I just read a fantastic hunt report from HendrikNZ on a hunt in the Nuantesi Conservancy with CM Safaris. I have never heard of this place and am wondering why? Who knows about it's history out there?

I think thats an area on the Bubye river southern Zim that used to be guided by Charlie Stanton and his boys,Matt & Lindon until good old Bob and his mates took it over.great area for plains game and some of the biggest warthogs i have ever seen!

BBC:
In the late 1950s James Watts, inventor of the .450 Watts cartridge, hunted in southern Zim on the Nuanetsi Cattle Ranch which was owned by the Rhodesian Cattle Company. The ranch was broken up into blocks of 20, and 30,000 acres and charged 7$ per day to hunt there. South Africans came there for meat to make biltong and US and European hunters for trophies. Jim took several elephant and plains game whilst there. The ranch was several million acres and thought to be the largest cattle ranch in the world. Originally it was run by the Rhodesian Cold Storage Company and collaborated with the King Ranch in Texas to breed disease and heat resistant cattle. If the place you speak is southern Zim--near Chiredzi, then we are speaking of the same area, although my spelling is off a letter from yours. I wrote a book on Jim's life and took the info here from it. Jim hunted with Boyd Reece, a game ranger, whose relatives still live in the area.
Cheers and I hope this helps.
Cal

Hello "Bigborecore"
I also saw the report. His pic's bring back fond memories as I had the privilege of working there during the 70's and early 80's.
Cal Pappas is correct it WAS once the largest cattle ranch in the world. Correct too about Boyd Reece. He was a good friend of my late father.
I am sure I am not out of line furnishing you with the email of the current general manager, Brent Lees May
brent.leesmay@zimbabwebioenergy.com
Get hold of him and I am sure he can enlighten you further as regards hunting there.

Congrat's Brent. It seems you guys have done a great job !

Hunted there a couple times with the Stanton's.
Prior to them I think Major Don Price hunted it.

gald to see it back to hunting glory. When I was ther in 2004 after it had been"taken back"apart from the area the statons managed every single wild animal had been slaughtered and the only game left were croc's and hippos cause the locals couldn't swim or they would be go to!

Brent Lees May posts here as MANDLAZIM.

Nuanetsi sits on the Mwenezi river approximately 45 miles above Malapati.

Seeing the Nuanetsi name a few places here and there on this forum lately has recalled great memories for myself as well.

I hunted somewhere there in 2006 (August). At that time there were pretty decent numbers of kudu, impala, warthogs and I think bushbuck...and we also saw a couple waterbucks.

Here is a photo of our camp on the Mweneze. I understand it's now not used much, being too close to a busy road, as I was told recently.

I am serously thinking about planning another safari, and would love to see this country again.

quote:

Originally posted by Brother Dave:
Seeing the Nuanetsi name a few places here and there on this forum lately has recalled great memories for myself as well.

I hunted somewhere there in 2006 (August). At that time there were pretty decent numbers of kudu, impala, warthogs and I think bushbuck...and we also saw a couple waterbucks.

Here is a photo of our camp on the Mweneze. I understand it's now not used much, being too close to a busy road, as I was told recently.

I am serously thinking about planning another safari, and would love to see this country again.

Brother Dave is right, we no longer use this camp, instead, we have renovated another camp which is 10 km's downstream from the one pictured above. A beautiful setting overlooking the Mwenezi river.

Cheers,
Brent

quote:

Originally posted by BigBoreCore:
I just read a fantastic hunt report from HendrikNZ on a hunt in the Nuantesi Conservancy with CM Safaris. I have never heard of this place and am wondering why? Who knows about it's history out there?

Nuanetsi was onced owned by the Britsh South Africa company in the 1900's and was predominantely a cattle ranch which ran huge numbers of cattle on 3,5 million acres which also sported huge numbers of wildlife. Brian Orford has authored a book where talks of Tommy Orford who was employed by Nuanetsi to deal with the predator-cattle conflict and he and his "tutor" (Johnny Folomani) killed more than 300 lions in the early to mid fifies!!!!

Based on the landmass, Nuanetsi was divided up into numerous sections for management reasons and each section then granted an individual quota by Nat Parks, hence why multiple operators used to conduct safaris at the same time.

Unfortunately a signicant piece of Nuanetsi has been illegally resettled as a result of the compulsory 'land grab' which commenced in the year 2000. Luckily these invasions were very localized which, as a result, has left the mid and southern areas free of any invasions. The Southern block has been set aside entirely for wildlife and is 375 000 acres!

5 years ago the hunting in this 'wildlife area' was stopped or management reasons and today it is is a beautiful area to hunt after being reopened this year! It is operated by Chifuti Safaris and I am sure many hunters will enjoy a first class Safari - as did HendrickNZ!!

Cheers
Brent

Well done Mandla, by all accounts you have done a fantastic job on Nuanetsi. So fine to hear of a wildlife area coming/come right with all the wrong out there at this time. I worked on Nuanetsi briefly in the late '90s and the 'management' then was on a mission to kill anything and everything, so this is excellent news. Congratulations too on your new bambino!

Cheers, Dave

I am pretty sure I did a hunt down there in 1999 with the Style brothers from Triangle, Zim, on the Bubye river..

quote:

Originally posted by kld:
I am pretty sure I did a hunt down there in 1999 with the Style brothers from Triangle, Zim, on the Bubye river..

Very possible as the Style family used to operate that area from about'97 till '99. Johhny Hulme, Pete Shore, Bruce Watson, Butch Coaton... were some of the PH's that conducted hunts in that area at the time... That section (Bubye)was then taken over by the Stanton Famiy.

Cheers,
Brent

quote:

Originally posted by David Hulme:
Well done Mandla, by all accounts you have done a fantastic job on Nuanetsi. So fine to hear of a wildlife area coming/come right with all the wrong out there at this time. I worked on Nuanetsi briefly in the late '90s and the 'management' then was on a mission to kill anything and everything, so this is excellent news. Congratulations too on your new bambino!

Cheers, Dave

Thanks Dave - Good luck on your walk!

Cheers,
Brent

Brent has indeed done a tremendous job managing this wonderful hunting ground. Our company, Safari Classics, is thrilled to be the exclusive booking agent through Chifuti Safaris for Nuanetsi start this season. We have hosted several outstanding safaris this year with our clients experiencing hunting on par with the success Hendrik enjoyed and shared on his post. My partner Tim Danklef was there filming in early June with a client who took the kind of leopard he has been looking for the last two decades. Tim said they had five similar sized males feeding when they took the cat,( Day Five) and found spoor of five more that were in the same size class as they hunted for plains game. His report upon returning to Dallas resulted in me booking another leopard for myself in July of 2013. The plains game, as this post indicated is second to none in both numbers and trophy quality. Anyone interested in booking a hunt at Nuanetsi is welcome to call the office 214-360-9599 or go to www.chifutisafaris.com
Congrats to Brent and his hard working staff for creating one of Africa's true conservation success stories. I'll see you next July Bwana.
Below are a couple of cats Nuanetsi has produced this season.
[/IMG]


[/IMG]

quote:

Originally posted by Dave Fulson:
Brent has indeed done a tremendous job managing this wonderful hunting ground. Our company, Safari Classics, is thrilled to be the exclusive booking agent through Chifuti Safaris for Nuanetsi start this season. We have hosted several outstanding safaris this year with our clients experiencing hunting on par with the success Hendrik enjoyed and shared on his post. My partner Tim Danklef was there filming in early June with a client who took the kind of leopard he has been looking for the last two decades. Tim said they had five similar sized males feeding when they took the cat,( Day Five) and found spoor of five more that were in the same size class as they hunted for plains game. His report upon returning to Dallas resulted in me booking another leopard for myself in July of 2013. The plains game, as this post indicated is second to none in both numbers and trophy quality. Anyone interested in booking a hunt at Nuanetsi is welcome to call the office 214-360-9599 or go to www.chifutisafaris.com
Congrats to Brent and his hard working staff for creating one of Africa's true conservation success stories. I'll see you next July Bwana.
Below are a couple of cats Nuanetsi has produced this season.
[/IMG]


[/IMG]

Dave, I'm extremely happy to see that Larry took his monster cat! I haven't spoken with him in awhile. I assume he is doing well from the smile on his face in this picture.

Todd
He is doing better. I know he has just got a new lab pup for duck season so he'll be busy with training. And yes, he was thrilled to finally get his big tom. I'll tell him you said Hi.

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Dave Fulson:
Brent has indeed done a tremendous job managing this wonderful hunting ground. Our company, Safari Classics, is thrilled to be the exclusive booking agent through Chifuti Safaris for Nuanetsi start this season. We have hosted several outstanding safaris this year with our clients experiencing hunting on par with the success Hendrik enjoyed and shared on his post. My partner Tim Danklef was there filming in early June with a client who took the kind of leopard he has been looking for the last two decades. Tim said they had five similar sized males feeding when they took the cat,( Day Five) and found spoor of five more that were in the same size class as they hunted for plains game. His report upon returning to Dallas resulted in me booking another leopard for myself in July of 2013. The plains game, as this post indicated is second to none in both numbers and trophy quality. Anyone interested in booking a hunt at Nuanetsi is welcome to call the office 214-360-9599 or go to www.chifutisafaris.com
Congrats to Brent and his hard working staff for creating one of Africa's true conservation success stories. I'll see you next July Bwana.


Hey Dave, look forward to sharing a camp-fire with you! It's been awhile....

Cheers
Brent

I recall driving down from Harare and enjoying the journey, though I visited a couple places in the SE side of Zim and might mix up where I was on the way to the Nuanetsi camp. I remember going through Triangle and seeing old sugar fields.

If I have it right, we were laid up on the riverbanks of the Mwenezi glassing Nyala-berry trees for Kudu at last light several evenings on the hunt?

Very cool place. If anyone feels the urge to hit Zim next year and isn't sure where to go, this would be a great area if the game matches your wish list and your budget.