Just wanted to let everyone know I just returned a few days ago from an unbelievably successful hunt with Andrew B. {Fairgame} in the Royal Kafue. I had the time of my life, and was an experience I will never forget.

Andrew and I started chatting some time ago about me possibly coming to help out somehow getting things ready for hunting season. Between my schedule, { I work on the river on a month on month off rotation. } and Andrews obvious hectic schedule and hunting, things didn't line up for me helping out.{ Note, probably a good thing I didn't try to help out because after seeing the great job Dennis, { Caracal } did with camp I don't think I could have even come close }. Andrew asked if I would care to do some hunting instead. I didn't have to think long about that, I said sure if I can scrape enough money together.

So things were arranged for me to come and do a bit of hunting. I had asked Andrew if it would be possible to hunt Buffalo, he said that he didn't see a problem with that. I had also asked about a Sable because in my opinion they are one of the most beautiful antelope period, he said we would have to wait and see on that one.

Jim and Joyce already did a great job of explaining the past, present and bright future of the Royal Kafue so I won't go into all that here.

Andrew is making history in Zambia here with the way he is running the area and working so closely with community so was extra special to be a part of that. I will invite Andrew to go into more detail if he would like about his unique situation.

Everything ran very smoothly, the camp was neat, clean and very comfortable thanks to Iran the camp manager. The food was outstanding and there was lots of it! Thanks Comrad. Steven the skinner did high quality work on all my trophies. The trackers, Kent, Michael and Retsen did a remarkable job putting us on the game. A big thanks to those guys! Thank you Andrew and family for a a trip of a lifetime. Thanks for working so hard, I could not be happier, things do have a way of working out sometimes.

I would most certainly recommend anyone who is looking for great Sable and or Roan to give Andrew a call, not to mention all the other game that is in his area. Buffalo is not to bad either!! We did see a Kudu that would have gone in the high 50's but he give us the slip. We also hunted eland but could not catch up to them, sure was fun trying though. This area is still in the recovery phase, as good as it is now I can't hardly imagine what it will be like in a year or two or three.

I leave for work tomorrow so wanted to get a few words down and pics. I do not own a laptop and cannot post pics from work. I will add few more things as I think of them as I have written nothing down and am going by memory.

Animals taken, Buffalo, Sable, Reedbuck and Hartebeest
Rifle, Winchester mod.70 375 H&H, 22" glass bedded bbl, the perfect length IMO.
2.5 x 8 Leupold scope.
Went through Lori Ginn at Travel Express. Great job Lori, Thanks
Flew SAA and United. SAA was very good, United not so much.





300 gr Barnes TSX and Hornady solid recovered from the Buffalo























Flycamp for Eland, I stumbled getting into my cot and pulled the mosquito netting down on top of me and didn't
have the strength to put it back up so just left it there all night. I slept very well that night.



From camp

Very Nice All Gone!!!

If you get a moment could you comment on the numbers of different types of game you saw on your trip such as buffalo and sable but also game that you were not hunting such as elephant, lion and roan.

Congrats!

Wonderful and great pics...

Mike

Congratulations on what was a fine hunt.

Safari2,

There was a ton of game, hard to believe this place is still in the recovery phase.

Animals I saw,

Ele. Lots of Elephants, no big tuskers however.

Buffalo, The quality is there and the herds seem to move in and out. There are always some around. A couple good herds moved in after I took mine on the 2nd day. Most likely some big ones but I couldn't be more happy with mine.

No Lion when I was there. Andrew said May and June for them. I would venture to say Jim And Joyce agree on that also.

The Hippo are still moving into that part of the river. There was a pod across from camp that seemed to like it there. Probably 20 or so animals. A very big bull was around somewhere but never got to put the crosshairs on him however.

We were close behind the Eland but did not see one. Andrew said Sep and Oct for them.

Saw several nice Kudu and one into the high 50's Andrew said. Don't doubt it for a minute either, everything he said was spot on.

Lots of Sable and Roan.

That area has tremendous Hartebeest. They are everywhere.

Saw several Waterbuck, they are very specialized subspecies mostly for the collector.

Reedbuck were everywhere, they blew a few stalks we were in the middle of.

Bumped into some Bushbuck, one was a nice male 15" or 16" range.

Lots of Puku.

Impala were plentiful but not of trophy quality. The Impala were the only animals I seen that would not ever make trophy quality.

Ran across a fair number of Warthogs.

I can say for sure that if it's on quota and you want it Andrew will find it for you if it's anywhere in the area.

That Sable is Outstanding!! Glad you had a great trip.

The sable of a lifetime! I'm green with envy.

Good call w/ andrew. Hope to do that one day soon.

Might fine trophies, thanks for sharing your hunt

AG - Nice safari, congrats!

Just got through reading all 16 pages of a previous safari of yours....whew. I'm glad it all worked out on this trip over and I've learned who not to do business with.

AG,

Thanks for taking the time to do a report. Nice mixed bag of trophies and an exceptional Sable. I believe that may be the same one we video'd a few days after I shot mine.

Looks like your Buffalo is in the same tall grass I took mine out of.

Your description of camp was spot on.

Sounds like you had no trouble seeing game as well.

Thanks again for the report and I hope you have more time down the road to add to it.

Cheers
Jim

Good stuff, All!!
I'm glad you had a good time! You got some remarkable trophies!

Fantastic buff and sable. Congrats


Torbjorn

Congrats on a great safari. Pics are very nice. What a Sable....

Superb animals. Huge congrats...

quote:

Originally posted by Safari2:
Very Nice All Gone!!!

If you get a moment could you comment on the numbers of different types of game you saw on your trip such as buffalo and sable but also game that you were not hunting such as elephant, lion and roan.

Congrats!

Looks as if the main concentration of buffalo and Lion come in May - July when there is water in the hinterlands and the grass is long. Large herds of Buffalo are in and out but I have yet to hunt them. Normally the lions follow close behind.

Roan there is plenty and some very fine bulls.

Sable after the early burns in June. August/ September would be best.

Hartebeest as above.

This is large antelope/game country and the lesser territorial species have yet to recover.

In addition I could show All Gone some Bushpig, Oribi, Side striped jackal and Croc.

I have hunts in October and November so it will be interesting to see what is produced then.

In all I am very pleased with the results so far and my pricing structure of low daily rates and higher trophy fees seems to be popular.

Fairgame, do you have a webpage with the price structure as you said with low daily rates and bigger tropy fee? Looks like you have an awesome place going here

All Gone - Congratulations on the wonderful and sucessful hunt. Fantastic animals, and it looks and sounds like a really great area to hunt, and a great camp that Andrew has built. Very nice photos. Thanks for the report!

quote:

Originally posted by Svinejakt:
Fairgame, do you have a webpage with the price structure as you said with low daily rates and bigger tropy fee? Looks like you have an awesome place going here

I am still designing a website and will only complete it after the hunting season.

The pricing structure is mainly dedicated to the cats as I am still unsure of the concentration and movement of Lion and Leopard.

Thanks for the report!

I am pretty sure that it is not possible to have anything but a good hunt with fairgame.

Well Done.

Jeff

Great hunt.

Makes me think Royal Kafue is on my short list for sable and roan.

Looks like there is great hunting in the Kafue! Well done to you on shooting excellent trophies and to Andrew for putting in the effort to make his area a great hunting destination!

quote:

Originally posted by safari-lawyer:
Great hunt.

Makes me think Royal Kafue is on my short list for sable and roan.

Wise choice Will. It's Zambian pricing but I saw many fine examples of both Sable and Roan there, got each myself within 7 days, and you can see the quality in AG and my report.

Cheers
Jim

Great trophies and a fine report. Good job to both PH and client on a great safari.

All Gone;

Congratulations!!! Beautiful trophies.

Another GREAT safari with Andrew and Royal Kafue!

Best regards, D. Nelson

Could fairgame be the most interesting man in the world?

Stay thirsty my friends....

Congrats to hunter and PH
Recovery phase?
Its hard to imagine what its going to be like in the future.

We decided to persue the buffalo first as Andrew had stated that he was not sure of the
number of buff in the area at that particular time. The first day was spent finding where
they were hanging out and going for water. The second day we went straight to where Andrew said
they should be passing through after getting a drink. Sure enough, we cut fresh tracks right away
and was off. After a couple hours the small herd was spotted, [5 if i remember right]. There was
a couple of anthills between us for cover. Would have been a fairly easy stalk if it wouldn't
have been for some reedbuck we didn't see until they spooked the buffalo. That was the bad news,
the good news was the buffalo didn't know what spooked the r-buck so they did not run far.

We caught up to, and spotted them bedded in a small grove of trees. The wind was gusting hard enough it
covered any sound we made putting the sneek on them in the long grass. We eased in as close as we dared
[ about 65 yards give or take]. Andrew put up the sticks and I got on them, then we took a few seconds to discuss trophy quality and the way the one I wanted was positioned for the shot. Andrew made sure I was comfortable making the shot, [ as it should be ] and I comfirmed that yes I was and was ready to shoot.
At the shot the bull jumped to his feet, wheeled around and stopped. He or the others had no idea we were there or what just happened. I put a hornady solid in his vitals, thats when he and his mates decided it was time to run. They ran perfectly broadside to us, [good for me, bad for the bull].

The first shot was also a good one, it went in on the right side of the spine and went up into the boiler room. He was very sick at this point and his buddies soon out ran him. When he was clear I shot him two more times. He went down, I reloaded, he was trying to get up so I let him have it a couple more times, [Hey, I came to Africa to shoot my rifle!!]. Thats when he gave his death bellow, WOW, talk about exciting and an adrenalin rush. So I shot him one more time because he was still moving, probably didn't need that one.

What a great hunt and we worked hard for him too. We walked for a day and a half. It just don't get no better than that IMO.

Thanks everyone for reading and the great replies.

I did not think I would be hunting sable on this trip so imagine my suprise when Andrew said that he was able to add one to the quota. Talk about great news!

After the buffalo was in the salt we turned our attention to the sable. We ran into a few nice bulls but thought we could do better. Andrew knew of a good herd with a very nice bull in it, so for the evening hunt a plan was made to look them over. It didn't take long to find the herd as they had a fairly regular route to and from water. They were spotted and headed straight at us. We hid behind a giant ant hill and hoped they would feed past and we would get lucky. Our luck soon vanished when they started around both sides of the ant hill,[oop's, too close]. Between them winding us and probably catching movement thats as far as they came. The first few backed off some and of course that put the rest of the herd on high alert.

While Andrew was glassing them and searching for a shooter bull, we [the game scout Charles, tracker Retsen and I were trying to hide as best we could as to not spook the herd anymore. The sable started to go around us but down wind. A stalk was going to be a long shot but we had to try as the sun had alredy set and would be getting dark fast. By then they were very spooky and the stalk was frustrating.

At one point in the stalk we were crouched down walking slowly to the next patch of cover when Retsen pulled on my pantleg and said snake, snake. I thought he was saying snare, so I am looking for a snare not relizing that there is what we now think was a night adder lying just a few feet away. I will never know how Retsen seen that thing, it was blended in so well that it was hard for me to see even after I knew what I was looking for. Big thanks Retsen! Meanwhile Andrew has been looking over the sable and has glanced back at us with a look on his face like, [what the hell are you doing? quit screwing around and get up here now!] Things didn't come together that evening so it was decided to try again in the morning. Afterwards he said he never did get a real good look at the bull because it was always in the back of the herd but well enough that we should come back and check him out.

The next morning we go back to the same place, park the car and set off after the herd. It took less than an hour to find them. Andrew starts looking them over searching for the bull he had seen last night. We crouch down and move a little closer using the cover as best we could. It didn't take long before they were on to us and started running to or left. We moved ahead faster to close the distance and to catch the back of the herd where we hoped the bull would be. Andrew through up the sticks and I got on them. Almost like it was rehersed,
three bulls came running past and stopped for a quick look. It didn,t take but a few seconds to figure out which one was the biggest. I was already on him when Andrew said that he was [the one] and made sure we were looking at the same bull. The shot was good as he only ran 50 yards or so and piled up. The picture says it all, truly a sable of a life time! All of gods creatures are special but I think some are a little more special than others. To me this sable is tops.

So after the buffalo and sable are in the bag the pressure was off so to speak. Any animals taken after this point would be a nice bonus. We had made a few stalks on hardebeest but for one reason or another we couldn't close the deal.

At the start of the hunt I hadn't really thought about taking a hardebeest much, but after finding out taking a good one was harder than it looked like it should have been, I wanted one. I felt the same way about the reedbuck at first also. After many blown stalks because of r-buck I wanted one for a slightly different reason, if you know what I mean. So now they are on the list.

Hunting r-buck and h-beest is not to difficult. We drive through likely places until a herd is spotted with a good one in it. Then the car is parked and the stalk begins. It didn't take long before both were going for a ride in the back of the car.

We took the h-beest straight to the chief of the community for he and his family, also for the headmen and their families. Meeting the chief and his family and bringing bush meat was but another of the many highlights of the whole experience.

The time of year for the hunt to me was perfect. Cool enough in the evenings the fire felt good and sleeping came easy. The days were warm but not hot.

As great as the camp was, Andrew is in the process of building another chalet possibly with a veranda closer to and facing the river. That will be very nice. Warning though, the hippo do get a little loud in the middle of the night. However after a few beers and or brandys and the daily malerone the hippo calls will fit right into your dreams.

I feel extremly fortunate to have met and hunted with Andrew in his Royal Kafue and hope to someday return. The hunting was great and I had a blast. Things couldn't have worked out better. Thanks Andrew!

Nicely reported, AG, nothing like buffalo hunting. Nice shooting, too, especially getting so ready for the sable, which has wonderfully thick bases.

Envy you the chance to meet a senior leader of the community. Andrew's concept looks to be well on its way to being proved. Expect that should raise pressure on the various poachers to go elsewhere, helping limit their damage including the uproar just their presence creates among the game.

Regards, Tim