Excellent experience with Chattaronga Safaris

[Leland]

Thank-you for the pics and stories,loved them.
Leland

[Quickblood]

Originally posted by John Havard:
You nailed it Burnsie.  It was rough.  One morning there were only three different kinds of cookies/biscuits.  Once we ran out of coffee in the blind on our morning sit.  In fact one of the days I had to go almost THREE HOURS without eating!  Despite the privation and hardship we managed to pull through.

that's great, congrats and thanks for sharing!

[John Havard]

Thanks to everyone for the kind words.  As a sponsor it means a great deal to me when one of our customers takes the time to report (hopefully) favorably on one of our Dryad ACS bows.  So as a customer myself I wanted to favorably report on the guidance and suggestions of Neil Summers with Bowhunting Safaris (a sponsor), and on the great performance of Joe Furlong's TuffHead broadheads (also a sponsor here).  While at Chattaronga I suggested to Philip that they should consider becoming a sponsor here too.  Good products and service deserve prominent mention and fair reporting.

Also, thanks to everyone who suggested Africa as a great destination.  I was convinced before going over there but am even more so now.  The experience was wonderful.  And when we're all lying on our death bed all we'll have are our memories.  They might as well be filled with good ones!

[katman]

Thanks for the post and reviews, makes me want to go back even more.

What length limbs are you using for your long draw and the 17" riser?

[John Havard]

katman, I was shooting our XL limbs.  At the BH I like for those limbs on that riser (8"-8 1/4") I need a 60" string, so the bow is 63" AMO.  That combo of riser & limbs is schmoooth out to 32" draw length.

[Kevin Dill]

The burning question for me:

How old was the wine? (!)

[Hud]

John,
Your pictures are absolutely incredible, terrific accommodations, trophies and trip, thanks for sharing and your recommendation. They will definitely be my list.

I would be interested to know what cameras you used to shoot these pictures. First rate. Congratulations.

[John Havard]

Kev,

The wine was old enough to be consumed, that's for sure.  Lots of very nice wines can be had from South Africa, and that's coming from a resident of California wine country!

Hud, most of the photos I posted were taken with a Nikon D300s with a Nikon FX 28-300 zoom lens.  I did very little with filters and fudged little if anything on the computer after downloading the photos.  Most of the remaining photos were snapped with a Canon PowerShot D-11.  We also had a Canon S-100 pocket camera and we took a few photos with it.  If we're ever fortunate enough to go back we'll take a second DSLR with equally long zoom, or perhaps even a bit longer.

[Big Ed]

John, those pictures are outstanding !! Thank you for sharing

[Ryan Sanpei]

Awesome pics! Congrats and thanks for sharing!

[wingnut]

I love the video of the leopard.

Mike

[DeCurry]

What a great experience, thanks for sharing with us.  Those pictures are amazing.

[tracker1]

WOW John, you should be a professional photographer.  Your pictures look outstanding.  Thanks for sharing.  Congrats on the Zebra and the Wildebeest also.
               

[John Havard]

Burton, like I said early on, if you take enough photos some of them are bound to turn out!  A pro almost certainly wouldn't have blown as many as I did.
 
 
 
 
 
 

[vintage archer]

John, The pictures are fabulous! You narrative and videos make a person feel like they were almost there.

 I have been working on my wife to do the African experience your descriptions and pictures have her thinking.

Congratulation on you trophies! beautiful animals and excellent pictures depicting them.

You hunt was particularly interesting and personal to me as you used the Tuffhead broadhead in both of your kills. I am pleased and grateful that you chose the TuffHead and that it preformed well for you. While we have a lot of broadheads going to Africa yours are the first large African species reported down. Again Congratulations.

While I am always flattered when someone says good things about our products I don’t usually contribute a lot to what guides and PH say as one is not sure what is motivating them. In this case I believe every word the PH said.    
Before I do go to Africa maybe I could get some lessons in photography from you.        
Again thanks for using and mentioning our broadheads.

[Whip]

Wow!  I don't know how I missed this until just now, but I'm sure glad I found it.  Outstanding photos John!  Sounds like the trip of a lifetime!  And congratulations on a couple of beautiful animals.  You can bet I am going to sit my wife down and make her look at this thread!

[BMN]

Absolutely outstanding! Africa is tops on my to go list. If only I can convince the wife to come along.

[Shedrock]

Outstanding! Thanks for sharing.

[cacciatore]

Thanks for sharing these outstanding pics and story,congrats for your games.

[John Havard]

Joe and Joe, if you can swing the time and expense your wives would absolutely love Africa.  It was a far reach for us, and that's why we had never been before.  Now that we have gone we're already hoping to go back again someday.  Definitely you should take the wife along on such a trip if at all possible.