Hi Guys, i mentioned sometime ago i'd give feedback on a Zim hunt myself and 2 mates where going on so here goes. We left for the Chewore/Mukwichi hunting area early on the Friday morning. We flew into Harare and cleared our rifles with no issues, the driver picked us up and we left on the 6hr transfer drive to our camp! It's been quitea few years since i was last in Zim and it really has deterioated. The roads are slowly going into disrepair, and it just seems as if the buildings etc are being neglected. Anyhow to cut a long story short we arrived at the boom gate entrance to the hunting concession and with 10 days of hunting before us we where more than excited. Forgot to mention we stopped at a local shebeen to buy a locally made maize drink called "Scud". Damn those things are nasty and pack more punch than a 416 compressed load
Zim buff / Elephant hunt
- Thread starter L Hooker
- Start date
We arrived at camp, which is situated on the banks of the Angwe River. It's a very nice camp, awesome setting very comfortable . We unpacked our gear and met up with the camp staff, awesome guys, within 1/2 hr the camp chef had rustled up some snacks and with cold beer in hand we strolled across to the trackers quarters to find out from them of the game movements in the area etc. Some Russian hunters had left 4 days earlier and they had managed to bag 2x buff, croc, hippo and a quota elephant. I was after an old dagga bull, my mate Sean was after a buff cow and my other mate Richard was going to cull a quote Elephant for the community. So the game plan was to head off in the morning and look for some buff. If we encountered a heard we would glass for any big bulls and if we saw none, we would go in looking for a nice cow for Sean.
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This hunting concession we where hunting has incredibly hilly terain so a certain level of fitness is required. Over the next 2 days we hunted hard, came up close to quite a few herds of buffalo however there had been some poachers in the area (lighting fires to drive the game, on day 2 our scout had a shot at a poacher we spotted in the distance, his radio had broken and he was unable to call in Parks for assisstance so we decided not to follow)and the buff where very skittish and we could not get Sean a shot on a decent cow. On day 3 we decided to venture furher into the concession so we woke up around 4am for a long drive out, around 6am we came up on a herd and after 4hrs of tracking them with a swirling wind we decided to go look foranother herd as they had winded us and where not slowing down. Around midday we came up on another herd and after a stalk they winded us again, we decided to leave the herd as they would be bedding down in the heat of the day and go finda spot to catch our breath and have lunch. After lunch we picked up the spoor again, and with the wind in our favour Sean hd a shot on a nice cow. Perfect first shot with 2 for backup his cow was down.
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As i was after a dagga bull we left the herds alone and started looking for dagga tracks, 3 days later after walking our feet bare we came upon the spoor of 2 lone bulls, the tracker had an idea of where they where heading so we left the spoor to try cut it further on. Tracker was spot on and very unexpectantly we came up on 2 lone dagga bulls, we where on a hill in the open when we spotted the 2 bulls below us and they in turn spotted us. They started to run off an after some whislting they stopped to look at us again and i let fly with my 416 rigby. We could see it was a hit, however i put in a 2nd shot that dropped him. We reloaded, and started making our way down the hill, upon gettingto the place where he fell, we found lung blood , bone pieces however no buff!! We had a wounded buff on our hands and by now it was starting to get dark. We followed the spoor for about 200m until he went into a dry river bed that was thick with high grass. We made the call then to stop and return the following morning. I was very worried to say the least!!! I was certain of my shots, we had seen him fall however no buff, so i started running it through my head trying to picture my shots! My mate Sean had filmed it and back at camp we checked the footage, what had happended wasthat as i squeezed my furst shot the bull turned andi hit him in the lungs but a bit high, my 2ndshot we later discovered had hit him in the hind leg as he was running away shattering his leg compltely (that was where the pieces of bone we found had come from.)
To cut a long story short we went out the following morning, and he had been waiting for us not more then 20m from where we had stopped the previous night. To complicate issues, the other dagga bull had rejoined him and we had to be very carefull not to shoot the wrongbuff. The pure power of a buffalo is something incredible as he still even with a lung shot and a shattered back leg manged to stay in front of us, he got too a point where he made his last stand and when we came up to him i put in a another heart shot which dropped him. i then put in another 2 insurance shots.
Picture of my bull
To cut a long story short we went out the following morning, and he had been waiting for us not more then 20m from where we had stopped the previous night. To complicate issues, the other dagga bull had rejoined him and we had to be very carefull not to shoot the wrongbuff. The pure power of a buffalo is something incredible as he still even with a lung shot and a shattered back leg manged to stay in front of us, he got too a point where he made his last stand and when we came up to him i put in a another heart shot which dropped him. i then put in another 2 insurance shots.
Picture of my bull
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I jumped the gun here as my my mate Richard on day 3 shot an elephant. We where returning from shooting the first buff and came across the fesh spoor of elephant . We made the call to go in after them as the area we where in was a bit more accessible for the truck to get the meat out should Richard manage to get a shot. As mentioned previously he was to shoot an elephant for the community, however NationalParks was pretty specific about what elephant he could shoot. It had to be a young bull that's it!! We all loaded up and after a short stalk came up to the elephant feeding in a small dry river bed. The herd must have been 30 strong, and they where spread out all around us, as luck would have it we spotted a young bull and Richard put his sights on him. The bull fell not more than 20m from where he was feeding. Shooting Elephant is very humbling, and to be honest all of us on this stalk felt a bit emotional as we walked up to him.
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I was too shoot a Hyena, however we where so buggered each day that we only managed to go out one night to try bag one. Here is our hide we had built. We had baited an area and unfortunatly the hyena came in thatsame night an did not return thefollowing night, we did however have a big Tom Leopard make an appearance.
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Whilst we where there we where asked to shoot another 2 elephant for the community, i was going to take one and Richard the other however after tracking herds for 3 days, and each time the herds being spooked by poachers we ran out of time. As a result of the poachers we came across the National parks scout informed us they where going to organise a anti poaching blitz in the area! I hope they nailed some!!
Here are a few other pics. The hunt was truly awesome, and i was very blessed to be able to share it with good friends. Till next year boys
Here are a few other pics. The hunt was truly awesome, and i was very blessed to be able to share it with good friends. Till next year boys
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Lets keep the reloading going so that we are ready for early next year. Hunting the big 5 free range is something that will alwyas be special. I have now hunted zim several times and nothing is better than sitting down in a river bed with a cold beer in hand after a hard day of hunting with great friends.