Country/area: Moz.-Lake Cahorra Bassa
Operator:Walter Enslin-Kwan Safaris
PH:Walter
Dates:Sept 15-23
Species taken: Hippo, Croc, Chobe bushbuck
Rifles used: camp rifles-.338 win mag, .416 Rigby- both Rugers
9/13: left Fresno at 06:30 to LA to Toronto to London to Joburg to Harare. 2 plus days of travel but flying on a free first class freq. flier ticket made it pretty nice.
9/15 at 14:30, pitched up HRE, met Brad Cromeen and his lovely wife and got straight on a bush plane to the Zim/Moz border crossing. met there by PH and 3 1/2 hours later arrived in camp. threw gear into tent and settled in for a steak dinner and a cold drink.
9/16 up early for a hot breakfast. slathered on sunblock( i was taking doxycyclin, which makes you very sun sensitive). somehow during breakfast i managed to rub both eyes and got sunscreen in both eyes and for the next 6-7 hours i could not see a damn thing. between the tearing, pain and runny nose, i was effectively out of action. luckily one of the vehicles was having transmission woes so Brad, his wife and I hunted 2 on 1 this day with Walter and I told Brad that anything we saw, feel free to take the shot. He shot a nice bushbuck on the way back to camp for lunch. We saw a lot of hippos and croc today, but no first day shooters. Man it felt great to get back to camp and wash out my eyes with eyedrops( thanks again Karralynn for having the foresight to bring them.) it was fun bumping into an elephant herd today
9/17. other truck is fixed so Brad and his wife go one way with Hennie and Walter and I go the other. Again we see lots of big hippos and croc but they are all lying on mud flats too far offshore to make a stalk( water's edge had receded from 100-300 meters from the original shoreline in most areas leaving a large expanse of 3-4 inch grass. late in the afternoon we stop at the head of a long bay and decide to walk from there to the neck where bay enters the main lake. along the way we see numerous impala, warthogs, a herd of kudu bulls with 3 shooters( 1 at least 55-57 inches), a lone bull ele( about 50-55 lbs) and a breeding herd of elephants with a 40-45 bull in it- but no hippos hauling out on the grass flats at dusk to feed.back to the truck and try again tomorow.
9/18 off again but can find a hippo close to shore, so change of plan. back to camp and load the boat to try a water approach. boat is about 3 meters wide, 7-8 meters long, flat bottom with a 115 Yamaha- basically a barge. head to an area where we had spotted a hippo pod from shore, laying on a mud flat. tried an approach but they spooked into the water. motored to another pod-same result. headed back to the first pod, but this time put up a solar screen attached to the support posts for the top and created a makeshift blind. killed the engine and let the wind blow us in the reeds near the pod. watched them a while until the big bull separated enough from the others to give us a shot. i was shooting a .338 win mag with 250 grain solids(camp rifle). i told Walter that at my shot if he move to put a .416 Rigby in him. my shot passed just under his brain and he reared up like a wild horse. Walter put one through his lungs and as he dropped back down, i put another one through his neck. he sunk out of sight and managed to get into the nearby reed bed, where he died. it took about an hour to find him( he was trapped under the reeds and couldn't float up) and another 2 hours to get him out of the reeds into open water, then 2 more hours to tow him back to camp. arrived home just at sunset, so winched him out and used truck headlight for pictures. Brad also killed a big bull hippo today, so a real celebration in camp.
9/19 time to concentrate on croc( i shot a 14 ft one last year in Moz, so I told Walter up front that i wanted a 7-9 footer for leather unless we say a REAL big one. put out a hippo hind quarter for bait and built a blind nearby. then left the area and kept looking. saw lots of plains game every day. no luck-back to camp
9/20. off to check the bait but surprisingly, no activity, even though you could see at least 25 croc( including 3-4 that were easily 14-15 feet) lying on sandbars within 200 meters of the bait. kept hunting and when we checked a small slough of the bay, found a monster laying on a mudflat, half in the water. belly crawled in on him and set up for a prone shot downward from the bank to the beast. only problem was that we were lying in a hippo haul-out and we were set up on a huge pile of hippo dung for a prone shot! again I told Walter to follow up my shot, since the croc was lying half in the water. I fired, Walter fired and we were engulfed in a cloud of hippo shit. i immediately jumped to my knees and plugged him again, even though he hadn't moved( my shot took him just behind the smile) spent the next 3 hours trying to get him out, then back to camp afternoon was spent tiger fishing with great results-4 1/2 kilos
9/21 pressure is off Walter, so time for some fishing and fun. took the barge out and fished for tigers at the edge of the reeds( we had done some of this earlier but it was time to get serious). I had told Walter earlier that if we saw a really nice Chobe bushbuck i would take him and while we were out fishing, we saw a really nice one come out of the bush to drink about a mile from camp. since Walter and the rifles were back in camp, we headed back to camp, found Walter, grabbed the rifles and headed down the shore just inside the treeline. On the way, we realized that the .338 had solids in the magazine and the .416 had softs, so Walter and I swapped rifles and pressed on. a 1 hour stalk put us at the base of the hillside waiting for the bushbuck to step in the open as he ascended the hillside from the lake shore. I was stuck with holding a 12 lb. rifle in an offhand position awaiting the shot. luckily he stepped out fairly quickly and 400 grains through both shoulders at 75 meters put paid to the bill. he tumbled half way down the hill.
9/22 fished all morning, relaxed lunch, then Walter announces a sunset booze cruise for our last afternoon.Brad and I should have known something was up when Walter grabbed his .450 Rigby and suggested Brad take his 505 Gibbs for the cruise. 30 minutes into the cruise, we spoted a hippo pod and Walter asked Brad if he wanted to shoot one with the 505( i should mention that Brad had brought a scoped .375 and the open sighted 505, but because of the distances involved had used the .375 for his hippo and croc). Brad says, "man, i don't really want to spend $3000 more to shoot another hippo".
Walter: "Who said I was going to charge you. The elections here are coming up in a few weeks and the DA in Magoe' has authorized me to shoot a hippo for a political rally barbeque.
Brad: "Now YOU ARE SPEAKING MY LANGUAGE!!!" long story short, Brad opens up wth the 505, Walter throws in a few .450 rounds and 45 minutes a HUGE hippo cow with large tusks floats to the surface. beach the barge, Hennie walks back to camp to get a truck and we tow the hippo to shore. perfect ending to a great hunt Plus Brad's wife and I caught the whole thing on video..
9/23 up at 0400 for breakfast and long drive to the border post in the dark. 1 hour bush flight to HRE. Brad and Karralyn head to the states and and I head to RSA for a 2 day visit with a friend on his game ranch in Mpumalanga province. I will write a brief report on this side trip later.
Final thoughts: I had 2 primary goals on this trip- kill a big hippo and catch a big tiger fish. the big croc and bushbuck were lucky secondary objectives. however the overall hunting experience was what made this trip such a standout. I met a lot of really nice people-especially Brad and his better half- and enjoyed myself to the extent that I lost track of time.Nothing could have been done to make it any better. Thanks again to Walter and his fantastic staff for a job very well done!!!
Jerry

VERY nice trophy pictures ! Looks like a great hunt, and that bushbuck , what did it measure ?

Congratulations on a great hunt and thanks for the fine report and pictures. You guys shot some real bruisers. It sounds like a lot packed into a short trip!

oops, double posted some photos and missed others. will try again

some more

A nice croc and hippo.Good shot on the bush buck. Some really nice pictures.A great hunt!

Very nice trophys and the croc is a monster !

Well done

Seloushunter

Great trophies, Jerry, and a great hunt
Jim

Jerry very nice. Glad you stopped stepping on you know who... That croc is a real lizard...
Great bushbusk looks around 16 inches.

Mike

Great hunt, great deal, hard to beat.

Well done and welcome home.

jdollar

Another home run in Mozambique for you. Well done. The Bahati folks speak highly of you.

Mark

Terrific pictures, all three trophies look great. Congratulations on a great hunt.

Jerry, glad to hear you made it home safe. Great report, I am just on my way back to Houston from the NM elk hunt (6 guys, 6 bulls in 2 days). Karalynn and I really enjoyed spending our time in Moz with you (and all of the guys from Kwan). I will send you a PM when I get back to houston and settle in.

Awesome !!!