When: 2/27/12 - 3/11/12
Where: Malapati Safari area, Malapati communal, Sengwe 2
Who: Alex, John, and myself
PH: Nixon Dzingai, Kenneth - with an assist from Simon, Steven, and Gift
Weapon: Blaser .375, Heym .470 (more to follow on that)
Animals: Elephant, buffalo
Alex - bushbuck, grysbok, nyala, zebra, wildebeest, impala
Animals seen not taken - Lion, leopard, waterbuck, warthog, klipspringer, kudu, giraffe, hyena


Our much anticipated trip started before we left Nixon's camp in 2010. Having experienced the operation and seen the quality of game, a return trip was planned for prime elephant time.

Our flight crawled its way to Africa. Almost all our bags made it, allowing us to enjoy an unscheduled tour of Harare. Later the following day, we were all squared and completed the 8 hour drive to camp.

Alex, Simon and I arrived to find my hunting buddy John already well into his hunt, having shot a very nice dugga boy. They were also busy bumping elephant most every day.

Our first morning tour of Malapati, we came across a herd of buff a few minutes from camp. We tracked them several kilometers, then watched as they crossed the river boundary. Two bulls were top end trophies, and we had 11 more days to find them again.

Day 2 brought a trip around Buffalo Bend. We found this bushbuck early on day 2,. My son had his first African trophy!



Day 3 had us on the elephant trail, hard. The days blurred into each other, starting with a 3:30 wakeup call. We needed the time to check the vast hunting area. Nixon now hunts over 200,000 acres. Its a lot of ground to cover. But with little ernest riding shotgun, I knew it was only a matter of time




Day 4, we need more lion bait. Alex was happy to oblige


We found at least 7 different lion spoor. One of which was about the largest track Nixon has ever seen. This was a solitary male, chasing livestock. He made a kill on cattle, but never came back. Oh well, we were still after elephant. So we would not concentrate on Shumba until the ivory was mine.

Day 5 found a very nice nyala. Alex was racking them up.


This was the first Grysbok I had ever seen. But my son saw him first


Day 8 had the first report of elephant in the fields. We staked out the area waiting for him to show himself. A magical, mystical bull showed himself under the full moon. This was the bull of many lifetimes. Alas, they do not get that big without smarts and luck. I was on the sticks, but he just faded away.

The morning of day 10, we did the usual 100k drive looking for tracks. Not finding anything, we left the truck and stuck out on foot. Very soon, we came across very fresh sign of buffalo. One bull made the mistake of stepping out at around 60 yards. The Heym finally had a chance to work, dropping this helmet head almost in his tracks.




Later on that that day, we finally found a nice ele bull. Though not the bull we stalked two days earlier, I am very happy to have him.


In all, we had a wonderful, amazing experience. Two male lion were spotted right across the river. They decided to pay our camp a visit one night. There growls and roars were literally 50 yards from our chalet. We were just too busy getting after nzhou to get serious about the lion.

We also managed to see 2 80# plus bulls over the boundary, one of which made random trips into the hunting area. We spotted 2 more that were at least 70, and then there is that one, the one which will bring me back.

I can't wait! Until then...

Very good sir!
Having your father & your son with you must have made it even better.

Good to see your son along on the trip. Congrats on a great elephant. It's on my bucket list. Thanks for the report!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Looks alot different this time of year, than when I was there in September - WOW! Congrats Jack, sounds like you guys did pretty good to me. I really like that buffalo too, congrats!

I am excited as heck to hear about all the lions, June can't come soon enough now!

It's way more green than when I was there last november,it must have been a great experience for your son,congrats on a good hunt.

Huge congrats Jack. Glad it went well for you guys. That is some serious boss on that buff. I am sure your son had the time of his life.

Congratulations Alex and Jack. Sounds like another great safari. Sorry it didn't work out on the mystical bull.

Excellent report, I needed a fix.

Congrats on a great hunt.
Some very nice animals there.

Thanks for sharing with us.

Great animals all around but I love that free range Nyala

Jack
Nice job! Real nice set of trophies you and your son took.

How about another picture of the elephant?

Chris,

Here you go!





Just want to add that Nixon is one of the hardest working PHs I ever hunted with. In 12 days, the most sleep we had in one night might have been 5 hours. We always had places to be at first light to check for spoor.

My only regret was not having another week to hunt Shumba. They were there, but my ele came so late in the game we just did not devote the necessary time.

Thanks for the comments men, I appreciate them. Alex, I think, has changed for life. And it's all good.

Jack, sounds like a great hunt. How great it must have been to share it with Alex and watch him grow. You both took some great trophies.

Well done!

excellent hunt! Nixon is a stand up guy for sure.


dale

Jack and Alex...
Congratulations on your Safari!

Great character on that buff Jack. Good elephant with the double! Nice to see such a wonderful experience with your son. Nixon's got a huge area to hunt now which is great for clients.

Jack,

Congrats! Nice buff and ele. Your son has a good start on the spiral horns. I can hardly believe he got a grysbok on his first safari and this early in the season. It took me 13 years to get one to stand stil long enough for a shot.

Mark

Absolutely GORGEOUS Nyala and Buffalo!! Congratulations...

Excellent safari Jack!!!

Love the second pic of the ele with you and Alex sitting back to back

Good stuff.

Well done on your hunt, but let's have the full story on the elephant !!

Outstanding safari! Congratulations!

Nice looking trophys
Buff, Nyala, & Bushbuck are my main 3 targets while im there in august. It cant get here soon enough. Did Nixon comment on the size of your sons bushbuck. Average, big, old etc. etc.I would like to have a general idea about what size we will be looking for.

Very nice! What a great treat to share the experience with your son. Can't wait to take the grandkids!

Excellent! well done.

well done guys what a super looking hunt. I have to say that Nyala you got really rock my boat thats everything you want in one of those trophies,congrats

Jack congrats you may have created a monster.
two hunting is expensive
Tell your son to smile a little more
Nice pics and way to go

Nice mature buffalo with a great set of horns and a superb elephant but the most priceless memory had to be quality time spent with your son! Well done.

Great collection of memories and trophies Jack! So happy you were able to share it with your son!!!!

Fantastic safari, Jack! Congrats to you & your boy!

Alex's smile can really light his face. Sometimes teenagers do not always do what you ask them to do - but do it on their own time. - can you imagine smiling when doing homework?




On another note, I was very surprised to find Nyala in Zim. Malapati has some very fine ones as well.


Thanks again for all of your comments. I really appreciate it, as it is so hard to capture the depth of this experience with a clumsy words and a few pics.

Congratulations on a great hunt, Jack. Looks like it is really green there now. What was the high temperature?

Way to go Alex!

You too Dad, good show! I did a double-take when I saw the picture of your son with the grysbok, as it looks very similar to a pict of my son and his grysbok from back in 2005.

Despite it being early season, you did well on the plainsgame. Did you see a decent amount of game overall?

quote:

Originally posted by RAC:
Congratulations on a great hunt, Jack. Looks like it is really green there now. What was the high temperature?

RAC,

the temperature was very manageable. We had 2 days in the high 90s, the rest in the mid-upper 80s. At night, it got down to the high 60s. I needed a blanket on a few nights, and a jacket when riding in the AM.

Thanks

quote:

Originally posted by Bill C:
Way to go Alex!
Did you see a decent amount of game overall?

Bill,

We saw an incredible amount of game. Many dozens of zebra, pods of wildebeest, impala everywhere, warthogs, very good waterbuck, a few nice kudu, klippies on the rocks, crocs in front of camp, giraffe, a few dozen elephant, and I personally saw 12 lion, with two of them shooters - but they were in the park.

Malapati is a blessed place. Lots of plains game and some of the best ivory coming out of Africa.

Thanks

Congrats Jack and Alex!! Looks like you had a great time. Jack, what is the "more to follow" story on the Heym? Also, did you recently add the dot sight and how do you like it?

OUTSTANDING!!!

On safari with family - nothing better than that.

Congratulations to you and to your son - Well Done

Glad that JJ got your double sorted out for the big trip.

Yes he does have a great smile
Homework in Africa, I guess that is a whole lot better than homework in the US

A trip I am sure he will never forget.

Congratulations on the gret trophies. I particualrly like the buffalo & Nyala