Please Note: Having trouble posting pictures. If anybody can post them please message me with an e-mail and I will e-mail some pictures.


Going to Africa

I ended up in Dallas in January 2010 for work related stuff and a North Texas duck-hunting trip and somehow ended at the Dallas Safari Club convention. It was there I decided on basically the spur of the moment to finally hunt Africa after surviving the 2008 financial crisis (wrong to say 2008 as I think it is ongoing and will be with us for a long while but that is beyond the scope of this hunt write up) and wanting to somehow hunt Africa before I turned 40. I have always wanted to hunt Africa and dangerous game since I was 13.

I meet a friend who hand hunted Africa before and he introduced to some safari companies who seemed to have very nice booths. He also introduced me to the former president of DSC who walked us over to probably the least organized booth of Save Valley Safari run by Leon Du Plessis and Mike Payne. The booth was disorganized as they had just managed at the last minute to get a booth. The former DSC president – I am sorry I can’t remember his name – was a doctor from Kerrville. He did give me the best advice anyone has given me regarding hunting/safari ect – “make sure the guy you select as your guide is someone you want to spend 10 plus days with driving, hunting, hanging out after hunting otherwise regardless of the hunting you will not enjoy the safari.”

I spoke to Leon Du Plessis for 20 minutes liked him and asked him a bunch of questions about a first time safari in Zimbabwe. He was very helpful and as was Mike Payne. It was interesting to see a bunch of his clients hanging around the booth who were also very helpful. Without much more due diligence I decided to book a safari with Leon and asked his advice in selecting a rifle scope ect. Leon was very helpful that day and the next he walked the booths with me to select a rifle. Did not find a left hand .375 h&h but I was glad Leon was willing to take time out to help me and he mentioned he used a brno 602. So I left Dallas having booked a hunting trip to Zimbabwe around Labor Day.

I ended up getting a CZ550 (left handed) .375 H&H via Wayne Jacobsen at AHR and Wayne did a amazing job building me what has become my favorite rifle. I think I am going to learn how to reload so I can cut down on ammo cost, as I like shooting it so much. Wayne is great gunsmith and a very honest/professional businessman.

Getting to Camp

I booked my own ticket to Zimbabwe via South Africa airline with only a transit stop in JNB. The flight was good – SAA was better than flying US airlines and I am used to long haul flying. I had gotten all the paper work from Save Safari and my assistant had completed everything in triplicate. I was meet at the airport by Mel (Mike Payne’s wife) and immigration/customs/firearms was super smooth given that Harare International airport had no power. Mel informed me that instead of driving over I would be flying the next day and I would spend the night in Harare. I was looking forward to actually the drive and seeing the countryside but spending some time Harare seemed interesting too. Mel drove me to Woodside Guest House where I dropped of my bags and then went to do some sightseeing and shopping in Harare. Woodside guesthouse is excellent – really enjoyed staying there.

Harare is interesting. I really liked it – its clean and relatively safe. A side note – I grew up in Bombay, India for the first 15 years so I know what a real city is like. Harare felt civil and very unlike what I had in mind. Went to Fereday’s bought a pair of gaiters. The outdoor mall around Fereday’s was pretty interesting with a small apple re-seller, coffee shops ect. This was totally different from my mental images of Zimbabwe and one can hopefully see some positive change. Had dinner at Alo Alo – an excellent restaurant and good nights sleep at Woodhouse.

Next day flew to the Save Conservancy. Save Safari operates on 90,000 acres in the northern part of the Conservancy. The camp was excellent I had my own stand-alone chalet with attached bathroom. Leon has installed Rhodesian water heaters – wood burning water heaters - so there was 24hr hot water. I really like the accommodations and they exceeded my expectations.

I was a little worried initially about food cause I am not a fan of game meat. The food in camp was unbelievable!! Leon’s wife Judy runs a great camp. The food was excellent and I have developed a taste and a hankering for eland and impala.

The Hunting

I had booked a 10-day buffalo and plains game safari and I was looking forward to going out in the bush. We went and sighted in the rifle and the AHR CZ with Trijion sights was right on. I am been surprised how much I like shooting my .375 – the recoil is minimal and the gun is accurate.

Day 1

Driving around the concession I was surprised by the amount of game. We saw impala, wildebeest, zebra, waterbuck, kudu and warthogs in the first afternoon. Tried stalking into a zebra herd but had no luck the first day. Got back to camp had some cold beers and hung out with Leon and Mike and their families.

There is a water hole across the dry riverbed from camp where there was always game – spent the night looking at some Nyala and bush pig.

Day 2

Game everywhere. We followed some buffalo trails for a while. The trackers Orbert and Stanford were excellent. Orbert is the older more experienced of the two and Stanford has the best eyes – he could spot things a mile before we even knew that was there. It was very interesting to see Leon operate with the trackers – they worked as a team. Orbet the lead tracker, Stanford the eyes, Leon the PH and me the stumbling happy amateur in my Disney world.

Following the trails of a buffalo herd we ran into a two Zebra. We followed the Zebra around for a good 20 minutes and then Leon put me up on the sticks. The Zebra offered a quartering shoot at about 125 yards and a barnes 300 grain went that way. The Zebra ran 100 yards and was dead and I got my first Africa trophy – a “disco donkey.” We took pictures and headed back to camp. At the skinning shed I got to see some really nice collection of trophies and decided I was going to get the zebra turned into a rug.

The afternoon we ran into a large herd of buffalo and spent the whole afternoon in the herd trying to find a nice trophy. Spending hours in a herd of buffalo was exhilarating but we never found any shootable buffalos. Went back to camp and a cold beer. A Spanish hunting party who was hunting with Mike Payne but not staying at camp was having a party at house they were renting in the next concession. So off to the party we went and had a great time. I had way too many beers some great bbq and went to bed anticipating the next day.

Day 3

We drove to a waterhole and I was feeling a little slow from the beers from the night before and the excellent breakfast I ate – I am not a breakfast person. I saw Leon and the trackers looking at some tracks as I just aimlessly took pictures. The trackers went around for a while as Leon and I chatted about how cold it gets in Zim. I did not pack right for the first 30 min of zim winter. I though Africa would be tropical like India/Singapore/Indonesia/South Florida. The first 30 min of the day are cold even in August/September. I should have brought and next time will bring a much better fleece/soft jacket than the windbreaker I bought.

The trackers came back and said there was a lone dugga boy at the waterhole earlier and we should follow. We started out following the tracks and in 10 minutes were back at the waterhole we left from. We again started following the tracks of this one dugga boy in a sea of animal tracks. After about 30 minutes of walking I could not fathom where we were going and how the trackers knew the movement of a single dugga boy between all these different buffalo and game tracks. Just then the trackers dropped to the ground, as did Leon with me following. About 100 yards a lone dugga boy stood with a picture perfect broadside. Leon set up the sticks and I tired to get the .375 on the sticks. But that was the last time the dugga boy decided to pose for anything. He did not run off but kind of trotted off into the dense bush and we decided to give chase. We followed him for the next 2 hrs with 3-interment appearance with which we set up the sticks but no shoots were fired.

By now we had walked for a good 2.5 hrs and never managed to get in front of him. He was not walking a straight line and the chase was exciting as it gets for me. The wind was in our favor all along but he had seen us 3 times and was getting spooked but still continued to trot in the bush. Just when we had thought he was spooked and had taken off and his tracks were indicting he was moving faster than before. I thought we were done for the morning, the trackers came to standstill around some large rocks. The dugga boy was standing around 200 yards out and we tired to stalk up on him. We got to around 75 yards as he moved in a zig zap pattern acting a little spooked. Leon set the sticks and I tired and find him around a small bush where one could see his legs and big patch of black covered in light green shrubs. I aimed below his front shoulders. I fired one round nothing happen, Leon said shoot again and I fired another round – again nothing happen. Leon said shoot again and I did. Then the old boy decided to walk a few paces and then take off at a faster pace than before but not running outright. We went to the spot where he was standing with me saying I hit him and where I was aiming but no great confidence than I hit him given that he was there behind the small bush for a whole 3 shoots then moved a little and then took off a little faster than before but not like he was shot. The trackers looked around could not find any signs of blood. Waiting for a few minutes as I tired rethinking the shoots in my head we decided to follow. The trackers this time walked in a straight line, which was different than before where we seemed to zig zag around. A little while later they started seeing spots of blood and Leon and trackers tired to figure out where the buffalo was shoot. I felt initially relieved that I did miss and one of the three shots hit him. Then I started worrying about a gut shot and an injured buffalo. There was not a lot of blood and the blood marking were a little high on the leaves. I saw Leon and the trackers getting much more serious and quite as the discussed the next steps. Leon asked me to load 2 solids and we decided to follow the tracks and the slight blood trail. We walked for like 15 minutes and did a partial loop but there was no zig zag in the tracks anymore. We could smell the buffalo and found some stomach fluids in the blood. Still we were not 100% sure where the buffalo was shoot. As we walked the trackers again went still and dropped to the ground pointing a little ahead that they could see the buffalo. Leon and I moved ahead and we set the sticks up – the buffalo was lying with his back to us around 75 yards away and was facing a small rocky outcrop. I fired the first round heard Leon say keeping shooting and fired another 2 rounds. I was cycling that bolt as fast as I could and slamming in rounds into the chambers and aiming and shooting. I saw the buffalo try to get up between the first and second round and them falter between the second and third round. After firing the third round and seeing the buffalo was not getting up, Leon and I ran towards the buffalo but not straight at him but in an arching right way with this back was towards us. Coming to around 15 yards and seeing the buffalo not able to get up and dying, Leon as me to shoot him between the shoulder blades and I did. I never heard a death bellow but the buffalo was dead within a minute and by them the trackers and Leon were congratulating me. We rested the guns and equipment and one of the trackers took of to get the truck.

Leon and the other tracker counted the bullet wounds and there were six wounds. They all seemed to be good shoots. I was now feeling a little sad that it took so many shots from .375 to kill the buffalo and maybe I should have had a bigger rifle. Leon told me the buffalo are as tough as they get and it would not have mattered if I was using at .458 would have still taken more than a single bullet on most occasions to kill a buffalo. We walked around and admired the drop and the boss on the buffalo and I was ecstatic that I shot my buffalo. We took a bunch of pictures and loaded the buffalo in the land cruiser and headed back to camp. I was amazed the guys were able to load the buffalo in the land cruiser and was very impressed by the land cruiser’s ability to work.

As we drove back for what seems 15 minutes we came back to the water hole were had started the stalk from and there we ran into 2 male kudu bulls. One was really good and we tired to set up sticks as they took off. I had unloaded my rifle after the buffalo and was scrambling to loads some rounds as the kudu ran into some dense bush and the gray ghosts were gone. One of the best sights in Africa is watching male kudus run through the bush where one only sees the spiral horns twirling even if one cannot shoot them.

We got back to camp and I was glad to have the Sunday morning buffalo. At the skinning shed I decided to have a European mount of his horns made. Leon and I joked than we will see buffalo every day for the next 7 days and we did.

Had a great dinner in the riverbed with some friends of Judy and Leon.

Day 4

We switched to trying and getting an eland and some plains game. Day 4 was spent trying to locate some eland and all we saw was buffalo. Driving around was great and looking at game and just the scenery in the save conservancy was a joy. A day of no shooting.

Day 5

Walking around we chased group of eland where one group of males interested with a group of females and there just unbelievable combination of tracks and the trackers were able to tell the different groups apart. But we did not find a male eland to shoot.

As we drove around later that morning the trackers spotted a group of males in some mixed bush. We followed them on foot and after a few minutes Leon set the sticks up and I was on the sticks. He was spotting and said there were a bunch of male eland like 125 yards out and there was a good male in that group. The brush was not super dense but was where were trees and bushes 10 feet apart. Leon said the male was right next to a tree and if I could see it. I was trying to locate the eland through the scope and saw the horns neck shoulder of an eland in a bush at around 11 o’clock. Leon said shoot and I thought for a second that it was a tough shot in cover but I was not going to question the ph and aimed for the eland neck/shoulder. I fired and then ran forward as Leon moved ahead with the sticks. That is when the fun started – I ran slightly left and Leon ran slightly right. We ran for about 40/50 yards and the gap between us became 15-20 yards as I ran left and he ran right. I saw him setting up the sticks looking away from where I was going and in the corner of my eye I saw something crash where I shot. I told Leon that I hit the eland and he was down and Leon looked at me with a puzzled look. Soon there was a lot of trashing where I had shot and the eland that Leon was setting up for was gone. We came to where the trashing was and there was a nice eland dying – Leon asked to shoot it through the heart, which I did. The trackers had followed the same path of divergence that Leon and I did – with one going left and one going right. Turned out I never saw the old bull eland that Leon had focused on and which offered a clear shot. I some how picked up on another eland that was 20 feet away in more dense cover. When Leon asked me if I saw the eland I replied yes but it was not to the eland he was talking about that was the blue bull that offered a clear shot. We had a good laugh at how I decided to focus on the eland in the bush when to his right 20 feet was a old bull in the clear and how I was thinking why Leon wanted me to take a relatively tough shot when he was looking a eland in the clear. We decided to name the eland “tito” and settled of taking some pictures and looked forward to eland steaks. I have decided to have a European mount of tito with a small plaque.

From then on we ran into eland everyday.

Day 6

We continued to hunt for plains game going back to our every afternoon stalk of impala and waterbuck at the dam near the camp. Day 6 afternoon I shot a nice impala but we were not able to locate him before sundown. Came back the next morning and found him dead 50 yards from where we stopped looking the day before. Also earlier in the day we ran into a leopard kill of a young eland. We baited the spot but Leon determined the tracks to be of female with a cub.



Day 7

We went back to the dam to shoot some plains game as we did nearly every afternoon. Saw a really nice waterbuck that we followed through the dry riverbank and through some pretty tall elephant grass. When he got to other embankment he presented a clear shot and we set up sticks shooting from dry riverbed/elephant grass. The shot was around 125 yards. The waterbuck was hit but he ran and we followed. It seemed for a second he was headed over into the next concession but he did a loop and we back at the exact spot where he was shot. We then saw him across the dry river bed on the embankment and set up sticks but them I was uncomfortable shooting in the direction of where we had parked the truck and the driver could have been. Leon and I decided not to shoot. We followed the waterbuck as he took us around for the rest of the afternoon. There was a consistent blood trail that we were following. We were going up and down some small kopi and had probably walked a couple of miles.

Light was starting to fade and Leon and I decided that when we ran into him the first person to see him would shoot. We were following a consistent blood trail along a small kopi when Leon signaled that he could see the waterbuck laying down under a tree around some small rocks. Leon was right and I was left with a tracker by each as we approached. When we saw the waterbuck getting up each fired with Leon shooting his .470 double and me shooting the .375. We both hit him and as we approached congratulated each other and started talking about getting the truck up the kopi, pictures in the fading light and beers in the truck cooler. The trackers approached looked at the waterbuck looked at us and instead of offering the normal congratulations and saying thank you (something I could not figure out as I should be thanking them) looked back at the waterbuck and started mumbling to each other. Leon and I were still taking when the trackers started backtracking the tracks. Leon went over and started talking to them and I approached them. The trackers said they did not think this was the same waterbuck I shot earlier as the horns were a little different – more narrow. So we followed the blood trail from where we shot the animal and it lead straight to the spot where we saw the waterbuck bedding/laying down. Then we started looking at the bullet wounds and found three wounds consistent with 3 rounds fired at it. One in the heart/lungs, one on the neck and another on the jaw. It seemed we had the right waterbuck and flight was quickly fading.

The trackers decided to do a 360 sweep of the waterbuck was bedding and where it was shot. We looked at the bullets wounds closer and realized that the jaw shoot was a graze after the .470 had penetrated the neck give the angel of the waterbuck. The trackers came back and said the blood trails continues. So we had run into another large male waterbuck who was bedding/laying down on a spot to which there was a direct blood trail. The blood trail was a straight line to the spot where he was laying down and continued straight down. So we started looking for the original trail and followed it for another couple hundred yards but light was nearly completely faded. We went back to the second waterbuck decide to call its quits for the day and bring the truck and take some pictures.

It was pitch black by now and Leon and I kept saying what are the chances another waterbuck beds in a blood trail of a wounded waterbuck that is at most 10 minutes stale. But I was glad I had a waterbuck and decided to name this guy “Tito II” Went back to camp and told the story of Tito II and I mentioned to Leon he will always remember this day and Tito II for his whole career as a PH.

Day 8

The next day we went out to where Tito II was shot followed the blood trail and located the other waterbuck 300-400 yards from Tito II and 100 yards from where we stopped looking last night. The other fellow had a chunk of his backside eaten by a hyena but the trophy and the meat were fine. I am getting both Tito II and the original waterbuck mounted at the shoulder – Tito II will have a small plaque.

Day 8, 9 and 10

Were spent looking for a kudu but the gray ghost of Africa managed to elude us. Looking for a quality Kudu trophy we ran into nearly everything in Save conservancy except Elephants and the big cats. Got some cool pictures and time with Hassan one of the large white rhinos. Saw some very large herds of buffalo and eland.

The trip back was long and uneventful other than finding out at JFK that someone in Jo-Burg tried to break into my pelican rifle case. Everything was fine – next time I am putting 4 locks into of 2.

Overall the trip was a great first safari. Really enjoyed the Save Conservancy and the operations of Save Safaris. Highly recommend hunting with Save Safaris.

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Here's how

Barrette682E, check your pm's

posted for Beretta,

Great report. I hunted with Leon a few years ago and he is first class.

Thanks gibbs505 for posting the pictures.

Leon and Mike are great guys.

Hopefully I can sneak another quick trip in March

damn, Orbit is looking old, and Katai looks like shit, hard livin' I guess.

Well done,and Congratulations

I can tell by the smile on your face it was a blast.
Congrats

Congratulations on a great hunt.

Nice hunt!