I just returned from another great hunt with Brent Hein Safaris www.brentheinsafaris.com in Zimbabwe. We hunted the Bubye Valley Conservancy (Lemco) in the lowveld for buffalo and plains game. This was my fifth hunt with Brent and my third hunt at Lemco since 1999 and all I can say is that the place and the outfitter continue to get better and better.

The conservancy now covers more than one million acres and boasts healthy numbers of four of the big five, as well as over 120 black rhino and a scattering of white rhino. Elephant, buffalo, leopard and lion are all thriving and the plains game is abundant, to say the least. Despite the troubles in Zim over the past decade, private investment has succeeded in effectively creating a “national†park-type habitat that attracts elephants from the Gonarezhou area and lions from elsewhere in the lowveld. Brent is one of a few outfitters currently hunting the conservancy. He knows the place very well and is an excellent pro hunter and companion in the field.

We hunted from Fimbiri camp, which is surrounded by a good mixture of mopane woodland and riverine habitat broken by dramatic kopjes and several large dams. The adjacent area, Malangani, which used to be hunted by John Sharp, has been absorbed into the conservancy. The dividing fence between the two areas is being taken down and for the foreseeable future what was Malangani will be hunted from Fimbiri.

We saw buffalo every day, including lots of dagga boys like this one.



Leopard hunting this season has been challenging because of dry conditions and the die off of warthogs presenting plenty of food. However, we did come across three recent leopard kills that would have presented good opportunities to site blinds, but I wasn’t hunting leopard this time… We also came across a lion killed giraffe one afternoon and jumped the two male lions a short time later lying in a nearby riverbed.



Brent and I arranged this safari around hunting a few of the species that I’ve been snake bitten on during past hunts. I addition to buffalo, we were after tsessebe, bushpig and hyena. The hunt started well on the first morning when we came upon a herd of tsessebe with a good bull in it. After a short stalk, the bull was down and I had my tsessebe.



In the days to come the bushpig proved a challenge, but I was successful on all of the species that I had come to hunt and then some.





The buffalo got interesting after taking frontal and side-on chest shots from the .470 at about 60 yards. He ran a ways and I shot him four more times as we followed. Finally, he made a stand in the mopane scrub and came for us as we approached, from about 20 yards. I shot him in the boss after he’d covered about half of that, putting him down for good. I am always amazed at how much lead those old dagga boys can take.







Over the course of the ten day hunt, we hunted hard, climbed the kopjes to examine bushman paintings and took advantage of fantastic fishing in the dams for largemouth bass and bream.

Here are a few photos:

David,

CONGRATULATIONS on a great hunt!!! Brent is a great PH and Lemco is a fantastic area.

Have they started hunting some of those "cheeky" elephants?

Watching the harvest moon rise from the kopjes by the Samanyanga Camp will stay with me forever. I love the Lemco Conservancy.

Dave,

Way to go! Know you guy's had a great time. Fantastic specimens and photos. Will call you soon for the full version.

Dave,

Absolutely incredible photos!

Looking forward to the hunt report.

Please fill us in on the snake and the porcupine!

Hugh

Very good photos. Looks like a great area to hunt.

David,

That Eland is a toad! I love that Eland.

Very good hunt.

I understand you bumped into Andy on the plane, he is a class act. A real quality individual.

Good hunt, well done.

What a great photo. Looks like a painting.

Awesome safari with some superb photos!!! Love that Klippie. He's a "beast"!!

David, what dates were you there. I was there hunting from Sept 1 to Sept 10.

What a great Safari!

wawoo what a safari,excelant pics,congratulations,regards

Unbelievable Pics. Congrats! Great hunt!!!
What kind of snake was that? and why did you have it by the tail??? That would scare the bejesus out of me.

Great hunt, great report - excepional photos. Thanks for sharing.

Kathi, they've been taking a couple of elephants each season, but I think they're going to have to step it up. Those young bulls, like the one in the photo are cheeky indeed and more keep coming on every year.

Wendell, thanks for the comments. That eland dwarfed the buffalo body-wise and was a cool hunt. I did run into Andy in the Bulawayo airport. Sounds like he had a good hunt too.

Dr.C, I was there from September 19-30. Did you have a good hunt?

Hugh and Jeff, the snake is a black mamba we shot on the road one afternoon. I'm holding it by the tail because the head was still attached and I don't think the snake was convinced it was dead - nor was I.

Here's what it looked like when we first encountered it. We saw another one that did the same thing - rather than run, they stand up to look at you.



We also encountered this python next to a game trail one evening.



I shot the porcupine late one evening during a walk around one of the dams looking for bushpig.

Amazing photos....Your photography brings a whole new element to the hunt….and one that is easily shared with others. I need to learn to make time for, and get properly educated , on photography. Thanks for sharing!

Fantastic photos of a great safari! Thanks for posting this report for all of us to share.

Great report and excellent pictures. I have to go along with Wendell on the Eland too!

Awesome photos and report.

I stole the "Hard times never kill" photo for my desktop.

Thanks,
Kyler

Hey Kyler,

Here are couple more:

David, Yes we had a great time. Unfortunately we never got close enough for a shot on a buffalo. I did take a couple of those giraffe.

Wonderful hunt and picts. Heck of a waterbuck, and all-around good trophies.

Great photo's, thanks for sharing, you could give a bunch of us hunters photo lessons.

Dirk

Fantastic photos! Man. you sure know how to make a guy "homesick" with those pics! I especially was feeling the "African sickness" when I saw the pic of the PH standing on the kopjie and overlooking the country. That's an incredible picture of the mamba before its demise. Spooky!

Congrats on a super hunt David. Good to see you on the boards again. Was that a Ripple Creek bass?

Russell,

We didn't fish Ripple Creek, though we did visit the camp one morning. We fished a dam on the Fimbiri section and another one on Malangani.

David,

Did Brent have his rubber snake along?

465H&H

Walt,

No snake this time - but we really wished he had one a couple of times!

Hope you're well.

David