Zimbabwe Bound

[BRICKBURN]

Well done.

 

[Fatback]

Sept 4th

I’m up at 4:00 am, get ready and am in the hunting truck at 4:30. As we are getting situated on the truck, lions begin roaring about 200 yards from us. I’ve heard them on other trips but I always get excited hearing them. What a great start to the morning. We make our way towards the hyena bait site under a blanket of brilliant stars. I have under estimated how cold the ride was going to be so I’m a bit chilled when we park. As soon as we stop we can hear hyenas calling but they don’t sound like they are at the bait but closer to where we parked. Me and Tristan begin making our way towards the bait and when we get to the path to turn off the road headed toward the bait we stop and listen. We can hear something crunching bones at the bait site. All of a sudden we can hear an animal running up the road straight towards us. We can’t see excatly what it is but just before running into us it veers off to the right. Talk about a rush. Tristan says that was either a lioness or hyena, he isn’t sure. After getting our heart rates back out of the danger zone we ease into the blind and get settled. Just after sitting down we can see a hyena but it’s too dark to get a shot and it buggers off before it gets light enough to shoot. We give it another 15 minutes and walk back to the truck. The guys in the truck say it was a hyena that ran past. We load up and head out to look for bushbuck and kudu.

After about 2 hours we are at a spot known to have some bushbuck around. We decide to eat our breakfast sandwiches before heading out up the dry riverbed hunting. Just as I finish my sandwich, I look up the riverbed and there are a make and female bushbuck standing there. Tristan glasses them up and says the male is a good one so off we go. We get in the brush on the side of the riverbed and ease up to where we think they should be just in time to see them slip into the brush on the other side. We cross over after them. About 5 minutes later Tristan stops and he is looking through his binos. He asks me if I want a warthog as we have come upon 2 nice males. I decline and we continue after the bushbuck. We find them a few minutes later and the sticks go up. I am able to find the make hiding in the shadows and make the shot. He runs about 20 yards and is done. I have taken a nice old ram. Gald I passed in the warthogs. Pictures aren’t loading now. I’ll try again later. Headed out now to look for kudu.

 

[Fatback]

Here is a pic of the bushbuck from the morning of the 4th. Just got back in from our benign hunt. Made some more great memories today but I don’t want to get ahead of myself. I will just say that this evening was the first time I’ve ever had a stalk busted by a herd of elephants….

 

[Mark Biggerstaff]

Awesome Bushbuck! Congrats, you are having a great hunt!!

 

[Fatback]

Sept 5th. Is a pretty quiet day. We had an uneventful walk into the hyena blind and didn’t see anything from the blind. Afterwards we spend the rest of the morning looking for kudu then back to the camp for lunch. The food here is very good. The afternoon/evening is also spent in the truck covering ground. We see lots of game to include impala, Sharp’s Grysbok, zebra, giraffe, roan, sable, reedbuck, warthog, duiker, steinbok and the ever present elephant. We get back to the camp, I am treated to a special dinner of ox tail(made from my buffalo), rice and veggies. All quite delicious. I am once again off to bed early as these 4:00 am wake ups are wearing me out.

 

[Mtn_Infantry]

Congratulations on a great hunt thus far. Love the character and all the scaring on your buff.

 

[Fatback]

Sept 6th. No joy again at the hyena bait. After that it’s off to look for kudu and whatever else the bush might provide. It is a great morning with lots of game seen, just nothing mature enough to go after that intrested me. We get back to the lodge for a wonderful meal of pork ribs and sides.

After lunch and a nap we head back out. we find a real nice kudu bull and make a plan for a stalk. After an hour of creeping through the brush, just as we are getting ready to set up the sticks on the kudu, a herd of elephants decide to make an appearance between us and the kudu. The wind is in our favor so they don’t know we are there. The elephants get as close as 25 yards from us. That was too cool but I am feeling way under gunned with the 30-06. Eventually the elephants move off but they have buggered out kudu in the process, so it’s back to the truck and keep on looking.

About an hour before dark we spot a group of impala and Tristan asks me if I’d like to take a crack at one. I’ve shot several impala over the years and they were not really on my radar for this trip but there is a dandy ram in the bunch so off we go. After a short stalk and repositioning a couple of times I am able to get lined up for the shot and I make it count on my best impala ram ever.

 

[Fatback]

Sept 7,

Still no luck on the hyena blind. So we decide to pull it and move the bait to a different location a couple of miles away. We get that taken care of and start making our way back to camp looking for a kudu. We see lots of game and quite a few young kudu bulls but nothing I was wanting to hunt. The afternoon hunt goes similar to the morning's hunt, lots of animals seen just not mature kudu bulls. We are still seeing multiple elephants every time out along with giraffe, impala, reedbuck, waterbuck, roan, warthogs and sable. It is great to be able to see so much game moving about and slung their respective thing.

With the move of the hyena blind we have further to drive and the walk into the blind so now we will leave at 4:00 am instead of 4:30. So with a 3:30 am wake up call looming I make my way to bed after dinner to try and get some much needed sleep.

 

[thi9elsp]

Congratulations on a great hunt and adventure. Being that close to the elephants had to be fun and exciting! Good luck on the hyena. The one time I did it, no luck, but one morning we had a lion leave the bait site and walk by about 20 yards away through the woods while we were walking into the blind. It gets the heart rate going for sure.

 

[rookhawk]

Ah Zimbabwe = Maximum hunting fun per dollar. Have a great trip!

 

[Fatback]

Sept 8

Up at 3:30 am and headed to the hyena blind at 4:00. It’s about a 45 minute drive to where we park. Then we’ve got a 30 minute walk into the blind in the pitch black dark. The trail in has been cleared and marked with toilet paper. When we are about 30 yards from the blind we can clearly hear something feeding at the bait. My excitement begins to really build. Once settled in the blind I strain to make out something, anything at the bait site but it’s just too dark. Then just before there is enough light to possibly see to shoot, all goes quiet and I know the hyenas are gone. To further add to my disappointment they start calling and cackling from back in the brush, back and forth once there is enough light to see. I am disappointed and extremely grateful all at the same time, having had such a great experience. And the good news is we have all morning to hunt for a kudu. Just needed the then to stick around a few more minutes .

 

[Fatback]

Sept 8th continued..

We load up around 6:30 from the hyena blind and start our look for a kudu or whatever the bush may provide. The next couple hours are very enjoyable as we see lots of game and the warm African sun is shining down and warming me up, as the pre-dawn rides have been chilly. My eyelids start to get heavy when the truck suddenly stops. Instantly I am wide awake and looking through my binos toward where the guys are pointing. It takes me just a bit to see the spiraling horns through the thorn bush. There are 2 kudu bull standing stone still about 300 yards up the hill to our left. I ease off the truck and follow Tristan back behind the truck and we start easing our way up the hill to try and find a better angle so we can get a better look. We close about 75 yards and stop. The kudu have had enough of this and they start easing up the hill. Tristan tells me the back bull is a good one to take but there is no shot through the brush. The 2 bulls are about 50 yards from reaching the top of the hill and being out of sight. There is one gap in the brush and Tristan whistles and the bull stops. I’ve been tracking him in the scope and am ready when Tristan whispers “take him”. The bull is quartering away and I settle the red dot behind the left shoulder aiming at what I think will be the center of the right shoulder. The trigger breaks on my 30-06 and I clearly hear the satisfying “whop” of a solid hit. The bull doesn’t act hit though and just causally takes a couple of steps forward. Once he clears the next set of bushes and just before he steps over the ridge and out of sight I send another 200 grain Aframe and with that the bull is over the ridge and out of sight. We discuss what just happened and Tristan asks me how the shots felt. I reply that I was steady both times and the shots felt good. We give it a few minutes and head up to check. We find blood where the bull was standing when I first shot at him. We follow the blood up to the ridge top and the hill flattens out into a big flat. We see the bull bedded down about 50 yards away, his head is still up so I shoot him again to end it quickly. We approach from behind and the bull is finished. I am very pleased to have taken such a heavy horned old bull in such a spectacular place.

Now the work begins. There is no way to get the truck close. So we all pitch in and get the bull butchered on top of the hill and packed back down to the truck. This chore takes us a couple of hours and when it’s all done we all take a few minutes to share cold drinks from the cooler box and toast the kudu and the experience of hunting. We then make our way back to the lodge to get cleaned up, eat lunch and take a nap. The afternoon/evening ride is pleasant and once again we see lots of game. No stalks were attempted and no shots were fired this evening but a great time was had for sure. We also stop by the hyena bait and add more bait for one last try in the morning while we were out.

 

[Tokoloshe Safaris]

I'll be leaving on Delta 200 tomorrow evening with a final destination of the Matesi 2 safari area in Zimbabwe. I'll be looking for cape buffalo and spotted hyena as the primary animals with a possibility of some other PG, depending on quota availability and how the buff and hyena hunting goes.

The genesis of this trip goes back to November of 2022. I had just recently completed my 4th African safari in the Caprivi and was fortunate enough to have taken my first cape buffalo on that trip. Going into that trip, I thought that a cape buffalo would be a "one and done" type of animal for my hunting, sorta like some of the other animals I've been fortunate enough to hunt, like leopard, brown bear, etc... With that in mind, I chose to rent a 375 H&H from the outfitter for that first buffalo hunt. Well.... by the end of the first day, I knew I had been terribly mistaken and that, Lord willing, I would hunt buffalo many more times in my life. I was fortunate enough to kill a good buffalo on that trip. Upon my return home I immediately started the process of looking for a suitable left-handed rifle for future DG hunts. That has turned into an expensive but enjoyable journey in its own right. I digress...

I also began looking for my next buffalo hunt and in November of 2022, there was a thread posted by Dave Freeburn Safaris here on AH about a buff hunt he had available. I reached out to Dave, and we began discussing the hunt he had on offer. We had several good conversations over the course of a couple of days discussing the various options he had available and what would best suit what I was looking for in a buffalo hunt. We settled on a hunt that he could put together in Zim in collaboration with Classic African Hunting in the Matesi 2 safari area. Plans were made to meet in Nashville at SCI in early 2023 to discuss further and finalize plans.

I meet Dave in Nashville and after going over dates and other arrangements a deposit was paid and dates booked for early September 2024. Over the course of the next year Dave was great about sending picture and staying on contact about how the hunts he was a part of in Matesi 2 were going. These always stoked the excitement for when I would be able to hunt this area myself. I meet with Dave again early this year at SCI and paid the remainder of my daily rate fees and finalized the logistics of the hunt and then the preparation for the hunt really kicked in upon my return home after SCI. I really appreciate all that Dave has done to help put this together. He is a straight shooter and a stand-up fella.

I have decided to bring a Winchester Model 70 LH 458 Win Mag topped with a Leupold VX5 1-5 fire dot scope. Big thanks to @MarkBiggerstaff for such a great deal on the scope. When I was posting about the rifle back when I got it, it turned out that @michael458 actually was close friends with the original owner of the rifle that came out of the Winchester Custom shop. He even sent me some pictures of the original owner with the rifle and some of the fine animals he was able to take with the rifle. Based on some guidance and info from Michael, I will be shooting 450 grain Swift Aframes and 500 grain Nosler flat nosed solids. These group within an inch of each other at typical buff ranges.

I will also be bringing a Winchester Model 70 LH 30-06, topped with a Leupold VX5 3-15 fire dot scope, again thanks to Mark for the great deal on the scope. I will be shooting 200 grain Aframes, loaded by Safari Arms and John LaSalla. This will be good hyena medicine and with be more than adequate on any PG I might get to hunt.

All travel arrangements have been made through Shawn with Gracy Travel. She has arranged all of my previous African travel on my other safaris, and I have been more than satisfied with their professionalism and service. I will overnight at City Lodge before traveling on to Vic Falls on the 2nd, with buffalo hunting to commence on September 3rd.

I would also like to thank @SkullKeeper for his insights as he hunted out of this camp last year and provided a very detailed hunt report here that was beneficial to me in my planning for this hunt. We have been in communication, and I appreciate his insights.

Hopefully, I will be able to provide updates from camp while hunting but if not, I will do a full hunt report upon my return. I am super excited and wanted to thank those here on AH that have been a big part of helping me put this hunt together. We have a wonderful community of mostly of people here. If anybody will be on Delta 200 tomorrow evening, give me a shout and we can say hello.

If you end up with a free day in the falls go to the 3 monkey and have a Tomahawk steak and ice cold beer.

Lon

 

[thi9elsp]

@Tokoloshe Safaris Which beer?

@Fatback Great old Kudu, nice shooting from distance into a tight spot.

 

[Fatback]

Sept 9th. We are going to give it one last hurrah on the hyena bait this morning so it’s up at 3:30 am and we head out at 4:00. We get to the spot and make the long, dark walk into the blind. In the pre dawn darkness we can hear the hyenas feeding. They make a heck of a racket. I am straining my eyes and wishing the sun to brighten just a bit more so I can get a shot. Just as it begins to lighten, something doesn’t look quite right at the bait tree, mainly, there is no bait. We scan the area as it gets light and nothing. We make our way down to the bait tree and we follow the drag marks about 30 yards into the brush and find what is left of the bait. There would have been no way to see the bait from the blind. The hyena quest comes up short. I knew it would be a challenge hunting them in daylight only. I have no regrets as this was an incredibly enjoyable part of this safari. I will definitely hunt hyena again in the future if given the opportunity. We break down the blind, gather up all of our gear and load up. Tristan asks if there is any other animals I’d be interested in looking for today. I tell him if we saw an exceptional specimen of a duiker, steinbok, sharpes grysbok, warthog or baboon we could make a plan and try and take one. So off we go. Over the course of the next 4 hours we see lots of game but nothing that interests me or is available on quota. About a mile from camp we spot a group of baboons and make a plan. After a bit of maneuvering u am able to get a shot off on a big male. The 30-06 rings true and I’ve gotten a big baboon. What a cool trophy.

We get back to camp for lunch. We have another delicious meal and Tristan asks me what I want to do the afternoon/evening. Matesi 2 has been more than generous to me and I am completely satisfied with my safari so I decide to give the animals a break and hang out in camp for the evening. I hang out and start packing and begin the process of getting tips sorted, sign paperwork, etc… The typical end of a safari procedural type stuff. I am treated to a tremendous sunset and a fine meal of kudu fillets, roasted potatoes and carrots. It is amazing the type of meals that can come out of these remote safari camps.

 

[Fatback]

Sept 10

We make the 2 hour drive back to Vic Falls and I get my geared put up at the hotel. I then go and spend the afternoon touring the falls. Absolutely breathtaking, even during such a bad drought across Southern Africa. I can only imagine how impressive it would be during the rainy season.

After my time at the falls I h we d back to my room and get cleaned up and just rest as the early morning trips to the hyena blind are catching up to me. After a nap it’s dinner at the hotel and early to bed. I have a fishing trip planned for in the morning.

 

[Fatback]

Sept 11th. I am up early this morning to be at the boat launch at 6:30 for a half day of fishing on the river. I take a few minutes reflect on the significance of this date in our history. Then it off to do some fishing. I am treated to a stunning African sunrise on the river. I had

a great morning on the river but was not able to connect on a tiger fish, which was the primary objective. Had a couple on but couldn’t keep them buttoned up. I was able to get a couple of new to me species to the boat.

I did see lots of hippos, a few crocs, some elephants and some impala on the bank. Over all it was a great morning. Once I get back to my room I get cleaned up and head into town to do a bit shopping for the family back home. Then it’s back to the lodge to sort gear, get packed up and try and get a good night’s rest before heading home on the 12th. Overall, my first trip to Zimbabwe was an unmitigated success. I am looking forward to being back here and hunting again at some point in the future.

 

[Fatback]

Sept 12th and 13th

I am able to sleep in a bit on the morning of the 12th as my flight home doesn’t leave until 2:00 pm. The shuttle leave the hotel at 11:00 and I am at the airport by 11:30. Then it is the typical dance to get the rifles and ammo re-checked and after about an hour everybody is ok and I am able to check them and get my boarding passes. The airlink flight into Joburg is uneventful then the long layover there before leaving at 10:00 on Delta 201. It takes me about 2 hours to go through the return process of getting my rifles checked by customs and everything re-checked and back through security. I am now sitting at the gate waiting for my return flight home. I can already feel my mind shifting gears from safari mode back to “real world mode.” I can say it is an entirely unpleasant feeling as I am ready to see my family and check in with work and see what issues are waiting for me there. I’m am not in a big rush though as I have the weekend to unpack and settle in before Monday morning. Some final thoughts for me ad it relates to this safari but apply to all of my hunts where I travel be it Africa, Canada or the Western US. I am always a bit torn with regards to these hunts. They are an real investment in terms of money and time and I often think about how I could allocate those resources differently. Then the part of me, a very real part, stirs reminding me that I need time in wild places to truly be who I am, even if just for short periods of time. It recharges my soul. It is a place and time for reflection and often times healing from the hurts that life has a tendency to dish out. I am a better person in part to the time I’ve spent in wild places. Now it is time to turn my attention to August of 2025 when, Lord willing, I’ll be back in Africa again. The experiences of the last 2 weeks will fortify me until then. I appreciate everybody who has followed along on my adventure. If I can answer any questions for anybody, or be helpful in anyway, please just reach out.

 

[Graham Hunter]

Great report. Thanks for sharing.

 

[PARA45]

What an awesome trip, and what a buffalo. If only those scars could tell the story. Wow!!! Congrats, and thanks for taking us along.