DATE OF HUNT
10 days – September 2 – 11, 2012

LOCATION
Nyaminga GMA, Luangwa River Valley, Zambia

GAME HUNTED
Cape Buffalo, Crocodile, Puku, Impala, Warthog, Kudu, Bushbuck, Waterbuck

PROFESSIONAL HUNTER
Pete Bartosz

TRACKERS / CREW
Oscar, Mapwe, Boston

OUTFITTER
Muchinga Adventures, LTD
John and Laura du Plooy
http://www.muchingaadventures.com

BOOKING AGENT
Mark Young

TRAVEL AGENT
Small local agent here in Calgary. Not knowledgeable whatsoever about travel with firearms but did get the proper notification done to airlines. Between Mark’s help, my brother’s previous experience and our own due diligence we had no problems.

TRAVEL SUMMARY
Airlines: British Airways – Calgary – London, London – Lusaka. King Air charter from Lusaka to camp.

RIFLES AND AMMUNITION:
Weatherby Mark V 416 Wby Mag, Leupold VX-3 1.5-5, Leupold dual dove tail mount system
Weatherby Mark V 300 Wby Mag, Leupold VX-3 2.5-8, Leupold dual dove tail mount system
I have been shooting Weatherby Mark V’s since I was 14 and I love them. I have shot and owned several different brands of rifles but I have always preferred Mark V’s for their fit, available options, and short bolt lift which allows for good clearance on my “as low as possible” mounted scopes. I hand load for them and have had little trouble getting them to shoot sub-MOA off the bench. I load my 416 Wby down to Rigby- like velocities to keep the recoil manageable.
400gr Barnes TSX in the 416 pushed by RL-15
168gr Barnes tTSX in the 300 pushed by RL-19
These rifles are not beauty queens by any stretch of imagination but they shoot and operate very well. I like having them both in the same action so function is second nature to me no matter which one is in my hands at any time.



KEY EQUIPMENT SUMMARY
Footwear: Under Armour camo runners
Socks: Lightweight synthetic running socks
Pants: Columbia and Under Armour zip-offs
Shirts: Under Armour charged cotton t’s, Columbia PFG long sleeve, some old camo long sleeve I’ve had forever
Hearing Protection: Sport Ears custom molded – a great investment!
Camera: Nikon D-5100
Electrolyte Replacement/Hydration: Source backpack / bladder, Nuun Tablets for water bottles
Satellite Phone: Iridium with 300 min prepaid Africa SIM card

HUNT BACKGROUND
This was my first trip to Africa (WARNING: Starry-eyed first-timer report LOL). This trip was carefully planned over a long period of time. This website was a very, very important tool in my research which is why I feel compelled to write a report as a way of giving a bit back after all of the knowledge and information I gained from here. (I even ripped off the format for my hunt report from Bill C – the reigning hunt report champ in my opinion). Mark Young’s suggestions and guidance were very valuable and it was great working with him on this.
My older brother, Aaron and close family friend, Ryan were both turning 40 in 2012 and they had long hoped to do their first trip to Africa to celebrate the occasion. We all grew up hunting together in rural Alberta. My 2 younger brothers, Bryce and Walker, had done a safari in Zimbabwe in 2010. They were ready to go again. I had never been and could not wait to go. Walker loves filming and has great equipment. His plan was to come along as observer and cameraman. The other four of us would be hunting. This narrowed down the potential hunt locations as not every outfit could accommodate 4 hunters with their own PHs and provide the type of hunt we hoped for. To be honest I had ruled out Zambia initially as I thought it would be too expensive. I liked the idea of Zimbabwe, but being Canadian, the arms embargo issue bugged me a bit. Mark put together a detailed proposal for Muchinga in Zambia as well as a few others and after a lot of independent research we decided on Muchinga. It seemed like the best fit for a group our size to hunt the things we wanted to hunt, in the type of area we wanted to hunt, at a price that was reasonable. We were right.

TRAVEL TO ZAMBIA
I think British Airways is the natural choice when hunting Zambia. I live in Calgary and BA has a number of direct flights from Calgary to London. BA also flies direct from London to Lusaka so it really was a no brainer for us. 2 flights on the same airline with a 5 hour layover in between and we were in the middle of Zambia. We had no issues with firearm paperwork and I was impressed with how well tracked our firearms and ammo were. Every time we checked with a BA rep they could tell us where our bags were which was nice. This does not come without a price of course and with the BA firearms and ammo policy, you pay roughly $80 US / bag extra each way for firearms and ammo and it is handled and stored by some special security type personnel. Personally I don’t have a problem paying more if you are getting something for it and I felt like we did. Knowing where our bags were and having them come out first when it was time to pick them up was worth it to me.
Once we landed, before we even got to the first customs check, Teresia from Muchinga was there to expertly guide us through all of the formalities. From there we went straight to the charter company and boarded the King Air for the 1 hour 20 minute flight to camp.

CAMP
Muchinga has the rights to 2 GMA’s (Chanjuzi and Nyaminga) which are side by side on the Luangwa River Valley. Each GMA has its own main camp. They also have a tent camp set up near the border between the 2 areas which was the perfect location for us as we would have 2 guys hunting each GMA. The camp consists of new canvas tents on concrete bases and the regular dining area and staff / kitchen area. It was really comfortable and we had everything we needed.




HUNTING
On the day we arrived in camp, we shot in our rifles to see how they fared on the trip and I was happy to see both of my guns were shooting right where I wanted them. That was a nice confidence booster. I had a pretty good sleep that night despite all of the amazing sounds I had never heard before such as lions roaring and hippos grazing and grunting around camp. What a treat. Getting up in the morning felt like the opening day of my first deer season. It was on!
I wolfed down breakfast and paced circles around the Pete’s Land Cruiser until we were ready to go. Bryce had the first few days to accompany me with a video camera as he had a seven day hunt booked which started later in the week. We started with a drive near the river to see what was out and about. It didn’t take long to confirm that we were in game-rich country as puku and impala were around every corner. Other than a quick look for interest’s sake, we didn’t spend a bunch of time evaluating the more common plains game species. Pete and I had discussed and agreed that our strategy would be to hunt buffalo in the morning while we had plenty of time to follow up tracks and not get too distracted by the other stuff unless a great opportunity presented itself. I did not put a lot of pressure on Pete with respect to minimum trophy size. I figured that 10 days is really not a long time to hunt and I would be perfectly happy with representative trophies of any of the game I was after. The one exception to my minimal pressure approach was warthog. I knew the area was not a warthog factory but we had a decent chance of getting a mature one. The problem I had was my little boy at home would consider this hunt an epic fail if I did not come home with a warthog as he desperately wanted one for his room. He just turned 4 a couple days after I got home. He is absolutely crazy about hunting, fishing and animals in general…. especially African animals. He is the kind of kid that takes a gerenuk to show and tell when every other kid has Spiderman or a race car. He has an amazing collection of toy animals and knows all about them. Before I left I bought 2 little warthog toys and left one with him and took one with me. I told him that whenever he misses me to have a chat with his warthog and I would do the same.

I couldn't let this guy down when it came to warthogs:


My warthog keeping an eye on the Luangwa:



PUKU – My first African animal
I got my first African animal late in the afternoon on day one. We had had some great stalks on buffalo during the day but didn’t find any hard bossed bulls. After putting some miles on after buffalo it was nice to get back to the crusier and outrun the mopane flies for a bit. As we were heading down a trail near the river we stopped to glass a few puku and Pete really liked one of the males. We made a short stalk and up went the sticks. He was quartering away and I split the daylight between his front legs with my vertical cross hair, brought to horizontal one almost half way up his body and squeezed off the 416. A huge cloud of dust appears behind the puku as he disappears in the bush. The dirt cloud was disturbing but I felt good about the shot. We followed it up and found blood in the area where he disappeared. We found him dead about 80 yds from where I shot him and the 400 gr TSX had whistled through on a very good line.
I love these antelope. I think they are the perfect looking creature. I spent a lot of time just admiring it and it will have a prominent place in my house as long as I live.



PH Pete Bartosz and me:


WARTHOG – The one thing I HAD to get
It was day 2 and we were on fresh buffalo tracks early. We followed the spoor for about an hour and a half and we knew we were getting close. Pete and I climbed a termite mound that provided a good vantage point. Pete carefully peeked over the top as I hung back a bit. After surveying the situation, he carefully backed down to my level. “There are about a hundred buffalo just on the other side of the termite mound, but we aren’t going to shoot any of them because there is a big f#&@ing warthog just on the left side of the herd. You need to shoot this pig!” he ordered. It was absolutely the last thing I thought I was going to hear from him but I was instantly on side. I poked my 416 over the top of the mound and settled into it. The warthog was only 50 yds away and there were buffalo everywhere from 30 yds to 100 yds. I picked a spot on him as he was quartering away. He went down hard at the shot and the stampede began as the buffalo nearly trampled the downed hog. When the dust cleared we scrambled down the mound and ran over to check it out. What a way to get a warthog! We were all thrilled. He was the best one that I saw during the hunt and I was very lucky to get him. I could not wait to phone my little guy and tell him all about it.






KUDU – Target of opportunity
We had spent the afternoon tracking some different buffalo and were able to get a few looks at them but didn’t have any shot opportunities. We had thrown in the towel on the buffalo and made our way back to the cruiser. We spotted a group of kudu bulls and it was game on again. I saw 4 bulls initially but they were disappearing and reappearing constantly in a burned out area of short mopane trees. I was on the sticks and Pete was sorting them out with his binos. We agreed on which bull to shoot but a 12” tree was blocking his shoulder. He got nervous and loped another 40 yds further. As I followed him in my scope he made the mistake of stopping for one last look and offered a sharp quartering away shot. As soon as he stopped I fired. The bull scrambled away but piled up quickly. They are such an iconic African animal. Mine was missing half of his right ear and it looked to me like it had been bit off by a croc.
It is hard to miss the make-up on my face in this picture. Apparently I spent too much time toiling away in my office prior to this hunt and when I arrived I was likely the whitest person in Zambia. Pete was worried that my pasty face would spook the buffalo so I found some mopane coals and doctored myself up a bit with some natural camo. The trackers and game scout almost pizzed themselves when I came ready for the afternoon hunt in full make-up. We all had a good laugh… at my expense!



BUFFALO – They look at you like you are about to owe a trophy fee
Horn of the Hunter was the first African safari book I read and after that I decided my first safari had to include a hunt for cape buffalo. I just hated the thought of going there without hunting them and that played a big part in choosing where we would hunt. The Luangwa Valley is a good destination for a buffalo / plains game hunt. It was now day 3 and we had been on buffalo several times the first two days but could not find what we were looking for. Pete wanted to try an area about 70 km away that he had had good luck finding groups of dugga boys at. We were up at 3:00 AM and on the trail by 3:30 so we could be there before day break. It was a bit cool when we left which was nice because you knew the sun would be blasting you like a giant blow dryer by mid-morning. Pete was dressed like he was mushing a dog sled with his goggles and full balaclava. He had done the trip many times and knew what he needed to be comfortable. The goggles are actually a pretty good plan to keep the bugs, dirt and grass seeds out of your eyes. We ended up getting to the spot a bit early so we stopped to stretch and the boys lit a fire to warm up as they were all freezing. I must admit it was the closest thing I felt to being cold on the whole trip but compared to Canada it was pretty comfortable.



We followed a trail through an old rice field as the sun was rising and cut a couple older tracks. This was one of the few spots with some contour in the area and to the east there were some gentle hills. The trackers became excited and although I had no idea what they were saying I knew they spotted something. “Buffalo – let’s go” instructed Pete. This was the first time we spotted buffalo before tracking them. It was a herd of 6 bulls, just like Pete expected to find. We again got in our usual pre-shot set-up of me on the sticks and Pete evaluating through his binos. By now I had found that the sticks gripped my rifle well. I could set it in them with the stock against my shoulder and still scan with my binos over top of my gun to pick things apart with Pete. My Sport Ears were also really useful in these situations as I could hear perfectly as Pete and I whispered back and forth and not bust my eardrums when it was time to shoot.
One bull was facing us unobstructed and giving us the classic intimidating stare. They were not very close and I was a bit surprised when Pete instructed me to shoot him right where the neck joins his chest. To be honest, I was worried about this shot long before I even left on this hunt. The frontal shot was the one where I had the hardest time picking the right point of aim but I had been over it with Pete in detail back at camp and it was time to execute it. I did not feel rushed and I did not feel particularly nervous. Immediately after the shot I heard a very solid thump. The bulls all ran to the left and disappeared. Now I was nervous. I knew I hit him but was he going to pile up dead or did we now have a situation on our hands?
I listened for the death bellow and heard nothing but my heart pounding in my ears. We followed up and found where they thundered off to the left. 50 or 60 yds later and still no blood. During the follow up I determined that it is impossible to feel more alive than when you are looking for a buffalo with a bullet hole in it. After about 100 yds we could see the group another 100 yds away! They ran off again. We quickly headed in that direction and all of a sudden there was blood everywhere. “There’s your buffalo” Pete shouted. He was stretched out and obviously dead. What a relief! The other bulls must have been standing around their fallen comrade when we saw them. We still approached cautiously and gave him a couple pokes with the rifle barrel before starting the backslapping and secret handshake routine. I am so happy to have this buffalo.






BUSHBUCK – Would I need to come back on a 21 day bushbuck safari?
By day 4 bushbuck were definitely getting a reputation with me. Normally we did not get too distracted by plains game when we were buffalo hunting but bushbuck were a bit of an exception. By this point in the hunt we had encountered several and 2 were eye-popping trophies. I had not got a shot at any due to various circumstances and I was starting joke that I may need to come back next year on a 21 day bushbuck safari. One very good bushbuck that gave us the slip earlier in the hunt hung out near a swampy area. The swamp was a large opening in the trees a mile or so from the river and was lined with lush vegetation. It always seemed to have numerous impala and kudu cows hanging out around it. Pete’s theory was that this particular bushbuck used the many impala eyes as his personal alarm system. By hanging out close to them, he could graze securely and let them keep an eye out for danger. We stalked carefully up to the swamp and as usual there were several animals. Pete started glassing the left side and I started on the right. A soon as I looked through my binos, there was the bushbuck in full view 50 yds from the impala! “Bushbuck” I hissed, “on the right side”. Pete scrambled for the sticks and I settled in. “That’s him!..... right on the shoulder!” Pete instructed. The bushbuck was on the other side of the swamp and had no idea we were there. I took my time because this was no chip shot. Luckily I had my 300 with me. At the shot the bushbuck sprang straight up in the air and collapsed on the ground. He struggled to his feet again as I reloaded but he dropped out of sight just as I fired a follow up shot. The swamp emptied out in a hurry and all was quiet. “You hit him good on the first one” Pete said. We carefully found our way around the swamp trying not to break our ankles in the dried up hippo tracks. “You are going to be pleasantly surprised when you walk up to this thing” Pete stated. I soaked my shoes and socks on the recovery but barely even noticed. When we found him I was surprised. A beautiful animal with those long trademark spiral horns on his head that were longer than I expected. I was very lucky to get him and I would not need a 21 day bushbuck safari after all.




CROCODILE – What could be cooler than croc boots?
One of the main selling points of the Luangwa Valley to me was the chance to hunt crocs at a good price in an area that is infested with them. I don’t really know why I wanted one so bad but I guess it has something to do with them being such a radically different creature than I had ever hunted before. We saw plenty of them on our daily journeys and had been keeping a mental log of where we were seeing the best ones. We were not in a rush to get one as it would be a good project for late in the hunt and we were only half way through at this point. Our focus on this afternoon was waterbuck. We set out on a long walk through an area that Pete had seen several waterbuck over the last few weeks. We did bump a few on our hike but no mature males. It was 5:15 PM as we approached the river which would be the end of our walk. Every time we approached the river, we cautiously glassed up and down before exposing ourselves and this time would be no different. Pete was in a semi-crouch as he got up to the bank and I was close behind. He suddenly sunk lower and back pedaled a bit. I stayed low as he glassed. He back pedaled some more as he whispered “There is a big bloody croc right over this bank and we are going to shoot him”. Pete set the sticks and I crept up to them. The croc was no more than 50 yds out on a sand bar quartering slightly away. I had hoped to do a neck shot on my croc with the 416 and keep the skull intact. This was a perfect angle for the neck shot but I was carrying my 300. Pete assured me that it would do the trick, “just make sure you hit the spot!” We had been over this scenario in camp as well and I was comfortable with the point of aim. When discussing it earlier I had encouraged Pete to feel free to follow up my shot on the croc as I wanted to minimize the chance of it making it into the water.
I took a deep breath and exhaled half way. My last words to myself were “don’t f#$k this up”. When my horizontal crosshair lined up with his smile I touched it off. His mouth popped open but his body and tail were completely motionless. Pete and I each fired an insurance shot but I don’t think they were needed. What a rush! It was perfect and we celebrated. Well, Pete and I celebrated….. the guys that had the grim task of crossing the river channel to the sand bar to recover the croc were probably not as happy. They found a shallow spot to cross and our job was to sit on the bank with our rifles ready if need be. As they made their way to the croc I thought to myself that discovery channel is really missing an opportunity here as crab fishing in Alaska seems like a cake walk compared to recovering crocs in the Luangwa when it comes to dangerous jobs. The recovery went without incident and we hurried a bit to get pictures before dark. We usually didn’t see crocs out of the water this late in the day and it was quite a surprise to find this guy.

There was a bit of pressure on me to get a croc on this trip as well as I had promised my buddies back at home that if I got one I would get it tanned and everyone could get measured up for croc cowboy boots. I am sure my wife will cringe every time I put them on but I will wear them with pride for sure.





IMPALA – Not so plain plains game
I loved watching impala. They are very interesting and nice looking animals. Getting one here is not a difficult task and I was glad we did not shoot one earlier in the hunt because frankly, we were running out of things to hunt. At this point of the hunt we were still mainly focused waterbuck but we did spend more time evaluating impala rams when we came across them. We found a large herd on the edge of the elephant grass and looked them over. There were 3 rams and one of them stood out from the other 2. “Would like you to shoot him?” Pete asked. I said yes and once again the hunt was on. I had to wait for the ram to get some separation from the others and once he did I shot without delay. I think I was a bit too relaxed on this one as it was my worst shot of the safari. The herd ran in all directions with the ram I shot somewhere in the middle. I told Pete that I felt like I hit him low. We followed up and two rams ran across in front of us, neither showing signs of being hit. Shortly after, we saw the injured ram heading into the tall grass and I fired the clean-up shot that travelled the full length of the impala, exiting at the front of his chest. I felt bad about my first shot but at least I made good on my second chance and it was over quickly. I had hit him in the brisket below his heart on the first one.
Before the photos, I spent a fair amount of time just admiring the ram. They are so perfectly designed I can’t imagine wanting to change anything about them.



WATERBUCK – Learning to track by smell
Waterbuck were the animal that I spent the most time hunting on this trip. Going into the last day of the hunt we had spent several days looking for them and found some every day but could not find a big mature bull. It was always promising though. John du Plooy had found a big one not far from our camp one afternoon and we spent a couple days looking for it. We had also found a good one on day 8 but he was just outside our GMA boundary. We watched him for a long time but he only got further from the boundary before disappearing. I was amazed at how many times Pete had smelled them before we saw them. My nose is my weakest sense and the only 2 smells I could distinguish in the bush with certainty were elephant shit and hyena bait. On the last day of our hunt we set out for the area that we had seen the best concentration of waterbuck in. We ended up spotting some cows from the cruiser and set out after them. We bumped them a couple times but eventually Pete froze and I could see the bull broadside staring at us. Pete put up the sticks and gave me the familiar instruction, “right on the shoulder”. I had to rush the shot a bit as a female puku was entering my field of view to the right of the waterbuck. He wheeled around into the bush at the shot but I knew it was good. We went after it immediately and heard some thrashing in the bush. The tracks and blood led to the area where we heard the trashing and there lay my waterbuck. It was a great conclusion to a full 10 days of hunting. I was very glad to hunt waterbuck right to the end. They too are very handsome looking creatures. I won’t be holding my breath for a Carlo Caldesi award nomination as he is not a particularly large waterbuck but that doesn’t concern me. Once up close the musky scent of them was a lot more obvious but they don’t really stink. The drive back to the skinning shed was bitter sweet as I knew my hunt was over.



SUMMARY
My report obviously focuses on my own adventures but there was so much more to this hunt than what I have wrote here. Sharing this hunt with my 3 brothers and our friend Ryan is the highlight if my hunting life for sure. It will be very difficult to ever repeat this together as we have full time jobs and young families. It was so great to recap the events of each day at the dinner table and around the fire each evening. We were so lucky to have my youngest brother filming everything he could. He is very skilled at filming and editing. How nice it will be to have such a great record of events that will outlive all of us and allow the rest of our families to see what we experienced as well.
I was really impressed with how things are structured in Zambia on these GMA’s, as far as the revenue that goes back to the community, as well as the meat being distributed throughout them. The anti-poaching efforts could use some more support for sure as we recovered a number of snares on our journeys and the guys hunting the next concession came across a poached elephant. Overall I would recommend Zambia to anyone looking to do a similar hunt.
Muchinga Adventures, owned and operated by John and Laura du Plooy have a great reputation in the safari business for a reason. They deserve it. As this hunt approached my anticipation turned to pure nervousness but everything went very well and I am so glad we booked with them.
Pete Bartosz is a great PH. He is intense, likes to walk and takes time to explain a lot of things along the way. He knew the game and the area very well and is meticulous with the care of his vehicle. I would be very happy to hunt with him again.
I hope this is the first of many safari reports for me. Thanks for taking the time to read it, and if you have posted reports previously, thank-you.

RANDOM PHOTOS



Pete's cruiser:


Meat distribution to the villages:



My little bro the camerman with a coffee (he far prefers gin). I knew he would be sporting the stache in Africa so I bought him the Ron Burgundy shirt to compliment it. Stay classy dude!


Me in my cheesy writer pose during an afternoon journal session:

Congrats on some great trophies!! How long was the Bushbuck?

Congrat! That Bushbuck is awesome!

Congrats on a beautiful Bushbuck and fantastic safari.

Thanks for sharing.



Torbjorn

Great report. And I do like that Bushbuck.


Dutch

Great report
Congratulations and thanks for the post

Congratulations! I have to echo the comments on the bushbuck, a real bruiser.

Congrats on your safari, love the hog and that bushbuck, great stuff.

Excellent hunt and fantastic report.

That bushbuck is dandy, as are all your trophies.

Nicely done and some good shooting on your part.

Congrats!

Love the bushbuck, and the puku looks nice too.

quote:

Originally posted by npd345:
Congrats on some great trophies!! How long was the Bushbuck?

Thanks!

The Bushbuck is 15 3/4" on the long horn. The other has a bit broken off the tip.

Nice!

Congrats on those fine trophies!

Great report! Beautiful drop on that buffalo and that bushbuck is fantastic, I'm jealous.

Right on Chad. Good report!!

Awesome report and hunt.

Chez;

Congratulations on your VERY successful first safari. It won't be your last. That bushbuck is fantastic and your other trophies aren't too bad either!!!!!

As I told Bryce in his report, my husband and I hunted with Muchinga and Abie in 2009. Pete and another PH who shares my name (Darin) were just building the fly camp between the two Chanjuzi and Nyaminga. Pete shared meals with us at Chanjuzi as they hadn't got the kitchen and dining area set up yet. We really enjoyed his company. I can see why you had such success.

I loved the little warthog and the BIG one too!

Best regards, D. Nelson

(sent enroute to Wyoming after deer/pronghorn)

Excellent hunt Chez! You guys selected your area well indeed, a nice overall bag of trophies. How did your bros do on buffalo?

Pete sounds like a good PH and managed the hunt well. A last day animal is always cool. Geeat that you got to do some walking for the plainsgame.

Are you planning to do a shoulder mount on the warthog? I did years ago, and this was the mount that attracted the most attention from the little dudes that visited. In fact, it is now hanging in my son's room at college!

Great report too, a nice Saturday morning read (with College GameDay in the background of course!), thanks for taking the time to post!

Congrats on a fine trip. It's hard to beat the DuPlooy's for an excellent Safari.

Cheers
Jim

Thanks so much for the coments.

Darin,
Yes Darren Chowles would be the other PH and he and Pete are cousins. Darren was my friend Ryan's PH on this hunt. They all speak highly of you and your husband. I read your report many times before we left. Thanks so much for posting it.

Bill,
Bryce didn't hunt Buffalo on this trip. He took a very good bull in Makuti a couple years ago on his first safari so his focus was Hippo and Croc on this hunt. Aaron got a very nice bull 39 1/2 wide that drops pretty good and comes back up in a nearly perfect circle. My friend Ryans's bull is a dandy 42"er out of a group of 3 duggas.

Yes I was happy that Pete liked to walk. With the conditions being so dry and crunchy this late in the season I am not sure how much of an advantage it is to spend a lot of time walking but I enjoyed it a lot. The terrain is very flat there so it is not hard to put on the miles it was just a matter of how long we could take the heat which was formidable.

I am planning to do the shoulder mount on the Warthog. I hope it turns out well. I bet the mount in your son's room at college attracts a bit of attention. That is awesome.


Frostbit,
Your report was one I had bookmarked as well and read many times. Thanks for posting it.

Here are a few good scenery pics that my friend Ryan took:









Start the car!

Great report! Always nice to see a fellow Weatherby man do well

Chez,

Well done on the report. It was a pleasure to assist you and your group plus spend some time with you guys in camp. Let's hope we can do it again soon.

Mark

Not to take away from your other trophies at all. But that was one hell of a nice bushbuck!!

Great hunt and very well documented. Thanks for taking the time and making the effort. Your warthog story was the coolest.

Great first safari... well done! Nyaminga and Chanjuzi are great hunting concessions. You will have a tough time topping that trip!

Chez,

A fine report and welcome back to Africa.

She has worked her magic into your heart.

Mike

Just to close this report off, I am happy to say that all of our trophies arrived safe and sound here in Calgary only 3 1/2 months after our hunt. Thanks very much to the du Plooy's who look after all of the dip/pack and shipping.

My little guy and I had a great time unwrapping everything.

Here he is with the Warthog skull:



I sure hope everything gets straightened out soon with the hunting situation in Zambia. I feel terrible for the outfitter's, PH's, local communities and the wildlife itself that all rely on hutning in so many ways.

Don't mean to put a damper on an awesome post, but I wouldn't let him handle those skulls without spray washing them off, they are always covered in that white powder insecticide they use when packing.

WOW 3 1/2 months. You can't get much faster than that. I enjoyed your report thanks for posting.

Glad this was bumped. Somehow missed it earlier. What a classic safari in a cool place. Congrats.

Great hunt.

Great report. I am heading to Tondwa with Muchinga this October for 14 day plains game safari. I have heard nothing but great things about the operation.

Chad,

I told you so! We also have had our trophies for sometime. So when are we doing it again? Johnny is sure '14 will be business as usual. The lion is the only thing he is not sure about being on quota in '14.

Mark

great set of trophies, especially the buff and kudu

A great warthog and a happy son, Good on ya, mate!

Splendid!

Looks like a hell'uva time

I also missed this report earlier.
Great hunt!

Five stars from me!.

Thanks for sharing.