MOZAMBIQUE: Sable Hunt With TMS Safaris

[Wheels]

Kurt, just had Sable somoosas!! .

Love somoosas. My family fixes them for my birthday.

One day I will have to try sable somoosas!

 

[Neale]

seems like you will need a 2 week extension to finish this story

Kurt, Please don't let us wait another 2 weeks. Suspense is too much.
Just as well for the teaser on another thread.

 

[Hank2211]

Good work on the extension! Can't wait for the rest . . . .

 

[siml]

The bridge is at it's worst, going detour today!!!

 

[BRICKBURN]

The bridge is at it's worst, going detour today!!!

Smart plan, even in the day light.

 

[rinehart0050]

Great story so far.... looking forward to hearing how the two-week extension went!

Sorry to hear about that poor sable caught in the poacher trap. I'm glad you found him alive and were able to make good use of his meat.

 

[buffybr]

@BRICKBURN
When Tiaan and I crossed the bridges in the daylight, I didn't see any new steel, but someone had added a few sticks of bamboo to the surfaces.

@TMS
I heard somewhere that Lichinga was a great place to stay.

 

[BRICKBURN]

@BRICKBURN
When Tiaan and I crossed the bridges in the daylight, I didn't see any new steel, but someone had added a few sticks of bamboo to the surfaces............

Bamboo sticks. So, they made it into a pitfall trap. Nice.
It was scary enough without trying to hide the danger.

 

[buffybr]

5:00 AM, July 31st, Simon yells “GENERATOR” and the camp comes awake. We leave camp at 5:30, just like we had been doing each day so far. Simon and I were talking in the back of the bakke, and just 5 minutes from camp Simon spots some Sable about half a mile away in a burned section of a vlei. We stop and back up to a small opening in the trees to glass the herd. There are about a dozen animals in the herd, including a good bull.

Simon tells Courtney to turn around, go back through camp, and to go a mile or so past camp and beyond the herd of Sable, where we begin a stalk. When we get to the open burned area, the herd is gone. We slowly kept walking, and suddenly see the herd running through the tall grass on the side of the burn.

Luck was on our side as the herd runs out of the high grass and out into the burn. They stopped running about 200 or so yards past us, and Simon immediately puts the shooting sticks up in front of me. I was instantly on the sticks and had the crosshairs of my .300 Weatherby on the chest of the bull. Before Simon finishes telling me to shoot, a 168 grain Barnes TTSX bullet is in the bull.

Simon and I heard the whack of the bullet hitting the bull, and he jumps and runs in a small circle, stopping next to another Sable. Both of those animals then stood facing away from us. Simon then tells me to take a “Texas Heart Shot”, but I hesitate fearing hitting the wrong animal. I then shoot and the entire herd runs back into the high grass, and on into the trees.

I was not that confident of my second shot, but Raymundo, one of the trackers, insisted that my second shot was good but that my first shot missed.

We went to where the herd had been standing when I shot, but couldn’t find any blood. We all spread out to look for tracks and blood. Simon sent one of the trackers back to have the bakke come back around to the road where we originally spotted to Sable.

Simon and I then got into the bakke and drove a couple of miles up that road and a mile up the next road on the left to see if the herd had crossed either of those roads. They hadn’t, and on the way back Simon said that he “would be very happy if a tracker would be waiting for us on the road.”

Raymundo was on the road waiting for us. He told us that the bull had broken off from the herd, and was bleeding.

We caught up to the other trackers and began to follow the bull. The blood varied from drops and smears on the vegetation to small pools where the bull apparently stood and watched his back trail, to just an occasional spot of blood on the ground. Twice, we jumped the bull in the trees, but he was too quick and the brush was too thick for a shot.

We followed the bull around a small inselberg mountain, then out of the forest and across another high grassy meadow (the one where Brickburn shot a franklin grouse last year), and into another forested area.

By then the blood trail had reduced to only an occasional drop every ten yards or so. We came to another two track road. Simon and Tomei decided to leave the two other trackers at the road, then Simon, Tomei, and I would make a big circle around through the trees, and try to get ahead of the bull.

We made about a ½ mile circle through the forest, and there was the bull right in front of us, lying at the base of a tree.

Earlier, after we had jumped the bull in the thick brush, Simon had asked me if I minded if he would shoot if we would jump the bull again. I agreed that at this point we needed to put that bull down, and not lose him.

So when we spotted the bull, Simon was in front of me, and he immediately shot twice at the bull’s neck. Thanks Simon, now my taxidermist has four .375 holes to fix. Simon’s shots didn’t kill the bull and he told me to shoot it again, so I moved around Simon and put another .300 bullet into the bull’s chest. The chase was finally over, and thanks to the outstanding tracking abilities of Simon, Tomei, Raymundo, and Mario, I have a very beautiful Roosevelt Sable bull.

We then sent a tracker back for the bakke, and when it arrived, we loaded my Sable and took him up to signal hill for some photos there…

Me and Simon, with a small part of Simon’s Concession behind us…

With Courtney and the Trackers (Tomei, Raymundo, and Mario) who found my Sable…

And with the whole camp staff in their new uniforms that Simon had given them this year…

And then some pictures with the inselberg mountains in the background…

With all of the picture taking done, we went back to camp to properly celebrate. Not Rum and raspberry soda like last year when we got my leopard, but ice cold beers straight out of the freezer…

And that evening we feasted on more fresh Sable filets excellently prepared by Chef Simon…

To be continued with a new hunter in camp…

 

[Wheels]

5:00 AM, July 31st, Simon yells “GENERATOR” and the camp comes awake. …

"And God said, let there be light, and there was light"


Congratulations on the sable buffybr! Look forward to hearing what else you get to do for 10 days.

 

[Aaron N]

Beautiful sable! Is it the one you were after?

 

[ROCKET]

Incredible hunt buffybr......you cannot ask for more......very well done......and you Simon.....is ok, after this I´ll go work for you just for some beer at night......and I gonna be muito obrigado meu amigo.....!!!!!

 

[buffybr]

@Aaron Nietfeld
No, the horns on the one that gave me the shakes last year curved down closer to his back. He's still there, somewhere.

Given the conditions there this year, and the animals that we saw, I am very happy with the bull that I shot.

The grass in much of the open areas was so high and thick that it was very difficult to spot the animals. Even when we drove through some areas, and we were standing in the back of the bakke, the grass was above our heads. We only saw a small fraction of the number of Sable that we saw last year. On many of our stalks, we saw tracks of many more animals than we saw animals.

 

[cpr0312]

Very nice sable, congrats on the hunt! The pics with the mountain range in the background are stunning!

 

[Aaron N]

@Aaron Nietfeld
No, the horns on the one that gave me the shakes last year curved down closer to his back. He's still there, somewhere.

Given the conditions there this year, and the animals that we saw, I am very happy with the bull that I shot.

The grass in much of the open areas was so high and thick that it was very difficult to spot the animals. Even when we drove through some areas, and we were standing in the back of the bakke, the grass was above our heads. We only saw a small fraction of the number of Sable that we saw last year. On many of our stalks, we saw tracks of many more animals than we saw animals.

Well I see no reason to not be more than pleased! He is a beautiful specimen!

 

[gillettehunter]

That is a lovely sable indeed. Congrats on getting him! Love the photos of him on signal hill. Does a proud animal like that one justice. Well done. Bruce

 

[Outdoorlad]

Great Sable, well done.

 

[Neale]

Beautiful Sable. Congrats. No doubt a trophy that you will treasure for a lifetime.

 

[kathy]

Awesome Sable, enjoyed the story. Forrest

 

[BRICKBURN]

With Courtney and the Trackers (Tomei, Raymundo, and Mario) who found my Sable…

Raymundo is such a sour puss. I think I only got one picture of him smiling.

Nice Bull.

I understand your reluctance to shoot into the indistinguishable black of the herd.

What are the autopsy results? Did you hit him with the first shot?