I've been doing some searches, but for those of you who have hunted the above, what are the terrain/foliage differences between Chewore North and South, Makuti, and the Save? Hilly vs. flat, foliage thickness[particularly late July thru mid Sept.], average shot distances, etc.

Also any comments about the "wildness" of the areas, would be appreciated.

Thanks!

Mad Dog

Mad Dog;

Check out STGS's hunt report on "Tuskless & Buffalo in Makuti with CM Safaris". Great photos of the terrain in Makuti. I don't know about the others.

Regards, D. Nelson

Makuti is mostly hilly to mountanous, with some smaller portions flatter. For the physically challenged, I think it would be hard to avoid the tough terrain and a lot of the terrain is steep.

Chewore runs from flat to rolling hills to foothills to mountanous. Most hunting is done from flat to rolling hills or foothills. There are some steep ravines even in the flat areas and in the rolling hills, but, if required, a hunter should be able to do well avoiding the foothills and mountanous areas.

Most of the Save is pretty flat, at least the portions I have hunted or seen. Some hills, some kopjies, some ravines but not much for tough terrain.

Makuti has a lot of grass, which can reportedly be high even during the "middle" of the season. It was mostly short in November. Some areas have tree cover, but not much is really dense, at least when I was there.

Chewore has the whole range, from riverine bush, thich tree cover, thick jess to open grass, with grass, thick forest, riverine bush, meadows (vleis?) in the mountanous areas.

The Save ranges from open vleis to very thich riverine bush with some tree cover and some pretty open mopani areas in between.

Never been through Chewore North.

Hope this helps.

JPK

JPK, thanks a bunch, that helps!

What about the remoteness, or "wildness" of each area? If you know what I mean.

Mad Dog

quote:

Makuti is mostly hilly to mountanous, with some smaller portions flatter. For the physically challenged, I think it would be hard to avoid the tough terrain and a lot of the terrain is steep.

Chewore runs from flat to rolling hills to foothills to mountanous. Most hunting is done from flat to rolling hills or foothills. There are some steep ravines even in the flat areas and in the rolling hills, but, if required, a hunter should be able to do well avoiding the foothills and mountanous areas.

Most of the Save is pretty flat, at least the portions I have hunted or seen. Some hills, some kopjies, some ravines but not much for tough terrain.

Makuti has a lot of grass, which can reportedly be high even during the "middle" of the season. It was mostly short in November. Some areas have tree cover, but not much is really dense, at least when I was there.

Chewore has the whole range, from riverine bush, thich tree cover, thick jess to open grass, with grass, thick forest, riverine bush, meadows (vleis?) in the mountanous areas.

The Save ranges from open vleis to very thich riverine bush with some tree cover and some pretty open mopani areas in between.

Never been through Chewore North.

Hope this helps.

JPK

chewore north is a lot like makuti ...

as far as wildness , makuti is very wild , has an asphalt road running through it and once you get off that its very wild , the chewores are very very remote , closest asphalt a hard three hours at minimum from any of the camps
save is huge , but with great infrastructure and and a completely different experience . makuti , chewore north and chewore south are each held by individual operators so you can roam free across the whole comncession , save is divided up into many blocks with different management and ownership of each block which can be limiting ..

if you hunt the save go to one of the bigger blocks , like sango , or hammond ,

hope this helps

Thanks Ivan! The reasons for all my questions this last week, in this and another thread I started, is my feet issues. My son can and does climb mtns., and is in shape enough to hunt any terrain. In this instance, I'm the deal breaker. I have arthritis in both feet, and while I can get in good enough shape, wind/cardiovascular wise[exercise bikes], I don't think my feet can cut it. Might even have to reconsider hunting 2x1 with my son, because I may not be able to keep up. I can walk 2-3 miles at a leisurely pace, but after that, the bottoms of my feet get to hurting/burning, to where I have to get off them. That's why all the questions about the terrain in these areas. I may have to concentrate solely on a cape buff, and let the boy do the cape buff/tuskless ele combo, by himself, in other words I just don't know, yet. That's the reason I'm looking so forward to DSC, next Jan., to sort out these issues in direct conversations with a lot of different people.

Mad Dog

Mad Dog,

You might contact HHK at Dallas and visit with them about hunting buff and tuskless at Charisa. I have hunted there twice for both. Lots of eles and buff and the terrain for the most part is flat or gently rolling. Cow herds, where you will find the tuskless, travel less than bulls. I have found that often you can get into a cow herd with only 2 to 4 miles of tracking. Sometimes much less. There is not as high a percentage of tuskless there than some other areas but there will be enough. If you hunt in the September/October period the buff and elephants will be near the river and there will be even less distance to track. If I were in your place, I would definitely look into Charisa.

465H&H

Hi Mad Dog

I will answer both your threads below. These are MY OPIONS only and are aimed at giving you some back ground information on the valley areas all of which I have hunted extensively.

Makuti- very is mountainous with numerous valleys. There is lots of tall grass early season, which limits visibility, but by July we burn and the new grass combined with lots of springs pulls a lot of game up from the valley. There is no jess in Makuti and a lot of hunting is/ can be done by spotting. This can be an advantage for someone who struggles with walking as you can decide how much or how little walking one wants to do. I have hunted with clients of all "shapes and sizes" including a 70 year old Japanese couple both with knee problems and using walking sticks and we had no problem getting tuskless 2 buff and a trophy bull. They are in fact returning to hunt again in September. We even managed to get "Will" two tuskless!

Makuti has a healthy population of tuskless, in my opinion less then Sapi and Nyakasanga and Chewore North but more than Chewore South and both Dandes.

The buff numbers are better then Sapi, Chewore North and Dande South. Equal to Chewore South and less then Dande North, which I consider the best buff area in the country. Prime time to hunt Makuti is Mid August onwards. As Ivan said Makuti is very wild however it does have a tar road through it. Our camp is a small and personal tented camp which is very comfortable.

CHEWORE NORTH

The Eastern side of Chewore North is as hilly/ mountainous as makuti and hardly hunted as there are few roads. The Central and Western Side, going up to the Chewore river (which is Ian gibbos favourite) is pretty flat but has lots of jess. This is good for tuskless and they have a very healthy number of them and you will have no problem at all shooting one in the North. I find the buff hunting challenging in Chewore North with all the jess. As far as wilderness I would rate the Chewore North as the most remote and wild area in Zim. Camps and organisation are excellent. Prime time July onwards.

CHEWORE SOUTH

Chewore South has good numbers of Buff and decent numbers of tuskless. I do not have a huge amount of experience in the South however my partner Myles has hunted most of his career there. Both tuskless and Buff involves a fair bit of tracking. There is quite a bit of jess making the buff hunting quite difficult however with the numbers of buff and certain spots that are nice and open like the Mkanga Valley you will get both your tuskless and buff. The camps and organisation are also excellent. Prime time Sept onwards

SAPI

Sapi has tons of tuskless. What I have found is numbers of tuskless increase from the most eastern concessions in the valley being Dande to the most western being Rifa. Having said that I would like to add that the most enjoyable hunt for multiple tuskless I have done has been in the Dande South (considered to have the lowest tuskless density in the valley) with Dan McCarthy. The reason I add that in is to point out which ever area you decide on for tuskless, if you hunt hard, you will get one.

Sapi is very flat and dominated by Jess. I do not rate buff hunting in the sapi and would be my last choice in the valley areas. There are some good trophies that come out but personally find chasing buff in the jess to be a pain! You will get one but from an experience point of view- not great. It is an auction area so quality of operation will depend on the operator you book with. If you book with Chifuti you can stay in their very nice fishing camp. Other operators will put up a fly camp on the river, which can be very nice indeed. Sapi is a more wild area than Nyakasanga, which has more commercial operations in fishing camps, chirundu traffic, villages in Zambia and 3 hunting camps. Sapi does have two commercial fishing camps been Shamashanga and Tafika and also has chewore river mouth and if you hunt September onwards when the fishing is good the river is like first street. If you are set on Sapi I would recommend early season when all the pans are full. It is close quarter hunting!

I hope that this is a help Mad dog. I have tried to be as objective as possible on the areas giving you the pros and cons of all the areas as I see it. Regardless of what area you hunt I would recommend 14 days. It sounds like your son is a very fit and hard hunter so you need to weigh up 2/1 vs 2/2. I would recommend 2/2. Your son, hunting with the right Ph, will have a wonderful time exploring unhunted areas which most of the above areas can boast. You will always have the evening to share around the campfire! From your side I would recommend that you hunt both Buff and tuskless. You will have no problem getting both. You will do less walking for your tuskless than your buff.

Definitely go for tuskless rather then non-trophy bull. (Sorry Shakari!!) The reason been is that 99% of the management bulls are young bulls that actually are our trophies of tomorrow. Apart from that you will come away with a much better elephant hunting experience hunting a tuskless then a Non T/ele bull. Invariably with the NTEB it is the first ele that you follow/see that you end up shooting while a tuskless you will interact with plenty of eles and have some very exciting stalks!

Good luck and good hunting. I set off tomorrow and am hunting eles solidly till the beginning of November with out a days break! Can’t wait! Cheers Buzz

Mad Dog,

My wife has rheumatoid arthritis and was able to hunt Makuti and get her buffalo.

Buzz,

Good luck with the rest of the season! Please tell Alan hello for me.

Buzz, thanks for your excellent insight. My boy and I'll be talking, in the next 2 wks. Your info will definately be part of the conversation.

Thanks!

Mad Dog

Always good insight from Buzz.

He sure has a point about Makuti and a spotting scope. When I hunted Makuti we did use a spotting scope. We were hunting tuskless but also trophy bull elephants. Looking for trophy bulls will always get you walking and tracking far. But with a good spotting scope you could choose which walks to make for a tuskless.

This photo shows PH Rich Tabor evaluating a possible tuskless with the spotting scope. One of the trackers, using one of my binos, first spotted the herd and brought the possible tuskless to Rich's attention.


This photo shows me with the tuskless we walked for after Rich's evaluation. To the right, a bit out of sight in the photo, on a shelf below the farthest ridge line is where the first photo was taken and from where the tuskless was spotted.


The walk from shelf to tuskless took about 45 minutes to maybe an hour at a midlin' pace, the walk back took twice as long and was almost all uphill.

BTW, on the 2x1 or 2x2 choice, going 2x2 gives you great flexibility. You may find that some days you and your son hunt together and some days you don't. But you'll have the choice. You may find that you start off together in the morning but early afternoon you're slowing down and abit tuckered and ready for a cold beer and maybe a nap or a game drive while your young and fit son and his PH are eager to take off to cross the next ridge... With 2x2, you have the flexibility. He won't be tied to your limitations and you won't feel the need to push yourself or to endure without enjoyment for fear of holding him back...

A good PH will adapt and tailor the hunt to the client as best possible. And Buzz is a great PH.

JPK

Buzz,

Welcome to the forums...

Only 33 days till I head over!

Not that I'm counting or anything...

Matt Vecchio

I would agree with Buzz in regards to hunting Tuskless Vs. Management Bulls. The tuskless hunting is much more challenging and exciting whereas the Management Bull can be a very quick whambamthankyoumam experience. The only exception is if you make absolutley certain you only shoot an extremely old Mgt Bull with very inferior ivory.

Who has the Makuti concession?

Buzz has 1/2, can recall the fellow/outfitter who has the other half.

The both sub from the concession holder, can't recall his name either.

JPK

I believe that Ian Gloss has the other half. I also believe that a fellow by the name of Emmanuel Fundera controls the concession. Mr. Fundera used to book hunts directly and even exhibited at SCI I recall.

Although Chewore North is very rugged, You should have little problem taking your Tuskless there in no time due to the amount available .
I would then move on and hunt the Buffalo inland at Chewore South.
As they are both run by the same company this should not be a problem and in fact ad to the Safari.
I would recommend guys like Myles McCallum, Buzz for such a hunt.

Some pics from last months hunt in Chewore South. They have every terrain you could ask for, from small river canyons like the Maura, large wide open rivers (Chewore and Angwa), miles of thick jess and mopane, to valleys like Mkanga or tall hills more suited to elk hunting here at home. My PH said that later in the year, a lot of the eles moved up into the hills for water in the springs in all the draws. You can see from the last picture that even the trackers and PH sweat in that heat and terrain!















I thought it was great because you could do something different every day, or stick to what was physically appealing to your own condition. With two of us hunting 1x1, we just stayed on opposite sides of the hunting area, and experienced it all.