Got back Saturday, but have felt too bad to even visit the site, much less post: low grade fever and Shaka's revenge. While I was there, everybody, and I mean EVERYBODY was coming down with malaria. I feel a little better today, however and am going to work.

Mixed results on the hunt. Shot a big dugga boy on the first day of the hunt, but lost it after trailing blood for three days. Shot a leopard, but it turned out to be a big female. Got a great impala and bushbuck plus a couple of zebra for leopard bait. Passed up a 58-inch kudu with perfect form because I didn't want to shoot such a magnificent animal from the front seat of the safari car. Saw Rhino, black and white, on several occasions. Saw elephants, crocs, hippos and had four lions chase a heard of wildebeests alomost over top of our leopard blind at 9:30 in the evening. Now THAT will get your attention!

Zim is a great country, but on it's last legs, I fear. No fuel. No food. No nothing! Only 20,000 whites left, and more leaving every day.

Had a barbecue one evening with .416 Widowmaker. He was hunting with Buffalo Range Safaris, just a thirty minute run from Jumbo Moore's camp. He was still early in his hunt, while mine was over. I'll let him tell you the results.

Gotta go to work. I'll post more details and TRY to figure out how to post photos later.

Sorry to hear about your bad luck. You might consider going to the doctor (a travel medicine specialist or tropical disease specialist) and get checked out for tick bite fever and malaria.

Regards,

Terry

Sorry to hear about your lost buff.
Sooner or later, in real life those things happends.

I agree with Terry, go to the doctor.

L

Yeah, the buffalo thing cast a pall over the entire hunt. But I know the rules and an animal wounded is an animal bought.

My shot was too high. I didn't realize how much of the buff was below the grass line and aimed at the center of mass on what I could see. We found two big hunks a lung at the site and he death bellowed three times. Trackers were high fiving me, thinking it was dead.

Worst part was we spent so much time trailing the wounded buff, we lost two big male leopards off our baits and never got them back.

The female cat is not really a problem. It is a big female and I was happy with it. Of all the hunters I met hunting leopard, this is the only one harvested. It will look great full-mounted on a limb over my kudu with an impala draped under it.

Sorry to hear that you are feeling ill. Hopefully when you are feeling better you can provide us with more details. I'm scheduled to leave 6 June for Zim so as you can imagine I'm very interested. Where did you hunt, how far was the buff and what type of rifle/ammo where you using? Take care, jorge

Hope you're feeling better!!

I'm heading over on the 8th - curious as well as to what, caliber, ammo you were using.

Also, did you take any anti Malaria meds? What kind?

Jeff

GAHunter

Congratulations on your leopard and commiserations on your buffalo.

I too would urge you go to a good tropical diseases / experienced travellors clinic. I came back from Africa in 1994 with a very nasty bug. The local GPs were a waste of time. The travellors clinic diagnosed it quickly.

Sorry to hear of your misfortune on Buffalo. I know what it feals like to loose an animal on Safari. Sounds like you had a great trip overall. Was this your first trip to Zim? What area were you hunting? I return for my 3rd trip to Zim in August. I am curious what the area looks like now. I was there last year in March and saw lots of Buffalo/Jumbo but not much of anything else. I hope to take a Leopard on this trip. My PH says with a lack of plains animals they are hungry and have been hitting bait hard. Sounds like you had similar results. Go see a Doctor! Malaria is nothing to mess with.

Went with a group on a hunt to Zim. in 1982. Everyone got sick towards the end of the safari- tick fever. Some had it worse than others.One almost died, took months to recover. See a Doc.

Gahunter, congratulations on the Leopard and commiserations on the buffalo. As a wannabe for Buff, please tell us what range, caliber etc. were used. Any followup shots taken etc.
Peter.

GAHunter,
Welcome back. Sorry about your buff. Tough luck but if we hunt long enough, it happens to us all unfortunately. Sounds like the rest of the hunt went well and congrats for passing on that huge kudu, don't know if I could have passed him up.

Time heals all (along with some good ol' US meds, sounds like you need them too) and the sting will wear down. Then post some pictures and we will celebrate the trophies you did claim!

GAHunter,

Congratulations and condolences!

Go get that fever checked out.

jim

For those who asked, I shot the buff with a 404 Jeffery and a 400-grain Swift A-Frame bullet chugging along at 2,350 fps. It was only 15 minutes until dark and the buff was silhouetted against the setting sun. I shot for forward center of mass, since looking through the scope I could not discern any of the buffs features because of glare. My first shot was backed up with a 400-grain A-Square solid, which jammed on the side of the chamber! In fact, my rifle now jams 50 percent of the time. I'm ready to give it away!

Did not matter, though, since after the shot, buffalo were going everywhere. No way could I have got a second into him without hitting another buffalo. We later figured out that my shot was high due to the deep grass hiding most of the buffalo's body. Still, we know I got the lungs because there were two big hunks of lung material at the site. The bull's last bellow sounded like it was choking on blood. We fully expected to find it dead a couple of hundred yards away the next day. Little did we know!

As far as anti malarial, I took, and am still taking, Malarone. I understand that it does not keep you from getting malaria, but starts treating it as soon as it enters your system. Some of you M.D. types might want to either confirm or refute that one, 'cause I'm not sure. One things for sure, after being there and seeing how wide spread malaria is, I will always be extremely careful about my anti malarial. In fact, a Swiss missionary in Zimbabwe recently lost his wife and three children to cerebral malaria in the space of a week! It ain't nothing to play with.

Another question asked was where was I hunting. I was hunting in the Save Conservancy in Southeastern Zimbabwe. I was huntin with PH Henry Princloo who was contracted for the hunt by Jumbo Moore. Henry is a very, very good PH who puts his client's success and safety first. Absolutely no problems with Henry, Jumbo or any of his staff.

Any problems on this hunt were of my own doing!

GAHunter: Thanks for the reply and I can appreciate the situation you were in regarding the buffalo. Might I suggest you send your rifle to Mark Penrod, he'll make it fine for sure. Anyhow I was primarily concerned with your assessment of the situation "on the ground" over there. Did you fly into Harare or Bulawayo? There's a big difference. How was the food/transportation? Like I stated previosuly, I'm leaving in 21 days and taking my wife with me. jorge

GA Hunter,

Please keep us updated on your condition. Godspeed for a quick recovery. Do get yourself checked out. We look forward to the pictures. Even though you faced some tough challenges, it seems like it was one fine time. Best Regards, Hugh

Ga- Congrats on your adventure. Sounds like maybe a case of one of the tick born illnesses? Doxy?

GAHunter,
Welcome home and hope you have a speedy recovery. Sorry to hear about the lost buffalo, I can relate as I tracked a wounded buffalo for three days untimately loosing him. The rest of the safari sounds great. By the way, if you want to give that 404 away, or even sell it cheap, I'm interested!

My father and I both came down with tick fever last year after hunting the Save with Shangaan Hunters. Great hunt, but the fever was anything but. It took 30 days of Cipro to end my suffering.

GAHUNTER,

Sorry to hear about your troubles. Can you tell us more about the .404? Was it functioning perfectly in the USA? Had you ever experienced any trouble with it before?

As for the buffalo, the Nyati book from African Hunter (www.africanhuntermagazines.com) explains that buffalo can live and recover when lung shot. Pretty amazing stuff for us guys used to killing deer.