Outfitter: Mark Kyriacou Big Game and Bird Safaris, mk.birdsaf@worldnet.att.nt

Locations: Okavango Delta NG 14, NG 20, Makaukau Safaris, Ghanzi

Hunters: Terry Reese, Joe Matuskowitz, Chuck Anderson

PH's George Kyriacou, Lee Potter, Leon Kachelhoffer

Rifles: Terry; CZ 404 Jeffery, Remington mod 700 300 Win Mag Joe and Chuck: 375 H&H's and 300 RSAUM's

It all started two years ago after our weekly pistol shoot/stress relief session when Joe mentioned that he was turning 60 in 2008. I responded that a buffalo hunt sounded like a good birthday present to me. A week later Joe said "remember what you said about a buffalo hunt? I'm in if you are.". And so the adventure began. After reviewing hunt reports here and visiting various web sites I was thoroughly confused. Finally I concluded that I have already had 3 great hunts in the Okavango Delta with Mark Kyriacou, including one buffalo hunt, "why not go where I know that Joe will have a spectacular first hunt in Africa"? Somewhere along the line Chuck, who had accompanied me on my third hunt, decided that he was in. Mark confirmed that he could book us for three buffaloes in late May - early June of 2008. We were set. Well we still had some small details to attend to; Joe needed a big game rifle, Chuck could borrow my 375 H&H, and I needed to choose a rifle. I already had taken a buffalo with a 375, the pre64 model 70 that Chuck would use, and I wanted something with a little more impact. I had inherited a 416 rigby (ruger) and a 470 NE (krieghoff) from my brother and was considering one of those when I happened upon a CZ in 404 Jeffery in Cabela's. Love is not logical; it came home with me. Next step learn to reload as factory ammo is almost nonexistent. With the aid of Midway and a colleague I quickly reached the crude but effective stage and in short order had a load that reflected the traditional 404 Jeffery ballistics: 72.2 gns of IMR 4064 pushed a 400 gn woodleigh to 2185, THIS MAY NOT WORK IN YOUR GUN< START BELOW THIS AND WORK UP LOOKING FOR SIGNS OF OVERPRESSURE, RELOAD AT YOUR OWN RISK - (now the legal dept. is happy). In the mean time I contacted Kathy at Wildtravel and she worked her magic and got us on the Atlanta - Joburg Delta flight and booked us into the Afton guest house for the overnight.
On May 25 we left Pittsburgh, flew to Atlanta and Boarded the Johannesburg flight. Joe and I flew Business, Chuck was in cattle car (if you had only worked a little harder in school...). The flight was uneventful. Once in Joburg we discovered that our bags, including our guns were booked through to Maun on tomorrow's flight. After a little discussion the police decided to keep the guns lock up overnight and send them on tomorrow. This was not in accordance with regs, but it worked. The Afton Guest house was, as usual, a great place to stay. I recommend the cookout as opposed to going out for dinner. Louie was, unfortunately, in the hospital for chemo treatments.
The next day we were off to Maun on Air Botswana and arrived after a flight and a half. We got half way there, they declared a technical problem, turned around and flew back to Joburg and after a hour's wait took off again. We hit Maun and cleared immigration and customs in a blur and jumped on the bush plane to fly to NG14. NG14 is in in the northern part of the Delta near the Kwando river. This part of the Delta is not as wet as NG20 where we will go next. This time of year the buffalo are here, as the pans dry up they will move south. We make the landing strip before dark, our PH's pick us up and I get a pleasant surprise; my usual PH Glen Munger is busy with his ranch and no longer works with Mark, so I will have a new PH. His primary tracker, Bahiti decided to stay in the Delta and is here. We drive to Mopane camp, a comfortable tented camp chasing lionesses off the road as we go.
Up the next morning we check our rifles and decide who will hunt with who. I have no preference for PH but would like to continue to hunt with Bahiti as he has been with me on each of my other hunts. That means I get George, Mark's son, a new PH in his mid 20's. Joe takes Lee' the old man of the group at 35 and Chuck, the ex marine, has Leon, nicknamed "Turbo"
Let me say up front that I would recommend each of these PH's without hesitation.
George and I headed out through the mopane that characterized the typical terrain



10 minutes out of camp we came across tracks. George checked them out and Said "It's a qwaliti bull, it looks big, lets follow and see what he looks like. I jacked a round into the 404 and we were off. For an hour we (Bahiti) tracked as the buffalo wandered through the mopane. after 30 minutes George said "we are getting close, be ready it may go fast". We continued to track and suddenly Bahiti stepped back, George stepped up looked and said" He's a nice bull take him". I stepped around the mopane bush and he was 30 yds away looking at us. All I initially saw was horns and his glare. He was a old man with a good hard boss. I was looking more for a good boss that extreme width and he was exactly what I wanted. As I drew a bead on him he turned and gave me his shoulder and I put a 400 gn woodleigh soft point on it. The buffalo was literally staggered and moved behind a bush. I stepped to the right, out of the corner of my eye I saw George with his double aimed at the buff but he didn't come and George held fire. I put a woodleigh solid into his neck and the buffalo collapsed. One hour, ten minutes and about 3 seconds into my buffalo hunt, it was over. I had the buffalo that I wanted, and old boy with a hard boss and broomed down horns. A bull with character. It was quick but I'm a firm believer in taking what the Gods of the hunt give you, when they give it. Turn it down and you may not have another chance.



By the time we took pictures and loaded him it was time for lunch. Then it was time for plainesgame. I had licenses for tsessebe and impala in NG 14, but I was not in a hurry. George and I spent the rest of day one and all of day two riding around, relaxing, just enjoying being there. I did try a couple of stalks on an impala but he was a smart old boy who had been hunted before and was very wary. Joe took a tsessebe on day one but all Chuck got was a couple of long walks. On day three we got serious again, started hunting and I learned a lesson. In the afternoon we spotted a tsessebe and went on a long circuitous stalk. we got within 100 yds and the tsessebe was facing us. I put the Remington on the sticks put the cross hairs on his chest, pushed on the safty and squeezed, and squeezed, and squeezed the damn thing wouldn't go off. Finally the bull gave up and moved off. I checked the rifle and the safety was on. I am used to Winchesters where the safety goes straight forward. On this model 700 you have push up a little and it moves forward. The lesson; know your weapon before you use it. We reacquired the tsessebe and this time I push up and forward. A 180 gn federal factory nosler partition put him in the salt.



As the truck came up to us we got the call that Joe had his buffalo. We posed, pictured, loaded and went to help Joe and Lee. Chuck got more sore feet. Next day Joe and lee look for warthog, George and I hunt impala and Chuck and Turbo are optimistic that it's their turn. I have another busted stalk on the same impala but then come upon his big brother. After a short stalk I put a 300 wm into the back of his ribs as he's quartering away from me. He runs 20 yards and goes down.



This was the first time that I have used nosler partitions and a found their performance curious. Neither animal went more than 30 yds, both bullets exited but there was no blood trail with the tsessebe. The impala had a large entry hole, and a second hole 3 inches in front of it and a tiny exit hole in the front. It looked as if he was facing me as opposed to facing away. I can only assume that the front of the bullet exploded on impact giving the first hole, either some of the pedals or a piece of bone exited just in front of the entry and the base of the bullet continued through exiting in the chest. Here there was plenty of blood. I'm not saying the bullets failed, rather they worked well. But it was curious. At this point I was done with plainsgame in NG 14. Joe couldn't find a warthog and Turbo had tried to walk Chuck to death again.

For the next two days I rode with Joe and Lee and we looked for warthog and shot some birds. This gave George a chance to scout for buffalo in an attempt to help out Chuck and Leon. After two days of no warthog and, more importantly, no buffalo and more blisters, we decided to change things up. Joe, Lee, George and I would head to Tsum Tsum camp in NG 20 and leave Chuck and Leon to nurse their sore feet and hope their luck changes. So we headed out early on the Okavango interstate. We only bogged down in the sand once and after about 4 hours arrived at splash camp, also in NG 20, and had lunch. While there we got word that Chuck got his buffalo and would join us tomorrow. Mine took an hour, Joe's; three days, and Chuck's a week and about 40 miles. We stopped at splash to pick up a spit. I have always wanted to cook a warthog over the coals and Lee agreed to be the chef if I agreed to shoot a young tender warty. I agreed.

NG 20 it much wetter than NG 14. It has permanent water and the grassland also fills up as the flood moves down from Angola. It is a true paradise.





Again we were in a tented camp.



For the next two days we relaxed, Joe took a red lechewe and an impala, Chuck took a nice warthog and we shot birds and fished catching talapia. One day we took the cook who grilled the fish as we caught them. We planned the cookout for our last day, so on the next to the last day we went looking for a warthog for dinner. We spotted a family with two big old ones, a few babies, and a young sow. Off to stalk. It took a while, but I got a 40 yard shot. Aiming for the brain, we're meat hunting remember, I used the 300 WM and literally brought home the bacon. Interestingly, at 40 yds the bullet did not exit the skull, nor did it penetrate the torso.



The next day we relaxed, sat overlooking a water hole, just to see what came, took some pictures and scared a few more birds. That night we feasted on roast warthog. A good time was had by all.

The next day we said goodbye to George and Leon. George was moving on to another hunt, we planned to only have two PHs in the desert, and Leon had to go back to NG 14 to complete a hunt that another PH had to leave due to a bad case of malaria. We flew to Maun and drove south east past Ghanzi to Frank's Camp on the Makaukau safaries ranch. Here we were housed in chalets, nice considering the cold, and were hunting various plainsgame. Lee drove from Tsum Tsum and met us there. The problem with the sick Ph cut us to one PH but one of the camp hands helped out, so while Chuck and Joe went with Lee a young man named Jandre took me in search of Gemsbok and Zebra. The temperature was colder in the desert and there was a cold wind blowing. The animals were wary and bunched up in the open. We couldn't get into range for a shot. No luck on day one, but there were lots of zebra and gemsbok. Joe and Chuck did well hunting on a neighboring ranch. Joe took a warthog and a kudu and Chuck got an ostrich. The next morning was a repeat of day one. Joe got his zebra and I got skunked. In the afternoon, however, we spied some gemsbok. As we started to stalk, the turned and began feeding towards us. Finally they got to 40 yards and I took my Gemsbok with the 300WM.



The next day we spent the morning in ghanzi picking up a few things. In the afternoon I went out with Lee. It was nice to hunt with a true PH again. I can't complain about Jandre, he worked hard and got me a gemsbok, but Lee knows his business. We stalked a zebra but got busted. The next and last day we, especially Lee, were on a mission to get a zebra. We stalked one early, but it ran off. We then went on a long stalk. We walked, crouched, crawled and at last we were within 200 yds. We stood up and a damn hartebeest started looking right at us. We froze. She looked away and we knelt. She moved closer, we sat. She came even closer we lay down. finally she moved off. We rose and the zebra were gone. As we treked back to the truck Lee was even more determined. No matter how much we scoured the area we couldn't get within 800 yds. Finally we came upon three zebra. Lee put the glasses on them and they ran. Lee jumped in slammed the door and I said to Joe "hold On". In the desert there is a hunting practice that they call "talley ho". We took off after the zebra in the truck, Lee in the cab, Joe and I on top with the trackers. Zero, Lees tracker, kept telling we which zebra was the target; "he's in back", "don't shoot yet". Finally we jammed on the brakes and I got a shot at a zebra running at full speed. I pretended that the 375 H&H (I'd reclaimed it from Chuck) was a shotgun. I led him and put a round through his heart. He piled up and the hunt was over. Lee jumped out and said "great shot, you got him Kalahari style". Kalahari style my not suit everyone, but it is exciting.



So the adventure ended. A great time was had by all, and Joe had a great 60th birthday present. He is already planning his return.
Cudos to Kathy Klimes for handling the air and hotel in Joburg. With the exception of a pair of shoes (new nikes), a knife, and a bag of life savers being stolen from my bag in Joburg, everything went well.

Great Report, Very nice trophies!

Great story and pictures !

Nice story and good hunting.

Nice. Very unique stripe pattern on that zebra.

I was wondering how how made out. Sounds like an excellent trip.

quote:

Originally posted by Grafton:
Nice. Very unique stripe pattern on that zebra.

+1, that's one of thhe nicest zebra patterns that I've ever seen.

Great report Terry.

Great report and photos.

quote:

In the desert there is a hunting practice that they call "talley ho". We took off after the zebra in the truck, Lee in the cab, Joe and I on top with the trackers. Zero, Lees tracker, kept telling we which zebra was the target; "he's in back", "don't shoot yet". Finally we jammed on the brakes and I got a shot at a zebra running at full speed. I pretended that the 375 H&H (I'd reclaimed it from Chuck) was a shotgun. I led him and put a round through his heart. He piled up and the hunt was over. Lee jumped out and said "great shot, you got him Kalahari style". Kalahari style my not suit everyone, but it is exciting.

You know, I was really enjoying this report until I got to this part. "Kalahari style"? I realize I will take some flack for saying anything, but sometimes you have to call a spade a spade. In my opinion, and that's what it is; this was a shameful way to take an animal.

Looks like a great adventure - congrats!

The Okavango is an area I've always wanted to hunt... buff, lechwe and tssessebe! Congrats!

Awesome story and hunt Terry, congrats on the fine hunt!

Very nice Terry. Thanks for sharing with us.

Damn, Terry a white zebra with black stripes... Very fine buf...
My zebra was black...
Good shooting,

Mike

Great report! Thanks for sharing!
I agree with you.. Take the first chance you get, especially on such a fine bull..

Excellent report. Loved it! Thanks

CONGRATULATIONS!!!

Nice photos and report. I will never complain about the potholes on the Chicago streets again after seeing your photo of their "road system".