ZIMBABWE: Hunting the Omay For Elephant & Leopard With Dalton & York Safaris

[Red Leg]

Fabulous bull. Congratulations on a well-earned trophy. The photography is at least as good.

 

[Safari1]

Fantastic Omay bull! Omay must be really coming around?

Congrats!

 

[WAB]

That is a day you will remember always, congratulations!

 

[whitetail]

Congratulations on your successful safari! Hunting on the shores of Lake Kariba is such a fantastic experience- it’s so beautiful there and truly wild Africa

 

[Wheels]

Great looking bull. Congratulations!

 

[PARA45]

WOW!!!!! What a beautiful bull. Congratulations!!!

 

[Randy F]

Great bull, great story, great videos and pics! Thanks for sharing your exciting experiences!

 

[LivingTheDream]

Congratulations!! You brought back a lot of memories for me. Seeing your shot and the cover/vegetation, the villagers and the trunk to the chief. All part of what makes this a special hunt!!! Thank you for sharing!

 

[Riksa]

Congratulations!!! And thank you for sharing the story with us. Great photos too

 

[rinehart0050]

Quick expectation management: I've got a business trip for the next few days. The trip report will continue next Wednesday!

 

[Nyati]

That was a very good bull, congrats !

 

[VertigoBE]

Waidmannsheil @rinehart0050 ! What an amazing story and magnificent old elephant bull! This has turned into one of the best hunting reports on AH! Thank you very much for having taken us on this adventure.

You mention they skinned the skull, do you intend to make a “shoulder mount“ out of it?

 

[rinehart0050]

Waidmannsheil @rinehart0050 ! What an amazing story and magnificent old elephant bull! This has turned into one of the best hunting reports on AH! Thank you very much for having taken us on this adventure.

You mention they skinned the skull, do you intend to make a “shoulder mount“ out of it?

Sadly, with imports on hold in the USA, I'm not expecting to be able to import anything. But I will have replicas made of the tusks.

The team still skinned the whole elephant, as they can use the skins for bags and what not that stay in Zim.

 

[PARA45]

Too bad our government doesn't want to learn, and understand what good us hunters provide to conservation. Specially, countries in Africa where poaching is out of control. Sad how our Gov believes that placing an embargo on certain animals, is helping save those animals.

 

[jacques smith]

Very nice and special trophies indeed. Welcome to a rather exclusive clubs day congrats
The little short videos are a nice touch. Thanks for taking us along. Jacques

 

[DieJager]

What a story so far. Very well written!

 

[Frederik]

Wow what a bull amazing adventure and to be able to help out all those people.

 

[JKO HUNTING SAFARIS]

Great safari and report with great guys.

Congratulations sir and thank you for a very nice report.

All my best,

Jacques

 

[rinehart0050]

Sorry for the long delay in continuing this report... life back in the real world got the better of me!

With the elephant and leopard in the bag, we're only on Day 8 of a 14 day safari, so lots more adventure to come!

Fisi at the Runway...

With the main animals for the hunt completed, Dalton let me know that he'd saved a buffalo tag for me. While not originally on the menu, I couldn't say No and we agreed to dedicate the remaining days of our safari in pursuit of old Nyati! More on this adventure later!

I'd also mentioned that I was interested in hunting a hyena if time permitted. Another hunter in camp with us had attempted the night before and came up empty handed. This was surprising, since we'd seen enough hyena tracks at our various bait sites to suggest an army of millions was milling about in the shadows! As we still had a nice, big, rotting, smelly, 10+ day old set of hippo ribs, we decided to put them to good use.

Dalton decided that we should take no chances with this hyena. We decided to hang the bait at the old, disused runway, located near the leopard bait that had 3 cats hitting it. The night we'd sat at that bait, a hyena had come in and tussled with the leopard, so we knew that there were some in the area.

Dalton felt it would be best if we made an extra long drag just in case, to entice every hyena in the county in to our bait. We hooked up a disgusting string of guts to the back of the Land Cruiser and dragged it for about 2 miles along the road, right up to our bait tree. Then we hung the bait up and retired for the day.

...
...

The following evening, as we drove back to camp, we were greeted by another fine elephant along the path. He acted tough for a moment or two, and then sulked away back into the woodline.

Along the drive, we couldn't help but marvel at another amazing African sunset. Such a privilege to enjoy such impressive displays of nature's beauty!

After dinner, we returned to the bait tree. Sure enough, hyena had been feeding the night before. We backed the Land Cruiser into a bush at the base of a baobab tree and set to work. A log near the middle of the runway served as the perfect spot for our predator call. Then we covered up the truck with a tarp, hooked up the spotlight to the battery, and climbed into the back.

We turned the call on to the sound of a panicked animal and let it play for a while. Then we turned on the hyena call.

After the first call, the second call seemed way louder, way deeper, and way closer!

The loud howling and barking continued and I asked Dalton if that was still the speaker... No sir! That's hyena!

The hyenas continued to respond to us all around. I started to get a little nervous for Andy- while the rest of us were enjoying the relative safety of the truck, he was standing next to the truck, working his camera and our thermal sight, mounted on a tripod...

Sure enough, we started to hear crashing in the grass directly behind and around our truck. A couple of hyenas broke cover and trotted towards us. Apparently, they noticed our truck and ducked back into the bush quickly. Andy caught some of the action on the thermal!

Pretty soon the hyena were coming to the call, investigating what was making the noise...

Andy let us know that now was the time!

I got behind the Blaser, chambered in 375 HH for tonight, and got ready.

Dalton flicked the switch on the spotlight...

Nothing...

He tried again! Again no luck!

Apparently the spotlight was shorting out. What are we going to do?

I pass Dalton my headlamp- not ideal and certainly not as powerful as the spotlight, but better than nothing.

Andy let us know that there were at least 3 hyenas dead ahead at maybe 100 yards, maybe more.

The headlamp goes on. I can see the log with the call sitting on top clearly, but no hyena...

Look further Dalton tells me. Next to the bush dead ahead. I find the bush Is there anything there? This is easily well beyond the normal capacity of the headlamp...

Then I catch the glimmer of some eyes and squeeze the trigger. Hit, hyena down! It almost doesn't register in my mind that I just got a hyena. The light goes out and we sit quietly in the truck.

Andy is watching through the thermal and can see the hyenas coming back to their fallen comrade to investigate what happened.

Dalton asks if I want another. Sure! Why not!

We turn the light back on and I rush a shot. Clean miss! But in my rush, I did manage to smack myself with my scope... I can feel the blood starting to trickle down and wonder if I'm going to have a nice big bruise. I think the hunting gods are telling me its time to call it a night and not push my luck!

We turn the truck on, get the high beams going and approach the bush. Sure enough, there's my hyena! And what a brute! His head looks to be bigger than my leopards, even if his overall weight is less! And those teeth.... shiny and white rather than the aged yellow of my leopard. And so many sharp teeth- it seems like rather than having a normal set of teeth, hyenas just plugged in more canines for ripping, filling their mouth with as much ripping teeth as possible!

What a cool animal! And it turned out mine is a male- something that can be difficult to distinguish at times! A big male!

Here's my leopard's skull as a point of comparison:

And here's the hyena skull with all those teeth!

What a great way to end the night, back in camp for drinks by 10pm, with a hyena at the skinning shed!

 

[375Fox]

Did they talk at all about the damage hyena do to plainsgame in the concession? Where I’ll be hunting in September the trophy fee is low to encourage more hunters to take them (and I’m assuming a higher quota on them too). I thought I read it was over the damage they cause.