ZIMBABWE: Hunting In Zimbabwe With Mokore Safaris Extremely Overdue Report

[Mike70560]

This report is a little late, but better late than never.

Mid-September I received a call from a buddy who had never been to southern Africa to hunt. He wanted to go so I figured what the hell and started sending emails.

We ended up booking with Mokore on Sengwa Research in November. Trophy buffalo for DC with tuskless and cull buffalo for me.

Steve Turner took care of the flights. We overnighted at Africa Sky. Candy Pieters took care of our arrangements from arrival to Vic falls to our charter from Hwange to Sengwa.

We arrived in Vic Falls and overnighted at Safari lodge. We then spent four days at Nehimba on Hwange. Everything was first rate. It was a good place to adjust to the new time zone and for DC to get up close to some large African animals. Sarah runs a very good camp and the apprentice guide was a joy to be around. He was very passionate about the wildlife and his job. And the wildlife was plentiful!!!

The hunt is what you would expect with Mokore Safaris. Everything was proper, Neil and Doug Duckworth are credits to their profession. Sengwa Research is a beautiful area. The amount of big game and plains game was amazing.

DC took a nice buffalo and a hyena during the day. He also was able to hunt some birds.

Neil and I chased tuskless at first. I ended up killing one in a big herd. Not my finest moment as I knocked her down with a brain shot, she got up as I pulled the first trigger twice. After a gentle encouraging word from Neil I shot her again. She promptly took off as I flubbed the reload. Luckily my second shot cut a major artery and she was easy to track. We found her fairly quick and I shot her twice, reloaded very quickly, and shot her one more time. Not practicing much before I left really showed up in my handling of the double.

The buffalo was a great hunt. We put in a lot of miles each day. We finally got up on a small herd in some jess (I thought I was back in Tiger Bay)after chasing them all day. We crawled on our bellies to a very close distance. One good shot from the 470 was all that was required. We took the flattest, ugliest, most narrow bull out of the herd. He will not breed any cows, or at least any more. It was truly one of my best buffalo hunts.

By this time things had really turned green. We hunted another tuskless for a couple of days. We saw a couple of more with dependent calves and a couple more in large herds that we were unable to take. We worked some herds with over 100 elephants and had several close calls. We were not successful (It was an add-on with two days left in the hunt) for the second tuskless but I had as much fun those last couple of days as any time during the hunt. We put in some serious miles up and down those big hills in Sengwa.



Photos from Vic Falls and Nehimba:

Not much water over the Falls as it was the end of the dry season.



Yours truly









At Nehimba's swimming pool

































He is just sleeping



From Sengwa



ET Phone Home



Note how much greener the later pictures are in comparison.














Piss poor gun handling, I would like to think my hand was not directly over the barrels but it was close enough





Starting to become thick and green










I must have said something funny.


I wrote this right after my return, I do love Zim in November:

Hunting dangerous game is exciting, for me the kill is actually anti-climatic at times. There is nothing like working a herd of 50 elephants looking for a tuskless in thick green scrub mopane, not seeing one, and leaving the herd without being detected. Or maybe stalking a small herd of buffalo, crawling on your belly the last 75 yards after tracking them for 10 kilometers, undetected and shooting the buffalo you have hunted for the last several days. Hunting Africa is feeling the wind on the back of your neck when you are 30 yards from a herd of elephants knowing all hell is about to break loose. It is hearing and feeling an elephant trumpet just because he can. It is the smell of buffalo when you cannot see them. It is being amazed the ability of the PH and tracker to hear and see game in ways I can only dream. It is the birds, spiders, plants, and multitudes of game you can see.

 

[BRICKBURN]

Always better late than never.
Thanks for posting your report Mike.

 

[alby]

Great post and photos!!
What breed is your double rifle? Looks like it has done some miles with you?
Cheers Alby.

 

[stug]

Fantastic!

 

[375 Ruger Fan]

Great photos and report, thanks!

I had an English teacher in high school, she must have been 70 0r 80 years old then, and whenever someone used the line "better late than never", she would always reply, "better never late." I guess that made an impression on me since I still remember it 40 years later.

 

[cpr0312]

Congrats and thanks for sharing! Some nice pics!

 

[gillettehunter]

Looks like it was a great safari. Some good memories there. Great pics. Thanks for sharing. Bruce

 

[MMAL]

Awesome. Great write up and i like your thinking. Thanks for reporting on the trip.

 

[Mike70560]

Great post and photos!!
What breed is your double rifle? Looks like it has done some miles with you?
Cheers Alby.

It is a Krieghoff in 470 Nitro. It has a few miles on it.

 

[edward]

This report is a little late, but better late than never.

Mid-September I received a call from a buddy who had never been to southern Africa to hunt. He wanted to go so I figured what the hell and started sending emails.

We ended up booking with Mokore on Sengwa Research in November. Trophy buffalo for DC with tuskless and cull buffalo for me.

Steve Turner took care of the flights. We overnighted at Africa Sky. Candy Pieters took care of our arrangements from arrival to Vic falls to our charter from Hwange to Sengwa.

We arrived in Vic Falls and overnighted at Safari lodge. We then spent four days at Nehimba on Hwange. Everything was first rate. It was a good place to adjust to the new time zone and for DC to get up close to some large African animals. Sarah runs a very good camp and the apprentice guide was a joy to be around. He was very passionate about the wildlife and his job. And the wildlife was plentiful!!!

The hunt is what you would expect with Mokore Safaris. Everything was proper, Neil and Doug Duckworth are credits to their profession. Sengwa Research is a beautiful area. The amount of big game and plains game was amazing.

DC took a nice buffalo and a hyena during the day. He also was able to hunt some birds.

Neil and I chased tuskless at first. I ended up killing one in a big herd. Not my finest moment as I knocked her down with a brain shot, she got up as I pulled the first trigger twice. After a gentle encouraging word from Neil I shot her again. She promptly took off as I flubbed the reload. Luckily my second shot cut a major artery and she was easy to track. We found her fairly quick and I shot her twice, reloaded very quickly, and shot her one more time. Not practicing much before I left really showed up in my handling of the double.

The buffalo was a great hunt. We put in a lot of miles each day. We finally got up on a small herd in some jess (I thought I was back in Tiger Bay)after chasing them all day. We crawled on our bellies to a very close distance. One good shot from the 470 was all that was required. We took the flattest, ugliest, most narrow bull out of the herd. He will not breed any cows, or at least any more. It was truly one of my best buffalo hunts.

By this time things had really turned green. We hunted another tuskless for a couple of days. We saw a couple of more with dependent calves and a couple more in large herds that we were unable to take. We worked some herds with over 100 elephants and had several close calls. We were not successful (It was an add-on with two days left in the hunt) for the second tuskless but I had as much fun those last couple of days as any time during the hunt. We put in some serious miles up and down those big hills in Sengwa.



Photos from Vic Falls and Nehimba:

View attachment 172948

Not much water over the Falls as it was the end of the dry season.



Yours truly









At Nehimba's swimming pool

































He is just sleeping



From Sengwa



ET Phone Home



Note how much greener the later pictures are in comparison.














Piss poor gun handling, I would like to think my hand was not directly over the barrels but it was close enough





Starting to become thick and green










I must have said something funny.


I wrote this right after my return, I do love Zim in November:

Hunting dangerous game is exciting, for me the kill is actually anti-climatic at times. There is nothing like working a herd of 50 elephants looking for a tuskless in thick green scrub mopane, not seeing one, and leaving the herd without being detected. Or maybe stalking a small herd of buffalo, crawling on your belly the last 75 yards after tracking them for 10 kilometers, undetected and shooting the buffalo you have hunted for the last several days. Hunting Africa is feeling the wind on the back of your neck when you are 30 yards from a herd of elephants knowing all hell is about to break loose. It is hearing and feeling an elephant trumpet just because he can. It is the smell of buffalo when you cannot see them. It is being amazed the ability of the PH and tracker to hear and see game in ways I can only dream. It is the birds, spiders, plants, and multitudes of game you can see.

super state of the art photos!!!

 

[Mike70560]

Reading old reports bring back memories some good, some bad, some plain silly.

Our first night in Vic Falls we stayed at the Safari Lodge in separate rooms. That night I took out my fan, plugged it in, and was very smug in the fact that I had a fan and my buddy did not. The next morning when I opened my eyes the first thing I saw was a thermostat to the air conditioner hanging on the wall which I did not see the previous night.

I told my buddy about the fan and his instant response was "I just used the AC" We both got a good laugh out of that.

 

[Nyati]

Congrats for a great hunt, thanks for sharing !

 

[Ridgewalker]

Thanks mike70560! Excellent pictures! It sounded/looked like a great trip!

 

[rinehart0050]

Great photos. Thanks for sharing!