For those that have hunted elephant in Zimbabwe (trophy exportable, decent ivory but not necessarily huge) in the last four years, who are the top outfitters/professional hunters to talk to in lining up a hunt? Thanks.

Buzz Charlton of Charton McCallum Safaris. Hard working and ethical. I can recommend him without reservation.

Buzz is a great guy but it depends more on where you are hunting as opposed to the PH.

There are a few big elephant around Hwange and Gonarezhou, as seen in the Hunting Reports.

It depends on what you think is decent and how much money you have to spend. A lot of 50+ elephant hunts wind up as 25 or 30 lb. elephants. There are few hunts where you can count on 50+ tusks outside of Botswana.

Russ Broom Safaris

Kyler

Buzz Charlton
Email: buzzandmyles@cmsafaris.com
Website: http://cmsafaris.com/

Buzz works with multiple operators and can arrange hunts in various concessions depending on what type of experience you are looking for (such as a tracking hunt vs truck hunt), trophy expectations, physical abilities, camp requirements, other game desired, etc. We'll be going on our 3rd hunt in March, and each has been to a different area, for a slightly different type of hunt. In my opinion he's the best you are likely to find, although I am sure there are other fine ele hunters in Zim.

quote:

Originally posted by MJines:
For those that have hunted elephant in Zimbabwe (trophy exportable, decent ivory but not necessarily huge) in the last four years, who are the top outfitters/professional hunters to talk to in lining up a hunt? Thanks.

Check out John Sharp. These tusk are 90.9 for the left and 72 for the right and were taken a few months ago. I have hunted with him for 2 years in a row..You wont find a better PH..steve

http://www.john-sharp-safaris.com/

Here is his Johns account :

The client was Ola from Norway. His rifle and clothing never arrived in Bulawayo so he had to borrow a rifle from me. He eventually recovered his luggage in London on his way home. He was not aware of the pitfalls of traveling through London with firearms and did not make use of the courier service!

The area is called Sengwe II and it borders onto Mozambique and Kruger National Park (South Africa). These Elephant cross into the communal area from Kruger and our Gona re Zhou National Park to feed as the food in the Parks is depleted at this time of the year. The bulls mostly cross in and out at night and some hunters do shoot them at night with a light but this is not my scene! Like Tsholotsho, this is a hit or miss area and you do need a certain amount of luck.

We ascertained that the most movement was across the Limpopo from Kruger as opposed to Gona re Zhou on the other side. We camped in the dry Limpopo riverbed the night before and waking very early we started walking towards Mozambique at first light (4.45am). Pretty close to the boundary of Mozambique we saw this lone bull as he was about to cross the river back into Kruger – there was little doubt that he was a shooter! We advanced on him as quickly as we could and he soon became nervous as there is not much cover in the riverbed - then to our amazement he turned back onto our side. I instructed the client to take a 50-yard body shot with my .375 H&H and as the bull took off he followed up with two more shots, the third solid clipping the spine as the animal disappeared over the bank. We saw it collapse with the spine shot and it was dead by the time we got to it. Ola’s first shot had been perfect, taking it in the heart/lung area. This magnificent bull was taken at 5.45am.

We have managed so far to pull the longest tusk which weighed in at 89lbs. The shorter tusk is not yet free but I estimate that it should be around the 85lb mark as it is considerably thicker than the other one. Both tusks measured 20†at the lip. This was an old bull on his last set of teeth, probably around 65 to 75 years old, and my personal best.

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LJS:
I just got an e-mail from a PH friend, Martin Naude, who just got back from a 5 bull elephant hunt with Spanish clients. They hunted the Tjolota area in Zim. Biggest bull was 90 pounds. The others were 70+, 60+ and two in the mid 50s. It is really a good area for big bulls.

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Tsholotsho South. The Tsholotsho region is geographically divided into a North and South Block. The South has always produced some very big bulls. The North only occasionally produces good ivory. ......

.... Lions Den and Thys DeVries ....

..... he PH was I believe Calvin Nobrega who has won a few of the past Zimbabwe Professional Hunters Awards for biggest elephant taken in Zim out of this concession. ......

From AR Thread "Big Elephant are out there"

***

I have seen photos of at least four 90+ elephants come out of that concession over the last ten years.

If you need contact details I will see if I can get them for you.

Thanks for the feedback. Any other suggestions?

I hunted elephant with Russ Broom's outfit in late 2003 and was very happy with the hunt.

Jason Brown

I've hunted with Russ Broom twice at the end of the rainy season (2002 & 2004) and would go back in a heartbeat for a quality hunt. Echoing what Will has said about big ivory, Zim in general is not a place to go with high expectations even though every year bruisers are taken. My bull went 44x35 and I set my standard at 50 the second hunt and walked away from five in the mid 40s (long story but the first one came so easy I made myself earn it the second trip). In a very basic sense, Russ's area is a mopane scrub communal area and the hunting involved a lot of interaction with the natives and crop raiders. That alone was quite a treat after having read so many stories. The area is also loaded with buff and leopard. From what I understand of hunts around Hwange, Gona-re-zhou, and he Bots border, they are more of an "interception" hunt, rolling the dice on catching a big bull in fair territory - but they also produce BIG on occasion. They also run a little more $$ as always happens when there's big ivory involved.

As I have posted a few times in the past, I am a friend of a man who has hunted trophy bull

elephant five times successfully with www.tshabezisafaris.com in the last four to

five years. The largest tusks were 71 and 72 pounds on a nice bull. The owner of the outfit

is Dudley Rogers. He's been licensed since 1986 I believe and I've not heard a bad word about

him or his other pro's.

Mark Butcher, Matapula Hunters...Has great tribal concessions that border Hwange National park.

Call Tommy Morrison. www.sportinginternational.com

Any other hunters with Buzz want to offer any comments?

Mike,
Just to add that Buzz is one of the most professional and knowledgable PHs I have ever hunted with. Good luck lining up the hunt of a lifetime!

I took a nice 45# Ele 3 years ago with Theo Bronkhorst of Bushman Safaris. It was between Hwange and Fuller Forrest in the Matetsi and he has some nice though not large Elephants. Good plains game and a nice camp overlooking a dam.

Recently hunted with Buzz's outfit-Alan Shearing was my PH.Highly recommended.
Saw lots of elephant-could not miss out.

Mike: Check out my post over on the African Hunting reports forum regarding "The Old Warrior Of Sengwe." Lots of good names posted here, but John Sharp works hard for you and I highly recommend him. jorge

I have hunted ele with Buzz, excellent time, but mine was for tuskless. I highly recommend him.

Have hunted with Buzz last summer for 4 elephants. Great team of trackers and can't imagine anyone being more experienced than Buzz on an elephant hunt now days. A very good recommendation for Buzz.

Now, a trophy elephant hunt is another thing and may be totally dependent on the time of year and the location. My interest was tuskless/PAC elephants.

Dak

I hunted with Buzz this year - excellent PH and very pleasant company. I was on crutches at the time and Buzz made plans around this and the hunt worked out really well.

mike

Mokore Safari... Barry Duckworth... need I say more? As for his other PH's... I'd choose Pete Ficke or Hilton Nichols. It really doesn't get better than that. Pete has 1000 elephant and 5000 Cape to his credit when with Parks. It isn't about getting into a herd of elephants, it is the geting out that counts.

Thanks for everyone's feedback and input. I have ended up booking my hunt with Buzz Charlton for late August and early September in the Makuti Area. Buzz was very responsive and a pleasure to deal with in setting up the hunt. Hunt will be for a trophy bull and Buzz is working on getting quota for a tuskless cow too. Now I just have to work on controlling my excitement for the next nine months.

Mike,

When at Dallas we will have to discuss ele hunting & shooting...


Mike

Absolutely. Over a beer of course . . .

quote:

Originally posted by Lightning:
Mark Butcher, Matapula Hunters...Has great tribal concessions that border Hwange National park.

Call Tommy Morrison. www.sportinginternational.com

Another vote for Mark Butcher!!