I've been meaning to drop a note, but deadlines come first...Donna and I, along with friends Bill Jones from Alabama and Chrisopher Cornell from England, had a great hunt in mid-October with Mark Haldane's Zambeze Delta Safaris. Haldane has Coutadas 11 and 12...I've hunted one or another of these areas just about every year since 2006. In today's Africa, what is most wonderful to report is that the area just keeps getting better and better. Buffalo numbers are increasing, with the current WWWF count at 13,500 in the Marromeu complex...this doen't include at least several hundred buffalo in the surrounding forests, which are a lot more difficult to count than the herds in the big, open floodplains. Plains species seem to be increasing as well...sable are just plain common, and this year we saw more eland and Lichtenstein's hartebeest than in previous years.
For me the main thing was to hunt the swamp buffalo, a different hunt that I really enjoy. Otherwise I was looking (again) for a really huge nyala. That didn't happen, and that's okay--it was mostly Donna's hunt, and she was on fire. She did a great job on her buffalo, and also took her first nyala, red duiker, Chobe bushbuck, waterbuck, and impressed both Mark and me with running shots on bushpig. Christopher's primary goals were buffalo, eland, and sable. He took two buffalo, one in the forest and one in the swamps, and got a beautiful sable. Unfortunately he didn't find the eland he wanted...I guess Bill ran into "his" herd...he took a magnificent old Livingstone's eland, and had a chance to use some of his great rifles on three buffalo.
I didn't know this because I had no reason to ask, but Mozambique doesn't have any legal "caliber minimum" for dangerous game. So Bill took a buffalo with a little 6.5x53R once owned by Frederick Selous. We were all understandably a bit nervous about this, but I was there and the performance of that wicked little 155-grain solid was amazing...in one side, out the other, buffalo down in about a hundred yards. Bill and I each took a buffalo with his .500 Jeffery, the rifle built for Fletcher Jamieson. Obviously the effect was different and dramatic...my buffalo, on a quartering-to shot, was literally taken off its feet. Bill's third buffalo and most of his other game was taken with a very nice .404 Jeffery.
Obviously I've got some stories to write about this hunt so don't want to say a whole lot more, but mostly I wanted to pass along that the Marromeu complex have done a really good job, and the area just keeps getting better. Coutada 10 has changed hands, and Tony Wicker has Coutada 14. Game availability and densities is not the same across the board, with some areas having more forest and others more floodplain...11 and 12, for instance, have huge amounts of miombo woodland, where Livingstone's suni and red duiker are extremly common, along with quite a few blue duiker and the occasional Sharpe's grysbok. Anyway, in today's Africa it's wonderful see a wild area that is not only good...but getting better.
Hope you all are having great fall hunting seasons! All best, Craig

Very good to hear. Who took over Bahati's old area?

Thanks for posting on here and great hearing from you.

"a little 6.5x53R once owned by Frederick Selous". How many can claim something like that?

Had my Lord Derby delivered and you were right - it took up the whole room!

Sounds like you and yours had one heck of a good time. I have to say that I've sort of stayed away from Moz for one stupid reason - we can't import ele's tusks.
I've never hunted elephant and have no idea why that's a big deal to me, but it is what it is.

Keep the the shows coming. I watch and enjoy just about everyone of them. Thank you.

Craig,
While you were in Mozambique you met a good freind of mine, her daughter also plays on my Son's 14U softball team. She had a very good time but said it was very hot when she was there. Anyhow she was delighted to meet you and your wife.

Craig,

I too have spent some time out in Coutada 10, 11 and 12. That area offers a unique and wonderful hunt in my experience and the very best opportunities for several species. Sable, waterbuck, red duiker and suni numbers are just astounding. Free ranging nyala are always attractive and BIG herds of buffalo!!! I must say though that the ARGO ride with 5 people and a buffalo on board was one of the most uncomfortable expereinces I've had in Africa but the Delta itself is magic making it worth it. The big red locusts being swooped up by the kites was very neat.

Mark

Hi Craig,

Glad you're still enjoying Mozambique. IMO it's one of the two best safari countries in todays Africa - Zambia being the other.

My first hunt with Mark & Glen Haldane in Coutada 11 was 2003 and we agreed I would add them to my list of outfitters for whom I booked. I enthusiastically discussed the quality of their operation and Coutada 11 with you at SCI 2004. I returned with 3 clients in 2005 for another great hunt.

The Suni, Red Duiker and Blue Duiker are world class. I know this because I took new world record Suni in 2003 and Red Duiker in 2005, both with a handgun. I missed what would certainly have been a new world record Blue Duiker on the latter hunt.

Sorry the Nyala continues to stump you, but it does give you an excuse to keep going back. There are some beauties in Coutada 11.

Best to Donna and the girls. Semper Fi.

IDE,

Bill is a friend of mine and the little 6.5 isn't the only cool gun he has. Bill is a friend of mine and I have seen most of his sizable collection and he does have some very interesting guns that have lots of history behind them.

Last August I was with a friend in Mozambique with Artemis Safaris. We were at a tent camp right on the Zambezi, went in by boat and no vehicles of any kind were in the area. I did not get a buffalo but the cultural experience was incredible. The African Queen river boats putting by, crocs sunning on the opposite bank, natives in dugouts, I got to see real Africa. I will never forget it.

Mark

I'm glad to see that everybody else seems to be enjoying Mozambique, including you Bwana Mingi Risasi. (sp) My experience there was only so-so, and that was kind of a bummer because Moz really is old Africa, and I wanted to come away from it all with a better experience

I decided not to shoot a buffalo on the island swamp because the PH told me we would not be able to haul very much of the meat back off of the island.. I thought that was such a waste. Why shoot a big ass cape buffalo in a country where people are starving and not be able to provide meat to those who need it most? Of course that was what the PH told me after we ARGO'ed over there. If he had informed me PRIOR to the trip to the island, I wouldn't have bothered to ARGO over there to shoot a buff.

Have any of you guys experienced this? If memory serves me correctly, and Risasi correct me if I'm wrong, isn't this island shared by multiple Coutadas there in the Zambeze Delta.

quote:

Originally posted by Butch Searcy:
Craig,
While you were in Mozambique you met a good freind of mine, her daughter also plays on my Son's 14U softball team. She had a very good time but said it was very hot when she was there. Anyhow she was delighted to meet you and your wife.

she thought it was hot and she is from Boron? bloody Hell- literally. i know, i know- it's a dry heat in the Mojave!

quote:

I decided not to shoot a buffalo on the island swamp because the PH told me we would not be able to haul very much of the meat back off of the island.. I thought that was such a waste. Why shoot a big ass cape buffalo in a country where people are starving and not be able to provide meat to those who need it most? Of course that was what the PH told me after we ARGO'ed over there. If he had informed me PRIOR to the trip to the island, I wouldn't have bothered to ARGO over there to shoot a buff.

Not that much meat on a buffalo and the one cape buffalo certainly isn't going to affect the stomachs of the "starving multitude".

Pity JC ain't around to do the loaves and fish trick

Besides, I was always led to believe that the famine lies much, much farther up north.

Good news Craig and congratulations on a successful hunt. I am hunting with Zambeze Delta late September of 2012 and am looking forward to hunting buff in the swamps and all of the specialties found around the classic Marromeu ... nyala, red duiker, suni, reedbuck, waterbuck and then off for hartebeest and sable. Should be a superb hunt from the descriptions of your safari. Thanks for posting and look forward to your articles!