ZIMBABWE: Dalton & York End Of Season Omay North Buff/Croc/Hippo+

Love this hunt report and especially end of season reports. That's a proper buff...and old bull hippo. I laughed about the hippos doing whatever they want. Very true. Keep it coming! I know the heat is brutal at end of season in Zim, especially for Alaskans!

Thanks for all the information on the travel. What a great hunt.

Enjoyed reading your report and see your pictures. Also great insights learning about the PH’s on the D&Y team!

I enjoyed reading this and seeing the pics. That is a beautiful rifle btw.

So after the hippo, we turned more attention to croc. We’d seen at least two and maybe a third that Gareth said were big, expecting 14+ foot, one had a really cool facial scar around his upper jaw and what he was pretty certain was “white nose” named by York last season and couldn’t get things set right to take. I called him snaggletooth. The other big one we liked Gareth called F’d up Head, because of a scar on the scales behind his eyes. The problem thus far was getting the bait set right to allow a shot, and timing. The big guys often roll in a little later and by then it’s a total twirling pile of reptiles, trying to shoot just one and not the 13 behind him was proving a real complication.

F’d up Head came in early once, the first time we set out a big bait, but there were so many others coming across we waited to see what else might show. Then it was too late.

Skip ahead to the next afternoon, after we scored the hippo, and we had a BIG bait. Snaggletooth came in early, but wanted to see next to F’d up Head and by the time he rolled in, again too late and too busy. We lost light and decided to pull the bait vs leaving it out (they had all but totally destroyed York’s cable on the buff qtr we left overnight) and as we pulled the Cruiser up to use the lights to scare the crocs away, Snaggletooth wasn’t having it. He didn’t want to leave, even when we had the diesel cruiser 15ft away with bright lights on him and the bait…he wouldn’t bail out until we got out of the cruiser.

So the plan was made, we’d try first light and watch the sun come up from the blind and see what shook loose. Recall, I don’t love sitting in blinds, but have to admit sitting a croc bait was actually very entertaining. So much action and so damn fast, it wasn’t the worst way to spend the first or last hour or two of a day.

Next morning we arrive at the spot, sun wasn’t even yet above the horizon. The anchor and cable already in place, it was a hurried hook up the hippo qtr, toss some blood and other nasty bits into the surrounding water and duck into the blind to see what this morning sit might provide. Gareth said his typical protocol is afternoon or later sunset sits, but when we saw a bunch of crocs laying up where we’d placed the first bait the following morning, he said we needed to give it a try…”100%”

It was a gorgeous morning, so regardless of what it held for us, I was happy and enjoying the sights and sounds of it all.

Scott, Gareth and I walked to the blind as the cruiser drove away. There were a couple smaller crocs on the hippo qtr before I even got to sit down. While it wasn’t a total frenzy yet, there were a few key players that wasted no time and it was clear things were likely to get crazy quickly.

Then within minutes, ol’ Snaggletooth came rolling in, rudely shoving others aside. And we decided he could use a good, formal lesson in proper British manners. Closest thing I could do was introduce him to a John Rigby…so we opted for that.

Short video clip Scott made on my Sony Alpha from the blind.

And Gareth was again correct, he was not a small croc. He did have a bobbed tail, as well as missing a front left claw, broken tooth or two and missing his right rear foot. Even with the section of tail missing, he was just shy of 14.5’ and whatever the head measurement they talk about from nose to eye or some particular scale…I didn’t get the anchor points of the measurement only that it was almost 15”.

Cool fun fact courtesy of Johnny Russell…the hunters of today are likely the last that will have a chance to hunt the true river monster of the Zambezi…that swam the river before Lake Kariba was in existence. Makes you really think just how old some of these big crocs really are.

They really are interesting creatures, and crazy how many people they take each and every year.

With Snaggletooth rolling into the bait and having his Rigby indoctrination within barely 15minutes of setting the bait, we had most of the heat of the day to sort plans for the afternoon. Ultimately, Gareth wanted to go check this one portion of the flood plain to see if any hippo were exploring about out of water right as the sun set. There was a nice dry creek bed we’d walk leading us to the floodplain…same walk Gareth found the 63” kudu bull a couple weeks earlier.

On that walk he’d seen a decent bushbuck and a nice warthog. It was funny timing on past hunts that I’d wanted to take a warthog but never had the right opportunity without interfering with something else…so I loved the idea, scouting with a chance of bushbuck or pig, I’m in.

And like every other day in the Omay, the elephants were out in force, even taking up space where we needed to ditch the cruiser and start walking, to having a big group of cows and calves come strolling through not 20-30min into our scouting expedition.

Video clip of the cows and calves.

We saw several female and young male bushbuck, nothing close to shootable and then the last open area before the full floodplain, as we started down a steep sandy trail Gareth immediately stopped and said pig…hitting it with his glasses…nope, stump. We take two more steps, and I’m like, “uh, Gareth, what about that pig?” Not 50 yards to the left of the stump was a nice warthog just head down feeding. Gareth was miffed that he didn’t see it…especially that I saw it first, mostly because I am horrible at picking animals up in the brush. And more than once on the open floodplain have mistaken flock of guinnea fowl for a herd of buffalo just with the distance way off.

We closed the distance some, but couldn’t see any way of getting closer than the 165 yards we were held up at. Wasn’t taking that shot with the double, so my dreams of a double gun pig would have to wait. Fortunately, tracker Joe was doing double duty as my gun bearer and as I turned towards him he already had my Rigby held out and took my Heym. Quickly on the sticks, wait for the pig to feed broadside and bang-flop…my first ever warthog. Such a cool animal…hoped I’d get a chance to stalk in closer where I’d feel ethical taking one with the double.

And almost forgot…wrapping up this scouting mission…we found several hippos in three different spots feeding around out of the water. So before loading into the cruiser…set plan to return before sunup and see what we might find.

Great Croc and even better shooting on a moving croc

Great report, great writing and even greater hunt. Congratulations

Very nice report, thank you

I want to hunt with Gareth, that way I could hide behind him while stalking!!

Before getting into the final few animals, seems like a good place for few random photos.

Few animals just out and about.

Super intrigued and enjoyed learning more about all the tracks we’d see each day. Cool lion tracks over ours from day before, female leopard, and elephant tracks literally everywhere you looked.