Dear friends,

2014 hunting season is now a thing of the past. It has been an incredibly exciting year for CMS for a number of reason. Firstly we bought out Gavin Rorke Safaris who hunted the Dande North Communal Area, situated either side of the safari area where we were hunting. This combined with Dande East now gives us 500 000 acres of unspoilt Zambezi Valley to hunt in - no boundaries! This has greatly enhanced the safari experience and the results have proved this.

We have also put in a huge effort again Dande East. Our intention is to turn the east into the most sought after area in the Zambezi Valley and we feel the only thing stopping us was the lack of water from mid season on, this forced the game to go back to Mozambique where the poaching is terrible. As a result we drilled 4 boreholes, all turned out to be dusters. As a last resort we hired a bulldozer and have put in three big dams two of which were dedicated to game and the third to community livestock - we wait with baited breath to see if they will solve our water problems. Bring on the rain!



The other exciting development in the east is that we managed to persuade all the communities within the area that a conservancy was in their best interest, and agreed on boundaries that they cannot settle in or cultivate. This will be a huge development in our future plans for the conservancy. The bulldozer is just finishing off the final cut lines as I write this.



The Hunting
2014 season has been as mentioned an exceptional season and we feel that with our intense effort with DAPU (covered at the end) we and clients are reaping the benefits, with some super trophies and more importantly, having an awesome and wild experience in the wild Zambezi Valley. Below are some pictures of the season:


Elephant
This year we started earlier then we ever have with Mac Jenkins coming in February. We found, as expected, that the early season hunts between Feb and July were very good, with the later hunts being harder. As a whole though I think it will be safe to say, that CMS will have the highest valley average again for the 3rd consecutive year. As I have mentioned before a huge amount of credit goes to our PH’s that work effortlessly. We ensure the PH’s have the ultimate elephant hunting teams: 2 good trackers, a driver and 2 way radios - this helps hugely in elephant hunt as the pictures below show. As a reminder we have two tags left in the forestry area of Ngamo/Kazuma for next year, this area is undoubtedly the best elephant area in Zimbabwe. David Jones below got his bull with me there this year.





Buffalo
As mentioned before when we took over the Dande quota with a staggering 120 buffalo, never sustainable, and we have managed to reduce it to 50, a far more realistic number for clients to come and get a solid bossed buff. This year we are really starting to see an improvement in buffalo quality.









Leopard
Dande has always been one of the best leopard areas in the valley. This year we only had one failed leopard hunt, early season.





Lion and general pictures
If there was one area that we did not do as well as expected it was on the lion hunts. Not from lack of trying though and the only consolation was that this was a trend throughout the valley. While we saw lots of average lions, which bodes well for the future, the big old boys who we did get on trail camera just never showed up at the right time. Mike Jines did get a beautiful lion late season, during a daytime stalk. Below is mike’s lion and some of the plains game that was taken this year.





Sable
The year before we took over Dande, the sable quota was huge, yet only two sable were taken and the biggest as 34”. We immediately decided not to take any sable for that year and give them a chance to recover. This was the same as in the East where we decided not to take any sable for the first 2 years. Now we take 6 sable a season between the Dande North, DSA and East and our trophy quality has been great:





This year CMS set up a competition for our clients called “THE DUGGA BOY OF THE YEAR”. To qualify one needed to shoot a seriously old and ugly buff! The idea was that we feel the hunt is not just about the trophy but more importantly, focusing on shooting old lone dugga boys, as these are the bulls that have “been there and done that”! They have also sowed their seed and are no longer mating. As a result, by taking a magnificent bull like this you are not interfering with the breeding herds or genetics! The proud winner of “THE DANDE DUGGA BOY OF THE YEAR” GOES TO ED KREPS! CONGRATS AND YOU WILL BE RECEIVING THE CMS DUGGA BOY FLOATING TROPHY AND A SIGNED COPY OF THE PERFECT SHOT PLACEMENT FROM KEVIN ROBERTSON



To end off I would like you to be aware of probably our most exciting project to date - DAPU (Dande Anti Poaching Unit). Please click on the link for full information. CMS firmly believes that we need to take the imitative if we all want to continue to enjoy our beautiful sport of dangerous hunting in a manner that our ancestors did for generations. ANY assistance at all will be greatly appreciated.

A big thank you to those of you have already donated; Marty Vick, Frederick Nagell, Mike Jines, Per-Arne Ahlen, Brett Barnes, Mike Core, Dave Adams, Jerry Dollar, Bob Keeler, Todd Williams & Saeed. All your donations have ensure we can continue the anti poaching drive through the Christmas period – the prime poaching time!

We would like to take this opportunity to thank Saeed for donating the trophy fee for the buffalo hunt being auctioned on accurate reloading – the proceeds directly benefit the 2 PH’s injured while hunting.

Lastly I would like to say thanks to you all for your continued support and Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you all. We are all looking forward to seeing you in Dallas & Las Vegas. DSC Booth 4026/8 & SCI Booth 3968-3970

All the best Buzz, Myles and CMS team

Very nice Buzz.

Buzz, you and your CMS team need to be commended on the effort you've put into DANDE, not an easy feat by any means but you guys definitely have the will!

All the best for 2014!!

Cheers,
Brent

Excellent job CMS. July cant get here fast enough for me!

Great report on a great season. Glad I was able to be part of it. Congrats to Ed Kreps, that is an awesome buffalo bull.

Buzz,

I feel that I can speak for Mike and myself. Do we get any royalty consideration for bringing our own brand of handsomeness to your newsletter?

Jeff

. . . "rugged handsomeness"?

quote:

Originally posted by MJines:
. . . "rugged handsomeness"?

+1

Nice!!

Proper safari company.

Well done guys. Sounds like you are managing your area quite nicely.
Merry christmas

Nice Job Buzz and Miles. I look forward to another hunt with you guys in the future again.

Congratulations CMS on a great season

Congratulations to Buzz and company.
MJines- What a great year you had. That Buffalo is a monster. Congratulations to you also.

Buzz and Myles,
I can't thank you enough for selecting my buff as the Dugga Boy of the Year and for Kevin Robertson to be gracious enough to offer a copy of his new book The Perfect Shot II, as prize. I will treasure the book and the memories of the hunt.
As you can tell from all the pictures, the quality of game to which that CMS has access is terrific and their attitude cannot be surpassed. They are really top notch professionals and nice people as well.
Thanks again
Ed

quote:

Originally posted by Edod:
Buzz and Myles,
I can't thank you enough for selecting my buff as the Dugga Boy of the Year and for Kevin Robertson to be gracious enough to offer a copy of his new book The Perfect Shot II, as prize. I will treasure the book and the memories of the hunt.
As you can tell from all the pictures, the quality of game to which that CMS has access is terrific and their attitude cannot be surpassed. They are really top notch professionals and nice people as well.
Thanks again
Ed

Nice Job Ed. Love your Buffalo. I don't have much taxidermy done but I want a broken horned buffalo mounted bad!!!

Nice job guys. I really enjoyed my time hunting with you guys. Thanks.

Well done Buzz, Myles, Alan, Blake and the entire CMS Team. I missed seeing you this year.

Wonderful presentation too, you guys are really getting the hang of this Internet thing!

Looking fwd to chatting with you when in the States. Have a fantastic Christmas!

Good stuff.Looking forward to my next trip.Thanks for giving us a place to go and enjoy.Hope to see you all at SCI.I hear Blake and Ray??? will be there-if so it is going to be extra fun!
Is it true Rays wife will be giving massages for tips at SCI? (just kidding of course)

quote:

Originally posted by shootaway:
Good stuff.Looking forward to my next trip.Thanks for giving us a place to go and enjoy.Hope to see you all at SCI.I hear Blake and Ray??? will be there-if so it is going to be extra fun!
Is it true Rays wife will be giving messages for tips at SCI? (just kidding of course)

Not to you...

Very nice write up. Love the old Buff!!

Buzz, we are both sorry we will not get to SCI to chat but I assure you February of 2015 will not get here soon enough!!

Cheers
Jim & Joyce

quote:

Originally posted by Frostbit:
Very nice write up. Love the old Buff!!

Buzz, we are both sorry we will not get to SCI to chat but I assure you February of 2015 will not get here soon enough!!

Cheers
Jim & Joyce

Seriously? Has the First Ele hunt sold already for 2015?

Well done fellas. Look forward to seeing you in Dallas and hunting with you in June!

Congrats on a great season!

Wow, you two gentlemen had an outstanding season - congratulations! Also, what a fine buffalo, Ed - you did well, my friend! Glad to be in camp with you in early June.
Buzz and Myles, keep up the great work. Your camps make a hunter feel right at home!
All the best,
Wes

What fun!
The entire CMS team are indeed experts.

Congratulations to all the team at CMS for 2014!!
It was indeed a great safari season, glad to have been there for it.! Keep up the good work, see you at SCI and more importantly ,
August 2014, let's see if we can surpass this years efforts!

Regards to all

Nick

Buzz & Myles & CMS, it's great to hear about your hunting concession expansion and your future plans for the area, you guys are setting a standard for conservation and trophy quality for other operators to follow. Might get down to Vegas, if so will catch up with you guys. Probably time for a good adjustment too.

Cheers,
Dirk, Derek, Jane & Mackenzie

Buzz, Myles, and all fine job. See you in Dallas.

Mike

Good on ya Buzz!

Great year end report Buzz. Congrats on all of the wonderful trophies taken.

Buzz and Myles, Another good year in Dande. Jane and I are saving for the next trip. Merry Christmas to you and yours.

Congratulations, this is the success stories we love to read about. Your doing great things for the wildlife with hunting as the main tool Some day maybe the dream will come through and I can visit. Merry Christmas

Congratulations on all the great teamwork and success for the hunters.

I do see a typo/mistake. You started off with 2014 and mentioned it again further in. Surely you meant 2013 since '14 isn't here yet.

Thanks for sharing all the great results with us. May your coming years get even better.
George

A lot of good stuff Buzz, congrats!!!