10 January 2015, 01:16
bwanajayLeopard / Buffalo Safari with Charlton McCallum Safaris
Charlton McCallum SafarisCountry: Zimbabwe
Area: Dande East- Maruru Camp & Mantombo Camp Ward-1
Hunt Dates: 7/21 - 8/4 2014
Leopard / Buffalo Safari
Travel Agent: Steve Turner and Susan Hill / Travel with Guns.
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Ruger 458 Lott 500 gr Barns TSX topped with a 1.5 x 5 leupold
Winchester 30 x 338 165g gr Barnes TSX topped with a 2.5x15x44 swavoroski Z6i
PH: Rich Tabor
Camera Man: Justin Drainer
This is my first hunt report, so here it goes…
I flew Delta, business class, on 7/19 from Huston to Atlanta then on to JNB.
African Sky meet & greet has always taken good care of me and this time was no different. I was escorted to the front of the SAPS line and in 15 minutes we were headed to African Sky. There were lots of hunters in line behind me. The temperature was 55 DEG at 6:30 p.m. When my hunting takes me through JNB African Sky is my home away from home. Once settled in I had a few Castles and met some fellow hunters. I shared a bottle of red wine over lamps chops with them and then off to a comfortable bed.
The next morning I flew out of TAMBO on SAA to Harare. Buzz met me at the airport and drove me to the Amanzi Lodge. Amanzi is like a small tropical rain forest and very quiet. I had dinner at an Indian restaurant and a nice visit that night with Miles. The hot Indian Mutton Curry was very tasty. Myles is always good company.
The next morning Buzz and I had a relaxed breakfast and leisurely drove to the Harare Airport. Buzz walked me through security and on out to the charter plane. All went very smoothly. After an hour and fifteen minutes we landed on a dirt strip near Pedza, the main camp, and were met by Siraaj. I liked him straightaway. He is an apprentice hunter for Buzz and Myles that will make a name for himself in the near future. Siraaj and I loaded up and headed for Maruru Camp. We picked up Aaron, our game scout, along the way.
Maruru is at the top of all the African hunting camps I’ve stayed in. It’s not big and not fancy it’s a hunting camp sitting on the edge of a sand river and lacks nothing a hunter needs. Given some time a fellow could bag the big four plus plains game while seated in the dining area of camp.
Day1: We left camp at 6am with frosty breath. We cut buff tracks up in the mountains about an hour later. We tracked up to the heard in a half hour. Rich worked the herd as good as any savvy PH can work them
and I have hunted with some of the best. African winds can be very tricky and even more so in the mountains. I shot a nice buff about an hour later.
I knew after that first hunt that my camera man, Justin, was no green horn to hunting… We were going to make a good team. We chopped out a road to the buff and in doing so found a nice thickly shaded spring with lots of leopard activity. We had lunch and hung our first bait there, which was a four day old buff leg from a previous hunt.
I have had leopard on license before but this would be my first time to hunt old chui. I was taking it all in. For folks that have never hunted cats, hyenas or crocs be ready for some new fragrances… all day long.
Mtumboo plays a big role in this. Our daily routine consisted of hunting, hanging baits and checking baits not necessarily all in that order. The morning of day four we had ten baits swinging and a big old Tom feeding on one of them.
The nights were very cold, two blankets cold, and jackets were needed up to around 9 am every morning, after that sleeves were rolled up and we would be cruising under blue bird skies…
Day 3: An old male Zebra stallion was spotted a good distance off by one of the trackers. This donkey had played the stalking game before. He finally made a mistake and stopped long enough for me to range him quartered to us. We collected more bait. I never get tired of Zebra rugs, nor do my friends. I would supply a good friend’s wife with this nice Zebra rug.
I am partial to a PH that hunts hard all day long then settles in for some quiet visiting around the evening fire. Rich Tabor is this kind of PH. I did my home work before this hunt and discovered that he’s never too high nor low just stays right in the middle. Toddy in hand we had some interesting discussions every evening. Justin was fine company too.
Day 4: After finding the baby shumba track, as the trackers called it, we replenished the bait and built a blind. The blind was 80 yards from the tree with the Manume river separating blind from bait. Large mountains loomed in the back ground. It was one of those spots that just felt good. I told Rich that I wanted to check zero on my rifle at lunch, dead on. We were in the blind by 4:30 that afternoon. We had a close call with some Eles but they eventually moved on. Our cat arrived about thirty minutes before last legal shooting light. Rich whispered there is a cat laying to the right of the tree. My rifle was stationed in a shooting position so I eased up on it and found the cat. He was swatting flies and occasionally he would stare in our direction. I could see he had a big head, neck and shoulders. We watched him for about 15 minutes and that was very cool then Rich leaned over and whispered that if he didn’t get into the tree soon I would have to take him on the ground. Two minutes later Ol’ Chui got up and stretched and climbed up into the tree. I squeezed off to what I had always dreamed of; a big Tom, standing broadside in the tree over bait looking right at me in the day light. I told Rich that the shot was good. We made our way out of the blind and Justin assured me that the footage would be excellent. He was money on that. We checked up in the middle of the sand river to wait on our trackers. I smoke an occasional cigar but have never been a cigarette smoker. I puffed on one with Rich and Justin on this night as we gathered ourselves for the follow up. We walked to the tree and cut heavy blood about 10 yards out. We were shoulder to shoulder with Justin rolling right on our heels and both trackers lighting the way. He made it about 40 yards and expired but I am here to tell you brother it seemed like 400 yards as we tracked him, polepole, slowly slowly. I have followed buff and lion in the day light but this night follow up was completely different. My senses were all on full throttle. Looking back at the video I had a good laugh because my eyes are normally slightly squinty and as I looked to my right while tracking the camera catches my right eye and let’s just say my eye was gathering all the light it could, fully opened. I carried my cat to the truck on my shoulders, something else I had always dreamed of. We drove back to camp with Bohlingers in hand all very ecstatic. After a wild leopard celebration dance by all the guys in camp we settled in for some spirits around the fire. I was riding high…it doesn’t get any better than this.
That night the lions ate on my leopard carcass hanging 6 feet off the ground at the skinning shed.
Day 5: Walked the sand rivers looking for kudu, sable, and eland. We stopped by Pedza camp for lunch to restock on some supplies. Charlie keeps that camp on its toes and is good company too.
Day6: I shot a big hyena over bait from a blind without the aid of a torch. This is where good optics can make the hunt. I was using a Swarovski 2.5x15x44 Z6i. We could hear the dogs crunching bones and Rich had already told me that as soon as a light hit them they would be gone. I took my time on low power and found them in the scope at about 45 yards. I slowly eased up my power then turned on the lighted dot that I had preset to the lowest setting. In my opinion the lowest setting is all the light you’ll ever need. The big hyena was very mature.
Day7-9: We moved to Matombo Camp that is located on the banks of the Zambezi. The move required two trucks. The whole Maruru camp staff moved with us. As you walk into Matombo camp uphill from the parking area the view becomes incredible. The camp sits high up on the banks of the river. Looking out across the river towards Zambia are more mountains. That evening we sat some croc baits and looked over a few pods of hippo. We had a westward boat ride into a setting sun back to camp. What away to end the day on the Zambezi. Don’t forget to look at the Lady Of The Zambezi on the cliff walls near camp if you are ever there.
We hunted for a big Croc every day all day long. We sat baits, cruised the river and tributaries. We made lots of belly crawling stalks with some bringing us to within 15 yards of some nice crocs. We did see one big boy that we built a blind and baited for but never saw him again. There are lots of 12-13 foot crocs in the area.
Day 10: We found a pod of hippos cows that had a big bull with them. We belly crawled across an island and got into good position. The bull was 100 yards out and sleeping on a sandbar that had about 3 feet of water covering it. The sand bar dropped off to extremely deep water at all sides from the hippos. The trick was to brain him and hope the current didn’t roll him off the sand bank into the depths. I shot him from a prone position just at the base of the ear his head quartered slightly away from me while he rested it on the back of a cow. He slowly rolled over at the shot. Rich and Norest sprinted back to the boat and sailed around the island at a high rate of speed. They fastened a rope to his back leg with empty water bottles tied to the rope every ten feet for markers. An hour and thirty minutes later Rich floated him across the river with the boat to where we could drag him out. The crew made short work of him. The bush telegraph went out and we had tons of help. Some Zambian fisherman paddled over and thanked me because that bull had destroyed one of their mokoros a few days before. They had barely escaped the wrath.
Day 11-14: The remaining days were spent searching for a big croc.
Charlton McCallum safaris are a first class operation from top to bottom.
Rich Tabor sending me home.
