MOZAMBIQUE: Very Successful Safari With KWALATA SAFARIS 2024

[AZDAVE]

Well its 2 AM and I am up going through the readjustment jet lag process, so thought I would start my report.

Have been trying to get a Cape Buffalo hunt for my wife together since 2019. Booked a hunt in Mozambique with another outfitter for the 2020 season.
Mr COVID jacked up the world that year. Moved the booking to 2021 and had family issues and unable to go so cancelled and outfitter refunded my deposit.
We met Jaco at the 2022 DSC show and my wife and I talked with @KWALATA SAFARIS and several other outfitters working in Mozambique. With my wife having back surgery scheduled at the end of 2022, we wrote off any hunting trips for 2023 so she could recover and get back in shape for a buffalo safari. At the 2023 DSC show we booked with Kwalata for September 2024. Lot of work and preparation went into getting ready. Booked our travel with Gracy Travel and waited for the calendar to roll around to 30 AUG 2024. A very early drive up to the airport and we were on our way. All our flights were on time and had no problems. Spent the night in City Lodge upon arrival in South Africa. Caught the Airlink flight to Pemba where we were met by the charter flight crew on the tarmac. They assisted with the gun paperwork and customs. 45 minutes later we were in the air. Landed on the dirt runway beside the camp in Niassa L9 block. Jaco and AJ met us along with the crew. My hunting buddy Gary and his son were hunting with Aj and my wife and I were hunting with Jaco. My report will be a bit different than my usual chronological day by day report. First and foremost my priority was for my wife to fulfill her dream of a cape buffalo hunt. As much as I want to tell the buffalo hunt in detail it is her story to tell and the spoiler is she is putting together a submission for the Rigby award contest. I am very proud of her! She took a proper 13 year old dagga boy. I will encourage her to also do a hunt report once she has her writeup submitted to Rigby. She may not have the oldest or ugliest buffalo but you will remember her story.

Hunt Location: L9 block Niassa Game reserve
Dates: 1-11 September 2024
Outfitter: @KWALATA SAFARIS
PH: Jaco Strauss
Rifles used: My wife Interarms 375 H&H, Myself Krieghoff Classic 500/416
Animals seen: Elephant, Cape Buffalo, zebra, waterbuck, impala, bushbuck, red diker, Sharpes Grysbok, Sunni, warthog, bush pig, croc, sable, baboon, civiet, genet, kudu plus several more I am sure i am forgetting and to tired to track down my notes.
Animals on our hunt list: My wife Cape Buffalo, Niassa Wildebeest, Bushbuck
Myself Hyena, Sunni, Red Diker, Sharpes Grysbok
Animals taken: My wife Cape Buffalo Myself Zebra, bush pig, Sunni, Red Diker
Lessons Learned: Will detail at the end of the report
Would we hunt with Kwalata again, and or reccomend to others. A VERY LARGE YES!!!! and have already recommended to several of my friends who called me in the last day.


I will start this off by saying the the entire booking process, information exchange to a very sucessful completion of the safari was handled in a first class manner and everyone in the Kwalata team was a pleasure to work with.

More to follow as i am headed back to get some more sleep.

 

[Altitude sickness]

Looking forward to the report Dave. Very exciting.

 

[Hunting Hitman]

Almost spit my coffee out when I first read Animals on our hunt list..my wife.
Looking forward to your report!

HH

 

[KMG Hunting Safaris]

Almost spit my coffee out when I first read Animals on our hunt list..my wife.
Looking forward to your report!

HH

I've seen her shoot. He wouldn't stand a chance.

 

[mark-hunter]

Looking fwd to this report!

 

[BigHill]

Indeed! I was there 14 months ago.

 

[AZDAVE]

We were looking forward to the charter flight into the Niassa concession and the charter pilot and his guys met us coming off the Flight from Joberg to Pemba. Coming in over the blue ocean was a beautiful way to get things started. Got everything loaded on the charter plane and were on our way. The flight was about a hour and a half and was smooth and landed on the dirt strip right beside the camp. Exiting the plane we were met By Jaco and AJ along with their teams. Waved good bye to the plane and pilot and we were right beside the range so rifles were checked. My wife's rifle was spot on, my buddy gary's rifle was spot on, and mine was 2 1/2 inches high so a couple adjustments to the RMR and we are ready to hunt tomorrow.

 

[PHOENIX PHIL]

Well it's 7am now here in Arizona and you've managed two posts in 5 hours....pick it up man!

 

[AZDAVE]

With a 0400 wake-up call (For those that don't know my better half ISN'T a morning person) 0430 breakfast and 0500 in the cruiser and headed along the road north looking for 1-3 bull tracks. Once we found a suitable set of tracks, everyone loads up and we get on track and start off after the buffalo. we would follow tracks till the wind shifted or we caught up with the animals and evaluated them for a shooter. Along the way we would keep a eye out for the animals on my list. Since @BRICKBURN requested "Get a monster Suni to make me envious!" I will start with that hunt. The morning after my wife harvested her buffalo, (She slept in) Headed out with Jaco and team and were looking for Suni. We started in the riverine areas slowly stalking along the elephant trails. This is one of my favorite ways to hunt the small antelope that inhabit this area. WE had been moving slowly and quietly for a couple hours when the tracker gave us the hand signal to stop. Jaco evaluated a Suni that was slowly feeding our way, (which was nice as all we had seen before were going mach 1 trough the bush). he asked me if I was comfortable take a free hand shot shoot trying to get the sticks set up was going to spook the little guy. Since I practice bench, sticks and free hand all the time I gave him a north south shake of my head. So each time the Suni had his head behind some brush I moved into a patented One foot 10 inched higher than the other, 3/4 squat shot above a branch and below another waiting for Mr Suini to walk into the opening. One 400gr northfork solid a couple inches behind the shoulder and we have a Suni DRT. Hand shakes and congratulations we head the couple miles back towards the truck looking for a suitable place to take photo's. after my wife's buffalo stalks this hunt was my favorite of the trip for my list animals.

 

[Altitude sickness]

Congrats on a great Suni Dave. All your DR practice paid of well. Nice shooting.

 

[PHOENIX PHIL]

The Suns we managed to see were experiences that lasted about as long as seeing a lightning bolt and were just blurs. Well done!

 

[AZDAVE]

Well lets talk about Sharpes Grysbok

Well we saw a fair number of these little guys, most were doing about Mach 3 with their tails on fire, couldn't even attempt a running shot due to under growth. However on day 6 came across a very nice ram while on buffalo track. We got into position, on sticks and Jaco said he is about 70 yards away 1/4 away beside the big rock. I relaxed and made a perfect shot. However I needed to be about a foot and a half father right as I saw the head and neck and mistook a smaller rock for his body. So the bad news was I shot a rock! The good news is it was a clean miss and he was headed to Tanzania very quickly and I shot the rock exactly where I was aiming. The better news is that the goddess of the hunt directed my bullet into the center of the rock and we were back on buffalo tracks. Which untimely lead to my wife making a perfect shot on her buffalo about a hour later.

 

[gillettehunter]

That looks like a stud of a Suni. Congrats! Looking forward to the rest of your report.
Bruce

 

[buck wild]

Bring it

 

[AZDAVE]

The second of my tiny 10 quest is the red diker. It turned out to be the only easy animal on my list. The tracker spotted him about 50 yards off the road and we drove past about a 1/2 mile and slowly stalked back. He was watching something forward of his position on a small mount and I got on the sticks and kept reminding myself to shoot a little behind the shoulder so that I didn't blow the shoulders right out the other side. A 400gr northfork solid and my first animal of the trip was in the salt. Now I am sure some folks are asking why I am using a 500/416 on the little guys. My wife and I brought one gun each. Trying to keep weight down due to flying on a small charter plane into camp. In addition when I am hunting in an area that has large animals I will always carry a rifle capable of taking the largest possible problem that might occur. So with all of the dangerous 7 except rhino present in the concession, I brought my Krieghoff and was very pleased with it and the performance.

 

[AZDAVE]

Another animal to talk about is the bushbuck. It was on my wifes list. This concession has some very nice bushbuck. My wife was on the final approach about to get on stick with bushbuck that had a nice flare to the tips when a large baboon came screaming down a tree about half what between the bushbuck and stalking party. As you can guess that busted the stalk and that baboon almost got shot. On the day I took my Suni was saw a VERY nice bushbuck at about 130 yards that had no idea we were there and would have been a very easy shot, however this is the day my much better half was sleeping in, so I passed on him. Jaco looks at me and says it is almost sacrilegious to pass on that guy. I had to smile and told him that sonya would tell me why didn't you shoot it then about 5 minutes later she was also say thank you for not shooting MY bushbuck. So if you have a nice bushbuck on your list this is a good place to hunt one.

The next animal I want to mention is Sable. We saw some very large Sable, in this area they have Roosevelt Sable. We saw probable 5-7 shooters with one exceptional stud of a sable with length, mass and secondary growth. But I already have a nice sable and my wife was working hard to get her buffalo, so that big guy is still out there.

 

[Chukardogs]

Sounds like a wonderful trip so far. Can't wait for the rest.

 

[cpr0312]

Congrats on the Suni, looks like a great hunt so far! Look forward to more!

 

[PHOENIX PHIL]

Another animal to talk about is the bushbuck. It was on my wifes list. This concession has some very nice bushbuck. My wife was on the final approach about to get on stick with bushbuck that had a nice flare to the tips when a large baboon came screaming down a tree about half what between the bushbuck and stalking party. As you can guess that busted the stalk and that baboon almost got shot. On the day I took my Suni was saw a VERY nice bushbuck at about 130 yards that had no idea we were there and would have been a very easy shot, however this is the day my much better half was sleeping in, so I passed on him. Jaco looks at me and says it is almost sacrilegious to pass on that guy. I had to smile and told him that sonya would tell me why didn't you shoot it then about 5 minutes later she was also say thank you for not shooting MY bushbuck. So if you have a nice bushbuck on your list this is a good place to hunt one.

The next animal I want to mention is Sable. We saw some very large Sable, in this area they have Roosevelt Sable. We saw probable 5-7 shooters with one exceptional stud of a sable with length, mass and secondary growth. But I already have a nice sable and my wife was working hard to get her buffalo, so that big guy is still out there.

I've never seen so many baboons like the L9 block has, and so damn brazen. If one were inclined they could fill the bakkie with them in a days hunt focusing only on them.

 

[mdwest]

First and foremost my priority was for my wife to fulfill her dream of a cape buffalo hunt. As much as I want to tell the buffalo hunt in detail it is her story to tell and the spoiler is she is putting together a submission for the Rigby award contest.

competition for @SFRanger7GP ! Love it!