24 July 2015, 14:23
Buzz CharltonCM SAFARIS MID SEASON HUNT REPORT
June 2015 - Hunting Season NewsletterDear friends,
As we approach the end of the first half we look back on what has been a hard but in many cases productive few months of hunting. The “hard” part came about due to unbelievably heavy and late rains in April. Normally the roads and camps are open by end of April but with 13“ of rain in mid April all the roads we had painstakingly fixed were washed away and camps flooded for the second time!!!
Pans full with heavy rains
This rain meant that for a long period we were not able to hunt west of the Manyemu River which we could not cross. As many of you know the Manyemu River, which is the river that Mururu camp is on, divides the area in half resulting in us having to concentrate East of it. Getting stuck, digging and winching were daily occurrences for most part of the early season hunts.
Getting stuck!
We really like to concentrate on the elephant and leopard hunts early to mid season as we have found that the success rate on them is higher earlier rather than later. With regards to the leopard we are 100% been 7 from 7-all nice big Toms and 5 of them in day light hours which is wonderful. Looking through the records for our time in Dande when we started in 2010 we have been taking 9 leopards a year equating to 45 leopards and we have only had 2 failures!!!
Dave & Pearce M with a monster leopard
Tony T with Alan with his trophy leopard
Carsten J with another beauty
Jack D with his trophy leopard
Rich with Brian S & his fantastic leopard
Anders M & his leopard
Buzz with Odin R & his leopard
The elephant has been a hard year with 2 failed hunts. The Jesse has been incredibly thick and we are finding that the bulls have spent a lot more time with the cows making it hard to get in and get a shot as some of the herds have been over 150 strong! As things have started to dry out there the bulls have seemed to move off from the cows so we hope that the up and coming hunts will be easier. Having said that we have had several great hunts and happy clients as seen below! We are also 100% on our several tuskless hunts that we have done- all of which have been exciting due to the thick bush which has resulted in two of them charging!
Johnny J with his ele
Mike J with his ele
Jim & Joyce W - Excellent trophy bull
Buzz & Wilson H with his bull
The most exciting new for me this season is that despite the heavy bush which makes buffalo hunting difficult and at times frustrating we have shot excellent buffalo. Having aged all our buff since we started in 2010 we have seen a steady increase in age and our policy of shooting hard tops is paying off. This year we have shot buffalo that one would have been proud of in some of the best areas in Tanzania where you pay an arm and a leg! Combined with the large numbers of calves the last few seasons the future of buffalo hunting in Dande looks excellent!!!
Mark A with a beautiful deep bull
Trevor M and Alan with an incredible 44 “ Dugga boy
Johnathan C with nice 40” bull
Wilson H with 39 Inch 15 “ bosses dugga boy
Darryl T & his 41" buffalo bull
Tony T with “real” old dugga boy
Nick H - 41” Bull
Mike T with 43” dugga boy that charged!
Rich & Brian S with his buffalo
Alan with Roger and Marg G and a great 40” bull
Bob S & Cindy S with her buffalo
Blake and TD with old 38 “ dugga boy taken out the buffalo beans!
Odin and his beautiful 40 “ bull
In the last month the plains game has started coming out of hiding and we have shot some stunning Kudu. 6 in total with an average of 53” and 3 been 55 and over the biggest been 59”.
Cindy S
Tibor D
Blake with Mike T & his incredible 59” kudu bull
Alan also got a monster 18.5“ bushbuck and the hyenas thankfully have taking a beating as they are really affecting the game as a whole. Below are a few pics in general.
We are also delighted to have Chooks Langerman join us as Camp Manageress. In the 3 months she has been with us she has turned what I think is fair to say was a well run area into certainly one of the best run hunting area I know! It is a pleasure having someone as competent as Chooks in every department and having Bongi as her “right hand man” and over seeing DAPU has really taken the pressure off the CMS PH who can now totally focus on the hunting! Chooks is also a very warm caring person and the 3 wives who have joined us so far have loved having female company in camp!
DAPU
Bongi has now taken over DAPU in the North from Siraaj and has continued the sterling work. Hundreds of snares have been picked up this year already and a several poachers arrested. Muno is running DAPU in the East now and also doing a good job. We are very grateful to all who continue to generously donate to DAPU. Running an anti-poaching operation is an expensive ordeal and without the help from you all we would not be able to continue with DAPU and considering the 6000 odd snares picked up, +/- 30 meat poachers arrested, 6 elephant poachers eliminated etc. over the last 3 years-if DAPU were to cease to exist the Dande would end up been another wasteland-so thanks to you all and the scouts who continue to put their lives on the line.
For more information on DAPU please read our quarterly newsletter. Click Here
As we approach the second half of the season- we hope that we do not have any more unexpected rains and the bush thins out a bit! We look forward to having the next lot of friends join us on their hunts!
Cheers Buzz, Myles & the team!
