10 days Buffalo hunt with Phillip Smythe / Ivory Trail Safaris in Chirisa

Dates: September 5 to 14, 2014
Area: Chirisa, Zimbabwe
Camp: Swainson
Agent: Aaron Nielson/Global Hunting Resources
PH: Phillip Smythe
Tracker: Titsch
Driver: Jack
Game Scout: Chedrick
Weapon: Sako 85 Hunter .375 H & H. Using 300 grain Swift A-Frame and Hornady DGS
Game seen: Buffalo, kudu, eland, zebra, waterbuck, bushbuck, reedbuck, impala, warthog, duiker, grysbok, baboon, dwarf mongoose, slender mongoose, banded mongoose, rock hyrax, hare.
Game taken: Warthog and buffalo.
Some birds seen: Secreratybird, martial eagle, brown snake Eagle, black-breasted snake eagle, african hawk-eagle, african fish-eagle, bateleur eagle, lizard buzzard, white-headed vulture, white-backed vulture, hooded vulture, yellow-billed kite, Meyer`s parrot, ground hornbill, crested guineafowl and a lot of other species.

This is my first hunting report on AR, and my English is not very good, but nevertheless I hope you understand what I write.

I have previously hunted plains game 2 times in South Africa, but this was my first big game safari. And what a wonderful experience it was! Phillip and his team are top class and Chirisa is an incredible hunting area.

The buffalo was of course the first priority, but I also had hyena and bushbuck on my wish list. We hunted hard for several days, and on day 9 I shot my buffalo. This meant that there was little time to hunt other species. We were on several herds of buffalo, but there were no older bulls in the herds we saw, only younger bulls. We saw 4-5 bulls at 40 inches and one at 42-43 inches. Some of the days we tracked dagga boys, but they just went on and on so we never got into them. The buffalo I shot was somewhat younger than I initially was looking for , but he was the oldest bull we saw during the 10 days. We hunted hard, we turned down some bigger but younger bulls, had an exciting hunt when we shot the buffalo so I'm very happy with him. I'd better shoot an old scrumcap next time:-)

I had imagined that in a big game area as Chirisa I would see lots of buffaloes and elephants, but not that much plainsgame. I was wrong! We saw several herds of buffalo, but no elephants (it was the only small disappointment with this safari). What surprised me most was the large number of plains game we saw during the 10 days. We saw incredible amounts of impala, bushbuck, kudu, duiker, baboons, warthog, waterbuck and grysbok and some zebra and eland.

On the 4th day we found a dead impala and kudu in snares. We used the kudu for hyena bait. We were up very early the next morning to check the bait, but we saw no hyenas. We checked the bait again 2 days later, but then the hyenas had completely smashed the bait. Nothing was left. The wire the bait was tied with was bitten across!

We saw several great bushbucks, including a couple of really big bucks in the river about a mile below the camp. The largest of them ran away just at the moment I laid the rifle on the shooting stick.

The second to last evening we hunted sand grouse. Those are some fast-flying birds! I shot 2, but dare not say how many I missed. Phillip and the boys did anyway get a good laugh.


I stayed at the Sunbird B & B before and after the hunt.




The camp


The view from camp.






The warthog I shot on day 7


The buffalo


Phillip and me whit the buffalo


From right to left Phillip, Chedrick (game scout), Titsch (tracker), Jack (driver) and me




I also shot guineafowl and sand grouse. We hunted sand grouse by a spring the second to last evening. It was fun!


Huge Boabab tree


A nice one!




The game scout`s AK47


Phillip and his protection against mopane bees:-)


Puncture



Impala and kudu we found dead in snares.There has been no hunting in Chirisa earlier this year, and we feared that we would see much poaching there, but it was better than feared. We found about 10 snares in the area where we found the Impala and the Kudu.


Fantastic view from "The Lookout"


A kind of wasp that kills spiders to lay eggs in it


Water monitor killed and eaten by Martial eagle.


Last year's quota in Chirisa



Dry bush


Elephant browsing




Sunrise and sunset


Thanks to Phillip and his team for some wonderful days in Chirisa!


Torbjoern Fosser

Grattis Torbjørn

Where`s the picture of the buffalo??
Love the warthog, has character

Congrats and thanks for posting.

Torbjorn,

Very nice! Good report and great buffalo. Your English is actually excellent.

Mark

Great report. That warthog is a monster! Too bad the other side is broomed off! Congratulations

Great job boys!!!

Nice report.. Congrats on the buffalo.

My only comment is " no elephants". The place used to be loaded with them. Did you find carcasses from poached animals? Or have they moved into the park?

Thanks for the report.

Congratulations. Thanks for posting.

Great report and photos.

Did anyone measure the Kudu pick up? It looks in excess of 60 inches?

congrads on Buff. Phillip is a good guy and a good PH. Fun times...

Safari2: We didn`t see any elephant, but we saw fresh tracks every day. Lot of tracks! Just bad luck that we didn`t see any elephant I guess. We didn`t se any carcasses.

Andrew: If I remember correct, Phillip told me that the Kudu was 62 or 63 inches.


Torbjoern

Thanks and that was a great warthog you took. Lots of character.

Well done on the buff and they are always tricky.

Great safari and pics!

Congratulations on your Buffalo!!
Thanks for the Report

Great report. Glad to see plains game increasing. When we where there in 2009 we saw hardly any. I guess new management does make a difference!


.

Torbjørn.
Congratulations on your buffalo and warthog.

Thank you for posting this report and great pictures from a fine hunt.

Your list of birds seen is a fine add on. You are a birder in disguise!

Your English, by the way, is excellent.

Jytte

Torbjon
Congratulations on an exciting hunt. What a great looking buff . I Shot a great Leopard with Phillip on Aug 1 of this year. I have posted the hunt report on the AR site . Phillip is a great PH that never gives up seeing how I got the Leopard on the night after the last day of the hunt. This being my fifth try for leopard . It was great seeing the picture of Phillip and his staff in particular Jack, they were hard workers and a joy to hunt with. Your Photos brought back some great memories.I to stayed at the Sunbird as Sally guest. Great way to break up a long flight from a long drive out to the hunting area.

Jim

Thanks for the nice comments everyone

Jytte: Bird Life in Africa is fascinating, with so many species we are unfamiliar with here in Scandinavia. And a safari in Africa is for me much more than the animals we hunt. I can watch the birds for hours, and a couple of highlights was when we saw (and filmed) the martial eagle that ate on the water monitor and when we saw the crested guineafowl for the first time.


Torbjoern

Splendid hunt

quote:

Originally posted by Safari2:
Nice report.. Congrats on the buffalo.

My only comment is " no elephants". The place used to be loaded with them. Did you find carcasses from poached animals? Or have they moved into the park?

Thanks for the report.

I am shocked also at the lack of elephant. I was there in '09 and we counted 100 before I got my tuskless. Chirisa is one of the most beautiful places in Africa. Poaching is hard to control with people living all around it. Maybe they all went into Sengwa.

enjoyed the reports and photos,thanks for sharing

Congrats on your hunt. PH's in these areas need to avoid shooting soft bossed buffalo. This area like Sengwa was heavily abused by HHK where quotas were abused hence the lack of hard topped buffalo. This is the only way areas like this can recover. If soft bossed bulls are being shot as there are no solid bulls this indicates over hunting. Chirisa was the best concession in Zim, lets hope one day in the near future it can be protected properly and return to it's former state.

Thanks Torbjorn, we all had a great time.

You will be pleased to know - we SAW some elephant on the next safari! Again, saw lots of tracks but just not much visual confirmation! Snuck up on a young bull elephant for some fun though!

The Scrum cap next time!!!

I was there in 2009. I remember the same places in your pictures, thanks.

Congratulations with nice buffalo

thanks fore the report

quote:

Originally posted by Neil Duckworth:
Congrats on your hunt. PH's in these areas need to avoid shooting soft bossed buffalo. This area like Sengwa was heavily abused by HHK where quotas were abused hence the lack of hard topped buffalo. This is the only way areas like this can recover. If soft bossed bulls are being shot as there are no solid bulls this indicates over hunting. Chirisa was the best concession in Zim, lets hope one day in the near future it can be protected properly and return to it's former state.

"The areas were abused by National Parks forcing operators to shoot fixed quotas which were too high - Chirisa and Sengwa would have no game in it at all if it weren't for the hundreds is thousands of dollars HHK spent on anti poaching in the areas. The reason HHK pulled out of these areas is that Parks refused to drop the quotas and as such made the areas unviable. Which is why after three attempts national parks cannot sell the areas on auction. Possibly Mokore Safaris who have only operated in a parks area for less than 2 years out of the last 10 years should get their facts straight before throwing stones "

We have operated in Parks areas since the early eighties so not 2 years like you state and are very aware of how they operate. Every year quota meetings are held at which proposed quotas are put forward. Operators are present at these.
Chirisa was the best concession in Zim, reason for it's demise is from over hunting through transferring quotas and poaching . In the 2 years we have been here we have seen a huge improvement by only shooting solid bulls with penalties to those PH's who shoot soft bossed buffalo . Last year we only shot one bull at 40. This year we have shot a 40 ,41, 42 ,44 . There was a 46 " also shot this year by an outside PH which was slightly soft. He was fined $500.
It is very easy to blame Parks ,we all know they are broke so will set quotas as high as they possibly can, it is up to the operators and PH's to put their necks on the line should these areas wish to have a future instead of trying to make a quick buck ,hence my comments above on the buffalo.

Stort grattis till en som det verkar fantastisk jaktupplevelse

The Duckworths operated in Parks areas in the eighties and ninetees - they have not operated in Parks areas since dollarisation in 2009 so have no idea of dealing with Parks other than for two years. Here are some facts they should perhaps consider.

1) Firstly we have attended every quota setting meeting held by Parks and every time have pleaded with Parks to cut quota's, especially fixed quotas - they have never listened except to increase them. In 1999 our annual concession fee in Chirisa was $20,000 our quota 70 buffalo, 12 elephant, 3 lion, 12 leopard. In 2013 our concession fee was $65,000 and our quota was 30 buffalo, 8 elephant, 6 leopards and no lion - everyone of them on fixed quota.

2) The Duckworths are operating in Sengwa Research not Chirisa, we also never had a problem shooting hard topped buffalo in Sengwa - the quota was good (16) and the area did not need much improvement, we also shot 45/46 inch buffalo every year - so not sure what they going on about in that respect.

3) Quota transfers - not sure what they are going on about here, there were no quota transfers allowed - we hunted the chirisa quota in Chirisa and the Sengwa quota in Sengwa.

4) Out of any operator in Zimbabwe HHK has spent more money on anti-poaching and assisting Parks in Chirisa than anyone, at one stage we operated over 50 game scouts which we paid, supplied rations and kitted out. However as the Parks policies on fixed quota made the safari business in these areas with big quotas more and more unviable and forced the operators to shoot their quota's irrespective or face heavy unshot fixed quota bills this dried up the funds available to carry on with the anti-poaching operations. Once we realised that Parks were not going to change their policies we then took the decision to pull out of Chirisa altogether as we knew there was no ways these areas could sustain the quota's Parks were setting.

We operated in Chewore South all the way through to 2007 which is not the nineties. So in the last 33 years we have only been out of a parks area for 5 years .
Congratulations to you for your anti poaching work in Chirisa, not sure why it went from one of the best concessions to one of the worst over the last 10 years. This can be sugar coated any way you like but the bottom line is Chirisa was milked for all it's worth and now no one wants to touch it which is a real shame as it will soon be unrecoverable hence my comment that PH's in these areas must do their part to try bring it back.
When we took over Sengwa we fought hard with Parks and got them to cut quotas and also reduce the fixed quotas . When we got to Sengwa the elephant bull quota was at 9 for 94 000 acres. That's 1 bull / 10 000 acres. Totally unsustainable. We dropped it to 6 in the first year, then got it dropped to 4 the second year yet we are still dollarized so not sure how we managed this yet you couldn't.
What was done in the past is in the past , my comments are strictly to try encourage PH's / operators to avoid shooting soft buffalo, because if they are then the quotas are unsustainable.
We all preach about conservation through hunting so this is what I am pushing at, nothing else.