CMS AND RICH TABOR PRODUCE (AGAIN)

Hunt dates: May 31-June 14, 2016
Operator: Charlton McCallum Safaris
Area: Hammond Ranch, Save Valley Conservancy
PH: Richard Tabor
Trackers: Tedious, Norest
Driver: Dube
Appy: Courtney
Photographer: Andy Buchanan
Rifles: Rifles, Inc. Custom (Lex Webernick, Pleasanton, TX); one in 416 Rem Mag and one in 300 Win Mag
Ammo: 416: Barnes 400 gr Solids and TSX handloads; 300: Barnes TSX factory 180 gr
Previous Hunts: 2011, Dande Safari Area for Buffalo and Plains Game; 2015, Dande East for Elephant Bull

I apologize to all involved for the late posting of this report. The flash drives that Andy provided and that I previewed prior to coming home obviously got zapped by someone at airport security as they were FUBAR’d when I returned. Andy graciously resent the flash drives to me.

After hunting Africa for the first time in 2011 with CMS I, like most of you, was severely infected by the “bug” to return. With my darling wife’s support and encouragement I booked two hunts with CMS at DSC in 2014: Elephant Bull for 2015 and Leopard/Buffalo in 2016. In 2011 CMS asked if it was OK to change my PH at the last minute due to a scheduling conflict. I ended up with Pete Barnard (some of you might say cursed ) and had a fantastic hunt. Shortly before my Elephant Bull hunt came up in 2015 again they asked if they could change my PH from Blake to Rich Tabor. I am sure Blake is a great PH (I know many of you have hunted with him) but Rich and his team greatly exceeded every expectation that I had on the hunt. With that in mind there was no doubt who I would have for my PH for the 2016 Safari. I was originally scheduled to go back to Dande for the leopard/buffalo hunt but when CMS finally got their permits for the Hammond I jumped at the chance to go there and as you will see it was a wise decision.

Rich met me at the Harare airport and in spite of their power going off and on several times during my arrival I survived the entry process. For my previous two trips CMS booked me in to a B&B owned by a friend of theirs, Karen Harrison. She is a great hostess and her accommodations are very clean, comfortable, and reasonable. This trip both Buzz and Myles were already at Hammond guiding other clients so they booked me in to the Amanzi Lodge. The place is gorgeous, clean, and has an outstanding bar and restaurant on premises. I felt like I was at a Disney Resort, not in Africa. The drive in to Hammond the next day was not without drama between the locals standing in long lines waiting to get cash and the multiple harassing roadblocks. After settling in at the Hammond Ranch and a nice meal I was ready for the next day.

I tried to be more disciplined on this safari and tried to keep track of what happened on what day. What follows will be my lame attempt to do so with (hopefully) some pictures interspersed.

Day1: First order of business was to get some bait on the ground as a leopard was priority #1. I was overwhelmed by the quantity and quality of game on the Hammond. I had two zebras on the ground by 9:30 a.m. The rest of the day was spent hanging baits and cruising for other plains game. Buffalo were seen in large herds every morning and evening. We did spot a nice Eland bull late in the day but Rich felt we could do better (and we did ).





Day 2: While checking baits early that morning we had a pack of Wild Dogs come with feet of the vehicle. Rich educated me on their hunting ability and remarked “if Wild Dogs were the size of lions humans would be in deep s**t”. Two of our baits had been hit so it was decided to build a blind near the bait that was hit by the bigger of the two males. While coming in that evening we saw a small herd of buffalo just over the ranch’s northern boundary. In that group was a bull with large bosses that Rich estimated close to forty inches. He remarked that he wanted me to shoot that bull if we saw him on the Hammond. He had a huge hump and a dewlap so we named him “Dewlap”.



That afternoon/evening we sat in the blind. The big male came in to feed shortly after dark, but then a herd of elephants came so close to the blind that Rich did not think it safe to stay, and definitely not to shoot. We hiked back to the truck in the dark.

Day 3: While checking baits and trail cams that morning we had a brown hyena come very close as he was following one of our drags. If you have never seen one up close they are a spectacular animal. When we checked the trail cam on the bait that we had sat by the evening before we realized that the male leopard came back to feed within thirty minutes of when we left the evening before so we assumed he had not been spooked.

Went back to the blind that evening and sat again. A female came in first to feed, before dark. The big male came in shortly thereafter. At 6:45 P.M. I took the shot and was successful!



Day 4: With the cat in the salt our attention now turned to buffalo. The Hammond is a buffalo hunter’s paradise. I literally could have hunted a different dagga boy every morning and every evening I was on the ranch. When I found out that the ranch had both non-trophy and trophy bulls as well as a cow on quota I decided to try for a buffalo trifecta. That morning we made multiple attempts to get in to a herd and pick out a trophy bull but got busted each time. After a lunch break we went after the buffalo again and saw “dewlap” on the ranch property. Rich almost had me on the sticks to make a try for him but we got busted again.




Day 5: Buffalo on the menu again. After literally getting in the middle of a large feeding herd a “non-trophy” dagga boy confronted us at about 25 yards. Rich asked if I had a shot-I thought I did. Angle wasn’t optimum and I evidently shot high, but drew blood. Rich and the team proceed to spend the rest of the day tracking him. By late afternoon the distance was closing but the buff crossed the northern boundary of the ranch. We received permission to continue tracking him and “carried on”. With less than an hour of shooting light we were about to come out for the day and resume tracking the next day when Rich got a glimpse of him and got a shot off. He and Courtney immediately followed up and Courtney got shot off as the buff crossed an opening. After crossing the opening the buff came at us at full charge. Rich’s double spoke twice and Courtney’s 375 as well and the buffalo skidded to a halt, raised his head to glare at us once and expired. I don’t think Rich’s or Courtney’s heart rate went back to normal until at least noon the next day.




Day 6: The morning was spent recovering “Tank” the buff from the day before. The afternoon was spent cruising for buffalo, wildebeest, giraffe, and observing elephant activity.



Day 7: Wildebeest were starting to grow on me but until this morning we had not seen any bulls Rich felt worthy of taking. This morning started off cloudy and overcast and we came across two decent bulls. After getting on the sticks Rich let me know which of the two was the better one and I let go with the 300. Shot was a little low so we had to track him a couple hundred yards before we found him down but not out. One more round from the 300 and I had my first “Wilde”.

Giraffe, Warthog, and Klipspringer were on my want list. We would often spot a “klippie” near or on top of a kopje but they were elusive. Several times we tried to walk up to a giraffe “stink bull” but they always spotted us before we were within range and in a couple of strides they were gone. Many immature warthogs were seen but no big boys. Early in the afternoon we spotted a herd of buffalo that we were pretty sure we had not seen before. The beauty of the Save is that the game roams freely from ranch to ranch. We spent the rest of the afternoon getting in and out of the herd and following them as they fed trying to spot a trophy bull or a large, old cow. As the sun started to set the herd detected us but did not run off. We spent a good deal of time just watching them watch us. Very, very, cool! On the drive in at last shooting light Rich noticed a herd of buffalo crossing an open area almost single file. We were all pretty pooped but Rich insisted that we “take a look”. As we approached the herd a bull that was obviously much larger than the others stopped in an opening. Rich immediately put me on the sticks and asked if I could still see well enough for an ethical shot. After turning on the illuminated dot on my Swarovski scope I told Rich I could see fine. The bull was broadside and as I started my trigger squeeze he took a step forward. I moved the crosshairs forward as well and at the shot he dropped like a rock. We all ran up to him and I put one more in for insurance. “Dewlap” was on the ground!!! I could not get over his size. For me he is definitely a buffalo of a lifetime.






Day 8: The morning was spent trying again to get close to a giraffe and we even tried to “call” for Klipspringer which was a great experience. On the way in for lunch we drove up to a high point that they called the “Chimondo lookout”. I felt like I could see forever. Saw lots of game at long distances and even a huge snake sunning himself close by (but not too close ). The drive back to camp was not without drama-we observed a bull that had been fighting (and probably lost-he looked like Sly Stallone at the end of a “Rocky” movie) and we got charged by a bull that Andy Buchanan captured so well that Buzz asked me if it was OK to use the picture on his brochure (I told him of course).




That afternoon I finally was able to get on a good male Klipspringer at the very top of a large kopje. After overshooting him with the first shot the second dropped him. What a beautiful, unique animal! I had no idea that they were so specialized for living in the rocks with their adaptive hooves and their hollow hair.


Day 9: Multiple giraffe stalks with multiple busts. Got to see the Rhino Scouts that the Save employs to monitor and protect the Black and White Rhinos that live on the Save. On the way in for lunch we got to see a Black Rhino up close and personal.


A Sable bull has been (and still is) on my want list since before I made my first trip to Africa. The Hammond has very few Sable but we were told that if we found a mature bull that was a “loner” and definitely not a herd bull we could try to take him. That afternoon we explored an area to the south of the ranch that we had not seen yet. It was sad to see the remnants of the original perimeter fence that had been burned and in disrepair.

Day 10: The morning dawned crisp, clear, and colder than it had been. Shortly after leaving camp we did spot a large Sable bull by himself. Unfortunately when we tracked him up he joined a herd so we backed off. Several Eland were spotted but nothing mature. We also heard the sad news that one of the Rhino Scouts had been gored severely by a Black Rhino cow that had a very young calf. The afternoon was spent trying twice more to get close to a stink bull without success. On the drive in late in the day we spotted a couple of giraffe cows with one bull. We exited the truck and walked as close as we dared. When they did not spook Rich got me on the sticks and after breaking the left shoulder with the first shot and the right shoulder with the second I finally had my giraffe rug on the ground! Courtney radioed the camp to summon the recovery team. What followed was nothing short of amazing to me. Within two hours the recovery team had the entire hide off and the giraffe totally cut up and loaded on vehicles to go back to the cold rooms (to include the abdominal contents). The only thing left on the ground was the stomach contents. Absolutely NOTHING usable goes to waste! The butcher team at the ranch headquarters has the meat processing down to a science. The meat is all boned out, cut in strips, brined in trough, packaged and then sold to the locals for a protein source.





Day 11: Buffalo back on the menu-I still wanted an old cow. We found a large herd and infiltrated them. Rich, being the ultimate ethical hunter that he is, was very selective. Once he found the cow he wanted the 416 spoke and I had my buffalo trifecta!



Day 12: Focus now is Eland Bull. Rich reminded me that the time of year I was there was not good for Eland hunting as the bulls were solitary and very spooky, but he assured me that with due diligence we had a good chance of being successful. His plan was to find a track and follow. I have to interject here that I would call an Eland bull hunt a “poor man’s elephant hunt” because it reminded me so much of my elephant hunt with Rich in 2015. You find a suitable track and follow, not knowing if and when you catch up if the animal is one you want to take. I will also reiterate here for those of you who have not had the privilege of hunting Africa behind some good trackers that their skill will absolutely amaze you. We tracked one bull all morning but he left the boundaries of the ranch. The afternoon was spent tracking another bull that we never caught up with.

Day 13: I became aware that the Hammond had applied for and received a permit to hunt a tuskless cow elephant. How lucky can one guy be to have that added to the menu? The day was spent cruising for tuskless and Eland. We got to make a couple of stalks on small elephant herds but no tuskless were seen. Very late in the day we tracked up an Eland bull. We caught up to him at last light. We were moving fast and Rich had one of the trackers carrying my 416 to save time. Rich told me that the bull was mature but “nothing special”. When Rich put me on the sticks and my rifle was passed to me the safety was halfway on/off. I fumbled the safety and the bull took off before I could shoot. This turned out to be a blessing as you will see.

Day 14: While cruising we got to see a White Rhino and calf coming to water. Spotted a small herd of Eland in the brush-after a short stalk they turned out to be all cows. Shortly thereafter we found a bull track worth following. We followed all morning and the bull eventually went in to the area around the headquarters-a 2 km radius area that was “non-shooting” for the safety of the ranch staff. We came in for lunch and “made a plan”. After lunch Rich sent the trackers with Courtney in to the “non-shooting” zone to see if the bull had left. They found him shortly and got a decent look at him. The bull left the “non-shooting” area so we began our follow up. Rich reminded me that if/when we caught him I had to “anchor” him with the first shot or we would have a VERY long walk. By midafternoon we were getting close (those of you who have hunted Eland know how they can really cover the ground). We came up to a small rock outcropping and Tedious and Norest gestured to me that I needed to get my fat butt up there with them NOW. The bull was about to go in to some very thick mopane. Rich got me on the sticks and my first shot broke his left shoulder. We followed up and the second shot broke his right shoulder. He was still on his feet, but Rich reminded me that these animals are so tough that oftentimes they “are dead on their feet and they don’t know it”. Rich asked me to try and spine him which I did and he dropped like a rock. We called for the recovery team and they were thrilled as there was a road within fifty feet of where we killed him.


Day 15: Spent looking for a tuskless with no success. Great ending to a great hunt.

Additional comments
The Hammond Ranch is blessed with an inordinate amount of natural beauty. They have multiple kopjes which never ceased to draw my attention.



The additional wildlife was awesome


The Hammond has one of the largest baobab trees in the area that has been hollowed out. I hope they take precautions to keep the elephants from killing it.

The sunsets are classical Africa

For any of you who are thinking about going their wildlife and game will be great for years to come based on the number of immature game I observed





Last, but not least, I cannot say enough good about the team, to include Rich, Tedious, Norest, Dube, Courtney, and of course Andy.

Just noticed that one of my pictures from Dande East got posted-never saw a roan-sorry

great safari and photos! Congratulations!

Spectacular Safari. Thanks for Sharing !

Spectacular photos - you really had a great hunt - well done!

Outstanding, congrats,

Congratulations! It seems that you really enjoyed the hunt.It is nice to hunt and see different areas.Richard has a great team.

Drj,
Thankyou for this outstanding hunt report.
You might recall you met me and my son in Harare as you were starting your homeward journey. We talked a little of your hunt and your success but I hadn't realised your hunt was quite so busy. You are 100% correct in your assessment of the high standard of hunt run by CMS. Our hunt was one of the best we have ever done and certainly an unforgettable first Africa hunt.
Hope we meet again some day. Best of luck for your future hunts.

Great report! Your pictures are outstanding, especially some of those buffalo shots, and you took some wonderful animals too. Congratulations on a terrific safari!

Thanks for sharing it.

Rich is the man! Always enjoy hunting with him.

Excellent Trophies!!! Congrats

Lovely buffalo indeed.Congratulations on a very full 14 day safari!

CMS certainly do put on a great show.

WELL DONE TO ALL.

CHEERS
NICK

Amazing safari! Congratulations!!

Awesome report and what a great hunt. Those are some fantastic trophies! Well done all around.

Great trophies, great hunt with a high quality Outfit!

Well done to all involved!

.
Isn't AR great as it enables us to share and enjoy wonderful hunt reports and pictures like these!

Super hunt report and great pictures! Congrats on a string of fine trophies and well done CM Safaris!

Charlie

.

Fantastic Report Dr J .. I always enjoy hunting with you, rich and the boys...Im glad everyone likes the pictures i took for you..Sending your video ,book and picture frames this week Until next time Boss, Keep dreaming of Africa, Where the spirit roams free.

Great cat, eland and buffalo.

Very nice report and pictures.

The Save is an incredible place, can't wait to get back.

What a fabulous safari
That will take some beating !!

Looks like a very busy 14 days! Congrats on some great animals. I'd say you a trip to remember. Congrats. Bruce

Good stuff! Mr. Spots and a bunch of other nice trophies.

Huge congrats!

Mark

Fantastic report, great photos and outstanding trophies!

Great hunt, wonderful photos and thanks for sharing.
If anybody can find daffodils in the Sahara it would me Mr Tabor.

Hunted the Hammond Camp with CMS back in 2005 I believe. Wonderful facilities and a great spot for big game. I see it has only gotten better!

Well done on some fine trophies and a fine adventure.

Do the Americans from South Carolina still own the property and the Hulme's still manage it?

Bloody hell that's a proper buffalo.

The big old blue bull is what everyone should strive for. Only 2 sits for a leopard, lucky, lucky, lucky.

Congrats on an amazing Safari!!!

That hunt is spectacular. And that big buff is a hoss. That eland too. Thank you for sharing it and the great photography too.

Gotta credit Mr. Andy Buchanan for all the pictures. I wouldn't go on safari without him. I never took a picture-even had him use my cell phone and took pictures to take home. I would rather shoot one less animal than not have him along. Makes the memories that much sweeter!

Haha Dr J you are far too bloody kind!!!! so the truth comes out, its worth listen to me talk all that mambo jumbo nonsense !!!! Whilst we are all being so kind here id like to take this opportunity to salute you Mr Johnson for your weapon safety precautions. Having been with Leon Duplesis when he was shot and having whitnesed various other hair raising insidenses whilst observing from behind (as us camera monkeys do) It is an ABSOLUTE treat to hunt without fear of a weapon being mistakenly pointed in the wrong direction or a safety not on or around left in the chamber ect...Over the years of filming the Hunting of dangerous game and Editing videos one rely gets to spot small mistakes and let me tell you , you are by far the safest hunter iv ever hunted with! Even when following Tank and when he charged(and it was a bloody good effort as far as charges go) Never did your safety catch come off. That takes allot of nerve from you and trust shown in your PH... You are an example to everyone!!! I respect you for that and for those delicious lollipops you hand out... One day ill send you my dentist bill !!! Thanks for your kind words Johnny, Look forward to Many more safaris with you, You are defiantly hooked!

Great hunt and super report. Wonderful photos. Class act!

Congrats on a terrific safari!

Rich, Tedious, Norest, Dube, Courtney are, bar none, the best team going IMO.

Thank you for sharing this fantastic story and about the BEST buffalo pictures I've ever seen! Cheers,

jorge

Congrats on an epic hunt. Old Dewlap really projects an attitude!

Well done!
Great results with this great team!!

What a fantastic hunt, that buffalo is a real brute and your leopard and eland are not bad either, really impressive. My sincere congratulations and thanks for sharing your adventure!

That Rich Tabor bloke consistently produces top notch trophies and has to be one of the best in Zim today.

Those buffalo and that eland are particularly great trophies. Well done!!

Hi Johnney!

Been away for 17 days and just back now- thanks for an amazing report with outstanding trophies and second to none photos! It was a pleasure sharing camp with you ,all be it just a night and we appreciate your friendship and loyalty my friend- here is safari number 4! well done! Cheers Buzz

Great report on a fantastic hunt. I really like that eland!

Well done gentlemen! Fantastic report and pictures!

Some beautiful buffalo!

Just wonderful - Richie is the best


Morten