This hunt was supposed to be 14 days from 11 August to 24 August 2025 but I left camp and returned to Harare on 18 August in order to fly home to New Zealand. The hunt was too successful!
Photos will be added later.

Charlton McCullum Safaris
PH. Amin Turk
Gun. Amin's CZ 550 >375 H&H with Swift A Frames

Hunted and killed. Tuskless cow elephant, Buffalo, Hyaena. Wounded and lost. Sharpe's Grysbok

Other species seen.
Vervet monkey, Chacma baboon, Side-striped jackal, Wild dog, Banded mongoose, Leopard, Zebra, Hippo, Nile Crocodile, Nile Monitor, Warthog, Eland, Greater kudu, Bushbuck, Waterbuck, Impala, Bush duiker, Klipspringer

Flights. Emirates Auckland - Dubai - London, a month in the UK birding and the Roe deer rut then on 8 August Heathrow - Dubai - Harare.
Overnight at Amanzi Lodge then on 10 August flight from Harare to Nyakasanga.
I flew with Bill and Bob, from Kansas who were going on a first plains game hunt for 19 year old Bob. On the way we landed and picked up Bill's uncle Mark who had just completed a hunt with Dean Kendall in Dande. He had taken a 44 lb bull elephant but was unlucky on his 4th attempt at getting a leopard.
On landing at Nyakasanga beside the crocodile farm we were met by my PH, Amin Turk and his son Amir who was guiding Bill and Bob. Mark had had enough hunting and just wanted to watch the teenager.
I met Amin's two trackers, Million and Ezekei and his driver Mackenzie who was also Amin's apprentice.
Amin drove me to the very flash fishing camp where we would be spending the first night because the fly camp where I was supposed to go still had other clients in it. I met the two CMS apprentices, Hein and Daniel, who were to provide me with much entertainment and good company.
We went out to try Amin's .375. I had a shot straight into the bull and that convinced Amin not to waste any more ammo.
In the morning Hein took our bags to the fly camp so we could start hunting straight away at 6am.
We stopped briefly to pick up the game scout, John, a very fine man we were lucky to get.
Then we drove along a series of pans, most of which were drying out, checking for fresh tracks. Finally, the trackers decided that dagga boy tracks from last night were worth following. They tracked them for two hours before we found the bulls lying down. Three very shootable dagga boys and one that was still a bit soft. However, none of them were really ancient and it was only the first morning so we left them.
There was a fair number of plains game species around the pans, Impala, Zebra and Kudu cows but then we found fresh elephant spoor crossing the road. I stepped out for a pee but then Amin grabbed me mid-pee. I looked around and there were elephants only 100m away. We stalked in and there were two tuskless in the family which was led by a long-tusked matriarch. There was also a dependent calf so deciding which cow it belonged to took some time. Eventually the herd started drifting off with the calf leaving the largest tuskless feeding 35 yards away. The calf clearly didn't belong to her so when she turned around, I took a side-brain shot. She dropped straight down and Amin gave her one behind the shoulder to make sure she stayed that way. The rest of the herd didn't like it. I thought I had given up running a couple of decades ago but it's surprising how it all comes back to you when there are long tusks heading your way! Amin fired a warning shot which had no effect and then the game scout fired three shots before they finally turned off and returned to the dead cow. The game scout remarked that they were a bit cheeky!
While we were waiting for the herd to go away, Keith Wall drove up with his clients, Chris (Desert Dog) and his lovely wife and it was very pleasing to meet them.
As it got dark the elephants finally left the tuskless but by then it was too late to recover her that day. We drove to the Fly Camp which we were to share with Bill, Bob and Mark for the five days of their hunt.
On the way there we stopped to watch a pack of 8 wild dogs, lying beside the road.

Day 2.
In the morning we went back to recover the tuskless and found that Hyaenas had been at it, chewing out the eyes, half the face and pulling out some guts. No longer suitable for photos!
A big team arrived with three trucks to collect the meat for rations for the anti-poaching patrols and the game scouts.
We left them to it and went looking for buffalo. At the first pan the trackers started walking around it while Amin and I waited by the Toyota. Suddenly a couple of buffalo bulls appeared, heading for the water. We frantically waved the trackers back before they walked into them and quickly moved around the pan so we were in a position to manouver if necessary.
More and more buffalo appeared until perhaps 60 were drinking, including a surprising number of very impressive bulls. Amin kept saying, "Look at that beauty! Oh, that one's even older!"
Finally at the rear, two white faced antiques arrived, all the hair gone from the faces and one had a broken horn tip, so we decided to try for that one. The main herd drifted away from the water followed by the old boys. We moved around into a better position and the broken horn bull came clear, side on at 128m. Too long a shot for my taste on buffalo but with the wind swirling I might never get a better chance. I must have flinched a bit because the shot went just behind the shoulder, through the lungs, and he ran off before I could get in a second shot. We followed the blood trail and came upon him lying down facing directly away from us at about 80m. I put a shot into the root of his tail to break the spine then another into his shoulder as he tried to get up and he still needed a finisher.
Not my best shooting on a buffalo but it got the job done. I was most pleased when Kevin Robertson commented on the photo on Facebook "Lovely old bull".
Now after one and a half days my 14 day hunt was effectively over. What were we supposed to do for the next 12 days? I have always followed Pondoro Taylor's advice to always take what the hunting gods send you and they had been generous to an old man whose legs aren't what they were.
On Nyakasanga there is very limited quota for most plains game species and I hadn't booked any of the more limited species as I thought it unfair to those who might really want an Eland or Bushbuck or perhaps a Waterbuck. All that was available was Grysbok, Impala, Baboon, Kudu, Duiker, Hyaena and Warthog.
I was keen to get a Grysbok, hunting Hyaena is fun and there is always room on the wall for a really old Kudu or Warthog but if I shot nothing else at all the hunt was already a great success.
I wasn't interested in another Impala. My first animal in Africa was a 28 inch Impala and I took another last November that was 27 inches and I have taken quite a number for bait.
I don't shoot Baboons so the choice was limited.
That evening we went out on the boat up the Zambesi, seeing many crocs up to 13 ft and plenty of Hippos and Elephants on the islands.
Day 3
Leaving camp at 6am we drove through the area known as "Paradise", very open and park-like with scattered trees near the boundary with Mana Pools National Park. We were heading towards a pan where we had seen a female Grysbok but we stopped to watch 3 young Kudu bulls. The young PH David Mann drove up with his client, Geoff, who was looking for a 24 inch Impala. The 17 year old appie, Hein, was the acting PH for the day. A generous thing for Geoff to allow but on the other hand he had set the kid a near impossible task judging by the Impala we had seen so far. We later saw the Impala Hein found which measured 23 3/4 inches so the boy did remarkably well.
We soon saw Warthogs on the plain but like all the others we saw they were young with negligible tusks.
When we passed the spot where I shot the tuskless there was a crowd of vultures on the bones and the trackers spotted Hyaenas too. We sneaked in and saw a big one. I was steady on the sticks but the shoulder was obscured by a tree and then it ran off.
We drove on about 800m and saw Keith Wall with "Desert Dog" recovering a tuskless and the excellent video of his hunt is already out on YouTube!
Chris showed me a photo of a huge (2 inch!) Grysbok he had shot the previous evening from the pan we were heading for where we had twice seen a female so there was no point going there.
We went back to camp for lunch and headed out again at 2pm intending to set up a blind for Hyaenas but when we reached the tuskless spot at 3pm there was already one chewing on the bones. We drove on past a few hundred yards then walked back. A big female was standing on the road but she ran off before I could get onto her. We stalked through the Jesse and could just make out a Hyaena lying down feeding. I got on the sticks but could only just see his head. When he stood up I had difficulty making out his shoulder through a tiny gap in the scrub but then it became clear. I shot him just behind the shoulder, clipping the spine and he went straight down. As he was still wriggling I gave him a solid to put him out of his misery. A very old male, not particularly big and his canine teeth were all broken off which explained why he was feeding in the middle of the day when there was no competition.
Amin's son, Amir, who also hunts for CMS drove up with Bill and Bob and they were very enthusiastic about the Hyaena and keen to get one too. He succeeded the next day at the same place. Bob had shot an Impala so we took it with us to the skinning shed so they could carry on hunting.
On the way back through "Paradise" we saw a lovely Eland bull and a Side-striped jackal.

Day 4
We went out again to the pans, stopping to sit for a while at a big pan where Amin had seen Grysbok. At 10.15am a male Grysbok came out of the scrub 108m away. I didn't listen to Amin who wanted me to get on the sticks. Instead, I shot off my knees
and missed him! What an idiot!
We stayed where we were in case another came out but instead, elephants came down to drink. three tuskless cows with three calves, one of which had tusks. I was hoping for a Kudu and one started barking up the road where the truck was parked. We tried stalking it but couldn't see it so we drove back to camp and went out on the boat again. The apprentice, Daniel, drove the boat and we watched crocs and hippos and 23 elephants on an island.

Day 5
We returned to the pan where I missed the Grysbok and at exactly the same time as yesterday it emerged in the same spot. This time I got on the sticks but again I ignored Amin's instruction to wait. I fired and the tiny buck rolled over kicking. Got him! However when we walked up he had disappeared leaving a few spots of blood. Missing him yesterday was pretty bad but wounding him today was awful.
The trackers, Million and Ezekei started on the minute tracks, the size of your thumb nail and after about 100 yards we spooked him and he took off as if untouched. The men kept on following the spoor for 1 3/4 hours. There was no blood after the first few yards and we concluded that I had nicked him through the brisket. It was the finest tracking I have ever seen. It is one thing following a huge buffalo and quite another tracking a tiny beast through dense "Wait-a-bit" thorns with the ground covered in dead grass and leaves. We caught up with it again at last and again it went off at top speed so we had to give it up as wounded and lost. Not the first time I have had to give up on one and if I keep shooting like that it won't be the last. You would think that after fifty years of hunting in Africa I would have learnt to listen to my PH!
In the afternoon I went fishing with Dave Mann and his client, Geoff. Just beyond the camp, on the river bank, was the biggest elephant we had seen this trip. 40lb plus, thick, blunt tusks, a huge bull for the Valley. His lower trunk was missing, either from a croc or a snare but he seemed to be having no trouble feeding. There was another bull out on the islands with possibly just as heavy tusks but this one was younger with sharp tips. Both bulls were good natured and were unbothered as we approached within a few yards in the boat.
Near the skinning shed a huge Bushbuck which David estimated at over 16 inches ran up the bank. If quota had been available I would have gone looking for that one!
The fishing was very quiet but young Hein caught a small one and put it back.

Day 6
Today we went West, in the opposite direction to previous days, looking for Kudu. There seemed to be very little game about and we soon found the reason. I counted 29 Wild Dogs running beside us and there were more in the distance. A pack that size would be enough to make even the larger species head for the hills!
We set up a rough blind beside a pan which hadn't been visited for a while. At 10.15am a Leopard walked past but I only glimpsed it as it entered the Jesse. Baboons and a young Bushbuck came down to drink, followed by a large herd of Impala 20 yards away. The largest ram was a good 24 inches and wide spread at the top and I was tempted to take him but decided that sort needs to be left to breed.
At 2.15pm two Kudu bulls came out 60 yards away. The first was mature with ivory tips but the second was younger. Seeing them together, the younger bull was clearly larger and heavier than the mature one, whose horns were also thin. I was hoping for an antique bull so we left them and returned to camp at 3pm for lunch.
I went out fishing again in the evening with Dave Mann, Geoff and the appies and fished down river at the Nyakasanga river mouth. Geoff hooked huge fish but it wrapped around a log and he lost it. That was the only bite.
Soon after I retired for the night there was shot nearby. A bull elephant had been feeding around my tent every night, leaving a deposit on the track outside, but this time he stood blocking the way into the Game Scout's tent. In the end he fired a shot and even then the bull only slowly drifted out of the way.

Day 7
I had booked a 14 day hunt but had run out of things to hunt apart from Kudu. Of the species available, I had failed on the Grysbok, we hadn't seen any Duiker, the warthogs had been decimated in the drought, and the Kudu were thin on the ground. I had been away for 7 weeks and decided to stop while I was winning and head for home.
This was my last day hunting.
We drove through "Paradise" and six Kudu bulls walked in front of us. The first was mature but not really old, a good first Kudu perhaps. The rest were all young. At 8am there were two Hyaenas standing on the road, one of them a very large female. As we passed the pans there was a family of waterbuck with a nice bull but there was no quota left. We sat at "Eland Pan" until 2.30 watching very many Impala, Baboons, Kudu cows and a couple of young Warthogs and had lunch back at camp at 4pm. In the evening we finished off with a Braai with David Mann, his client, Geoff, and the two apprentices.
It is a tough business being an apprentice PH in
Zimbabwe. Five years of slave labour without pay and at the end a very low pass rate. Last year there were 50 applicants and none passed. The previous year there were 8 applicants and David Mann and one other passed. No wonder Zimbo PHs are so good!
My PH, Amin Turk was a charming gentleman to spend so much time with. He was the first PH of Indian descent and said he had a tough time at first. If you are hunting with CMS you would be lucky to get him.
Nyakasanga is a great DG destination but as a PG concession it is limited by quota unless you book everything you might want to shoot in advance. This has caused friction in the past with people booking species then not bothering to hunt them, leaving quota left over at the end of the season which has to be paid for by CMS.
When you can take a tuskless elephant, an ancient buffalo and a Hyaena in three days there is nothing left to be said about hunting in Nyakasanga!

What a good hunt! I’ve hunted with CMS (Myles McCollum) a number of times, what a fine company (although there might have been a couple of missteps regarding fees in the past). I’m sure I’ll hunt with them again. Thanks for the post.

Excellent, and I saw some photos of that ancient Buff. Well done all round. What next?

Great report! That is probably my favorite place I've ever been. Hope to be back soon!

Nice writeup!

Thanks for sharing and hope some photos! I too had to leave a kudu shot on my first day in Nyakasanga. Very lucky to of found it the next day, it was killed by lions and finished by hyenas.

Just the skull and a few neck vertebrae remained. With a small patch of skin on face. We found hyena tracks even and could see it had dragged leg bone or quarter away from kill site.