Your Professional Hunter – Ian Martin

Born in the old Transvaal (Limpopo) province of South Africa, Ian Martin was introduced to hunting at an early age when he accompanied his father and uncle – ardent hunters, fishermen and outdoorsmen – on most of their hunting excursions. By the age of fourteen, Ian, his brother and friends were conducting their own hunting and fishing safaris, and by the time her turner 25, he had hunted the big five and almost all of the plains game.

As a professional hunter and sportsman, he spent five seasons in Alaska (Cold bay, Brook Range, Sustina and the Talkeena Mountains) packing, guiding and hunting for brown, grizzly and black bear, moose, dall cheep and caribou. Returning to the African continent, he then hunted extensively in Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Namibia and throughout South Africa before becoming involved in game control.
Your are now invited to come and experience an exceptional hunt with Ian and his team of professional hunters, and at nightfall, share their experiences with them around a campfire in the African bush.

We cater for both Rifle and Bow Hunters.
The ranch terrain consists of mimosa woodland, mopane scrub and thorn scrub with open savannah areas. The terrain is flat with no hills or valleys and hunting is not strenuous at all.

RIFLE HUNTING - All rifle hunting is “ Fair Chase ”, in the traditional walk and stalk method in conjunction with a fully equipped hunting vehicle.

CALIBRES TO USE - African game are hardier than their North American counterparts. We recommend you take the heaviest calibre rifle that you are comfortable with. A general purpose calibre .30 / 60 with 180 to 220 grain bullets are ideally suited for hunting most plains game but the .375H & H is perfect for the tougher species such as Blue Wildebeest, Eland and Zebra. Other good choices of calibre to bring along are .300, 7 X 57 and 270. A variety of rifles in different calibres are also available at no extra cost should you prefer not to bring your own.

BEFORE EACH HUNT...
We provide a shooting range for the sighting in of your rifle before the hunt, which is supervised by a professional hunter who will render any assistance and advice. Targets are place at intervals of 50metres, 100m and 150metres as most shots taken during a hunt will be between 80m – 150m. Practice shots are taken from a static shooting table with rests and shooting sticks (tripod), which are used extensively during the hunts to provide a dead rest which avoids unnecessary wounding. Once you are satisfied with your grouping and have the necessary confidence, we will then proceed with the hunt.

BOWHUNTING
Due to the openness of the terrain, it is virtually impossible to walk and stalk, therefore we conduct our bowhunts from both static and mobile blinds, which are well camouflaged and placed strategically near water holes. We also hunt from tree stands, which are situated along well-worn game paths to ensure maximum success.

All hides and tree stands are placed to ensure that the average shot distance will be between 16 yards (15metres) and 24 yards (22metres) Arrows with broadhead points are mostly used. We also provide an illuminated bow range with targets, which is situated at the hunters camp to establish your effective shooting distance and to release a few arrows before or after the hunt should you so wish.