Outfitter: CMS
Camp: Makunga
PH: Myles McCallum
Tracker: Criton
Driver: Eddie
Rifles: CZ .458 Lott, Hill Country Rifles .300 WM
Ammo: .458 Lott - Hornady brass, 450 gr Barnes TSX 80 gr H335, CCI large rifle magnum
.300 WM - Winchester brass, 180 gr Barnes TTSX, 72.5 gr RL 22, CCI large rifle magnium


A little tardy with this report due to trying to catch up on work commitments and farm and ranch chores plus I can't get photobucket to work right. My wife and I hunted August 18 thru August 24 with Myles based out of Mukanga Camp. Our tracker was Criton and Eddie was our driver. The camp was incredible, there were leopard tracks on the camp paths nearly every morning, a young elephant bull ate grass and leaves not 10 feet from our beds at night, hyena tracks were also found on the camp trails and a lion could be heard roaring one night. The food was fantastic as was the service provided by the camp staff. We were also fortunate enough to meet Buzz's wife and Mom as they stayed in camp one night on their way touring the other camps.

This was a hunt CMS had donated to DSC and I was the lucky bidder. We had spent a week in South Africa with the Rudman family hunting Kudu prior to this hunt so had no problems with jet lag...but for the very first time I had a problem with luggage (usually Rebecca's bag is the "missing" bag, but not this time) as my bag, which held my .458 Lott ammo, did not make the plane to Harare. I have to add here that there was an International Conference of Jehovah's Witness' being held in Harare and the airport resembled a disaster area...it took over an hour to get thru immigration and the baggage carousel was overflowing onto the floor and bags were piled on top of the apparatus. Our charter pilot was a lifesaver with this as he knew the right people to talk to in the airport and arrangements were made to have my bag sent to our camp if and when it arrived. But I had no ammo for my buffalo rifle...
We charted on out to camp and were met at the airstrip by Myles and his family, who were riding out on our charter plane, nice to meet his wife and kids.
When we got to camp a hunter was spending his last night in camp after a successful elephant hunt, taking his bull on his last day! Joseph Tukakosi, was the gentleman's name (and a true gentleman he was) and he also shot a .458 Lott and offered me his leftover ammo, turns out he was a hand loader too and his loads were almost exactly like mine, except he used Federal primers (CCI for me) and mine were seated .015" longer...his loads shot about 3/4" higher than mine, so I was good to go.
I had told Myles and Buzz that I wanted to hunt an old, ugly bull and they had a couple of prospects located. The first morning we found fresh tracks and followed a small herd and caught up with them in about 30 minutes, they were laying around so we sat and waited for them to move, turns out there were probably 100 or more buffalo and as they began to move we stalked to within 30 or 40 yards of the herd. There were at least 5 shootable bulls that walked by us but I chose not to end my hunt at 9:00 am the first morning. We followed a different herd that afternoon and caught up with them too and saw at least 3 more shootable bulls.
We walked a spring line the second morning but saw no buffalo, that afternoon we followed a small herd and found the bull we were looking for, broken and worn down horns. Apparently, they don't get broken and worn horns by being stupid as he took off every time we got close and we got no shot.
Early the next morning we were back in the same steep and rocky area looking for the old bull (Katendere area for those of you familiar with Dande) and walked until about 1:00 pm, bumping him and a small herd 2 or 3 times. We left them planning to come back the next day and take up the chase again, we spent the rest of the day looking for Kudu or Waterbuck with no luck. Good news, my bag with "my" ammo showed up!
The next morning we started out looking for fresh tracks where the old bull had been but found none so went to the Angwe River to look for fresh tracks coming into the concession and look for Kudu and rest up a bit from the previous two days.
Morning of day five found us in the river bed looking for fresh tracks coming into the concession and we found them. Criton took to the tracks and found the herd within an hour, there might have been 150 buffalo in the herd and we spent quite a while checking out the bulls looking for a dugga boy. We decided to leave them and return in the afternoon. We returned about 3:30 and stalked to within about 50 yards of the herd using a large rock and termite mound as cover. As I had only two days remaining Myles and I discussed going to Plan B and taking one of the herd bulls, after a lot of back and forth I decided to go ahead and shoot whichever bull Myles wanted shot. We agreed on the bull to take and I got on the sticks to wait for him to stand. After about 45 minutes the bull stood up (about 90 yards away) and as he cleared some cows I shot, but no reaction from the bull. He walked about 25 yards and laid back down. A short discussion regarding my marksmanship was held (where I swore I can hit the broadside of a buffalo at 90 yards) and Myles told me to have another whack at him when he stood up. About five minutes passed before he stood and I shot him again, he jumped and ran this time but Myles and Criton thought I had shot way too high as they had seen a large puff of rock dust fly from a bluff about 1/4 mile above and behind the buffalo. A quick check of the area where the buffalo had been standing showed I had hit him...but got him in the guts. We followed him for a few hundred yards and I was able to take two more long shots, positively hitting him one more time and maybe both. We followed another half mile or so and it was starting to get dark and good sense dictated we break off and return in the morning. On the way back to camp I asked that we leave early enough the next morning for me to check my rifle's zero. I didn't sleep well that night and early the next morning found us at their shooting range and we found my rifle was shooting about 6" high and at least 6" to the right at 50 meters, my scope had lost it's zero due to the turret locking system failing (I'll do another post in the proper section on this). Four quick shots and the rifle was zeroed again. Criton was able to walk exactly to the spot we left off the previous night without using a GPS. Amazing. We took up the track and within 150 yards the buffalo jumped up in some thick brush and instead of running straight for us, he ran around the end of a deep ravine between us and 3 quick shots ended the hunt. The blood on the ground where he lay indicated he had lain in one place looking back on his trail. I hate I gut shot him though, he deserved better and I am a better shot than that. We spent the last two days looking for Kudu and Waterbuck, checking lion and leopard baits and just having a good time.
Really an incredible experience that we look forward to doing again.
Sorry if I rambled too long and I will get photos posted in the next couple of days, one way or the other.

Karl

Well, all's well that ends well.

What make of scope?

I'd love to see the pictures.

Congratulations Karl, well done. Makunga is a beautiful camp. The only downside to Makunga is the walk on the long stone stairways to the chalets can be daunting after a few cocktails around the fire.

Congrats! Sounds like a great (if trying on the patience) hunt!

Congrats Karl. Looking forward to photoes.

Morten

Karl congratulations on a fine hunt.

Mike

Good ramblings.

Congrats, cant wait to see the pics.

Congratulations Karl!!!
Looking forward to it brother

Very good Karl, glad it came to a happy ending.

quote:

Originally posted by Fjold:
Well, all's well that ends well.

What make of scope?

I'd love to see the pictures.

Fjold: The scope is a Vortex Viper PST 1-4x24 and the turret locks by a series of brass shims under the turret cap which is held in place by tiny set screws, the glass in incredibly clear but apparently the recoil from a .458 Lott is too much for the set screws. I will post photos in the optics section as soon as I can get photobucket to cooperate.

A couple of items of clarification: I mentioned this was a donated hunt, which is true, but I failed to mention the hunt was originally donated by Gavin Rourke. CMS bought the area from Gavin and were good enough to honor the donation made by Gavin. Buzz and Myles are first class guys and they run a first class operation. I saw more buffalo my first morning of hunting than I have seen in 3 previous buffalo hunts in Zim. Lots of lion and leopard tracks in the rivers and a leopard hunter in another camp was run out of his leopard blind by a pride of lions on two occasions...lots of cats in Dande. Working on getting photos posted.

Karl

Karl

Congratulations on a wonderfull hunt!
Thank you for taking the time to write a detailed report to share with us.

Martinus

Bump. Still waiting for the pics?

Karl, that's great news! Congratulations!

congratulations Pictures

Thanks Karl,

I have Vortex on a long range gun but the 243 shouldn't test it.

Hi Karl and Rebecca

It was great sharing camp with you both! Well done on a super buff- you need to add the pics!!!!!! Looking forward to seeing you in Dallas- cheers Buzz

The 458 Lott has a reputation on being seriously hard on scopes.

Pics please!!!