I leave Oct 10 for Zimbabwe.
I will be hunting with PH Dale Des Fountain [Donza] of Brooklands Safaris.
This will be my 3rd Safari, my second with Donza.

My wife will be hunting with me on this trip. It is her first Safari.

The basic plan is to hunt elephant bull, one ele cow and a buff cow in Chewore South, then go to Deka and hunt another elephant bull, a buff bull, heyena and a giraffe, then go to the SAVE for 2 ele cows, 1 buff bull, 1 leopard, 2 giraffe, and what ever other plains game gets in the way.

I also plan on hunting the small cats, and we will do some bird shooting.

Peg is planning on shooting an ele cow, buff bull, buff cow, a giraffe and plains game.

I will take the same guns as last time, my 450 No2 and 9,3x74R doubles and my Freedom Arms 475 Linebaugh.
My wife will take a 450/400 3 1/4" double and a Blaser R 93 in 308.
We will have a Sauer Drilling 12x12x30-06 as well.

Ian Lewis, of Safari Videos, will again video the hunt.

That looks like a terrific Safari ,Can't wait to see the photos, Best of luck

The best of luck. Having seen you shoot at Cooley they haven't got a chance. Say hi to Ian and Dale. We will see them in Dallas.
Frank

I can't wait to hear the stories from Tony and Peggy! Y'all have a great hunt!

Good luck.

Good luck Tony! Have a great time and make a new video for all of us to see.

Mike

Best of luck to both of you -- I know you will have a great time.

Tony!

I enjoyed our get together a couple of weks ago. I'll say it again "Best of luck" on this safari. Don't get too close!

465H&H

Have fun Tony!

Good Luck Tony. How long will you be gone? Having just got back from Zambia, I can tell you that you are going to roast!!

See ya in Dallas!

John

Good luck and be safe!

Tony,

I want to see your wife out shoot you...If I remember she drew blood first...


Have a super trip....

Mike

Wow. Good luck and have fun. Hope it is starting to cool down a little. May the tusker's teeth be long, the buffalo bosses gnarled and your aim be true.

We fly out of Harare Nov 16th.

465 H&H, you know how I am, the closer the better, but 28" about as close as I can get as that is the length of the bbls on my 450 No2.

I know thizs is the HOT time of the year, but I heard from Harare that they had had some rains and cooler temps at night.

I might be wishing I had paid an extra, overweight baggage fee and taken a windo unit air conditioner for my tent.

One 31 day safari in March 2006 + A second 31 day safari in October 2006 = a rich old fart.

All kidding aside, Tony. Best of luck to you. I look forward to seeing the videos at the DRSS hunt in January.

Safe journies, my friend.

Straight shooting to both you and your wife.

Have a great safari Tony. October seems to be a very hot time to hunt, and the rains will make it tough to get around, but what an adventure!

Have a good one

NOT FAIR!!!!!! Still haven't seen the pictures from the last one

Well we have made it to Washington Dulles. I am at the hotel.
I did have a bit of drama at DFW.

The 4 of our checked bags were over 50 lbs, but under 70. This is the first time I can remember flying with checked bags under 75 lbs. Heck I thought I was doing good

I knew I was probably going to have to pay an overweight fee, sometimes they do not charge me.
I had to pay $50 per bag, [thought it was $25???], but that is OK since I am taking some equipment to The PH and Videographer.
I have one large duffle bag 2 regular Tufpaks and one takedown tufpak. The duffle and the takedown tp went in the standard luggage area and I took the standard tp's to TSA. They looked inside, swabbed the inside of the case, I relocked them and all was fine.

However when i got to the gate I was being paged as TSA could not get into the other tp. I went down to the TSA room and opened the case and we took everything out, I repacked it and everything was OK. They were very nice and friendly....
However some official showed up and was pissed about me being there, as it is a "secure" area. He took the TSA supervisors name and he and I walked back up to the gate. He was very nice to me, and is actually a hunter, we talked about hunting for several minutes after we got back to the gate.

Funny all the TSA people said they were glad i came down to explain anyquestions they might have...

My ammo is in the tuffpaks with the guns, no problems about that. I have 3 scopes and my wife has 3 scopes in our carry ons, no problems there either, they did not even open them up.

I can usually pass trough the metal detector without problem... Not this time, you get 2 tries then you go to the "penalty box".
I went through a "wanding" with a hand held metal detector. Come to find out I had my spare keys in a pouch around my neck, my bad, in the past onlly one key has not set of the detector. All the TSA people were nice, no big deal.

So far so good. We will see how it goes trying to get through the same processs tommorow, at Dulles.

I will be sure I take all 3 Tufpaks to TSA myself so I can open them at that time.
[All 3 have guns in them.]

May not be able to post again until I get back Nov 18th.

Contuning report.

Made it through Dullus with NO problems. I took all of my bags to TSA and they X-Rayed them. Did not have to open any of them.

The flight over was good. They have moved the seats to give more leg room.
More about the flight when I get back.
Guns etc came off the plane in Jo berg no problem.
Went to SAPS office. Handed my and my wifes paper work to the officers. I had copies of everything for them, they never looked at my original passport or 4457's.

When I pulled our my first double he said you cannot have that, it is an automatic. I explained to him how it worked and that it only held to bullets [in a diplomatic way of course]. He was very polite and quietly said to me he was still learning about guns.
I pulled out my second double, numbers checked, he had me read them to him, then I pulled out the handgun a Freedom Arms 475 revolver with scope, he checked the mumber and did not even blink an eye. Then I opened tha other TP with the 2 drillings showed him mine.
He turned my paper work in. Then I repeated the drill with my wifes guns. When I showed him the second drilling he said, I have checked that one already, I replied that this was a second one , that my wife and I had matchuing guns. He checked the number, smiled and told me to have a seat.

In a few minutes I was called up to the Que and asked about the Drilling. What kind of gun is this, rifle or shotgun. I replied both it has both bbls, he [different guy] seemed confused. I told him you can call it a rifle or a shotgun, but Drilling is the German name for it. He then said what kind of shells do you have for it. I showed him on the paper work where I had 55 12 ga shells and 20 30-06 shells. He said OK. I sat back down and in a few minutes I had my permit.

In a few minutes he called up my wife and gave her her permits.

Everyone was very nice and friendly.

I was met at the airport by the Afton house crew.
The Afton house is full so we are at the Eland House just down the street, until tommorrow when we will stay 2nd night at Afton.
This place is just like Afton very nice.

I am just back from the Ocean Basket where we had a very delicious dinner of BIG prawns.
I have Ice and Single Malt Scotch waiting for me in my room.

Life is Good.

The Adventure Continues.

Have a WONDERFUL time! You lucky DOG you.

Good hunting.

Damn Tony!

I did not know you overnighted at IAD (Dulles).

I live about 40 minutes from the airport and would have loved to meet you and the Mrs. for drinks or dinner or something!

Tony, the adventure begins and have a great time..

Mike

quote:

Tony, the adventure begins and have a great time..

I think it is more fitting to say, "The adventure CONTINUES..."

Have a great tim Tony. Look forward to the stories.
Mind the spiders this time.
Frank

Tony and Peggy, have a great trip. I hope Peg shoots the better stuff.

Hog Killer

quote:

Originally posted by N E 450 No2:
When I pulled our my first double he said you cannot have that, it is an automatic. I explained to him how it worked and that it only held two bullets [in a diplomatic way of course].

OMG.

Sounds like you are off to a great start!

Have fun and be safe out there.

It does not sound like you are under-gunned!

I am in Harare.
All my bags and guns made it.
No problem getting guns through Zim customs.

Good news from Donza [the PH] upon arrival.

Another buff bull has become avialable, and as a BIG bonus a lion has become avialable in our Chewore South Area. So the hunt for Leo is on.

We leave for there tommorow morning.

Good luck!

Cheers,
Canuck

What a great safari. God luck with the lion!

I am back in Harare after 10 days of hunting in Chewore South. I was in Western Safaris Camp.
We leave tommorrow for Deka, and then on to the Save.
I will post all the little details when I get back to the states on Nov 17th.

As I stated in an above post I found out we had a Lion on quota.

This changed the game in a major way.

Right off the bat we started seeing Lion tracks.
First order of business was to secure Lion bait.

I shot a buff cow with my 450/400 3 1/4" in the evening on day one of the hunt.

First shot was a standing mostly broadside shot at about 60 to 70 yards, 400gr Woodleigh Soft.
Shot struck the shoulder in the perfect place. As she turned toward us I fired the second shot a 400 gr Woodleigh Solid, which later the video showed hit the right horn and was deflected, not, striking the body. It would have been a good rear shoulder shot otherwise.

I reloaded with 2 solids.
She ran only about 25 or 30 yards, across our front actually getting closer, and stopping.
We ran a few yards and from about 25 yards or so I prepared to shoot again when I realized
the herd was right behind her, so I opened the double, took out the solid in the right bbl, placed it in my pocket and reloaded with a soft.

She turned to run away and I waited untill she was straight away so as not to get full penetration and let her have the third shot.

This knocked her down. I reloaded the right bbl with another soft, ran up and gave her 2 finishers, a soft and a solid, at point blank range
She was cut into 2 Lion baits. It lasted about 4 days, with no hits.
I also had a bull and a tuskless cow on quota.

We were in dire need of more lion bait. We were seeing lots of lion tracks.

We found a few tuskless cows but they had calfs, so Donza and I agreed we would shoot the first good bull elephant we saw.

We saw a small herd that looked like it had a tuskless and a fairly good bull.

We started tracking as soon closed the distance. The cow proved to have a small tusk on the side we did not get to see from the first.

The bull looked to be about 35 lbs. We both agreed It would have to do as the days were ticking away.
We closed into the herd.

Problem... The herd has positoned itself in a low area and was seperated from us by a wide and deep dry creek bed. We could not approach any closer.
I do like to get close, but that might not be possible here.

We watched the bull for a while, and paralled him from our side of the creek bank.

Wether it was the wind or he saw movement from us, he lifted his head and walked toward us, it was now or never.

I raised my rifle and from about 48 to 52 yards, gave him a brain shot from the 450/400.

At the shot his back legs seemed to buckle and inch or two then his front legs fell out from under him, not the classic brain shot response.

Ween the fell the brush was in ther way for a followup so I mooved a few feet to my left and fired a body shot.

I reloaded, then moved down a little and fired 2 more insurance body shots. The bull never made any signs of getting up, but I was taking no chanches with my Ivory and my Lion bait.

Later we discovered the bullet had gone through the bottom of the brain into the medula oblongta, and through the spine, causing the front legs to collaspe.

We hung 4 lion baits.

We started getting hist in 3 of them right away.

We began checking the baits for tracks. We chose tha bait with the biggest tracks nd set on it one evening.
It was in a bowl of sorts and we were setting on a high bank overlooking the site.

I would have about a 70 yard shot. I was using my 450/400 3 1/4" double rifle. I used the express sights for the buff and elephant, but fitted the 1.1-4 S&B scope for the lion hunt.

8 elephants came to the bait on the first evening.

We built a screen blind over looking the bait and the next morning when we snuck in there was a leopard under the bait.

I had a leoperd on quota here also but he was not real big so we let him go.
[I hope to get a really big one in the Save].

We walked down to the bait and looked around for fress tracks in our "bowl" and found some. We walked out to the Chewore River and there he was, just laying down in the middle of the dry river bed.

We snuck up to about 100 yards away.
Could not get any closer as there was no more cover.

One Problem.... He was right on the border of another hunting consession, to risky to shot and have him run across the boundary.

So after a while when he got up and walked to the other side we let him go.

We hunted the bait a couple more times. He was there durring the night.

Two other baits werte being hit but we wanted this lion.

One day when we were heading over for our afternood hunt we saw him with 3 other lions, laying under a big tree in the shade. One other male and 2 females.

We exited the Cruiser and began our stalk.
We stalked up to the tree nearest to him. The other lions walked away.

He was laying down facing us at a slight quartering angle.
I cranked the scope to 4x, and from 90 yards let him have a 400gr Woodleigh Soft in the front of the chest.

At the shot he collasped right down. I immediately fired the second bbl, [which struck him in the shoulder, exited and reentered the body] being careful not the hit him in the face or head.
All 3 bullets were recovered.

We then rapidly approached the lion, Donza on alert for the other male and 2 females, and I watching my male.

From point blank range [2 feet] I placed a finisher into the spine between the shoulders.

The King of Beasts was Mine.

I must say, that my 450/400 3 1/4" Nitro Express Magnum, Scoped Double Rifle, is, for Me personally, my Medicine Gun for Lion.

He has a decent mane for the area and the green skull measurement is @ 24.5" for those who care aboug such things.

He has a big body and a big head, and looks just perfect to me.

This is the first time I have used my 450/400 in Africa, with its scope it is the ultimate hunting double.

I am planning on having Tea with Ian Neyschens at 2 pm today, a fine dinner at the Fishmongers in Harare tonight and on the morrow it is off to Chockamella Camp in the Deka for another bull ele, 2 buff, giraffe and heyena.

Then on to the Save for 3 ele cows, one buff leopard and what ever plains game gets in the way.

It sounds like a dream hunt,can't wait to see the photos.

Good luck for the rest of Safari.

I hope we get photos from this hunt, Tony!

That is an excellent lion story and a well earned outcome to your flexibity while on safari.

Damn Tony, leave something for me!




............Cangratulations, Sir!............

That's great Tony. Can't wait to see a photo of your cat.