Ladies and Gentlemen,

We spent 3 days at Lemco (HHK's 850,000 acre fenced ranch in the lowveld of Zimbabwe) at the end of our recent safari.

Here are my impressions.

Absolutely shocked at the small or complete lack of trophy game in some species. We saw hundreds of impala but only a few that I would consider trophy quality. We saw hundreds of giraffe, but again the old bull I shot was the only one I saw that was fully mature. Hundreds of zebra and blue wildebeest (good trophy quality on the blue wildebeest). Saw quite a few eland and seemed to have good trophy potential. We saw numerous bushpig with good trophy quality and numerous warthog with excellent trophy quality. We saw only 3 waterbuck - all females. We saw less than ten kudu (only 4 bulls) and only one bull larger than 50". We were told that the biggest kudu they had taken that year was 53".

After two and one-half days of searching the Bubi river, we saw only two bushbuck - a female and her young. A bushbuck was high on my priority and the PH and I were shocked at not seeing one male even though there is a huge habitat which is perfect for bushbuck. We talked to three other PHs and they all said they had not seen any bushbuck. One PH said that he thought that wild dogs had hit the bushbuck pretty hard.

I was also interested in tsessebe and reedbuck. Never saw any and we talked to Charles Davy who said that tsessebe had been introduced but had not done well and that there was very little chance of finding one. Later we talked to a PH who said he had seen a few and told our HHK Game Scout where to go. We made a four hour round trip drive to the area and the almost complete absence of tracks of any kind of animal in that area of the ranch surprised us.

I know they are having a drought in that area of Zimbabwe, but all the animals we saw were in excellent condition. Plus I am told that warthog are one of the first to die off in a drought and we saw numerous warthog.

Admittedly we were there only 3 days. This was the PH's first trip to Lemco so we had no local knowledge. The HHK Game Scout was totally useless and lazy. He either knew there were no bushbuck or didn't really care if we got one. The food was just average at best. The accommodations were nice, but HHK switched camps on us at the last minute even though we had been booked into a specific camp for 6 months prior to the safari and I had reconfirmed our camp just prior to departure.

If you are going to take more than just a few animals, you are going to have to shoot from the truck. Some of the bush is so thick that there is little chance of tracking anything. The PH I hunted with hates road hunting and was completely supportive of my refusal to shoot from the truck. Still it is ranch hunting, so I can't say we really did much true hunting. Spot the game from cruiser, get out and walk 20 to 50 yards and shoot the giraffe, zebra and bushpig.

I would be interested in anyone's recent experiences at Lemco. Hopefully, we were just unlucky and the trophy quality and game populations are better than we saw.

Based on my very limited experience at Lemco I would say you have a good chance at taking trophy quality blue wildebeest, zebra, eland, warthog and bushpig at Lemco. Any other species I would say would be a real hit or miss affair.

Regards,

Terry

P.S.
They still need to work out the logistics of transferring the PH from Dande to Lemco. Our PH thought he was going to fly with us on the charter and use a Lemco cruiser while hunting. He was informed by HHK that he would have to drive to Lemco. Nearly impossible to do in one day as it is 900 km from Dande to Lemco (first two hours on dirt track through Dande). What we did was drive with the PH to Harare where we stayed overnight in a hotel. The PH continued on to his ranch and then left at 4:00AM the next morning in order to meet us at the airstrip in Lemco. With the fuel shortage it is expensive and inefficient for the PH to drive all that way when he could charter in with us if he had access to a vehicle at Lemco. Plus, the PH then has to return for Dande for his next hunt. They need to get this worked out as it cost us at least one-half day in hunting time.

Terry,
I was in the Save Conservancy a couple of weeks before you left for Zim ( I've posted my account in the Hunt Report)and heard the same thing about certain areas of the Lowveldt. It seems they had a rather bad outbreak of anthrax that really hurt their kudu population, especially the bulls... George Hulme said Lemco was hard hit as were some other concessions so that may explain part of it. Anthrax is at it's worst during a drought, as I understand it.

I was at Lemco in October of 2003 and it was during the drought. Some of the animals were quite emaciated and we did find dead animals during the week that I was there.

We did see Kudu bulls every day as we searched for them in the river bottoms at the end of each hunting day. I never saw any Kudu away from the river during our trip. I was trying for a Kudu significantly larger than the 53" bull I had already taken so I left Lemco without one.

I saw a few bushbuck but never had a shot at one. I never saw wilddogs while at Lemco.

I saw no bushpigs and would have loved to have taken one while I was there.

I saw many impala and took a 22 inch male with my bow. I could have gotten something larger with a gun.

I took at 27 inch wide wildebeest with 21 inch main beams with a gun.

I saw some very nice Cape Buffalo (40+ with good bosses) while at Lemco.

We never had a game scout while at Lemco but I was not hunting dangerous game there.

I hunted buffalo/leopard at Chete. The trackers transfered the vehicle and the PH and I stayed at Chete tigerfishing. The next day, the PH and I flew from Chete to Lemco and the vehicle was waiting at the strip. I did not mind the day of fishing but it would be nice if there was a good vehicle available for use.

I just returned form Lemco on July 13th. I would say that Kudu bulls were scarcer than expected but I wasn't looking for Kudu. I saw on about 50", a smaller bull and a number of cows. One waterbuck of about 26" and several cows as well. Mnay Zebra, Impala, Wildebeest,Giraffe, babboon, warthog and an amazing number of big bush pig.We saw 7 cheeta, 3 rhino, 2 bull elephants, a good deal of leopard sign and several lion tracks. I managed to shot everything I wanted, Sable bull, big tom Leopard, old bull eland, Zebra stallion and a number of impala for bait, A 14 1/2" inch warthog and a decent bushpig.There is a serious drought there and the Mopane and Acacia are showing serious signs of the drought.I will post a full report when I get all my pictures loaded up. I was quite satisfied with my time in Lemco ane had a really great hunt.

Terry,
I do not disagree with you assessment. Understand that we have never hunted Lemco or Zim before and our only experience was Dande and ranch hunting in RSA. I did not sense that the game populations were low, just low on really big animals. We took one kudu that went about 50", 2 zebra, one eland of about 18" that was old, 3 impala at about 20", 2 waterhogs with one being very good, steenbok of about 5" and klipspringer of 5 1/2". We hunted in the Ripple Creek area and saw dozens of waterbuck, several very nice bulls. My son took a nice one. We saw hundreds of impala,lots of warthog and giraffe. We were not allocated a bushbuck permit and did not see any. We saw no reed buck, buffalo or tssebee.

The hunting method varied - we spent a lot of time on zebra, stalking and tracking. Waterbuck was a drive-by shot. Warthog and bushbig were taken while hunting something else. Impala were drive-by and stalk, but not a long stalk. Eland was two days of tracking. Giraffe was a drive by. We saw a lot of giraffe. Wildebeest was stalking and we did not take one. I never saw a kudu bull in the time I was there.

The food and camp we were at was first rate and we enjoyed it very much.

The game scout from Lemco was useless as well, got us lost and could not get us to the kudu area easily.

Our PH's were set up to drive from Dande to Lemco. I offered to fly two of them but they turned it down. Two of the PH's we had were from Swainson's and one was an independent hired by Swainson's. We did not use an HHK PH. Graham Hingeston arranged everything - camps- charters and everything. All went well with that for us.

At Dande, I was suprised at the lack of plains game - saw very few animals except buffalo. I think poaching is a big problem at Dande.

I would not want to spend a week at Lemco as I could get the same experience in RSA a lot cheaper.

Terry: As you know, I hunted Malangani in the lowveldt. We saw all the animals you described, even a few Tsesebees, My friend MISSED a super 59" plus kudu and we saw another one that was pushing if not passing 60. He shot a 54" on his last day. Why I did notice compared to last time, Lots and I mean Lots of zebra, warthogs, etc and I did take a nice 16" bushbuck and we saw more. Malangani has LOTS of water so that might be an advantage.. I have some thoughts on your observations and I'll send you an email later as I don't like to speculate and offer opinions not actually evaluated by me. Anyhow, I think Mlangani is close to Lemco, we were about 3 hours SE of Bulawayo and we bordered on an HHK concession. jorge

I thik you were just unlucky. 3 days is not much time to form an opion. Especially hunting with a guy that had never hunted Lemco before.

I just returned (yesterday) from a 15-day Buffalo / Leopard hunt with 5 clients at Lemco. We took many great trophies, including 2 for 2 on Leopard (7' and 7'6") and 3 for 3 on Buffalo (38", 38" with 16.5" bosses and 42"), and took 3 wildebeest over 30". We also took some great bushpigs and warthogs (5 between 12.5 and 13"). The Eland herd is also in great shape, and there were several I would have shot if I wanted another Eland.

However, the Kudu are still recovering from the die off of three seasons ago. We took six Kudu, with the biggest being 52". The smallest was 50", so our average was good, but I only saw 2 bigger Kudu (one about 53-54, and the other was 54-55), so the size and age is way down from before, when we could count on shooting monster Kudu bulls.

I think the wild dogs have been hell on the bushubcks, as I only say three rams, none of which were big or old enough to shoot. The wild dogs are suffering (perhaps canine distemper) though, as we saw several sick and dying wild dogs.

I saw several nice Waterbucks (up to 29" or so), but wasn't in the market.

Our game scout was excellent and the food was good, but not the best I have ever had in safari camp.

I don't think Lemco is in trouble but, as with anywhere else, it is better for some things than others. I think you would have come away with a different opinion if you spent more time there. Just my 2 cents.

It's great to hear other peoples' experiences. I am glad things are better in Lemco than my brief time there led me to believe. Where else but AR can you get this kind of up to date information?

Regards,

Terry

I was thinking the same thing as I wrote my post.

Jorge,

I think Malangani is on the north side of Lemco. What does the entrance to Malangani look like? I saw an entrance to a safari area just off the highway headed north out of Lemco going toward Bulawayo (just about 3 hours southeast of Bulawayo). The entrance was two round brick structures. I can't remember the name on the sign, but it might have been Malangani.

It's sad to hear about the problems at Lemco with the the bushbuck population and kudu population. Five safaris and still no bushbuck for me.


Regards,

Terry

Interesting thread. Greg- I will be in touch.

Great. E-mail at ggrod@msn.com is best, as I am home recovering from my African souvenir - tick fever.

Terry!

Buck up, it's been 9 safaris for me without a bushbuck. Possibly you pissed off the same mudzimu that I did.

465H&H

We saw several bushbuck and two very shootable males when we hunted around Binga last year. Didnt shoot one because I shot a 18.5 incher on the Sengwe river.

Thats hunting ,the guy that wants bushbuck can never find one. Ive been on four trips always trying to shoot an eland but nooooooooo way could I get a shot. Ive seen more maned lions in Zimbabwe than Ive seen eland.

Terry: The entrance to Malangani is very non-descript so I really can't tell you other than a double set of gates with a round hut gurad post and a very nice game scout named "Innocent." . The owner of HHK was over at the Administrator's house on Mlangani while we were there and both HHK and John share a common radio freq. Matter of fact they were coordinating anti-poacher tactics while I was there, but I'm pretty sure HHK has the other half of the Mlangani Conservacy consession. jorge

GregR, welcome back. Hope the trip was great despite the tick fever. What are the symptoms and how are you feeling and treating it?

I'll be away last week of July, but Rusty and I were talking about getting together for lunch in early August. Hope you recover quickly and I'll drop you a line when I get back. Bob

"Bushbuck seekers"

I hunted a property in Limpopo Province of South Africa which was 'acrawl' with bushbuck. Unfenced too. The fields are near very thick bush bordering a river. Unusual hunting for bushbuck as it was irrigated wheatfields. Large circular (800 metres wide) wheatfields with big 400 metre irrigation spray booms slowly rotating. The hunting is from a hide and we hunted other game elsewhere in the mornings and sat in the late afternoons for bushbuck. At times I could see up to a dozen (or more) bushbuck feeding on the margins of the wheatfields sometimes (with binoculars) right on the other side of the field. Only sat there for two or three evenings before I shot a nice 14 1/2 inch Limpopo Bushbuck. Could have shot him the first evening except we judged him smaller that evening. I intend one day to specifically hunt bushbuck and aim for a biggie. Bring a 300 Win Mag, I had a .375 H&H with 300 gr RNSPs . Went on to shoot a nice 17 inch (approx?) Chobe Bushbuck in the Gwayi as well.

If you are interested I could email a mate and see if he still has access and if it is still good. Drop me a PM if interested.

Some pics.


Note the "cropped" wheat. Cropped by bushbucks.




Some photos of the fields.


A not very good photo of the bushbuck with incorrect flash exposure. I overestimated the range and drop to the buck, and hit it too high. We followed it up into the thick bush. Involved crawling through tunnels in the brush. He was game for it, but my bullet had damaged his spine so his mobility was impaired.