10 days in South Africa

[grayghost]

Good hunting on your trip Dom. Let us know how it went, I'll be anxious to hear all about it. Hi Bob, all I can tell you is that you save your pics in My Documents. Then open your picture program such as Adobe Photo Shop etc and open the My Documents file. Click on any saved pic and once it opens, click on edit at the top of the menu. A drop down menu will appear and you can click on Crop. This will create the ability to crop or cut off any of the excess areas of your picture. Another solution would be to look at the top of the menu and select (or click) the % reduction icon. This will allow you to reduce the size of your pic. When you select the size percentage, click the X to close the pic. Then a window appears and you click Save. This allows your pictures to appear in a smaller format. That prevents the post from appearing so large. Some of the Moderators (Skinny Shooter or Petey/owner) can give you better info than I can. Email them or send a PM for help. Good hunting, grayghost

[fabsroman]

It looks like Petey reduced the pic size substantially, but they still require a little scrolling.

For all my huntchat pics, I have a separate folder. I never reduce the data size of an actual digital picture because I might lose some of the quality of the photo. Hence, I save every pic with a huntchat001, huntchat 002, etc name.

I use Microsoft Photo Editor to reduce my picture size. From the My Documents/My Photos folder, or whichever folder your pics are located in, open the pic with Microsoft Photo Editor so that you can edit the pic. Once the pic is opened in this software, select Image from the top menu, and then select Resize from the Image drop down menu. Depending on what size the file was orignally, you might have to reduce it significantly. With my wife's new 7.1 megapixel camera, I have to reduce photos to 30% of their original size to get them to fit on huntchat. Once you reduce the photo, select File from the top menu and then select Save As from the File drop down menu. Save the edited file as huntchat001. That way, you will always know which photo you want to post on the web and you will never edit an original photo.

As far as cropping photos is concerned, save them under a new name too if you crop them or you will lose whatever you crop. I always leave my originals as is and resave any changes to a new file. Hardrives nowadays are large enough to contain a ton of information.

[bsterns]

Fabrosman, thanks for the tips. I cropped and resized the pics and now the scrolling problem is solved.

[fabsroman]

Bstearns,

You are more than welcome. I hope the info helped. I see you decided to crop the pics, and they look pretty good cropped. Of course, it is always good to have some of that background stuff around. That is the nice thing about computers nowadays, you can edit pics and print them out whenever you want. Much easier than sending the to the photo lab all the time.

[John Duarte]

grayghost,
I just finished your story. You took some very nice animals in particular the two bushbucks. I haven't hunted them yet, but hope to next year. Did you do much traveling? It sounds like you moved around a bit to take different animals. Waidmannsheil !
John

[grayghost]

Yes, we hunted a number of places; from the coast of the Indian Ocean to 2.5 hours inland. Several places had good Bushbuck, but one ranch in particular had a great population of them, and I saw several more in the 14-15 inch class. I took my best ram there along with my Nyala. Next year we will hunt there again. My hunting buddy wants to take another one and I will as well if I find an exceptional ram; better than my best one. I love hunting them, as well as Nyala. Their alarm bark (Bushbuck) reminded me of a dog. I've only been home for a week and a half but I wish I were there now! Dang I love Africa! And I've only just begun When are you heading back? Thanks for reading my posts, I appreciate it. Good hunting, grayghost

[Rapier]

Great trip Grey Ghost. I bet you were as impressed as I, by how clean SA is. Probably the cleanest country I have been to hunting. I do like the family style lodges. Good folks.

Where I was in Free State was very much like the area around San Antonio, Texas. Big ranches and all.

Now, if we could get them to slide the continent over about 3,000 miles it would sure help.
Ed

[John Duarte]

greyghost,

I'm hoping to get there next year. My wife and I have a friend that owns a wine farm in Franchhoek. It has rooms and meals ;etc. He can arrange some hunting as well. From there I hope to access a bushbuck hunt and maybe nyala too. It might be difficult as Franchhoek in the West Cape so it may require a long ride or an overnight in the Eastern Cape.

Do you have the hunt service's contact info? It sounds like they would be handy to have in clearing customs.

I feel that bushbuck are one of the more under rated African animals and nyala are gorgeous.
John

[BradC]

Hey John,

If you've never been to Franchhoek you will love it. It is set in a U-shaped valley between the mountains of the Western Cape. A very beautiful little town with a great old town street that houses a good selection of novelty shops.

Do you have a contact in the Eastern Cape regarding Bushbuck?

Brad

[buckhunter]

Just plain awesome................Thanks for the stroy .

[grayghost]

Thanks guys, I appreciate it. Hey John; I think you can email Hunters Support at: Ann@air2000.co.za/ If not, let me know and I'll check into it. We will use them again next year. I sent you their physical address in SA via your PM. Good hunting, grayghost

[John Duarte]

greyghost,
Thanks for the email address.
BradC,
Thanks for the description of Franchhoek. My wife and I will be staying on a wine farm there. The owner can arrange some hunting from the farm. I think it might be at a club he is a member of. Do you know if it's feasible to hunt some of the East Cape from Franchhoek? Bush buck will be the one animal I want the most. I don't have any contacts for them right now, but would appreciate any suggestions.

Greyghost's report on his hunt has got me interested in hunting in the RSA. I've hunted in Namibia five times, but the variety of species available in the RSA is much greater so it would be a good idea to give it a try.
John

[grayghost]

Variety of game is an understatement, at least to my humble mind When I started my 10 day hunt, my goal was to write down all of the game animals I would see within each days hunt. After the second morning I stopped. It was overwhelming. As an example: my first morning (before lunch) I saw: Springbok (Common, White and Black), Cape Kudu, Bushbuck, Impala, Warthog, Steenbok, Duiker, Baboon & Vervet Monkeys. The afternoon repeated this but included Giraffe, Gemsbok, Zebra, Blue and Black Wildebeast, Blesbok & Hartebeast. Like I said, I stopped on the second morning. Too much writing and not enough looking. Next year I will have a video camera with me. Hopefully I will have someone using it, as I do not want to fool with a camera while hunting. My PH did an outstanding job of taking digital pictures with his camera and used up the three disposable cameras I took. I will continue to hunt Bushbuck and Nyala in the future. They're my kind of game, and if you get either, ask if you can try the meat. It is outstanding. Good hunting, grayghost

[BradC]

Hey John,

Hunting the Eastern Cape from the West is just a short flight out of Cape Town into Port Elizabeth. With Franchoek being only an hour or so from Cape Town this will not be a problem, and generally intercountry flights are fairly cheap. When I was in that area two years ago we spent four days in Cape Town and the surrounding winelands then flew on to Port Elizabeth and hunted for another 8 days.

As graygohst and I can attest, the outfitter I use and represent has all the Bushbuck and other Eastern Cape game you could ever wish to pursue.

If you would like to talk further drop me an email. bcoffey45@yahoo.com

Brad

[grayghost]

That's a great Gemsbok Bob, congrats! The area you hunted contains some of the best one could expect to find. Yours would have no problem making the SCI book. The minimum score is 81 and they are classed as the Kalihari Gemsbok. The other Gemsbok is the Angolan. Also, there are Beisa, Fringe-eared and Scimitar Oryx. I hope to take a 40" bull someday...maybe. grayghost