As some of you may know I have started working with a local outfitter in Masailand. I have known Hasheem for quite a few years and when he told me that he was getting an area in Masailand I was immediately interested. Masailand has a bunch of unique species that are mainly found only there and are generally very pricey to hunt! I requested him to lower his prices to be more in line with Zimbabwe rates at least for the 10 day Buffalo and plains game hunt which is the one that would probably sell the most. I know that most people enjoy hunting buffalo and with an opportunity to take some unique plains game species, it should be attractive to many of you. This has been our first season and it has not gone without a hitch, thanks mainly to local politics and other competitors, who bid for the new block but were unsuccessful and hence did their best to make life difficult. TIA! These issues have been sorted out now and after spending a month there I can report that future clients should have a good trouble free hunt.

Two clients who hunted in August and early September had no problem shooting their buffalo and the plains game that they were licenced to hunt. Scarcity of water is a big issue in Masailand as it is a very dry, arid place and by the time I arrived with a couple of clients/friends who were keen on buffalo the waterholes had turned in to wet mud. Despite us ferrying water over to keep some water in the water holes, the buffalo had better plans and had headed off in to Tarangire National park. We did see fresh tracks every other day but were just not lucky to run in to them. Other species like zebra and wildebeest were also in short supply! We saw hundreds of did dik, and also had no issue in shooting species like Grants gazelle, east african impala, gerenuk, ostrich, lesser kudu and greater kudu. We saw leopard but were not hunting them. I spotted the resident female camp leopard sitting 30 yards in front of my tent one evening! We also heard lion but I do not believe it is the best place for lion. At least not in the dry season. One client missed a fringe eared oryx and one passed up on shooting one as it wasnt on his list! Perhaps he will regret it one day! Clients also saw and shot Patterson's Eland as well as Coke's hartebeest.

Makame WMA is probably not the very best hunting block in Masailand, but I believe it has a lot of potential, a lot of the area has very thick thorn bush and who knows whats in there! There is also vast open plains which in the best season July to mid September I am told has a lot of game on it. I quite believe that as it started to rain when we were there and we saw more and more herds of wildebeest and zebra coming back! It was pretty amazing to see this quick migration of animals out of the park! And when driving back to Arusha the grass has started turning green and I saw wildebeest sitting like cattle along the road.

I will now let the pictures tell the story:







Mess and dining area. Not fancy but comfortable.




Very comfortable east african style tents with attached shower and toilets. The camp boy did an absolutely amazing job at keeping the tents clean and truly was one of the best I have ever seen anywhere in Africa or elsewhere for that matter!



Another view of the camp



Camp fire, drinking and story telling spot.......

Now for the beasts:



An ostrich that met an untimely end with my 470!



They are BIG birds!!



Plenty of them around. They were only available before on a 21 day licence but under the new TZ rules have been moved to a 10 day licence. In TZ what one can shoot is dictated by the govt. licence that you buy 10, 14 or 21 days. This is the same as buying an elk tag or wolf tag, you have to have one to pull the trigger, the cost of the hunt is a separate matter.



The Masai are everywhere with their cattle, especially in the dry season when they are on the plains. They leave the plains for other grazing areas once the rains come and then there is lots of wild game on the plains. The Masai generally do not eat wild meat so bush meat poaching is not a HUGE problem by them. Its also amazing to see that wild game is not effected by the cattle and you will often see a herd of wildebeest or zebra grazing next to cattle. While civilized with cell phones and modern trappings they are still wild at heart and hang on to many older customs such as having multiple wives and allowing a fellow masai friend to select one of their wives to spend the night when having a sleep over!



Black backed jackal, I don't like shooting these little beasts having shot many in my delinquent youth so let him go in peace.



Lots of Kori bustard, everywhere but they are not on licence in Tanzania. Only possible in jihadi infested burkina faso!!! Rot in hell you bastards - not the bustards.



Kenyan giraffe - you can see but not touch in TZ



A really nice Grants gazelle



Two more nice Grants.



Eastern white bearded wildebeest - shot at 234 yards with a 35 whelen. Complete pass through using 225 grain swift a frames!



Another picture of him



More wildebeest on the plains



Secretary bird. The bird life there was pretty amazing, with 3 species of guinea fowl, lots of sand grouse, francolin etc.



On the open plains expect to shoot around 250 yards for the Grants, using a Masail shawl really helps you approach the game as they are less spooked. We also used a black umbrella one day and approached a herd of zebra from 350 to 140 yards! Gotta try that on some buff next time!



More wildees



Kirks dik dik - they were everywhere. Normally you see a male and female or a pair with a young one. These are two males hanging out together! We watched them for a long time and let them go!





A stripped hyena - they are on licence in Masailand, but I will be dammed if you will see one if you had a licence!





A mother of all Grants, shot with the 35 whelen also. Who says a whelen is a short range round! This is truly a special Grants!!



I do like to cook, usually all the parts that no one wants to eat! .



An old but not very big horned EA Impala, they are much bigger than the southern and tough to eat! Maybe we only shot the tough ones!



Masail with their cattle in the evening



Not wide but another very long, lovely Grants, also taken with a 35 Whelen




From Ostrich in TZ to brown bear in Magadan to red stag in Bulgaria this whelen has been around!


Part II to follow..........


Arjun Reddy
Hunters Networks LLC
30 Ivy Hill Road
Brewster, NY 10509
Tel: +1 845 259 3628
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Very nice Arjun! Looking forward to part 2.

Excellent. Seeing the ostrich is interesting to me. For whatever reason I have a strong desire to shoot one, even though very few people seem to. Where was it shot with the 470?

Nicely done Arjun!

Great to see Hasheem and crew settling in to the concession. I had a great hunt with them earlier in the year (late July through early August) and punched the tags on most of the game I was after in the Masai East Open Area. Lesser kudu, gerenuk, eland, dik did etc. Truly is Tanzanian hunting at Zim prices!

Arjun:

I can't get the right five pages to the screen. (24" screen)

Please see if you can repost this and part II
about six feet less in width.

Thanks, glad you had a good time and get around
the world like this.

George

Arjun, thanks for an interesting report. As George said, if you could re-size your pictures it would make part 2 much easier to view and read. Looking forward to part 2.

Love the picture of the Kori Bustards. The first time I saw them in Namibia I thought a Steenbok had sprouted wings and was flying off- they’re the same size.