This report is a little late, but better late than never.

Mid-September I received a call from a buddy who had never been to southern Africa to hunt. He wanted to go so I figured what the hell and started sending emails.

We ended up booking with Mokore on Sengwa Research in November. Trophy buffalo for DC with tuskless and cull buffalo for me.

Steve Turner took care of the flights. We overnighted at Africa Sky. Candy Pieters took care of our arrangements from arrival to Vic falls to our charter from Hwange to Sengwa.

We arrived in Vic Falls and overnighted at Safari lodge. We then spent four days at Nehimba on Hwange. Everything was first rate. It was a good place to adjust to the new time zone and for DC to get up close to some large African animals. Sarah runs a very good camp and the apprentice guide was a joy to be around. He was very passionate about the wildlife and his job. And the wildlife was plentiful!!!

The hunt is what you would expect with Mokore Safaris. Everything was proper, Neil and Doug Duckworth are credits to their profession. Sengwa Research is a beautiful area. The amount of big game and plains game was amazing.

DC took a nice buffalo and a hyena during the day. He also was able to hunt some birds.

Neil and I chased tuskless at first. I ended up killing one in a big herd. Not my finest moment as I knocked her down with a brain shot, she got up as I pulled the first trigger twice. After a gentle encouraging word from Neil I shot her again. She promptly took off as I flubbed the reload. Luckily my second shot cut a major artery and she was easy to track. We found her fairly quick and I shot her twice, reloaded very quickly, and shot her one more time. Not practicing much before I left really showed up in my handling of the double.

The buffalo was a great hunt. We put in a lot of miles each day. We finally got up on a small herd in some jess (I thought I was back in Tiger Bay)after chasing them all day. We crawled on our bellies to a very close distance. One good shot from the 470 was all that was required. We took the flattest, ugliest, most narrow bull out of the herd. He will not breed any cows, or at least any more. It was truly one of my best buffalo hunts.

By this time things had really turned green. We hunted another tuskless for a couple of days. We saw a couple of more with dependent calves and a couple more in large herds that we were unable to take. We worked some herds with over 100 elephants and had several close calls. We were not successful (It was an add-on with two days left in the hunt) for the second tuskless but I had as much fun those last couple of days as any time during the hunt. We put in some serious miles up and down those big hills in Sengwa.



Photos from Vic Falls and Nehimba:



Not much water over the Falls as it was the end of the dry season.



Yours truly









At Nehimba's swimming pool



































He is just sleeping



From Sengwa



ET Phone Home



Note how much greener the later pictures are in comparison.














Piss poor gun handling, I would like to think my hand was not directly over the barrels but it was close enough





Starting to become thick and green










I must have said something funny.


I wrote this right after my return, I do love Zim in November:

Hunting dangerous game is exciting, for me the kill is actually anti-climatic at times. There is nothing like working a herd of 50 elephants looking for a tuskless in thick green scrub mopane, not seeing one, and leaving the herd without being detected. Or maybe stalking a small herd of buffalo, crawling on your belly the last 75 yards after tracking them for 10 kilometers, undetected and shooting the buffalo you have hunted for the last several days. Hunting Africa is feeling the wind on the back of your neck when you are 30 yards from a herd of elephants knowing all hell is about to break loose. It is hearing and feeling an elephant trumpet just because he can. It is the smell of buffalo when you cannot see them. It is being amazed the ability of the PH and tracker to hear and see game in ways I can only dream. It is the birds, spiders, plants, and multitudes of game you can see.

Some fantastic photo's mate.

Fantastic!

Thank you for sharing with us, and being honest.

Nothing that had happened to you that did not happen to many hunters.

Great report Mike - you hunt for all the right reasons - well done and to the Duckworth's too!

Mike- Great report, great hunt, great area and great operation! Well done

Congrats Mike. Personally I would have probably waited to come out of the closet with my real name until after I posted this report, but that's just me.

All kidding aside, I agree wholeheartedly with your paragraph on hunting in Africa. Seems trite to say, but just being there really is the best part of the hunt.

Nice hunt Mike,congrats! Open sights too!

...great wildlife pictures.

"F

quote:

Originally posted by MJines:
Congrats Mike. Personally I would have probably waited to come out of the closet with my real name until after I posted this report, but that's just me.

All kidding aside, I agree wholeheartedly with your paragraph on hunting in Africa. Seems trite to say, but just being there really is the best part of the hunt.

Not only being there but also being able to wear my short shorts without having my sexuality called in to question is great. (Katherine still hates them)

That was my sixth safari since 2008. I remember on my first trip to the Selous LU5 (where Saaed now hunts) I missed an impala. I pouted for a day or so because I wanted to look perfect in the eyes of my PH. I am so past that now.

however, I do not like seeing an animal suffer, especially an elephant. And while the follow up was fairly quick I believe it is my responsibility to kill quickly and cleanly. There will be more practice before the next trip.

Well done Mikey! Looked like a fun time in the bush. I have to check out Nehimba one of these days!

great report great photos

Some fantastic photos! Looks fun, gglad you had a great time!

quote:

Hunting dangerous game is exciting, for me the kill is actually anti-climatic at times. There is nothing like working a herd of 50 elephants looking for a tuskless in thick green scrub mopane, not seeing one, and leaving the herd without being detected. Or maybe stalking a small herd of buffalo, crawling on your belly the last 75 yards after tracking them for 10 kilometers, undetected and shooting the buffalo you have hunted for the last several days. Hunting Africa is feeling the wind on the back of your neck when you are 30 yards from a herd of elephants knowing all hell is about to break loose. It is hearing and feeling an elephant trumpet just because he can. It is the smell of buffalo when you cannot see them. It is being amazed the ability of the PH and tracker to hear and see game in ways I can only dream. It is the birds, spiders, plants, and multitudes of game you can see.

That says it all about as well as any one ever has. I wish I could write that well.

A great hunt. An honest report. And some incredible photographs.

Excellent report. Well done, Mike. Love that area. I'll be back.

Really enjoyed your photos. Thank you for sharing them with us.

quote:

Originally posted by els:

quote:

Hunting dangerous game is exciting, for me the kill is actually anti-climatic at times. There is nothing like working a herd of 50 elephants looking for a tuskless in thick green scrub mopane, not seeing one, and leaving the herd without being detected. Or maybe stalking a small herd of buffalo, crawling on your belly the last 75 yards after tracking them for 10 kilometers, undetected and shooting the buffalo you have hunted for the last several days. Hunting Africa is feeling the wind on the back of your neck when you are 30 yards from a herd of elephants knowing all hell is about to break loose. It is hearing and feeling an elephant trumpet just because he can. It is the smell of buffalo when you cannot see them. It is being amazed the ability of the PH and tracker to hear and see game in ways I can only dream. It is the birds, spiders, plants, and multitudes of game you can see.

That says it all about as well as any one ever has. I wish I could write that well.

+1

All except the spiders! It ain't the spiders!!

Loved the picture of the "wood" rhino.

Outstanding!

quote:

All kidding aside, I agree wholeheartedly with your paragraph on hunting in Africa. Seems trite to say, but just being there really is the best part of the hunt.

Exactly! I have not been back to Africa since 2012 and I have missed it. This coming October I'm spending three weeks looking at some huge unfenced areas in RSA and I'm very much looking forward to it.

Mike,

Nice report and some excellent pix. Mokore always does a great job.

Congrats,

Mark

Great safari ,very nice pictures thanks for sharing .

Great hunt Mike. I'll fix you up with a Blaser for your next hunt :-)

Biebs,

There were some embarrassing admissions in my first post. However, I do not think I could live with myself if the hunt was done with a Blaser.

Well done Mike and looks like money very well spent.