A Grants and Tommy together

Hi All, I just got back from Masailand! I have always wanted to see Tanzania and especially Masailand for its unique species but never had the desire or inclination to work with outfitters in Tanzania mainly due to the high cost of their hunts!! This all changed this year when I was invited by dear friends to attend a 50th birthday party in Kenya! More on that later, but after a week of celebrations, I flew from Nairobi to Kiliminjaro, where I was met by the outfitter and driven 4 hours to camp.



The camp sits on a hill overlooking miles of thorn bush



The large common seating area






4 Guest chalets provide attached bathrooms, hot and cold showers, WC etc.

The concession we were hunting was Siminijaro Naberera Game Control Unit. I am led to believe this area hasn't been hunted in quite a few years and the tameness of the game shows it! It is a vast area, around 1600 sq kms! But there are main roads, villages, fields and miles of Africa in it. Apart from a couple of decent size villages the others were just a few Masai huts with their cattle. I learnt that the Masai generally don't eat wild meat so not much poaching.

My main desire was to see as much of the area that I could in the 7 days that I was there and shoot a few animals. A Grants gazelle to my mind is one of Africa's most beautiful trophies and I have always wanted one!



A nice Grants close to camp!

Game shot: Grants Gazelle, Thomsons Gazelle, East African Impala and White bearded wildebeest.

Other Game seen: Lion, leopard, cheetah, buffalo, greater and lesser Kudu, eland, duiker, Kirks dik dik, black backed jackal, hyena, burchell's zebra.

Game not seen but in the area: Gerunuk, Oryx. We did also see fresh 3 elephant tracks but I was told these were just passing through and not resident.

Day 1 saw us out on the vast plains where at any time you could see animals grazing peacefully, at times with and in front of cattle. They are not bothered by them one bit. So the masai and the cattle are part of the fabric of Masailand and it wasn't unbearable in this concession!





Notice the cattle in the background!



Game everywhere



A young Watusi bull

Since i came via anti-hunting kenya i had to borrow a rifle and a .375 was provided for my enjoyment! After the usual sighting in we proceeded to glass any number of Grants before finally deciding on what looked like a good one. I had brought my range finder so ranged it at around 210 yards. From shakey sticks I let fly and promptly shot over its back! It ran a few yards and continued its daily routine!! A few more stalks with us wearing masai robes to fool the poor beast that we were harmless, another shot presented itself and this time I drilled him good. At 26" I am told its a real good one for this area. We did see some even bigger a few days later........

After the photo taking we now focused on thomsons gazelle, about 300 yards away from where the Grants was taken I shot a thomsons at about 110 yards. These animals are totally undisturbed and while we were taking photos and loading these animals, more grants, thomsons, wildebeest and zebra could be seen grazing a few hundred yards away!





Mr. Grants



A herd of wildebeest grazing while we were taking pics of the Grants!!! A new one for me!



We had to pose with both the Tommy and the Grants together....


The next day we decided to check out the buffalo area. The buffalo are for the most part in the two mountain ranges that are present in the hunting area. Since we only had one 375 loaded with solids! I decided to leave the buffalo in peace but we did some scouting and saw a couple of big mbogos disappearing in to the thorn thickets!! The buffalo hunting there is going to be high adventure and close range action. The plan is to build a fly camp up in the mountains so there is no pressure to come down the same day. This will allow hunters to take time to get up there using the masai cattle trails and set up on look outs and other areas where they come out to graze early mornings and evenings. Not your usual buff hunt......But for sure there must be some BIG brutes up there!! No one has hunted these in years! We also found fresh buff tracks in one area close to camp where they were drinking from a waterhole that the masai showed us. These would offer more of a conventional buffalo hunt. In that vast area there must be many such areas.



These are where the buffalo are





Close up of the terrain on the mountain!



Anyone know what these white markings are?


One day we got up and decided a wildebeest must die and after driving around selected the said beast and dispatched it with a single solid from the good ole 375!



After seeing the monster East African Impala in Kenya I dearly wanted to shoot one and after much glassing around shot one that went 26", which is supposedly decent for this area. They are big bodied than the southern as well.



As I hunted the first week of the season, the grass was still fairly high and I am told that the visibility vastly improves and a lot more game is seen from August, September onwards.



Zebra on two legs!



Me chatting up a masai's wife!!







Inside a masai hut! For such tall people they have a very low entrance which leads in to two rooms, one for sleeping and one for everything else. This is the bedroom, no mattresses or curtains here...



A simple life



Some tough chics these!



These big birds can only be shot at with a 21 day license in your pocket! Depending upon the species you wish to hunt, you have to buy a 7, 10, 14 or 21 day license. These are not cheap and add to the cost! Our rates are much cheaper than what other Tanzanian outfitters are charging, i.e. adding on to the official rate.

We saw lots of lion and leopard tracks and heard lions roaring while sitting around the camp fire on two occasions. While walking down a dry river bed we disturbed some lions sleeping in the bush and got a warning growl from 20 yards! Much scrambling for the rifle and the scout loading his AK, but they left us in peace. This year I have had lions growl at me from West to East Africa, I am indeed blessed . Hunting Lion and leopard here would not be difficult, especially given that one is dealing with uneducated animals and of course Masailand is famous for its really LARGE leopards.

The camp is nice and has everything one needs, it sits on a hill with great views of the country for miles. With a local sim card I could access whatsapp so communication is not a problem. Arusha is also only 3 hours away and the camp is supplied often so anything can be got at fairly short notice.

In the 7 days I spent with the outfitter, I did my best to explain to him that hunting in Tanzania was a game of the super rich and if he wanted clients, he needed to be more realistic in his pricing. So we sat down and I have managed to get some very reasonable rates [both daily rates as well as trophy fees] out of him which I will be posting shortly. For this season especially he has agreed to drop his rates to rock bottom and for those who can go, you will get a deal of a lifetime to hunt Masailand. That said the area still needs work on it to open new roads etc. which they are working on this season.

I think this will provide the opportunity for more of us to experience the magic of masailand. His block in the Selous offers Selous species and some very big croc, hippo, lots of buff, leopard, sable and other plains game I am told. So that is another option as well and can also be combined with a hunt to Masailand.


Will be happy to answer any Qs or chat about it over the phone.......



Arjun Reddy
www.huntersnetworks.com
30 Ivy Hill Road
Brewster, NY 10509
Tel: +1 845 259 3628
2019, DSC booth #
2019, SCI booth # 4209

Super Report and Congrats for your Unique Plainsgame Species what you got on this Safari. Wonder why you not tell us the Name of this Outfitter

Nice write up Arjun. It would be a different type of hunt.

Arjun;

The wildebeest doesn't have the typical chevron across its head. I am curious as to why. Was this not a Niassaland wildebeest?

I love Tanzania!

Best regards, D. Nelson

Fantastic !!!!

Swambo,

It's a White Bearded. Nyasa are in the Selous. I know an old Africa hand such as yourself knew that

Mark

quote:

Originally posted by MARK H. YOUNG:
Swambo,

It's a White Bearded. Nyasa are in the Selous. I know an old Africa hand such as yourself knew that

Mark

Thanks Mark, I was just testing you!



Best regards D. Nelson

That was exactly what I thought you were going for!

Nice trophies. Curious who the outfitter is and which concession. Love Simanjiro. Where I hunted in '12, when you could still hunt in March, was inundated with buffalo and lion coming out of Tarangire. Hate to see the maize, but that's progress I guess. Hunting buffalo in the mountains is a real challenge, but a bit of fun. Good luck with this venture and keep us posted.

quote:

Originally posted by mboga biga bwana:
Super Report and Congrats for your Unique Plainsgame Species what you got on this Safari. Wonder why you not tell us the Name of this Outfitter

You very well know who it is so why ask?

quote:

A Grants and Tommy together

Not a happy couple, Mr. & Mrs. Grants perhaps?

Dear Arjun,
Great report and good hunt.
IH

Fantastic! Very unique trophies.

From my experience, hunting any of the big cats in Maasailand can be rather tricky, particularly Mr Spots. Due to constant harassement and persecution by the Maasai who do not tolerate any predators near their livestock (including cheetah, hyena and wild dog), the cats are even more "nocturnal" in behavior and rarely come to bait due to poisoning incidents. When they do, they don't often return for a second feed. Getting a lion or leopard to come to bait within daylight hours can be very frustratng indeed ....that is, if your bait doesn't get stolen by a passing herder before it gets hit!

Regardless, anyone interested should plan to go sooner than later!

Very cool!

Very nice!

I appreciate the photos. I hunted near there 7 years ago now...god, how time flies!

Nice Tanzanian trophies! Congrats Arjun...

That is a terrific impala!

Thanks for sharing great photos .
Cheers Juan

Rock Hyrax urine.

Great safari and report

quote:

Originally posted by Milo Shanghai:
Rock Hyrax urine.

YES, it was amazing to see!

Arjun, is that Lukes old Simanjiro concession?

looks like a great hunt

Good Hunting
Carl Frederik

quote:

Originally posted by fulvio:

quote:

Originally posted by mboga biga bwana:
Super Report and Congrats for your Unique Plainsgame Species what you got on this Safari. Wonder why you not tell us the Name of this Outfitter

You very well know who it is so why ask?

Well, I don’t so who is it if you don’t mind Arjun?

Amazing impala!
I want to live in that lodge!
Thanks for posting.
Cal