Below is the account of my first hunt with Save Safaris in Save Conservancy. It was my third hunt with PH Mike Payne.

Day 1 – Dulles Airport – 8 June 2011
So far, so good - I am waiting in front of the SAA counter with all my gear before noon, and the counter does not even open until 1300. At 1315, the SAA counter finally opened, and I was first in line. I handed the agent my passport, and she asked for my credit card to confirm my reservation. I gave her my USAA Master Card, and after checking the number in the SAA computer, I was promptly told this was not the credit card used to purchase my ticket. I agreed, explaining my ticket was purchased with a previous Master Card whose number had since been stolen and account cancelled. The previous card had been destroyed, and the one I handed them today was the replacement. The SAA agents listened patiently to my story and told me that without having the number of the original credit card, I would NOT be issued a boarding pass for my flight. They said it was a matter of security. This was NOT good! So, I called home and asked Betsy to look through past bills for the credit card number. She said she would look and get back to me. When I called USAA, they told me they could not provide a credit card number over the phone – this was getting worse. When I fully explained my dilemma and assured Roxanne at USAA that the number I needed was for an expired and cancelled credit card, she agreed to help. A few minutes later I had the credit card number in hand, it was verified by SAA, and I was good to go.
Next came the matter of three pieces of checked luggage –mind you they were not the least bit concerned about my gun case, but they were certain I would have to pay for an extra bag. Thank God I had printed out the SAA baggage policy the day before and had it with me. The SAA policy clearly states that hunters carrying rifles / ammunition get an extra free baggage allowance of 20kg. The SAA folks said they had never seen or heard of this before, but the end result was all three of my bags being checked through to Harare free of charge.
The next wicket was the inspection of my rifles and ammunition by TSA. This is normally a hassle, but this time I got a couple of TSA pros who did their jobs quickly and efficiently. After clearing my bags through TSA, it was on through personal security and on to my gate. At the gate, SAA was weighing all the carry on baggage and making people check bags that were over 8kg. I knew mine weighed a ton as I had put all the heavy items in my carry on to make sure my checked bags came in under 20kg each. So, I stood in line waiting to get my carry on weighed. When the SAA agent saw my SAA tag on my backpack from last year, she said I did not need to get the bag reweighed – I was good to go. I guess I got lucky this time! With a few hours to kill, I drifted over to the Mexican Cantina across from the gate. A few Dos Equis before boarding seemed to make all the hassles go away and let me concentrate on looking forward to the long flight ahead.

Day 2 – Johannesburg, South Africa – 9 June 2011
The flight to Johannesburg was uneventful. Fortunately, there was an empty seat outboard of mine, so I had a bit of room to spread out. I was able to sleep part of the way to Dakar, but after refueling there, I spent most of the rest of the flight to Johannesburg wide awake. Fortunately, I had Richard Harland’s second book “African Epoc” to occupy my time. After landing, I spent a little time browsing the duty free shops, but there was nothing that caught my eye. As in previous years, I had to go through the SAA transfer desk to make sure my ticket to Harare was in order. I was helped by Ms. Ngwengwa of SAA. When I looked at her name tag, I asked her if she knew her name meant “crocodile” in Shona. She beamed a huge smile and told me that nobody had ever noticed that before, and she was very surprised that the first person to notice it was an American. After clearing transfer, it was on to my flight for Harare. On the plane, I sat next to a Zimbabwean college student returning form South Africa to Harare on his mid term break. He was a very nice, articulate young man who was surprised by my knowledge of Shona food, customs, and especially the names of wild animals in the bush. The other young man in our row was an American going to do missionary work in Harare for the “Church of Christ”. In all, the three of us had a very pleasant conversation during our flight. We arrived in Harare ahead of schedule, and fortunately, all my baggage, rifles included, showed up on the baggage carousel. I got my VISA and cleared my rifles through customs without any difficulty. I found Mel Payne and Mike’s brother Harry waiting for me outside the customs area. Harry and Mel quickly loaded all my gear into Mel’s truck, and we made the short drive to the Payne residence. After unloading my gear, Mel, Harry and I had a few single malt whiskeys, and I talked about my trip and what might lay ahead at the ranch for my hunt. It was a great start to my third African Adventure.

Day 3 – Harare – 10 June 2011
Today was meant to be spent bumming around Harare with Mel. We visited a couple of jewelers looking for a trillion cut tanzanite. The first jeweler had beautiful stones, but they were too large, too expensive, and none were trillion cut. She really pressed me hard for a sale, but I would not compromise. The second jeweler was Mr. Ming, a man with whom Mel had dealt for many years. He was a pleasant enough man, and his stones were reasonably priced. However, the stones really were of average quality, and none were trillion cut. I think Mr. Ming would have chatted with us all day, but we had other things to do. Leaving the jewelers, we went next to the large Harare open air flea market. I had a blast at the flea market haggling for a few small pieces of Shona sculpture. My best haggle was getting a cape buffalo sculpture with an original price tag of $50 for $15. It will look great in my study at home. After the flea market, we returned home for lunch. After lunch, we set out for Peterhouse, Connor’s boarding school, to watch Connor’s field hockey match. On the way to the match, we picked up “Gabby”, Leon and Judy’s youngest daughter (age 7) from her boarding school bus. Gabby stayed with us all afternoon and was a very well behaved little girl – a welcome addition to our group. At Peterhouse, we watched a good match which ended in a 0-0 tie. Connor played well and did his Mom proud. After Peterhouse, we made a brief stop at Chloe’s boarding school to say “hi” and have Mel give her a hug before driving home. Chloe was engaged in field hockey practice when we arrived, so we got to watch the girls practice for about 30 minutes before getting to talk to her. After that, we returned to Harare, first dropping Gabby off at Judy’s brother’s place. That evening, Mel and I dined at a French restaurant in Harare. The food was superb, the wine was great, and all in all, it was a fabulous dinner. I would definitely go back to “Emmanuelle” again. One interesting thing about “Emmanuelle” was their advertisement of “secure parking”. In this matter, they were not joking. They had a guard with an AK-47 strapped on his back patrolling the parking area. This was really secure parking. After dinner, we returned home. I immediately hit the bunk to make sure I was rested and ready for the hunt the next day.

Day 4 – Matendere Camp - Njiri – 11 June 2011
This morning started with a cup of tea and a quick drive to pick up Gabby. It turned out that she was going to camp with me. On the way, we picked up cigarettes for the boys, and at only $6 per carton, I will make sure I wait to buy them for the boys only in Zimbabwe in the future. Then, it was off to Harare International Airport. There, we met Nick, our pilot, checked in through security, and boarded our twin engine Navajo for the 50 minute flight to the lowveld. It was good seeing Nick again. He had been a pilot for Ken and me in the past, and we really liked him. The flight to the lowveld was very pleasant, and after a short wait after landing on the dirt airstrip, we were met by Mike, Leon, Dunwork, and Winna. Dunwork met me with the broad, almost toothless, smile that is his trademark – the boys seemed genuinely glad to see me back. Next, we packed all my gear into the cruiser and set off for camp. A short 30 minutes later we arrived, just in time for breakfast and in time to meet the outgoing hunters. The husband/wife/sister all had a great time with Mike and seemed sad to leave. After breakfast, we left for the rifle range to sight in my rifles. To my delight, everything was dead on, so we were out for a tour of the conservancy and search for plains game in short order. The first animal we encountered was a huge elephant (nzou) bull. He went at least 6 tons, and Mike estimated he had 50-60 pounds of ivory per side. Had we been hunting trophy elephants, this guy would have been a real “shooter”. We watched the large bull for a while and eventually had to shout him down to avoid a charge on the cruiser. Mike commented that the elephants in the conservancy originally came from Gonarezhou and were particularly cheeky. Later on, we came across more elephants and several large groups of impala (mhara). Around 1330 or so, Winna spotted a group of njiri (warthogs) off the side of the road. Mike stopped to glass the group and just watched for a while. I asked Mike what they were (I had not yet seen the game), and Mike responded “I don’t know”. He had obviously seen they were warthogs, but after all the ball breaking Ken and I had done to Mike over not getting us a shooter warthog in our previous safaris, Mike was really trying to be funny. I thought it was great. I asked if they were all females and small males (as they had always been in the Zambesi Valley), but Mike said “no – there is a really nice one in the bunch – let’s see if we can put on a stalk and get him”. So, we got out of the cruiser, made a 100 yard end around stalk, and spotted the group of njiri moving left to right about 70 yards in front of us. Mike told us to wait and watch as there were also impala between us and the warthogs, and he did not want to spook either. After about a 5 minute wait, we could see the larger warthogs separate from the impala. When the big guy emerged, he was easily recognizable. He was facing right towards me. Mike put up the sticks and told me to take the shot if I had it. A split second later I fired my 9.3x74R Searcy stalking rifle, and the warthog went down in a heap. He turned out to be huge – 220 pounds and huge tusks! The only bad part about the scenario was that the warthog turned his head slightly at my shot, so instead of hitting him between the eyes, my shot actually broke the left tusk before killing him. We later found the pieces of the broken tusk, and I am sure Todd Rapalee can piece it together and make it look whole again. After photos, we took the big warthog back to camp and had lunch. After lunch, we were back out hunting Save. We saw more warthogs, a duiker (mhembwe), and a grysbuck (nimba), but none of them were shooters. We searched for a civet (bvungo) on the way back to camp, but no joy. Dinner came almost as soon as we returned to camp – buffalo backstrap in mushroom gravy. It was simply superb. After dinner, we sat around the mopane fire and had a few single malt whiskies. We made a plan to hunt eland (mhofu) the next day. I can hardly wait.



Day 5 – Mhara and more Njiri - 12 June 2011
Today was an absolutely incredible day - so incredible, I don’t even know where to start. After breakfast, we left camp in search of eland (mhofu). We were only out of camp five minutes when two small bushbuck (dzoma) ewes bounded across the road in front of us. We knew the ram would be close by, so we kept a sharp lookout for him. Sure enough, about 300 yards further down the road, out crossed a bushbuck ram in the 17”-18” range. I have never seen one bigger. Mike smiled and said he had hoped we would see him during my hunt – he hangs around close to camp, and nobody has ever gotten a shot at him. He is a real prize for sure.
Later in the morning, we got on a herd of eland, and we tracked them for over an hour. We eventually got within shooting range of two huge cows, but no bulls appeared. Breaking off from tracking eland, we sat at a water pan at noon hoping to get a shot at a big kudu (nhoro) coming to drink. No kudu ever showed, so we started walking back to the cruiser. On the way back, Mike spotted a huge impala ram bedded under a tree. We put on a stalk, and I eventually got a shot at about 100 yards through brush. I was on him, but my shot obviously deflected – a clean miss. So, we got in the truck and headed back to camp for lunch. About 10 minutes down the road, a nice impala ram crossed the road to the right and stopped. Mike said “get out quietly and shoot him”! So, I got out of the cruiser, but just as I got steady for the shot, the ram bolted. I took a shot at the running impala, and I got a good hit on him, albeit a little far back. We all commenced tracking, but with very little blood spoor, tracking was difficult. After about 15 minutes, we jumped the ram. He had bedded down in thick jess, and when he bolted, neither Mike nor I had a shot. After tracking another 20 minutes or so, Winna pointed ahead. The ram was bedded in super thick jess and was trying to get up. I moved around Winna, fired, and the ram was toast. I had redeemed myself on impala. We loaded the ram into the cruiser and headed back to camp to drop off the impala at the skinning shed and have a great lunch of impala stir fry and pita bread.
After lunch, we set out again in search of kudu and eland. Along a sand river, we got out of the cruiser and commenced hunting on foot. Stopping a few hundred yards from a ridge overlooking a water pan, Mike, Winna, and I started quietly stalking towards the pan. Shortly after getting to the top of the ridge overlooking the pan, a very large warthog appeared about 200 yards away coming towards us. Mike watched him for a while and finally put up the sticks. He turned around and said “Dave…..”, but before he could get out another word, I said “yes, I‘ll shoot his ass”! Mike said “take your time”, so when I mounted the sticks, I made extra sure of my sight picture before squeezing the trigger. It was a perfect heart/lung shot. After being hit, the njiri ran towards us and then keeled over and died. Winna and Dunwork then hauled the big pig up the hill where we took photos, loaded him into the cruiser and took him back to the skinning shed. He tipped the scales at 205# - a huge warthog with great tusks, only slightly smaller than the one I shot yesterday.
After dropping off the warthog at the skinning shed, we were back hunting. Over the course of the day, we saw bushbuck, eland, warthog, impala, nyala, zebra (imbizi) and grysbuck. I have never seen so much game before in a day in Africa. Right before dark, we sat at a water pan hoping that an eland or a kudu would come to drink. As it was getting really dark, Mike spotted a huge warthog a little over 100 yards away. I could barely see him through my scope (I couldn’t see my crosshairs), so using my scope as a peep sight, I squeezed off an offhand shot and promptly missed him cleanly – that’s hunting!
We got back to camp after dark, and a hot shower felt wonderful. Stepping out of my hut to go to dinner, a civet appeared right in front of me. It paused for a few seconds, and then scampered into the bush. How cool is that? Dinner was wonderful once again, and watching a herd of cape buffalo drink at the water hole across from us made it all the more special. This is a great camp, and I cannot imagine having a better time – that is unless Ken was here.


Day 6 – Mhofu - 13 June 2011
Today, we got an earlier start than the previous two hunting days. Mike was convinced he knew where there was a herd of eland (mhofu), and it was a bit of a drive. Mike wanted to get to the prime hunting area early before the sun had a chance to dry out the leaves on the ground, thus making stalking much noisier. We saw very little game on the way to our destination – a couple of warthogs, a young bushbuck, and that was about it. When we arrived at the water pan where Mike wanted to start the search for eland spoor, it was a bright, crisp morning – and eland tracks seemed to be everywhere. Winna was convinced he knew where the eland were, so Mike, Winna, and I set out following the tracks of the herd while Dunwork stayed with the cruiser. We tracked for a couple of hours, and despite the spoor looking fresh, we never got close to the herd of eland. We busted a small group of zebra about an hour into the stalk, but that was about it. It seemed to me like Mike was ready to give up on this herd. Rather than staying with the spoor of the herd, Mike decided to shift over to tracking two eland which seemed to split off from the larger group. Mike said the tracks looked large, and the older eland bulls sometimes acted like Dagga Boys going off on their own. Suddenly, Mike stopped and put up his binoculars. I can always tell when Mike sees game because he becomes very excited. Mike looked back to me and motioned me forward whispering that he spotted a lone eland bull bedded down in the jess ahead of us. He pointed to the general direction, and I put up my stalking rifle to look through the scope. Of course, all I could see was brush. Mike told me to wait, so I kept the rifle up resting against a small sapling. I had a very solid rest. Besides, the jess was almost too thick to set up the shooting sticks. As I continued to watch, the bull stood up. He was enormous – bigger than a cape buffalo for sure! I whispered to Mike that I did not have a clear shot because of the bushes in the way of the bull’s vitals – so we waited. After a few minutes, the bull stepped forward, and suddenly I had a very small window to shoot. I fired, and the eland lurched forward, obviously hit hard. Later I would find that the 250 grain Barnes X triple shock from my 9.3x74R Searcy stalking rifle entered the bull’s left side about a foot aft of the shoulder and fairly low down. It angled through the eland’s body and broke the right front leg upon exiting. Mike was very happy that I had made a tough shot, and he was certain that it was fatal. So, we waited for a few minutes and then began looking for the downed bull –only he was not down. He was walking away from us, dragging a leg, and leaving a good blood spoor. We found lung blood, so I felt certain it was just a matter of time before we found a dead eland. But, the eland had other plans. He just kept walking away from us, leaving a blood trail as he went. Mike reminded me to be patient as eland are incredibly tough animals. The bull finally crossed the road where we entered the jess, and Mike spotted the bull in thick brush about 60 yards ahead of us. There was no shot to be had, so Mike decided we should rest for 20 minutes or so to give the eland a chance to lie down and hopefully expire. So, we waited an agonizingly long 20 minutes and then took up trailing the spoor once more. After about 15 minutes of tracking, Mike heard the bull struggling ahead of us, so he decided we needed to sprint to get to him quickly. So, off I went doing the “fat boy shuffle” trying my best to keep up with Mike as best I could. The jess was thick, so I had switched over to the Searcy .500NE double, hoping that if I could get in a follow up going away shot, the .500NE would anchor the bull for good. After a run of abut 150 yards, Mike slowed. About 40 yards in front of us, the eland stood up behind a tree. I ran to my right, brought the .500NE double up to my shoulder and fired. My 570 grain Barnes X triple shock bullet took the bull squarely in the middle of the neck, killing him instantly. The .500NE is really a beast, and the bull did not even blink after being hit by it. After admiring my first bull eland and taking a few photos, we radioed for Dunwork to bring the cruiser so we could pack out this 2200 pound antelope. The boys had to cut a short road in to get to the eland, but this only took about 15 minutes. Getting the cruiser into position, we winched the bull into the bed of the truck, put back all of the gear we had taken out to make room for the bull, and headed for the skinning shed. On the way back, we saw a bachelor group of about 8 wildebeest. Two of the bulls were trophy quality, so Mike said we would have to return later in the week to shoot one.
The boys at the skinning shed were excited when we arrived with the huge mhofu. After unloading the eland, we headed back to camp for a great lunch of chicken pot pie. Did I say “no chicken” when asked about food preferences? Oh well, it tasted good, and nothing could spoil this great morning. It was an incredible hunt in Africa.
After lunch, we took a trip to relocate some lion baits to the property line. It seems that one of Mike’s neighbors tries to call Mike’s lions onto their own property. So, Mike decided to locate baits that the lions would encounter before leaving his concession – a very clever plan if you ask me. In the course of moving (very smelly) baits, we saw lots of wildebeest, warthogs, zebra, duiker and grysbuck. We never saw game like this in the Zambesi Valley – this place is just incredible. The highlight of the evening was seeing a rock hyrax (dossie) scamper across the road in front of the cruiser, and Winna jumping out of the truck and actually catching it. I thought the dossie was headed for the supper pot for sure as Winna eats anything and everything. But, when Mike determined the dossie was a lactating female, he convinced Winna to let it go. It scampered off into the rocks never to be seen again.
Dinner tonight was warthog backstrap in tomato and onion gravy. This was the first meal where Mike and I ate ALL the meat on the platter – need I say more? It was fabulous.
Tomorrow we are off to find a kudu or possible a nyala. It will be a great day of hunting in Africa even if we see nothing.

Day 7 – Walking in Sand - 14 June 2011
This morning started out with a long walk in the sand. Mike knows how much I love walking in sand (NOT!). Anyway, we did not shoot anything this morning, but we saw a lot of magnificent game. We did come close to shooting a very nice, mature nyala bull. Mike said he was big enough, but there were two others on the ranch for sure that he knew were better. Mike advised me to hold off, so I did. It pays to always listen to your PH. Other nice animals we saw included a bushbuck that Mike estimated in the 17”-18” range. I initially said “no” to shooting this bushbuck, but I had no idea he was such a monster. I told Mike that if we see him again, he is toast – of course, we never did see him again. We also saw a large waterbuck (dumukwa), impala, warthogs, and even a couple of dossies. Mike almost got a shot at a little njiri with the .222 on the way back to camp, but Winna was a bit too slow getting the sticks into position, and the njiri all ran off. Mike said he wants to shoot a little one in the head, stick an apple in his mouth, and roast him for dinner. We’ll see.
While walking in the sand, we paid special attention to a couple of water holes. We saw a lot of really cool birds at one of the water holes including wooly necked storks and several hammerkopfs.
After lunch, we drove the roads looking for kudu and sable. As usual, we saw a bunch of impala, a couple of eland (one of which was a huge bull), and a group of wildebeest. The bull in the group looked fairly large to me, but when Mike glassed him, he said “that is a shit bull – you can shoot him if you want, but he is really a shit bull”. We had a good laugh over Mike’s description of the unfortunate wildebeest, and obviously I decided to wait for a better trophy.
Back at camp, we had a dinner of eland brisket and sudza. It was delicious as usual. Tomorrow we are going to start out by walking in sand again. We need to check the trail camera we left at one of the water holes. Then, I think the priority will be finding a nyala or a sable – can’t wait!

Day 8 –First Charge & Nhoro times Three - 15 June 2011
Today started out as an absolutely perfect safari day in Africa. It was a very cold, crisp morning, and given the relative inactivity of the game the day before, Mike was convinced the game, especially the kudu (nhoro), would be out feeding this morning. Boy, was he ever right! We drove up into the hills outside camp and saw a few warthogs and a few female kudu. As we were coming down from the hills, Mike said ”the bull kudu is here somewhere close by, so keep a sharp lookout for him”. A few hundred yards more down the road, there he was about 75 yards into the bush, standing like a monarch surrounded by his ladies. Mike said “that’s a good one”, so I got a good rest, put the crosshairs on the middle of his chest, and squeezed the trigger. The bull kudu went down in a heap, stone dead. My quest for a bull kudu was finally complete, and I had taken a real dandy. After admiring my trophy for a short period of time, we took a bunch of photos, cut in a short road to the bull, and loaded him carefully into the back of the cruiser. It was barely 0900, and we still had most of the hunting day left. I thought we would make the short drive to the skinning shed, drop off my bull, and be back out hunting in short order. About a third of the way back to camp, we saw a young bull elephant (nzou) feeding out in a large water hole in the river. Mike said it was a perfect photo opportunity, so we got out our cameras (leaving our rifles in the cruiser – a BAD idea in Africa!), and we sneaked up to the river bank and started snapping photos. Our young bull elephant, being in full musk, was not amused by this photo shoot. He made a few aggressive gestures like flaring his ears and walking towards us with his head held high. He was clearly trying to intimidate us into leaving. Then, without warning, the bull shifted into full charge mode. Mike, who had started motioning us to back up when the bull started flaring his ears, now turned and said “run – run like Hell!”. So we all dashed back to the cruiser at flank speed. Winna, who was staying in the cruiser all along, came running forward with Mike’s Krieghoff .470NE double handing it to him with the bull only 50 yards away. This was serious business. Dunwork, Winna, and Mike were all trying to shout down the bull, but he just kept coming. Mike fired a warning shot over the bull’s head, but he did not seem to be impressed. So, with the boys still trying to shout down the bull, Mike hit the gas on the cruiser, and we headed down the road to put some distance between us. The bull then stopped and stood there defiantly knowing hat he had “won” the encounter. Mike said “that guy meant business – that was no bluff charge! I’m glad I didn’t have to shoot him.” So, adrenalin rush finished, we resumed our drive back to camp along the river bed. Down the road, we came across a bunch of kudu cows, and Mike said “keep a lookout for the bull – he is here close by”. Seconds later, we spotted the bull emerging from the reeds in the river bed, and it was obvious this was a much larger kudu than the one I shot an hour before. He started going up the far side river bank, and it became clear to me that the only shot I was going to get was going away. So I got a good rest, placed the crosshairs on the bull’s left shoulder and fired. The bull reeled around and went down, obviously hit hard. Then he jumped up and started running towards us, but he quickly changed direction in the reeds and went up the far bank. I could never get a clear second shot at him, so I prayed my first shot was good enough. Now, with a bull kudu already in the bed of the cruiser, we started tracking my second bull kudu of the morning. We walked up the river bank and circled around where Mike thought the bull would run, but we found no tracks. Heading down hill, we picked up the first sign of blood spoor, so we began to follow it. A few minutes later, the kudu exploded out of the thick brush above us and ran uphill. We never had a chance for a follow up shot. It was now about 1000. Mike radioed Dunwork to head back to camp to drop off kudu #1 at the skinning shed and then come back.
Regaining the spoor, Winna began the job of tracking the wounded kudu. Mike was very confident that we would recover the bull as long a Winna could stay on the spoor. However, the longer we tracked, the less blood we saw (not a good sign). The kudu eventually crossed over into the adjacent property, and Mike had to radio Duke, the other property manager, to get permission to follow up the “leaking kudu” onto Duke’s property. Duke turned out to be a great neighbor and a great guy – he not only gave us permission, he wished us well and offered his help in recovering the animal should we need it. Mike thanked Duke and said we were fine, so we resumed the track. The wounded bull had now joined up with two female kudu, so now there were three sets of tracks. The blood spoor had also petered out. Mike was not convinced Winna was following the right set of tracks, but Winna was adamant that that he was on the bull and could tell his tracks based on dragging one leg. Winna thought my shot had broken the bull’s right shoulder which made walking very difficult. At around 1300 (we had trailed the wounded kudu over five miles by this point) Winna found a spot of fresh blood about the size of a quarter on a leaf on the ground. We were not only still on the right tracks, Mike and Winna were convinced we were very close to the bull. 50 yards further, Winna spotted some female kudu through the brush down a small slope. They were only 50-75 yards away. We could not see clearly through the thick jess, so Mike, convinced that our bull was in this group, decided to stalk in alone to see if he could put in a finishing shot. Mike had only gone about 20 yards into the jess when I saw him raise his Krieghoff double and fire twice. Mike then turned around, smiled, and gave the thumbs up. Motioning me to join him, I saw the bull kudu on the ground ahead of us with its head up. Mike told me to put in a finishing shot between the legs, and that was that. The bull was dead, and we were all satisfied with Winna’s tremendous tracking job and the successful completion of the hunt. Going up to inspect the bull, Mike got a puzzled look on his face. This kudu looked like a much younger bull than the one I had shot. The body and horns were both smaller than expected. Looking more closely at the bull, we realized there was no evidence of my first shot. Then it hit us – Mike had shot the wrong kudu! Not only did he shoot the wrong kudu, but he shot Duke’s kudu. What a mess! To further confirm we had gotten off on the wrong bull, Mike sent Winna back to try to pick up the blood spoor from my wounded animal. Sure enough, Winna found the blood trail going in the other direction across the road. So, being close the road, Mike radioed for Dunwork to bring the cruiser to us. When Dunwork arrived, we loaded kudu #3 into the back and then radioed Duke asking if we could come see him in the office. Duke agreed, and Mike said we would be there in about 10 minutes or so. I have to say this about Mike – he was doing the right thing – facing up to a mistake and presenting the kudu to its rightful owner, along with settling any damages that may have to be paid. I was really proud of his uncompromising ethics. When we got to Duke’s office, we explained what happened. Duke was very reasonable about the whole thing saying “hey, mistakes happen”. He asked us to take the kudu to his skinning shed where he would write off the animal as part of his rations quota. Nothing more would be said about the incident. Leon also happened to be at Duke’s during this time, and he found the whole story very amusing. He then told us of a similar experience he had the previous year where he ended up shooting three eland while tracking one wounded bull.
After dropping off the kudu at Duke’s skinning shed, we went back to the scene of the crime and got back on the track of MY kudu. Fortunately, the blood spoor had started up again, so we had good sign to follow. We tracked all afternoon, and we finally called it quits around 1630. This kudu was using the wind and was constantly staying 50-100 yards in front of us. Mike thought the best plan was to leave the wounded bull for now and come back in the morning when the tracking conditions were quieter and wind better. I allowed as how the best chance of success the next day would be for Mike and Winna to follow up the bull alone. Mike agreed, so that was the plan. Mike then radioed Dunwork, and the cruiser arrived in about 10 minutes. As we were loading our gear into the back of the truck a leopard (mbada) growled loudly not far behind us. It was a very loud, very deep growl. Mike said it sounded like a huge leopard, and it was obviously following the same blood spoor we were on. So now, even if Mike and Winna do find my kudu tomorrow, there is a good chance that this mbada will have gotten to it first. We will just have to wait and see. Winna and Dunwork are still very confident they will find the kudu in the morning. I just hope they are right.
Driving down the road, we started hunting our way back to camp. I spotted a group of elephants at a “T” junction in the road ahead of us, so Mike slowed the cruiser. When the elephants spotted the vehicle, they started moving away slowly. So, we proceeded down the road confident these nzou would not be a problem. As we were enjoying watching these huge beasts, Winna and Dunwork suddenly started screaming from the bed of the cruiser. Mike and I looked back to see a cow elephant in full charge coming for the cruiser about 30 yards away. With Winna and Dunwork still screaming at the elephant, Mike popped the clutch on the cruiser and we went peeling down the dirt road at high speed with the cow in pursuit. The cow finally stopped after chasing us for 100 yards or so, and we all breathed a sigh of relief. Mike said he had never been charged by elephants here in the conservancy before, and today we had already been charged twice – EESH! Resuming our ride back to camp, we came upon a nice herd of cape buffalo (nyati) alongside the road. We stopped to glass them, and the buffalo just stopped and stared back at us. They always seem very curious when we stop to look at them. I saw three huge bulls in the group, all clearly over 40” with solid bosses. I estimated the largest bull at 46” based on how far outside the ears his horns spread. Mike smiled and said he had seen even larger bulls on the ranch. Wanting to get a closer look at the nyati, we got out of the truck and started moving towards the buffalo. As we did so, a deep growl came from the brush on the other side of the road. It seemed like we were not the only ones interested in the buffalo. A lion (shumba) was close by as well. Deciding not to push our luck further, we got back in the cruiser and returned to camp. We had an early dinner as afterwards we would be going to sundowner rock to drink scotch and watch the total lunar eclipse. Dinner was the best yet – eland tenderloin (from my mhofu) with mushroom gravy, potatoes and veggies. After dinner we went to watch the eclipse. It was a crystal clear night, and we had a perfect view of the night sky. The eclipse was spectacular, and we sat watching it drinking fine single malt scotch for some time. I also took advantage of the great satellite signal strength to make a few phone calls. Ken especially enjoyed the stories of the day. He also liked talking to Dunwork on the Iridium phone. He said it made him feel like he was here with us. I wish he had been here to experience all of this first hand………next year for sure!


Day 9 – Recovery - 16 June 2011
Well, my third African safari is officially half over. Mike and Winna left right after breakfast early this morning to see if they could find my kudu from yesterday. Mel, Connor and Chloe are due to arrive in camp around 1400 this afternoon. It will be good to see them and have Connor hunting with us again.
Mike returned to camp at about 0930, and the broad smile on his face told me he had been successful. After tracking for only half a mile or so, they found my kudu stone dead and basically undisturbed by predators or scavengers. Mike said a bvungo (civet) may have sucked on its bum a bit, but there was no damage at all. Mike said he measured my kudu at 56”, a trophy of a lifetime. After going to the skinning shed to admire my prize and take a few photos, we were off again looking for game. We saw a lot of game (as usual), and right before noon, we decided to sit in a blind at a water hole to see what came in to drink. Around noon, an entire herd of wildebeest arrived. After a few minutes, they caught our scent and thundered off. It was still pretty cool to see so many of them up close. At around 1300, we picked up Connor and Chloe at Leon’s house. The kids were sure glad to see their Dad. For some reason, Leon’s dogs (named Shumba and Nyati – go figure) were especially glad to see me. Dogs just seem to know when people like them. After picking up the kids, we returned to camp for lunch. After lunch, we headed to the rifle range where Chloe was presented with her new .222. She was ecstatic, and she actually shot it very well. Out hunting again, we saw wildebeest, eland, impala, warthogs and even a few giraffes (tweeza). Near the end of the evening, we came upon three mature sable bulls. Mike estimated that they were in the 38” – 40” range, which meant they were fully mature shooters. He also said there was a bigger one on the ranch, so if I wanted to wait, he would understand. At a trophy fee of $5000 for a sable, I decided it was a bit too rich for my blood, so we just sat and watched these magnificent antelope. After watching the sable for a while, we returned to camp for a great meal of impala backstrap and homemade sausage. As usual, it was great. Tomorrow we may try to go after nyati.


Day 10 – Coiled Spring, Ngongoni, and Family Time - 17 June 2011
“Call me Ishmael” – no, this is not the beginning of “Moby Dick”. This morning, Mike brought on a new tracker to try out, and his name is Ishmael. Much like our cook Francis, Mike can never remember Ishmael’s name. So far he has called him Isaac, Enoch, and a few other things. Finally, because of his relative ineptitude and general slowness, Mike gave him the nickname “coiled spring”. I thought it pretty funny, but I do feel sorry for the poor guy. He will never last with Mike. Winna is out with stomach problems this morning, so poor Ishmael will suffer trial by ordeal if we run into good tracks. Having no choice but to set out without Winna, Mike decided to try a place where he thought cape buffalo might be hanging around. This buffalo hunt would be very special as before breakfast I informed Connor we would be hunting for a cow buffalo, and he would be the primary shooter. I would be there just to back him up. To say Connor was “pumped” was an understatement.
We got on the road early and cut buffalo spoor fairly soon. As it turned out, Ishmael was not nearly the tracker Winna was. So, although we were on buffalo spoor all morning, we never really got close to the nyati. Mike was not happy with Ishmael. After deciding Ishmael could not track buffalo, we decided to ride around and look for other game. I told Mike I was interested in taking a non trophy wildebeest (ngongoni), so we started looking for some. It wasn’t long before the boys spotted a group a few hundred yards off the road. The hunt was on. After a 15 minute stalk, Mike put up the sticks and pointed to an old cow wildebeest about 100 yards away. I got up and the sticks and looked through the scope. Predictably, there was brush in the way, so I had to wait for a shot to be offered. I waited up on the sticks for a few minutes, and the cow lurched forward to start running away. I fired my 9.3x74R, and she went down in a heap. Although my shot was a perfect high heart/lung shot, we had to put 2 more finishing shots into her before she expired. Wildebeest are very tough animals, so I was not surprised by the amount of punishment this one seemed to absorb.
After taking my ngongoni back to the skinning shed, we set out to bait for bushpigs (nguruve). On the way to the bait site, we saw five mature bushbucks (all shooters) and several exceptional bull elephants, one of which Mike estimated had 70# of ivory per side. Mike said it was the largest bull he had seen on the conservancy to date. We just watched it for a while and took some photos. It really was a monster.
After lunch, we set out again, this time to find Chloe an impala to shoot with her .222. We had seen several rams driving around this morning, so we were fairly confident of success. Connor brought his air rifle along to shoot doves, and we had a blast letting the kids do the shooting. In the end, Mike and Chloe killed one dove each, and Connor missed several. The highlight of the evening was encountering a group of elephants who really did not like us being in their space. An aggressive cow charged the cruiser twice, each time stopping a few yards short of ramming us. On her second charge, she knocked over a full grown tree like it was not even there. The power of these animals is amazing. Mike, Winna and Dunwork kept yelling profanities at the cow (Mike contends only “f—k off” works with elephants), and Mike eventually clipped the cow in the ear flap with the .222 to turn her. She eventually buggered off, and it was a pretty scary experience for all of us.
Returning back to camp, Chloe shot a rabbit alongside the road with her .222. She made a perfect shot and could not have been more proud. Back at camp, we had eland stew for dinner, and it was superb. Leon and Judy joined us for dinner, and Mike and Leon ate guru (a Shona stew made from eland guts). I have never seen the two of them eat so vigorously - they really loved the guru. Tomorrow, we are back after nyati. I hope Winna is 100%, because we will need his tracking skills to be successful.

Day 11 – Almost Nyati - 18 June 2011
Today was a day that started full of hope and expectation. We were going to hunt a buffalo cow, and Connor was going to be the primary shooter. Mike thought there was a large herd of nyati hanging around the A-1 area of the conservancy, so off we went. It was a fairly windy morning, and it actually seemed to get colder as the sun came up. On the road to A-1, we came upon several giraffes, and a large eland bull crossed in front of the cruiser. We were following the spoor of a very large herd of nyati on the dirt road, when off to the left, the boys spotted some buffalo 50 yards into the jess. We drove down wind a few hundred yards, stopped, got all our gear sorted out and commenced the stalk. Winna and Mike did a perfect job of getting us in range of the buffalo. Rather than shoot a cow as planned, Mike spotted an old teacup (bull buffalo with one horn) and set up the sticks, talking Connor through the shot. When the bull finally cleared the brush, Connor fired and I followed with 2 backup shots. All the shots felt good, and we were fairly confident of success. We waited for a while, but the nyati death bellow never came. We started tracking cautiously, but there was no blood – this was not good. We circled back around and found where our three shots had hit ricks and trees – they all appeared to have been low. We tracked the buffalo for about 5 miles and never got onto the teacup again. There was no blood found either. Three clean misses – both Connor and I thought we were on target, but we both had to admit we missed. That’s hunting, and I’m sure it will not be the last time in my life that I miss. One positive note – since Connor did not hit the buffalo with his shot, I am glad I did not hit it either. For me to shoot the buffalo by myself would have made things worse. This way, we can regroup, start over, and hunt buffalo again tomorrow.
On the way back to camp, we picked up the trail camera we left at the bushpig bait. There was no bushpig activity, but it did look like a civet hit the bait. The only clear photos on the camera were elephants. So, we will give the camera another day and look again.
In the afternoon, we started off again looking for buffalo spoor and an impala for Chloe. We saw several impala rams, and Chloe got up on the sticks a couple of times, but she never got to pull the trigger. The impala either ran off, or there was brush in the way – it was always something. It was close this afternoon – very close – but no shots were taken. As dusk approached, we headed to sundowner rock for drinks, snacks, and to watch the sun set over the mountains to the west. It was magnificent. We stayed there for a couple of hours just chilling, looking at the night sky, seeing who could find the most satellites and shooting stars and just reflecting on the day. I think Connor is already feeling better about himself, and given another crack at buffalo, I think he will score. Maybe tomorrow. We spotlighted on the way back to camp to see what night creatures might be lurking about. We saw an African wild cat, a duiker and a couple of genets (tsimba) – all really cool critters.


Day 12 – Chloe’s first Impala - 19 June 2011
We got an early start this morning, and I thought we were going to look for buffalo. We did not see any fresh spoor on the roads, so with Mel and Chloe joining us this morning, the priority quickly shifted to finding Chloe an impala ram to shoot with her .222. It was a cold morning, and few animals were out and about. We ran into a large group of elephants, and unlike most we had encountered so far, these nzou seemed well mannered. They just slowly walked off in the opposite direction from us, which was just fine with me. Further down the road, we spotted a herd of about 30 eland, the largest group of mhofu we had seen so far. We also saw lots of wildebeest and impala, but most of the impala took off at warp speed before Chloe could get on them. Mike and Chloe finally made a stalk on a fairly large group of impala, and Chloe got up on the sticks and took a fairly long shot at a ram. It turned out to be a miss, and Chloe was pretty sad. However, Zimbabwe has lots of impala, and 15 minutes later she was back up on the sticks. This time, her shot rang true, and Chloe had harvested her first impala. She beamed. It was a very happy moment for the Payne family, and it was a great Father’s Day gift for Mike. After a prolonged photo session, we loaded Chloe’s ram into the cruiser and returned to camp. Dunwork then carried the impala on his back to the skinning shed. I hope we get to eat some of it before I depart on Tuesday.
We got off to an early start in the afternoon. Mel was driving and Mike, Connor and Chloe were in the back with the boys. We spotted a herd of about 30 or so sable crossing the road in front of us. It was great to see so many of these majestic animals. There were a couple of good bulls in the herd, but given the $5000 trophy fee for a sable, I really did not want to look all that hard. We eventually came to where we found fresh buffalo spoor from earlier in the day. The wind was good, so we decided to try a stalk. It was not long before we were among them. Actually, when we realized we had buffalo about 40 yards in front of us, they were actually grazing all around us. I had a small bull walk 25 yards to my left, but he was not what we were looking for. Mike carefully glassed all the animals, and all the cows had calves – in other words, no shooters. He did spot the big teacup bull we had missed the day before, and we tried to put a stalk on him. In the end, we just ran out of daylight. We had a hunt, and it was a great day in Africa. We were in amongst cape buffalo at close range, frozen like statues watching them feed in front of us. At dusk, Mike boosted Connor up into a tree to radio the cruiser to come pick us up. Connor called for the cruiser speaking to Dunwork in perfect Shona. I was amazed, and his Dad was proud. Yes, it was a good day in Africa.

Day 13 – Shit Road Imbizi - 20 June 2011
We had an especially cold night last night, so hopefully we would find the animals moving this morning. We had an early breakfast and got on the road earlier than most days. We did not see a lot of game early on, but we did come across a few huge eland bulls crossing the road in front of us. I am still impressed by the size and grace of these huge African antelope. We eventually came to a water pan and all got out to check for tracks. It seemed to me like fresh tracks were everywhere. Mike and Dunwork were a bit sleepy this morning as they were up most of the night with the anti poaching unit looking for the poachers whose shots rang out in the wee hours of the morning. The unit is still o

Well done!

Outstanding great read and enjoyable read.

Mike

Great report Bubblehead, where's the rest and the pictures?

SSN 686
SSBN 620
SSBN 645

MM-1(SS)

You?

great hunt

the conservancy is a special place

with the kudu look like mike had a "tito" moment

i need to get back there soon

Frank - to answer your questions, there are many more photos of the hunt, but I thought I had taken up enough space already.

SSN 683
SSBN 631 (B)
SSN 703
SSN 767 Precomm Unit and later SSN 767 - I was the commissioning CO of the Hampton.

Rear Admiral, USN (ret)

the photos and the rest of the hunt story are posted separately under "Part 2 of the June 2011 wiht Save Safaris"

quote:

Originally posted by subsailor74:
Frank - to answer your questions, there are many more photos of the hunt, but I thought I had taken up enough space already.

SSN 683
SSBN 631 (B)
SSN 703
SSN 767 Precomm Unit and later SSN 767 - I was the commissioning CO of the Hampton.

Rear Admiral, USN (ret)

Well sir, I'm impressed. It's good to meet another submariner. Also great to see another 616 and 637 class operator, I was starting to feel old as most of the bubbleheads I meet are off 688 and newer boats.

Very eloquent Admiral. Haven't heard from you since I bought the Norma .470 brass from you. Sounds like retirement is agreeing with you. Been back to CO sir?

Good to hear from you as well! I put in for preference points for Colorado this year hoping to do a muzzle loader next year. I did make a trip to Evergreen, Co. for trout fishing - it was fabulous.
Mangwana

You've always got a place to stay here sir! It ain't much as I am just poor white trailer trash (really, but it's clean) My elk season ended pretty dry and I do know what they look like. We also have some trophy fishing in the San Juan river here in town. Take care

quote:

Originally posted by subsailor74:
Frank - to answer your questions, there are many more photos of the hunt, but I thought I had taken up enough space already.

SSN 683
SSBN 631 (B)
SSN 703
SSN 767 Precomm Unit and later SSN 767 - I was the commissioning CO of the Hampton.

Rear Admiral, USN (ret)

Nice report.

My dad was an ET in the diesel boat days. He has a hat "diesel boats forever."

I have a favorite hat too...it says "Beat Navy"

I think I like your Dad's hat better!

a picture's worth a thousand words.

photos are in part 2 of this story.
mangwana

Great report!!

Thanks for the informative read; My wife & I will be in the Save for our 1st time next July; she's looking for a kudu like yours and I'd like to get huge, maned, hermaphroditic alpha female hyena