Posted 26 September 2006 10:00
We just returned from a great Hunt in the Selous. Myself and 3 close friends went to Hunt Cape Buffalo for the first time. We were hunting with Pierre Von Tonder Safari and I must say, we were impressed. The Camp, and staff were great. But the best thing about the trip, was that evereyone got what they went for. All of us got our Buffalo, plus plenty of plains game. This was real hunting and our PH's Clinton who is Pierre's son and his associate Vickers really went all out to get us on game. They were high energy, dynamic guides, who went the extra mile to give us a great hunt and at the same time have fun. It was obvious that they enjoy their jobs. One of my friends had not gotten his Buffalo, and on the last day of the hunt, Vickers took him and myself with our trackers, and we pounded the bush, tracking for several hours, mostly on our hands and knees, and at the last moment of that day, just before shooting time was up, we spooked the herd we had been tracking. We took after them on foot, running as fast as we could to keep up. Well, it payed off, because a big bull stopped long enough for shane to get off a shot. That was a perfect ending to One of the best hunts of my life. We booked the hunt through Jeff Martinell and it was everything he promised and more. If you are considering an African Big Game hunt, This group should be at the top of your list.

by the way, If you would like to view pics of
the hunt go to this link and we have several.

http://s100.photobucket.com/albums/m11/guyt_2006/

Excellent! congrats to all the hunters (Ph included) - never easy when hunting 4x2....

Guy and friends...great photos....Those guys will hunt their hearts out for you..

Mike

Great pictures - especially the river crossing with the buff head. That one almost equals the John Sharp Courtney ad with the natives carrying the ivory.

I have never met Clinton but he sure looks a lot like Pierr'e.

Congratulations on your successful and fun hunt!!! How soon are you going back????

Regards, D. Nelson

Guy
We met at the landing strip after your hunt. we were arriving and I beleive you were leaving.

We also hunted 4X2 and all had our buffs.

I also got my buff on the last day with Wikus. He works hard!

I am book for next year with them in the Masailand.

Congratulations! Always nice to hear about happy, successful hunters... Nice pictures too! Thanks for sharing..

Great to hear from you. Glad your hunt went well. Those boys did work hard, and really seemed to enjoy the job.
Keep in touch.

quote:

Originally posted by KUDUBULL:
Guy
We met at the landing strip after your hunt. we were arriving and I beleive you were leaving.

We also hunted 4X2 and all had our buffs.

I also got my buff on the last day with Wikus. He works hard!

I am book for next year with them in the Masailand.

As Soon as I can!!!

quote:

Originally posted by D. Nelson:
Congratulations on your successful and fun hunt!!! How soon are you going back????

Regards, D. Nelson

Here is some photos of Clinton and Wikus....They were with me right before your safari's... Hard working young Ph's...
They were there for the chui kabubi kabubi, party...


Mike

Wikus



Clinton



If not visable click on the link...
http://picasaweb.google.com/retreever/TanzTest

Details of the Hunt:

We Hunted with Pierre Von Tonder Safari from 8/22/06 till 08/29/06 We were in the Ruvu camp in the Salous. The camp is well staffed and well appointed. The Chef did a great job preparing anything we asked for. At night the chocolates on the pillow was a nice touch. Enough of that, Im sure you would rather read about the hunting. Well, there were four of us hunting, 2 on 1. Our PH's were Vickers and Clinton. Three of us had hunted in Africa priviously, but this was the first Tanzania hunt for all. We All brought big guns, as we all had heard the stories on how tenatious the Cape buffalo is. I personally was shooting a CZ 550 American in .458 LOTT, my buddy Paul was shooting a CZ 550 American in .416 Rigby, ourfriend Shane was shooting my Sauer 202 in .375 H&H, and my cousin Cliff was shooting a Blauser in .416 Rem. I loaded everyone's ammo with the exception of Cliff. He was using factory ammo and had only 3 misfires. I Loaded the Lott with two different bullets. For Buffalo I loaded 79gr. of 4895 behind a Barnes 500gr. TSX. For Plains game I loaded 82 gr. of 4895 behind a 300 gr. Barnes X. The 500 grain was averaging 2275 fps at the muzzel and the 300 grain a smokin 3100 fps. I sighted the 500 gr with the iron sights on the rifle and the 300 gr with a 1.5-6x schmidt & Bender scope with talley QR Rings. My Buffalo Dropped at 100 yards with 1 shot to the 500 grain and never moved. My Wildebeast was taken at 269 yards with the 300 grain, he made it about 12 steps. The rifle and ammo preformed brilliantly. I had CZ do all the custom work on mine and Paul's rifles, and they did a great job. We had custom stocks with Full glass bedding, crossbolts and Barrel swivels, Polished the action and feed ramps. Alice Palachova and her staff at CZ do a great job. If you are considering a DGR this is a great choice, but make sure you do this work to it. Or now they offer a version of it called the "Safari Classic" in this all the work is done. Paul was shooting the same rifle in .416 Rigby I loaded his ammo with 101 gr of RL22 behind a Barnes 400gr TSX his Buf also dropped with 1 shot and never moved. Shane got his buf on the last minute of the last day of our hunt and his also dropped with 1 shot from the .375 H&H I loaded with 300gr Barnes TSX. Cliff Killed his Buf with factory loaded .416 Rem. Also with Barnes TSX His buf didn't drop as quickly as the other 3 but when we found him about 250 yards away he was stone dead. As far as the misfires, I can't for sure say if it was the Ammo or the Blauser, but the primers had been struck and the gun did not go bang it went click. Im just glad it wasn't a charge. As far a plains game, I have never seen so much in my life. We couldn't go 1KM without seeing large herds. All total our group got 4 buf, 4 wildebeast, 3 impala and 2 Zebra. Oh, I almost got 2 poachers. On our third day, we were tracking a heard and I saw what I thought were trackers, and when I asked the PH he immediatly alerted the game scout and we proceeded to track the Poachers. Clinton had told us prior to the hunt that if we came accross poachers the game scout may ask us to shoot them, I told him I would only consider such a trophy if they would allow me to have it mounted. Well, we followed the game scout closer and at about 100 yards he proceeded to shoot in the air. Well they must have been on the Olympic track team because they ran right out of their shoes and dropped their snairs. I think they passed the spooked impala in their flight. But that was some added excitement to the trip. Once again, you can see the pics of the hunt at the link to them on Photo bucket in my last thread in this forum.

quote:

He was using factory ammo and had only 3 misfires

Can you share the name of the faactory ammo? Seems out of line to me

Used over 200 rounds of factory Remington 270 grain softs and Remington Safari Grade 300 gr. A Frames in my Model 70 and never have I had a misfire, (not to mention around 800 rounds of reloads), including a one-shot kill on a Buff with a factory A Frame.

I have a buddy with a Blaser in .300 Win mag who has had three misfires with about 100 rounds of Federal Vital Shock Nosler 180 Partitions, yet, he insists it's the ammo. Methinks otherwise.

To me, anyway, the Blaser appears to be the solution to a non-existent problem.

quote:

Originally posted by jetdrvr:
Used over 200 rounds of factory Remington 270 grain softs and Remington Safari Grade 300 gr. A Frames in my Model 70 and never have I had a misfire, (not to mention around 800 rounds of reloads), including a one-shot kill on a Buff with a factory A Frame.

I have a buddy with a Blaser in .300 Win mag who has had three misfires with about 100 rounds of Federal Vital Shock Nosler 180 Partitions, yet, he insists it's the ammo. Methinks otherwise.

To me, anyway, the Blaser appears to be the solution to a non-existent problem.

I suspect it is the rifle causing the misfires, not the ammo.

We've had a number of people come in here with their Blaser 93s, and a lot of them suffer misfires.

I think this caused by the operator - helped by the silly design of that action.

People tend to just just pull the action back, and push it forward - it then goes forward by itself, not locking completely!

This has scared us so much, that we tell everyone who come to shoot in our range to push the bolt forward, and make sure it IS all the way forward.


I also suspect those few occasions we have heard of Blasers blowing up might be caused by the action not completelt locked.

i agree-they are a first rate organization and passionate about their clients. We were there Aug. 28 thru Sept. 7. First class! I hunted with Clinton and had a wonderful time and got a huge buffalo, warthog, impala, white wildebeast and zebra. Jeff set our hunt up with no problems. Its an adventure out there! We saw four black mambas and one green and I stepped on a six footer. The trackers are first rate and the food is wonderful. I would go back again to get a lion with these folks. Last advice bring a great camera, a surefire flashlite and have a great time.

Tait:
I sure hope that 6 footer was dead when you stepped on him/her! That's 5 more mamba's than I wish to encounter.


Dutch

Well, no your honor, what I meant to say is that I attended correspondence school.

Great leopard pics, retreever.

that six foot mamba was alive and well with plenty of piss and vinegar. Thank God my time was not yet to go. I also had 40-45 buffalo run within three feet of me with the two trackers and I in a "Gay Hug" Clinton says I had two of the closest calls he has ever seen. The worst part it all took place on my wifes bday. I told her I will start wearing pink and playing tennis after these two close calls in one day!