Gents

I'm planning a trophy bull hunt this year in Deka. Contiguous to Hwange Park.

My options are a period between Sept. 1-18 or Oct. 6-15. Might try to get a leopard on bait as well.

My main concern is the misery factor with the heat in Oct.

Any thoughts will be much appreciated.

Don,

The later the better. The leopard will be very tough at that time though.

Mark

Mark

Is Oct. 6-15 late enough? Will the heat be tolerable?

Thanks.

Don,

I'm not an expert on the area around Hwange but I have hunted there. From what I know Oct should be ideal unless the rain starts early. If it does rain early the ele's could be gone.

I expect you'll find the mid day temps around a 100 F+. Take a little battery powered fan. It will make sleeping at night much more comfy.

Mark

Mark

JudgeG was kind enough to forward to me the link to Weather Underground (no, Jane Fonda was not there )

When I went to history- Kasane, Botswana. it indicated +/- 90-97 max. and 68-70 min. for the Oct. dates. It is supposed to be fun.

Thanks again for your thoughts!

There are some great tips about hunting elephants in high heat in this thread: http://forums.accuratereloadin...021008811#9021008811

The three things I found most helpful were the Frogg Togg hydrating cloth, Gatoraid packets and a small battery operated fan.

With those three items and a good hat, I'd do it again without batting an eye.

Hi Don

Having only done three hunts in Deka ( and I presume you mean the safari area rather then the Tail of which I have more experience in) two of which were late season tuskless and 1 trophy bull. I would recommend that you rather do an early season hunt there.

In my two tuskless hunts there been sept and Oct we did not see a decent track and as a result managed to combine my up and coming trophy bull hunt with a pool area which is where we shot our ele bull.

We did see plenty of ele predominantly cows though and but no bulls to get excited about. I know early season they (HHK) shot some nice bulls. Dont want to "throw the cat amongst the pigeons" but thats my 2 cents worth!

Buzz

Very interesting. Yes, it's the same area HHK had last year. JudgeG was there on a tuskless hunt first 2 weeks of Sept. last year and saw lots of ele including some big bulls. Several years ago I hunted with Theo Bronkhorst at Malindi (also next to Hwange) and he said late Sept. or Oct.

If I would have as good or better chance in Aug. or early Sept. before it get's hot, that would be perfect. I don't tolerate extreme heat very well.

Don, I did an early season hunt this year in the Hwange safari area which shares a boundry with that safari area. I was told on that hunt that, as Buzz said above, the early season was the ticket there.

I've been tring to get Chris Moore on his cell in Zim but constantly rings busy.

After all I've heard, I'm trying to lock in on the Sept 1-10 hunt.

Hopefully that won't be too late?????

Maybe I need to get my ass on a plane in August. That doesn't leave much time to prepare....

Don, of course big elephants are where you find them and they can be anywhere at any time, big elephants require some good fortune.

I was told that as a general rule the big bulls come out of the park to visit that area when the crops are in the fields (Mar-April). My PH did say that the area typically had a lot of elephant year round but historically very few of the big bulls (over 50) that they had taken in that area came from any time other than the crop season. But of course elephant are elephant and a big old bull can walk out of that park anywhere any time......

Good luck to you what ever you decide to do.

If your keen on Leopard, the problem of October is that the baits only last a short while before they rot.
Bloody hot.

http://www.btcsafaris.com/inde...icle&id=18&Itemid=11


Link to Deka, Good luck on your hunt!!!