SOUTH AFRICA: ZIMBABWE: Great Safaris With DERIAN KOEKEMOER SAFARIS & DALTON & YORK SAFARIS

[godwincp]

I just returned from eighteen great hunting days in South Africa and Zimbabwe. My travel was handled by Jennifer at @TRAVEL EXPRESS and I stayed at Africa Sky in Johannesburg and Amanzi Lodge in Zimbabwe. I hunted with my Blaser R8 professional with my 375 H&H with a Swarovski Z8 1.7-13.3x42 rail mounted to my 20.5” semi weight barrel. I also took my J Sipp barrel in 416 Remington built on a 19mm profile with a Leupold VX6HD 1-6x24 CDS ZL2 30mm illuminated fire dot duplex reticle .
I flew Delta premium select and was offered a very reasonable upgrade to Delta One on the outbound and I took it. All inter and intra flights were on Airlink.
My hunt with @DERIAN KOEKEMOER SAFARIS was on his concession bordering Krueger National park. It’s a great property of about 9000 acres with the Klasserie river running through it. There’s a lot of thick cover and ideal habitat for the 150+ head of self sustaining buffalo. I was there to hunt Nyala, Roan, eland , bushbuck and a cow buffalo. The equipment and accommodations were very good as was the food and service. Even had air conditioning in my room which was very much appreciated. They actually offer three different accommodation options from a tented camp to a very luxurious lodge depending on your needs.
On the first morning of my hunt I took a very nice Nyala and broke in my new 416 barrel. Two days later I took a great Roan. We now started concentrating on the cow buffalo and that turned out to be a lot of fun and quite difficult. Never hunted cows before but it very challenging getting in amongst the herd with all the eys and trying to pick out the right old dry cow. We chased various groups around for five days before finally taking this old cow.
During our cow hunt we found a beautiful old bull who had been in a fight several years ago and had his testical damaged and was basically a “ gay blade!! I decided to trade my eland and bushbuck plus a little to spend the remaining four days pursuing this single buffalo. Derian’s tracker , Geraldo, was amazing and put us on this bull within thirty yards four times only to be busted by swirling winds etc. Hunting a single buffalo on nine thousand acres in thick cover was a lot of fun and very challenging. Finally on the last morning it all came together and the 416 delivered with a single shot.
I had a great nine days with Derian and his wife Johlene who runs the business side of the company and there two boys ages 3 and 5- what a great place to grow up. They offer a myriad of options for both hunting and Krueger Park tours and even excursions to Cape Town so it’s a great place to take the family.
If you need more info drop me a line or give Derian or Jolene a call. You won’t be disappointed.

Now it’s off to Zimbabwe to hunt with York Mare in the Sengwa Reaearch area which turned out to be a fascinating concession way beyond my expectations. More to come

 

[Hunt anything]

Looking forward to the report from Zim.

I’ve been in contact with DERIAN about his hyena/ buffalo combo. Looking at your bull really has the wheels turning in my squirrelly little brain!

 

[godwincp]

Had work weekend at the Missouri farm getting ready for deer season.
I left Eastgate and flew to JNB and then checked into my flight to Harare with no issues. Arrived in Harare and was met by Evon who helped me through immigration and gun processing. I had the immigration form filled out but apparently they now require you to fill out on line which she did for me at the iPad station they had set up. Never had to do that before. The gun permitting was the usual CF with five people involved and all getting a different bullet count! Finally got through that and met the driver for the Amanzi Lodge. Nice place and they arranged breakfast for me at 6am as York was picking me up at 6:30.
York was there early and I was ready so off we went. If a PH tells you camp is a 5-6 hour drive count on it it being at least 7 or 8 hours!
I had not yet met York but felt like I knew him through YouTube and his podcast. We had an enjoyable eight hour drive to camp and the
Roads were actually in good shape with a lot of resurfacing being done.
The camp at Sengwa is very comfortable and a big fan in the room was a game changer. The camp has WiFi but it is spotty in the rooms. Priority item for next year. The staff is excellent, the food very good and the skinners do a great job.
York had done a major part of his apprenticeship at Sengwa fourteen years ago and he was genuinely excited about returning which added to my excitement as well. Remarkably, many of the people York worked with during his apprenticeship were still there which made it very special for him. I knew this was going to be a lot of fun.
First morning excitement always reminds me of opening day of deer season. Up at five and on the
Road at six. Ten minutes later we had a flat! No big deal- change and go. We spent the first day exploring parts of the 90,000 acre concession. This place is loaded with buffalo, waterbuck, eland, impala Kudu, bushbuck, warthogs and Zebra along with elephants and hyena. We also found large leopard tracks along the river beds.
Late afternoon on that first day we were nearing a river bed when the team tapped on the roof and said Eland. We we got out without them seeing us and found three eland bulls some 250 yards across the
River bed. Wind was good and we just watched them for about 30 minutes as they were not moving and we had no where to go. The one bull was a real trophy and we set our sights on him. Eventually they began feeding and we were able to use the cover to cross the river bed and stalk to within 80 yards of the big bull. York is a master at this and his patience paid off. Up went the sticks and the 416 Remington magnum sent a 400 gr swift A frame on the shoulder and the Bull was down. A fabulous ending to a great first day

 

[godwincp]

The next few days we concentrated on Buffalo. Sengwa is basically flat with a big mountain in the middle of the concession. The bulls have no problem heading for the high ground if they know they’re being pursued which made it pretty challenging for me. Swirling winds were the biggest issue but it’s always worth the price of admission watching the trackers work their magic.
On about the fourth evening we were walking the river bed and it was getting late. Suddenly York dropped down and I did the same. He turned and said Buffalo. Now I could clearly see the white sand of the river bed and I couldn’t see a Buffalo. York whispered they were right in front of us. Suddenly I saw a big head of an old Buffalo bull 15 yards in front of us. The bank of the river bed dropped off about five feet just in front of us and the old bull was raking his horns into the river bank throwing mud everywhere. He finally looked up and saw us but he wasn’t bothered in the least. He kind of looked like” if you want some of this come get it!”. He continued to tar up the bank and eventually became annoyed with us still being there. He finally started up the bank just enough to expose his front chest. I remember thinking he really is looking at us like we owed him money. I took the offhand shot at 15 yards on the point of the shoulder and as he turned and ran I hit him again and York added one also. He went down on the opposite bank about forty yards away and was done. After the celebration ended we hung toilet paper in the trees to ward off the hyenas and would retrieve him in the morning. He was a beautiful old bull and I can’t imagine a more exciting and memorable experience

 

[Fatback]

That’s the way to get it done. Especially an eland on the first day, eating great the rest of the safari. Congrats on a great hunt. Looking forward to reading the rest of your report. Thanks for taking the time to share with us.

 

[godwincp]

Thanks
Nothing like taking an Eland early- best meat in Africa. Here’s where the rest of it went

 

[DERIAN KOEKEMOER SAFARIS]

Thank you Mr Pat @godwincp , we had a great time with you, you are truly missed in the Lowveld we are looking forward to seeing you again and share many more great adventures.
Regards
Derian & Johlene

 

[godwincp]

We retrieved the Buffalo the next morning and the toilet paper did its job. Took it to the skinning shed and when that was done we took a rib section to use for hyena bait. We placed the bait in the river bed and built our blind on a high river bank about 100 yards away. The guys carefully created a noise free pathway and marked it so we could easily find it in the morning. The bait was covered to keep the vultures off and we left to hunt the evening. We got on a giant warthog whose tusks almost touched
But he gave us the slip. Godzilla, as we named him, was never to be seen again.
Up at 4:30 and left camp at 5:15 to check the hyena bait. Quietly stalked into the blind but there were no takers on the bait. We left there and drove to a new section of the river and spotted a very nice Reedbuck. Up went the sticks and I missed a straight on shot at 100 yards. He ran and stopped at 220 yds and I hit him perfectly and he went down. I’m told they’re fairly rare in Zimbabwe but he was very nice

 

[godwincp]

Later that afternoon while walking the riverbed we stalked into a very nice Kudu that we set up about 125 yards away. I took the broadside shot with my 375 and the kudu had no reaction and I did not hear a bullet hit. As he took off I went to cycle the bolt and I could not. The kudu was running right in front of me and I could not shoot. When it all settled down it was determined the bolt holding the rail mount to the scope and Blaser scope mount had sheared off and was protruding in the bolt path prohibiting me from cycling the bolt. This rifle set up performed flawlessly last year in Nyakasanga and through over 120 practice shots preparing for this safari. I’m not sure when it sheared off- perhaps why I missed the easy shot on the reedbuck and maybe got lucky on the second shot- but my scope was off enough to make a difference. Who could imagine at that precise time that bolt would fail- Murphy strikes again. Blaser is sending me the rail mounting hardware and said this failure is very rare and was probably caused by recoil

 

[Hunt anything]

Nice reedbuck! They are one of my favorite plains game to hunt behind only bushbuck.