The tuskless elephant was shot with a 375H&H within a South African 300gr Dzombo flat nose solid at 18yds, oblique frontal with the bullet recovered under the skin of the neck after penetrating the atlanto-occipital joint.
My wife shot the hyena with the 375H&H and a Nosler 300gr Partition at 130yds instead of 50yds as planned, after first light in light rain in a steep part of the Marongora Valley close to the floor of the Zambezi Valley. Apparently only the 2nd one to be taken on bait in Makuti.
The sable in the region of 45" was shot in the mountains adjacent to the Ruese Valley. She shot the sable with her Ruger No1 416 Rigby and a Nosler Partition 400gr while it was severely quartering away, 92% weight retention recovered under the skin of the offside shoulder, distance was slightly more than 150yds. In trophy hunting God is on the side of the biggest bullet and sometimes the best shot is the one that is presented.
Packing the sable out proved the teams' mettle! The klipspringer was a last morning bonus with the 416 Rigby beating my previous one comfortably by an inch. First animal I have shot with my wife's Rigby.

RT (Rich Tabor) and his team proved to be uncomplaining and hard workers and my compliments to him for connecting my wife with that sable. After the connection she excelled in shooting an excellent shot under difficult (and out of breath) circumstances.

Our thanks to RT and CMS!

Great trophies. I would love to read a full report of your hunt.

Congrats!

awesome sable and klippy.

Nice shooting by your wife...she's a keeper!!!

Congrats! I'm sure you're proud!

Regards,
Scott

Good job and I like the photo of your wife holding the Hyena's head. Should be a caption to that.

Great Sable, very heavy.

Proper sable and klipspringer . . . two of Zim's jewels.

Well done.

That's an amazing Sable, congratulations!

Awesome trophies and sounds like Rich and his team were as hard working as ever. Well done!

Congratulations on a great trip. Thank you for sharing your experience.

Congratulations
love that Klippy,and the Hyena!

Balule,
well done! My son and I shared the Makuti camp with you.
That was one grand Sable your wife shot!
It was a pleasure to share camp with you two.
best wishes,
jerry

Beautiful horns on the sable. Thanks for sharing the pics

quote:

Originally posted by fairgame:
Good job and I like the photo of your wife holding the Hyena's head. Should be a caption to that.Great Sable, very heavy.

From my limited experience it would be, "Hurry up and take the picture. This thing stinks".

Congrats,great hunt,I enjoyed the pictures.

Fantastic hunt. Great trophies. Fantastic klipspringer. Makuti is an amazing hunting area. Hope the Ruese road left an impression. Congrats.

Well done - awesome sable.

Major league sable. Congrats.

Excellent pictures! Congrats to the both of you!!!

Balule,

Congrats to you and your wife. Nice trophies and great shooting. I love your quote below. It's very true.

"In trophy hunting God is on the side of the biggest bullet and sometimes the best shot is the one that is presented."

Mark

First of all thank you for all the kind comments and congrats expressed.

Quickshot:
We missed you very quickly after you guys left, the camp was very quiet at night. We also missed the nightly report of activities of the other team in the field that we got used to for the first 6 nights. We were grateful to have only an hour and a half flight back home compared to the time you spent traveling. Your sable may be shorter by a couple of inches or so but you guys definitely put in the legwork and time that any sable deserves. Best wishes and we both hope that you'll breathe African air soon again.

To give a short report of the hunt.
The ele was shot at 15:00 on the 1st day after we muddled around from lookout to lookout. We bumped the 4 ellies on the way down to the Ruese and shot the biggest of 2 tuskless in the herd after a short 20min follow up. We met up with the group feeding towards us, they caught a whiff of human scent and while they were periscoping for us I fired a kind oblique frontal crappy shot that I probably shouldn't have, but did anyway and the good luck was with me, because it worked perfectly. (Mental note - to avoid potential crap in future wait for proper presentation) I was initially reluctant to take the ele on the 1st day but then I have rejected other gifts from the Gods of hunting to my own frustration and embarrassment.

Day 2 was spent recovering 1 elephant, 1 Toyota Land Cruiser with a stuffed gearbox and putting out hyena bait in the Marangorra valley.

Day 3 we hit the bait at 04:00 with little serious activity and then went for a hike for sable in the mountains east of the Ruese. Good sign but no visuals.

Day 4 we explored Secret Valley, good sign, no visuals.

Day 5 we hit the bait at 04:00 again with 3 hyenas on the bait. As hunting will have it the hyenas were not feeding but muddling around further down the ravine in a light drizzle.
Eventually Lorinda had a shot at a walking hyena at 130yds with 375H&H with the Trijicon 1,25 - 4 scope and a 300gr Partition. The hyena was big, wet and smelly. Smelly like maggot infested elephant meat, hyena and wet Basset hound rolled into one. (To be marketed as Au-de-Marangorra to keep the in laws and tax collector at bay) The rest of the day we hunted the Ruae Valley. Some spoor of choice assorted game, no visuals except baboon but one of those days that will always linger in my mind. I was just happy to be alive, happy to live in Africa, happy to be looking at old elephant crap, happy to be carrying a gun in the bush almost quietly wishing that the day won't have to be spoilt by meeting the right sable.

Day 6 we made an early move to the mountains east of the Ruese. After a slow, long and gradual climb up a valley we found fresh sable tracks at the top. Following the trackers to a crest I whispered to Lorinda that I thought the one set of tracks was really big (of course I am an expert tracker and have seen millions of sable tracks before on Discovery Channel, yeah sure!) Lo and behold the herd of 15 contained one very big bull, but yet very reddish-brown for an adult sable bull. RT (Rich Tabor - not to be confused with RS (Rich Schulz) who guided quikshot) )then decided that this was indeed the trophy that was ordered but they were comfortably out of range at 460yds. After a while the herd grazed to one side of the valley and was out of sight and we made a quick approach using an elephant path to enter and descend into the valley. We connected with them again at somewhat less than 200yds, the bull was quartering away severely but RT advised Lorinda to take the shot. With the shot the sable scattered and then stood still. The bull had run half a circle closer to us but were now looking straight away. RT thought Lorinda had missed, the tracker thought she had hit, I just didn't know. Usually the tracker is right in my experience. It was decided to give the sable a Texas heart shot with me to back up. Watching the sable through the scope waiting for Lorinda to shoot the sable swayed to the left(now I was sure it was hit) turned broadside and Lorinda shot it in the spine. After it dropped we both fired a back up shot and one very nice sable was ready to ride a Land Cruiser. The team caped the sable, quartered the carcass and unbelievably every scrap of meat was carried down the mountains for 4km to the Cruiser in one go. I guess I have just grown up privileged.....

Day 7 - 9 was characterized by getting up late and hunting lightly for grysbok or klippie. RT did remember to have us back at camp for early sundowners.

Day 10 was another one of those days that life is just to good to be true. Overcast weather, hunting the most gorgeous green ridges imaginable. We had our best sighting of a sable bull in a valley for the whole trip. Dawdling along after the team, almost ready to accept that our hunt is finished but enjoying the day immensely we suddenly bumped the klippie that was quickly booked for the Land Cruiser ride with the 416 Rigby at about 50yds. A really wonderful klippie beating my personal best significantly, but fortunately hunting isn't a competition because the wifes' 5 3/8" are looking at me as I type this...

The rifle that I used is a 20yr old BRNO 375H&H with a 21" barrel and a Trijicon RMR sight and a Trijicon 1.25 - 4x scope. Ammunition was South African made 300gr Dzombo flat nose solids and 300gr Nosler Partitions all hand loaded .

My wife used a Ruger No1 in 416 Rigby with 400gr Barnes flat nose solids and 400gr Nosler Partitions all hand loaded. The rifle is scoped with a Zeiss 1,2 -5x scope on a 30mm tube.

I will post pics of the recovered bullets tomorrow.

Congratulations to you and your wife. Great photos and report.

Best regards, D. Nelson

Careful now Lorenda, Fisi will bite your face off (Ruark). Great report with some excellent trophies.

John

Dzombo 300gr solid recovered from elephant.





Nosler 416 400gr Partition recovered under far shoulder skin severely quartering away shot, 92& weight retention.





Nosler 416 400gr Partition recovered from humerus, back up shot also severely quartering away almost length wise shot, 78% weight retention.