Dries Visser PH Gerhard Van Vuuren lost tracking dogs

[bucksaw]

Just wanted to let those of you who have hunted with Dries Visser Safaris PH Gerhard van Vuuren know of his recent tragic loss of his tracking Jack Russel Terriers.
I recently received an email from Gerhard letting me know that his female pup "Hoyt" died after she ate some rat poison. 2 hours trying to save her at the vet was unsuccessful.
Then three weeks later his male JRT "Redheart" disappeared from the back of his truck on his way home from Thabazimbi. Dispite retracing his route he was unable to find Redheart.
My wife and I recently returned from our hunt with Dries Visser Safaris and Gerhard as our PH. Both of those little dogs were a big part of our hunt and did excellent tracking jobs.
 
 

[RL]

I can't believe it! I was just hunting with Gerhard a week ago. We got back to the truck one day and the little Jack Russell was looking lathargic. We rushed to the vet and it was suspected that the dog had eaten some poison. We left him overnight and the next day, after I had shot a fine animal, we learned that the little dog had died. Gerhard took it really hard. Two days later I shot a monster warthog right before dark. Gerhard put Redheart on the track and the Jack Russell tore off silently. After about three minutes Redheart cornered the warthog and Gerhard, Lucky (the tracker) and myself charged through the veld. The hog started running again and again we stopped and listened. Another three minutes and the dog corners the hog again. We charge through the thorns getting tore up pretty good heading for the barking. We just get the lights on the hog and, as Redheart looks back at us, the warthog nails him good causing the dog to yelp. Off goes the hog with Redheart hot on his heels. A short time later we hear Redheart barking and we charge through the black of night again. This time we are able to dispatch the warthog. As we drag the hog out Redheart is grabbing his rearend and shaking it. Ha! I go ahead and let him even though he is dragging the opposite way of Gerhard and Lucky as  I feel he earned it. What a courageous little dog!! Gerhard said at the time he couldn't stand to loose him. I sure hope he is able to find him.
Rick

[RL]

Thought you might like to see the big warthog that Red Heart tracked down. It is the larger one in the picture.

[RL]

Sorry guys, how cruel was that? First time I tried sending a picture .

[bucksaw]

RL: That is a NICE Warthog! I didn't see anything near that big. Did you get him at Citadel or out of the mountain camp?

[paleFace]

Gerhard had contacted me not long after my son and i had left africa to let me know that Tembe had passed away.  then just last week he emailed letting me know about hoyt and redheart. these are some portraits i shot of Gerhard's JRT's while there.  i am sending him enlargements of these and others. they were all great dogs and were like his kids.    
   
   

[RL]

Bucksaw,
Red Heart and I got that big warthog out of the mountain camp.
Rick

[paleFace]

RL, i see you hunted in the mountain camp.  how was your hunt?  did you take any other nice animals on your hunt...

[RL]

Rob, I hunted out of Mountain Camp from September 13-23.  I was the only hunter there for 7 days. The Mountain Camp is actually owned by somebody other than Dries Visser. The Citadel can only handle 45 hunters per year and Dries was trying to accomodate more hunters by finding more consessions. The actual camp is very nice but only sits on 3,000 acres so most of the hunting is done on other consessions. I hunted on ranches of 4,000 to 10,000 acres. I hunted 9 days and saw somewhere between 30 to 50 animals per day. I shot one kudu, two impala, two warthogs and one blesbok. I shot one wildebeast through one lung and lost it. I wanted a gemsbok but did not see any. The food was good and the service great. I think I did OK for my first trip.

[paleFace]

RL,  i was in the mountain camp as well and the only hunter there.  i had my son with me so we had the run of the place.  sorry to hear about your wildebeast, they are tough animals. don't know if Gerhard told you about my wildebeast, but we didn't think we were going to find him and i had a lung shot as well.

[HUNTER66]

RL,
This is good luck that I found you on here. This is Will McKelvain,I was with Benny when we picked you up at the airport in Johannesberg before we dropped you off at the mountain camp.
We had a great trip as well and killed alot of animals.Terry,my partner who was with me, ran face to face with a Black Mamba in the first hour of the first day. Everything worked out O.K.though and didn't see any more snakes the rest of the trip. Send me your e-mail address and I'll send you some pictures. Glad you had a safe return home.

[bucksaw]

Will,

My wife and I were at Citadel in late August and luckily didn't see a Mamba. I am curious which blind your partner was in???? There was a Mamba sighting a few days before we were in a blind near the lodge. The guy said it had to be 9 feet long.

[HUNTER66]

Bucksaw,
It was near the lodge,but I believe it was exactly the opposite way from where the 9 footer was sighted. This one was only about 6 feet long. I believe the one your talking about is where their hotspot for zebra was. My buddy sat in that pit blind too, but kept a shotgun in the blind with him. Dries said there was a 9 footer seen there a week or two before and they never saw it again to kill it. I mainly did spot a stalk hunts or set up a pop-up for an ambush,the entire time I was there so I not real familier with all their pit blinds or mamba pits as my buddy now calls them.