Hunters: Chris Peccia and Robert Peccia
Operator: Zambezi Hunters hunting in Charlton McCallum Safaris Hunting Areas
Alistair Pole – alistairpole@gmail.com

PH: Thierry Labat – Zambezi Hunters and Thierry Labat Safaris – phthierrylabat@gmail.com
Apprentice PH: Graham Cochrane – Charlton McCallum Safaris

Hunt Area: Zimbabwe – Dande East (Karunga Camp) and Dande Safari Area (Pedza Pasi Camp) – Charlton McCallum Safaris Hunting Area
Accomodations: Karunga Camp – hosted by Graham Cochrane
Pedza Pasi – managed by Sara Tabor (and helpful son, Sam)

Tracker: Mudini
Driver: Ishmael

Dates: Arrival in Camp June 4, 2013
Hunting dates June 5-June 16, 2013
Depart Camp June 17, 2013

Travel and Gun Permits: Gracy Travel – Shawn Kennedy – shawn@gracytravel.com
Airlines: Delta from HLN-SLC-ATL -JNB.
Over-night at City Lodge in JNB on trip over, straight through JNB on return.
South African Airlines from JNB-HRE
Cessna 206 charter into Dande East and back from Pedza Camp

Rifles: Winchester Model 70’s in .416 Remington and .375 H&H
Ammo: Federal Swift A-Frames and Barnes Banded Solids for both .416 and .375 H&H
Optics: My Father and I both used Swarovski 10x42 SLC

Animals taken: buffalo x 3, kudu and hyena


This hunt was originally scheduled to be an elephant-buffalo hunt in the Save on the Sango area but due to the problems in the Save that hunt had to be scrapped about a month before departure.

Thierry, Alistair and I looked at various options and ultimately decided upon a hunt on two of CMS’s hunting areas, Dande East and the DSA.

I felt pretty comfortable rescheduling this hunt to CMS’ area mainly due to their stellar reputation and I’d also had the privilege of spending an evening with both Buzz Charlton and Myles McCallum at the SCI show in Vegas so I was confident about having a good hunt. Throw in the fact that Thierry Labat has success wherever he hunts, I knew it would be a fun, albeit different, hunt than originally planned.

As Thierry stated when we were looking at the various options, one option being cancelling the hunt. “You can’t NOT come to Africa this year, can you?” He was right, I was all-in again.

Travel over was uneventful with the exception of a delay from hell on the ATL-JNB leg putting us into JNB about 7 hours late but allowing us to make the all-important connection the next day to Harare and the switch to the Cessna 206 for the one hour and 15 minute flight into Karunga in Dande East.

We couldn’t hunt the day we arrived so we shot the rifles and went on a quick drive around Dande East as Thierry hadn’t hunted that area before.

We weren’t seeing a lot of tracks and I was starting to get a bit concerned until we came around a bend in the road and there was an absolute slammer of a buffalo standing in an opening about 100 yards away with a younger bull. I guess we’ll be all right in the East!

The first morning of hunting found us back at the site of the big buffalo sighting looking for tracks. We picked up the two dugga boy tracks and followed them for a few miles when they mixed with another herd. Not being able to sort out the mess we followed the herd until mid-morning and spotted them lying down in the brush. We bumped them slightly but they didn’t spook too badly so we elected to back off and return in the late afternoon hoping to find them when they were up and moving instead of bedded down.

That afternoon we picked up the tracks and followed them for an hour or so and Thierry spotted them lying down again. After looking at our options we decided to try to get into shooting distance so Thierry and I crab crawled a hundred yards or so and got into decent shooting range. After sorting out the herd, we spotted what we felt was a good bull. It had great looking bosses but we couldn’t really see much else.

After about 15 minutes the wind shifted slightly and the buffalo jumped to their feet and nervously stood around sniffing the fickle wind.

The bull finally stepped clear giving me a slight quartering away shot at about 90 yards. And folks, this is where I wish the story had a different ending. It pains me to type the rest of this sequence but I flat out screwed it up.

Thierry asked me if I could make the shot and I told him I could. It wasn’t an especially difficult shot and one I had no qualms taking so I did. At the shot, the buffalo lurched forward like a classic heart/lung shot.

Thierry asked me if it felt good and I said it did because it did. Graham, my Dad, Mudini and the game scout walked up. Graham had seen the buffalo hunch and thought it looked and sounded good.

We exchanged a few high fives and handshakes then walked over to where the buffalo was standing.

About ten yards from where the buffalo was standing was some bright pink, bubbly lung blood. Perfect, just about what I figured. We gave it ten minutes and then began the follow up expecting the buffalo to be dead in a distance measured in feet.

Well that plan went to hell. Feet became yards and yards became a ¼ mile and darkness was coming quickly and we had a long way to walk back to the truck.

Reluctantly, and despite good blood, we backed off and decided to come back first thing in the morning.

I was positively sick to my stomach and felt terrible. I’ll spare you the “you hunt long enough, it happens” bullshit. When it happens, it super-sucks, no two ways about it and I was very upset.

Next morning we began the follow up. Found good blood which deteriorated into not good blood fairly quickly. We followed the buffalo into some real tight spots that were thick as hell and I was sure we were about to have an encounter many times over the next 10 hours. The buffalo kept going and stayed with the herd. Not exactly a sign of a hard hit buffalo. We followed him into the thick jess until dark and came back the next morning.

For those that don’t know, Dande East is right on the Mozambique border and that is where that buffalo headed. We stared and cursed at the GPS and I badly wanted to follow but all we could do is hope that buffalo crossed back into Zimbabwe in the ensuing days. He didn’t, and we never saw hide nor hair of him again.

I wish I could blame it on something but I went back to camp on Day 3 and shot my rifle again and it was dead on. I flat out screwed it up and I can’t offer up any excuses and to this day I honestly don’t know where I hit that buffalo. I can only guess I hit him too low and clipped one lung. There is no doubt it was lung blood and tissue but other than that, I don’t know what happened.

At this point, I’m deeply disappointed in myself and definitely was a little shaken but there was not much I could do but get back to hunting hard and do better the next time.

On day four we chased buffalo around in the morning without success. On the way back to camp, a nice kudu bull ran across the road so we gave chase. Thierry and I jumped off the truck with Mudini and followed the tracks. After a couple hundred yards the kudu started walking and we soon spotted him feeding in the thick brush with a cow. After a couple hundred yards of cat and mousing, he finally presented a shot. He was quartering facing away from us and the only shot was the back of the neck.

I quickly took the shot and he piled up instantly. No follow up required on him, thankfully.



We ran the kudu back to the skinning shed and had lunch and returned for the evening hunt and looked for some buffalo to hunt that evening or some tracks for the morning. Found a few promising tracks before it got too late to do much.

On the way back to camp a hyena crossed the road in front of us. We flipped a quick U-turn on the road and headed back.

Surprisingly, he was still near the road so I jumped out and quickly off-handed him with the .416 and shot him dead in the chest. He lurched to the right a few steps so I shot him again.

Nice big hyena! I was happy as heck as I think they are a pretty cool animal. It wasn’t exactly a classic hyena hunt but what the hell.





Day five was much the same, follow buffalo, bump buffalo, follow, bump ect. No shots were fired.

Five days into the hunt and no buffalo dead. Yeah, I know, there SHOULD have been one dead but I was trying to move past that.

Day 6 dawned and we were back at the buffalo. We picked up a set of dugga boy tracks and went to work sorting them out. After following them until mid-morning, the wind began to swirl so Thierry put a halt on the tracking and we decided to come back in the late afternoon hoping to catch him up and feeding.

After some lunch and napping in the shade, we picked up the tracks in the late afternoon. As we were following the lone dugga boy, he crossed the tracks of a group of four bulls. Change of plans, four are much easier to follow than one.

After a mile or so, the sign began to look very fresh. Not long after, Mudini dropped to the ground pointing off to our right, hissing, “Nyati”.

We quickly glassed them and could tell there were a couple good bulls amongst the four. We quickly circled back behind them a couple hundred yards to get the wind right and closed the distance. We had some good cover and the wind was perfect so we crawled to within about 60 yards.

All four buffalo had their heads down so we got on the sticks and got ready to shoot as we waited for them to lift their heads.

Finally one bull lifted his head. Smoker bull for sure! Had to be mid-40’s easy. A superb bull, probably the biggest I’ve seen. And young. Damn. In a couple years, someone is going to shoot a monster bull in the East I’m predicting.

The second bull back lifts his head. “Shoot him” Thierry says. So I did. Hit him slightly high in the shoulder but dropping him. Jack another round in, but the three other bulls are running directly behind the fallen bull and I can’t shoot. Finally, they clear and I get an opportunity just as the bull stumbles to his feet. I put another one in him and he runs out of sight.

Graham, Mudini and my Dad walk up and we begin the short follow up. We get to the last spot we saw the buffalo and he’s lying dead about 40 yards away. Whew, what a relief after the earlier debacle.

Mudini and the game scout hike back to the truck to get Ishmael and they cut a road in as we do the grip and grinning.





It felt good to get buffalo #1 down as we were half way through the hunt and we were still trying to shoot one more trophy bull and also a non-exportable that had to be hunted on the DSA so we needed to get over there to complete the hunt.

We decided to take one more lap around the East in the morning before heading out on the 3 hour drive to the DSA.

The next morning we did our final lap around the Dande East area and didn’t see much sign so we headed back toward camp.

About half way back to camp Mudini tapped on the roof to stop the truck. Fresh tracks crossing over our earlier tire tracks. Hmmm…..

Obviously these were dang fresh so even though it was mid-morning, we decided to give it a whirl since we were leaving right after lunch for DSA.

We picked up the tracks and followed them for a mile or so. The wind was terrible and Thierry remarked that if we see them we were going to have to act fast before they spooked.

Not more than five minutes after he made his comment, we saw the herd in a little depression with some buffalo lying down and a few stragglers still feeding. They were about 150 yards out so we got as low as we could and quickly moved as close as possible.

We closed the distance to about 60 yards and quickly sized up the buffalo. There were a couple smaller bulls, some cows and calves and one lone buffalo off to the right side whose head we couldn’t see. He raised his head, Thierry said “Shoot that one!” and I did. At the shot, the buffalo lined out from our left to our right with the bull in the front. I quickly cycled another round and shot him again just as the rest of the herd caught up to him. He made it about another 20 yards and fell over and I shot him one more time right between the shoulders.

I could tell he was a nice bull but I wasn’t sure how nice. He ended up being a shade under 41” and we were all happy.

Mudini and the game tracker went back to get Ishmael and the truck and begin cutting a road to the buffalo as Thierry, my Dad, Graham and I did the photo taking.

The guys arrived after about an hour and we did a few more group photos and loaded the buffalo and headed back to camp, bringing our hunt in the Dande East to a close on Day 7.











The Dande East is some tough buffalo hunting but we saw some outstanding buffalo and I would have little hesitation in returning there for a buffalo hunt in the future.

We ate a quick lunch, packed up our gear, thanked and rewarded the staff for a job well done and headed for the Pedza Pasi camp in the DSA.

We drove through several different villages on the way and it was interesting to see some of the local areas.







We arrived at the Pedza camp just after dark and unloaded our stuff and were welcomed to camp by Sarah Tabor, the camp manager who does an outstanding job taking care of CMS’ clients.

Rich Tabor was also in camp with two clients so we were able to swap hunting stories with them and hear about their extremely successful safari.

My Dad had been gracious enough to let me shoot the two trophy buffalo so now we were looking for a non-exportable, non-trophy buffalo for him.

We spent the first few days getting familiar with the Dande Safari Area and looking for tracks.

On the third day of hunting, we tracked a large herd of buffalo. We figured there were between 50-75 buffalo in this herd.

Thierry and my Dad were able to close the distance on them as they fed through the thick brush and had an absolute stud of a bull feed within 40 yards of them. He was near the magical 40” mark and clearly not a non-trophy buffalo. Pretty sure my Dad was ready to kill me about then.

Before they could sort out an acceptable bull, a cow and calf fed within 30 yards and spotted Thierry and my Dad and the gig was up. The herd ran and we chased. We had them close to us several times but no shot opportunities were presented.

Dang, two days to go and I really wanted my Dad to get a buffalo and time was getting short.

The second to the last day was pretty uneventful, we chased some buffalo around in the thick stuff but never could get a good look at them.

The last day dawned and as we sat around having our morning coffee, I remembered it was Father’s Day. Hmmm…..

After wishing my Dad and new-Dad Thierry a Happy Father’s Day we got moving and headed to a spring to check for tracks in an area where we’d left some buffalo the night before.

Mudini and Ishmael picked up tracks from what appeared to be a new herd of buffalo so we began tracking them through some nice open country, hoping to catch them before it got too late and they hit the thick stuff.

It wasn’t too long before we caught up with the buffalo and we circled around to get ahead of them as we could hear them snorting and feeding through the long grass.

The herd had split a bit with one half on the ridge below us and the other half across a small drainage. The buffalo closest to us were headed our way, some passing by all of us at about 30 yards.

One nice, hard bossed bull headed our way but dropped behind a small rock outcropping preventing a shot.

We circled back ahead of them and Thierry readied my Dad on the sticks as the buffalo began to file through once again. Finally the nice hard-bossed bull we’d seen earlier appeared presenting a shot. My Dad took it and hit him hard. He ran a bit and stopped and my Dad shot him again, putting him down. We all approached the bull and my Dad shot him on more time just in case.

Happy Father’s Day, Dad!!!!!!!!!! I was thrilled for him and extremely relieved for me. And it was the last day of the hunt so we certainly got our money’s worth with 12 days of great buffalo hunting.

We were able to get the truck close to the buffalo so we took the hero shots and loaded the buffalo in the truck and headed for camp, a group of happy hunters for sure.













We took a short drive that evening with hopes of finding my Dad a kudu but it was basically a farewell tour of the DSA and we enjoyed great sunset with some good friends and some cold Zambezi beers.



For a Plan B hunt it was a ton of fun and we both really enjoyed the hunting.

CMS does a great job taking care of their clients. The chalets in both camps were very comfortable, the food was excellent, the company was always good, whether it be Rich Tabor and his hunters or Alan Shearing and his hunters.

Graham Cochrane is a heck of a nice guy and I enjoyed getting a chance to hunt with him. I think he’ll be a great PH in the future and I’m sure he learned a lot by spending a few days hunting with Mr. Labat.

We did get a chance to visit with Buzz Charlton for a quick minute on the road and Thierry communicated with him via radio often. Many thanks to Buzz and Myles for coordinating with Alistair Pole to allow us to conduct the hunt in their fantastic area while Zambezi Hunters worked on getting the Save sorted out.

Alistair and Thierry do a great job of communicating with the clients and have done a great job of making the best of a tough situation. Alistair does an outstanding job and I am extremely impressed with Zambezi Hunters’ whole operation.

As most of you know, they have just recently received their permits for Sango and Arda and are now back to their normal operations. Hopefully the rest of the Save follows suit and all the operators are up and running soon.

This was my second hunt with Thierry Labat and I just can’t say enough about the guy. He’s an excellent guy to spend time in the bush with and an even better hunter. I consider him a very good friend and I’m guessing we’ll have many more African adventures to follow.

He does an outstanding job organizing every detail and has a great couple of guys in Mudini and Ishmael. They make one hell of a team.



I just recently booked a hunt in Sango for late November/early December with Thierry for the original elephant and buffalo hunt and couldn’t be more excited that I get to return to Africa again this year.

In addition, I am booked next June for a double buffalo on Sango with my Dad, my wife and my two teenage daughters and can’t wait to show them why I love Africa so much.

This turned into a longer report than I intended so please accept my apologies for the long read but hope you enjoyed it.

Good hunting ladies and gents!

Chris

Great report!!! Awesome trophies. You can be proud. WELL DONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

What a great way to spend Father's Day! Congratulations on all the animals harvested. I was in your neck of the woods last week testing my fly fishing ability (or lack thereof)on some of the local trout in the Missouri. Had a blast and can't wait to move to Montana in two years. Congrats once again!

Great report, well illustrated. Wonderful to see a father/son duo do so well as a team.

Great report! The buff hunt sounded amazing, and what a way to spend a father's day! Beautiful Kudu as well!
Thank you for sharing and good luck on the return trip this year!

Great hunt report! Nice buffalo hunt, sorry about the wounded/lost one. Congratulations

Wonderful report! Wonderful game taken! Congrats!

You have to hand it to those Save operators, I have yet to see anyone who's hunt has had to be moved, not have a good hunt. And thank goodness you have quality folks like Buzz an Myles helping to make it all work.

Good on all of you guys!

Great report! You lucked out with that chance encounter on the hyena. How did you like the kuiu shirt over there? I find mine too hot most of the time.

Sounds and looks like a great trip.

quote:

Originally posted by Peter Andersen:
Great report! You lucked out with that chance encounter on the hyena. How did you like the kuiu shirt over there? I find mine too hot most of the time.

I liked it. I wore the 185 weight and it worked well.

I've been real happy with all my Kuiu gear and love everything about it but the pricetag!

What a great report and hunt. Thanks for sharing. Really enjoyed the photos.

I spent this past father's day en route back home to California from Namibia, with my father in law. His 19th, my 2nd safari.

Great report and great photos - thanks for sharing. Show me a hunter who claims to have never lost or wounded an animal, and I will show you a liar or someone who hasn't hunted much. It literally rips my guts out when it happens to me, but it does happen from time to time. Thanks for your honesty in telling your story. It makes it all the better. You must be a Republican, because you did not blame someone or something else for your initial misfortune!

Top report.Thanks so much.

Chris,
My friend Wes and I met you on the road while we were finishing up our hunt with CMS. Glad your adventure turned out well for both you and your Dad. You got some great looking animals.

quote:

Originally posted by Edod:
Chris,
My friend Wes and I met you on the road while we were finishing up our hunt with CMS. Glad your adventure turned out well for both you and your Dad. You got some great looking animals.

Thanks, it was nice to visit with you guys for a few minutes, you guys had a great hunt!

Great!

Man..That sucks about that first Bull,But it looks like you recovered very well.
Congratulations on your hunt and your trophies.

Chris,

Fantastic report and pics!
Enjoyed every minute of it

Roland

Loved the report and photos.
I experienced a lost buffalo in the Save in 2005. It sucks, big time. You have obviously taken big first steps in getting past it.

Great report Chris!! Outstanding bulls as well. Thiery aka(Slipknot) is still hammering some great trophies as usual. Good stuff guys!!

quote:

Originally posted by FishN4Eyes:
I liked it. I wore the 185 weight and it worked well.

I've been real happy with all my Kuiu gear and love everything about it but the pricetag!

I'm happy with all of mine thus far too. The price is a shock but the gear is great and it is cheaper than most sitka stuff.

I wore my beanie on the Zambezi when I was fishing. Saved my ears from sunburn on the water and was cool until midday.

Excellent all round. First-rate trophies, area, operators, PH. Congratulations Chris, Robert, Thierry, CMS, ZH, everyone involved. Well done for making the most of a difficult situation and turning plan B into such a successful hunt. The value of dealing with true professionals.

Guy

+1

Thank you for posting such a fine report. I'm partial to buffalo number two, but all are very fine. Great your Dad got his as well. Love your hyena too.

A combination of ZH and CMS must surely make for the finest safari.

Congratulations, and thank you for the fine pictures, buff pictures in particular are very good.

Jytte

Great report and some fine trophies! And you and the others who posted are right. If you hunt long enough, you will wound and lose an animal. It is a bitter experience that is a part of hunting. Learn from it and time will ease the pain but never fully erase it.

Good report Chris. Sorry about the 1st buff, but it happens. Still sucks but you made a nice recovery.

I wish my dad and I could have enjoyed a safari together. He's still with us but past the ability to go. Cherish those days spent afield with him.

Cheers.

Wonderful report - thanks for sharing! Didn't realize you had experienced so much drama with your buffalo hunts, as you both seemed to be so positive in camp! Really enjoyed breaking bread with you both at Pedza. Thanks for including the photo of Sam - it was hard to leave our newest surrogate grandson behind!





It was truly a pleasure meeting you and Bob, and hope we cross paths again!

David

Nice collection of trophies. Met Thierry on my last safari. He hunts hard for his clients. Super guy.
lb

Fantastic trophies!

Great stuff, Chris. Congratulations on a great Plan B.

Priceless.