Anybody been elephant hunting there thie time of year?
Thanks for any info

Jeff, I may have this wrong but here is what I think. Last year Martin Pieters had a late season ele in this area or nearby and sold it for 30k. I thought about it myself but did not do it. The guy that bought it shot a monster. I thought it was in this area but somebody on here will know for sure.

This area is like Malapati. You can get a monster if your timing is right and I believe later is better. Talk to John Barth for the skinny.

I hunted there this time of year in 2008. Saw lots of bulls, passed on a one tusker estimated at 75-80 pounds. Saw a bull that my PH and trackers said was over 100 pounds, but was 50 yards on the wrong side of the park boundary. Watched him for about half an hour before he turned and went further into the park. Eventually took a nice 55 pounder towards the end of the hunt. Hope this is of some help in making your decision.

There is a north & a south area run by different operators. I hunted both in the 90's.

I shot my first bull there. It was almost dark and he charged unprovoked. I smacked him in the face. Frankly, I couldn't see the cross hairs. It was too dark.

The bull gets up and leaves. I shot again but still could not see the cross hairs. He crossed the wire. I refused to cross the wire as I mistakenly thought the wire was the Park boundary.I didn't want to get shot. I learned the next day that there is a cut line that is the actual boundary.

The next day, parks founds the bull dead. He was straddle the cut line with his rear in in the park and his head in Tshotscho. How lucky am I? Talk about a goat F@#k. I never got them and only recently got replicas. The hell of it is that they were 74X75!

I also shot a bull that hammered 2 Africans the night before. Talk about exciting.

We tracked the latter extensively. The former was not a traditional hunt by any means.

quote:

Originally posted by SBT:
This area is like Malapati. You can get a monster if your timing is right and I believe later is better. Talk to John Barth for the skinny.

This area more better than Malapati, I have hanted both. If Malapati one guy can take monster but ten other don't see any ele, in Tcholotcho chance to get big ele more higher. Now Thys de Vries is operator there

Traditionally this time of year is still pretty dry despite the start of the rains. The National Park always attracted large numbers of elephants because of their supply of fresh pumped water,

With the start of the growing season coinciding with the start of the rains, the crops grown by the locals in Tsholotsho was always an attracting force for elephant, pulling them out of the park.

I hunted the areas, both north and south, extensively in the 90's. The northern section was more productive and generally had more surface water and sandy soils. The south was drier and characterised by more black cotton soils.

I had an interesting theory as to the lack of elephants in the south. The presence of the cicada beetles was more than in the north, and the noise they give out is deafening. In certain years their numbers are prolific and with the sensitivity of an elephant's hearing I believed they chased them away. I put this thought to Dr Brian Child, then ecologist with National Parks and he couldn't disagree with it, but said no research had ever been undertaken, that he was aware of.

As the rains intensified the beetles dispersed and more elephants started visiting the south. Personally, I enjoyed the northern block more.

Interesting Neil.