10 November 2009, 01:12
mrfudd1-7 November hunt with CM Safaris
Trip report 1-7 Nov 09 The trip began pretty well. I flew Delta from Augusta to ATL and ATL to JNB in coach class. Flights were fine and on time. Flew SAA from JNB to HRE. All bags arrived safely and I was met by Miles McCallum at the airport. Miles dropped me off at a B&B-sorry, don’t remember the name. Alan Shearing and his trackers Nyati and Martin picked me up at 0730 the next morning and we were off. We were stopped @ 2 roadblocks for weapons checks, but we had no problems. The next stop was at the game scout station. Unfortunately, neither the DSA or Communal area scouts were present. We proceeded to the Pedza Pasi camp. Check in and zero confirmation was completed quickly. Rex and his clients Bob and Roger showed up later that evening.
On to the hunt. The scouts finally arrived and we began to hunt around 0900. It was an uneventful day; only spotted 1 young bull.
Day 2- 0400 wakeup and 0500 departure. We found some spoor and started tracking elephant at around 0630. Martin spotted a nice dugga boy around 0815. Alan and I watched it from around 40 yards and decided to have a go at it. Buzz covered the rest of the day’s events in his post.
Day 3- Buzz rushed to the hospital late the previous evening and met me in camp at 0900. We began to pursue tuskless. We saw numerous animals, but no suitable candidates.
Day 4- Continued pursuit of tuskless. It was extremely hot. 2 different thermometers registered 118. We tracked for around 6 hours. We located and took a nice bushbuck around 1630.
Day 5- Tracked for around 7 hours in the extreme heat. We spotted numerous eles again, including a huge tuskless cow, but we lost her and I was unable to continue in the heat.
Day 6- I was still weak from the previous day, but we attempted to find a good cow. No shooters were located. Late in the evening the parks game scout yelled excitedly. Buzz spun around as if to fire and I had no idea of what was happening. The scout told Buzz that he has seen a snake strike at Buzz's and my hats as we walked under a limb. Buzz said that he saw a snake's tail disappear into a hole in the tree. Good thing we are both vertically challenged, because it sounds like a mamba went after both of us.
Day 7- I told Buzz that I was tired and would prefer to catch a tiger fish instead of chasing eles. We dropped off Crichton and Martin and hit the Zambezi River. Crichton reported in shortly later that he had found a tuskless. We fished for 2 hours without getting a bite and headed back for the ele. We met Crichton and started to track around 1130. We followed spoor and bumped several herds in the thick jess. Finally, around 1400 we caught up with a shootable tuskless. We approached to around 25 yards and I shot her. She went down immediately, but we had to retreat from a very angry 1 tusked cow. My cow stood up and attempted to flee; we were unable to get off backing shots due to our hasty retreat. We had a large blood trail to follow and found her after around 200 yards. She was standing still and was obviously very sick. We approached and finished her off with a side brain shot. My first shot had missed the brain low, but had penetrated into the heat/lung area.
Rifles used- Me Model 70 CRF, 375 H&H, Swaro Z6 1x6 scope, Barnes 300 gr. Banded Solids, 270 grain triple shocks (bushbuck) Alan- Model 70 CRF 416 Rem Mag, Buzz- Ruger 416 Rigby
Lessons learned
1) The Zambezi Valley is extremely hot in early November.
2) Dangerous game is just that-dangerous.
3) Teva sandals are great for hunting this time of year.
4) Ex offifico boxer briefs are great for preventing chafing.
5) Skin so soft expedition is awesome tsetse repellent.
6) Buzz and Alan are both great guys to hunt and share a camp with.
