28 August 2023, 14:10
larryshoresNyakasanga with CMS
CLIENT- Larry ShoresOUTFITTER- Charlton-McCallum Safaris
PH-Collen van der Linden
TRACKERS- Criton & Nyati. These guys are the best I have ever seen and this was my 31st safari . Plus they are nice guys .
DATES - mid August 2023
AREA- Nyakasanga. It borders Mana Pools .
The area seems to be quite large . Much of the area is VERY thick. Some is quite open.
There seems to be good populations of the big 4. Lots of impala and zebra . Reasonable numbers of some other plains game animals such as kudu , warthog , etc. Too many hyenas .
GUN- my old reliable Rifles, Inc 416 with Remington factory 400 grain Swift A Frames. Topped with a Swarovski 1.7x10 scope .
Weather - temps in the 50s at night . Over 100 during the day . Skies were crystal clear
CAMP- The camp is a basic tented camp . Certainly more than adequate.
The camp is situated on the banks of the Zambezi. The view is magnificent.
There are lots of hippo in the river . One hears them often at night . Elephants came into the camp nightly. A leopard was often in the camp nightly . Lions were often heard nearby.
Notice the proximity of the calling card to my tent.
upload image free uploadThe view from camp.
THE HUNT - I booked for 16 days for 3 buffalo. I had the option for a 4th at an exaggerated trophy fees.
BUFF #1- The very first day, we tracked some bulls for a few miles . We gave it up when the wind got cranked up and was constantly shifting . Around 3 PM, we took up the tracks again . After about 4 miles , I was not confident. The sign looked hours old to me. My opinion was later verified by the PH . Even though it was not smoking hot fresh , that was no reason to give up.
We were making good time on the tracks. We came around a big bush and there they were . Apparently they spent hours in one areas . Two dagga boys . One looked good . Up go the sticks . BOOM. The buff ran but was clearly hit . No chance for a second shot.
I could clearly see the second bull standing about another 75 yards away. Hmmmmm. My instincts told me the first bull was down. However , we had not heard a death bellow. Hmmmm. Great care was the order of the moment. No one wants to get hammered by a wounded buff.
We made a big circle to the left . I heard the death bellow as we were circling . That was a relief . We spotted the bull laying on the ground . I put in an insurance shot . It was not needed . The second bull ran off.
He had run about 60 yards . The blood trail was intense . A blind man could have followed it .
The buff was 41 inches wide with 16 inch bossed . Hell of a buff.
BUFF #2- A few days later , we tracked a group of 3 bulls for a few hours . We lost the track. A fair amount of time was spent looking for the track. It was difficult. I managed to find the track once . That is a major accomplishment.
We decided to break for lunch and a rest to wait out the wind. Around 3 PM, we took up the track again. We had not gone far, perhaps a half mile when Nyati spotted the bulls laying down. While the area was very thick, I had a reasonably good shot at one bull. Up go the sticks . BOOM. He doesn’t even move . He was DRT. Nice bull, fully mature .
BULL #3- a couple of days later , we found some tracks of a group of 8 bulls . We had followed them before . We followed but not real far . Maybe 1.5 miles . The trackers spotted them laying down. This was super thick. How they spotted them is beyond me.
At any rate up go the sticks . No shot . I wait and wait and wait some more. Collen makes a cow call several time to no avail. Collen broke a stick. Nothing . No reaction.
At any rate , he finally got up. I had a now or never shot which I took. The bull was hit. Apparently pretty hard as he stumbled at the shot and appeared to struggle to get up. Trackers thought he was hit hard . Looks can be deceiving .
We walked over the where the bull was standing . There was lots of blood . However , I did not care for the color. I had also not heard a death bellow . This might be a bad sign.
We proceeded to track for about 3 miles before the wind got cranked up . We took a mid day break. Around 2:30, we walked 1.5 miles back to where we left the track and started again.
Now, I was about as nervous as a whore in church . This was some SERIOUSLY thick bush . The bull could come from very close . I had taken the sling off my gun and kept it my rifle ready . After about 3 miles of this , we walked up on the bull at about 25 yards . No shot . He jumped up and ran off. The good news is that he was not with the rest of the group. We gave it up and walked out .
The next morning we walked about 1.5 miles back to where we jumped the bull. The tracking started . It was often a slow and tedious process. We followed about 4 miles through some pretty thick bush. The danger level was very high. We followed for hours . Probably 4 miles. When the wind got cranked up, we paused to let the wind settle and have lunch .
At lunch , Collen opined that the bull was not far away. Probably 500 meters . I hoped he was correct.
We started again once the wind died. We went slowly and quietly as we could . At 557 meters since we started, we saw the bull . Both Collen and I shot at the bull. He was finished . I gave Collen some grief about misjudging the distance to the bull. After all , he was off 57 meters. He knew I was just giving his grief .
Our joy over the buff was short lived. The mopane flies attacked in mass . I have never seen anything like this in my 31 trips to Africa . There were millions of them . Collen said it was the worst he had ever seen.
The bull would have likely died from the first shot . However, in my opinion , it would have taken a while. I felt like hell for wounding him.
BUFF #4-. On the 7th day of the hunt , we found some bulls tracks . Off we go. We had not gone far , .91 miles to be exact, when Criton spotted this ancient bull standing there. Only the upper half of his body was visible.
Up go the sticks. BOOM. He collapses on the spot . He never took another step.
At this point , my hunting was over , at least temporarily. We went fishing the next day . No luck. I changed my flights to leave 4 days early . I later regretted this for multiple reasons .
We got word of some other animals that were still on quota . I decided to have a go at them.
TUSKLESS- We saw a large number of tuskless every day . However , all but one had dependent calves with them. The one that did not was standing right on the boundary between Nyakasanga and Mana Pools .
Bottom line is that I didn’t get one
WARTHOG- I love to hunt hogs , especially warthogs. We saw quite a few but none worth shooting until the last day. We spotted a big boar on the last day .
We got out and stalked the boar. He had moved off from where we originally saw him. I saw him moving at about 135 yards . He stopped behind a log. I could only see the upper 40% of his body. The sticks go up. BOOM! He was down. Pretty decent boar.
Notice the injury to his nose.
WATERBUCK- we saw quite a few waterbuck. There was one on a pan that had a massive body. However . He only has one horn. I decided to take him and use him for leopard baits.
We stalked a pan. He was standing in it feeding on some aquatic vegetation . We got to about 145 yards . Up went the sticks . BOOM! He was down.
We ended up not putting up the baits .
OTHER COMMENTS - in parts of the area tse tse flies are a problem. There are lots of them and they are ravenous . Similarly, in parts the mopane flies are simply awful. Never seen anything like to before .
Take a headnet if you are planning to go. Also some type of repellent for the tse tses.
I think this was by 4th trip with CMS . All
Trips have turned out well. I think highly of them.
Also, we saw a pangolin. Very rare.
One final interesting note. Another AR member was there hunting from a spike camp. 30-06 King . I got to chat with him a bit.
I am in my way home now. The last report I got, a hurricane was making a beeline for my ranch . I anxious for the latest news .
Eddie and Criton
Interesting tree
Sunrise over Mana Pools
In the bush
upload pictures to the internetMurray the cameraman with his line hung again!
There were mass numbers of these berries . I have never seen them before . Nothing was eating them. They must be poisonous .
