ZIMBABWE: 12 Days In Zimbabwe With Shangani Safaris

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. :D

One thing in regards to the menu of animals is that one can not get it all. It is not RSA.
I am jealous! We hunted Dande with CMS for buffalo. Len Taylor was our PH and it was one of the best safaris we've had. I would like to go back and hunt Nyakasanga for leopard and buffalo.
 
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.

No apology needed Hank2211.

I had to take a break to get some stuff done around the house. I'm still am trying to put gear away, get clothes washed, cook meals, etc. all the while trying to keep the house relatively clean and picked up.
 
I think we can all agree it takes two to tango, both client and outfitter make mistakes, I know I have as the client done things either stupid or at least uncalled for, rude, overly assertive etc. It happens.
As some might recall I hunted Zim about 10 years ago, 2nd time, and gave the hunt a big thumbs down in most respects.
I found out after the fact that a large party had been there just before me and shot the hell out of the place and it was obvious as game was quite scarce on the 20000 acre property. The main quarry was eland and the only ones we saw were on day one, a herd of cows and calves and that was it.
Saw two kudu bulls, a few waterbuck, and I did take a very average one, some wildebeest, took a fair one and that was all I got on a 10 day hunt, pretty disappointing.
It was pointed out by the outfitter later by email, that my expectations were incorrect as to terrain, hunting etc., and that I should probably stick with the flat open plains lands of Botswana and Tanzania, where the hunting is easy.
Its true in that much of the hunting was done by climbing giant rocks for lookouts. Sometimes by vehicle often by foot. I was not prepared for this.
I was in pretty good shape for the hunt but had not done any rock climbing for prep, and about the second or third day there, my calves were toast! I could barely walk, let along climb any more mountains, so when told, here we go again, I balked and said emphatically not me, I aint playing mountain goat anymore! Pretty sure much of my problem might have been one of dehydration, not good for the muscles! I was also suffering from a horrible upper respiratory infection, that I brought with me. In fact it was about a month after returning home I wound up in the hospital with what they said was viral pericarditis, inflammation of the sac around the heart, pretty nasty thing to have and uncommon.

At the time I felt totally justified and indignant about the whole thing. In retrospect it could have been handled better by me.
So I for one pretty much sympathize with RR and feel his disappointment in the hunt. Many things sound just plain FUBAR about it and I dont blame him being unhappy with it, it surely did not meet his expectations.
Could he have done things to make it any better? Maybe. Thats between him and time which tends to soften anger and make it easier to forget about the bad parts or just forget it about entirely like I have pretty much put that hunt of mine into the mental scrapheap of history and very rarely even think about it.
Just my two cents worth, probably worth no more than that.
 
My first 2 safaris were in Zim, to me game was every where, (coming from Canada), I loved the bucket shower when elephants dug up the well pipe, food was what I shot and sudza, people were absolutely AWESOME, and overall hunts were outstanding. I say hunts as that's what I expected and got. Then Namibia was also great, overflowing with game, like a zoo or TV shows. Cannot wait for this summers SA hunt.

I am sorry OP's Zim hunt was not as expected. Great lessons learned for the next one, also great info from all posters on this thread for all future safari hunters. Education is our friend.

MB
 
@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.

rookhawk,

I was expecting/looking forward to a "roughing it" type camp. Unfortunately it was a rough lodge type camp, relatively speaking, but not what I had anticipated. Leopard was mentioned as a possibility of coming across one while in search of buff or eland, that leopard traveled in this area. Thus leopard was only wishful ?hopeful of seeing for photo'ing more than shooting. Strangers things have happened to me in the woods/field.

For me souvenir shopping means trading "trinkets" and cash with the local villagers, and maybe for certain items for my friends back home. So called Covid protocols were relatively lax...like not being followed....by locals, anyone in the hunting party.....only in certain areas and sometimes at police check points.

Sightseeing, photographing the area, the people, other animals, is part of my trips, as a reminder of where I was and the things I saw, and the land/terrain/vegetation everything that leads credit to the hunt and place.

My main concerns with this Zim hunt are:

PH knowing at the start this hunt is:

for 10 days. it had already been discussed that 4 maybe 5 days for a buff would be sufficient and an eland could be hunted in 3 or 4 days. Thus I had no reason to add more days for Zim.

for buff and L. eland; PH knowing from the start eland are not in this "camp" area.

sending off the better trackers to scout hippo and croc that were not on my primary list.
inexperienced trackers guessing which the buff went and the tribal scout having to put them back on the track and ending the hunt early because the trackers couldn't tell which way the buff went. which happened quiet frequently.

"they're {the buff} close" and running after after them crashing through the brush, pushing the animals further from us or in at least the one case moving so fast that we almost went past the buff. like we are out to run them down and stab the buff instead of shooting them.

the lack of other game in the area.

the buff we killed has 2 notches in it's left ear. indicating not a free range animal but a (maybe once) stocked animal. If I am hunting a stocked animal I would like to at least know I am, like in RSA where it is more obvious.

And Most of All the PH's unwillingness to continue the hunt for a wounded buff (x 2). I'll reiterate this: I'm Not going looking for trouble, but a wounded animal DG or PG needs to be properly followed up and killed quickly and humanely! We are in a high electrified fence area, so how do the animals travel back and forth to the park on the other side of the fence(?); better the client pay for a second buff.

like I am suppose to be impressed by the PH and trackers judging old and fresh sh't, the obvious "the buff were bedded down here", pointing out "broken" branches old and fresh when we are on an old track or a fresh track respectively.

PH not taking sufficient time judging the hippo as a cow instead of a bull. Even with the mitigating circumstances as in my report.

let's hypothetically say I got my buff on the first or second day and my eland on the third or for day. That leaves six days; Lloyd had already had reports of a big croc and a good hippo in/around "the river" and their location. The 1 or 2 days of photo'ing/videoing and meeting some of the locals should be plenty of time to verify where the crocs and hippos are and my choice having only 2 days remaining would have been for a 10 to 12 foot croc to either full body mount or floor mount. I don't have a warehouse size trophy room for a 13+ foot full body mount or floor mount croc.

No offense meant toward tape measure hunters, However
As for gold metal animals, when I start hunting with a tape measure I need to quit hunting. I only hunt for food and the enjoyment of being outdoors.
 
Did you pay for 2 buffalo and two hippo?
 
Hunting Day 10/ Zim Day 11: continued and Day 12 departue day

we made it to the clinic before close of business and it only took about 10 minutes, mostly to fill out the paperwork, to get my covid test. Then we headed on the 2 hour drive to Lloyd and Sabine's home where I would overnight, and Lloyd and I would meet up with Darlington early, around 4:30-5:00a, to pick up my covid test results then Darlington and I would continue on the 5 hour trip to Harare airport.

I had intended to provide more details of events but all I would be doing is more reiteration of previous responses to other's threads.

This was a bad hunt and experience I would just as soon chalk up to a lesson learned.
 
Hi @Ridge Runner

Thanks for your reply and having the cahones to come forward and share a trip report. As you know, everybody makes mistakes and to share your frustrations with “theirs” while admitting to ”yours” Is admirable.

What I’d take away from this is you need to drink more beer. A lot of this could have been avoided with a few beers. A beer with members of this forum could have helped you vet a PH and Operator. A beer with me could have helped you understand some of the things you wrote were 100% protocol or 100% within the realm of what must happen in Zim. It’s a strange foreign place for everyone and its one of the most difficult places in the world to describe to others. (Cuba being another place hard to define until you actually see it in person)

If you want to keep a tally on the things that were misunderstood, here’s a go at a response.

-Roughing it type camp versus roughing it type lodge camp. There are a handful of super-elite lodges in Zim that look like the average lodge in the RSA. Someone needed to explain that to you. Will it be spotlessly swept and the linens shimmering white? Yes. That’s in your PH and Operator’s control. Will the camp be shiny? No, not in Zim. If they paint the whole camp and get everything “just perfect” they will get that lodge seized. There is a politician behind every bush waiting to seize land, deny a lease renewal, and give it to their buddy. Keep in mind they do nothing with it, but they still do covet free shiny camps. If you were anticipating a “Fly Camp” those are very cool too. Those exist in Zim, particularly in the national park jurisdiction safari areas like Sapi, Tuli, Chewore, Nyakasanga, etc. Someone needed to pour you a beer and explain what you were going to be in for before you went. A fly camp costs a lot more and is even more rustic but the logistics of bringing in a fly camp and taking it down when you leave means a week+ of work on both ends of a hunt that must be priced in.

-While I’ve not been everywhere in Zim, I’ve been to a lot of provinces. (I think I’ve only missed the Eastern Highlands?) Tribal trinket shopping isn’t something I’ve seen. You have to be well off to possess trinkets and you have to have enough clients to justify setting up shop to sell trinkets. There was no plan for buying trinkets in the bush or the campfire villages. Closest I’ve seen is I stopped a guy on the dirt road and bartered for an axe once. There are bazaars in Vic Falls and there is a big tourist curio shop in Bulawayo that is somewhat legendary, and then there are Collettes and TCI taxidermy that sell samples, TAG safari shirts, and the Courtney Boot Factory. You weren’t near any of these things by a factor of 100s of kilometers. Again, a beer would have set expectations differently for you there.

-Hunting leopard we covered earlier. 0.00000000% Zero chance of killing a leopard on your hunt. The plot wasn’t there. Snapping a picture of a leopard? It sure could happen. My son saw one I believe and I saw one years ago during daylight strolling about. Fast enough for a camera shot? 1%-5%? Had you wanted to “dabble” in leopard you would have been paying another grand of $1500 just for baits. And trust me, from the scenarios you did not like on your trip, a leopard hunt would have made you totally miserable. A leopard hunt is the world’s biggest cluster-f. One minute you’re on the trail of that Eland you want and a radio crackle comes through that a leopard has fed (with the better trackers checking it out for you so you can hunt other stuff) and you drop everything to go check it out. The PH analyzes the video/photo and tells you its a cub, young male, or a female and you just blew the afternoon. Or he’s unsure and you better sit that whole night and next night to see if it comes back. Leopard hunting is worse than duck hunting, dozens of hours of catastrophe and utter boredom punctuated by a few seconds of pandemonium and exhilaration. Chasing leopards is a great way to blow the entire productivity of all other hunting efforts as you yo-yo back and forth trying to take a try at Mr. Spots.

-4-5 days to hunt a buffalo. Again, a beer would have helped. I know of no place in Zim where you can guarantee a buffalo in 4-5 days. Maybe in Save or some place like that, but it is hard hunting and they are elusive creatures. You can aspire to 4-5 days. A PH can tell you truthfully 80% of his clients get a buffalo in 5 days. But no guarantees. Had you got a buffalo, it could very well have been likely that you’d pickup and go after eland down the road 3 hours and pitch another camp. That’s pretty realistic if a PH is trying to get you the things on your list, but that should have been explained to you. Just an opinion here, but I find checklists in Zim to be heartbreaking things. The road to happiness in Zim is a good PH with lots of varied quota and a pocketful of cash. “Let’s hunt until I run out of time or money“ is the winnable game. That’s why I always tell people to book an elephant and a leopard hunt together, or a buffalo and a leopard, or multi-species plains game. So when you only get half your list you still got half a list! In your case you went for two animals and didn’t get those two animals. I did that once. I was as miserable as you can imagine as the hunting sucked and I was none too forgiving with the nonsense of the PH on that trip. I had too much idle time to notice every dumb thing he did because I wasn’t having fun or chasing game.

-You didn’t have enough time. Getting to Zim is so darned expensive and “being in Zim” is so darned cheap, I would have told you to stay 14 days in camp, 20 days away from home, unless it would cause you to lose your job or get divorced. The cost differential for another 6 days at camp is peanuts.

-trackers splitting off to check out hippos and crocs for you. 50/50 call. Not wrong. Not right. Totally situational. I wager they were trying to string together other hunting options and ideally make you happy with 4 animals instead of 2. It’s pretty common practice to try and make a happy customer. It backfired.

-competent trackers. 100% correct if they were not skilled. With 90% unemployment in Zim there are plenty of wonderful trackers out there. I’ve even seen PHs offer other PHs additional trackers so the guys can get ration, maybe make a tip, and help out another team. These PHs want guys to be able to work and the fact you weren’t afforded good trackers is unfortunate.

-Not following up a buffalo. 100% you are correct. Unacceptable. Could be very bad for everybody involved.

-Buffalo with two holes in its ear meaning it was a pen raised animal. In Zim? I think the odds have to be close to zero. I don’t believe it. In RSA? Sure. To have a tag in its ear it means it has to have been bred and managed. That costs tons of money that Zim doesn’t have and let me tell you for sure, transferring stock between concessions in Zim is nearly impossible. The bureaucracy involved in doing so is about the same as building a nuclear power plant in the USA. Buffalo have holes and torn bits all over their ears. I can’t believe this theory unless a Zim native tells me this is actually in the realm of possibility.

-Two days remaining to find a 12’ croc. At any beer summit the AH friends would have told you this is no plan. No plan. Finding a croc isn’t enough. The second they see you they scoot right in the water. You need to find 25 crocs 12’ long to make a stalk inside shooting range for a brain shot on a croc in this manner. Great way to mess around for 14 days. Alternatively, you can set up baits and build blinds to ambush a croc that has habituated to the bait. Setting the bait up and reviewing camera footage for multiple blind/baits is a many day effort. No plan.

For all these reasons, even if we take the issues above that were out of the realms of acceptable PH behavior if true, this still doesn’t add up. (Being diplomatic here, not trying to insult) You went on a hunt that I know from your requirements you were going to hate on the best of days with the best of outcomes. Your expectations of Zim are not correct. You would have been much happier in RSA. You needed a case of beer with experienced Zim hunters and a two hour consult with a top booking agent to get your requirements mapped out that didn’t happen. A darned shame, excluding the misfortune of your hunting debacle this just wasn’t the right venue and no one told you.



 
I want to join with a few others and really thank @Ridge Runner for posting this report, and being so honest and forthright in his description of what happened. And - this is a big one - for not getting pissed when people started questioning him and what happened. A lot of those who post critical reports get pretty irate - or just pout ("I'll never post again") when others suggest it might be at least partly their own fault. None of that here.

Reading hunt reports is generally pretty interesting, but personally, I have no doubt you learn more from negative reports than from positive ones. Just reading @rookhawk 's posts provides a pretty complete summary of hunting in Zimbabwe. And I've been there 6 or 7 times.
 
I want to join with a few others and really thank @Ridge Runner for posting this report, and being so honest and forthright in his description of what happened. And - this is a big one - for not getting pissed when people started questioning him and what happened. A lot of those who post critical reports get pretty irate - or just pout ("I'll never post again") when others suggest it might be at least partly their own fault. None of that here.

Reading hunt reports is generally pretty interesting, but personally, I have no doubt you learn more from negative reports than from positive ones. Just reading @rookhawk 's posts provides a pretty complete summary of hunting in Zimbabwe. And I've been there 6 or 7 times.
I agree, No matter the outcome it takes a set to come out and let the wolves feed. If anything it helps future hunters what to expect.
 
I want to join with a few others and really thank @Ridge Runner for posting this report, and being so honest and forthright in his description of what happened. And - this is a big one - for not getting pissed when people started questioning him and what happened. A lot of those who post critical reports get pretty irate - or just pout ("I'll never post again") when others suggest it might be at least partly their own fault. None of that here.

Reading hunt reports is generally pretty interesting, but personally, I have no doubt you learn more from negative reports than from positive ones. Just reading @rookhawk 's posts provides a pretty complete summary of hunting in Zimbabwe. And I've been there 6 or 7 times.
+1
 
Thanks for the report. Some got pretty critical and I wondered if you'd finish. What a mess. I think that 14 days would of been a lot better to start with and probably a different PH. Given other reports I'd never book a hunt with him. I hope you can do it again with better results .
Bruce
 
Thanks for the report. Some got pretty critical and I wondered if you'd finish. What a mess. I think that 14 days would of been a lot better to start with and probably a different PH. Given other reports I'd never book a hunt with him. I hope you can do it again with better results .
Bruce

It would have been nice to have had the extra days to track down the wounded buff, to insure the buff was ethically and humanely put down.
 
Hi @Ridge Runner

...

-You didn’t have enough time. Getting to Zim is so darned expensive and “being in Zim” is so darned cheap, I would have told you to stay 14 days in camp, 20 days away from home, unless it would cause you to lose your job or get divorced. The cost differential for another 6 days at camp is peanuts.
CMSafaris.com (Buzz Chalton) has 7 or 10 day buffalo hunts where a great majority of clients leave happy. Once you get to 14 days it becomes a combo (leopard/buffalo, elephant/buffalo etc.. I think he had enough time for his primary quarry in that amount of time. Throw in the kitchen sink then no.

That being said, I agree that one should go for 14 days or more for the reasons you have stated. Heck, if it wasn't for Covid and flight schedules requiring a PCR test at every stop I would have tacked on another one or two weeks to my upcoming 21 day hunt somewhere else in Africa.
 
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!
@C.W.Richter
Even tho I only hunted Namibia those bushman trackers have eyes that are both binoculars and microscopes. The things they see at long range are unreal and when tracking even at a fast pace they see things that I never would and I track pretty well.
What I found interesting was the communication between the 2 trackers. Along we ith the occasional words there was a lot of tongue clicking to go with it. My PH told me that the bushmen communicate using these clicks.
I was totally fascinated and amazed at there abilities.
Bib
 
It would have been nice to have had the extra days to track down the wounded buff, to insure the buff was ethically and humanely put down.
@Ridge Runner
I Personally would have told my PH that it was a priority and stuff the rest of the hunt. My responsibility is to humanely finish the game before hunting anything else.
Bob
 
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I would concur with, a big thanks to all who have engaged in this discussion.

A couple of thoughts about eland. Generally, Livingstone Eland are a demanding hunt and somewhat different than trying to walk down a Cape Eland in Namibia. In the near desert of Southwest Africa, an eland hunt normally begins at a waterhole at dawn looking for a promising bull track. It will end many kilometers later with either the prize or a spooked animal. The big blue bulls, on the other hand, usually live in an environment less dependent upon waterholes, and they often inhabit terrain less conducive for walking down an animal from a cold start. My last hunt in Mozambique was conducted in October in the hopes of taking a Livingston Eland as they began to enter the rut which takes place in November. We took a wonderful buffalo, a great selection of plains game, and followed several eland herds while constantly being on the lookout for an opportunity. "My" bull finally appeared on a bit of savannah on the 14th day of that 14-day hunt. He is a high SCI gold from an area famous for producing great bulls. He is also the only mature one I have seen there in 28 days of hunting over two trips. I would not trade the experience of taking him in one of the really wild places (Zambezi Delta) for anything. But such environments are not the Limpopo - thank God.

Over the last couple of trips there, I have often teased my PH (a man who has become a friend) that the Delta country is easy to appreciate because one's view is so rarely obstructed by wildlife. That is true of many wilderness areas and the opposite of what one finds in most of South Africa.

Whether Mozambique, Zambia, the tribal areas of Namibia, Tanzania, or back to Zim, I hope the OP attempts wilder Africa again.
 
@Ridge Runner
I Personally would have told my PH that it was a priority and stuff the rest of the hunt. My responsibility is to humanely finish the game before hunting anything else.
Bob


I was to polite on wanting to go after the buff.
His comment was we are only pushing them closer to the park and he and two of the trackers would wait for the buff to show up sick at a water hole and finish him off. And email me and James Williamson that he (Lloyd) had finished off the buff or it may go over to the park and die.
( This is where things are and have been a bit blurred, maybe some of the more experienced Zim hunters can chime in.

1. There is an electrified high fence around the property. Thus how are buff or for that matter any other animal crossing back and forth onto this property(?).

2. Thus my comment as to PH seeing dollars signs vs a client:

a. PH Not Identifying the buff we shot as being the same buff I previously wounded.
(Thereby client pays for a second buff.)
b. PH Not wanting to follow up on the wounded buff with 3 guns.
(Does anybody really believe the PH is going to spend any time sitting at waterhole(s) or pay his trackers to sit at various waterholes looking for a clients animal DG or PG?)
c. Remember, there is another wounded buff from an earlier client; or maybe injured while fighting with another buff, possibly still wondering around, if it hasn't already succumbed to it's wound(s). (IMO there was enough blood leaking out from this buff that a good blood trail, had we properly looked could have been found and followed.)

As this being my first time to Zim, I would like to ask other Zim PH's to chime in here as to; Is this the normal procedure and ethics of a PH when a client comes to hunt DG in Zim?)
 
I would concur with, a big thanks to all who have engaged in this discussion.

A couple of thoughts about eland. Generally, Livingstone Eland are a demanding hunt and somewhat different than trying to walk down a Cape Eland in Namibia. In the near desert of Southwest Africa, an eland hunt normally begins at a waterhole at dawn looking for a promising bull track. It will end many kilometers later with either the prize or a spooked animal. The big blue bulls, on the other hand, usually live in an environment less dependent upon waterholes, and they often inhabit terrain less conducive for walking down an animal from a cold start. My last hunt in Mozambique was conducted in October in the hopes of taking a Livingston Eland as they began to enter the rut which takes place in November. We took a wonderful buffalo, a great selection of plains game, and followed several eland herds while constantly being on the lookout for an opportunity. "My" bull finally appeared on a bit of savannah on the 14th day of that 14-day hunt. He is a high SCI gold from an area famous for producing great bulls. He is also the only mature one I have seen there in 28 days of hunting over two trips. I would not trade the experience of taking him in one of the really wild places (Zambezi Delta) for anything. But such environments are not the Limpopo - thank God.

Over the last couple of trips there, I have often teased my PH (a man who has become a friend) that the Delta country is easy to appreciate because one's view is so rarely obstructed by wildlife. That is true of many wilderness areas and the opposite of what one finds in most of South Africa.

Whether Mozambique, Zambia, the tribal areas of Namibia, Tanzania, or back to Zim, I hope the OP attempts wilder Africa again.


Red Leg, I have hopes of returning to hunt Africa in 2-3 years (maybe sooner if things work out right), and back to Zimbabwe for an L. eland and a croc, but with a better outfitter and a better PH.
 
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