We are at our camp, after having a great trip. Walter almost missed the plane - he got too busy in the duty free. He had to be called several times on the public address - despite me begging them to just take off without him!

Walter did his usual, and broke the foot rest in the plane - I am NOT making this up, I have the photos to prove it. He was so proud of his acheivement, both the captain and first officer came to see for themselves!

"I did not do this on purpose. This sort of thing happens to me ever since I have met Saeed"

Donald got us through immigration and customs in Dar in minutes. I suspect we were not in the aiport more than about 15 minutes.

We had a short drive to the other side of the airport, got into our charter, and headed to camp. This flight took us 75 minutes. Our friends the Vincents, met us at the air strip, to gether with Lance Nisbet and Wayne James. Lance is a PH who is going to be hunting with us, and Wayne is a video man.

Our camp is situated on the junction of the Ruhuji and Pitu rivers. An absolutely beautiful place.

We had steaks for dinner, and hit the sack early.

We were up by 5.30, had breakfast, sighted our rifles, and each lot were off hunting.

Ours was rather short. We wanted some meat for the camp. So when we saw 3 kngoni bulls, we decided to shoot a couple. Two were dispatched, and we were back in camp by 8.30. Walter wanted to supervise the butchering, as he wanted to have a BBQ.

Another breakfast was served, and Walter absolutely refused to go out before lunch. So we are remaining at camp to have lunch. Then the plan is to go out and put leopard bait, and see what else we might find.

2007 Safari Hunt Report - Part One

2007 Safari Hunt Report - Part Two

The Dwight Scott Rufigi River Bench Rest Shoot

Hippo And Croc Photos

First Buffalo Hunt - Video

Second Buffalo

3 Buffalo

Reedbuck

Hippo

Snake

2007 Safari Hunt Report - Part Four

2007 Safari Hunt Report - Part Five


May I suggest that you right click on the video link above and download it to your computer? That way you can watch it any time you wish without logging into AR.

All the best - have a great hunt and may the hunting gods be good to you!

You may need thier help with Walter as well......

The Start of the hunt sounds well so far.

Good luck!

Good luck and enjoy the hunt.

Broke the footrest...how do you do that? You should make him sit in a row away from you.

i thought walters breakfast sort of lead into lunch, which sort of lead into supperwhich sort of lead into a bedtime snack, or in other words on constant meal

You just started, but this Walter cat I've got to meet someday.

Greetings to the Vincents and good luck

Saeed,

Glad you guys have made it safely to camp and have already started out with a bang. Walter's propensity to break things aside, I sincerely can't tell you how envious I am of the BBQ he will undoubtedly be putting on!! That is some fine eating!

Please say hi to everyone in camp for me, and best of luck to all. Looking forward to your daily updates!

Best regards,
Chris

A whole day and no report? What did Walter do, wreck the sattelite hook up?

Todd and Dwight chased some zebra yesterday, but did not manage to shoot anything.

This morning, we left camp at 6.30, and went looking for buffalo. We found some tracks, and followed them. Not long after, we came across a lone dugga boy, but he did not give us a chance for a shot. We then followed him for 4 hours, covering about 11 kilometers. He took us in a full circle, back to the truck. We end 300 meters from where we started! We saw waterbuck, duiker and reedbuck. But of course we never paid any attention to them because of the buffalo bull we were following at the time.

We took the opportunity and had lunch, and a rest during the midday. In the afternoon we went looking for more buffalo.

We a lone zebra, and tried to get a shot at him, but we never did get the chance. We got back to our truck and started to drive back to camp. At 5.30 we saw a herd of buffalo feeding. We jumped out of the truck and tried to get close and may be get a shot. We managed to get between two lots. The wind was dead. And we just got stuck in between the two halves. We could not move much, and we could not see any decent bull to shoot. By sun down, we left them and went back to our truck. Less than half a kilometer, we came across another herd of buffalo. It was too late to try to get a shot at one of them, so we left and went back to camp.

Walter stayed back this morning. As we drove into camp. We could see that he had a BBQ going, ready for us.

Tomorrow morning we are planning to go and bother those herds we saw today.

Bad luck with the buff today. Tomorow is another day and I can tell you it's gonna be big. Good luck

Well, let's hope Walter had enough supervision from the camp staff that some barbecued kongoni was enjoyed by all.

That was damned decent of that first buff to bring you back to the truck. I hate the walk back to the truck! Always better to kill something so the truck comes to you

We had a great BBQ yesterday, thanks to Walter as usual. He did a grand job.
We left at 6 this morning and went to follow the buffalo from where we left them yesterday.

We followed those guys for about 13 kilometers. Very rough going, over rocky hills and deep corongos. At about 12.30, we stopped to take a breather. Five minutes later, we heard a truck start. above us over the top of the hill. Alan ran to it, and found out that it was Lance's car with Todd and Dwight. They did the same thing to us as we did twice in the past to Ray on previous hunts. They get onto the buffalo tracks ahead of us, not knowing that we have been after them for so many hours. The driver told us they only left about 5 minutes earlier.

We decided to let them carry on, and we asked their driver to give us a left back to our truck. Which he kindly did.

On the way back to the truck, we saw the tracks of 3 bulls. We left Philip, our tracker, at the tracks, and continued on to get to our truck. We got that and drove back to where we had left Philip. And had lunch.

After lunch, we went to chase those three bulls. They led us on a round about trip. As the ground was very rocky, and the bulls seemed to have been around that area for quite a while.

By 5.30 we gave up, and drove back to camp.

We found that Todd, Dwight and Lance did catch up with the herd. They winded them and ran off. They chase them again, and managed to catch them resting. They got to about 50 yards from them. But apparently the old bull they wanted to shoot would not give them a chance. Eventually the herd took off without them getting a chance at a shot.

So far the score is us zero, and the buffalos had us tracking them for 31 kilometers yesterday and today.

We have seen only one snake so far. We have seen elephants, lioness, zebra, reedbuck, duiker, waterbuck, warthog and hippos.

The weather is great. The tsetse flies are plenty, but don't seem to be very aggressive. Everyone is using Avon Skin So Soft, and so far no complaints.

No mosquitoes at all as far as we can tell.

Hmm, looks like it is not that easy to get a good buffalo but I begin to understand this american hunter who told me last week that once you hunt them, you get addicted.
Thank you for sharing with us.

Saeed is clearly inexperienced at getting close to the biggest Buff! I recommend that he wear a large wooley tan and black hat and run towards the herd as fast as he can while quietly reciting Walters favorite BBQ recipe for beef!

We had a great BBQ yesterday, thanks to Walter as usual. He did a grand job.
We left at 6 this morning and went to follow the buffalo from where we left them yesterday.

We f

Keep the reports coming Saeed. It's great living vicariously through your safari.

Thanks,
Kyler

At least no-one can arque that you did work for the buff. Things always work out with hard work good luck.

quote:

Originally posted by Kyler Hamann:
Keep the reports coming Saeed. It's great living vicariously through your safari.

Thanks,
Kyler

Ditto.

PICTURES PLEASE !!!!!



L

An interesting day. We left camp at 6, and headed out looking for buffalo. About 4 kilometers we came across eland tracks. We stopped, and Alan and the trackers went looking at them. To see if there is a bull amongs them. Roy and me stayed in the truck. A few minutes later, one of our trackers came running, telling us they could see the eland. We loaded our rifles and ran after them. The eland were in the middle of a valley, covered in grass. We managed to get to about 300 meters from them. They were about 20 altogether, with 3 good mature bulls. We picked what looked the oldest, and I fired at him. He ran off behind some bush in the grass, disappearing from our view. The others just milled around, and stayed put.

There was a herd of zebra with them too. Now, we had a bit of a quandery. I said to Roy the shot looked good to me, but I did not hear the bullet connect. Both him and Alan said they heard what sounded like a hit. The boundery was very close, so we did not want to disturb the herd, just in case the one we shot at was wounded. We stood there for quite a while. About 45 minutes later, we thought we might as well shoot a zebra too, as they were feeding with the eland. We picked a stallion, and I fired a shot at him. He ran off a few yards and dropped dead in an area clear of grass. We tried looking for our eland, hoping to see him lying down, but, we were not able to.

Then a good size reedbuck ran off from the grass not 50 yards from us. We tried to take a shot at him, but did not get a chance.

Eventually the eland walked off into the trees. We went to look for our eland. Our trackers and the game scout came along, and they told us they thought I had missed the eland. They apparently heard the bullet recochette off something.

We looked all over the place, and found neither the eland nor any sign that he has been hit.

We decided to go back to the truck, and drive around to get ahead of where they were heading.

We drove about 2 kilometers, and ran into the bush where we thought the eland might be. We found their tracks, and followed them. Finally catching up with them in very thick bush. They were about 100 yards from us. Eventually the one we were after walked through a gap, and I fired a shot at him. This time we all heard the bullet connect. The rest of the herd, together with the zebra, stayed put. Eventually the zebra ran off, taking the eland with them.

We found our eland dead about 50 yards from where he was shot. And it was the same one we shot at earlier.

We went back to the truck, loaded the zebra and took him back to camp.

We then returned and picked our eland, finally making it to camp just in time for lunch.

We could see what looked like a round ball under the skin of the eland's neck. There was no wound that we could see.

When we skinned him, we found a poachers round ball there.

Beatiful eland!! Thanks for the pics.
Congrats
L

Lot of character in that eland. Nice.

Saeed,
Congratulations. It is amazing that you are able to get the pics to the appreciative crowd here so promptly. Marvelous trophy and yummie for the BBQ!!!

Must have been "grass deflection" or unseen brush. I did not believe it would be possible for you to miss at 300 meters on something as big as the vitals of that eland, using your .375/404 UAE. "Blank" happens to the best of nimrods. Exciting fair chase on the second shot that connected.

On second thought: Walter was not anywhere near your rifle or ammo just before the flyer was he? Or could he have hired a witchdoctor to work the juju on you? Any signs of "get-even" tricks from Walter yet? This freakish miss could possibly be Walter's fault!

mmmmmm, eland chops! Better put Walter to work. And a beautiful eland, by the way.

Great eland bull a true "Blue bull" congrats.

Yesterday's report was written at lunch time, and as I did not get much time to make an update in the evening, I just posted that.

So after lunch yesterday we went out again, and shot a nice reedbuck late in the afternoon. We saw another herd of eland, this one must have included at least 60. 3 very good bulls, and cows and younger ones.

This morning we left at 6 as usual. Not far from the camp we saw 2 bush pigs running in the grass. And despite all our efforts, we never managed to see which one was the male. So they disappeared away from us.

We carried on to where we followed those two dugga boys day before yesterday. They seemed to like their valley.

We found their tracks, and proceeded to follow them. Less than an hour later, we saw them running off into the hillside from a grass valley. I could only see their rear ends disappearing between the bushes in the hillside, and I put a bullet into the rear end of the one behind. They were about 220 away. We could hear the bullet connect. This one ran a few yards and stopped perfectly broadside to us. I put a bullet into his chest. He showed absolutelt no reaction to it whatsoever! As He turned and ran downhimm to our left. I fired a shot at him and dropped him on the run.

We ran off after the other one.

6 kilometers later, we caught up with him, and found him lying down under a tree. He was about 100 yards away, and all I could see at first was the front of his head, facing sideways. We tried to manauever a bit to see if we could see the rest of his body. I fired a shot into where I thought his chest would bee, being careful not to go too far down just in case there is something in the way. He jumped at the shot, and we ran towards him. Suddenly, we could see that he had changed direction and was on a collision course with us. Alan was shouting WATCH OUT HE IS COMING! He appeared about 20 yards ahead of us from the grass, and turned to his left as soon as he saw us. I fired a shot at him, hitting him in the neck. He dropped 10 yards from us. I put another insurance shot into him to make sure he stayed down.

We went back to walter, who was keeping the truck safe. We drove to our first bullet. Cut him up and took him to camp.

We drove back to camp to have a late lunch, and take a break for the rest of the day.

We gave the GPS co-ordinates to the driver to go collect the second bull.

Walter promised to cut his hair IF we shot two buffalo. He said one side for each. I am looking at him now after he cut his hair.

Sadly, not much of an improvement on his looks!

He is going to make a reedbuck BBQ tomorrow.

Well, when one has 14 buffalo on license, he can well afford to do Texas Heart Shots at 220 yards, and a 300-grain Walterhog at 2700 fps is the perfect projectile for that!

Congratulations on getting Walter to cut his hair. He is now less likely to be delirious from the heat around the BBQ pit, and any hairs in your food will likely be shorter ones.

Thanks for the reports! Did the buffalo actually charge you? If so, wouldn't this be the first time for that?

Congrats on the buff, yes tell us more about that buff charge was it a charge or was it the only way out for him ?

Pics if possible.

Great reading!

What's going on the Walter versus Roy front?

There will be no live update today from "THE HUNT". I just talked to Saeed by Sat phone and he said today the Buffaloes are winning. They've chased after several herds but everytime they got close they ran off to the next concession.

The lionesses are pretty agressive and that has kept them on the move too.

No kills today.

He'll update tomorrow if he has more luck.

They are back in camp enjoying Walter's latest culinary offerings and last month I sent some battery operated "fart" machines for Saeed to take.

That will be the "entertainment" of the evening.

I guess the BSO is not in town.

Don

BSO ?

Looking forward to your pics Saeed. Congrats on the excellent Eland and Buff. Continued success! LDK

sounds like you've gotten walter enough meat to go on a 30 day BBQ binge

quote:

Originally posted by Edmond:
BSO ?

Boston Symphony Orchestra, led by James Levine.

Their Selous tour is scheduled for late November this year, so Saeed and company must make do with other "entertainment" as provided by Don (which will be unfortunate for all but Saeed, I am sure ).

Nice eland, Saeed.

Wasn't it Benjamin Franklin who said: "Fart proudly."