quote:

Originally posted by 416Tanzan:
Which block in the Selous?

It is LU 5. Saeed and crew were here last year, and Don Goldston and I hunted here with Alan in 2006. It is a very beautiful block. Alan has accessed more of it than we were able to hunt in 2006, and there are some great new spots to check out.

quote:

Originally posted by Saeed:
Chris and his party did not shoot anything today, but had an interesting day.

I will leave that to Chris to enlighten you to their adventure.

But, as Walter mwas with them, something was bound to go wrong!

It involves a hippo and blowing up spare tyre!

It is half-way through Day 2 and I am finally able to connect and give you an update of our day yesterday.

It was a loong, HOT, bumpy day yesterday. Checked out some very impressive areas I have not seen before but unfortunately did not find any buffalo. We measured 38 degrees C, and I am not sure what the humidity was but it has been pretty high....a little outside of this Canuck's comfort zone. Fortunately, everyone else (except Saeed!) was remarking about the heat, so it wasn't just me. lol.

The scenery was great but the most interesting part of day was lunch-time. We set up under a nice shade tree, and had parked the truck under it with us. Shortly after we had tucked in to the lunch box, one of the spare tires blew out spontaneously! Gary was seated only about 6 feet from it nearly peed himself while the rest of us practicaly leaped out of our seats. That's the first time I have witnessed a tire blowing out while the vehicle was stationary and the tire was three feet off the ground!

An hour or so later, while we were relaxing with full bellies, finally calmed down again and hoping the oppressive heat would break somehow, Gary happened to look through the trees over Dean's sleeping body and noticed a hungry, hungry hippo was approaching and seemed to have an eye on our little patch of shade. Gary whispered to Dean to slowly and carefully get up and come over to the vehicle...which Dean did. We were on high alert since this kiboko seemed intent on joining us for lunch, but we couldn't tell if he was friendly or not. lol. Finally he got a little put off by the fact we weren't leaving, and he decided to trot off. Apparently Dean has a knack for having his mid-day rest in hippo beds, as this incident was almost a carbon copy of what happened to them last year!



So our lunch was more adrenaline filled than usual. lol.

This morning we went out to look for buffalo, but a nice kongoni found himself in the wrong place at the right time (for me). I made a good shot, and Saeed's spare 375/404 did the job again.



We checked out an interesting spring for buffalo, but did not find any and came back for lunch. Nice start to the day and it turns out Saeed has also just shown up with a kongoni as well, and an impalla. Saeed and the Vincent boys are a high production crew!

Cheers for now!
Chris

Hunting buffalo in the Selous this time of year is suspiciously like work.

It's hot, humid, and hilly.

Most animals are "spot 'n stalk"---not long hikes. Not buffalo.

After a few kilometers on a buffalo track, that bloody rifle feels awfully heavy!

The answer is long, leisurely lunches.

Who lives here?



Keith

We left early as usual, looking for whatever we might find.

We saw 4 zebra running up the hills, so we chased them. Hoping to get a shot at one of them.

We followed them for a while, then saw an old hartebeast, and shot him.

We had some lion bait which we wanted to put up. And headed towards the same tree we had a bait on last year. And from which we shot our lion.

As we got to the bait tree, we there. And we wanted a leopard bait.

I shot that impala.

We put the bait up, and headed back to camp for lunch.

Chris and his gang were back, and Chris shot a hartebeast.

Chris has his own computer, so he will be posting his own reports here.

In teh afternoon we went to put up more baits.

We saw an eland bull, and followed him. He went into a real thick forest. And after about an hour and half, we gave up the chase. Put up one more bait, and headed back to camp.

We are sitting by the fire right now, talking about the day's events.

Walter is staying home tomorrow, and preparing a BBQ.

I asked him to give me his recipe, as many of you have asked for that.

He said "I am not letting anyone have my secret recipe. Especially YOU!"

Check this out, the Vincents and Saeed are all over this:

http://tanganyikagame.com/index.htm

View the home page video there. Is that Alan or Roy narrating the video?
Chip off the ol' block, or the ol' block?

And they both say "aluminium" instead of "aluminum"
and "zehbra" instead of "zeebra,"
but if they keep their forks in their left hands, it's because either they are left handed, or because they want to, not because of the Queen's Etiquette.

Love the gillie hats by Hessa for Walter.
That may be just the edge that Walter needs.

Off to a nice start, but who is keeping a tally?

TANZANIA 2012: SELOUS LU5 SAFARI

A-Team: Saeed, Alan, Roy
B-Team: Chris, Dean, Gary
F-Team: Walter (Reserve force, to be activated for second half of expedition.)

Day 1: 9-29-2012

A-Team:
Buffalo
Wildebeest

B-Team:
Spontaneous explosion of spare tire,
and close encounter with hungry hippo at lunchtime.

F-Team:
Survived B-Team adventures and the heat.
Walter was along for another explosion, eh?
Very suspicious!

Day 2: 9-30-2012

A-Team:
Impala
Kongoni (Coke's Hartebeest)

B-Team:
Kongoni

F-Team:
Survived another day, thinking about doing ceremonial BBQ tomorrow ... yum!

This photo was taken from the camp.

Waterbuck are always feeding across the river from us.

Yippee! Another Saeed, Walter and Roy show with Canuck thrown in for sanity.
Hey Saeed, are you EVER going to repaint that rifle stock or is that your special camo pattern?

I think that's Walter's well worn shooting machine.

Exciting as always, great photo's guys!

Beautiful waterbuck!
Any guesses on the length of those horns?
Definitely not an "Outer Circle" qualifier.

I can see why that is the "royal game" of Botswana, protected there, IIRC,
like the giraffe is in Tanzania,
and cardinals in Kentucky, state bird.

I am going to copy the current pictures of the "375/404 Jeffery Saeed of 1996" rifles, accompanied by happy hunters and game,
to the Big Bore forum here,
as I start trying out the ".375/404 Jeffery Saeed of 2012" with those new dies from Hornady.

Easy: 85.0 grains of H4350 Extreme with "any 300-grain bullet you want" will be the starting load.
Work up from there.

Then maybe a faster powder or more of same for CEB ESP Raptor-Talon-Tipped 230-grain/.375-caliber "hexploding" bullets.
Brass hollow point with plastic ballistic tip.

Walter might like the "hexploding" part.

Saeed, excellent photos, as usual. Perfect medicine for a gloomy and rainy Sunday afternoon here in New England.

Many thanks for this much-needed Tanzanian antidote, and best of luck to the hunters!

Saeed. Keep the reports coming. Tell Dean hello from Ryan Dennett. I was just in Bulawayo with Use Enough Gun and we saw Lance Nesbitt, but wasn't aware Dean was in town. Please tell him we're sorry we missed him.

RIP,
The B-team talley dropped back to zero today, while A-team continued to pull ahead.

Dean, Ali and Razisi managed to revive a cow wildebeeste that was most certainly 3 hooves into the afterlife. We found her caught in a snare today, while tracking buffalo. When approached by us, she pulled the snare tight enough to pass out, and Dean and the trackers quickly jumped on top of her, and managed to get the snare off of her just in the nick of time. In fact we thought it was too late, but after 30 seconds of silence, and no blinking when her eye was touched!, she drew a breath, then another, and so on. About 5 minutes later she got to her feet and ran off (albiet somewhat ungracefully running into a tree along the way). We think (hope) that she will put through. So I guess bringing a wildebeeste back to life counts as a -1 on your talley. lol

We then spent the better part of an hour dismantling more than 500 meters of snare line, and about 25 snares. It was quite a poaching operation.

Following that we got back on the buffalo trail and eventually caught up to them, bedded on a hot dusty ridge (rather than the cool korongo below..dumb buff). Nothing with a hard head in the group though so we left them and took the long way home (Rizisi was not on his A-game and took us back in a route that probably tripled the straight line distance...and none of us had GPS's today). Altogether about 6.5 to 7 hours of tramping the hills in the heat and dust. Late lunch tasted pretty good when we got back to the truck.

So no animals were harmed by B-team today. We did see a number of buffalo yesterday afternoon and today, but nothing that made the grade.

We got home to a great BBQ feast by Walter and Rene, which capped off the day in grand fashion. Walter is truly a BBQ wizard.

Looking forward to another HOT and HUMID day tomorrow, and hopefully we can find "the" buffalo.

Cheers!
Chris

quote:

Originally posted by Hog Killer:
Who lives here?

Keith

Keith, apparently that is the very beginnings of a termite mound!
Cheers,
Chris

We have just finished another one of Walter's fantastic BBQs!

We left early as usual, planning to go to one end of the concession, to look for crocs, as there does not seem very many deep wterholes close by.

We saw the fresh tracks of an eland bull, and decided to follow him.

He took us into that thick forest by the river, and after about 3 hours we flushed him out.

But, all we saw was a glimpse of him!

The forest is very thick, and the tracking certainly seperates the men from the boys there.

We left and continued on our way. By the time we got there, it was lunch time.

We stopped and had lunch - buffalo burgers.

Our trackers noticed a large honeycomb in the tree they were sitting under.

It looked like the behive of mpane bees.

They decided to get the honey.

One tracker was hoisted up with a rope they threw over the branch. He made his way to the behive, and started to listen. Saying "OOOZ oooz coming from inside!"

A few seconds later, he made a very fast retreat to the end of teh branch, as the bees started to attack him!

Eventually they let a fire to smoke the beesout. But the honeycomb had no honey in it.

We checked a few hippo pools, and saw some small and medium size crocs, but no sign of any decent one.

On the way back to camp, we shot a zebra.

Chris and his party went to the other end of the concession, and found a large selection of snares.

One of them had a wildebeest cow in it.

Dean managed to save it and let it go.

quote:

Originally posted by Saeed:

Saeed the best photo so far from 2004 on.

quote:

Originally posted by Canuck:

quote:

Originally posted by Hog Killer:
Who lives here?

Keith

Keith, apparently that is the very beginnings of a termite mound!
Cheers,
Chris

Chris, thanks for the reply. I guess something CAN turn a "mole hill into a moutain" Hope you run into a GREAT ol' dugga boy with big bosses that are worn stooth as a babys butt.

Keith

Ya'll sure do take soom great photos.

Saeed, were most of these last pics taken with the 7D? If so what lens?

quote:

Originally posted by mouse93:

quote:

Originally posted by Saeed:

Saeed the best photo so far from 2004 on.

+1

Great photos, for many reasons, artistic and otherwise!
Great save of a wildebeeste cow and her future calves.
Good job on the poacher snare wrecking.
Good luck to all tomorrow.


EXPEDITION TANZANIA 2012: SELOUS LU5, TANGANYIKA GAME SAFARIS

A-Team: Saeed, Alan, Roy
B-Team: Chris, Dean, Gary
F-Team: Walter (Reserve force, to be activated for second half of expedition.)

Day 1: 9-29-2012

A-Team:
Buffalo
Wildebeest

B-Team:
Spontaneous explosion of spare tire,
and close encounter with hungry hippo at lunchtime.

F-Team:
Survived B-Team adventures and the heat.
Walter was along for another explosion, eh?
Very suspicious!

Day 2: 9-30-2012

A-Team:
Impala
Kongoni (Coke's Hartebeest)

B-Team:
Kongoni

F-Team:
Survived another day, thinking about doing ceremonial BBQ tomorrow ... yum!

Day 3: 10-1-2012

A-Team:
Looked for crocs and found eland which escaped into riverine forest after 3 hours of rough tracking.
Mopane beehive honey-tree harvest was a bust at lunchtime, no serious injury to sweet-toothed trackers.
Spotted some crocs in hippo pools after lunch, no suitable specimens found.
Shot zebra on the meander back to camp, anticipating BBQ nearing perfection there.

B-Team:
Released cow wildebeeste from poacher's snare, witnessed her revival from near-death experience.
Dismantled about 25 poachers' snares and 500 meters of snare line.
7 hours of tramping the hills spotting buffalo before late lunch was served.
More buffalo spotted after lunch, no suitable specimens found, anticipating BBQ on return to camp.

F-Team:
Fresh meat! BBQ successful. No further explosions.

http://tanganyikagame.com/index.htm

Saeed,

Thanks for posting the pictures and descriptions. Our first safari was conducted in LU5. Your photos bring back good memories.

Our PH actually convinced us to swim in the river next to the camp.

Only the waterbuck and the birds photo was taken by the 7D, and a Sigma 50-500mm lense.

The rest were taken by a variety of cameras, including Cannon SX230, SX260, Panasonic FZ200 and a Sony NEX7.

It is early morning here - that time of day when the night denizens are going back to sleep, and the early birds have not gotten up yet.

It is one of the best sounds a city dweller can possibly hears - deathly quiet!

We are going to be looking for buffalo in the hills close to camp today, and luckily do not have to suffer Walter's presence.

Chris is going to "enjoy" his company.

Last night at the dinner table he had all of us in tears telling some of the misadventures him and me had in the past.

Sounded very funny now.

It did not feel very funny then!

Good luck for the day Saeed and keep us posted!

Saeed, this is just fantastic! Here's wishing you all the best of times out there.

Hello to everyone! From Osorno, Chile everyday I´ve followed Saeed´s hunting trip. I´m very happy to be able to see Chris and obviously to Saeed and the rest of the gang. Saeed´s first hunting day was fantastic as usual and on the other hand I´ve been able to see that the trackers are pretty much the same. I send warm regards to everyone and please give my best to Dean, Gerry, Ali, Kesygee (or how is written sorry!) To Chris: I saw that you were having lunch next to a hippo similar to last year´s, so you only need to have lunch by a heard of buffalo, to have a buffalo charge and perhaps an elephant charge that you might enjoy. Hugs for the guys and kisses for the girls!
Your friend Nelson

quote:

Originally posted by Saeed:
Only the waterbuck and the birds photo was taken by the 7D, and a Sigma 50-500mm lense.

The rest were taken by a variety of cameras, including Cannon SX230, SX260, Panasonic FZ200 and a Sony NEX7.

It is early morning here - that time of day when the night denizens are going back to sleep, and the early birds have not gotten up yet.

It is one of the best sounds a city dweller can possibly hears - deathly quiet!

We are going to be looking for buffalo in the hills close to camp today, and luckily do not have to suffer Walter's presence.

Chris is going to "enjoy" his company.

Last night at the dinner table he had all of us in tears telling some of the misadventures him and me had in the past.

Sounded very funny now.

It did not feel very funny then!

Saeed,
Beautiful pictures,absolutely stunning,really enjoying the report so far.

Wow! Stunning photography. Thanks.



Doug

It has been an interesting day.

As we left the camp this morning, I said to Alan why don't we go to the same place we found the buffalo on our first day.

We drove along, and saw a hippo walking back to the river. We followed it, thinking that it might lead us to a deep pool where we might find a croc.

He got to the river, and decided he did not like the shallow pool there, turned around and headed back to the forrest!

We left him and went looking for buffalo. We followed some dugga boys, and they got mixed with a herd.

We decided to leave them, and drove to where we shot the buffalo the first day.

Sure enough, right in front of us, were two dugga boys standing looking at the truck.

They took off as we jumped off, and went into some horrible thicket.

There were signs that they have been there for quite sometime.

Eventually they left the thicket, and went into some hills with long grass.

We saw one of them, and I fired a shot at him. He took off, and us in pursuit. I ran ino a thorn bush hidden in the grass, lost my hat, had thorns stuck in my head and face, and my shirt had a few holes. Even the recoil pad of my rifle had 3 thorns stuck in it.

We found some blood, but no buffalo.

We followed him, and saw him standing under bush, and finished him off.

While we were trying to load th buffalo, we saw a night udder snake close by.

We loaded the buffalo and drove back to camp.

We saw two klipspringers on a hillside, and after some manauevering, saw both standing on the same rock.

The male was above the female, partly hiudden by her.

They were about 80 yards away. I tried to shoot the male high in the neck, to svoid hitting the female. The bullet hit him just under the jaw, breaking his jaw and neck.

Perfect shot for a Walter's BBQ, which he is planning on doing tomorrow.

Got back to camp by 3 and had a quick late lunch.
Later on we went and put up a lion bait.

Chris is back, and he shot a wildebeest.

I have plenty of photos, and will post some after dinner.

quote:

Originally posted by mouse93:

quote:

Originally posted by Saeed:

Saeed the best photo so far from 2004 on.

Thanks Mouse93. I shot that from a ridge a couple kilometers away with a Canon pocket camera that Saeed provided that has a 20x zoom. There were close to 200 buffalo in the herd by our estimate. Those in the photo were just the first to get to the water.

Had another great day today, not the least of which was the fact it was overcast until about 2pm. Really enjoyed the break from the heat. lol. It burned off in the afternoon though and got pretty hot and muggy again.

Today we hunted on the ridges and glassed valleys for duggaboys. Unfortuntely we did not find any duggaboys, but we did spot a lone wildebeeste bull on the Luwegu river bed a long ways to the east and decided to drive around to try a stalk. It was about a 45 minute drive, but we were happy to find the wildebeeste still grazing on the river flats when we arrived about 1km away. We left the truck and attempted the stalk. About 10 minutes into the descent to the river bottom we bumped a lone duggaboy. After a couple intense minutes, where I was up on the sticks but could not shoot due to a bush covering the entire vitals, the bull took off. We decided not to follow since he was switched on to us, and left him to chill out for awhile, while we finished the stalk on the wildebeeste. We did just that, with Dean expertly getting me within 180yds of the bull. Those bulls are tough though and it took a little extra copper to make sure he was down for the count, on the proper side of the Luwegu River (which is the block boundary). He is a great old bull with broomed tips. When Walter saw this picture he said "Looks like a "water"buck!".



We then had lunch on the exact spot where they had a hippo encounter last year.

After lunch we picked up the track of the lone bull. We got close but the wind was bad and he spooked, and we never managed to catch up. He wound his way through the thick stuff along the river all afternoon, so we are hoping he'll be there again tomorrow, and will be looking for fresh evidence of it in the AM so we can make another attempt at tracking him.

We had another fantastic supper at camp....Rene's famous Buffalo-tail Stew and rice...along with more hilarious stories from Saeed and Walter.

Cheers
Chris

quote:

Originally posted by Canuck:
Thanks Mouse93. I shot that from a ridge a couple kilometers away with a Canon pocket camera that Saeed provided that has a 20x zoom. There were close to 200 buffalo in the herd by our estimate. Those in the photo were just the first to get to the water.

you are one lucky guy - I'd call it "D a y D r e a m i n g"

...beautiful...kind of stuff I look for "out there".

Nice wildebeest Chris!