I am looking at booking with HHK in Matetsi 3 for elephant. The dates available are pretty much June and a couple of weeks in July. Can anyone give me any info on that unit during those time frames for elephant? I am looking for info on animal movement, water situation, how the park effects game movement, weather, etc.


Thanks

I'll send you a professionally prepared video filmed in Matetsi 3 this year from July 23 through the end of the month. It was cold in the mornings (as you'll see in the video, but quite nice the rest of the day). We never saw a cloud.

I was hunting tuskless, but saw a couple of full-maned lions, maybe 300 elephants (some bulls in excess of 50lbs and one better than 60lbs, a zillion sable, eland, roan... every darn thing and, as the video shows my daughter chased 600 or so buffalo.

Matetsi 3 has two pans with pumps that are left over from cattle operations (you'll see both in the video) and a couple that hold water naturally until mid-July. There will be water in the concession.

The fellows who were there the two weeks before Emmy and me were hunting buffalo, but they told us that they'd been in and out of pesky elephants while tracking buffalo almost every day.

P.M. me with your address and I'll get you a video. It'll fire you up!

BTW, we saw the good bulls from the vehicle while riding around and concentrating on cow herds. We never even stopped to look at a bull track. Lord knows what we'd have seen if we followed some a bit.

Judge,

Thanks, I'll PM ya with my info.

What was the weather like in July?

Rob

I think I edited my post while you were replying to me to include the weather, but here it is again as I experienced it.

Every morning, we were quite happy to have a fire in the dining area as it was in the low 40's and sometimes the wind was 15 mph or so. By 9:00 a.m. I was comfortable in shorts and a long sleeved shirt and at mid-day I just had on a tee-shirt. Coming back to camp, I would put on my jacket and maybe even added a sweater when we were sitting by the fire on the laupa having a toddy. It's all in the video, of course.

You also can go to www.weatherunderground.com and look at the historical data for Victoria Falls and get several years of information. I find it a great asset in planning.

If you will be in Dallas for DSC, we'll make sure to get together and talk??? or... I'll reply to the P.M. and give you a phone number.

I'll second what the Judge said.

I hunted Unit 3 for Elephant for 18 days in June of 2008. So long as the water has dried up in the park and across the border in Botswana, you'll have a lot of elephant and buffalo in the concession and the pans where they're pumping. The year I hunted, there were late rains, so there was still lots of water around. It didn't dry up until around day 9 of my safari. That's when we really started seeing herd of bull elephant and buffalo.

I got my bull on the 14th day - his tusks were 44X34. That was the biggest elephant we saw during our time there. I would say what I shot was on the small side for Unit 3. I think the big boys tend to stay where they know they're safe until they have no other options for water. Once that water is gone, they're in regularly.

If you can add sable to your hunt, I'd do it as they have some beauties there!

Pete