Hunt Dates : 6/18/2015- 7/3/2015 (including travel)
Operator: Muchinga Adventures (Johnny and Laura DuPlooy)
Areas: Zambia's Kafue region (Waterbuck and Oribi); Tondwa GMA in the greater Lake Tanganyika area (Sitatunga, Duiker, Puku) and Chifunda (in the Luangwa Valley)
PH: Johnny DuPlooy
Booking Agent: Adam Clements at Adam Clements Safari Trackers
Travel: Shawn Kennedy at Gracy Travel
Rifles: Dakota 76 .30-06 and a Kobe Custom Dakota 76 in .330 Dakota.



After hunting with Muchinga (named after the mountains surrounding the Luangwa Valley) back in 2008, every time I would run in to Johnny and Laura at the conventions, I would ask about getting back to Zambia and hunting with them again. Johnny has done a fair amount of hunting on his own, with a number of good trophies that he displays at home. As such, he has a pretty good idea as to what hunters like and encouraged me to think about a Sitatunga hunt as a unique adventure. He did relate that getting a Sitatunga of his own was one of his more challenging tasks as a hunter.

My good friend Butchloc and his wife have talked with me about this spot and the chances at a good Sitatunga, and looking at his really neat full body mount made me really want to get one myself.

While there have been some changes in the structure of Zambia's hunting over the last few years, they always remained upbeat and positive about the future. In fact, when I booked with them for this hunt, they were still waiting for notification that the Luangwa blocks would be allocated and who would have what officially confirmed. While the Luangwa had been not relet, they still had one GMA that had an active lease, namely Tondwa, which Johnny has been operating for several years now. He still has it for two more years, but it sounds like the Zambian government does not want to let a company have more than one block going forward, so its likely that it will be under new operation in the not too distant future. In any case, it is one of the few places (the only that I know of) that have had a near 100% success rate on hunting the Southern or Zambezi Sitatunga. I figured that the Sitatunga would be a good choice for my first trip over to Africa without one of the Big Five as a target.

I booked for a "Mini" Safari package as Johnny told me that the odds of shooting a Sable, Roan, or Eland were not the best at this concession, although possible. I had originally thought that Crawshay's Defassa Waterbuck and Oribi were present at Tondwa, but was rapidly told that there have not been any sightings of either of these there in quite some time. Apparently, while the Waterbuck used to be numerous (back in the 70's-80's) and the area was great for a mixed bag, that poaching and pressure had removed the cats; all but shot the buffalo out; ran off the elephant; and decimated the hippo. There is a small rebuilding buffalo herd in the area now, but the hippo are still dwindling with the local people taking one a year for meat, and there is quite a bit of poaching of the plains animals (but not the Sitatunga) going on in the area. I was told that I could expect to get (with effort) a Sitatunga, a Puku, a common Duiker, a Blue Duiker, Common Reedbuck, possibly Eland or Roan, and a smaller Sable, along with baboon as a target of opportunity. In any case, they graciously added hunting a Defassa Waterbuck and an Oribi on one of the nearby Kafue game ranches for trophy fee only.

The flights were on Delta, with the business class seats being a wise investment if you want to do anything the day after flying. We had some weather and connection delays at Atlanta, but really pretty much ran out there on time. I stayed at the City Lodge at OR Tambo airport in South Africa overnight, and had no complaints about that. A clean comfortable room with lots of hot water! Bruce with Gracy did the usual smooth job of getting me through the mess that is Johannesburg's airport both on arrival and getting me out of there the next morning. Combining the business seating with the Airport hotel, I did not really have any issues with jet lag on the trip out. The flight from Johannesburg to Lusaka was professionally run and the airline staff did what one expected of them. I had no issues whatsoever with my rifles or airlines on the major airline legs.

On arrival in Lusaka, I was met by Theresa, who is Laura's right hand woman in Lusaka. She knows everyone in the airport, and gets you in and out with a minimum of fuss. Unfortunately, you have to pay duty on all ammo and such coming in, and it can be paid only in local currency (Kwacha) which has had a considerable devaluation over the last 7 or so years- they redid the currency, by inflating the new Kwacha by 1000 over the old, and this is now trading at about 7-8 Kwacha to the dollar... In any case, with duty being about $2/round for ammo (depending on who is there) along with visa charges, your getting in the door is around $300. We saw some Chinese folks violating every rule on what you can bring in (fresh fruit, etc.) and a bunch of the better off local folk coming back from Dubai with enough stuff to open a store... the customs folks were happy to deal with an American who had all his paperwork in place and just wanted to bring a couple rifles in....

The drive through Lusaka was... interesting. Pretty much as I remembered it in 2008. We hit just as rush hour started and it took us about 3 hours to do what would take you 20 minutes or so in non peak time. The streets were crowded with beggars, salesmen and kids. Some I might have felt like giving money to, except that Theresa informed me that most were not what they appeared. Apparently the brotherhood of the bowl is a reasonably good business in Lusaka. I arrived at the DuPlooy's house and was greeted by a cacophony of pups. A bunch of friendly Labs. They are one of the few folks with Chocolate Labs in Zambia, so while I took it as being "normal, I guess the locals think these dogs are decidedly different! I moved in to their guest house and was given a nice large Gin and Tonic. Johnny and I made our plans for the next couple days and we had a home cooked meal. The DuPlooy's guest house is quite nice, with comfortable beds, a fridge, a pool table and a kitchen. Rather surprisingly, it was very cool, and a cold front was moving through.

Guest house








Our plan was a bit different than most folks. As I had already shot a nice Kafue Flats Lechwe and a good Black Lechwe on my last stay, I did not go after two of the more iconic local rarities in Zambia. Instead, we would drive out to the greater Kafue area to a game farm that Johnny has access to for a Crawshay's Defassa Waterbuck and also an Oribi. This particular farm is a very large operation that is principally involved in growing beef cattle and also sugar cane. While it is not a true wild area, the animals do have a bit of room to roam, and the Oribi are apparently, along with reedbuck, a bit of a pest to the sugar cane growing. The place I was hunting is the place where the #1 bow Crawshay's was killed. These are no where near as big as their cousins (a 28" inch one is a world record range animal) but they are only found in a small area in Zambia.



We got up at 0-dark 00 and drove to the Kafue. This took us a couple hours on a pretty good (by African standards anyhow) paved road. The first animal we would look for was the Waterbuck. There were quite a few around, and we had planned on getting one before noon. Unfortunately, there had been a cold front that ran through the area, and finding one turned out to be more work than we thought it would. As it got warmer, we started seeing more of them, but as is usually the case, the first one ended up being the best of what we saw. Fortunately, they are pretty territorial, and we were able to find the first guy after a bit of looking again. It probably would have been easy to pot him from the truck, but we did stalk him properly to get the shot. I shot him with the .330 and the first animal was in the salt.



Later in the afternoon we went looking alone the irrigation booms and field edges to find Oribi. We did not see all that many of them, and the choice pretty rapidly went down to 2 males. Johnny basically left it up to me if I wanted to shoot one or not. While mature males, they were not really large examples. I decided that they look pretty neat, so I decided to take one anyhow. Not the wisest expenditure of the hunting dollar, as they were not cheap at this place, but an interesting hunt reminiscent of other ag area hunts that I have done in the US. I did feel that the Oribi was "more" fair chase than the Waterbuck was.



We got back about suppertime to Lusaka, and we loaded up the cruiser with what we would need at Tondwa and then had Johnny's driver Freddy take the car and drive off to where we would meet up with him later in Kasama. I had a rather long discussion with the DuPlooys about transport in Zambia, and on this hunt I was not thinking I would be very pressed for time so I thought driving some would be neat as a way to see the countryside. The recommendation was to use a charter, but we could drive if we wanted. We ended up doing a combination. Driving 13 hours on highways sounded a bit boring, so the thought was Freddy would drive the cruiser to Kasama and we wold take a local airline to there and then drive about 6 hours to the concession. Johnny was rather negative about the driving, but admitted that it was good that we were doing this as the local chief had "requested" his presence. In Zambia, the local tribal chiefs have a LOT of influence, so this really was more a demand than a request. Otherwise, we spent a bunch of time chatting about old acquaintances from my last hunt and what they were up to. In Zambia, the white community is pretty close knit and everyone knows everyone...

Getting up pre-dawn, we left for the airport quite early, and this is how I figured out how long it takes to get somewhere in Lusaka if the traffic isn't stopped at every intersection...quite a change. We went to the airport and checked in. This was a mess. While they were pretty well organized for passengers, no one had any idea (other than Johnny and the police guy) about what was required for flying with a firearm in Zambia... We were there a full 3 hours plus early, and basically walked right on to the plane from getting the guns on the plane. The plane was a Cessna Caravan, so the flight took more than 2 hours, but everything worked out in the end. We met up with Freddy, stopped at a supermarket in Kasama, and loaded up. Poor Freddy was seated on the back of the cruiser, and was given the job of holding the 4 dozen eggs. He did this for the whole 7 hours it took us to drive, while whacking himself on the roll bar on the cruiser with every bump...and he didn't break a single egg.



The road to Tondwa was "interesting"... the first part was as good as any highway I have seen outside of South Africa over there. Then we hit the construction zone, which apparently has been going on for years. This was what I used to refer to as a "bad road"... then we turned off the highway and went to the local chief's village. This road was awful. Until we hit the hunting concession after turning off the highway, was about 60km. This took us just over 6 hours to drive, including the time we spent at the chief's village. Concession hunting roads are better maintained.

When we arrived at the village, we were told to drive up to the palace, and someone would take us to the chief when he was ready. We cooled our heels for about 45 minutes, and were then led up to a pavilion where the chief was holding audience. He did not look too good, like he had a bad stroke not too long ago. When asked why I was there, Johnny said that I had come to hunt the Sitatunga, and I told them that I thought it would be nice to meet a real African chief. This was met with acclaim, and they pulled up a chair for me and I was allowed at the audience. They essentially were having financial issues relating to legal bills and were hoping that Muchinga would help them out.

To the reader, if you go to Tondwa, TAKE THE CHARTER!!!!

In the end, just after nightfall we finally arrived at camp.







Some of the folks at the camp were folks I had met before in 2008, including our camp Chef, Sampson, and the camp manager, Peter. Apparently, there are some pretty stringent rules on who can be hired to work at a camp. I was told that they can only hire 3 permanent people per camp who are not from the local tribe. Everyone was introduced and we were fed and ensconced in our chalets. I slept quite well, and we were up early for the hunt to start.



First Hunting Day in Tondwa



The first day I was up early, although there really wasn't any reason to be. We ate a leisurely breakfast and glassed Sitatunga from the dining room table. We saw 4-5 there. That morning, we went out and checked zero on the rifles, which were where they were supposed to be, despite the road, the tuffpak worked again. We then went and drove around a bit. The grass was quite high and while somewhat green, was ready for some burning. The initial area we burned was with the idea that the burn would open it up and allow us to see reedbuck there. Unfortunately, it was a little too green to accomplish much other than make some impressive fires. We saw a bunch of Puku, a Common Duiker, and some baboon. I also got a major case of sunburn, despite an application of sunscreen. The weather was quite cool, not what I expected, but warmer than the Kafue or Lusaka had been.





One item of note was a rather large fishing village that was abandoned near camp. Apparently, Johnny asked the chief to make sure that no one bothered the Sitatunga while he is hunting, so the chief decreed the village to be abandoned during the hunting season. We had no fishermen or fish poachers at all while we were there. It was almost as if the hand of god had picked up the folks, as everything was still there- bedding, dugout canoes, nets, but no people. The camp staff commented that when we visited the chief, the shots they heard stopped, and we did not hear anything other than us and the ZAWA guys the whole time we were there, nevertheless, most of the smaller game (Reedbuck, Warthog, and Puku) were very skittish and did not stand still for long at any time.



That afternoon we made the first of many forays in the canoe. Towards the end of the day, we tried to do a wading stalk on a Sitatunga, but we made quite a bit of noise wading in knee deep water, and scared some Sitatunga cows. It was rather frustrating at first as we could be creeping along and then all the sudden you would hear a rhythmic splashing and maybe see a Sitatunga cow running off. No Luck. I will note that aside from some hippo holes and ruts worn in paths, the water is uniformly shallow. While the lake is a couple miles long, even in the middle we could stand in knee deep water with a nice firm bottom. Once I discovered this, the worry of falling out of the canoe became a nonissue.



Finally on the 3rd morning it all came together and we caught up with a bull. He was judged to be 21" or so by Johnny, so I said I thought we could do better. I was asked to take a look at him, and he was beautiful, with the lyre like horns. Nevertheless, we didn't take him. We then moved on to the next bull we could see. Finally, we got close to a bull that Johnny said was a very good bull. We pushed the canoe into some reeds and I stood up to see him. I could not see the bull, but saw his horns, which to my eyes looked huge. We maneuvered the canoe a bit then I waited to have the bull expose himself, which he finally did. Of course, he was less than 70 yards away, and the rifle had been sighted in for it to be 2.5" high at 100 so I could use it to a point blank range of 350 yards... and I shot right over him. He ran straight away towards the deep part of the lake, and I just swung on him and shot a second time and he collapsed, hit right behind the ear.



I guess its better to be lucky than good...



As we were in the canoe and I didn't trust electronics in the boat after the first day, we hauled him out and took him back to camp for photos. The camp staff were all ecstatic and had a "Sitatunga Song" that they sang, while hauling me around on a chair on their shoulders, similar to what I have experienced with Lion and Elephant. These animals are very interesting, pretty much spending all the time in reeds on the water. They have developed very long hooves to allow themselves the best mobility in the swamps they call home.



At noon we had a visit from a delegation of folks from ZAWA who were discussing the concession and hunting with Johnny... This conversation I was not invited to... When they left, Johnny was a bit out of sorts. They were going to shoot a Hippo, and a special license had been let to shoot a buffalo. He had convinced them that molesting the slowly rebuilding buffalo herd was not in the concession's best interest, but they did want a hippo anyhow. Johnny said we were very lucky to have the Sitatunga down as everything would likely be spooked for the next 4-5 days.



That evening, we tried sitting at a waterhole for Blue Duiker. This was an animal that I had never seen before. We saw a multitude of tracks of many different animals at the waterhole, including Roan, Buffalo, Warthog, Puku, and even a bushbuck track. We made a quick blind and settled in, expecting to have to wait for just at sunset to get a chance at him. We ran a troop of Baboon off to make our blind, and pretty quickly they were back. They were quite antic to watch, making more noise than I could believe. We also had a common duiker and many different species of birds flock in. Amazingly, at maybe 4:30 a Blue Duiker came out and started drinking. He was sporting clearly visible horns, so the signal to shoot was given. He went down quickly to a round from the .30-06 and we had the second animal that day.



On our drive back to camp we ran in to the ZAWA scouts getting ready to shoot their hippo. We were asked to do so, as we "had a better boat."

That evening, Johnny had an interesting proposition. While we still had 6-7 days left at Tondwa, we had effectively shot everything, with the exception of a Common Duiker, Puku, and a Baboon that we were likely to get. The Warthog were very skittish (probably due to local poaching), and we could get one of the 3 best Puku there any time we desired to shoot them. In the morning, we would try and get the hippo for the scouts, and if we were successful in the morning, great, otherwise we would leave it to the ZAWA guys and get on with our hunting. Johnny's proposition was that they can offer a 5 day Wildebeest hunt in Chifunda, and he needed to get there and get his car there. Why not get an animal I missed out on before (the Cookson's Wildebeest) for a minimal fee, and it would work out for both of us. I was warned that the camp was not quite done, but I guess I am easy to keep happy- if I have a shower and a bathroom, that is a luxury camp in my book. Especially if we have ice.... I was to be surprised.

Being a sucker for seeing a new area, and knowing that Laura was heavily involved in the new camp, I really wanted to see it, so a deal was struck. We would leave in the wee hours sunday and start hunting the Luangwa on Monday. Johnny and Laura's daughter Jodi and a friend from Australia would join us for a day of observing us there. As the cruiser needed to be left there, we would charter back to Lusaka as scheduled, and I would leave the next day.

With these plans made, we had 2 days to see what we could do in Tondwa. That evening, Sampson worked his magic on the Sitatunga backstrap, while the rest went in to the village.



The next morning we went out on the lake again to collect the hippo. We had seen one smallish hippo by himself in the open, and went to try and shoot him. Unfortunately, this hippo had been hunted before, despite his small size. We spent a good several hours trying to get a shot, but he would not stick anything more than his nostrils out of the water. No dice. At noon we came off the lake and drove back to camp for lunch and shot a bunch of guinea fowl for the staff (and our own appetizers) which was great fun, both with a .22 and shotgun. We then went out to examine the countryside and see what we could find. We did some burning, and then came across a sable. I had been told that if we saw sable, to expect a 32"-38" animal, which was a big part of my decision to not get the standard safari package for Tondwa. We found a solitary bull that was in the 38-40" category. We then found a herd. Of course, the herd bull was a SABLE. Johnny said he has not seen this good a sable in years. He was at least a 45" bull. He had it all, length, wide, mass, and was fully mature... and me with no sable tag.... Johnny has a client coming in later this year who wants a sable, and hopefully they will find this guy again.



That evening we find out that the scouts had moved in on a hippo pod in the reeds and fired 9+ shots without hitting a single hippo. We didn't see a single thing move on Lake Tondwa from then on, although the scouts eventually shot a hippo near where we had the scared hippo before.



Another new thing (to me) we did was attempting to call Duiker. This did have some success, as we had a female who kept coming back to look at us from the call, but no males, even when we went to where we had seen them before. The call sounded like a typical injured rabbit cry, like are used here in varmint hunting, but was made with a rolled up leaf.



The following day was our final day at Tondwa, and we decided which Puku I liked best. I chose the one that was the "oldest" appearing. There was one that was about the same length, but more symmetrical that Johnny said may make a better mount, but old won out. Hunting Puku was a matter of driving out where they were, walking up to about 200 yards away and shooting one. They were spooky about letting you get close, but were numerous and I am not the best judge of Puku, even after much tutelage- (I still can mistake them with Impala at at distance, even though they are very different...) So after some consultation of which one was the one I was after, and getting him to stand still long enough with no one else behind him, I got mine with one shot from the .30-06.



We went on to collect some more guinea fowl- and actually found an eagle feeding on a one of our crips. The guys jumped out and chased the eagle off and claimed the guinea fowl for themselves, showing the level of protein deprival folks have around there. Half of all the game killed has to go to the village, and there isn't much killed at Tondwa, so the camp staff really like it when they get some. We also shot a bustard that the guys said would taste just like chicken. I did not get to try that one out...

We left Tondwa at 3 in the morning, and finally got to Kasama at about 11, after having a flat tire and multiple watering sessions. The remainder of our drive was on good paved roads until we hit the Northern Luangwa National Park. We ended up taking 2 guys from camp with us. Iban, who is the waiter at Tondwa asked to go as he had never been to the valley, and as he told me, had never seen an Impala. A second staff member had to go to Kasama to be with his son, who had been badly hurt.

The Northern Luangwa National park has been taken over from a management perspective by the Frankfurt Zoological Society, as apparently has been Bangwelu. Johnny welcomed this as they are fair and do not put up with corruption or inefficiency. We drove through the park, and through the Black Rhino wire area on our way to Chifunda, and I was very impressed with the professionalism the park staff demonstrated.



The border between the park and the GMA is the Luangwa river. To cross the river, we were told to just drive the cruiser across. Johnny was not happy with that idea as he had not scouted a spot, and the current was fast and strong, so we took the pontoon ferry. That got stuck mid river and we all had to jump in and push the ferry across. Of course, Iban refused to jump in in his good clothes, so he took his pants off and as soon as he was in his skivvy's, the hippo started honking, and he got a lot of teasing for that- Given that I was wearing my sitatunga hunting clothes, I just jumped in shoes and all and the guys were rather shocked by that.



We then started driving to camp. I could see Johnny becoming more relaxed every minute further we drove in the concession, and he admitted it was touch and go to survive for a while. He repeatedly said "I love it here!" and I understand that Laura wants to spend more time in the bush as well. We were almost at camp when an adolescent bull elephant was surprised by us driving by. He trumpeted a few times to let us know he was there, but actually ran away from us. We were truly in wild Africa again.

We then arrived at Chifunda camp.



Dan and Nicky, two of Muchinga's professional hunters were already there working on camp. I was given the red carpet tour by Johnny of the new camp, which will eventually have potable water from a well, and by using a large tank, with have constant water pressure with water heaters constantly running so you do not need a generator running just to take a shower. the dining area is large, and they have a brick Braii and wok area next to the campfire area right on the river. The staff areas are a fair distance from the chalets and are duplicates of what they have in the village. The skinning shed is capacious and secure.



There are 5 chalets here, one of which is designated as a PH hut, but likely 3 would be client huts and two would be the PH's. The chalets are well designed, with good bright lighting, and Rosewood and porcelain bath facilities. The DuPlooys spared no expense in making this a comfortable bush camp. There will also be a tented camp about 4-5 hours from the main one so that no one is too crowded.





Johnny explained that right now quotas are a bit conservative. They are allowed 3 leopard, and he feels that 5 or more could safely be shot here. He suspects that they will only get 1-2 Lion a year starting next year, so Zambian cat hunting will be a much more limited resource than it was. The authority is working on a more scientific method for determining quota than had been used in the past. Now the game scouts are expected to GPS log all animal sightings and the operators will be given an opportunity to discuss what they feel the area will support. He has quite a few buffalo on quota and said that all but 1-2 are spoken for already this year. This area is one of the better ones for Wildebeest, with 12-15 on quota. The hippo quota is reasonably large and they have a fair number of croc as well.



To be honest, I have rarely seen game as calm as this. It was very reminiscent of my trip to Maswa on the Serengeti as to the calmness of the game, and very different than what we had just seen at Tondwa. The cover was high and it was difficult to spot game in certain areas, but nevertheless we saw shooters multiple times every day. There are a lot of really good Kudu here, with us seeing a bunch in the mid-50's, at least 4-5, and a corresponding number of young and immature animals.



I am not much of a live game photographer, but I did get a few decent photos.





The hunting was basically requiring you hold off until you see something you like. We were on Wildebeest multiple times a day, and we shot the wildebeest on day 3. We did a lot of exploring and saw a lot of game and country that was spectacular. We held out for one that "you could see daylight between his ears and his horns" and while his tips and teeth were quite worn, he was exactly what I was looking for. This is the last of the "Only found in Zambia" animals that I have hunted here. Cookson's Wildebeest are only found in the Luangwa valley in huntable numbers in the wild from what I was told.



The girls arrived the following morning, and that day we took them along for a game drive/hunting trip. I shot a good impala for the area and a Baboon that day. We also spotted a 1 horned kudu, which we later decided to pursue. One thing that occurred on our driving was that we got chased by a matriarch elephant cow when we got too close to the calves in their opinion. Both Johnny and I were looking at her and thinking "mock charge" but apparently the game scout was a bit more concerned. He loaded his rifle (a .300 Magnum) as if he thought he might have to shoot. Jodi's friend was rather rudely introduced to the "Elephants are not cuddly" club... It was a mock charge, and the herd drove us off and we headed back to camp at that point. I guess she won her point!





On our final morning in camp, Johnny and I made a pursuit of the one horned Kudu bull. I did get a shot at him... a good shot, but I sent it over him (again) Not quite sure how I was doing this, until I got home, but it happens. Oh well, it is hunting and it gives the next guy there a chance to hunt an interesting trophy.



The DuPlooys had a goodbye/welcome Braii at their house when we got back. Johnny's next client had just shot a nice Kafue Flats Lechwe, and they were going to do a day trip to Bangwelu for Black Lechwe then the first Leopard hunt at Chifunda

The flight home was made longer by not having the anticipation of the hunt. What was worse, in Atlanta, we ended up sitting around waiting for the TSA guys to arrive for gun inspection. Several folks missed connections as they were over 2 hours late showing up to start clearing. I will say when my turn came it was quick and efficient, but still there is no good reason when you have a flight arriving at 5:30 (not ours) and the agents arrive at around 9, you have an issue.

So I say until I see you again to Zambia. I will be back...



In an email later on after my return, Laura shared that the new hunter has had quite a bit of success already: an ancient old Tom leopard and a 44" Buffalo properly baptized Chifunda Camp!

Well done on the sitatunga! Congrats!

Spectacular story! Congratulations on a great sitatunga.

Awesome and very well done indeed.

Thanks for such a great report! I can agree with your comments on the waterbuck and what they lack in horn size they make up in overall beauty. The Sitatunga in my opinion is one of Africa's greatest treasures and glad to see you found yours!!


Congrats!!

Glad you had such a fine trip. Thank you for letting us in on it!

Congrats -great report, trophies, and photos.

Charles,

You have done Zambia completely. Congrats! Glad you got to see Chifunda as it is kind of a wonderland as you experienced.

Mark

That was a great report, I enjoyed the read.

CR,

Really enjoyed your report, and pictures. Your detailed reports are always well done. Congratulations on a great hunt!

Great hunt and report. Nice pictures too and congratulation on the Sitatunga. That indeed is real Africa, will love to do a similar adventure in near future.

Indeed very good report and very good pics, many congrats for getting Sitatunga, its a really classical trophy!, to hunt with Duplooys is again a fun both brothers are well experienced, are full of jungle knowledge and hard worker to satisfy client. Hunt with Johny twice and will fix program soon with him in year 2016.

Many many congrats for successful hunt, Sir.

IH

Congrats on your hunt. I really enjoyed the detailed write up and pics.

Puku ain't bad either!

Great report. Congratulations!

.
Great looking sitatunga! Congratulations and thanks for posting the Report.

Charlie

.

CR;

Congratulations on a successful hunt! Your report, pics and trophies all superb!

Best regards, D. Nelson

chifunda is my favorite place in zambia. but charles you should have taken a picture of that road into tondwa. that has to be the worst rod in africa. best to drive it at night so you have an excuse to keep your eyes closed

Excellent hunt and write up both.

Wow, don't know how I missed this one, saw CRButler reference it in another post, what a Sitatunga! And is it just the trophy pic or is that blue duiker a monster?

Well done! Muchinga is a great outfit that has it dialed in.

That Sitatunga is almost as big as the one I passed last time I hunted Royal Kafue with Andrew....

Beautiful Sitatunga!

Great photographs and a very nice sitatunga. Just did a hunt with Johnny's elder brother in tondwa for sitatunga. Posted my report just yesterday. Great hunt once again

Thanks for posting. Very nice trip!