I had booked this hunt last month with the intention of taking one Tuskless cow Ele, one Buffalo Bull, as many Hyena as possible, plains game and try for a Leopard.
On this Safari I was keen to try out my newly refurbished Westley Richards 425 but sadly most of my luggage did not arrive till about day fourteen into the trip, lost somewhere between Perth AU and Harare Zim. No prizes for guessing where it was..
I also had along my 9.3mm Blaser or should I say planed to have my 9.3mm along for the light game.
In the end I borrowed a 30/06 and 416Rem which are great calibres for the game we were after.
The Jumbo and Hyena were taken with no problem but I unfortunately wounded my Duggerboy with a shot that found its mark further forward than I was hoping. That day we followed him for hours in temperatures that exceeded 43"c in the shade.
We followed him to the Chewore river from where he crossed into the Sapi Safari area.
That afternoon we gained permission from National Parks to follow him into Sapi, which for the next two days we did but with no joy.
The rest of the hunting safari was spent shooting plains game, baiting Leopard, looking for Ele Bull spoor , sitting in a blind, Fishing and some more time up the Chewore looking for my Buff.
After the hunt we made a two day trip to Mana Pools National Park which is another great spot in Africa.
Here we had a dinner of Borevorst and Beans and slept under Mosquito nets with Buffalo and Hyena only meters away. Sleep was of the light variety that night.
After our time in Mana we traveled back to Chewore to pack for the drive out.
The drive out was not overly exciting other than a blown front shock and a couple Police road blocks.At one road block Ian was forced to sorted a problem out by supplying them a packet of my South African Biltong.
I almost beat him for that..


PH Ian Gibson and Tracker Robert with my Tuskless.


One 416 Trophybonded Sledgehammer solid through the Brain and one through the chest. Both Exited.


An early morning Hyena taken with the help of an illuminated Reticule scope.




Tracker Robert with Ian at a Lion kill where moments ago we walked up to a pride of lion.





Leopard bait & Trophy.



A nice Buffalo at Manna Pools Nat Park.


Beauty at Mana Pools.


A Mana Waterbuck.


A Manna Kudu.


The boys on the Zambezi.


A nice Tigerfish.


Camp Manager & PH Nevin Lees May, PH Andy Hunter and PH Brent Lees May at Mwanja camp.


PH and his girls

Looked like a good hunt (minus the problems), I was in Zim during the first half of October and it was hot to say the least. Temps 102 to 108 F. I took a nice Hippo and a management bull Elephant, and a couple of sharpes Grysbok. We hunted in the Binga area at the mouth of the Sengwa river.

good stuff Adam, shame about the buff but shit happens sometimes.

Mana pools looks sensational.

Glad you are back safe - Cheers, Tony.

Great trip and trophies
Must be really proud of that tiger
Congrads

Looks like you had a great hunt for the most part, Adam... damn sorry about the buff and the luggage though! I always hate losing an animal but if he made it as far as Sapi and you couldn't catch up he will probably recover.

I really enjoyed my time in that part of the world! Wish I would have taken time to visit Mana Pools. Great pictures of the flora and fauna in that area. A real mecca for big game. Good show!

Great pictures and congratulations on your trophies.
I've lugged Ian's 416...for days...in Sapi...after a wounded Eland last year. Didn't catch up to him. I feel your pain.

Wonderful place and photos. Thanks for sharing.

quote:

Originally posted by Cazador humilde:
Great pictures and congratulations on your trophies.
I've lugged Ian's 416...for days...in Sapi...after a wounded Eland last year. Didn't catch up to him. I feel your pain.

Yes, its like lugging a frigin Howitzer cannon.

Tony, my sentiments too. Shit does happen.

Russ, Brent says hi.

Congatulations on a great hunt oz. I love the pictures

Dave

Great Pics and nice Report....thanks for shareing.

Seloushunter

Fantastic pictures Adam,shame about the rifles but looks like you got some nice trophies anyway.Love the manna kudu thats a monster and also the tiger.Thats on the to do list for 2010(Elephant,more buf and hyena)

Oz: Hard to lose an animal, especially a buff. But the hunt was still was a success. Africa gives and takes with all of us.

quote:

A nice Buffalo at Manna Pools Nat Park.

OZ, congratulation on an excellent trip. Your photo with the Buffalo has to be one of the best that I have ever seen.

Congrats. Sounds like you had a great hunt, even though the luggage gods did not shine down on you. Still, you can't beat that area, so I'm sure you had a great time.

Can't believe Ian still hunts with that POS rifle. When I hunted with him in 2004 there was not a bit of bluing left on it and the stock looked like a piece of 2x4. I'm sure it has only gotten worse since then.

Anyway, great hunt!

Tim

I bet if Gibbo's POS rifle could talk, it would have some very interesting stories. I personally appreciate a beat-to-death Big Bore, I wish I could spend enough time on safari to properly beat my own!

Ozhunter,
Sounds as if you had a great safari, albeit the temp was a bit high for me. Hunted out of Chewore Camp for 14 days a few years ago and got to love that camp and also a chance to know Andy hunter and Ian Gibson. Both top rate PH's who love to hunt.
Am going back next year, come hell, bankrupcy, or high water.

Dak

It must have been very dissapointing to not hunt with your rifle. I was told by Buzz that I was very luck to have mine show up with me in Harare.Now that Canada has sanctions on Zimbabwe,we can no longer bring our rifles.Congradulations on your Hyena,impala,warthog and tuskless cow.

what gazelle? anyway, thanks for the report and congratulations on what sounds like a fine hunt, hiccups and all.

the pics in the mana pools are oustanding.
Congratulations

Glad you had a great hunt, and thank you for sharing it.

I like this Kudu Picture.

Seloushunter

Great photos, livingstone eland I presume.

Chewore North - gotta love it.

What's up with Ian's shoes? Those are the most untraditional PH shoes I've ever looked at.

quote:

Originally posted by Bwanna:
What's up with Ian's shoes? Those are the most untraditional PH shoes I've ever looked at.

There are three types of PHs when it comes to hunting Shoes.
1; Courtenay type light boot user.
2; canvas deck or sports shoe user.
3; Tiva open style sandal user.
Likes of Ian Gibson and Johnathan Taylor fall into category 2.

Great pics, the one of the three eland with the elephant in the background is great.

I met Ian at SCI last month. He was what sold us on a hunt with Chifuti. My brother and I have our money down and a request in to hunt with Ian (apparently they don't like reserving a PH two years in advance, just in case, but they agreed nontheless). I'm lookign forward to my 2010 Buff hunt with Ian.

quote:

There are three types of PHs when it comes to hunting Shoes.
1; Courtenay type light boot user.
2; canvas deck or sports shoe user.
3; Tiva open style sandal user.
Likes of Ian Gibson and Johnathan Taylor fall into category 2.

I've certainly hunted with ph's wearing 1 and 3, never with #2. I think the guys that hunt in the open toed sandals are nuts! I noticed in his elephant video Ivan Carter was hunting frequently barefoot! I way too much of a tenderfoot with that nonsense.

By the way, didn't mean to distract from the post of an incredible hunt. Makes me wish I was there now. Thanks for posting this.

Jees, what did gibbo shoot the buffalo with, its whole back leg is gone. Sorry you had to hunt with such an ugly bunch of fellow, Darren Morne, Andy Hunter and Gibbo himself.

Very Nice.