21 December 2011, 18:46
Phillip SmytheThe best of Zimbabwe recapped!
The 2011 season has ended and a small recap with Ivory Trail Safaris and some of my hunters is needed.My thanks to all who came out, we enjoyed one of the best seasons we have had yet with some outstanding trophies being taken, one of which was a phenomenal elephant shot out of Malapati, tusks weighing in at 85lb each and a beautiful leopard stretching over 7 foot 4 weighing 165lbs out of Chirisa.
9th – 18th June
10-day Buffalo/ plainsgame - Chirisa
David Scott, Josh Peterson and Logan Borlands
Having met David at the Dallas Show, what a pleasure to take him on his 11th African Safari, bringing with him his 11-year-old grandson Logan and his Son-in-law Josh. David came out to enjoy Africa in its entirety and we crept up to numerous buffalo turning them down looking for that one that makes your mouth water.
Probably the highlight of the trip came when out of nowhere we were suddenly descended upon by a buffalo bull that charged within 10 yards of us veering away at the last moment. David stood his ground with his .460 Weatherby at the ready, but alas the bull was not solid enough, so we turned him down…very quickly!
Josh took a great impala ram and Logan took his first African animal an impala ewe. What a pleasure to have introduced Josh and Logan to Zimbabwe and I am sure they will return one day.
2nd – 15th July
14 day 2 buffalo - Dande, Charlton McCullum Safaris
Dale and Patty Haner
Dale was back in Africa with his wife, Patty and this time it was to find 2 buffalo. They were hunting alongside Dales father Jerome and a good friend Jack. Jack was after a tuskless and Buffalo, Jerome after a leopard and a buffalo. The 3 parties were hunting in the Dande Safari and had a great time together.
Dale, Patty and I had great fun creeping in and out of buffalo herds and dugga boys over the 14 days. We took a great bull on day 2 under the noses of lions in the areas. My desire to shoot a grysbok was not fueled by Dales’ unfortunately as we must have seen a grysbok every 300m during our travels!
Dales second buff provided to be a bit more challenging having followed 5 dugga boys for 3 days we eventually managed to get the drop on them and Dale putting in a perfect frontal dropped him on the spot from 40 yards.
After a lot of laughter during our time together I said goodbye to Dale and Patty, what a pleasure hunting with the both of you.
23rd July – 5th August
14-day leopard – Chirisa
Tom Walton
Tom was after the infamous Zimbabwe leopards and Chirisa is the place to be.
After our long drive into Chirisa, we got the ball rolling by shooting a great kudu, couple of buffalo cows and some impala for bait. Having a couple of big leopards walking through the camp (I took it as a sign!) we managed to get a huge cat onto bait on day 4.
This cat was clever, feeding late at night and besides walking barefoot into some wet elephant dung, that’s all he ever gave us. We decided to up the game. Free spooling this big cat was the way to go, and he took the fresh impala bait up a mountain. We walked in EARLY morning and besides having an elephant (AGAIN) close to us, we could hear the cat at the bait…. Now came the waiting part. We waited until it got light and as I looked out there was the cat 25 yards from us walking towards the blind. Tom found him in his scope and squeezed off a round. The result - Tom had a phenomenal Leopard. Shooting him in broad daylight at 0615 in the morning is something I won’t forget. Thanks for a great hunt Tom; we certainly worked for that cat!
4th August – 10th August
7-day buffalo
Nick and Ann Knutson
The stipulation for this hunt was a broadside shot, 40 yards in ankle high grass with nothing in-between the buffalo and us – I always liked a challenge! After finding a herd walking passed us within 30 yards, all of which were broadside in ankle high grass, I thought hey this could work quite nicely. Alas there was no bull worth shooting in it. We saw a vast amount of buffalo on this hunt creeping within 20 yards of some, yet every time we saw a nice bull he was behind others. Nick and Ann were a laugh a minute as Nick kept us in stitches during the hunt. Ann wanted to see a leopard and after stating I had only seen a couple during my time in the wilderness and it was very rare, 2 ran across the road in front of the vehicle…I looked sidewise and said...did you see that…. Alas Ann… I will ask them to stay longer next time.
Nick and I didn’t manage to get a shot on an old dugga boy and I’m sure he will be back. We certainly saw a lot of buffalo and had a great time together. Nick, thank you for an epic hunt and hopefully I will see you back one day.
19th August – 28th August
10-Day Buffalo/ Plainsgame - Chirisa
Joe Lukas
Joe arrived in Chirisa and showed me his .300 and an attachable bi-pod. I wasn’t too sure where we would use the bi-pod but I brought it along and needless to say on the first day from 70 yards we set up with the bi-pod on a monster reedbuck. With Joe shooting very quickly before I could get my fingers in my ears left them ringing, but we walked up to a huge reedbuck on day one.
Joe and I walked chirisa looking for a buffalo, passing one up that was too small we found some others, sneaking around catching them unawares, Joe made a broadside shot from 50 yards. Splitting away from the others, Joe placed 2 more shots into him as he ran and he was down – an old big-bossed bull.
Joe then took a great klipspringer and I mentioned I had never shot 2 hyenas off one bait… Joe took this as a challenge and we sneaked into out blind the next morning seeing not 1, nor 2, but 5 hyenas feeding. Joe took the biggest one quickly and obviously remembering what I said took another and then ALMOST shot another, but decided against it! What an epic little early morning hunt! We tried our hand at some sandgrouse shooting and I think both of us came off second best. Sandgrouse – 1, Hunters – 0 !
Thanks Joe, we had great fun sneaking up to elephant in preparation for another safari, and for making some awesome stories for me to tell! See you next year!
8th September – 14th September - Chirisa
15th – 20th September - Malapati
14 day buffalo / elephant
Aaron Neilson
Aaron came out to Chirisa again to hunt a buffalo and an elephant. He brought with him a .577 Nitro Express, the first time I have had a caliber of this size with me on safari!
We tested it out on a buffalo that decided to get a little bit personal with us and Aaron ended up shooting it in the top of the boss from 5 yards away. After that I think I may need a bigger rifle! This was the biggest bossed buffalo out of chirisa this year.
We shot a 41lb elephant with the .577 NE after following them at a rapid pace for 45 minutes – This was all filmed with the charge and I will be showing it at the Global Hunting Resources booth in Dallas, Atlanta and Vegas shows.
We then went onto Malapati and found a magnificent elephant, each tusk weighing in at 85lbs. This is no doubt the biggest elephant I have seen shot, let alone seen in the wild. What an experience! Aaron took another buffalo from Malapati as well.
5th – 10th November
5-day plainsgame
David Rousseau
David was my first Zimbabwean hunter I have taken. His main animal was an eland and I didn’t realize how ‘main’ it was until we passed up a 55 inch kudu as the shot may scare the eland! Laughing away we had a great hunt, with Dave shooting a magnificent eland bull on day 2, and taking an impala and warthog as well.
The eland proved to be difficult as it was now just before the rains and the heat was somewhere in the 100’s. But we put the bum crawling effect to the maximum and Dave took a frontal shot at about 90 yards that produced this old eland bull. Thanks Dave, I had a great time showing you Chirisa and hopefully we will continue to do so next year.
21st- 30th November
10 day Buffalo/ tuskless
Jay Sheffield
Hunting with Jay was an experience I will never forget. He has been planning to come to Africa for over 30 years and to be able to be apart of his dream was a blessing. Thank you Jay.
Jay arrived full of excitement even though he had travelled 3 days to get to Chirisa. We got started right away and crept up to numerous buffalo and elephant without finding something we wanted. Finally on Day 3 we found some buffalo bedded down in the middle of the Sengwa River. Needless to say we put a stalk on, found one we wanted to shoot and creeping to with in 15 yards, Jay put a perfect frontal shot and another as he ran away.
Jays main dream was to shoot an elephant within 10 yards. We crept up to 79 elephant before we managed to find a tuskless and I may add that we ran into 5 bulls, the biggest being a single tusker of about 55lbs, the second close to 50lb and the other three below that. I did ask, but Jay wanted a tuskless and he wanted it CLOSE.
On day 5 we followed some elephant and there wasn’t one but two tuskless walking towards us in the thick Jesse. As she walked onto us because of the thick bush Jay shot her with a perfect frontal brain collapsing her where she stood at 9 yards.
phillip@ivorytrailsafaris.com
www.ivorytrailsafaris.com
+263-772-413-618
