Hello all.
I have been a lurker here at AR for over five years now and it is about time to fulfill my promise to participate by writing a hunting report . I live in Finland and my English is what it is, but here goes.

Doma Safaris / Zimbabwe
Aug 30 - Sept 13
PH: Phillip Smythe, Gordon Duncan (Owner)
Rifle: Camp rifles, Brno 375 H&H Rem 300 gr. solids and CZ 30-06 Federal Trophy Boned 180 gr.
Animal taken: Elephant bull, Leopard, Kudu, Impala, Bushpig

This was my third hunting destination in Africa, second trip to Zimbabwe and my first trophy Ele hunt. I actually did my booking from AR's "Oufitters - Offered and Discounted Hunts" section in last April when Aaron Neilson/Global Hunters made me an offer I could not refuse. Only problem was that at the same time in Europe there were strong rumors about banning all live ammo in airplanes. I phoned several airline companies and received very contradictory info about this matter. In the end I got so pissed off, that I decided not to take my own rifles with me at all. Gordon promised that he has got decent rifles to give me down there and despite all the warnings about the camp rifles I took the risk. At the time when I jumped in to the plane on Lufthansa flight, nobody said anything anymore about not taking ammo in to the luggage. Yeah right, this is EU.

Finally in Harae I met my PH Phillip Smythe and things started rolling. I knew the risk I had taken with the rifles, but Gordon kept his word and I got myself two reliable controlled feed basic rifles. The CZ 550 Scandinavian 30-06 was equipped with Pecar-Berlin scope. A proper gun for PG and leopard. On the other hand I had my doubts about the .375 H§H being enough gun for elephant. Phill said that with proper solids it is superb penetrator and it will most certainly do the job if only I do mine. Plan was, as for the most of elephant hunters to get close enough for frontal brain shot.

Elephant was the main target and we saw nice heard of them on second day, but none of them was a shooter. But man, they were big. On our way back to the car we found promising tracks of leopard and lioness. This means we have to roll our sleeves and start getting those baits. More the baits hanging around, better the chances. In the end it took 3 Kudus, 3 Impalas, Bushpig, Buff leg, Elephant leg and one Goat before right cat did show up.
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Tracking, climbing up and down the hills of Doma and even running after elephants. Hunting as it suppose to be in my opinion.

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Every day the pride of lions got bigger and my hopes for lion male to show up got higher. But they needed more "njama" and so did our leopards. Strange thing though, was that our leopard baits were hit by females and cubs but not the males. They were only walking by our delicious kudu ham. And even more bizarre thing was that huge lonely hyena did not show any interest on our bait. We named it "the ugly vegetarian". Trackers we certain that the hyena was under a magic spell.

On a tenth day we were feeling lucky. We found fresh tracks of two bulls and on top of that very nice duggaboy tracks also. Phill asked me what do I want to do and I chose we go after the elephant tracks. Couple hours later we did spot them resting in shadows . We left trackers behind and slowly tiptoed and stopped at distance of 50 yards from elephants. But wind made it impossible for us to try make that frontal shot. The younger bull knew something was wrong and had his trunk up in the air trying to spot us. When the bigger older one suddenly turned I made my decision and aimed for the heart. For me it was a big surprise when I saw that huge animal crash down instantly after that one shot. Few anchoring shots and it was now official that with Phillip's guidance and outstanding tracking by Leonard, Roxy and Mukazana I had shot my first elephant.

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The 300 grs. solid went through the heart and exited on the other side. It did just what Phillip had said. That .375 may be marginal stopper, but is one hell of a penetrator. It really is. Unforgettable experience was also eating the elephant temple meat sticks with nice brandy by the fire, while 20 - 30 guys were dissembling the elephant. Jolly good show.

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When driving back to camp huge hyena led the way in front of the car. Now everybody "knew" that we all were under magic.... of who knows what.


On the next evening we build a blind, sat there in total silence. Around 22.00. o'clock Phill touched my head and I carefully took the aim. When Phill light up his torch I immediately realised why this is called blind. I could not see a thing. Few agonizing seconds later I got my eyesight back and I saw cats front leg. I took aim behind that and it dropped,...and disappeared. In the end I got my leopard spiced with some hair raising blood spoor tracking in long grass after the shot , in the dark of course. It finally was found couple ten yards from the bait. Shot through the lungs. I might say that this follow up was quite exciting too. We also got answer why he did not like our kudu leg earlier until it was dripping "African rice". More than quarter of this old leopards teeth were already gone. On the way back to the camp boys sang their victory songs and I knew what was going to happen next morning. I had made some sort of a promise to Phill that if I get to shoot both elephant and leopard I will do fishing with him for one day.

In the morning, after we took few more photos of the cat I ask him if he would rather hunt buffalo than force me to do that fishing. Phill was merciful and of we go. We found few nice buff tracks and started to follow them. Twenty minutes later we bumped into half way skinned buff bull covered with leafs.



Fu.....ing poachers. The buff had four .30 bullet holes in neck which were still bleeding. The poachers were close and they even had forgot some tools in a hurry. We followed them and the buff heard which was of course on a run now for few more additional miles. We found them resting but there was no solid bosses among the herd. But "thanks" to poachers, we got us buff meat and for the lion bait, yet all this made us sad and angry. This and all those wires we collected. Communal land is slowly recovering and things looks better all the time. At least we saw plenty of animals there.

Finally we saw male lion at our bait-tree among five females, but Phill said it still had few spots on rear legs, so the lion kept his mane. And to be honest, I got everything I ever dreamed of for one safari. Real hunting in hard terrain with PH who was not too shy to push me to the limit when trying to catch up with the game.

It can be hard to keep head cool once I get my trophies home. You all know what I mean.

Looks like a great trip.

Forgot the leopard photo and can't add it in to the original message, so here you are.

Good story thank you for sharing.

First of all - Congratulations and Wellcome to AR - IMO the best way to do it - by Hunting report and by all means you did Great - as Paul Meyers quote those hills:

"I have been to the Doma Safari area with its rugged terrain that has earned the dubious reputation of having made grown men cry and reduced the uninitiated to exhausted wrecks. This area is not one to be trifled with, its erratic topography a challenge to any that may dare to venture through, but where this area is totally unforgiving to those who may wander within its borders it compensates with enchanting landscapes of unparallelled beauty and awe-inspiring wonder."

Second - Thanks for the report - I've heard about your hunt but with pics you provided - it makes all the difference

quote:

Originally posted by Lahtari:
Fu.....ing poachers. The buff had four .30 bullet holes in neck which were still bleeding. ...

It all falls back on them - Scouts from the Parks got one of them just one week prior my hunt (2 months after you) - you can see it mentioned in my report here:

http://forums.accuratereloadin...6321043/m/7481090541

...to cut it short - as far as I remember there were 3 poachers and only 1 was armed and when sh@t hit the fan the guy with rifle got his head vented...stumbled upon his remains: rucksack was burned and a couple of straps with buckles were there along with some small PVC bags filled with salt banded with rubber bands - spookie - to top it off there was a dark almost black patch of dried blood there. It was all covered with a couple of branches with shriveled leaves...just as that Dugga's reminds - sobering - still those guys are paying their hunts with their blood - I owe one to Gordon to let me That close and I ma glad that you have seen it too - Pure 21st century Africa.

quote:

Finally we saw male lion at our bait-tree among five females, but Phill said it still had few spots on rear legs, so the lion kept his mane. And to be honest, I got everything I ever dreamed of for one safari. Real hunting in hard terrain with PH who was not too shy to push me to the limit when trying to catch up with the game.

I saw pics of that pride from Cam Trail (I guess thats where Shumba spring got its name?) and I can only Salute You on Not taking that Male

P.S. Congrats on succesfully using Camp guns...Certainly a near future for all of us!

Congrats on the Trophy's!!!

Thank You all. And especially You, mouse93. I have read your hunting reports with great interest, but somehow I managed to miss this.

quote:

Originally posted by mouse93:
It all falls back on them - Scouts from the Parks got one of them just one week prior my hunt (2 months after you) - you can see it mentioned in my report here:

I don't know is this politically correct but,....Hooray! This is best news for long time.

quote:

I saw pics of that pride from Cam Trail (I guess thats where Shumba spring got its name?) and I can only Salute You on Not taking that Male

I don't know was there even bigger male nearby, but certainly they didn't want us to take any more Cam pictures.

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quote:

P.S. Congrats on succesfully using Camp guns...Certainly a near future for all of us!

Well, about those camp rifles. Gordon was not at Doma when I arrived so we just took the first scoped rifle from his office we could find. The Winchester m70 had broken Simmons toy scope installed so crooked that I had to aim like rap artist. I shot one kudu cow with it but after that we called Gordon and told him that this is not at all a decent pg rifle and for the leopard it totally no go. "What,..No no, that gun should not be used at all, did you really hit something with that? The rifle I meant is in the locker." Phew,..the 30-06 we then found was just fine rifle for my use.

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For the big game I had two rifles to choose from. Gordons own Winchester .458 Lott or his former Brno .375. I would have wanted that .458 Lott, but we had only .458 win mag ammo in camp and in my hands that rifle made too many malfunctions so I ended up with old Brno. And it did the job. For some hunters that contrariwise safe is an issue, but I'm ok with that.
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Congratulations on some great trophies and thank you for the great report. Welcome to AR.

Lahtari


I love it. The 30-06 you used is my gun and a work horse. I have used it personally for over 15 years on all my PG hunts. Its really great to see it on AR. I got it back from Gord about 3 weeks ago and promptly shot an Eland with it.

Welcome to AR and hope we see more of you here and at Doma

Great report and for the record your english is just fine.

Very good hunt report and your English is just fine. Sorry to see your photos are distorted by the new AR software, but they still show the essence of the hunt. Bravo.

congratulations on a great hunt and an excellent report.

quote:

Originally posted by zimFrosty:
Lahtari


I love it. The 30-06 you used is my gun and a work horse. I have used it personally for over 15 years on all my PG hunts. Its really great to see it on AR. I got it back from Gord about 3 weeks ago and promptly shot an Eland with it.

Welcome to AR and hope we see more of you here and at Doma

I take my hat off and thank You for saving me from disaster, which I almost did create all by myself, being so fed up with our reddish anti-gun EU bureaucrats.
Your donation made world of difference that how my hunting report now came out. ZimFrosty, You have one more very good friend up here in Scandinavia and I just got one more good reason to start planning next trip to Zim. To buy you a beer or three.

On a way to the Doma across the burned landscape, at the moment I saw my PH Phillp Smythe's face when I told him that I'll use camp rifles, I started to feel that my calculated risk was more like uncalculated shot to my own leg.
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These camp files are meant to work as a spare tyres and the first rifle that was already taken off even from that duty was by mistake given to me. I totally mist one Impala from distance of 130 yards on the sticks and got my first bait Kudu off hand by tilting the rifle in 30 degree angle. Without this experience I probably wouldn't have been able to appreciated so high your rifle, which Gordon had arranged for me, than I now did. With that excellent German scope and set trigger I shot one of my best shots ever when I took Bushpig from distance of 120 yards running furiously in between the rocks. Good rifle makes lucky shooter happy.

Here is picture of bait Kudu, The "scoped" rifle with 6 lbs trigger and not so happy, first day "The travel light hunter" with.... "calculated risk smile".
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Only My pleasure. You are most welcome to borrow it anytime. It has been on plenty of adventures with me and is a great little gun. The Pecard scope used to be on a FN 7.62 , which I used for culling in years past, but I liked it so much I put it onto the 30-06. I have a collection of CZ550s 308,30-06,375,458 . They are quite common but good work guns that dont break and shoot accurately.

I look forward to the beer with you

Great report there and don't worry about your English, it was better than many native speakers.

Thank you for the great story. it sounds like you had a great hunt.

Tim

Excellent

Thanks for the report!!!!!!!

Fine shooting and photos are excellent as well is your report.

Mike

Great report. Congrats!

The Leopard picture is one of the most beautiful I have seen--great light, perfect picture.

-G