quote:

Originally posted by Saeed:
Yesterday was our last hunting day.

Already! It seems it is over too fast. Thank you for letting us enjoy the wilderness adventure through your photo journals, Saeed.

Were those wild dogs hunting that zebra? Or they just happened to be in the same picture?

Fantastic Safari!! I feel like I was there with all of you thru your photographs!!
Thank You for Sharing this amazing experience!!!
Safe Travels home to all...

CheerZ,

We are Dar Emirates lounge.

A bit tired, suntanned and ready for normal life.

We are all flying to Dubai

Then Roy and Rene head to the US
Chris to Canada
Tony Down Under.

We all had a great time, and Alan had the biggest smile of anyone!

I am sure he was celebrating getting read of this rowdy lot!

Saeed

Thank you for taking us along!

What was your impression of this area compared to other areas you have hunted in TZ?

The wild dogs were bothering the zebra.

But they did not get far.

I think because they were too few.

If there were more the outcome might have been different.

We have never seen so many wild dogs in one area before.

This concession is a typical Selous concession.

Large variety of game, and I think the creation of the lake is going to improve it.

We have only hunted a small portion of it, as the rest had no access roads, and Alan is planning to make those in the future.

Every little water hole, whether just a mud hole or a deep pool by rocks, had hippos and crocs!

Very strange to see a pool 10 meter square with hippos and crocs in when it is miles away from any other water.

Only place I have seen so many crocs in one place was lake Kariba!

Saeed, congratulations on a wonderful safari for everyone. It seems this may have been one of your best ones of all. Madaba sure is a special area and the coming years are going to produce many fantastic hunts.

quote:

Originally posted by Saeed:
The wild dogs were bothering the zebra.

But they did not get far.

I think because they were too few.

If there were more the outcome might have been different.

We have never seen so many wild dogs in one area before.

This concession is a typical Selous concession.

Large variety of game, and I think the creation of the lake is going to improve it.

We have only hunted a small portion of it, as the rest had no access roads, and Alan is planning to make those in the future.

Every little water hole, whether just a mud hole or a deep pool by rocks, had hippos and crocs!

Very strange to see a pool 10 meter square with hippos and crocs in when it is miles away from any other water.

Only place I have seen so many crocs in one place was lake Kariba!

Sounds awesome!

Thanks for sharing this fantastic adventure and great photos.

I have been following these trips since 2008 I think.

Really sad to miss Walter and all the banter, pranks, humour and his BBQ.

Did I miss the story of Roy shooting two buffalo with one shot? I would love to hear the details.

Amazing variety of animals. Porcupine - good eating too. A rodent.

I see that you did not have any photos of hanging up leopard bait.

I cannot wait to see all the videos.

Thanks once again!

quote:

Originally posted by BushPeter:
Were those wild dogs hunting that zebra? Or they just happened to be in the same picture?

In the video the stallion actually chases the dogs away. The rest of the herd take off as the stallion does his thing, but as Saeed says it may of been different if there was more dogs.

I will post lots of videos once I have caught up with work.

I have a friend here who refused to watch either videos of the wild dogs kills!

Bloody wimp!

He is quite happy to get stuck into a rare steak, but refuses to watch a proper, natural lunch in progress!

Nature is not the Disney world that many think is the real world.

People like crows, and i am sure that they would not watch a video or crows plucking eyes out of new born calves. But it happens every year.

Got a few questions to answer.

Madaba is an enormous area.

We only hunted a small portion of it.

The rea we hunted was interspersed by a number of relatively large rivers, but are dry at the time of our hunt.

They did have pockets of small pools, with some having both crocs and hippos in them.

There were several pans which were almost dry, or had muddy holes.

Again, some had large number of hippos, and some crocs.

Others had the odd croc or hippo.

The flooding of that lake is in progress, and I suspect by next year large areas we actually walked on would be under water.

Large number of buffalo, zebra, sable, kongoni and reedbuck, duikers etc.

Impala, kudu and waterbuck were not in large numbers.

But, I suspect that what we actually saw were within a couple of hundred yards of where we were.

Anything further is not visible to us.

A surprising find was the lack of vultures.

In other Selous concessions we had seen a lot more of these birds than in Madaba.

Any questions, please ask, I will be happy to answer.

Lack of vultures is ominous. In the Selous in 2009 there were huge numbers. Circling while you gutted a buffalo. Their disappearance could indicate the poisoning of cattle carcasses by herdsmen to eliminate predators. In North Cameroon where poisoning is common I saw no vultures. Goodbye lions on the fringes of the Selous?

Funny enough, there were hardly any vultures in Mlelle that we hunted the past two years too.

quote:

A surprising find was the lack of vultures.

In other Selous concessions we had seen a lot more of these birds than in Madaba.

The likely reason for this is due to Madaba lying fallow for a while and the birds moving to "greener pastures" where hunting activities were more pronounced like MS1 (next door) which has no shortage of vultures.

Hunting hippos in a lake is quite an experience.

Tried that in Lake Kariba, and it is no different than what we found in Lake Nyerer.

We could have shot any number of hippos found in all the small pools in dried river beds.

But, we needed them for croc bait.

And trying to transport a hippo whole is not something we looked forward to.

First problem is finding a hippo in a suitable location.

Then trying to pick a bull among all those that are there, as they tend to keep their heads under water, and only their eyes and nostrils out, and only for a few seconds.

We spent quite sometime scouting the Lake shores for a suitable place with hippos.

First one we found in a nice small bay.

The hippos were on the right side of the bay for the prevailing wind.

But, they were among some bushes that were partially under water.

Eventually we found a bull.

But, again, trying to get a shot at him was another matter.

He is either underwater, or sticks his head up in line with another one.

After a long wait, he did get clear, and I shot him.

He sank.

We left him for a few hours and left to go hunt and have lunch close by.

When we came back, he had drifted down the bay, and discussions were made on how to get him to the shore.

Luckily, he was in a sort of closed bay, and not far from the shore.

Robert and Nuni took off their clothes and swam to him and tied a rope to his legs.

Both Alan and me stood by with loaded rifles in case of any crocs making an attempt at them.

We tied the hippo to the shore, and built a hide.

Came back in three days, and shot one of the many crocs that were feeding on him.

The second hippo was no different.

We thought we would try a different location.

Again, we found several hippos, but were never able to get close enough to check them out.

Walked on the shores of sort of semi island forming in the Lake.

We jumped a hippo sunning himself less than 5 yards from us.

Luckily he ran off into the water.

Further on we saw the back of one in a tiny lay by, just big enough for the hippo.

Alan got to within 2 yards of him to check if it was a bull.

Turned out it was a cow with a baby!!

Left them and continued on.

Nothing, so we came back the same way.

The cow had disappeared, and further on several hippos were in the water.

We thought we found a suitable bull, and he kept his head under the water, except his nostrils.

Then another bull stick his head out, and Alan whispers "shoot that one".

I did.

Again, he sank.

We went hunting and came back to have lunch close by.

5 hours later, there was no floating hippo??!!

I tried looking around with the drone.

Nothing!

Suddenly, he pops up while were there.

Now, a new problem comes up.

He is in relatively open water, and we could see several large crocs swimming about.

He was not too far out, but we did not want to put any of our boys in danger.

So some genius comes up with an idea.

Tie rocks to a rope, throw them over the hippo, and try to get him close.

Sounds a bit crazy, but it actually worked.

We tied him to the shores, and set a trail camera there.

Left him for a few days, came back and shot another croc feeding on him.

Lots more crocs in this location.

We got an incredible 2 days video of an enormous number of very large crocs feeding him.

Day and night.

And some hyenas as well.

Took the trail camera off.

came back two days later, not much of him was left, but some crocs were still there.

Shot another.

quote:

Originally posted by Saeed:
I will post lots of videos once I have caught up with work.

I'm looking forward to that Saeed.
That's a great thing you do for the benefit of AR members and I really appreciate your efforts.

I am doing the videos now.

So far have over 60 hours!

3 full time camera men, with three drones, and every member of the party with a camera, Hollywood chasing paparazzi's don't come even close to this lot!

quote:

Originally posted by Saeed:
I am doing the videos now.

So far have over 60 hours!

3 full time camera men, with three drones, and every member of the party with a camera, Hollywood chasing paparazzi's don't come even close to this lot!

You're the man Saeed
I would be delighted to watch every last minute of the 60 hours

Wait till you see the video of the crocs we took. Scary stuff!

quote:

Originally posted by Bakes:
Wait till you see the video of the crocs we took. Scary stuff!

Looking forward to the drone footage. Any new drones?

quote:

Originally posted by Wesheltonj:
Looking forward to the drone footage. Any new drones?

Yes.

The DJI MAVIC PRO 3.

Great for wildlife with 3 separate cameras.

1x, 3x and 7x.

I am processing the videos now.

If you are on INSTAGRAM, I have posted a few drone videos on there.

I have posted a few videos on the first post.

Lots more to come.

quote:

Originally posted by Saeed:
I have posted a few videos on the first post.

Lots more to come.

Thank you Saeed.. i will check them out

quote:

Originally posted by Saeed:

quote:

Originally posted by Wesheltonj:
Looking forward to the drone footage. Any new drones?

Yes.

The DJI MAVIC PRO 3.

Great for wildlife with 3 separate cameras.

1x, 3x and 7x.

I am processing the videos now.

If you are on INSTAGRAM, I have posted a few drone videos on there.

Went to Instagram and reviewed. Also marked following.

Saeed,

Saw your groups with the .375/404------NOT BAD FOR A MODIFIED CHOKE!

Hip

quote:

Originally posted by Hipshoot:
Saeed,

Saw your groups with the .375/404------NOT BAD FOR A MODIFIED CHOKE!

Hip

I have two 375/404.

Both are built on Dakota 76 actions.

First one was built by my friend Dwight Scott.

The poor guy used to get into all sorts of head scratching bits each time I ask him to get me a reamer for a new wildcat I dreamt up!

His usual response "Oh JEEZ! Not another ONE!"

Dwight is one of those very rare individuals.

Extremely good at being a gunsmith, so so at shooting buffalo, down to earth, honest, and makes everyone around him happy!

Including me!

Despite all the tricks I inadvertently play on him!

What happen was I used to take two rifles on safari.

A large bore like a 375 or a 416, and a smaller one for plains game.

Those include various 270 wildcats, 7mm and 338 calibers.

Had a Lazzeroni rifle, and was trying to shoot leopard bait impalas first day.

Kept missing easy shots, to the delight of everyone!

My usdual one shot kills seem to be history!

Then we found out that the action was loose.

We did not have the right Alen tool to tight the action.

So I took my 375/404 to shoot impala.

4 shots later, and 4 dead impalas, including one at over 400 yards, made me decide to build another 375/404, so I take two identical rifles hunting.

Solves the problem of ammo too.

Back home, I built this one in an afternoon.

Couldn't find a suitable stock, except an MPI which it has on now.

Not really ideal, as the magazine sticks out of the stock.

And in my haste in setting it up to cut the threads and chamber it, I made a slight mistake on my threading tool.

I could not cut the thread all the way to the shank.

A typical amateur mistake.

And I solved this by doing a typical amateur solution.

I chamfered the end of the shank slightly, which allowed me to reach the end.

What this does is show that the barrel is not screwed tight to the action.

Dwight noticed this as soon as he saw it.

"Oh JEEZ! What the hell IS this? Your barrel is LOOSE!"

I had to tell him it wasn't.

It is one of my modifications!

Poor man had more head scratching!

Anyway, both these rifles have been going on safari ever since.

And both have been doing as well as any shooter can be.

And with my nwly developed NO MISS ammo, they work like a dream.

Maktoum has been using the other one.

He is becoming as bad as me.

He shoots animals in all parts of their anatomy.

He says my advice works.

They all die, whether hit in the rear end or front end, and anywhere in between!

Pete, his professional hunter, keeps scratching his head, just like Dwight!

Saeed,

What was the story of Roy shooting 2 buffalo with one shot?

quote:

Originally posted by Nakihunter:
Saeed,

What was the story of Roy shooting 2 buffalo with one shot?

He did not.

He shot two buffalo from a bunch of bulls we found.

If I have mentioned that it was a misspelled mistake.

Amazing photos and amazing trip well done folks !

Gents what are all the bugs in the ears of the animals etc. ?

quote:

Originally posted by PC:
Gents what are all the bugs in the ears of the animals etc. ?

Ticks.

In several varieties.

Thanks Sawed Wow I didn’t know how prolific ticks were !

Thanks Saeed, I've just got through all the videos, another epic safari, huge congratulations!
Peter