ZIMBABWE: 12 Days In Zimbabwe With Shangani Safaris

[WAB]

Best trackers in the world hail from Bushman land in Namibia. San, !kung, Bushmen, herero whatever you choose to call them. Believe their territory was once much larger but they were sort of pushed into the equivalent of the native American reservations... Purely the best African stalk of my life was spending a day out with only a Bushman tracker/pH in Namibia! Most amount of thorns ever collected in my knees and hands as well. While my stalking skills are quite good I was completely blown away by his attention to every detail and our success in taking plains game out in the middle of open savannas by skirting around herds of giraffe and zebra and then crawling up the smallest of drainage ditches to great success!

Totally agree, their skills have to be seen to be believed. That said, we hunted in the Zambezi Valley (Zim) with Len Taylor. His tracker Charles was no slouch.

On the subject of this thread, I feel terrible for RR. However, it sounds like, among other things, the chemistry just didn't work between he and his PH. I have had cases where this has happened, although not to this extreme. I will no longer go on a guided hunt unless I personally know the PH, am comfortable that we are compatible, and there is very clear communication on the expectations for the hunt. We only get so many safaris, take as many of the variables out as you can. Go to the shows with a short list of PH's. Spend time with them over dinner and drinks, have very direct conversations. Check references, asking specifics about the hunts, not just the 'he's a great guy' fluff.

 

[mark-hunter]

@Ridge Runner

Sorry to hear you had less then positive experience with this hunt.

I have some questions:
- so what is the news with this wounded buffalo? Did they try to track him at least after you left the camp?
- did you pay for that wounded buffalo.

- How was hippo cow paid? same trophy fee or different?

 

[rookhawk]

@Ridge Runner I’ve read your story, commenting as we go, and digesting your report. I’m really sorry you didn’t have a good time on your trip. I know the heartache of an unsuccessful, or limited success hunt and the frustration of relieving what-ifs and hindsight. It stinks.

I also think that expectations weren’t managed at all going into the process. I’ll lay this on the PH/Operator and honestly, most PHs and operators in Zim are equally guilty of this. Zim is what I consider an “advanced, method-hunting stage and sportsman-stage hunter’s paradise. (That’s using the definition from the 5 stages of a hunter as defined in the US hunter safety curriculum) I think most Zim PHs and Operators assume, occassionally incorrectly, what client expectations might be. That’s because Zimbabwe straddles the fence between the total remote experience of Tanzania and Uganda that requires no expectations management from the PH pre-sale (if you’re going there, you know what you’re getting for $100,000) versus RSA, Texas, or European Estate hunting.

What you needed to know before you went, beyond anything to do with the temperament or skill of the PH you selected, was a lot more detail about Zim. Had we spoken via phone or had beers together, I wouldn’t have recommended Zim to you period. It’s a great place, but it isn’t the place for you and that’s okay. I believe if we set up a $50,000 hunt in Zim with the top-5 PHs in the very best areas like Matetsi, Save, BVC, or Sapi you would absolutely not enjoy the experience on the best hunt in Zim ever, beyond maybe giving it a B-. That doesn’t mean you’re a disagreeable SOB or unpleasant, it is just a unique place that emphasizes certain aspects of hunting that are not high on your list.

Some rules of thumb:

-Zim charges a lot more than RSA for lower quality accommodation, roads, and professionals. It’s an inefficient marketplace laden with higher operating costs and less access to the marketplace. In RSA a ten minute drive for parts that cost $2 and the toilet flushes. In Zim, that might be 4 days and 10 guys trying to MacGyver something to make things work.

-Zim is a wilderness area. I know you think it was not wilderness, but that was wilderness. Wilderness is not game rich to your expectations. Wilderness is mostly devoid of large game numbers. That’s the consequence of nature. You go to wilderness in America and why is there piles of game there, herds of thousands? Because its managed for predators and its surrounded by millions of acres of ag land and you’re working the transition between robust, unnaturally abundant food supplies and cover/shelter. You’ve hunted RSA and you live in North America, your expectations of docile, unpressured massive amounts of game is skewed. Zim is very hard hunting and the trophies are vastly inferior in average distribution to RSA because they are natural and unmanaged. Zim is for the hunter that wants to go out looking for a dugga boy, passes on a 45” buffalo with a soft boss, and is smiling ear to ear that he shot a 12+ year old dugga boy that is a helmet head, having no horns left on the boss at all. Very much a place for a German-minded hunter where a trophy was very hard to acquire and was an animal in decline, past his prime, broomed off, and was truly the master of all he surveyed. Yes, you can get SCI gold in Zim, but the bragging rights are on the method, the difficulty, and that its natural game not selectively bred for aesthetic qualities.

-Your perception of how a hunt will go as far as what you can shoot and your right to override a PH is incompatible with Zim. The “if a leopard walks by we’ll shoot it” should have been nipped in the bud. 0% chance. ZERO. Not .0000001%, zero. What, you see a leopard walking around during daylight and you think a PH is going to say SHOOT! Never. A PH will take 5 minutes to 3 days to assess the certainty that cat has balls, is not collared, is over 4.5 years old. He’ll lose his license if he does less than that. There is no see-shoot-smile for the photo scenario. With you frustration leading to a willingness to shoot on your own terms, thank goodness you didn’t see a leopard because you’d be in prison in Zim awaiting trial along with the PH. That’s no joke. Not meaning to insult you at all, just sharing that your perception should have been stopped before you booked. Never happening, don’t even ask should have been the reply during pre-sale consultation.

-Expenses. You were unaware of the tip obligations and customs in the country. On a perfect hunt, you wouldn’t have been invited back. That isn’t because you’re a bad guy, it’s because you were wholly unaware of proper customs where you went. Same way you get asked to leave a tennis club if you show up not wearing whites.

-Drop of blood rule. You were unaware that every shot you took required heroic effort to retrieve that game, notification of authorities for every animal you shot and failed to recover, and payment of fines if those animals were not on quota. It sounds like quota in that area was reduced by 2 buffalo and 2 hippo on your hunt. IF it were even legally on quota, you need to pay about $15,000-$20,000 for that quota or you and the PH can both be charged with poaching. Your awareness of the unpleasantries of Zimbabwe prison were not communicated well do you and you were unaware how quickly things can turn bad for you. On a letter of the law basis, you stiffed Zimbabwe parks and/or campfire for a lot of money for any of those 4 animals you did not pay for in full. And the guys you failed to tip generously are the ones that get to decide whether they saw you wound game and whether you followed up with extraordinary effort to make all reasonable attempts to recover that game. None of this applies in RSA where you’re familiar with hunting.

-Pre-scouting effort. The idea of taking your best trackers and having them run off to scout for things on the first day while you get “second-tier guys” may have been a completely legitimate plan. I don’t know the circumstances as I wasn’t there, but I’m telling you that the effort to find game and juggling 3 different plots simultaneously in the hopes of getting you what you had on quota in the time allotted would be expected under most Zim hunting conditions. There is no plan to hunt in Zim sequentially, first a buffalo, then an eland, then a hippo, then a leopard. It’s a shotgun approach where everything is happening with a wide net at once hoping you can get to the opportunity when it presents. This is not like RSA where they take you from property to property for different phases of a hunt.

-Curios and shopping for two days? Zim is in total lockdown. There is no tourist activity going on. Covid numbers are out of control. The staff has to get tested every week and sequester at camp so they can serve you and prove for your safety they are not infected. They are not going to commingle with others at a market and break the covid protocols. No plan. And no PH would have let you do that because what are you going to do if you fail your PCR test leaving Zim? You’re screwed. You’re in a hellhole for two weeks without medical care before cleared to depart because you went shopping and got covid?

I’m trying to balance what might be your real concerns with the quality of your hunt or PH with the facts about Zim that you were unaware. This is not the place for you to hunt. There are more suitable hunting experiences with higher success rates and less costs that will dazzle you. Zim is about method and sportsman hunting and those are practices where you pay a fortune to be less successful, less comfortable, and more inconvenienced.

 

[Hank2211]

@rookhawk, I agree with everything you've said, with one (big) exception:

-Zim charges a lot more than RSA for lower quality accommodation, roads, and professionals.

By "professionals" I assume you mean professional hunters. The professional hunters in Zimbabwe are likely the best trained in Africa. Certainly, getting a PH license is orders of magnitude more difficult in Zimbabwe than it is in South Africa. That doesn't mean that every Zim PH is better than every RSA PH of course, but on average, the Zimbabwe PHs are, in my experience, far better trained than the average RSA PH.

I do want to emphasize one comment you made, which I don't think enough people pay attention to. "Game rich" areas of Zimbabwe (and most other African countries where hunting is 'wild' rather than on game ranches) will still have a small fraction of the game you will see on a South African game ranch. I hunted for bongo in a concession in Cameroon that was reputed to have a large number of bongo and success rates exceeding 90%. It took me 12 days to get a bongo, and in that time I only saw one other. That qualifies as 'game rich' in the jungle.

 

[rookhawk]

@rookhawk, I agree with everything you've said, with one (big) exception:


By "professionals" I assume you mean professional hunters. The professional hunters in Zimbabwe are likely the best trained in Africa. Certainly, getting a PH license is orders of magnitude more difficult in Zimbabwe than it is in South Africa. That doesn't mean that every Zim PH is better than every RSA PH of course, but on average, the Zimbabwe PHs are, in my experience, far better trained than the average RSA PH.

I do want to emphasize one comment you made, which I don't think enough people pay attention to. "Game rich" areas of Zimbabwe (and most other African countries where hunting is 'wild' rather than on game ranches) will still have a small fraction of the game you will see on a South African game ranch. I hunted for bongo in a concession in Cameroon that was reputed to have a large number of bongo and success rates exceeding 90%. It took me 12 days to get a bongo, and in that time I only saw one other. That qualifies as 'game rich' in the jungle.

Commas matter.

-Lower quality animals
-Roads (a large amount of cost to customer to manage roads done by non-Gov't for your benefit)
-Professionals (A large amount of cost to customer to support the overhead costs of years of training and licensing by the professional that ultimately must be passed on to the customer)

 

[375Fox]

@Ridge Runner I’ve read your story, commenting as we go, and digesting your report. I’m really sorry you didn’t have a good time on your trip. I know the heartache of an unsuccessful, or limited success hunt and the frustration of relieving what-ifs and hindsight. It stinks.

I also think that expectations weren’t managed at all going into the process. I’ll lay this on the PH/Operator and honestly, most PHs and operators in Zim are equally guilty of this. Zim is what I consider an “advanced, method-hunting stage and sportsman-stage hunter’s paradise. (That’s using the definition from the 5 stages of a hunter as defined in the US hunter safety curriculum) I think most Zim PHs and Operators assume, occassionally incorrectly, what client expectations might be. That’s because Zimbabwe straddles the fence between the total remote experience of Tanzania and Uganda that requires no expectations management from the PH pre-sale (if you’re going there, you know what you’re getting for $100,000) versus RSA, Texas, or European Estate hunting.

What you needed to know before you went, beyond anything to do with the temperament or skill of the PH you selected, was a lot more detail about Zim. Had we spoken via phone or had beers together, I wouldn’t have recommended Zim to you period. It’s a great place, but it isn’t the place for you and that’s okay. I believe if we set up a $50,000 hunt in Zim with the top-5 PHs in the very best areas like Matetsi, Save, BVC, or Sapi you would absolutely not enjoy the experience on the best hunt in Zim ever, beyond maybe giving it a B-. That doesn’t mean you’re a disagreeable SOB or unpleasant, it is just a unique place that emphasizes certain aspects of hunting that are not high on your list.

Some rules of thumb:

-Zim charges a lot more than RSA for lower quality accommodation, roads, and professionals. It’s an inefficient marketplace laden with higher operating costs and less access to the marketplace. In RSA a ten minute drive for parts that cost $2 and the toilet flushes. In Zim, that might be 4 days and 10 guys trying to MacGyver something to make things work.

-Zim is a wilderness area. I know you think it was not wilderness, but that was wilderness. Wilderness is not game rich to your expectations. Wilderness is mostly devoid of large game numbers. That’s the consequence of nature. You go to wilderness in America and why is there piles of game there, herds of thousands? Because its managed for predators and its surrounded by millions of acres of ag land and you’re working the transition between robust, unnaturally abundant food supplies and cover/shelter. You’ve hunted RSA and you live in North America, your expectations of docile, unpressured massive amounts of game is skewed. Zim is very hard hunting and the trophies are vastly inferior in average distribution to RSA because they are natural and unmanaged. Zim is for the hunter that wants to go out looking for a dugga boy, passes on a 45” buffalo with a soft boss, and is smiling ear to ear that he shot a 12+ year old dugga boy that is a helmet head, having no horns left on the boss at all. Very much a place for a German-minded hunter where a trophy was very hard to acquire and was an animal in decline, past his prime, broomed off, and was truly the master of all he surveyed. Yes, you can get SCI gold in Zim, but the bragging rights are on the method, the difficulty, and that its natural game not selectively bred for aesthetic qualities.

-Your perception of how a hunt will go as far as what you can shoot and your right to override a PH is incompatible with Zim. The “if a leopard walks by we’ll shoot it” should have been nipped in the bud. 0% chance. ZERO. Not .0000001%, zero. What, you see a leopard walking around during daylight and you think a PH is going to say SHOOT! Never. A PH will take 5 minutes to 3 days to assess the certainty that cat has balls, is not collared, is over 4.5 years old. He’ll lose his license if he does less than that. There is no see-shoot-smile for the photo scenario. With you frustration leading to a willingness to shoot on your own terms, thank goodness you didn’t see a leopard because you’d be in prison in Zim awaiting trial along with the PH. That’s no joke. Not meaning to insult you at all, just sharing that your perception should have been stopped before you booked. Never happening, don’t even ask should have been the reply during pre-sale consultation.

-Expenses. You were unaware of the tip obligations and customs in the country. On a perfect hunt, you wouldn’t have been invited back. That isn’t because you’re a bad guy, it’s because you were wholly unaware of proper customs where you went. Same way you get asked to leave a tennis club if you show up not wearing whites.

-Drop of blood rule. You were unaware that every shot you took required heroic effort to retrieve that game, notification of authorities for every animal you shot and failed to recover, and payment of fines if those animals were not on quota. It sounds like quota in that area was reduced by 2 buffalo and 2 hippo on your hunt. IF it were even legally on quota, you need to pay about $15,000-$20,000 for that quota or you and the PH can both be charged with poaching. Your awareness of the unpleasantries of Zimbabwe prison were not communicated well do you and you were unaware how quickly things can turn bad for you. On a letter of the law basis, you stiffed Zimbabwe parks and/or campfire for a lot of money for any of those 4 animals you did not pay for in full. And the guys you failed to tip generously are the ones that get to decide whether they saw you wound game and whether you followed up with extraordinary effort to make all reasonable attempts to recover that game. None of this applies in RSA where you’re familiar with hunting.

-Pre-scouting effort. The idea of taking your best trackers and having them run off to scout for things on the first day while you get “second-tier guys” may have been a completely legitimate plan. I don’t know the circumstances as I wasn’t there, but I’m telling you that the effort to find game and juggling 3 different plots simultaneously in the hopes of getting you what you had on quota in the time allotted would be expected under most Zim hunting conditions. There is no plan to hunt in Zim sequentially, first a buffalo, then an eland, then a hippo, then a leopard. It’s a shotgun approach where everything is happening with a wide net at once hoping you can get to the opportunity when it presents. This is not like RSA where they take you from property to property for different phases of a hunt.

-Curios and shopping for two days? Zim is in total lockdown. There is no tourist activity going on. Covid numbers are out of control. The staff has to get tested every week and sequester at camp so they can serve you and prove for your safety they are not infected. They are not going to commingle with others at a market and break the covid protocols. No plan. And no PH would have let you do that because what are you going to do if you fail your PCR test leaving Zim? You’re screwed. You’re in a hellhole for two weeks without medical care before cleared to depart because you went shopping and got covid?

I’m trying to balance what might be your real concerns with the quality of your hunt or PH with the facts about Zim that you were unaware. This is not the place for you to hunt. There are more suitable hunting experiences with higher success rates and less costs that will dazzle you. Zim is about method and sportsman hunting and those are practices where you pay a fortune to be less successful, less comfortable, and more inconvenienced.

This critique is really interesting to me. I have one question though, why do you feel someone wouldn’t enjoy hunting in BVC or Save? My understanding is they have high plains game (and dangerous game) populations so you will see a lot of animals compared to a concession area?
One thing on your discussion of wilderness areas. I think it’s important to recognize bush meat poaching as a huge contributor to low game numbers in wilderness areas, particularly community areas. Some outfitters are actively trying to better their areas anti-poaching, bore holes, roads while others are just there to take from the area until it’s no longer profitable and the game is no longer there. From this hunt report, this outfitter/PH definitely appears to be the latter if he’s willing to leave wounded animals in the field and continue hunting. I think it’s really important to recognize this difference. I know you understand, but feel this needs added for a full discussion.

 

[WAB]

You guys make important and valid points. Game numbers in true wilderness are never what they are in managed areas. Having grown up in Canada and spent much of my adult life in WY and AK, I would contend that the only true wilderness left in NA is Northern Canada and Alaska. Other areas may be so designated, but just dont have the same degree of isolation. Hunts in these areas share many characteristics with remote areas of Africa; difficult, potentially dangerous, lower game density, expensive if guided, etc.. The challenges and rewards of these areas do not appeal to everyone.

 

[Hank2211]

Commas matter.

-Lower quality animals
-Roads (a large amount of cost to customer to manage roads done by non-Gov't for your benefit)
-Professionals (A large amount of cost to customer to support the overhead costs of years of training and licensing by the professional that ultimately must be passed on to the customer)

Not sure I understand what you're saying.

If the issue is one of grammar, and you're suggesting that 'lower quality' only applies to 'animals,' then I have to disagree, but only grammatically. In a list of things separated by commas, the descriptors at the beginning will modify all of the words in the list, unless you add new descriptors before new items in the list (and even then, it might be unclear).

If you meant only to modify animals with lower quality, I think my English teacher would have suggested you re-write the sentence.

Having said that, I will argue with you as well about the 'lower quality' of the animals! Lesser (not lower!) quantity, for sure, but not lower quality (as you yourself point out!)!

 

[mark-hunter]

5 stages of a hunter as defined in the US hunter safety curriculum

Rookhawk, can you let me know about this 5 stages of a hunter? Being from Europe, first time I hear it.
Thanks

 

[rookhawk]

This critique is really interesting to me. I have one question though, why do you feel someone wouldn’t enjoy hunting in BVC or Save? My understanding is they have high plains game (and dangerous game) populations so you will see a lot of animals compared to a concession area?
One thing on your discussion of wilderness areas. I think it’s important to recognize bush meat poaching as a huge contributor to low game numbers in wilderness areas, particularly community areas. Some outfitters are actively trying to better their areas anti-poaching, bore holes, roads while others are just there to take from the area until it’s no longer profitable and the game is no longer there. From this hunt report, this outfitter/PH definitely appears to be the latter if he’s willing to leave wounded animals in the field and continue hunting. I think it’s really important to recognize this difference. I know you understand, but feel this needs added for a full discussion.

One of the best PHs in Zim, a minor celebrity, I believe hunted Save for the past couple years and hadn't got a lion for a client. It's zim. It's all very hard hunting. Having an agenda that reads "we'll get the buffalo by day 4 and then we'll get the Eland on day 6 and then we'll hunt hippo for 3 days" sort of scenarios does not compute.

Most of Zim is wilderness (nice way to say wasteland to the non-conservationist) where you're reliant upon rains (or lack thereof) or crops (or lack thereof) to create migrations, or temporary holding points, or some other phenomenon to all for the presence of game. I've been to Zim where there was TONS of game the week before I arrived as evidenced by the skinning shed overflowing and the rains started 3 days before my arrival and there was little game left but I was successful, the client that followed after me saw nothing of the species he was hunting until the 12th or 13th day. That wasn't the PH's fault, it was the rain gods.

You just don't deal with those scenarios Elk hunting in America. You can pretty much set a watch to things and be pretty confident you'll either be in great numbers or mediocre numbers at that location in that month of the year. Same in RSA, its all still in fences, even if really big fences, you can predict with great accuracy if they are going to be there or not.

For the poor fellow that wrote his report here, the other factor was this has been the best year for rain in modern Zim history. He came to hunt very, very early in the year. The fact he said he saw next to nothing could still in theory correlate to an Eland every square mile and still never see it. Same place in July/August and if the game numbers stay the same, he'd see easily 5x more of what he drove past on his current trip. Again, these are things you need to know when you go to Zim. You're not sitting at a borehole that pumps 365 days a year where the trailcam reveals with certainty these particular animals frequent here every-other day.

 

[Hank2211]

This critique is really interesting to me. I have one question though, why do you feel someone wouldn’t enjoy hunting in BVC or Save? My understanding is they have high plains game (and dangerous game) populations so you will see a lot of animals compared to a concession area?
One thing on your discussion of wilderness areas. I think it’s important to recognize bush meat poaching as a huge contributor to low game numbers in wilderness areas, particularly community areas. Some outfitters are actively trying to better their areas anti-poaching, bore holes, roads while others are just there to take from the area until it’s no longer profitable and the game is no longer there. From this hunt report, this outfitter/PH definitely appears to be the latter if he’s willing to leave wounded animals in the field and continue hunting. I think it’s really important to recognize this difference. I know you understand, but feel this needs added for a full discussion.

I've hunted Bubye, and you're right. You will generally see game numbers which rival those found in many parts of South Africa. Quality, defined only as trophy size, may not be as good, since the animals are not bred and managed in that way, as is often the case in South Africa, but since there are so many animals, you can generally find the size you want if you work at it and take your time.

 

[rookhawk]

Not sure I understand what you're saying.

If the issue is one of grammar, and you're suggesting that 'lower quality' only applies to 'animals,' then I have to disagree, but only grammatically. In a list of things separated by commas, the descriptors at the beginning will modify all of the words in the list, unless you add new descriptors before new items in the list (and even then, it might be unclear).

If you meant only to modify animals with lower quality, I think my English teacher would have suggested you re-write the sentence.

Having said that, I will argue with you as well about the 'lower quality' of the animals! Lesser (not lower!) quantity, for sure, but not lower quality (as you yourself point out!)!

I'll concede your critique of my grammar. I'll contend zim has lower quality animals. I pay extra for that "feature". Zim animals are not bred for SCI record book standards. Beyond the fact they have natural amounts of animals for natural food sources (less animals) they also have lower quality animals by distribution for the sheer fact they are not culling the duds and line-breeding the studs. It's wild. There is no $11,000,000 54" stud buffalo servicing 100 buffalo cows. When you get an SCI gold in Zim (and you do) it is a rare occurance, one that could be repeated 50 times in an afternoon on the right ranch in RSA.

 

[Hank2211]

I'll concede your critique of my grammar. I'll contend zim has lower quality animals. I pay extra for that "feature". Zim animals are not bred for SCI record book standards. Beyond the fact they have natural amounts of animals for natural food sources (less animals) they also have lower quality animals by distribution for the sheer fact they are not culling the duds and line-breeding the studs. It's wild. There is no $11,000,000 54" stud buffalo servicing 100 buffalo cows. When you get an SCI gold in Zim (and you do) it is a rare occurance, one that could be repeated 50 times in an afternoon on the right ranch in RSA.

I don't disagree again on your description of the animals in both countries. It all comes down to your definition of quality, and I think you and I are on the same page here.

I'd rather take a scrum cap in Zimbabwe (as I have) than a 43" in South Africa (as I have). I thought the scrum cap had more 'quality' for being not only entirely a product of nature without (active) human involvement, but it was an old warrior which had survived for more than a decade by its wits.

Oh, and it was a much harder hunt. So a win on all counts!

Now I will leave this alone and get back to the hunt report! Apologies to @Ridge Runner for the brief interlude.

 

[mark-hunter]

You're not sitting at a borehole that pumps 365 days a year where the trailcam reveals with certainty these particular animals frequent here every-other day.

Is there any reason in particular, why an oufitter in Zimbabwe would not have a borehole, maintain a waterhole year round, (and have more then one of them, if necessary) have a trail camera there, keep animals therritorial around with that water, and keep track and records of animals in that area. Photos can be provided to client in advance, and hunt can be done with more success.

I am not saying to shoot on the waterhole, but this is one way of managing hunting area.

Morevoer, meat poaching - is present and undeniable, it is an issue, and an oufitter could also have antipoaching patrols organised. Is there a reason why not to maintain antipoaching efforts?

If we are talking of CAMPFIRE areas. Are they then in anyway managed in that way to protect and keep wildlife in numbers, (like with having a borhole) or for lack of any managment by outfitter or tribal community, excuse is to have "true and unspoiled wilderness", mixed with local cattle and meat poaching on plains game species?

 

[375Fox]

Is there any reason in particular, why an oufitter in Zimbabwe would not have a borehole, maintain a waterhole year round, (and have more then one of them, if necessary) have a trail camera there, keep animals therritorial around with that water, and keep track and records of animals in that area. Photos can be provided to client in advance, and hunt can be done with more success.

I am not saying to shoot on the waterhole, but this is one way of managing hunting area.

Morevoer, meat poaching - is present and undeniable, it is an issue, and an oufitter could also have antipoaching patrols organised. Is there a reason why not to maintain antipoaching efforts?

If we are talking of CAMPFIRE areas. Are they then in anyway managed in that way to protect and keep wildlife in numbers, (like with having a borhole) or for lack of any managment by outfitter or tribal community, excuse is to have "true and unspoiled wilderness", mixed with local cattle and meat poaching on plains game species?

It all goes back to money. Not all outfitters have long term leases on areas. Tough to justify expense with less than a 10 year lease. If you put money in and improve area someone can just outbid you after improving area. Many outfitters just buy quota from concession holders that are operating as businessmen too, no real control of area. I think I was told a new bore hole in Namibia was around $15k, so assuming more in Zimbabwe. Then you’ll have to pay an attendant to maintain it and not get the pump stolen. For anti-poaching take a look at charlton mccallum safaris website and you can see the cost for proper anti-poaching. They document it very thoroughly and put out reports with expenses and where money came from.

Unfortunately there are also outfitters that exist for no other reason than to take everything from area and walk away once there isn’t any more money to make. No intention of ever bettering an area. Just minimal money in and maximum money out.

 

[mark-hunter]

@375Fox
Thanks for explaining and confirming my thoughts.

I wonder what was the true case here. I have true simphaty for OP. and his bad experiences in this hunt.

 

[rookhawk]

Is there any reason in particular, why an oufitter in Zimbabwe would not have a borehole, maintain a waterhole year round, (and have more then one of them, if necessary) have a trail camera there, keep animals therritorial around with that water, and keep track and records of animals in that area. Photos can be provided to client in advance, and hunt can be done with more success.

If you build a bore-hole, it runs $18,000 each. First thing that happens is the natives steal your solar panels. Then after you make it nice enough, it goes up for tender and a corrupt politician ensures you lose the bid. Thus, some corrupt crony gets control of the area. They then exploit it, kill all the game, steal all the stuff, and then you win it back at tender and spend 5 years rebuilding it readying it for hunting again. Then you lose it at the next bid tender and the process continues.

I am not saying to shoot on the waterhole, but this is one way of managing hunting area.

Morevoer, meat poaching - is present and undeniable, it is an issue, and an oufitter could also have antipoaching patrols organised. Is there a reason why not to maintain antipoaching efforts?

They all do, or at least most of them. Tens of thousands spent per year on vehicles and supplies to send out anti-poaching units. Pretty hard to fund on $20,000 elephant hunts today, was pretty hard to fund when they were $65,000 four years ago. Covid killed the market for the past year and they are suffering trying to manage the lands while

If we are talking of CAMPFIRE areas. Are they then in anyway managed in that way to protect and keep wildlife in numbers, (like with having a borhole) or for lack of any managment by outfitter or tribal community, excuse is to have "true and unspoiled wilderness", mixed with local cattle and meat poaching on plains game species?

Campfire is the owner of the land. The concession lease is given to the highest bidder that will manage the land. The quota is then paid to Campfire. So the operator pays to win permission to spend tons of money to create quality game to then pay to campfire. If an operator does this very well, campfire will sell the lease to someone else for more money so they can deplete the land with no expenses, pocket it all, and run off leaving it desolate.

 

[Tanks]

@Ridge Runner ...

What you needed to know before you went, beyond anything to do with the temperament or skill of the PH you selected, was a lot more detail about Zim. Had we spoken via phone or had beers together, I wouldn’t have recommended Zim to you period. It’s a great place, but it isn’t the place for you and that’s okay. I believe if we set up a $50,000 hunt in Zim with the top-5 PHs in the very best areas like Matetsi, Save, BVC, or Sapi you would absolutely not enjoy the experience on the best hunt in Zim ever, beyond maybe giving it a B-. That doesn’t mean you’re a disagreeable SOB or unpleasant, it is just a unique place that emphasizes certain aspects of hunting that are not high on your list.

Some rules of thumb:

-Zim charges a lot more than RSA for lower quality accommodation, roads, and professionals. It’s an inefficient marketplace laden with higher operating costs and less access to the marketplace. In RSA a ten minute drive for parts that cost $2 and the toilet flushes. In Zim, that might be 4 days and 10 guys trying to MacGyver something to make things work.

...

-Expenses. You were unaware of the tip obligations and customs in the country. On a perfect hunt, you wouldn’t have been invited back. That isn’t because you’re a bad guy, it’s because you were wholly unaware of proper customs where you went. Same way you get asked to leave a tennis club if you show up not wearing whites.

-Drop of blood rule. You were unaware that every shot you took required heroic effort to retrieve that game, notification of authorities for every animal you shot and failed to recover, and payment of fines if those animals were not on quota. ...

I’m trying to balance what might be your real concerns with the quality of your hunt or PH with the facts about Zim that you were unaware. This is not the place for you to hunt. There are more suitable hunting experiences with higher success rates and less costs that will dazzle you. Zim is about method and sportsman hunting and those are practices where you pay a fortune to be less successful, less comfortable, and more inconvenienced.

A few things from above as I am about to head for Zim in 5 weeks or so and stay for a 21 day hunt with CM Safaris at Zambezi valley.

I don't understand why he would have had a B- experience if he was at one of the best places in Zim. Heck, I have been to Save and it is very nice.

Lower accommodations for sure in Zim, at least in my experience. I think I have posted a pic of a bucket shower in a previous post. I got woken up at 4:30AM with a cup of coffee and a bucket of boiling water where they lower the bucket in the bathroom with a gardening spigot on, it fill it and move it back up. Better be quick before the water cools off. That being said, I have been less in less comfortable accommodations on Stateside bear camps than even the worse camp in Zim (just a tent, no showers, bush for bathroom, no daily laundry, no hot water, field rations, no power etc., etc.).

I agree with the tipping. Heck, I definitely tipped the game scout, after all he was the one that decreed one of the elephants I shot was self defense (it was a charge) , so I got a free elephant.

In regards to wounded animals I am also surprised he was not made to pay for them. The one comment PH made in regards to the "sick animal" being chased down later makes me believe the PH was being real nice. Saved the hunter a lot of money and he did deserve a good tip as well as the game scout who went along with the story.

The one thing from the story I was surprised about was the long lunch breaks. In my previous hunts we had sandwiches for lunch and kept looking for tracks. I even explained to the camp cook how to make egg sandwiches with bacon instead of just cold cuts. Wrapped in foil they are still warm for lunch.

One thing in regards to the menu of animals is that one can not get it all. It is not RSA.

 

[revturbo9967]

@Ridge Runner I’ve read your story, commenting as we go, and digesting your report. I’m really sorry you didn’t have a good time on your trip. I know the heartache of an unsuccessful, or limited success hunt and the frustration of relieving what-ifs and hindsight. It stinks.

I also think that expectations weren’t managed at all going into the process. I’ll lay this on the PH/Operator and honestly, most PHs and operators in Zim are equally guilty of this. Zim is what I consider an “advanced, method-hunting stage and sportsman-stage hunter’s paradise. (That’s using the definition from the 5 stages of a hunter as defined in the US hunter safety curriculum) I think most Zim PHs and Operators assume, occassionally incorrectly, what client expectations might be. That’s because Zimbabwe straddles the fence between the total remote experience of Tanzania and Uganda that requires no expectations management from the PH pre-sale (if you’re going there, you know what you’re getting for $100,000) versus RSA, Texas, or European Estate hunting.

What you needed to know before you went, beyond anything to do with the temperament or skill of the PH you selected, was a lot more detail about Zim. Had we spoken via phone or had beers together, I wouldn’t have recommended Zim to you period. It’s a great place, but it isn’t the place for you and that’s okay. I believe if we set up a $50,000 hunt in Zim with the top-5 PHs in the very best areas like Matetsi, Save, BVC, or Sapi you would absolutely not enjoy the experience on the best hunt in Zim ever, beyond maybe giving it a B-. That doesn’t mean you’re a disagreeable SOB or unpleasant, it is just a unique place that emphasizes certain aspects of hunting that are not high on your list.

Some rules of thumb:

-Zim charges a lot more than RSA for lower quality accommodation, roads, and professionals. It’s an inefficient marketplace laden with higher operating costs and less access to the marketplace. In RSA a ten minute drive for parts that cost $2 and the toilet flushes. In Zim, that might be 4 days and 10 guys trying to MacGyver something to make things work.

-Zim is a wilderness area. I know you think it was not wilderness, but that was wilderness. Wilderness is not game rich to your expectations. Wilderness is mostly devoid of large game numbers. That’s the consequence of nature. You go to wilderness in America and why is there piles of game there, herds of thousands? Because its managed for predators and its surrounded by millions of acres of ag land and you’re working the transition between robust, unnaturally abundant food supplies and cover/shelter. You’ve hunted RSA and you live in North America, your expectations of docile, unpressured massive amounts of game is skewed. Zim is very hard hunting and the trophies are vastly inferior in average distribution to RSA because they are natural and unmanaged. Zim is for the hunter that wants to go out looking for a dugga boy, passes on a 45” buffalo with a soft boss, and is smiling ear to ear that he shot a 12+ year old dugga boy that is a helmet head, having no horns left on the boss at all. Very much a place for a German-minded hunter where a trophy was very hard to acquire and was an animal in decline, past his prime, broomed off, and was truly the master of all he surveyed. Yes, you can get SCI gold in Zim, but the bragging rights are on the method, the difficulty, and that its natural game not selectively bred for aesthetic qualities.

-Your perception of how a hunt will go as far as what you can shoot and your right to override a PH is incompatible with Zim. The “if a leopard walks by we’ll shoot it” should have been nipped in the bud. 0% chance. ZERO. Not .0000001%, zero. What, you see a leopard walking around during daylight and you think a PH is going to say SHOOT! Never. A PH will take 5 minutes to 3 days to assess the certainty that cat has balls, is not collared, is over 4.5 years old. He’ll lose his license if he does less than that. There is no see-shoot-smile for the photo scenario. With you frustration leading to a willingness to shoot on your own terms, thank goodness you didn’t see a leopard because you’d be in prison in Zim awaiting trial along with the PH. That’s no joke. Not meaning to insult you at all, just sharing that your perception should have been stopped before you booked. Never happening, don’t even ask should have been the reply during pre-sale consultation.

-Expenses. You were unaware of the tip obligations and customs in the country. On a perfect hunt, you wouldn’t have been invited back. That isn’t because you’re a bad guy, it’s because you were wholly unaware of proper customs where you went. Same way you get asked to leave a tennis club if you show up not wearing whites.

-Drop of blood rule. You were unaware that every shot you took required heroic effort to retrieve that game, notification of authorities for every animal you shot and failed to recover, and payment of fines if those animals were not on quota. It sounds like quota in that area was reduced by 2 buffalo and 2 hippo on your hunt. IF it were even legally on quota, you need to pay about $15,000-$20,000 for that quota or you and the PH can both be charged with poaching. Your awareness of the unpleasantries of Zimbabwe prison were not communicated well do you and you were unaware how quickly things can turn bad for you. On a letter of the law basis, you stiffed Zimbabwe parks and/or campfire for a lot of money for any of those 4 animals you did not pay for in full. And the guys you failed to tip generously are the ones that get to decide whether they saw you wound game and whether you followed up with extraordinary effort to make all reasonable attempts to recover that game. None of this applies in RSA where you’re familiar with hunting.

-Pre-scouting effort. The idea of taking your best trackers and having them run off to scout for things on the first day while you get “second-tier guys” may have been a completely legitimate plan. I don’t know the circumstances as I wasn’t there, but I’m telling you that the effort to find game and juggling 3 different plots simultaneously in the hopes of getting you what you had on quota in the time allotted would be expected under most Zim hunting conditions. There is no plan to hunt in Zim sequentially, first a buffalo, then an eland, then a hippo, then a leopard. It’s a shotgun approach where everything is happening with a wide net at once hoping you can get to the opportunity when it presents. This is not like RSA where they take you from property to property for different phases of a hunt.

-Curios and shopping for two days? Zim is in total lockdown. There is no tourist activity going on. Covid numbers are out of control. The staff has to get tested every week and sequester at camp so they can serve you and prove for your safety they are not infected. They are not going to commingle with others at a market and break the covid protocols. No plan. And no PH would have let you do that because what are you going to do if you fail your PCR test leaving Zim? You’re screwed. You’re in a hellhole for two weeks without medical care before cleared to depart because you went shopping and got covid?

I’m trying to balance what might be your real concerns with the quality of your hunt or PH with the facts about Zim that you were unaware. This is not the place for you to hunt. There are more suitable hunting experiences with higher success rates and less costs that will dazzle you. Zim is about method and sportsman hunting and those are practices where you pay a fortune to be less successful, less comfortable, and more inconvenienced.

Even though this is somewhat directed at the OP, I believe there is some really good information in this post. I think this would be a great write up in a sense for anyone whos never hunted in a wilderness area and have expectations like RSA. I've been spending the last 2 months reading and asking questions about hunting in ZIM, with much of the information lined up with what is said in this post.

 

[mark-hunter]

@rookhawk
Thanks for reply!