Ladies and Gentlemen,

Soon we will be heading to the Selous to hunt with our usual host, Alan Vincent.

Walter and Enrique are coming along.

I will provide the usual daily report to keep you all up to date with what is going on.

I thought it might be better if I add the videos in this post.

VIDEOS

1. Drone footage by our camp

2. Sable

3. A Spectacular View From One Of The Vantage Points On The Concession


4. Walter Playing Golf At Sighting In


5. We Hid A Video Camera A Few Yards From An Eland Stomach For The Vultures! Just See How Quickly They Finished it! Sadly, Some Of Them Knocked The Cover Over The Camera Towards The End.

6. Flight Into Dar Essalam


7. Flight Into Camp

8. Lions At The Bait And Mating

9. Walter Shooting An Impala

10. Walter Shooting A Buffalo



11. Leopard kill we have found while following eland

12. Roy surprised by hippos

13. Wildebeest

14. Buffalo

15. Buffalo

16. Buffalo

17. Reedbuck

18. Kongoni

19. Waterbuck

20. Buffalo

21. Zebra

22. Wasps Nest

23. Hippo

24. Waterbuck

25. Vultures

26. Hippo

27. Stuck In The River

28. Hyena Double

29. Kongoni

30. Bushbuck

31. Buffalo

32. Buffalo

33. Kudu



We used the DJI Inspire 1 for the above video.

It is a large file, in 1080P Full HD, so please right click on it and download it to your computer before viewing.

All the videos I will post will be in the same format.

Terrific, have fun and stay safe. Always look forward to your reports.

Looking forward to the photos. Good hunting and safe travels.

Have a great time and return safe.

Have a great hunt!!!!

Oh, don't forget your 45-70's and to allow the buff to decided how its going to die! :}

Saeed- Are you taking any new or different equipment this year? Cameras, lenses, rifles scopes, etc.
Have another great African adventure! (I know you will with Walter along)

Good luck..looking forward to the reports!

have a great hunt!

Saeed, after watching the videos from your past hunts, I have often pondered on what is more dangerous---a wounded buffalo or Walter acting normally?

We will be taking quite a few cameras, I will post details once we have settled on what is going.

The SLR is a Canon 7D II with 24-70mm, and 100-400mm lenses and a 2X converter.

This summer I was using the new Panasonic FZ1000, and was very impressed with it, so it is coming along too.

A Panasonic TZ50, and a Sony RX100 Mk IV.

I might take one or two of the bridge cameras with big zoom.

My past experience with these has not been very impressive, as the photos tend to be very soft at the longer zoom.

The rifles are the same two we have built and have been to Africa for so many years.

Both are chambered for our wildcat, the 375/404, using our own 300 grain Walterhog bullets.

Below are our ammo being l9aded, and three shots I fired to check them before loading them all for the hunt.

Looking forward to pics and report. Have a great hunt!

Saeed I dont know how much you spend on camera equipment but I tried the "new" Canon EF 300mm f/2.8L IS II USM the other day..Pricey but hands down the best lens I have tried, it would be perfect with the 7d and 1.4 conv. Consider it I really would like to see the photos with that one after 3 weeks in Tanz.

And good luck on your hunt as always.

One of my favorite times of year! Looking forward to living vicariously through you for the next few weeks. Safe travels and happy hunting.

So what critters are on the menu for this outing?

Anton,

I prefer to use zoom lenses, because they tend to be more useful rather than being the ultimate in quality.

In fact, I don't think I have a single SLR lens that is not a zoom.

WE will hunt anything that is available on quota - which pretty well means everything, including leopard and lion.

Got a question asking about the numbers on the bullet box above.

I make the bullets out of copper rods, which come in 4 meter lengths. We cut these down to 60 cm lengths to fit into our CNC lathe.

Depending on the lot, the weight of the finished bullet might vary by 3-4 grains.

I separate them by weight, to be within 1 grain or less, and pack them.

The box above has bullets that are 302.0-302.9 grains in weight.

And the date of manufacturer.

The copper rods we use are normally used in the construction industry for earthing.

Relatively cheap, 100% copper, and work great for bullets.

The coating is spray on Molly.

And the bullets look the way they do because of the way they are sprayed.

I use large plastic chopping boards, in which I drill holes to suit the bullet caliber.

We clean the finished bullets in acetone, dry them, and place them nose down and spray them.

Best of luck and safe travels, Saeed. I always enjoy following along on your hunts with Roy, Rene and Alan. I hope this one proves out to be one of the very best ever for all concerned.

quote:

Originally posted by DLS:
Best of luck and safe travels, Saeed. I always enjoy following along on your hunts with Roy, Rene and Alan. I hope this one proves out to be one of the very best ever for all concerned.

Thank you very much.

This might be Walter's last trip to Africa, and we hope to make the best of it.

Last year he announced that it was his last safari - not bad for one who only wanted to go on safari once in his life - that was 23 years ago!!

And he has been going every year ever since!!

His health is not getting better, but apparently a chance to annoy Roy and me cannot be let pass!

Roy and Rene are arriving here in a few days time, and we all travel to Dar together.

Best of luck Saeed!! And all of the best to Walter!!!

Looking forward to the reports on your next adventure! Make sure that the Waltercams record ALL of Walter's shennanigans!

Saeed,

Have a great safari, looking forward to the videos!
Warm regards
Esskay

Best of luck to all on the trip, I'll be looking forward to your reports on the antics and hunting success. Activities such as this are the best medicine in the world for anything, so tell Walter to take a double dose twice a day to cure any ailments.

Saeed PM sent

quote:

Originally posted by Saeed:

quote:

Originally posted by DLS:
Best of luck and safe travels, Saeed. I always enjoy following along on your hunts with Roy, Rene and Alan. I hope this one proves out to be one of the very best ever for all concerned.

Thank you very much.

This might be Walter's last trip to Africa, and we hope to make the best of it.

Last year he announced that it was his last safari - not bad for one who only wanted to go on safari once in his life - that was 23 years ago!!

And he has been going every year ever since!!

His health is not getting better, but apparently a chance to annoy Roy and me cannot be let pass!

Roy and Rene are arriving here in a few days time, and we all travel to Dar together.

Can't imagine that a safari without Walter's antics would be the same.
Have a great trip and look forward to your daily reports

Wish you a safe journey and a great hunt

A man that makes his own rifles, makes his own bullets, and hosts the best loading and hunting board has to have a great hunt and trip.

All the best Sir
really enjoy read the daily report
all the best to Walter and the Team

Lots of ammo.
Are you taking over Tanzania? Saeed's coup?
After the coup, hunting will be less problematic, at least in Tanzania...

quote:

Originally posted by boarkiller:
Lots of ammo.
Are you taking over Tanzania? Saeed's coup?
After the coup, hunting will be less problematic, at least in Tanzania...

Well, we have 4 hunters who will use these rifles and ammo.

Two would not need so much ammo, the other two is anyone's guess

I have a video of someone who will remain nameless, who ran out of ammo trying to shoot a warthog, all we could hear coming from the bush was a scream "BULLETS! BULLETS! MORE BULLETS"

And then as we got there we found him standing a few yards from a wounded warthogs with my rifle in his hands.

The rifle was being held by the barrel, as an axe, to beat the warthog to death if no BULLETS arrived in time.

Saeed,

wish to you and all of your expedition the best of success and of course a safe travel and safari.

Phil.

Good hunting, Saeed!

Hope you have as much luck in the selous as I did last month!

I think we finally have a list of what cameras are going to be used.

Main video cameras are a pair of Sony AX1 4K video cameras.

We used these last year, and were very impressed with their performance.

Sony AXP35 small 4K video cameras
Canon 7D Mk II with a few assorted lenses.
Panasonic FZ1000 bridge camera. I used this this summer and extremely impressed with both its quality and usability. It also takes 4K video.

Sony RX100 Mk 4
Panasonic TZ50
Sony HX400V
Nikon P900

The last two are extreme zoom bridge cameras, which I have not used before, but were given to try and report back on their performance.

quote:

Originally posted by Saeed:
Ladies and Gentlemen,

Soon we will be heading to the Selous to hunt with our usual host, Alan Vincent.

Walter and Enrique are coming along.

I will provide the usual daily report to keep you all up to date with what is going on.

Saeed,

A "Heads Up" for you and hoping our MET Dept. is wrong in its prediction:

"The department of Disaster Management in the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) has said it was on alert and prepared enough to face El-Nino storms likely to hit Tanzania next month."

For once, the MET might just be right!

Having a number of safari veterans with a combined experience that is well over a 100 years.

Our disaster creation department has been well and truly tuned for results that do not disappoint!

Sometimes we look back at those incidents and shake our heads

Here is an example that happened last year.

There are few hills that not many people go into, because their are no easy access for the truck.

It is what Walter likes to call "the starship Enterprise territories"

"Where no man has gone before"

We decided to leave early, and head into those hill, looking for old duggaboys.

We stopped the truck about a mile away, and went into the hills on foot.

We found lots of tracks of bulls, as there was water and good green grass in those hills.

We followed some fresh tracks, and not long after we saw a very old bull standing not far from us.

We got to about a 100 yards of him.

He was facing away, totally oblivious to our presence.

Roy was resting the rifle on the shooting sticks, and Alan was standing just behind with the video camera. I was a few yards behind taking pictures.

This went on for quite a while, with the buffalo having no intention of changing position.

Alan started breaking twigs.

All we got was the bull kept moving his ears, but no change of position.

Then Alan started dancing, jumping up and down, waving his hands in all directions.

I got laughing so much I had to sit down and put my hands on my mouth.

Alan looks back at me and says "bloody hell, what do we do now?"

I think the bull was so old, he might not be able to hear any more.

We moved position, then he turned and Roy shot him.

This all happened just after 8 in the morning.

Alan and the trackers went back to get the truck.

Roy, myself and our game scout waited by the buffalo.

Lunchtime came and went, no sign of our truck.

We had a couple of bottles of water, but no food.

We thought of cutting some meat from the buffalo to eat, but decided against it, as he did not look in good shape.

I check the GPS, and found that the camp was 12 kilometers as the crow flies - probably double that by road.

We decided to wait until before dark, then walk to the road as there is still light. Then walk back to camp on the road.

The sun was disappearing behind the hills, so we started walking.

We have not gone 200 meters when we saw Alan and Robert, our tracker coming along.

Apparently they have been trying all day long, to find a way to get the truck to us, without any luck.

Have a great time, Saeed, and look after Walter. He's a pest, but you'd miss him.

Keep us informed, please.

Oh boy! This is the first Saeed safari I get to watch as an AR member. Feels like initiation, in a way.

Best of luck Saeed, looking forward to the pictures and stories.

Can't wait for your updates. Good hunting!

Best regards, D. Nelson

quote:

Originally posted by Saeed:

quote:

Originally posted by boarkiller:
Lots of ammo.
Are you taking over Tanzania? Saeed's coup?
After the coup, hunting will be less problematic, at least in Tanzania...

Well, we have 4 hunters who will use these rifles and ammo.

Two would not need so much ammo, the other two is anyone's guess

I have a video of someone who will remain nameless, who ran out of ammo trying to shoot a warthog, all we could hear coming from the bush was a scream "BULLETS! BULLETS! MORE BULLETS"

And then as we got there we found him standing a few yards from a wounded warthogs with my rifle in his hands.

The rifle was being held by the barrel, as an axe, to beat the warthog to death if no BULLETS arrived in time.

Shoot lot's of stuff Saeed, wear that Lilja barrel OUT

All the best, Saeed. I hope you have a great time, and I look forward to reading your always interesting reports from the bush.

Also I am wishing you and your group very safe travels and a successful hunt. I remained stunned at the quality of your videos last year in HD on the flash drives...better than anything broadcast. The crocs feeding up close were amazing.