Area : Coutada 9 Mozambique
Operator : Mokore Safaris
Client : Nicolas Poliakoff
PH : Neil Duckworth
Dates : 17 October - 3 November 2014

This was to be Nicolas and Marrianne’s second hunt with Mokore Safaris. In 2013 they hunted with us in Sengwa with PH Peter Kreiton . This year they decided to hunt Mozambique . Priority animals were elephant ,sable and nyala. Both hunts were booked through Thierry Labat .
Nicolas and Marianne flew into Tete airport where they were collected and drove into camp to meet up with me there. The day before the hunt started we had a heavy downpour, after the long dry season the rain was much needed yet it would obviously change game movements and within a week the visibility would be heavily reduced once all the leaves came out.
On their arrival we went over the basic plan for the hunt. I told them that I thought it would be wise to try get the Nyala down asap before all the new leaves came out ,after this we would prioritize on the elephant ,then the sable and if other opportunities presented themselves during the hunt we could be flexible if it was practical.
On day 1 we took a long walk up the Sanga river looking for Nyala and elephant. Half way through the walk we came across a big warthog which had just been wallowing in a small pool, Nicolas hit him twice and the pig was down . A nice ice breaker.



On the morning of day 2 we headed out early ,got onto very fresh tracks of a big elephant bull. By 5 : 30 am we had caught up to him, got within 15 meters of him but was only about 35 pounds, not big enough so we let him go. From here we got back into the cruiser and made our way down onto the Pompwe river to scout for big elephant tracks and Nyala. After a short while we came around a bend in the river and saw a big Nyala bull in the river bed but was about 400 meters away. He promptly ran up the bank and disappeared into the thick riverine vegetation. Nicolas , myself and Nhamo got out and tracked the bull from where he had run up the bank. After about 15 minutes of slow tracking I spotted him in some really thick cover, he was feeding slowly at 30 yards but we could not get a clear shot. After a very intense and painful 30 minute wait he finally moved enough to where Nicolas could get a small window to shoot through. The bull hunched at the shot and disappeared. After standing in strained positions for so long it took about 5 minutes for the pins and needles to go away in my legs. After a short follow up we found him lying down, a couple more shots and he was down. A massive bull of 30.5 inches with very heavy horns.
Needless to say we were all very happy with him ,especially after such an intense hunt.





That afternoon we moved to a different area where a big elephant track had been seen. Whilst scouting this area we can across a reedbuck ram, after a short stalk Nicolas put him down with one shot.



On the morning of day 3 we headed back to the Pompwe river. This river is ideal for picking up elephant tracks as you can drive along it in the sand for about 35 km , the riverbeds are ideal for picking up tracks as you can analyse tracks easily to help get a clear idea on the size and age of the animal. On our way down we saw a young sable bull and bunch of other animals but no fresh big tracks of elephant to follow. About half way down we spotted a nice kudu bull near one of the seeps along the riverbed. After a short stalk he was down. A beautiful old bull which measured a little over 55 inches. After some photos we loaded him up and headed back.






On the morning of day four we decided to leave early and head up to the north of our concession in search of a big elephant. On our way up we saw tracks of a group of 7 or 8 elephant bulls from the day before with two really big tracks in the group. As they were from the day before we knew we had to find fresher tracks. We circled the block they had gone into and eventually cut some fresher tracks. The bulls had joined up with a group of cows and were feeding through some heavy forests. After several hours we finally caught up to them on foot. They were very alert and moving fast ,we flanked them for a long time trying to see all of them ,eventually they slowed up to drink and wallow in a small pool of rain water. There were two decent bulls in the group ,close to 40 pounds , one of them with long ivory. Tempting but we passed them up. That afternoon we took a walk for elephant, sable or hartebeest. On this walk we came across a bigger reedbuck than the first one so Nicolas decided to take him.





Early morning of day five saw us heading north again to the top of our concession. As we moved north game sign became less and less . We eventually got to our northern border with Coutada 7 , a decent sized gravel road. From here we headed west along the boundary road for about 30 minutes when I spotted a big track crossing the road heading out of Coutada 9 into Coutada 7.
A week prior to this the owner of C7 concession , Grant Taylor had been hunting some plainsgame out of our camp with one of his clients, here he told me he had an unutilised tag so should we want a second bull we could take it. With this option open to us we decided to follow the bull. Initially he was feeding with one younger bull but then they joined up with a group of cows. After about 2 hours on the track Nhamo temporarily lost the tracks with some older tracks , whilst he was trying to figure out the direction I heard a branch break in the distance. We regrouped and moved slowly in the general direction. As we got closer we heard more and more branches breaking. These elephants were extremely alert and although we were tip toeing through the dry leaves they somehow sensed us and started to move, we backed out and flanked the group on some quieter ground ,eventually bringing us close to the group. The bull however was very clever and always stayed on the upwind side of the cows. He was massive and towered above the rest of the group yet we still could not see his tusks. Eventually one of the cows moved enough for me to get a glimpse, immediately I knew he was a shooter and closed in. Every time the cows moved he moved making it impossible for a shot as the group was bunched together and blocking him totally. The only option was a side brain shot as the top of his head and earhole was visible over the cows back. I got Nicolas on the sticks and with a well placed shot in the ear the bull collapsed. As the bull fell on the opposite side of the herd , the cows bomb shelled away from him and straight towards us running past us at close range. After this we moved in quickly for the insurance shot. A magnificent old bull with very dark tusks. The tusks were 42 inches sticking out at the lip and 17.5” in circumference. This should have made him over 50 pounds yet when cut out he had a nerve over 40 inches long so only weighed 46 pounds. Still a great hunt and trophy.



It did not take long before villagers started to come in droves. This is always a big help and makes the job much easier. Whilst cutting it up several AK bullet heads were retrieved . We loaded up the skull and some meat for the guys and headed back to camp to celebrate.

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Unfortunately the celebrations never took place as Nicolas tripped and hit his head against the corner of the dining room wall leaving a deep cut above his left eye. This required some serious stiches so we left camp for a 4 hour drive to Chimoio . Thankfully we arrived in Chimoio just before mid night without further incident and met up with the doctor who took good care of Nicolas. Finally at 2 am after a 22 hour day we hit the hay at our company house in Chimoio.

Other than a very swollen eye and a head ache Nicolas was fine. Back in the truck by 7 am and headed back to camp. For the remainder of day 6 we relaxed in camp.
On the Morning of day 7 Nicolas said he was ready to hunt again although he could still only see out one eye . I thought to hold off on the second elephant for a few days until he could see out of both eyes. Sable and hartebeest were both high on his list so we went to look for either. After a couple hours we spotted a group of Hartebeest run off. We pick up their tracks and it was not long before we caught up to them . The challenge was now to get Nicolas close enough ,stalking with only one eye. After about about 30 minutes we finally got close enough. There were 2 mature bulls and 2 younger bulls. I put him onto the best bull and he shot, the hartebeest did not move ,he quickly reloaded and fired again , thankfully the second shot connected and the bull ran a short distance and went down. This was a trophy he had tried for for years in other countries with not success so was very happy to finally get a nice bull.





From here we concentrated on elephant again. We found a very big track of a single bull on the Nhauliro river but was not fresh enough. We worked this area for 3 days trying to pick up a fresh track. Eventually on the early morning of day 10 we picked up his track on the same river bed.
We started on his track at 5:30 in the morning, to start he headed down the river for a couple miles feeding with two younger bulls, then turned to the left feeding through some fairly open terrain, here I told the two trackers to pick up the speed as I desperately wanted to get a look at the owner of such big feet. By 10 am we were close but tracking had become more difficult with grass and he was also heading with the wind behind him. Sure enough we got to where they had winded us and taken off, shortly after this he split from the other bulls but was moving fast and still with the wind behind him. When we crossed a road I asked Nicolas and Marianne to go with the truck as they were tiring after 5 plus hours at a good speed combined with the fact that if we were to catch him we would need to pick up the pace. So me and my two trackers pushed on at full speed. After an hour and a half we were getting close, he had crossed another road and headed into the Tandikwe forest, I was sure he would hold up in there for safety. Here Nicolas and Marianne joined us again. The tracking in the forest was noisy with thousands of twisted, crunchy panga panga pods to try and avoid along with several herds of kudu and a huge flock of Crested Geaniefowl which were alarming at our presence . All of these got the bull moving again as we could clearly see his toes were digging in again but instead of leaving the forest he started zig zagging through the forest, once we got a glimpse of him but very breifly in thick bush. We pushed on and closed the gap again. This time we fortunately spotted him a little further off. He would walk fast then stop to listen then repeat this over and over making it very difficult for Nicolas and I to close the gap in amongst all the pods. Eventually we got to about 30 meters ,got the sticks up ,the bull had turned broadside to look and listen for us, I told Nicolas to take a side brain shot, unfortunately he hit a bit high and forward. The bull spun 180 degrees and took off to our left, a couple shots from me and Niclolas in the vitals and the bull went down. What and impressive animal, over 12 foot at the shoulder with fairly short but thick tusks. We were all very happy after a wonderful hunt. For 8 hours we had pushed flat out after him , he had certainly been around the block and survived many encounters with poachers , this is what made him so alert . We counted a minimum of 12 old bullet wounds on him and retrieved 3 old AK bullets out of him.







His feet were awesome, nearly 25 inch back feet, well worn from many many miles.





His teeth were heavily worn. I sent the pictures of his molars to some researchers and they aged him between 53 and 55 years. A true old timer. Not too many bulls now days get shot of this age.





After this the pressure was off, we now concentrated on Sable, took a late afternoon walk , after seeing 3 elephant bulls up close and loads of other game we cut fresh tracks of a herd of sable and followed them. Unfortunately they were going with the wind and smelt us and took off. We did a big loop trying to get in front of them, this plan worked and Nicolas got a nice 37.5” sable bull right at last light.






Now with all the main trophies in the bag Nicolas said he would like to try for a bushpig so the next day we took a couple walks. Late afternoon we walked through some thickets at the base of a granite mountain. In here we had just spotted two bushbucks, whilst watching them Nhamo whispered to say there were some bushpigs coming towards us. I got Nicolas on the sticks ,as the boar went into a gap Nicolas put him down. We then cut a pole and carried him back to the truck. Sorry no pictures on this .


With still a few days left on the hunt I convinced Nicolas to try for another eland, he said ok as long as it was a big old bull. We spent the next couple days looking over different groups of eland . On the second last morning of the hunt we got onto a big herd with several big bulls in it. The terrain was fairly open with many eyes so took some manoeuvring to finally get close enough to a big old bull. The shot was quite far, close on 200 meters. Nicolas shot and hit the bull a little far back ,we trailed him for a while and put some more shots into him and he went down. A really old bull with a massive neck and brimmed horns. Not an American’s first choice as a trophy but Nicolas is from Belgium so was very happy with this old timer. Europeans seem to like brimmed off horns a bit more.





The last afternoon we took the trophies down to the Pompwe river ,took some photos and then drove up onto a mountain for a couple celebratory drinks. All in all it was a great safari.

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Great report ! Awesome trophies - the ele, the kudu, a great eland (I am European!) and warty!

Congrats to the hunter, his wife and the PH!

Btw as a final comment on the final picture either Belgians are a small race or you photoshopped it !!!

Great report with beautiful trophies!

Great report as always Niel,
Another excellent hunt from Moz. I wish we could import into the U.S. From Moz someday!

Neil,

Late season in Coutada 9. Magic!

Mark

What an excellent safari. Well done Neal

Congrats Neil on yet another fantastic safari. Great things you are doing there in C9!

Looks to be some nice trophies taken. Congratulations.

Giraffe, what an awesome hunt!! This has to be one of the best hunts of the year as far as trophies go. Infact, your whole year was outstanding.Makorokoto!

Very well done to Nicolas and Marianne. That shiner looked pretty painful.

Congratulations to both hunter and PH with some great trophies.

I'd like to know what the old elephant have experienced through a long life in the bush.

It seems as if C9 is a hotspot for eland. The old blue bull is a wonderful trophy. Does not get better than that.


Torbjoern

Outstanding!

Great job, Neil. Congrats to you and Nicolas. Super trophies.

Great safari!!!

Some great trophies. Congrats on a great safari. Bruce

quote:

Originally posted by Use Enough Gun:
Outstanding!

+1

Great safari and fantastic trophies.

See you in Dallas next weekend.

John

Great safari, and trophies. The foot of that second bull is unbelievable. Easy to feature following that for as long as it takes! I'm curious, I see the foot measures just shy of 25, what did the track measure? I'd expect it to spread out a bit.
The longer I hunt, the more I appreciate trophies like that eland.

Hi Marty ,the track does not spread out much more ,there is always a little drag in sand from the toe so would measure around 25 inches on most soils.
Another interesting point is this bulls tusks were 12 " shorter than the first bull, but had a smaller nerve from age possibly and were slightly thicker(1 inch in circumference more ) and weighed 5 pounds heavier than the first bull . He weighed 51 pounds.

Very impressive. Very well done.

Excellent. Beauties, all of them.

Awesome stuff.

A couple real nice ele's, congrat and well done!

Neil-
No matter what, 25 is an impressive track!
Thanks for the weight info. The second bull carries a lot of his weight forward, I was wondering what he weighed. They really look like they are from two different populations!

yes 25 is impressive

Well done.

Man that eland is Massive Neil!

Good effort to carry on hunting while the eye was so swollen especially as he wouldn't have had much depth perception while stalking.

Neil and successful hunts are synonymous. Well done Geeruff!!

Excelent eles
I would also like to know the second weight

Another great hunt from Mozambique!

quote:

A really old bull with a massive neck and brimmed horns. Not an American’s first choice as a trophy

Would be mine - fantastic Eland! Classic Kudo too.

quote:

...he had certainly been around the block and survived many encounters with poachers, this is what made him so alert. We counted a minimum of 12 old bullet wounds on him and retrieved 3 old AK bullets out of him.

This is amazing, as was his ability to survive 50+ years. The last ele bull I shot in Dande East would have spent some time in Mozambique, and he too wore quote a few scars. We recovered several projectiles including a "musket ball" from his front shoulder.

Thanks Neil for the picts and report on your hunters behalf.

Neil,

Great write-up! I can't wait to go back to Coutada 9 some day for a nyala,sable and big kudu.

Tom Wellman

Some impressive trophies.
Well done!

Tom,on our way to the US ,hopefully see you either in Dallas or Vegas?

Great trophies...getting two eles on a hunt is special by its self...thanks for sharing...well done

The beauty of hunting elephant in Mozambique is the size of the areas and the size of the elephant tracks . You never know what you're going to find.. Exciting stuff.