Hunting Elephant in Matesi should I Upgrade to Trophy

boris said:
I've hunt Matetsi ECA in the beginnig of aprli this year. Total lack of shootsble bulls. I had a contract for 35+ bull, but in the ECA we didnt find a bull at all exept of a cery young one. The are in my opinion is highly poached. For 10 days i saw only few impalas, one kudu and one honey badgger. The last two days ive hunt in unit 3 for un additional charge of 6000$ and manage to kill 29 pound bull. If you plan to hunt there please be careful not to hunt with Elphant Trail Safaries and PH Shingi. All of the time the beg for more money, camp was very bad and the trucks were basicly scrap. A friend of mine was scamed that he can hunt a leopard in that area, but he never had a chance to have a cat. With that lack of antilopes there is no chance to have cat there. He didnt see even a track despite the fact that we made more then 10 baits.
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Yes I booked a management bull 30# and under from a well established outfitter that is a personal friend, but I asked about the upgrade cost and additional species available and he said that there was no viable game populations there, we would be hunting Eastern Blocks and catch them when they crossed the border daily.
 
Shaw said:
Yes I booked a management bull 30# and under from a well established outfitter that is a personal friend, but I asked about the upgrade cost and additional species available and he said that there was no viable game populations there, we would be hunting Eastern Blocks and catch them when they crossed the border daily.
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Why book such a hunt? How much are you paying? Hunting a border for small bulls isn’t my idea of fun or worth the travel costs. Jeez you can go to the Nyae Nyae Conservancy in Namibia for a management bull (old giant body with broken tusks) for $22k! Weight will be more than 25 pounds just inside the head! Trophy hunts there are $110k.
 
I'm a poor guy that why I booked management hunt I'm paying less than 22K. Just dint know if the extra 5K to bring one home would be worth it but personally I am gathering the norm will be non trophy quality so no need to spend the extra$$ and just stick with management bull and enjoy the experience.
 
If you PH allows it, why not be able to make the decision while your hunting. If you come across a bull you want to keep the ivory you can add the additional fee. I have the option with multiple animals if I wanted to keep any part of the animal it would be a additional fee.
 
Shaw said:
I'm a poor guy that why I booked management hunt I'm paying less than 22K. Just dint know if the extra 5K to bring one home would be worth it but personally I am gathering the norm will be non trophy quality so no need to spend the extra$$ and just stick with management bull and enjoy the experience.
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Having been in same shoes, I upgraded my ele for 5k, and made it exportable. and importabe to my country.
tusks were 30 and 35 pound each.

But to me this is of minor importance.
My opinion is every elephant is trophy.

Take a look at my hunting report, i posted a day or two ago: Zimbabwe: elephant on fire
 
Scott CWO said:
Why book such a hunt? How much are you paying? Hunting a border for small bulls isn’t my idea of fun or worth the travel costs. Jeez you can go to the Nyae Nyae Conservancy in Namibia for a management bull (old giant body with broken tusks) for $22k! Weight will be more than 25 pounds just inside the head! Trophy hunts there are $110k.
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Who has the Nyae Nyae now? I thought about this hunt when SMJ had it, but couldn't make it work at the time.

Tried sending a direct message to you but the system wouldn't let me.

Apologies to the OP for the derail.
 
Heeler75 said:
Who has the Nyae Nyae now? I thought about this hunt when SMJ had it, but couldn't make it work at the time.

Tried sending a direct message to you but the system wouldn't let me.

Apologies to the OP for the derail.
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You can find my personal yahoo email and phone at Comanche Wilderness Outfitters website
 
Heeler75 said:
Who has the Nyae Nyae now? I thought about this hunt when SMJ had it, but couldn't make it work at the time.

Tried sending a direct message to you but the system wouldn't let me.

Apologies to the OP for the derail.
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Japsie Blaauw of Dzombo Safaris. I just returned from there.
 
As a Zimbabwean who knows the drill- listen to the advice. Cheap hunts in poor areas with poor PH's will end badly. Your best hope is a bad hunt, your worst nightmare is that it goes wrong. And by wrong, I mean leaving in a pine box. I see youtube videos with illegal hunts conducted by South Africans in Zimbabwe quite often. The areas are poor, the plainsgame is poor and the PH's even poorer. They have have dodgy PH's that they use repeatedly, they have licenses but simply do what they are told while the SA PH runs the hunt. That is illegal and they video it and put the video out in public. So if it goes wrong, you will be the next Cecil the lion
 
Nhoro said:
As a Zimbabwean who knows the drill- listen to the advice. Cheap hunts in poor areas with poor PH's will end badly. Your best hope is a bad hunt, your worst nightmare is that it goes wrong. And by wrong, I mean leaving in a pine box. I see youtube videos with illegal hunts conducted by South Africans in Zimbabwe quite often. The areas are poor, the plainsgame is poor and the PH's even poorer. They have have dodgy PH's that they use repeatedly, they have licenses but simply do what they are told while the SA PH runs the hunt. That is illegal and they video it and put the video out in public. So if it goes wrong, you will be the next Cecil the lion
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@Nhoro you’ve nailed it with this observation. @Shaw you should read this, then read it again to truly grasp what he says. I, and I think the others, have been trying to steer you away from a lousy hunt without coming out and saying you’re buying a shitty elephant hunting experience.
The truth is, the majority of these ECA hunts are crap and you can find much better with a little effort and patience. There are relatively inexpensive elephany hunts if you’re flexible and patient. @Scott CWO already suggested one of the better low cost opportunities. That hunt would be significantly better than the one you’ve asked about.
 
It sounds like his hunt is already booked so to answer his question I would vote against upgrading to a trophy.
 
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