I've seen that this company, Safrique, has donated a buffalo & sable hunt to one of the DSC auctions. I found out they hunt the Mozambique concessions L1 and Majune near the Niassa Reserve and hunt the Mahimba Reserve. Have any of you hunted with this company or have any information on them? Thanks in advance.

I have talked to them and have 2 PH friends (Bruce Watson, and Ian Rutledge) that hunt for them on a contract basis. By all accounts of what I have heard, they run a good op or these guys would not hunt with them. The guy that owns the company is Matthew Mums (sp). If you want to contact Ian or Bruce to talk more I can connect you. Just PM me and I will send you info. I think area is still evolving. Best time to hunt according to Bruce would be later in August, sept, or oct because it is much like Tanzania and needs a lot of burning.

Regards,

Larry

My good friend Wikus Groenewald works for them as a PH and I'm told they have a very nice set up indeed.

Certainly the pics he's semt me of some of the trophies he's taken this year up there are bloody good and he speaks very highly of the areas.

Current issue of AHG has a lion hunt story featuring them.

Thanks everyone for the information.

I have been on here for a while. I have never once said a bad word about an outfitter here. I have had two clients hunt lion with them amongst other plains game and buffalo. Run Like Hell! I know I am going to take a lot of flack on this one but I had to be honest and I wish you the best of luck in finding a good operator and you get a good hunt.

Smarterthanu,

Who PH'd your 2 clients and what area did each hunt. I am, or was, also considering a hunt with them and am now reconsidering.

Thanks in advance.

I know Brian Watson was PH for one of them, and I believe he is a good PH and honest man. However I believe he is tied in with bad company. The other PH I will try and find out. I have had a few clients hunt with Brian Watson when he was connected with Engwe safaris and they all spoke very highly of him. I never heard a bad report about PH's with Safrique. There simply was no game at all. Clients could not even get bait to hunt the lions. One of my client took trophies with them two seasons back and still has not recieved them.

Ian Rutledge is a great PH.

I know the area well enough to tell you that the species offered in the donation are certainly gettable.

Some of the comments here about lack of game are justified, however the numbers of Sable and Leopard are fine, and should not be a problem.

I'm sure Neil could confirm/deny because he knows the areas & I don't but I understand those areas are very big indeed and that combined with lower game populations than somewhere like the SGR (due to a combination factors but largely poaching from the locals and a carry over from the war years) would mean it's not unreasonable for that to translate to tougher hunting but at the end of the day, one sometimes has to accept that as part of hunting a true wilderness area.

Again, Neil could confirm/deny because he knows the areas & I don't but I'd have thought there would be good elephant up there?

The other option is to pay more & go to somewhere like the SGR.

Steve, you are 100% correct.....the areas are huge, and unfortunately have been ravaged over the years from war and poaching.

That said, most operators in the Niassa have good anti-poaching units which do a fair job in helping to slow the poaching down, and the benefits are visible as game is slowly returning. It will take ages to return to anything like SGR !! ( if ever).

Elephant are awesome, I know these guys shot a 75lb'er in November, I shot a 70lb'er at the same time, not too far from them.......Yes, a great area for elephant in the late season.

Neil,

Thanks for that.

Poaching in Moz has been a massive problem for donkey's years and frankly, I doubt it'll be stopped in my lifetime.

I remember being in the valley in about the late 80s or early 90s and it was bloody terrible back then and I'm sure it's no better now and I'm also sure nowhere else in the country is any better.

A few years ago, a couple of friends of mine were doing an aerial survey up there when they saw some poachers moving through the bush.

A few minutes later, they saw a herd of buffalo, so they turned the buff by buzzing them and stampeded them directly at the poachers!

I would not consider hunting this area any earlier than August (preferably Sep/Oct). The western Lugenda blocks seem to get a lot more rain than the eastern side, thus the LONG grass and ground water stays around so much longer making it hard to hunt.
Nice country though.

MCM - They have a booth, #973, in Reno at the SCI Convention. Go check them out and judge for yourself rather than going with hearsay!!

Larry Sellers
SCI Life Member

quote:

Originally posted by MCM300:
I've seen that this company, Safrique, has donated a buffalo & sable hunt to one of the DSC auctions. I found out they hunt the Mozambique concessions L1 and Majune near the Niassa Reserve and hunt the Mahimba Reserve. Have any of you hunted with this company or have any information on them? Thanks in advance.

quote:

One of my client took trophies with them two seasons back and still has not recieved them.

THIS says all. I would be very carefully...

FWIW, I was told just today that the Govt only had one guy issuing rge export permits and he retired something like 18 months ago (if I remember correctly) and no-one thought to replace him........ That has recently been done but of course the Christmas break is now upon us.

If that information is correct, I'd expect things to start moving in the new year.

quote:

MCM - They have a booth, #973, in Reno at the SCI Convention. Go check them out and judge for yourself rather than going with hearsay!!

Yeah. Their salesmen won't be biased.

You can call it hearsay if you like, but my income had a direct connection to these safaris, and this man asked for our help here. Therefore he takes stock in these gentlemen's "hearsay" good or bad. Now I can tell you one thing that is not hearsay. I was given a phone number for a representative of that company in dallas plus two e-mail addresses one of which was here and the other in Africa. When I tried to see if there were any answers for my clients delayed shipment, not one single person returned an e-mail or a phone message to me. That is not hearsay. When my client talked again with the representative in Dallas about his trophies they tried telling him they weren't coming because I had helped him and connected him with Well World Wide for his trophy clearance here in the states?????

One more thing I can ad to this is both clients went on thier lion hunts in September and one in October. One reported there were many sable, and that in fact that was what they finally had to start shooting for Bait because there was nothing else. One reported tracking buffalo for seven straight days without a single sighting. One was told elephant would be an option on his hunt but there wasn't ever even tracks to follow. Both hunters left early and came back home. The second hunter I don't believe shot a single animal. He said it was day five before they even found something they were going to be able to use as bait. Here is another point. Neither of these hunters do anything on the cheap. In fact one of them is frequently my largest annual client and has no problem financing his habits. Both these clients are good honest hunters that I have known for years and in no way do I believe they would or have misrepresented any fact to me.

Ben