Author: SSSF Staff

The SSSF team is excited to share the following article, republished with permission from Safari Magazine. What’s really incredible about this family’s awesome story is that this particular African safari was solicited by Denis Karnosky and donated to the SCTP by Joubert Pro Hunt of Africa. This hunt was then included in our live auction at the Kansas City Banquet two years ago, and Chris Hodgdon of Hodgdon Powders was the lucky winning bidder. Chris went on to enjoy this amazing adventure with his entire family…and he shares their once-in-a-lifetime experiences here. A Family Enjoys A Safari Adventure In Africa by Joel Hodgdon After three car rides, two plane flights, one 13 hours long, and an exhausting trip through South African customs where one of our rifles was left behind at the airport due to changes in paper- work we were not aware of, shooting our first antelope, an impala, in the thick brush made the journey there well worth it. Memories of this safari will last a lifetime and get us through many a slow day at work. But we didn’t make these memories alone. Our whole family journeyed across the world to have an adventure together - big game and plains game hunting in the Limpopo province near Vaalwater in northern South Africa. Driving to a different location every day was special; the land- scape was vast and beautiful, including deep woods, mountains, open plains, swamps, peanut farms and plenty of dusty roads. And hunt we did! Two weeks in the brush yielded more than 19 trophies among the three of us hunters. My brother and I were successful in getting an impala, warthog, blue wildebeest, blesbok, and I tacked on a zebra and nyala. Little brother did well taking a nice kudu. Dad’s trophies included sable, waterbuck, eland, bush- buck, reedbuck (common and mountain), duiker, blesbok and klipspringer. Mom was there to pull the trigger—on a camera instead of a .30-’06—while we boys did the dirty work of crawling through mud and sprinting up hills to realize our dream of getting that perfect mount on the wall. Mom was a trooper through and through. She experienced many bumpy roads in the truck while appreciating the beauty an African sunrise gave us as a shared experience unmatched by any typical resort or sunny island. For the first time she witnessed the whole process of stalking, tracking (seeing dad crawl through the bushes, too), trophy shot and didn’t shy away from watching the field dressing of each animal. One of the highlights dad and mom enjoyed was seeing a hippo cross the highway directly in front of their vehicle. Good thing they stopped in time. Hunting was, of course, pure fun as our outfitter Joubert Pro Hunt. Owners Spyker and Ilse Joubert handled everything else. From the minute we stepped off the plane, our guides took care of the travel arrangements: cooking, cleaning, laundry, and our time in the field on game farms throughout the area. Spyker and Clinton van Tonder, our Professional Hunters, always knew where and when to take us for the exact animal that we wanted to track and hunt. Mom had a more realistic view of a safari after hunting seven straight days. Her perception came from Hollywood movies where they show wide-open country driving the herd to the vehicle and just point and shoot. Spyker gave her an education. Our family didn’t bring home the Big Five, but we were astonished to learn about the diversity that a safari offered. There was a little something for each of us, like a dove hunt rivaling Argentina. We were never bored as there was always a unique day planned for us. Coming back to the lodge at night after our usually successful day hunting, a three-course dinner was waiting for us, exotic and delicious, as prepared by our live-in Chef, Gerda Van Graan. These feasts, with fresh entrées often prepared from our own trophy animals (nothing is wasted—meat, organs, bones—everything is used), were accompanied with Ilse’s homemade hot sauce, plenty of award winning South African wine and the local’s favorite drink, brandy. Mom learned to appreciate the brandy when she needed to warm herself after the cold bush pig hunt. After dinner, our family mingled with our hosts in their comfortable home until we could no longer keep our eyes open. An unforgettable experience, my first African safari was made all the more meaningful by having my family alongside me. After you go on safari once, however, you will want to go back...we are already talking about another trip! Many thanks to our hosts, Joubert Pro Hunt!   Commentary From Chris Hodgdon: With my older son Joel recently finishing his undergraduate degree in May 2015 and off to graduate school and Pierce, my younger son in the middle of his college career, we are at the point of our life where the nest will soon be empty. My wife Adele and I agreed that now was the best time as any to travel together on an African adventure. We purchased this safari through a fundraiser benefitting the Scholastic Clay Target program. It certainly was well worth the investment. This was my second safari; quite frankly I don’t know why it took ten years to go back! My caliber of choice was my terrific .270 WSM Model 70 Featherweight Winchester that has traveled the world with me. Plenty of horsepower to knock down the massive eland to the little duiker, my rifle seems to really like 68 to 69 grains of Retumbo (powder) under either the 160 Nosler Partition or the 150 Hornady SST bullet. The other rifle (that didn’t get held up at South African customs) was a Browning A-Bolt .30-’06. It shot very well with the Nosler 180 Partition Custom ammunition. My sincere thank you to Denis Karnosky who donated the safari to SCTP; Ilse and Leon “Spyker” of Joubert Pro Hunt; Kobus Lizkor, who was a terrific escort to Krueger Park; John Nosler, Bushnell, MTM Case-Gard, SKB Gun Cases and all our friends at Safari Club International.