as the girl forgot that there were 3 extra squads in the FITASC Sporting.
Booze was very cheap: a double Johnnie Black, a soda and a gin and tonic for Kate (GD's wife and her birthday) was only $5 CDN!
We were invited to a pigeon and dove shoot on a large cattle farm. it was as goos as it gets! They were coming and going all day. As soon as the Township, some 2.5 Km away heard the shots, the locals came to pick up the shot birds. The deal is: they pick up the birds and keep them while policing up the grounds of all empties and cartons. We fed the entire township for a few days! GD was amusing hymself shooting birds at over 80 yards! I managed to shoot some over Tony Manvell's head some way out. I wish that I could shoot clays as well as live birds!
On a side note, the locals were shooting cylinder and skeet on the Compak (5-stand) even with targets out to 50 yards! I shot skeet and IC on the Compak and IC and LM on the FITASC Sporting, smoking rabbits at 45 measured yards! The air is very light and all the shells pattern very tight!
Pictures of the event and South Africa are in my website:
http://www.sportingphotosshop.com/
Next year, they are supposed to have the Compak near Cape Town and the Sporting at the Victoria Falls in Zambia. I will make EVERY effort to go!
Regards,
Henry
