Okay, as a first time safari goer, I have watched all the show and tell threads with interest. How about you guys posting up your pics and stories on zebras for us first timers?

Mad Dog

Okay, I'll go first.

Zebra, in this case a Hartmann's (mountain) zebra was my first African animal. We had just arrived in Vaughan Fulton's concession camp near Etosha Park after spending a few days chasing impala at a large ranch near Windhoek. Despite two shots, I had failed to connect on an impala and was feeling pretty low. Vaughan wasted no time in getting me "back in the saddle" so to speak. We dropped off a few things in our tents and shot the rifles while the staff unloaded the the truck. Then we were off. We'd driven only a few miles when we spotted a herd of zebra. We glassed them from a afar and determined that they were not in a good stalking position, so we carried on. Another mile or so down the road took us into some pretty rugged hills in which we located another small herd. We left the truck and headed out through the mopane. As we neared the zebra, we dropped to our rear ends and shimmied across the rocks and brush until we were in a pretty good position. Vaughan set the sticks, but had us stay low until he could determine which zebra was the stallion through the thick screen of brush. Finally, the zebras started to move out of the canyon and into the more open area on the opposite hillside. Vaughan whispered for me to get in the sticks and ready myself for a shot. As the zebra grazed higher on the hill, Vaughan saw the stallion and directed me to him. As soon as he stopped in a clearing, I let loose a 225 grain Barnes TSX, which smashed both shoulders and sent the zebra tumbling back down the hill. He came to rest near the bottom as seen in this picture.



Just for good measure, I'll post my dad's zebra, which he shot a couple day later.

My Burchell's taken on the last day of 14 days of hunting in Namibia. Absolutely the most wary animal encountered while hunting waterholes!

My Burchell's from RSA (KZN) in July, 2005. We stalked this heard for two days before I could get a shot. .375 Rem Ultra Mag, 300 gr Barnes Tsx handloads.

I hunted Mt. Zebra unsuccessfully for 5 days, then 5 more for a really big Burchell's stallion. I will try for another next month.

Last month I was in Zim. Summer heat was not friendly, not at all. It was going to be a daylight till 9:30 hunting affair so I thought but it wound up lasting until 1:00pm. Had been on Zebra for the third day in a row. The morning started out as per usual, spot & stalk, too much brush, couldn't find the stallion, wind changed, etc, etc. Finally, we rounded a trail and there stood this stallion. 300RUM w/180 grain Barnes.

I took this stallion back in 2000. Went with a rug with him..


and took this one last year. I'm doing a ped. mount with him.

I finally caught and killed the gremlin that was playing with my pics here on AR, and then reposted all of them. Sorry, I didn't take a trophy photo of the gremlin before disposing of it first. Anyway, here's one of my Burchell's stallions.

May show my ignorance here, but how hard is it to find a burchell's that doesn't have a lot of tan/shadow striping in the white stripes? From that standpoint the mtn. zebras seem "prettier", to me.

Mad Dog

Go to Tanz.

Killed with John X Safaris, East Cape in 2003. PH was Ed Wilson. Custom REM700 .300 Win. mag

Most definitely a tough and wary animal. After a long, over the 'hills' climb, Hartman's Zebra, Namibia, Waidmannsheil, Dom.

I've hunted zebra along with other game twice, once in the northeastern extreme of RSA and once in south central Tanzania. On both occassions, I was down to my last day and still no zebra. In both instances, others in camp were tripping over the damn things. Both trips someone in my family had asked me to bring home a zebra so I was intent on doing so. Twice now, I have found myself taking quartering away shots at over 150 yds while the zebra was getting out of dodge. In RSA, the stallion was at full gallop. I don't know what it is about me and zebra.

Last september, my wife asked me take a zebra for a shoulder mount to hang in our study. As you can imagine, being lucky enough to be married to someone making that sort of a request demands total dedication to the task. None the less, by mid-week, Mike and others had taken at least one zebra. I was yet to see one. The day I took my two buffalo in one shootfest , we were returning to camp with both buffalo and six people on the Land Cruiser. We came around a bend and found a beautiful stallion and two mares standing broadside at 40 yds. I looked at Zahir, my PH, and he smiled and said "The truck is full".

In the following days we concentrated more and more on zebra to no avail. With two days left, we hunted nothing but zebra passing up ooportunities on other game. On the final day we left at dawn and drove over four hours from camp over rough terrain just to try to find zebra. Around 1 pm, with no zebra in sight (lots of tracks), I told Zahir "Let's turn around. I give up. Let's go try to find me a good croc." Zahir said "I wish now we had taken that zebra the day you shot the buffaloes. We could tied it on top of the cab somehow. I had no idea we were going to have so much trouble finding zebra." Zahir suggested we have lunch first under a shade tree before we head back. While I was chewing on an impala sandwich, I thought "Nope, I came here for zebra. I need to stay on task." I told Zahir we would keep hunting zebra. About an hour later we came on a group of five zebra. We jumped them and they were running away in pretty thick brush at around 175 yds. One stopped momentarily (the one that stops is usually the stallion) and then turned to join the others. That's when I let a 300 gr. TBBC in .375 H&H fly aiming at his off shoulder. I heard Zahir say "Perfect."

We proceeded to where we last saw him and there he lay. After pics and a bitch of a time getting him on the Land Rover, we began our long journey back to camp. About two hours in to the trip, we topped a hill and found six zebra peacefully grazing at 60 yds. Not a word was spoken but the entire hunting party erupted in laughter. Some things transcend the language barrier.

Here's my Tanzanian zebra. No shadow stripes.

This was my first zebra, taken in the Kwazulu Natal in 2004. The shot was about 125 yards and the zebra was walking away from a small herd. I took the shot offhand with a CZ 375, 270gr FailSafes. It dropped in its tracks.

1115,
With only fun intended, however, I'm waiting for Lana Turner, or Grace Kelly to come in from the side and swoon into your arms.
Max

I spent a few days chasing after zebra before I was able to take this one with a 7mm at 150yds. in RSA 2005.

quote:

Originally posted by Mad Dog:
May show my ignorance here, but how hard is it to find a burchell's that doesn't have a lot of tan/shadow striping in the white stripes? From that standpoint the mtn. zebras seem "prettier", to me.

Mad Dog

The Burchell's or "Plains" Zebras of S and SW Africa tend to have the shadow stripes in between the black stripes. I think it looks pretty cool, myself.

The "Plains" zebras of East Africa tend to have unmarked white between their black stripes.

The Hartmann or "mountain" zebras of Namibia and S.A. don't have the shadow stripes, but their stripes tend to end higher on the belly, leaving a fairly prominent white underbelly.

Grevey's zebra (uncommon and not usually available for hunting) has much narrower black and white stripes.

I really enjoyed hunting the Hartman's zebra in the foothills near Okahanja in Namibia. They are really a different sort of hunt, spent a good bit of time glassing from some rockpiles the size of a house, where we could see for miles. After one half-mile stalk only to find the zebras had moved on, we spotted some from at least a mile away. We climbed down off the rocks, leaving my son with binos to watch if they wandered off. As we were climbing down, I slipped, stuck my arm out to catch myself, letting my .375 Whitworth bang into a rock, putting a nice fingernail-sized dent in the objective of the scope. It's always nice to have something like that happen when beginning a stalk, so you can have that nagging feeling that you may sneak for a mile only to find out the scope is off. After a long slow sneak, we came up behind a rockpile 200 yards from the small herd. We could see the zebra stallion, but the rocks were too high (or the stallion was too far down in a depression) to shoot. We could see him, but couldn't shoot, so we crawled on our bellies to another much smaller pile, fortunately without being detected and had a clear shot with the rocks for a nice rest. The hard fall didn't affect the zero, as the first 270 NF went into the shoulder, he stumbled while I worked the bolt, just when I was ready to give him another round, he fell over, only went 10 feet.
This is the rockpile we spotted the herd from.

We should clarify something: although Zebra's all appear to have black stripes, most of them have dark brown stripes, and if memory serves me, even the species with "black" stripes actually has more of a charcoal brown stripes than true black. Anyone know the species I'm talking about? It was mentioned earlier. LDK

quote:

1115,
With only fun intended, however, I'm waiting for Lana Turner, or Grace Kelly to come in from the side and swoon into your arms.
Max

Max,

I do look rather dashing don't I?? The scarf belongs to my wife, and has become my lucky charm in Africa. I carry it whenever I hunt, and it has brought me much luck. But Lana Turner and Grace Kelly??? They're both dead!!!! Thanks anyway, but no thanks. That would remind me of my ex-wife.

1115

quote:

Originally posted by 1115:

quote:

1115,
With only fun intended, however, I'm waiting for Lana Turner, or Grace Kelly to come in from the side and swoon into your arms.
Max

Max,

I do look rather dashing don't I?? The scarf belongs to my wife, and has become my lucky charm in Africa. I carry it whenever I hunt, and it has brought me much luck. But Lana Turner and Grace Kelly??? They're both dead!!!! Thanks anyway, but no thanks. That would remind me of my ex-wife.

1115

I could be dead wrong, but I think Max meant Ava Gardner and Grace Kelly....from the movie Mogambo...implying of course that you'd be Clark Gable.

Cheers,
Canuck

Hartmann’s Mountain Zebra

Gras Hunting Ranch Namibia 2002

160gr 7mm Rem Mag

My black zebra with white stripes from the Selous R2 with Pierre Van Tonder this past summer.. Did him in with a 375 model 70 and a 300 TSX.. 125 yds or so..

Mike