Howdy Gents.
Just returned yesterday from Zimbabwe where I had a ten day hunt with Inyathi Hunters in Matetsi Unit 2. This was my first hunting trip. I took seven animals over seven days (buffalo 38", eland 40", waterbuck 30", kudu 52", impala 21", warthog 11", zebra stallion) and also got to observe an elephant hunt from 60 yards. My PH was Darren Ellerman and he was first rate in terms of experience, knowledge, personality, and field trophy assessment. Trophy bulls of all species were fairly scarce with the exception of sable. Saw several over 40" every day. Accomodations and food were excellent as well; my wife enjoyed the trip. Also took a canoe trip down upper Zambezi.

Wow, great results. Congratulations.

If the trophies were scarce you must have had a great PH to take 7 animals in 7 to 10 days.

How did you resist the sable??? Were they out of quota?

Kyler

Hey there Kyler:

Well, for sable you have to book a 12 to 14 day hunt at $100 per day more than the 10 day buffalo/plains game hunt and the trophy fee was $2,700 for the sable. So it would have cost an additional $5,000 and my budget was already busted. I plan to go back in two years for another buffalo, eland, kudu, and sable. Maybe even a hippo.

The Matetsi Unit 2 was 70,000 acres and I was the only hunter on the unit. Cows of all species were common (except for eland), but big bulls were few and far between. I did have a great PH in Darren Ellerman, that's for sure.

Paul,
Does this outfit have a website, or how did you find out about them and get hooked up to go?

bison:

Cabela's is the outfitter's booking agent. It's Cabela's Outdoor Adventures on the website: www.cabelas.com

Cabela's is in the ninth year as booking agent for Inyathi Hunters and Dick and Mary Cabela have hunted with them several times. The way I figured it, Cabela's probably did a lot of research on them. Here's the web address:

http://www.cabelas.com/cabelas/en/content/community/int....jsp?hierarchyId=701

After only one trip to Africa, I am obviously no expert, but I can say I am 100 % satisfied.

I have not hunted with them, but I did spend an afternoon fishing on the Zambezi with their head PH, Guy Venter. He was a super guy and a lot of fun to hang out with.

Doug

dougaboy:

You are right, Guy Venter is something else. If you were making a movie about PHs in Africa he would be a good cast member. I had the pleasure of drinking and dining with Guy, Darren Ellerman (my PH), Guav Johnson, and Johnny Johnson and those guys have some stories! I had more fun than I ever thought possible. Guav Johnson was nice enough to let me go out as an observer on that elephant hunt and I think seeing an elephant taken is a rare opportunity. He let me go because Darren Ellerman told him I was cool under pressure and walked quietly.

Did you see many buffalo? I hunted there with Guav in July. The buffalo were scarce. The sable, elephant and other game were not.

Did you see any lion? We heard them before day break but never saw them.

Kensco:

Buffalo were very scarce on Unit 2. Over my ten days, I saw one group of five dagga boys and shot one of them. He was the only shootable bull. A few days later we saw one lone bull, very old and big bodied, but horn spread maybe 36". Buffalo were even more scarce on Unit 3; Inyathi transfered a hunter over to Unit 2 from Unit 3 so he could have a go at buff. I already had mine so that was fine by me. He's the same hunter that shot the elephant on my last day and let me observe.

The PHs thought maybe the reason for buffalo scarcity was the heavy rains early and the cool weather in September. It really only got hot right at the end of September when I left. It actually rained in Matetsi a bit and quite a bit up in Vic Falls.

We saw one lioness and two cubs from about 40 yards in Matetsi. When we went down to Hwange Park we saw one lion and maybe five lionesses. In the park we also saw a herd of 150 or so buffalo.

Guav Johnson is a heck of a nice guy as is his father Johnny. I hear he is pretty intense when you're actually hunting with him. That guy can walk 50 miles a day I think. My PH Darren Ellerman calls him "Blade" as in blade of grass.

Your hunt sounds like the identical to mine. I was the only hunter on M-2. Not enough buffalo to go around. No buffalo on M-3.

Guav lives to hunt elephant it appeared to me. He was very methodical, determined, when hunting buffalo. While he had some pretty exciting buffalo hunting stories to tell he struck me as a guy that knew exactly what he was doing. He didn't hurry to force a shot, he was the ultimate predator. We stalked three times to within 50'of dagga-boys and made the final stalk after deciding we weren't going to do any better.

The end-game was textbook. Move in close, shoot off the sticks, follow-up about fifty yards to where the buffalo was lying (facing his back-trail) insurance shot...bellow...old lion-scarred 38" trophy.

To me that was a great hunt, and a great job by a PH. No surprises, no drama, no heart-stopping, narrow escapes. We had a good plan and good execution all-round.

Had the landscape greened-up any? It had recently burned-off when I was there. Any more spitting cobras in the kitchen? We also had a little white/brown mouse that watched the World Cup with us. He was ballsy. He nipped Guav in the ankle one night.

I was amazed that while so many obsess about which make/style of expensive boot to hunt in, Guav hunted in open-toed sandals.

Kensco:

That's funny, the mouse watched cricket and rugby with us. He must like Roger's cooking as much as we did.

As I understand it, Unit 4 is all burned and there are large areas of Unit 3 burned as well. Some burn in Unit 2, but for the most part we had the most grass. There were areas that were starting to green up a bit.

The first night we were at Unit 2, the guys were all banging on the water pipes around each of the huts. My wife asked me what they were doing (which was trying to clear the pipes of the mineral deposits). I told her they were scaring off the cobras for us. Turns out they did kill a cobra in the kitchen that night, so the joke was on me.

When I observed the elephant hunt with Guav as the PH, I was surprised to look up and see his sandals in the middle of the path as he carried on barefoot. He told me that he could probably walk up to within a few feet of an elephant as long as he was barefoot. Amazing guy; you're right he is one determined and focused PH. Super nice guy, as was my PH Darren Ellerman.

I've got a photo of Guav holding up the Mozambique (spitting) Cobra by the tail that was killed in the kitchen one night while I was there. We also stopped-short one morning as we were leaving while a puff adder crossed in front of us.

Paul: Any pics for us to look at of your hunt that you can post?

Howdy Gents:

Well, I'm still trying to get the pictures posted here, but in the mean time, here is a link to the photos.

http://www.villagephotos.com/pubbrowse.asp?folder_id=1764731

It's funny, all I can think about is Africa...

Paul

What rifle did you use for the Buff? Nice pictures by the way.

TerryR

TerryR:

I used a Blaser S2 in .470 Nitro Express. This week I traded it in on a Krieghoff Classic Big 5 also in .470 NE. Long story, but for me Blaser's (SigArms) customer service was very poor. For everything else I used a Remington Custom Shop ABG in .375H&H; my extractor broke off on day 5 of my 10 day hunt. Does anyone know a gunsmith that installs the Sako type extractor?

So, next time I will be using the Krieghoff and probably a Beretta Mato in .338 WinMag or a Kimber in .325 WSM.

Paul,

Roger Ferrell
Fayetteville, GA (South side of Atlanta)
(770) 460-0533

Great Gunsmith that does wonderful work at reasonable rates does Sako extractors on Remington actions, as well as anything else you may need for your guns. Hugh

Look familiar? Greg Martin and his wife, Elisa were hunting in Unit 3 at the same time Paul and his wife Sue Ann were in Unit 2. (I was the lowly camera man this trip). Paul did extremely well his first safari and was a great guy to boot. Although I did trip over him when running away when Greg shot his elephant. Paul and I were a measured 21 paces away when the elephant stopped, armed with nothing but a camera between us - great fun!

Jeff

A Matesi Sundowner

quote:

Paul,

Roger Ferrell
Fayetteville, GA (South side of Atlanta)
(770) 460-0533

Great Gunsmith that does wonderful work at reasonable rates does Sako extractors on Remington actions, as well as anything else you may need for your guns. Hugh

I'm also using Roger on a pre-64 Mod 70 project for my son.

Jeff!

Hey big man how are you? Awesome photos!

I talked to Mark Penrod and he said he did not recommend the change in extractor. I'm going to just sell the Remington when I get it fixed. The new Krieghoff .470NE is really great. It's much thinner than the Blaser and points like a 16 gauge shotgun. I cannot wait to use it on another buffalo.

****

Greg and Jeff were kind enough to let me tag along with them on the elephant hunt. I had asked Guav Johnson if I could just stay in the truck but Greg said I could actually go out with them on the trail. I tried really hard not to step on a stick. The way I see it, Greg and Jeff let me have a once in a lifetime opportunity to see an elephant hunt, and as Jeff said it was at VERY close range. It was exciting, to say the least.

We also saw Elisa (Greg's wife) shoot that nice sable which was only about 120 yards from our truck.

You meet the nicest people on safari....