Outfitter: CMS
PH: Garreth Lecluse
Dates: October 22 through 31, 2025
Area Hunted: Chewore South, Zimbabwe
Animals Hunted: Buffalo, Bushbuck, Warthog
Animals Seen But Not Hunted: Elephant, Lion, Leopard, Kudu, Impala, Grysbok, Diker,
Eland, Baboon, Waterbuck
Rifles and Ammo: Searcy Double Rifle in 470 NE (500gr Barnes TSX),
Winchester M70 in 375 H&H (300gr Barnes TSX)

As usual for me, this was a late season, late notice hunt. Being a Texan, I like the heat much more than cold,
and October in the Zambezi Valley is Hot, Hot, HOT! The trade off is I'm usually one of the last hunters for
the year and there is often times left over quota to be cleaned up.

In this case, I understand Chewore South may be awarded to an anti hunting group out of Euorpe next year and
I am possibly the last hunter in the concession, at least for the foreseeable future. I hope not because
this area is awesome. We saw one herd of buffalo that had around 200 head and another with well over 300.
Dugga boys were plentiful as well. Elephants everywhere, with many tuskless.

Video of buffalo herd crossing a dry river bed:

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/3v6NeHDhyEA


I flew Emirates out of DFW, booking Premium Economy but upon check in, snagged an upgrade to Business Class
for a great price. The new Business Class seating on Emirates is awesome:



The Emirates route requires an overnight layover in Dubai but I find this helpful in getting past jet lag
and being alert and ready once the hunt starts.

Upon arrival in Harare after the long trip over, I again stayed at the Amanzi Lodge.







Myles came out the next morning to greet me after breakfast and we had a good visit while awaiting
Garreth to pick me up for the 6 hour drive into Mukanga Camp, located on the Dande Safari Area side
of the Chewore River.

We stopped at a local farm on the way out of town to pick up veggies for the trip:




From Mukanga, we drove across the river into Chewore South each day.

Mukanga Camp:



Chewore South:





The first 3 days were unusually cool for the valley with temps in the 80s due to cloud cover.
THIS would NOT last!



The first day was spent getting acquainted with the concession as it's not one of CMS's areas.
Mid afternoon, we located a large herd of around 200 buffalo and almost immediately found where
a group of 7 dugga boys crossed the road. Tracking began and the hunt was ON!

We located the group of 7 after about 45 mins and got to within 40 yards or so. Garreth found one
with a broken horn, similar to the one I shot with CMS 2 years earlier. Not normally wanting to shoot
my buff on day one, I wasn't going to pass the opportunity to take a unique old bull if the opportunity
presented itself.

The sticks went up, I placed my double in the "V" and the buff spooked! Garreth and I mused about
how it almost came together on the first stalk of the first day and decided it really shouldn't be
that easy ... and it wasn't.

The next morning, we set out to find that same group of 7 dugga boys as we were still getting acquainted
with the area, locating remaining springs and water holes. We came across a single dugga boy track, early
around 6:15 am. Looking at the fresh track, it appeared to be a large bull, but he was walking with the
wind which complicated things. After some discussion, Garreth decided we should give it a try as it was
a very fresh track and the bull could always take a 90 degree turn somewhere, placing the wind at a more
advantageous direction. Off we went.

Very shortly thereafter, we heard a grunt, some rustling brush, looked to our left and saw the bull had
indeed turned out of the wind and bedded in some brush. Evidently he heard us, but didn't see us as
he ran to the top of the hill, stopped, then turned left, right, back to the left again, looking for the
source of sound disturbing his rest.

As he departed over the hill, we sat down and gave him 30 mins to settle down. Realizing he would
probably be close, and somewhat alerted, we took to the track again ... slowly. We found him bedded
about 1/4 mile from where we first saw him, facing his back track. We circled to the right and came
up to him about 40 yards away. Sticks, double, ready ... Garreth gave a "braaaaaah", he stood, quartering
to us, and I hit him with the right barrel on the point of the left shoulder. He shuddered then ran
our direction, not a charge, just ran the direction he was pointing when hit.

He ran to about 20 yards from our position, saw us and stopped facing head on, started to come for us, and I changed his mind with a frontal shot below his chin and right between the front legs. He now ran left to right, quartering to us, blood running from his nose and mouth while I attempted my quick reload trick as demonstrated in some of my earlier videos. Only this time, the left round only went into the left barrel about 1/4 of the way. Puzzled, I tried to push it in and it didn't go. I pulled it out, grabbed another round, attempted to drop it into the chamber and again, it stopped about 1/4 of the way in. Meanwhile, the bull is now about 15 yards directly in front of us and thoroughly pissed off. My mind went into one of those slow motion scenarios where what happened in about 10 seconds seemed to take minutes. I'm trying to figure out what's happening with my ammo / rifle, all the while keeping an eye on the bull in front of us. I see Garreth raise his 500NE double about the time I realize I've had a case head separation in the left chamber. I remove the left round sticking out, close the rifle and proceed with a single shot, hitting him at the base of the neck, just in front of the shoulders, dropping him on his nose.

THIS is one of the very reasons I believe a double rifle is the best medicine for DG, especially buffalo or elephant as it's long been said that with a double, if one side malfunctions, you have a single shot instead of a club. But I digress.

The bull rolls into the bottom of the shallow drainage separating us. I put another round into him with the right barrel, and then another as he just doesn't want to give it up. This old boy seemed to have a burr under his saddle from the start, unlike most buff you encounter. Back at the skinning shed, we found a possible reason why as he had an AK-47 round embedded in the neck muscles, just in front of the shoulder hump. That'd be enough to piss off anything I suppose.

He turned out to be an old boy with big bosses that carry their mass out about half way to the tips, worn tips on both sides, and a 41" spread, and tattered / torn ears. A real old warrior of a bull!





Recovered TSX:





Doubles:




On the Case Head Separation. I'd like to hear some experiences from the Forum membership regarding Norma Brass. As I bought this rifle about June of this year, I discovered 470NE brass is currently a bit scarce. Raven Rocks got in a shipment of Norma Brass and I quickly bought 2 boxes. This is my first experience with the stuff and after this event, did a bit of internet research, including on AR, to find many believe this stuff is too soft, with many reports of it failling after 3 or 4 loadings. I typically only use new or once fired brass on actual hunts but as time was short and this was the only brass I could find, that was not the case here. I put 80 rounds through the rifle in preparation for the hunt, loading 40 rounds twice as I worked up the load, stopping at 1 gr under published max for my final load. My hunting ammo therefore was on it's 3rd load. I shot 4 rounds on the range upon arriving in camp, and a total of 4 more rounds through the right barrel during this event, with the one that separated and stuck in the left barrel. I notice the 4 rounds fired at the range, (2 left and 2 right) and the 4 spent cases fired through the right barrel now have a shiny ring in front of the case heads. Looks like 2 loads on this Norma stuff is all they are good for. I'll be switching to Hornady, even if I have to buy loaded ammo for the brass. But again, I digress.

My policy is to always take 2 rifles, the second being capable of handling the largest game on quota in the event something happens to the primary rifle. My back up is my M70 375 H&H as we had another buff available.

Day 3 was pretty uneventful with the exception of seeing a small male leopard cross the road while driving in, in broad daylight. He crouched down in the the brush about 30 yards off the road, allowing us to get a good look at him, but not enough time to get my camera out. Tuskless everywhere. While walking down a river bank, looking for a good wart hog, we almost walked into a small herd of ele cows with calves. We backed out quickly, went up the hill a bit, and noticed the lead cow picked up our scent. The others did a 180 and got out of there while the lead cow made a couple of circles looking for us. She seemed pretty miffed about our presence but Garreth had positioned us well out of her way and she eventually gave up and rejoined her flock.

Day 4 broke with no clouds and the infamous Zambezi Valley heat hit us with full force. Late in the morning, we happened to spot a group of 3 dugga boys at the bottom of a large ravine. I really prefer to find them from tracking instead of spot and stalk but you don't turn down opportunities like this as there appeared to be a bull with nice spread and drops, but we couldn't make out if he was solid or not from the distance. Off we go! For whatever reason, the bulls decided they didn't like something and took off up the hill in relatively dense brush. This turned into a spot and track hunt, which suited my tastes just fine.

As often happens when tracking, we spotted them up close and personal, with them milling about behind a large termite mound. We could only see one bull initially, with shoulders and back end exposed, head facing to the left and behind the termite mound. We squatted and waited. With my back issues, I couldn't squat for long and needed to get into a sitting position. About the time I got onto my right butt cheek, with legs extended out to the left, right arm propping up my torso, the bull turned around and spotted us. He couldn't figure us out because of our shapes being down on the ground and not standing so he just stared at us for an eternity, chewing his cud, and seemingly relaxed.

After a bit of this, another bull appeared from left to right, from behind the mound. It was the bull we had seen with spread and drops. SOLID and smooth bosses. He immediately spotted us, took 2 steps toward us, and Garreth said take the shot if you can. The bull took 3 more steps as I swung my feet out front and raised my rifle and put a quartering frontal under his chin, again, between the shoulders, at 35 yards. He backed up, turned and ran up the hill with the others, now totaling 3 dugga boys. We could see him falling back before they crested the hill.

As we approached the spot where he had stood, we noticed I had hit a small tree about 2 feet in front of where he was. This worried me as I was concerned he may not be hit well. Up the hill we went, Garreth and I side by side and prepared as necessary. We approached and found him stone dead with both hind feet splayed out behind him like a dog resting on the floor. Heart shot ... no death bellow at all ... just dead. Once again, the TSX did it's job. In this case, it went in keyholed from the tree strike, entering just inside the left shoulder, and found in the back of the rumen. It basically turned into a solid with a bit of expansion started but the tip being bent over about 20 degrees. I have the bullet but I didn't get a photo yet. I'll post it later as it's packed away as I'm writing this from back at the Amanzi lodge, waiting on my return flight.

This bull still had sharp tips, 40" spread, drops, and solid / smooth bosses.

Tree hit prior to striking the bull's chest.



Zoom in to see the Keyhole entry:








Two great bulls down in 4 days! Now what to do with the next 6!. We spent the time relaxing, looking for a good wart hog and or bushbuck. No luck on the warthogs but after a complete miss on day 7 at a monster bushbuck, we connected around 10:00 am on day 9 with this beauty:



We then chose to head back to Harare on day 10, avoiding the hectic last day travel from camp to the airport in time to make the evening flight.

All in all, it was another great hunt with CMS. My first time hunting with Garreth, with whom I enjoyed every day. He is a lot of fun to be around and runs a tight ship, and a great hunt. Needless to say, God willing, I'll be back again.

A few odds and ends:

Dinosaur Tracks:




Looking for Bushbuck along a river bed:




A precarious place for a dove to lay her eggs:






A lioness that gave us a mock charge, warning us to say away from her cubs:




Having a little fun with Owen, our Appy, on his birthday, being served an elephant dung birthday cake. He knew something was up from the get go and wasn't buying it! They brought out the real birthday cake right after!




One for the road:




The sun sets on another great CMS safari:

Love that first Buff you shot Todd. I like Buff horns with mass.
Thanks for the hunt report. Makes me long to be the Zambezi again.

Nice write up great pictures

of fine animals. Congrats on a great hunt.

George

Congratulations! Great bulls.

I too have some Norma .470 brass and will definitely be keeping a close eye on it.

Excellent buff and a very fine Bushbuck. Money well spent

quote:

Originally posted by fairgame:
Excellent buff and a very fine Bushbuck. Money well spent

Fantastic!

Forget the money.

It is the pleasure of it and the memories that count!

Well written and thanks for sharing!

quote:

Originally posted by Saeed:

quote:

Originally posted by fairgame:
Excellent buff and a very fine Bushbuck. Money well spent

Fantastic!

Forget the money.

It is the pleasure of it and the memories that count!

Meaning a bargain my friend

Glad it went well Todd. Quick thinking on the brass failure.

Damn that is scary.

Congrats!

Todd,

Well done all around. I hunted Chewore South in '96. It is a real wilderness area.

Mark

Excellent write up, Todd. I always enjoy your hunt reports.

Wonderful report! Thanks for sharing!

I really love that first buff...beautifully worn down old warrior.

Thanks for the great report and photos! The case head separation gives one pause. Well done on figuring it out that fast. Were you able to extract the remainder of the case in camp? Seems like it might be difficult, but I've never had to deal with a case head separation before.

Well done Todd. Congrats.

Congrats on a great hunt.
I have hunted in Chewore and stayed in that camp also. Great spot

.

Congratulations on a successful double buff hunt!

CMS is a great outfit!

.

Great report! Thank you for posting! Those are some fantastic bulls.

Well done and props on a couple of fine buff Todd! Glad you had a smooth and successful trip. How is Myles doing these days after his run-in with the buff a while back?

Thanks for the nice comments guys. I just got back home a couple of hours ago. Had a full day layover in Dubai on the way back, being the way the schedule works out returning to DFW, departing at 2:45am.

My return flight was in Premium Economy. My opinion on this travel option on Emirates: If cattle class is a 1 with First Class being a 10, I found the NEW Emirates business class to be about an 8.5 to 9 in terms of comfort and service. I think the New Premium Economy is similar to the Old Business Class and I'd rate it about a 7, possibly a bit more. Compared to standard economy, the seat is about 4" wider and has about 4" of additional recline with significantly more leg room, including both a foot rest and leg rest on the seat. The new business has a fully lay flat seat but Premium Economy had more than plenty of leg room both reclined and upright. The food is significantly better than standard economy, and is about 1/2 the cost of Business. It's a very good compromise between price and comfort and I recommend it.

Russ, Myles is doing very well. In addition to meeting me at the lodge prior to the hunt for a chat, he picked me up from Amanzi and saw me off at the airport upon leaving as well. I missed Buzz as he was finishing up an ele hunt in Matetsi this time. As always, their operation is second to none and I'm already planning on a return trip, hopefully next year.

I was not able to extract the stuck case in camp but my first task upon getting home was to try and tackle the job. Watching a few YouTube instructions on how best to do it, I was able to extract it fairly easily as it wasn't stuck very hard. I'll have a kit to do it in the field going forward although I hope to do everything possible to avoid this type of event again.

For those wanting to know the process, I cut one of the expended brass cases, just ahead of the head and used that as a gage. Cut a green limb close to the inside diameter of the expended case, about 1.5" long. I then whittled it down until the stick would just slip into the back end of the cut case. Next, I cut a groove in the stick to allow expansion and started a screw into the end of the stick. Slipped the stick piece into the stuck case, then turned the screw all the way down into the stick. All of this avoids touching the metal sides or face of the chamber. Screwing the screw all the way in results in the wood expanding all the way around and forming a tight fit inside the stuck case. Then, gently inserted a brass cleaning rod from the muzzle end all the way into the case, engaging the expanded stick. A very light tap on the handle end of the cleaning rod cleared the case from the chamber without difficulty.

This procedure could have been done in camp with the exception of not having the ability to cut the head off of a spent case for a guide.

Todd: Another outstanding report. I’ve been a follower of your past reports, and it looks like you’ve really lost significant weight from prior years. What’s your secret to shaping up?

quote:

Originally posted by Bud Meadows:
Todd: Another outstanding report. I’ve been a follower of your past reports, and it looks like you’ve really lost significant weight from prior years. What’s your secret to shaping up?

Hello Bud. Thanks for the comments.

Yes, slimmed up quite a bit prior to my 2023 hunt with CMS and have managed to keep it off (80 lbs). In my case, a lot of getting heavy in the first place was a result of my back issues. Some of it due to meds, but mostly being unable to exercise regularly without re-injury. For instance, I was able to get in pretty good shape prior to my 2013 elephant hunt in the Zambezi Valley's December extreme heat. I used a Nordic Track to exercise but suffered re-injury several times with that method.

I finally decided that just walking each day was the best I can do without re-injury risk and have stuck with that along with ceasing all fast foods and sugary drinks. I walk about 5 miles a day (5 days or so a week) at a fast pace and try to eat non-processed foods and that seems to work without being difficult.

quote:

all fast foods and sugary drinks

Therein lies the root of most health-related problems.

quote:

Originally posted by fulvio:

quote:

all fast foods and sugary drinks

Therein lies the root of most health-related problems.

Ain't that the truth!

Great hunt and pictorial record Todd.
As you likely know those reloading belted magnum cases usually headspace off the shoulder rather than just letting the belt do the headspacing which is often quite sloppy with factory ammo and new cases. Shoulder headspacing gives noticeably longer case life helping limit incipient or actual case head separation.

Admittedly things are a little bit trickier with a break open type gun as it doesn't have the leverage of a bolt gun to enable snug closure on loaded rounds. However resizing of rimmed rounds such as the 470NE to headspace on the shoulder should be possible if done with care.
Norma and RWS are owned by the same company now and both brands have always had a good reputation in regards quality and longevity of their brass.

Congratulations Todd. What a wonderful pair of buffalo and fine bushbuck. A stellar experience for sure.

Congrats Todd, on some fine-looking old bulls along with a great looking mature bushbuck! Colton and I just missed you in Zim. Colt had a great hunt in the Dande with Allan. Hoping to catch up with you in Nashville.

Thanks Dan. Believe it or not, according to their teeth, the second one with the drops and sharper tips was older than the first with the worn tips!!

Hey Jay. I didn't know that was you and son hunting with Al. Sorry I missed you guys. We should have met up for dinner at Pedza one night.

I'll definitely catch up with you in Nashville.

Todd, Great report! A couple of stud bulls and a great bushbuck.

Have you adjusted your dies out so that it minimally resizes the brass to fit your chamber?

quote:

Originally posted by Fjold:
Todd, Great report! A couple of stud bulls and a great bushbuck.

Have you adjusted your dies out so that it minimally resizes tha brass to fit your chamber?

I haven't yet tried that Frank. Eagle suggested similar above in his post. I always full length sized my brass for doubles but since the case head separation, have been educating myself on loading for the 470 as compared to the 500 and 577 with the straight walls. I did load for years for my 9.3x74 (bottleneck) as well. I'm still trying to sort out if neck sizing, or rather, partial full length sizing is the answer, if it's the brass, or dies. I worked with the brass a bit yesterday as I still have 10 new cases. The rifle came with a set of dies (can't find a marking on them as to the manufacturer) but I had also bought a set of Redding Dies. I notice the unmarked dies squeeze the cases to 0.003" smaller than the Redding's do, right at the point where the separation occurred. I'm thinking the unmarked dies may be the actual cause of the issue, overworking the brass. Bit of work to sort through still.

Nice Todd.

Great hunt! I hope Chewore South does not go to a non-hunting interest. It is an outstanding area.

Well done in that bloody heat. One of the greatest reports so far

Great trip and great report, congrats and thanks for sharing!

A great report and another happy hunter with CMS...

Very nice Todd.

I was there in 89'. Do they take any trophy bull elephants there now?