ZIMBABWE: Buffalo Hunt in Dande South With HHK

[sestoppelman]

I know how it feels to get skunked. Hunted for eland bull on 4 of my last 5 hunts and nothing to show for it. Buff came easy for me on two hunts! Go figure.

 

[daved]

Hi Jumbo
I think we met on your first day in camp. I was in the main camp Murrara when York and his girlfriend came in and said hi followed by you and your Dad in a vehicle ? We chartered out on the 10th Aug.

We also hunted hard for lion and buffalo with similar results, I think the campfire system is on a knifes edge, poaching is up , game down . Only saw 3-4 buff bulls and 3 sable 2 kudu bulls in 21 days !!

Buzz Charlton is the only operator in my opinion that is taking anti poaching seriously, with the DAPU unit he has started ( Dande anti poaching unit) in Dande North.

I will only return there for leopard , we had tons of leopard on bait. Lions where only 2 yr old males in the prides.

Best regards

 

[BRICKBURN]

Dave, If there is that little game present, will the Leopard be able to stay around for long?

 

[Jumbo]

Hey Dave,

Yeah, small world. You guys were hunting with Jim. The place certainly seems full up with Leopard.

I am glad to see that my experience is somewhat representative, as it makes me feel a bit more comfortable to share it. Have you shared the experience and sentiment with Graham?

As I am close by, I will be looking for a slot to take Graham up on his offer to hunt a bull for the trophy cost, which I believe is very generous and supports the value in hunting with a respected operator like HHK. But this would be of little value to an overseas hunter whom had saved long and hard for his hunt and trip.

The damn concession is so pretty, it really is a pity the buff bulls have been hunted so much!

While we were there, we saw a number of good Kudu, a nice herd of sable - no bull, and as I said, tons of buff, but only 3 hard bulls, one with a broken horn.

For me the issue is now about quota management or more appropriately for the next few years (3-5 years) to stop issuing Buff bulls on quota there. Unlikely to happen, but the only way to restock with mature buffalo!

As an aside, I got to chat with Buzz while we were there, which was pretty neat!

hope you guys enjoyed the hunt as much as I did!

 

[enysse]

Thanks for the honest hunt report! Hopefully some day you can get that dream cape buffalo.

 

[daved]

We got a herd of 6-7 on trail camera, also didn't have a bull in it.
We did have 7-8 different leopard on bait and had 3-4 different toms hitting baits etc. tons of leopard.

We took a very nice tom on day 9 saw tons of baboon and some impala and kudu cows

 

[Nyati]

Sorry to read about your experience, Jumbo, the way you take it shows you are a real hunter

 

[Royal27]

Hey Jumbo!!!

Just seeing this. Sorry for the bad luck, or rather over hunted area....

I was even closer to you than I realized, Chewore North, which is just to the west of you. I heard the PHs talking about Dande. They also mentioned that several of the concessions around them seemed to be having pretty tough seasons, so I can't say I'm shocked.

Parks definitely has work to do setting quotas. I heard that too. Some too high, and others too low. Hyena are EVERYWHERE and seem to be impacting PA in particular. Something needs to be done for sure. And more than just an increased quota in that particular case (they aren't filling it now).

I hope you get time to go back. It was truly an amazing area....

Regards,

Royal

 

[Jumbo]

Hey Royal27!
At least your input confirms my findings! It is a real pity as the rea is brilliant!

Hope your Chewore hunt was more successful!

Quotas are everything and the guys must turn down areas with poor quotas if that's what's required for the comings years! It's about getting mature buff available for hunting not young soft bulls!

I loved my experience and will certainly be back hunting again....hopefully with York, as that youngster is a credit to PH's in Zim! Great ethics and great guy to be with!

 

[Royal27]

It was, but it took until day eight. Most of those days were spent chasing Dugga Boys though. The two herds I saw didn't have bulls that we saw.

Agree with you on the quotas although I'm sure that is hard for the outfitters to do...

Glad you had a great time regardless!