ZIMBABWE: Cape Buffalo With JKO HUNTING SAFARIS

[Mike B.]

I am going to start with a little backstory regarding my first cape buffalo hunt. I had a hunt in June 2021 for my very first ever dangerous game hunt. I was hunting near Hoedspruit in South Africa. It was a difficult hunt due to how hard it was to try and sneak up on any buffalo. The amount of leaves on the ground made stalking very challenging. After 4 days of many failed stalks, we got onto some buffalo and was able to find a bull to shoot. When the time to shoot came, I had an opportunity at a frontal shot at around 70 yards. I took the shot, and that's when things got interesting. Sadly, I shot too low. While I was able to finish the bull off the next day, it was a less than ideal situation and with absolutely no fault to the outfitter, my experience just wasn't what I wanted. The bad shot was all on me.

A couple of weeks after that hunt, I set out to find another buffalo hunt. One that I could try and redeem my poor shooting with, one that I could look back on and say, that was an awesome hunt. I had some criteria that I was looking for on this next hunt. I already had plans to go to Zimbabwe and Botswana for a photo safari and I thought it'd be a good idea to try and find a hunt close to Victoria Falls. I had somewhat of a limited time frame to hunt due to this. I really wanted to hunt an area that was unfenced and had other big 5 animals around. I talked to JKO Safaris about what I was looking for and Jacques said there was quota left for a bull on Kazuma forestry area. There isn't much online regarding Kazuma but there are some hunt reports to be found. The area is close to the Matetsi areas so that also eased my fears a bit. So I decided to book that hunt for June 2022 and the wait began.

Earlier this year, because of Covid chaos, my family and I decided that we'd stick to one country of touring. At that time, it was still difficult to get from country to country because of required PCR testing. Because of that chaos, we moved all of our touring to South Africa. What I didn't do was change the location of my hunt. I decided to stick with my original plan of hunting in Zimbabwe. The only change was that I was not going to have anybody going to Zimbabwe with me. I would be traveling alone and hunting alone. This was quite a change for me as I have always had someone traveling with me. I enjoy the company of friends or family so they can experience the same things as me. Eventually the time to fly to Joberg for my connection to Victoria falls was finally happening. I flew Delta and then stayed at Africa Sky for the night. That evening, Jacques called me to check in and we talked about the details about what would happen when I got to Victoria falls Airport. I was taking a transfer service to meet up with the PH and the PH would then drive me to camp. After the call I slept as well as I could have.

The next morning is when things got a bit interesting. About 30 minutes before boarding my flight to Zim, Jacques sent me a message saying we need to change areas. He assured me this was for the best and to not worry. I was going through security and only briefly looked at the message. Once I got settled in at the gate, he sent me another message again reassuring me to not worry. The area that I was being moved to was the Ngamo Sikumi forestry area. I responded to him that everything is good and as long as we didn't have chaos of a bad shot from me again, then all will be well. Now with that said, as I boarded the plane, my anxiety was through the roof. I was moving to an area that I had done no research on, and area that I knew absolutely nothing about. I'm a bit of a planner so when I book something, I know as much as I can possibly know before I even send the deposit. To make matters even worse, as I got off the plane, I could not get my cell phone to work even though my phone should work in almost any country. It took almost an hour once off the plane before I was able to get texts out. Once out of the airport, I met with the transfer driver. There were two guys that met me. This was a bit strange as I was not expecting 2 people. They reassured me that I was in good hands with them. They both were actually great. I was given a mini driving tour by the guy that sat in the back with me as he told me all about the area, a bit about the culture, and whatever else he could think of. It was interesting to see the country for the first time. The small villages that we drove past, the horrible roads with potholes that could swallow a car, and the shear number of goats on the road. I thoroughly enjoyed the 3 hour drive to meet my PH.

 

[Mike B.]

After the 3 hour drive, we finally got to the area where we were to meet my PH. The driver called the PH and after talking for a few, I started to get worried. It sounded like we were not where we needed to be or the PH was not there yet. The anxiety that was gone from the great mini tour I just had was now back. That anxiety was short lived as saw someone walking out of the corner of my eye. It turns out that it was the PH. We had parked out on the main road and the PH had parked in the parking lot there at the halfway point and we couldn't see each other. So everyone thought we were at the wrong area. We got back into the van and pulled into the parking area. I got out of the van and was met by the PH Daniel Vanwyk. We loaded up in his truck and proceeded to camp. Dan and I talked quite a bit about the area, and what to expect. It was already getting later in the afternoon and we had about an hour and a half drive on sandy roads to get to camp. We stopped after a while and we got out to shoot the rifle to make sure everything was good. I was using a camp rifle. The rifle was in great shape and one shot later, all was well. We loaded back up and off to camp. I was still mostly in the dark about the camp and area that I'd be hunting. You can only get so much from a conversation so I just sat back and took in the sights and patiently waited to see camp. After a long uneventful drive , we pulled into Intundla Camp. I was pleasantly surprised. It was better than I was expecting and seemed like quite the upgrade over the accommodations that I saw for Kazuma.

 

[Jörg Krüger]

Awesome start to your adventure. Thank you for sharing.

 

[DieJager]

Nice start to the report. Looking forward to the rest.

 

[WyoBull]

Looking forward to what is to come!

 

[AZDAVE]

Sounds like an interesting start to your safari. Sometimes having to adapt to the situation make the hunt all the more memorable. Look forward to the rest of your adventure.

 

[gillettehunter]

Great start. TIA. Make a plan and have fun.
Bruce

 

[Mike B.]

That evening I was told even more about the property I was on. Ngamo is a huge area to say the least. It borders Hwange National Park and and it took me a few days to realize the connection to this property and a couple of lions that have been shot there. After some long conversations at the fire, I decided it was time for bed. The next morning we got up and had breakfast, and talked a little bit about the day we were hoping for. We were looking for Buffalo as the main target but I had also expressed some interest in Sable and some other plains game as well. I had not hunted Sable before and knowing that they had them here on a truly open area made the idea of hunting one very intriguing. After breakfast we loaded up and headed off for the first day of hunting. As we headed out of camp, we came onto a set of train tracks. The tracks were the border of the property and Hwange National Park. We were headed to some water holes to see if we couldn't find tracks crossing the roads or leaving the water holes. The first one we got to, we all got out of the truck to walked around. With rifles in hand and hopes of finding some big tracks to persue, the trackers quickly alerted us to a welcome sight. About 150 yards from the water hole was two male lions.

The first animals we saw were lions! That couldn't have been more iconic for me than that. It really emphasized the fact that we were hunting a truly wild area and there was no telling what we could run into at every turn.

We didn't find any fresh buffalo tracks so we set off to the next area. It wasn't long when I was looking to my left and saw the familiar sight of the coolest African animal. We were looking at a young bull elephant. The young bull was headed to the next waterhole that we were headed to as well. We stopped and got some great pictures of him on my phone.

So now we are only baout an hour into the morning hunt and we had already seen both lion and elephant. After watching the elephant for a bit, we moved on and continued down the road. It was amazing to see how much elephant sign there was. On every road we drove down, the amount of elephant tracks was awesome to see. Maybe a half mile from where we saw the elephant, the trackers in the back alerted us to some tracks that had crossed the road. I was told we had some fresh buffalo tracks and we would be getting out to follow them. We got out of the truck, grabbed the rifles, and off we went. As we followed the tracks, I would occasionally see elephant tracks as well. It wasn't long before Dan had pointed out some lion tracks following the Buffalo tracks. It was hard for me to not to continually look over my shoulder, not knowing what could be following us as well. We kept walking for quite a ways before Dan turned around and said the trackers can hear some elephant close by. We were never able to see them because the area we were in was fairly thick. Small trees and bushes everywhere. While it was easy to walk through, it was difficult to see more than 30 yards at a time. It was starting to get pretty warm and as we followed the tracks we'd also run into fresh buffalo dung. The trackers said it was still warm. This got me super excited knowing we were getting close.

It wasn't long before Dan turned around to me and updated me with some very welcome news. They could hear the buffalo approximately 70 yards away from us. My hearing is pretty poor and I do wear hearing aids and I was not able to hear the buffalo at that time. We made a plan and we set off in the direction of the sounds. Two of the trackers stayed back while three of us went off to find a bull. It didn't take long before I was actually able to hear the Buffalo as well and then shortly after that I was also seeing them. We were about 50 yards out. I could only see a few and it was obvious that what I was looking at were all cows.

 

[Mike B.]

We kept sneaking around them to try to get different views of all of the buffalo there. I had no idea how many were there, I thought it was just a few. It wasn't until quite a bit later that I found out we were next to a pretty large herd. We kept playing the cat and mouse game for about the next 2 hours. At one point we were surround on 3 sides by buffalo. We had stopped next to a decently sized tree and Dan decided it was a good time to climb it for a better view point. He was up there for about 5 minutes while I sat down and took a break. The noises of the buffalo feeding all around us was still easy for me to hear. Dan then made his way down the tree and quickly said he saw a great bull. The excitement really started to get real. We snuck around and we quickly ran into some problems. We had a bunch of cows and calves about 15 yards from us. One was laying down asleep while the others were up feeding. We were stuck as we also had more cows feeding behind us. We waited for a bit to figure out the next move. We didn't have many options. We moved and tried to catch back up to where Dan saw the bull feeding to. As we were sneaking along, the plan was working ok but then that dreaded moment that everyone has experienced. The feel of wind blowing on the back of your neck. The wind had shifted. Dan looked at me and said this isn't good. We stopped and assessed the situation. We still had a bunch of cows and calves to our right and in the direction where the wind was blowing to. It wasn't long after that when we had buffalo running, obviously able to smell us. The thunderous noise of countless buffalo running away was disheartening.

Here I was thinking, well that was a good stalk for opening morning. We got close but things didn't work out. We still have many more days to try again. My disappointment was short lived. The buffalo that ran had now stopped and started feeding again. So we quickly moved up and started searching again. We got to the edge of a small clearing and we were looking at a bunch of buffalo. This is the moment I realized just how big the herd was. The buffalo saw us and started running again, further out into the clearing. We now had buffalo running from our left as well as from our right. As they all pushed out into the opening, Dan grabbed the sticks and we ran about 30 yards to get around some bushes that were between us and the buffalo. He set up the sticks and quickly looked over the herd. When I saw the sheer number of buffalo there in front of us, my thought was it was going to be hard to find the one he wants me to shoot. A couple seconds later and he says, it's on the far left. I quickly swing a bit to my left and on the far left edge, there were a few buffalo standing there. The bull was obvious when standing next to the cows. There was only one problem, he was standing behind a ground palm and even worse, it was another frontal shot. I'm not sure what kind of plant it was but it had big fans of palm leaves and it was covering a big portion of the vitals. I quickly asked can I shoot through that? I aimed a bit high thinking that I could go through the leaves and still hit where I was aiming. I shoot and all hell breaks loose. The entire herd starts running directly away from us, the bull ran from our left to our right and directly in front of the herd and he got about 40 yards and stumbled down. I reloaded and as I was about to shoot again when he was up and turned and headed directly away from us, at which point I hesitated a bit for the second shot. By then, he had weaved into other animals and I didn't have a shot. We started running to get into a better position and as we came around another set of bushes, there he was laying down. We walked close and then he decided he wasn't done and sat up. I was able to get another shot into his shoulder right through the vitals. It still absolutely amazes me how strong of an animal these buffalo are.

It was now about 12:30 and we were already done. I couldn't have asked for a better hunt than this. First day magic and it happened just like you see in so many hunting shows. One thing I had forgot to mention in my previous posts was that Jacques was scheduled to meet us in a few days. He had some family issues he was attending to or he'd already have been there with us. Once we got back to camp, I sent him a picture with a quick shout out saying, you missed it! His response was an instant classic! "No F#@*"

 

[Nyati]

Great hunt, great bull, congrats

 

[cls]

Nice, congratulations.

 

[PHOENIX PHIL]

Very nice bull Mike, congratulations!

 

[Mike B.]

Thanks everyone. It was really a great hunt. I enjoyed every minute of it. The changes as I got there just added a bit of intrigue to the entire hunt.

That evening we went out looking for Sable and anything else we might run across. We didn't see much. It was a pretty quiet afternoon and evening of hunting. My plan was to also hunt hyena. I had shot one the prior year as well and I wanted to try for another. The next morning we gathered up the intestines and ribs from the buffalo to use as bait. We got those set out near a blind that we would be sitting in the next couple of nights. As we were out looking for Sable, we ran into a steenbok. That was on my wish list as well. Every time I've seen the smaller antelope species, they seem to want to stand around long enough to maybe get a picture, but then they are running. This one decided he was only going to run a little ways, and them stopped. That gave us just enough time to make it happen.

Steenbok are my favorite of the small antelope. I love the dark colored nose so it was awesome to have that opportunity. We then proceeded to a waterhole to look for Sable tracks. When we got to the water hole, we all go out if the truck and walked around it. We didn't see much of anything but as we got back to the truck, I turned around and saw a couple of baboon on the other side where we had just come from. We got setup for a shot very quickly and watched the whole troop come by. Towards the back we saw a really big male. He stopped and looked around and that gave me enough time to make a good shot. This was my first baboon as well. He had broken one of the big canines but it will still be a cool euro mount. We ended up using the baboon for bait for the hyena as well.

We got back to the skinning shed and dropped off both animals. We had lunch and a quick break and then went back out looking for Sable. We didn't see much that evening and then headed back to camp to sit in the hide for a bit. We had hyena calling within a quick amount of time and they did come into the bait area but they ran past it without ever stopping. So back to camp we went for dinner.

That evening we had buffalo liver for appetizers and buffalo steaks for dinner. While the liver didn't appeal to me much, the steaks were fantastic. The staff at camp were absolutely amazing. The food was great at every meal. So many people overlook the small things that happen, and only look at the big picture and when doing that they miss so much to what makes a trip or a hunt great. After our dinner, we were served a special dessert.

 

[shootist~]

Thanks for sharing the adventure! I can only imagine being in the middle of that big herd of buffalo.

 

[Mike B.]

We guesstimated the size of the herd to be about 200 that I shot my bull out of. A couple of nights later when we were night hunting for a civet or Genet, we ran into a huge herd of buffalo. It was insane. They all came into the waterhole that we drove up to. This picture isn't great but this was just a tiny fraction of the herd. You could do a full 180 degree panning of the camera and there would have been buffalo everywhere. While we sat there for about 20 minutes watching them, more and more just kept showing up. As we hunted the next few days, we ran into more buffalo as well. All in all, I bet we saw 600-800 buffalo between all of the herds? There were a lot of buffalo, that's for sure. We never did run into a civet or genet unfortunately.

Back to the Sable hunting the third day. The only Sable I had seen at this point was one running across the road right at dark. As the morning hunt progressed, we still had not seen anything. We did run into some herds of blue wildebeest. They asked me if I was interested in one and I said sure, why not. So we drove around to get some better views. We snuck up on them and glassed them up for a bit and it turns out the entire herd of approximately 50 were all bulls. There was one that was super wide, but was also super young. With my limited experience here, I would have put him over 30". Beyond that I was just trying to look at each to assess what we were seeing. Jacques had picked out a good old bull and Dan put up the sticks. Honestly I was confused about which bull was what and they eventually spooked and ran off. We made another plan and worked our way to catch up to them. This time the old bull was out more in the open so it was easier for me to pick it out. I made a shot and he ran about 150 yards and he was done.

We headed back to the skinning shed and as we were driving back, we ran into a small herd of Sable. We manauvered into position to get a shot and Dan put up the sticks. I had to wait for a bit for the bull to clear some trees. He eventually stopped where I had a good shot on the front shoulder. 20 yards and it was over. So now we had two more animals for the skinning shed.

 

[Mike B.]

We had sat in a blind two nights in a row for hyena. The second night we saw nothing but a couple of jackal. So the plan for the third night was to set up another bait site quite a ways from camp. We got that set up earlier in the day and then went out hunting until early evening. We got back to the bait site and made a makeshift blind out of a few trees. We sat there until dark and that's when all the magic started. We had several hyena calling around us. At one point we had a Sable about 250 yards out just milling around doing nothing. Shortly after that we had two hyena come within about 20 yards of us. As I moved to get the gun onto the hyena, they ran off. It wasn't long when they had come back, this time just a tad bit further out. I was already in position and had the cross hairs on the biggest, pulled the trigger and down she went. This hyena was much bigger than my previous one. An old warrior for sure.

As we were taking photos of the hyena, there was one trying to come into the bait site. We suspect it was the second one that was running with the one I shot.

The next morning we ran into some zebra. This was also on my list and we made a plan and it all worked out.

I was able to take 7 animals in my short 6 days of hunting. What I found was I absolutely loved hunting in the open area of Zimbabwe. The fully free range aspect of this hunt, being able to see lions, tons of elephant and buffalo, and while the plain game was a bit more limited, it was still what I think was my favorite hunt I have ever done. I loved staying at the camp we were at and the staff was fantastic. It really made the hunt even that more enjoyable. Dan was a great PH and worked hard to make the hunt as memorable as it could have been. We had lunches at a couple water holes and watched elephant come in for some drinks. Being more involved with the baiting for the hyena made that a real highlight of the hunt. Like I mentioned before, it's the little things that all added up that made the hunt great. I appreciate everything that Jacques did to make my hunt enjoyable and I would not even hesitate for a second to book another hunt with him.

 

[375Fox]

That’s a great hunt and report. I can’t believe you had a hyena stand in spotlight for a photo, but didn’t shoot a 2nd one though!

 

[Mike B.]

Ohh it definitely crossed my mind. I asked how many were on quota but we ended up letting it walk. During our night hunting, I was looking for another one.

 

[Doug3006]

Great report on a phenomenal hunt! Congratulations.

 

[cpr0312]

Congrats and thanks for sharing!