After nearly 10 years of planning , brothers Tony and Lloyd Farris completed a 2 x 2 full bag hunt with us this year. This was Tony's completion of the Big 5 and Lloyd's first African adventure.
In 2000 Tony Farris purchased the DEF donation hunt which was a joint effort between the Dallas Safari Club and our company (Safaris Botswana Bound ) to install water points on the Elephant migration route in the NG 47 concession in Botswana.
Tony shot a 65 pound Elephant bull and a 40 inch Buffalo in the NG 47 concession in Northern Botswana as well as a full bag plains game hunt in KD 1 in the Kalahari in Southern Botswana - home to the notoriuos Black Mane Lions.
The entire hunt was filmed by Steve Scott for the Outdoor Channel and over 12 episodes were screened on the show - The Outdoor Guide.
Following on from this Tony booked a Botswana Lion hunt for 2003 - but it never came off as Lions were placed on a hunting moritorium.
Over the years Lloyd had decided he wanted to one big African trip after his retirement which was pegged at 2010.
So planning began for 2 x 21 day full bag safari which would concentrate on Lion and Leopard , but would include other game - they achieved this and took the following : 2 Lion, 2 Leopard , 1 Buffalo , 2 Hippo , 2 Croc, 2 Sable, 2 Roan , 2 Topi, 1 Kudu, 1 Zebra, 2 Oribi,2 Impala,2 defassa waterbuck,2 Lichtensteins Hartebeest,2 Hyena, 4 Warthog ( one of which was 17.5 inches) , 2 Common Reedbuck,1 Bushbuck and the little guys 1 jackal , 1 Serval , 1 Civet and 1 Genet. Lloyd collected most of the species , Tony has hunted Zim , Botswana and South Africa before so only required certain species.

Lloyd took a record book Lion on the 3rd day of the hunt and Tony completed his big 5 with a monster Lion on the 18th Day.
Tony also took a 14.8 foot croc and a huge Leopard. Lloyds Leopard evaded us for 18 days but a great one was killed on the same day he shot a croc destined for the leather shop. Buffalo were scarce but Tony smacked a 40 inch bull, however Lloyd did not connect with the Buffalo.
sable and roan were plentyfull and 2 Sable bulls just short of the 40 inch mark were taken - there were bigger but not enough time was put in on big Sable, Roan were less common but Llyod took a real beauty. The very striking East African Kudu were also scarce but we did see alot of females. Dik Dik were everywhere but we just did not seem to take one as we put it off while concentrating on bigger game. Duiker were abudant but shy. The zebra dont have the shadow stripe and seem smaller in size to the typical Burchells zebra - they were very scarse but Lloyd bagged a fine specimen. Big warthog were everywhere and Lloyd shot a monster 17.5 inch bore. We saw wild dogs and black mambas, and an incredible array of birds. We visited honey collectors and fishing villages, we ate the honey but skipped the dry fish.
Although there was as much sign of elephant as the best places in Botswana - we saw only one small group of cows.
( Photos can be viewed on my Facebook page : Graeme Bruce Pollock).
The entire hunt was filmed with 2 cameramen and will be screened some time in the future on Steve Scotts - Dangerous Game Of Africa - The Big 5.

The area hunted was Ungunda Open area in western Tanzania - it shares a boundary with the Ugalla river and Park, the PH's were John Martin Venter and Dylan Cloete.Travel was from Dar es Salaam to the concession on a cessna caravan and took nearly three hours each way.

While hunting we saw Lion on allmost every day and the first animal actualy seen by Lloyd was a young three year old male Lion - his first big animal in Africa. Useing stealthcams we captured over 6 different leopard on camera feeding on baits.
The rivers were teeming with Hippo and croc and we saw a wide variety of game on each days travel.

Camps were rustic but very comfortable and typical east african style meru tents. South African wines allways help settle the african dust and there was good supply. The people of Tanzania are friendly and ever helpfull and a delight to hunt with. "My friendy" and "No problem " soon became part of our safari culture - while "rat bastard " also crept in for those critters that were not keen to secure instant green cards to Dallas USA.

Huntng Tanzania does not have to be a an expensive safari and there are very affordable hunts to be had.

Pictures please!

Brett

You're teasing us. Please post pictures.

When was this safari conducted? Early or late in the season? Nice general bag of game.

Some of us are non-facebooker's (if that is a word!) so,

PICTURES PLEASE!

Hopefully Graeme doesn't mind me posting this.....but I looked at the pictures, and this Buffalo got my attention more than any of the other animals. Amazing bosses on this bull!! Reminds me of Darth Vader....

I love those drop horn configuration buffalo.

Mike

I have read and re read How to post pictures - even tried - have photobucket account and Picasso account and still cant get the grasp of this - I did try but the pictures never came up so I deleted the thread - will try again - man I feel dumb. But I am not whipped yet !!!

quote:

Originally posted by Bwanamich:
When was this safari conducted? Early or late in the season? Nice general bag of game.

The hunt was mid July into August - first hunt of the season into the camp. With Lion hunters I allways like to be first into the camp before any other hunting takes place.
Still trying with the photos.
Graeme

Great buffalo! Congratulations!

Please send me an email about your hunt. Thanks Cam

mark.mclean@rocketmail.com

That is a proper old kakuli bull!