I always wanted to hunt elephant, but never really thought I'd be able to, then I saw the benefit raffle for Phillip Smythe. I thought I'd be donating to good cause. Didn't really expect to win, in fact completely forgot that I had entered. That changed in the beginning of February when I was informed that I won the elephant hunt. My first reaction was, "Oh Crap!" Now, I already had a hunt booked for Cape Buffalo in Mozambique and plains game in South Africa for September. My daughter just bought a house, so I had a list of daddy-dos, plus my usual list of honey-dos, and we are in the process of building a cabin on some property that I own up north. To say we were busy, was an understatement. But there was no way I was going to pass this up!
I contacted Lin Stanton of Mbalabala Safaris, who donated the hunt and set up a date for the hunt. I was a little nervous because while I have hunted in South Africa twice, it was with a bow and never traveled internationally with a gun, never been to Zimbabwe, also never hunted dangerous game and never hunted with Mbalabala - I was covering a lot of new ground.
Preparations started right away with the usual stuff - checking passports, paperwork, contacting Travel Express, then working up loads for my 416 Ruger. While I owned the rifle for two years and had been to the range numerous times, I never filled the magazine, I always shot single-shot. At about six weeks before it was time to leave, I was checking my loads to make sure they fed properly and discovered that I could only get two shells in the magazine and one of them would pop out when I ejected the one in the chamber. Not good! Checked the lead time for Ruger and they were six to eight weeks. Called my local gun smith and he said he wasn't taking any work. When I explained my predicament, he agreed to work me into his schedule. A week later it was done, it had been assembled incorrectly at the factory.
Packing and passports in hand, we went for our COVID tests and we were on our way. We flew Ethiopian Air out of Dulles. Dulles to Addis Ababa to Victoria Falls. The flight was packed - I've never seen so much luggage! We changed planes in Addis Ababa, what a circus! Got off the plane to the tarmac, attendants arguing with each other as to who goes on what bus, there were about six people with guns who needed to be checked in, just to add more to the chaos. Finally, they took us down to the baggage handling area under the terminal and checked our guns. We piled back into the buses to our airplanes. Never even went into the terminal.
The flight to Victoria Falls was all but empty. Maybe 20 people on the whole plane. Checked through customs and were met by Adrian, one of the guides and Scott, one of the hunters. It was a two hour trip to the Mbalabala Lodge near Hwange. Got settled into our chalet, met the staff, and sat down by the Zambezi river and did some fishing for the afternoon. While we were down there, Helen, one of the staff, caught this little guy:
![PXL_20210522_153026636.PORTRAIT_-_Copy[1].jpg](https://www.africahunting.com/attachments/pxl_20210522_153026636-portrait_-_copy-1-jpg.406384/ "PXL_20210522_153026636.PORTRAIT_-_Copy[1].jpg")
More to come...
I contacted Lin Stanton of Mbalabala Safaris, who donated the hunt and set up a date for the hunt. I was a little nervous because while I have hunted in South Africa twice, it was with a bow and never traveled internationally with a gun, never been to Zimbabwe, also never hunted dangerous game and never hunted with Mbalabala - I was covering a lot of new ground.
Preparations started right away with the usual stuff - checking passports, paperwork, contacting Travel Express, then working up loads for my 416 Ruger. While I owned the rifle for two years and had been to the range numerous times, I never filled the magazine, I always shot single-shot. At about six weeks before it was time to leave, I was checking my loads to make sure they fed properly and discovered that I could only get two shells in the magazine and one of them would pop out when I ejected the one in the chamber. Not good! Checked the lead time for Ruger and they were six to eight weeks. Called my local gun smith and he said he wasn't taking any work. When I explained my predicament, he agreed to work me into his schedule. A week later it was done, it had been assembled incorrectly at the factory.
Packing and passports in hand, we went for our COVID tests and we were on our way. We flew Ethiopian Air out of Dulles. Dulles to Addis Ababa to Victoria Falls. The flight was packed - I've never seen so much luggage! We changed planes in Addis Ababa, what a circus! Got off the plane to the tarmac, attendants arguing with each other as to who goes on what bus, there were about six people with guns who needed to be checked in, just to add more to the chaos. Finally, they took us down to the baggage handling area under the terminal and checked our guns. We piled back into the buses to our airplanes. Never even went into the terminal.
The flight to Victoria Falls was all but empty. Maybe 20 people on the whole plane. Checked through customs and were met by Adrian, one of the guides and Scott, one of the hunters. It was a two hour trip to the Mbalabala Lodge near Hwange. Got settled into our chalet, met the staff, and sat down by the Zambezi river and did some fishing for the afternoon. While we were down there, Helen, one of the staff, caught this little guy:
More to come...
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Ready when you are.
Any time.
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