Planning for South Africa

by Kevin Estela July 06, 2018

Planning for South Africa

In late July, I will be headed on a dream vacation, a safari in South Africa. I will be joined by friends of Fiddleback Forge, Justen and Liam. We will be guided by the seasoned professional staff at Russfield Safaris. This hunt has been a long time coming. At one point, we even thought Andy was going to join us but with the new shop and knives to be made, we couldn’t pull him away from making the sharp tools you enjoy using. With less than 2 months to go, I’ve been getting my gear tucked away in the corner of my office (ok, it’s more like a room with an explosion of gear and piles of awesomeness everywhere in organized messes). This trip is coming up soon and I think it is time to start talking about it more publicly. This is the first of a few blog entries about this epic adventure.  


Fiddleback Forge - Kevin Estela - Planning for South Africa - Binoculars

The Hunt

Africa is a hunting paradise with an abundance of game for the taking. Hunters travel to this continent for everything from high-volume bird hunts to dangerous game. Our hunt is unique. We will be pursuing impala, blesbuck, wildebeest, and warthogs. Now, before any anti-hunters send me death threats, keep in mind we are participating in a plains game management hunt. These animals are overpopulated and our hunting efforts are actually measures in conservation more so than recreation. By the way, we are donating over 150 pounds of bone-in meat to a program called “Hunters Care” that delivers this meat on a weekly basis to local schools for protein-starved children. It’s going to be an incredible experience on many levels and each day we go out we are sure to see more game than your usual outfit since Russfield is authorized to use certain land concessions others are not permitted in. This trip will easily fulfil a bucket list line item. By the way, I love death threats from protein-starved American anti’s.


Fiddleback Forge - Kevin Estela - Planning for South Africa - Kifaru

The Gear

You may have hunting equipment you are familiar with but you are going with a professional guide service that offers world-class accommodations. I was told I could do this whole trip with only 2 sets of clothes as there is a laundry service taking care of what we wear on a daily basis. Many hunters pack only a carry on bag and rent rifles for the various hunts offered. If I am only traveling with a carry on, that leaves me without a blade and if you know me, you know that is not happening. We will be sleeping in beds a the lodge and eating well each night which means we don’t have to pack any camping gear for the bush. However, I’ll still have some emergency gear with me in case I get separated and have to bivouac for the night. For this trip, I’m packing enough equipment to document the hunt, to dress comfortably, and to maintain a certain level of safety through preparedness. As always, whenever I travel abroad, I pack an emergency personal locator beacon, spare cash hidden away in my Centerline Systems KeyDC, barter items, compact first-line gear to tuck in my pockets and some second line gear I’ll pack in my Kifaru Door Gunner pack. Check out the photos for a better idea of what I’ll have with me.


Fiddleback Forge - Kevin Estela - Planning for South Africa - Rifle

My Rifle

I’m very fortunate to have great friends in the firearms industry. For a trip of a lifetime, I wanted to use a rifle that will last a lifetime. This meant going to one of the best in the business, Robar. My rifle started life as a Remington 700 stripped action. This was sent to Robar to be built into one of their Precision Hunter models chambered in 300 Win Mag. The rifle sits in a McMillan stock and features a 24” Lilja barrel with a Surefire suppressor/flash hider (I won’t be traveling with my 7.62 SOCOM Suppressor but I will use it here in the states). Everything about the rifle is customized from the crisp trigger pull to the NP3’ed bolt to the texturing they do to the stock and then coat it with a distinctly green finish. Since this rifle would serve multiple purposes after the hunt, I elected for a bombproof Badger Ordnance optics mount and rings. My optic is a Schmidt Bender Zenith with crystal clear glass and a heavy duplex. I’ll eventually purchase a more dedicated optic for long-range marksmanship and this rifle will be able to do it all. I said I wanted one rifle that will last a lifetime and I wasn’t kidding.


Fiddleback Forge - Kevin Estela - Planning for South Africa - Ammo

As for ammo, I’m running Hornady ELD-X in 200 grain loads. Freddie Blish at Robar sent me the test targets from the factor sight in and the 3 shot group at 100 yards was .498”. It is sighted in slightly high at 100 yards for a near perfect zero at 200 yards.  


Fiddleback Forge - Kevin Estela - Planning for South Africa - Remington

Traveling with Firearms

It’s one thing to worry about how to travel domestically with firearms. It is another to travel to another continent with one. In order to take a firearm out of the country, you need to make an appointment with your nearest United States Customs office well in advance to your trip. They will have you fill out a very basic sheet of paper describing what you are bringing and they will stamp it stating you owned it all before you left the country. This is carried with you so when you return there is no question you are returning with items you already owned and did not acquire abroad. You can imagine the United States government doesn’t want you to return to the country with all those AK47s and Soviet-bloc weapons. Even though this sounds like a hassle, all it took was a quick phone call, a look at my planner, and a trip to my nearby airport customs office.


Fiddleback Forge - Kevin Estela - Planning for South Africa - Knife

The Knife

In this article, I haven’t mentioned what knife I’m going to carry over there in South Africa. That remains to be seen but rest assured there will be a Fiddleback Forge knife in my loadout. There are simply so many good choices. I am waiting on a F2 that seems like the perfect little hunting knife and I am torn between taking my signature KE Bushie or my Bush Hermit. You can weigh in in the comments below. By the way, while I’m there I am likely returning with some giraffe leg bone the owner offered to give to me to be made into handle slabs. Imagine what that Fiddleback will look like!


Fiddleback Forge - Kevin Estela - Planning for South Africa - Passport and Centerline Systems

What’s Next?

Waiting. This trip is only a few weeks away, barely, and it feels like an eternity. My flight leaves on a Saturday and with ridiculously long layovers in Dubai and Johannesburg, I will be in Port Elizabeth on Monday. Time seems to move very slowly right now but that is a good thing as it gives me time to make sure I don’t travel across the pond and into Africa without all of the gear I actually need. In the meantime, I’ve been monitoring the South African news, reading about the water crisis in Cape Town, the violence toward white farmers, and figuring out my local contacts and orientation to embassies and assets. I’m also spending time with my rifle making sure I don’t screw up the shot shooting offhand and with shooting sticks as the rifle is certainly more accurate than I am. I’m running “what if” scenarios and looking over my notes from previous hunts knowing there are experiences I can’t even begin to plan for given how unique they are. I’m coordinating with both Justen and Liam and building up the excitement even more than we have to. I’m also telling others it isn’t too late (although it is almost time’s up) to join us if you want a real adventure abroad. What’s next? Africa!




Kevin Estela
Kevin Estela

Author

Kevin Estela is a Survival Instructor at Estela Wilderness Education. Kevin is a frequent contributing writer for publications such as RECOIL, Athlon Outdoors, and Beckett Media. He is a Sayoc Kali Associate Instructor Level 5, as well as a BJJ Purple Belt.



Leave a comment

Comments will be approved before showing up.


Also in Articles

The Less Things Change: Alaska 2021
The Less Things Change: Alaska 2021

by Kevin Estela September 08, 2021 1 Comment

It’s been a couple years since I traveled to Alaska and a couple years seems like way too long. Last time, I came with a handful of friends to explore the Kenai Peninsula and drive around the interior a bit.  That trip was incredible with plenty of fishing, laughs, and site-seeing. The opportunity came up this year to go back and highlight some of the good times I had before but from a new perspective through the lens my job at Fieldcraft Survival provides.  How do you attempt to replicate the awesome group chemistry you naturally had with your friends but this time in front of a camera for the audience to enjoy. The answer is, you don’t. You must simply trust you will have a great time in this rugged environment. When you have an opportunity to go back to Alaska, you don’t pass it up. While the world has changed some since 2019 when I was last here, I’m happy to report there is something familiar about this land. You see, the less things change the more the land keeps calling me back.

Read More

Every Man, a Rifleman
Every Man, a Rifleman

by Kevin Estela August 25, 2021 1 Comment

Author’s Foreword:
In August 2020, I attended GUNSITE Academy’s 250 Pistol Course. I had applied and received the Jeff Cooper Memorial Foundation’s scholarship (for more information, please visit jeffcooperfoundation.org) for free tuition to this baseline course all students must take. I attended and was one of 23 students broken up into two classes. At the end of the course, I earned the “Silver Chicken” which is the silver raven pin for shootoff winner. Upon completion of the course, I swore I would attend another class in the future to further my studies in the ways of the late great Lt. Col Jeff Cooper. I set aside some funds, ammo, and time and by September, had my deposit down on the 270 Rifle course.

Read More

Considerations at Elevation
Considerations at Elevation

by Kevin Estela June 16, 2021

In early June 2021, I was invited by my friends at Kifaru to join them on a backpack fishing trip to the high mountains of Colorado. If you’re not familiar with Kifaru, it is a company known for opening up the backcountry with their lineup of backpacks, sleeping bags, ultralight shelters, and hunting accessories. The company is led by Aron Snyder, a modern-day traditional bowhunting legend along with a team of employees that live the mountain life and who can often be found in the mountains at elevation. Kifaru is situated just outside of Denver, the mile-high city. Compared to my home state of Connecticut where I lived for many years at elevations ranging from 131’ to 390’ feet, the elevation of Colorado is significantly greater. What we consider mountains on the east coast, Coloradians think of them as molehills. Even though I moved to UT in January and have lived at 4524’ and work at 5587’, the trip with Kifaru would take me to double that elevation and help me identify some considerations at elevation. I can only imagine what this trip would have been like if I didn’t have half a year to acclimatize. As you’ll read, when you travel to greater heights, you need to be aware and consider some of the possible effects on your body and trip you wouldn’t expect at lower elevations.

Read More

Knives & News

Sign up with your favorite email.