The greatest gift in life is friendship . . .

Several years ago Buzz Charlton and I began a discussion of a hunt that we came to call, the “dugga boy hunt”. The thought was to get a group of like-minded hunters and friends together to enjoy the camaraderie of a safari . . . a group of experienced African hunters with nothing to prove to anyone but themselves.

As time progressed the idea matured. The concept was that the hunting would be done two-on-one (with one exception for one of the hunters hunting an elephant bull) with the hunters having the ability to share hunting experiences with one another. The hunt pairings would rotate daily. Similarly, the professional hunters would rotate between the groups so that everyone would be able to enjoy hunting with a variety of professional hunters. In the end, the group that was assembled had a remarkable amount of combined safari experience, including, close to eighty safaris which had accounted for more than seventy buffalo, more than fifty elephants, multiple lions, leopards, hippo, croc and even one rhino.

Joining the group would be Richard Harland. Besides being an accomplished hunter and author, Richard is an incredible gentleman. To be able to share a campfire with Richard and have him accompany us on the hunts on most days was truly a once in life time experience. We are all extremely grateful to Richard for the time he committed to spend with us and the stories and insights he shared with us.

So in the end seven hunters, Rob Jolly ( R.Jolly), Russell Marshall (bwanamrm), Kelly Gill (Kelly Gill), Casey Terry (Blackfox), Guy Gorney (ggorney), Bob Schofield (venda axe) and myself, came together to enjoy the experience that is safari. When the sunset on the safari, the team had accounted for eight buffalo, four tuskless elephant, a hyena, a bushbuck, a sable and a kudu. Much of the hunting was done with either fine quality custom bolt action rifles or double rifles. The days were filled with adventure and the evenings filled with good humor, fine scotch, a cigar or two and wonderful stories. Not all the hunts were successful, and we learned more about the character of true hunters on that one unsuccessful hunt than all the successful hunts.

Kudos go to Buzz and Myles for not just embracing the concept of the dugga boy hunt but for all the hard work in facilitating such a hunt. Having Richard Harland, seven hunters, four professional hunters, a couple of cameramen and an appy in camp undoubtedly was a logistical challenge. But in typical form, they rose to the challenge. Thanks also to Ray and Brad for the camera and video support.

It would be impossible to capture in a narrative all the events and stories over the fourteen days of the safari. Rather we will rely on pictures to help tell the story. My hunting companions will also chime in and add a perspective or two along the way I am sure.

As I said at the beginning, the greatest gift in life is friendship . . . thank you Rob, Russell, Kelly, Casey, Guy and Bob.

Awesome !!!

Mike

BIG CONGRATS to you gents!
Nicely done

Some GREAT pictures, outstanding trophies and it appears that none of the hunters will be accused of being "soft bossed". Maybe "grizzled" would be more appropriate!

Very nice photo report! Thanks!

Congratulations to all of the "Dugga boys"

Mike, that is one fantastic hunt and a helluva good idea!

How hard was the planning each day? Considering something like this next year with Nephews, son, BIL and brother. A little concerned with the amount of "herding cats" that might need to be done every morning, especially with swapping PH's and sports every day or so. Can you elaborate a little?

Great pictures too, as usual we come to expect from your reports. Headed out of country for a few days, work, unfortunately, I'll ring you when I return, I wish to hear more about this trip.

Amazing, bet there was a couple of stories while you slowly empty those whiskey bottles

Great hunt and report!

This event was an obvious rip-off of the Oklahoma (first and only) Chapter of the Old Daaga Boys Drinking and Lying club. Both Myles and Buzz were obviously jealous of our organization's snappy name and great hats when I introduced them at Pedza four years ago the and it must have grown from there. Also, I saw Jines eyeing my hat at DSC last year. Fortunately you chose alternate spelling as a couple of the attorneys in our organization have been charged with the copyrighting of our name and if there had been a transgression, a certain lawsuit would have been forthcoming.

Respectfully,

Dick Gunn, social chairman and president for life,
The (real) Old Daaga Boys

Classic ! Congratulations.

And the combined age of all dugga boys was ????

Great pictures ! Thanks

Fantastic. Dugga Boys for sure!


.

Great photos Mike, thanks; can't believe you got the tracker that close to buffalo beans.

Congrats to all.

Excellent Mike. I had been waiting to hear how it went. Can't wait for some of the stories...

Looks to me like you all had a whole bunch of good fun. I also see that a couple of possible entrants for the Sports Afield "Oldest & Ugliest Buff"competition were collected. Seeing that CMS were the brainchild to this great idea, I ask that you please support this important initiative.

Mike and Charlie,

The ages ranged from 55 to 67, with the average being around 57 if I had to guess. In terms of organizing each day, it actually worked very simply. We came up with a schedule in advance before we left. The schedule was designed to have each person hunt roughly the same number of days with each of the other hunters and each PH. The schedule was just a starting point since we knew that as the hunt progressed and hunts were successful we would need to adjust the pairings. Each evening at dinner we would discuss the pairings for the next day based on the schedule as well as who had shot what. The most important factor in making the scheduling a success was that everyone was extremely open minded and accommodating. The pairs for each day would decide how their hunt would be done, e.g., would one hunter take the morning and the other the afternoon, one would take buffalo while the other would take tuskless, etc. I think my colleagues would back me up on this, the schedule and pairings were a complete non-event in terms of issues. Of course, we were hunting 2x1 which was a change for most of us, but again, when you are dealing with gentlemen that checked their egos at the door, it was never really an issue.

Eish........pure magic !! Congrats !!!

Well done, Mike! A wonderful experience, for sure. Congrat's to all the hunters.

classy MAC CALLAN drinkers could only be good men.

quote:

Originally posted by MJines:
but again, when you are dealing with gentlemen that checked their egos at the door, it was never really an issue.

I strongly suspected this would be the answer, kudos again sir.

quote:

Originally posted by MJines:
Mike and Charlie,

The ages ranged from 55 to 67, with the average being around 57 if I had to guess. In terms of organizing each day, it actually worked very simply. We came up with a schedule in advance before we left. The schedule was designed to have each person hunt roughly the same number of days with each of the other hunters and each PH. The schedule was just a starting point since we knew that as the hunt progressed and hunts were successful we would need to adjust the pairings. Each evening at dinner we would discuss the pairings for the next day based on the schedule as well as who had shot what. The most important factor in making the scheduling a success was that everyone was extremely open minded and accommodating. The pairs for each day would decide how their hunt would be done, e.g., would one hunter take the morning and the other the afternoon, one would take buffalo while the other would take tuskless, etc. I think my colleagues would back me up on this, the schedule and pairings were a complete non-event in terms of issues. Of course, we were hunting 2x1 which was a change for most of us, but again, when you are dealing with gentlemen that checked their egos at the door, it was never really an issue.

A proper hunt indeed. I would greatly enjoy that. Reminds me of me, Mr. Shores and my other friend Buzz(the handsome one) with assorted PH's and camera gents in camp Pedza.

Jeff

Balvenie triple cask!! Might have to try and find some of that.

That is about as cool as it gets.

What a great idea for a hunt. How fortunate you all are to have like minded friends that can get together as a group like this. Great photos too.

Thank you for sharing.

What a super hunt - all hard bosses in that group for sure! Many thanks for sharing!

VERY nice, Mike.

Only have this one video clip, perhaps others in the group have clips they can add too.

Awesome Mike - congrats to the whole group!

Mike, great hunt and nice shooting!

PS: I must have been busy that week? :-)

Mike,

A big congrats to all!

The picture of the dugga boy crew is one for the books.

bwanamrm told me y'all had a great time. I hate that I missed out. Russ said the cat luck there is running high so maybe I will have some next week.

Fantastic! What camp did you guys hunt out of?

As a grateful participant in this very special safari I will start the interesting story contributions.
The twenty fifty photograph shows me sat behind a buffalo bull.
This bull was actually killed by Buzz Charlton.
I was hunting an elephant bull one day with Buzz when we heard a radio report that a buffalo had killed one man and injured a boy that morning in a local village.
Buzz contacted the local Parks Department to obtain details and they asked him for his assistance.
He discussed the situation with me and I said to forget the elephant hunt and to go to the area. I accompanied him.
The body of the victim was just being removed when we arrived and the bull was tracked from the scene.
Following a very nervous tracking session through very thick bush and reeds and after a bit of a gun battle Buzz killed the bull with a shot through the neck with his 500NE.
When first found the bull had gone only four hundred yards from the scene of the first attack.
The reason for its attitude was found to be an old small calibre bullet wound to the brisket and all of the surrounding tissue was rotted.
The buffalo was delivered to the funeral of the victim as the tradition is for the mourners to eat the meat.
In the photograph you will notice the red stain on the boss of the bull. This stain is the dried blood of its victims.
That was an afternoon I will never forget.

Many thanks to Mike for his fantastic organisation and to my fellow hunters for their great companionship.

quote:

Originally posted by R.Jolly:
As a grateful participant in this very special safari I will start the interesting story contributions.
The twenty fifty photograph shows me sat behind a buffalo bull.
This bull was actually killed by Buzz Charlton.
I was hunting an elephant bull one day with Buzz when we heard a radio report that a buffalo had killed one man and injured a boy that morning in a local village.
Buzz contacted the local Parks Department to obtain details and they asked him for his assistance.
He discussed the situation with me and I said to forget the elephant hunt and to go to the area. I accompanied him.
The body of the victim was just being removed when we arrived and the bull was tracked from the scene.
Following a very nervous tracking session through very thick bush and reeds and after a bit of a gun battle Buzz killed the bull with a shot through the neck with his 500NE.
When first found the bull had gone only four hundred yards from the scene of the first attack.
The reason for its attitude was found to be an old small calibre bullet wound to the brisket and all of the surrounding tissue was rotted.
The buffalo was delivered to the funeral of the victim as the tradition is for the mourners to eat the meat.
In the photograph you will notice the red stain on the boss of the bull. This stain is the dried blood of its victims.
That was an afternoon I will never forget.

Many thanks to Mike for his fantastic organisation and to my fellow hunters for their great companionship.

Wow !!!!

A dangerous game hunt for sure.

Mike

This is what a real hunt and african safari should be.

Good people
Good outfitter
No egos
No check the box animals to kill
Old trophies

A video of this hunt would be better than any commercial produced celebrity hunting show.

Mike

Well it is very hard to top Rob and Buzz's story of their hunt for a rogue buffalo. I tip my hat to those guys for running towards danger and not away from it!

I was honored to be a part of this very special group of guys who had the hunt of a lifetime and forged close bonds by sharing a unique adventure together. A couple of things that stuck in my mind and that I will never forget is the sense of selflessness in one of the stories told to me by one of the Dugga Boys, who can reveal himself if he wants to. I choose not to, personal you see.

Seems it had always been his dream to hunt Africa but kids needed to be clothed, fed and given a proper education, so he waited and bided his time, hoping to fulfill a dream someday, always someday. When someday came and he found enough in his savings to go, he didn't want to safari without his son along. So he sold a second vehicle he had to make, not just his dream possible, but his son's as well! Character.

Another of our intrepid hunters thought he might never hunt elephant and buffalo with big bore doubles again after surgery. It was a distinct pleasure to follow him many k's over tracks. Toughing out the jess, heat, thirst. I think he and Myles and I were in the jess for 10 hours on tracks one day with few rest stops and only water. We never did catch those elephant that day but I never heard him complain... in fact he and Myles jabbered about it being a great day as I collapsed in a heap by the Landcruiser at 5 that afternoon! Richard, Alan and I were with him when he connected with his tuskless later in the hunt. A very special day for a man who has a special sense of determination.

Yes, it was a special group of guys...

How about a picture of that kudu RM? I did not have one to post. A great old kudu for the 11th hour of the last day . . . and I still maintain that the Texans had it right suggesting that it would have been easier to drag than winch.

Hunt was out of Pedza, and they had to put up two tents to handle the masses.

What a great experience for everyone involved. I've been waiting for this report since I first heard about the hunt.
Great shooting on the tuskless, by the way. What an intense experience that PAC buffalo must have been.
Two weeks of hanging out together, DG hunting, and sundowners. It can't get any better!

Mike and I were hunting with Myles on my last hunting day in camp. We both had our big game in the salt and were just hunting for whatever we ran across that tickled our fancy. Eland tracks at a pan led us on a merry chase that ate up most of the morning. A big warthog eluded Mike after we passed him cruising down the two track and then attempted to "Indian sneak" back and pick him off.

Right at dark thirty and after passing a big soda pan the guys spotted this bull in some cover ahead. Myles and I were out of the truck and a short follow-up had me on the sticks and ready to make a broad side shot at around 120 meters. Myles thought the bull needed an extra once-over with the binos, but I think he just wanted to see if I could make a running shot! I did, not well, but well enough and we caught up to him for a finisher shortly after.

The guys brought the 'cruiser up but were stymied by a small ravine... Mike and I suggested we drag him the thirty meters to the vehicle and then hoist him in. Texas brawn. "No", announced the African team, "we will drive to him!" African brains. After high centering the 'cruiser in said ravine and destroying several trees winching ourselves out of that small hellhole, we had him loaded. And then had to recross the hellhole... like I said, African brains. Care to rebut Myles?

Awesome hunt stories, I enjoyed everyone pitching in with stories of their own.

Awesome hunt. Congrats to all involved.

Great Pics, Mike! It looks like you guys had a blast!

Awesome!