Company; matupula safaris
Dates. April 22nd-may 9th 2010
Ph; Mark Butcher.
Appie; Chris
Cameraman; Tim Martin. Company. The Osprey company.
Hunter. Diego Romero.
Observer. Sergio Morante
Trackers. Alec "Polli" and Ernest.
Areas hiunted. Tsholothotjo and matobo hills.
Game taken Elephant, lion, hiena, buffalo, dove,guinea fowl,Different tipes of francolinnand pigmey geese
Game seen and not taken. sable,kudu, klipspinger,zebra, blue wildabeet,genette, african wild cat.
As soon as we arrived Butch asked me if I wanted tu hunt a lion. there was a hole pride that was killing cattle on regular bases. Yes. Ok off we go they have killed two cows tonight.
Arrived to Bomany and got changed quickly.
Going out, seeing two Hiena missing one and killing the other one was all one. Ten minutes laater found the pride and shoot a young male.we think he was 4 years old. the pride was not scared at all by my shoot and stood their land. there were moments of great nervousnes ´cause we thought we where going to recieve a multiple charge. finally they departured and I had my first lion. The party went wild and we ended serenading jane who is a lion researcher in hwange NP. we where very BOLINGAS.
Next day we woke up at 11 and didn´t go hunting untill 2 pm

Diego,
Sounds like you had a very enjoyable Safari.
I gather "BOLINGAS" is a similar term that is described in southern Africa as "DOPPED".

quote:

BOLINGAS

AKA: platered, snockered, smashed, legless, drunk on my ass, etc.

Diego......Please show us some pics of your huge Nzoh.......I am dying to see the pics!!

Once again congrats, amazing ele.

After a few Km by the boundary of the park we started seen eles. some of them were on the park but after a while we traked 5 of them. the biggest one was a 50 pounder that catched some scent from us and runned in our direction. it was thick stuff and we got a little nervous but when he was 8 meters from us Butch shouted and he cruised to the right. that was the end of the day. next day we took some packlunch and went to the end of thsolotho north. we saw some elephants and some tracks but nothing to follow. I had put the standarts on 55 pounds plus so we were looking for a big worn track. We arrived to makona at the end of the concession and all of a sudden when we were preparing to have a picnic Tim the camera herd some elephants farting in the concession. he was the only one to hear it but as it came out he was right. we started trying to find them and it resulted to be that it was full of elephants. we started following a big track that belonged to a huge 60 pounder but after getting real close in thick stuff Butch decided it wasn´t what I wanted¿? he said the ivory was very thich but to short. As we came out I could see that Butch wasn´t sure of leaving that elephant pass.we jumped in the car and Butch said that we would have lunch while driving back to see if eles had come out of the park. I had taken to bites of my sandwich when I saw the biggest elephant ever in my life. I threw my sandwich and jumped off the car as Butch did the same thing. It was chaos. I shouted "Cris my rifle, chris my rifle" he was handing both rifles to Butch. Run round the car. Grab my rifle. run with Butch. got in position and as he was quartering away took my shoot, and as he departed took another 3 shoots. on the 3rd one he nearlly fell. after a quick follow up I put another round from the 458 and he fell after a 28 meters run. when we arrived to the ele, i secured it with a brainshoot. The omly tusk we could see was not what we expected¿? Had we shoot another ele? Nop, the huge tusk was deep in the ground. As it came out my 7th ele was a monster, 20 inches in the lip and 52 inches sticking out. as it came out that tusk weighted .....90 pounds. the other tusk was 63 pounds because he had recieved a shoot more or less 15 years ago no nerve it had rotten and that was why that tusk had not developed. he had also another shoot from 6 months ago. a very bad low brainshoot with a 458 we recovered the bullet. Go for the heart and lungs or you may loose an elephant for a lifetime

please Anthon could you post the pictures I emailed you? thanks

Diego That trip could not have been better! Outstanding elephant.

Wow. Big three. Nice.

Elephant is great. Problem lion was a bonus.

Well done. Welcome home Bwana.

Diego, Congrats on the elephant of a lifetime!.....What a great hunt!! Where did you hunt the buffalo?

Anthon, Thanks for finally giving us the pictures!

Diego,
Congrates the trophies! Right place, right time!!

Skip

Silwane, it was a target of opportunity in thsolotjo. It is very rare to shoot a buffalo there because of the fence of the park

Congrats Diego! I coming there on next week.

Way to go Diego!
elephant,lion,and buffalo
What a hunt!

Diego,
I wonder if Butcher or Matapula as a company has ever taken a legitimate 90 pound elephant before your bull. Did Butcher say if that was the largest bull he had ever been in ot the taking of? I have heard about numerous 80 pounders but never one over the 90 mark. I am pretty sure when I hunted with Ellos a few years ago he had never taken a bull over 90 pounds.

For that matter I have not heard of a 90 pound ellie being taken in Zimbabwe anytime in the recent past. I am sure someone here will know the facts on this and post I hope.

I know that the tusks Matapula has are to be officially weighed and registered with Natl Parks sometime today, if yours were not done already, they should be today. I am waiting for an e mail with the details on my dad and my tusks.

Congrats again Diego. That tusk is going to be rediculous when seen out of the skull. You have taken more elephant than me so I am sure you know, but the last Hwange bull I took had 28" in the skull. Ellos told me once that it is not all that uncommon for those bulls to have 30" in their enormous skulls. That tusk could be over 80"!!! Wow! Simply Amazing!

It is the biggest bull Butch has taken with a client. he has taken many 80pounders but never a 90pounder. the biggest ele taken by matupula was a 92 90 pounder taken very near were you shoot yours in the dete area 8 or 9 years ago. It was taken by a spaniard with one of matupulas ph´s.they had two big boys and the ph didn´t know which one was bigger! i know that the tusk was as tall as I. I am 185 cm and that is withot counting the curve of the tusk. my father took a 78 pounder with the in 2004 and in 2005 I saw a 85 pounder shoot by a danish guy in matinwe(plumtree). he took a 58 pounder a 65 pounder and that monster of 85 pounds in 3 weeks. i shoot a 55 pounder the next week

The Danish fellow you speak of, I am pretty sure Scott told me that story. Was he not hunting wit Ellos and took the 65 an 83 pouners within hours of each other around Bombatsi pan along the Manzanyama heading to Sehubu or 222?

Congrats again, please post pics of the pulled tusks when you get a chance.

Hmmmmm! I thought all the big ele's came from Botwana

Mark

Nop, some big boys in zimb to. Yes that´s exactly the client. that guy was incredibly lucky. With eles if you are at the correct time in the right place nothing more is needed

quote:

Originally posted by dwarf416:
The omly tusk we could see was not what we expected¿? Had we shoot another ele? Nop, the huge tusk was deep in the ground. As it came out my 7th ele was a monster, 20 inches in the lip and 52 inches sticking out. as it came out that tusk weighted .....90 pounds. the other tusk was 63 pounds because he had recieved a shoot more or less 15 years ago no nerve it had rotten and that was why that tusk had not developed.

That's the kind of thing when you see the small tusk first and say "Oh my God, what did I shoot?".

Then you see the big tusk and you say "Oh my God! What did I shoot!"

Wow! What a hunt and some great trophies...congrats!!!

Diego,

En buena hora!!! Great trophies!! I know you will enjoy them. Great safari. Please give my regards to your father....asta la proxima.... Ernesto

Hi Ernesto; good to hear from you. I hope everything goes well there in the states. Hope your knees recovered well since last time. I enjoyed very much this safari. The buffalo we tracked him for 2 hours while the spoor got fresher and fresher. As the bull´s shit got fresher and fresher we started to get quite nervous ´cause it was thick as hell. but we finally found him lying done in the only mini open of the bush. we whistled him but no response. a tracker broke a stick and as he came up Sergio shot him straight trough the shoulder. we didn´t know that. waited for half an hour and did the follow up. I was terrified to follow in that thick shit but .... the trail of blood was abundant and after 30 meters of the most intense in my life we found him stone dead. I was not the shooter this time but it was one of the most intense follow up buffalo hunts of my life. I am very happy of letting Sergio shoot his first buffalo with me. He is like a brother for me and he deserved it just for coming as an observer

WOW, now that's what I call an elephant!!!!!!!!

quote:

Originally posted by samir:
WOW, now that's what I call an elephant!!!!!!!!

Great Ele bull, congratulations on an excellent hunt.