I am looking at an October buffalo hunt with Mike Heath of Wildcat Safaris in Zambia. I do not know which camp yet. Has anyone hunted with this company or ph?

Thanks in advance for any info.

The Heath family has been in Zambia for a long time. To my knowledge, they enjoy a fine reputation. I have talked with Mike about hunting in years past, but I have NOT hunted with him.

I've personally hunted with Mike and Ross, in October, in the valley! Don't worry, you'll be just fine.

You can always email me at globalhunts@aol.com if you need more info.

Thanks Aaron, I appreciate the info.

Thanks Will, all most of us have is our reputation to carry us, a good one goes a long way.

Just got back from two weeks in the Luangwa Valley with Ross Heath and Wildcat Safaris.

Overall we had a good experience and I would recommend them. Ross is a good hard-working PH. He only hunts buffalo in the morning, which limited our opportunities. We had 10 days for buffalo and my 17 year old son took his on the first morning of the first day. Nothing special but a nice old bull.

We then lost a few days of buffalo hunting - first chasing around a hyena that we shot just before dusk at the end of the first day and need to follow up the following morning (burning that day for buffalo). Then my son got sick and was up all night (I'm convinced from drinking tap water in Lusaka on the way in). We scrapped the morning of day 3 for buff because he wasn't up for it. Ross and I went out in the afternoon and I killed a nice Puku. We scrapped buffalo hunting on day 4 again because my son had gone 24 hours without eating anything and even though he was feeling better I didn't want him out there chasing buffalo until he was 100%. We then hunted buff the mornings of days 5 and 6. No luck. We chased "kukuli" bulls on day 5 but couldn't catch them - they never laid down. On day 6 we hunted a herd but couldn't seem to get ahead of it or get the wind right. At one point we sat for about two hours studying them, but couldn't find a bull we wanted to take. On day 7 we lost the morning buffalo hunt because we needed to go meet a charter plane coming in to pick up an outgoing hunter - that plane brought us our two SCI "Blue Bags" of donated supplies that we couldn't get on our charter. So that was a lost day for buff. The remaining days were more of the same experience from days 5 and 6. We followed dagga boys but couldn't catch them. On the last day we were unable to locate the herd. The upshot of it is I didn't shoot a buffalo on this trip.

The purpose of the trip wasn't to shoot a buffalo, it was to HUNT a buffalo and we certainly did that. And it was to spend time in Africa with my son and make memories neither of us will ever forget, and we accomplished that. Still, there's a little disappointment when you aren't able to take the game you went over to get.

I don't blame Ross for it - he worked pretty hard for us. The camp we were in (at the confluence of the Luangwa and Lufila) was very nice and very well-organized. They have a good staff there.

In addition to my son's buffalo, we took some nice plainsgame, including 2 Cookson's Wildebeeste, 2 waterbuck, 2 puku, and my son managed to shoot a Sharpe's Grysbok - the first one Ross ever killed with a hunter and only the third taken in that camp in 8 or 9 years. We were pretty happy with that little guy.

The SCI Blue Bag experience was rewarding - we donated 100 pounds of medical and school supplies to two schools and two clinics. Wildcat did not charge us for the day we spent donating those supplies.

We also followed our time in the Valley with the Kafue Lechwe hunt west of Lusaka before we headed for home. That was worth doing even though it's not much of a challenge. My son more or less stepped out of the truck and shot his Lechwe. Mine was a little more difficult and involved more stalking through the mud in our bare feet, which was a new experience for me. Both of us shot big and really beautiful Lechwe.

The place appears to be overrun with leopard and lion, so if you want a cat I would say this is probably a pretty good place to be. We also saw tons (literally) of hippo. The Luangwa was full of them. Lots of crocs too. We also saw Livingstone's Eland and Roan but as we were on a 10 day license they were not available to us

I plan to go back and hunt lion and sitatunga with Wildcat.

Finally, a word about Val Heath. She was great - very responsive to e-mail and very helpful at the airport getting us in and out very efficiently.

BuffNut

Why does he hunt buffalo only in the morning?

He'll hunt in the afternoon if you find tracks in the morning. But if you don't have fresh tracks by lunchtime, or you haven't closed on the herd or the "kikulis" you're following by shortly after lunch, he moves to plainsgame. I believe the concern is shooting one late in the afternoon and being forced to leave it overnight.

The place is overrun with cats and I am confident that if you had to leave one out overnight it would not be there in the morning.

I also noticed that we were always back to the truck by sunset except on a couple of days where we shot something pretty late and were forced to be out after the sun went down. It was clear that he did not want to be out walking after the sun went down if he didn't have to be.

Thanks Buffnut, sounds like you had a good hunt. I am still in the planning stages for an October hunt. We will see how things shape up.