Handgun Hunting Afield

The first trip to South Africa, admittedly, is no easy feat. My wife and I are not big travelers, but after the countless hours of research, paperwork and some money, all I can say is thanks to all of you that gave advice and encouragement to follow through with it. My wife and I are not big travelers, but it was well worth the leap.

That being said, a little luck and encouragement always helps….

In a previous story, I began my venture into handgun hunting while my business partner Dave and I were hunting with his family at the Y.O. ranch in 2020. His revolver loads had some issues, and being a dedicated handgun hunter, he hung up his revolver for the remainder of the trip. Me being a bit of a 1911 fan and a wise-guy, I offered him my new Sig 1911 .45 to hang onto just in case. He successfully took a good Sika the last morning and I was ecstatic for him, of course, mostly happy that my handgun worked for him. Go ahead, ask him how many times I’ve mentioned it…

What also occurred on that trip was an enriching experience being introduced to numerous exotic animals. One in particular was the Gemsbok. Keep in mind, before this trip, the only “exotic” I knew of was a zebra. While riding and enjoying the views of the Texas hill country, we turned a corner, and about 200 yards were a herd of beautiful black and white creatures with beautiful dark long horns that seem to curl back just ever so slightly. 

I turned to the guide exclaiming “what the heck is that?!?”… 2 days later I forgot what he told me. We only saw them for a few seconds so I only had a hazy memory what they looked like. Months later, while tending to horses for my wife’s employer, I was told that upstairs in the barn, there was some sort of interesting shoulder mount. As I went up to take a look, Iimmediately recognized it. A quick search began and hours and hours of reading about this amazing creature commenced.

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As I began, like many, I started collecting contender barrels. After playing with a few and reading numerous stories, the .375 JDJ quickly became the dream caliber. A bit big for anything I would be hunting here in the states, but from a gun enthusiast standpoint, it was interesting enough, and seemed like just plain fun! Maybe one day it’ll come in handy. 3 months later, a mutual friend of myself and Dave sent me a picture of a beautiful stainless contender in .375 JDJ he had for sale. I justcouldn’t say no.

After some practice and my own ballistics test (and a weekly “What the heck is that??” at the public range), I settled on the 270 grain Speer Spitzer boat tail soft point being pushed by 49 grains of IMR 4064 resulting in a muzzle velocity of about 2000 fps out the 14” ported barrel. As I was gaining confidence in this firearm, the idea of going to hunt in South Africa was being put into my head by Dave, so I roughly said I would go in a couple years. I had a general budget in mind and I started saving right away just in case. Due to various life plans, I knew the summer of 2024 would have to be it. By Spring of 2023, I still did not have any solid plans. I was still on the fence about going, but by chance, a well-known name chimed in. 

On a discussion on social media with another handgun hunter, I mentioned a few things I had learned about ballistics from my studies in college. While in the discussion, none other than J.D. Jones supported my position and added on to continue the discussion. Felt like a win for me! We went back and forth for a bit, and to sum it up, he left me with one final message: “Hang in there Joey, make life a great adventure”. After seeing this, I told my wife we have to go.

17 months later, we are taking off from Atlanta headed to join Somerby Safari’s. We meet our guide, Brenden, head to the police station where my trusty .375 JDJ and 7-30 Waters contenders are waiting for me. The next 3 days we hunted west of Bela-Bela, about 2 hours north of the OR Tambo airport. The 2ndday, we took a good zebra at 85 yards. The bullet destroyed the front shoulder, made a solid hole through the top of the heart and clipped the lungs. It was a steep quartered towards shot so who knows where in the guts the bullet ended up but the zebra was a quick find about 100 yards away. It was a good sign to see it stay together through that much bone, muscle, and critical organs. At this point, my PH turns to me and says “Ok, I trust these handguns now”. I feel like I represented our group here well.

A couple days later, we make the 6 hour trek southwest to the Free State province, 10 miles south of Bloemhof. A much more open and arid location, I know that this is where the Gemsbok are. We are behind schedule with my other animals but we are feeling good about this property. We see a few Gemsbok driving in and this property really shows a challenge for spotting and stalking them. 

Unfortunately, I grossly underestimated how difficult this would be. With every successful stalk, there were 3 or 4 that were not. On every successful attempt, they were either too young, horns were small or one we stalked twice we nicknamed “Janky horn”. We were running out of time.

My PH offered to go to another location closer towards the airport that he said would be great for spot and stalk and had good Gemsbok on it. At this point, I’ll do anything. We are sitting around the truck while he makes some calls. What I didn’t know, was this location said no and he was on the phone with another concession 2 more hours west. As the call is being made, 2 old Gemsboks run out in front of us. He is so shocked, he doesn’t even hang up, just drops his phone. Without thinking, I grab the .375 and the trusty sandbag. Like we practiced before, we communicate: Left? Left. Yardage? 120. Good? Shoot.

I don’t remember the recoil, but I kept my eyes open enough to see the beast make a nice leap. He was trotting away so I placed the 270 Speer a bit further back than I wanted, but still a good enough hit on the back of both lungs. He ran about 50 yards and started to wobble. We have no doubt we got him, but my PH grabs my tripod and we double time it. He tells me there’s not a chance we are letting him get away, he knows what it means to me. The Gemsbok slowly settles down in the tall grass but we still see some slight movement. At 50 yards, he sets the tripod, quickly points at the head and horn angle to quickly find the next shot. With the bull facing us, I place a perfect shot into the front of the shoulder and the bullet makes its way down the length of his body.

We carefully approach, and all I can do is fall to my knees. No idea if it’s a trophy or the biggest and baddest in the area, I was just thankful to find this very old bull. The scars all over his body tell a bigger story. The exit was a decent sized hole of about an inch so it was good to see that without a lot of bone impact, it still had a healthy deformation. I know the Hornady 270 SP is a classic, but not being in production, I will gladly use the Speer.

The best part, my wife came along for the ride when they picked us up from the early morning sit in the blind. I think she was as excited as me considering how much she’s put up with me talking about these animals. That was the cherry on top for a lot of things that happened to go right. Thanks to my business partner, Dave, for putting this into my head. Thanks to Dan for setting me up with a fantastic firearm, and thanks to everyone’s friend, J.D., for giving me the final push to commit to this fantastic adventure and for creating an awesome cartridge.

About the author:

I live in south Louisiana. I am a mechanical engineer for a large industrial pump manufacturer and also the design and development engineer for Unbound Ballistic Solutions. I grew up squirrel and duck hunting and hunted pigs at night through college. Researched terminal ballistics in college and became a bullet nerd. Started big game hunting in 2020 and a dedicated handgun hunter since.