James Ledgerwood
AH member
Hunting area Mazuri Ranch Mid Lands Black Rhino Conservatory
PH Ryan Lowe
Booking agent Joe Demby
Rifle 375 HH Remington 700
Ammo Jim's hand load 270 g Barns Reloader 15
Just got back from a wonderful 10 day free range Sable hunt hunt at the Mazuri Ranch. The Mazuri Ranch is in in the Midlands Black Rhino Conservatory. Most of the trophy fees go to the conservatory for up keep and anti poaching efforts the meat goes to feed the staff and what is left over goes to the local resentment school that Mrs Lowe so generously supports.
My PH Ryan Lowe collected me at the Harare AP with a trouble free clearance of customs we were off to the hunting area about a 3 hour drive from Harare . Arriving late Mrs. Lowe the ranch's owner and the grandmother of my young PH had a late midnight supper waiting for us . Up early next morning with toast and coffee we were out to look for my primary object of the hunt A Sable.
Started as usual by looking for tracks. In late May there is quite a bit of foliage on the trees. We met this challenge by using up a lot of shoe leather making several morning drives of approximately an hour each this along with glassing from the hunting vehicle resulting in seeing a fair amount of game but not to object of my hunt the trophy Sable and Reed Buck. After lunch we repeated the drill by more glassing and more walking. Good exercise, by my cell phone we averaged about 7 miles per day. Again saw fair amount of game and some young and female sable but no trophies.
We repeated this drill for the next 4 days seeing some sable many reed buck, passed up on several shooters none up to Ryan's Standards. We did see a lot of impala and Zebra and several great Kudu. AS these were not my primary goal we passed on them at that time. On the evening of the fourth day just loosing light our luck changed. We were actually in an area glassing for reed buck. It was obvious at the first glass that this was an old bull with a lot of mass. Just the old bull I was looking for. Made the approach got up on the sticks and made what I thought was a god shot. He ran and I put several more in him went down got up and I shot him again 4 shots were in him include the first shot that took of the top part of his lung a shot that hit the spine and several others that should have been stopper shots. A testament to the toughness of this animal or my bad shooting.
On the sixth day we saw the reed buck we were looking for he was just there looking at us . Funny how that works when you see the right one it stands out at you. Took him with a shot that took of the top of his heart and and an extra insurance shot. Well after 6 days I had shot what I had wanted a trophy sable and reed buck. I already had a good kudu at home. We had come across a giant while we were out looking for sable. I had decided to pass on him . It started to haunt me so we spent the rest of the hunt looking for that guy . Having lost most of my self control with the successful harvest of my sable and reed buck I shot a great old zebra stallion and a impala for a European mount along the way.
The old Kudu was a crafty old guy we approached him on 3 different occasions during this time, actual got up on the sticks 3 times but because there was bush in the way could not definitely identify him ( there were several other bull in the heard ) cows in the way there was no shot. In spite of this I was happy with the hunt and had resigned to going home with out him . On the morning of the last day we spotted him in the thick brush . Once again no shot. Our last chance he started to move and at about 70 yards I had to thread a free hand shot into his vitals while he moved in and out of brush that blocked a shot . Did it got him in the lungs got another one in him and he went down within 50 yards . What a great old bull and such a great way to end up a perfect hunt . My thanks to Ryan a truly talented young PH and the whole team at Mazuri ranch.
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