ZIMBABWE: Nyamazana Elephant Hunt - Happy Birthday To Me!

Day Four

This was a bit of a do nothing day. The skinner needed time to work on the feet and split the ears (just in case the USFWS lifts the ban here in the near future) and there isn't anything else to hunt at Umguza. Wayne needed to get some GPS readings for Zim Parks at Lupane for quota setting, so we took a ride up there, checking water holes while we were there. Nothing really fresh, but some elephant tracks around three days old. It was nice seeing some additional country side.

On the way there a road crew was widening the road for some unknown reason. They had felled a tree access the road blocking it. It wasn't an accident. I guess they thought it easier for some only known to them reason. Wayne wasn't thrilled to say the least and suggested that they fell trees away from the road and why. I'm sure it helped and they took his advice to heart.

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OK, so I lied. The road crew actually had two additional trees blocking the road when we returned. Your Zimbabwean tax dollars hard at work!


This afternoon we will check sight on the .375 H&H and tomorrow morning head to Malindi Farms. Wayne and I agreed on a price to hunt Sable that I think was fair to both parties. I've always wanted to hunt a Sable, but this animal being free range is very important to me. No offence to anyone who has shot a Sable in SA but I personally decided that I wouldn't do it unless maybe someone offered me an $800 big Sable, which no one has done. In my experience seeing Sable in SA and also from what I've heard and read they are simply too tame, for me. There are no doubt exceptions to this rule. We're going to take a shot at calling Hyena as well. I tried for hyena in Zim the last time and failed, so we shall see.

Tonight's dinner is worth mentioning as we had elephant trunk. It was cooked in what was almost a sweet and sour sauce with some onion and green pepper and served with rice and butternut squash. It was excellent and fairly tender, definitely not chewy, nor did it have any sinew in it as one might expect. I found out what tne secret is to cooking elephant trunk, and that's time. The trunk had been cut I to bite sized pieces and simmered since the meat made it back to camp. Jonathan (the cook) told me that he prefers to have it cook for two full days to make it the absolute best. So.... if you come home and ask your wife what's for dinner and she replies that she's about to start the elephant trunk I'd suggest you offer to take her out to dinner as its going to be a while! ;) again though, it was excellent.

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Day Five

This was a travel day as we moved to Malindi Farm (Farm #37) near Hwange Park. Wayne did give me the full experience on the drive up, including showing me how Zimbabwean Police pulled one over for speeding without use of a car and how a roadblock works. It was quite educational to say the least.

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Wayne didn't even charge me extra for the experience! It's included in DG rates. ;)

Once off of the main road we began to see game, including impala, zebra, and kudu. We also saw sign of both elephant and buffalo. There is simply a different feeling to me when members of the Big 5 are present regardless of if I'm hunting them or not. It got me excited all over again.

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Just as we enter Malindi we saw a Sable Bull. Horns went straight back without much curve at all and estimated at 37 inches. It looked like this might be a very very short wild Sable hunt. Driving past the Sable we got out of the truck and my rifle was loaded. As we snuck back down the road though the Sable calmly crossed the road in front of us. Whether he realized it or not that little walk saved him as he was now in Forestry land and was out of bounds for us. I would have shot that Sable as I don't believe in passing up to chance now for an animal I know I'd shoot later, but I was also happy it didn't work out that way as I wanted to keep hunting and savor each moment.

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The zebra on the right has a cool stripe pattern on it's back.
 
Looking forward to more about the sable!! I also witnessed firsthand last May the police roadblocks in Zim and the ridiculous things they tried to say was wrong with your vehicle
 
The zebra on the right has a cool stripe pattern on it's back.

Agree. And I like the almost complete absence of shadow stripes compared to most SA zebras.
 
Looking forward to more about the sable!! I also witnessed firsthand last May the police roadblocks in Zim and the ridiculous things they tried to say was wrong with your vehicle

It's a total racket!

The lady cop I took pic of was very nice and doing her job. We ran into others that I would not say same about. I will leave it at that.
 
Day Six

This day again started with looking for Sable, but not much was moving at all. One young bull was all we saw and not much else. Although I would call the game numbers here to be OK it isn't anything like SA, not with lion, leopard, cheetah, and hyena running about. Speaking of cheetah I missed two adults and four youngsters at the camp watering hole by no more than ten minutes. I was particularly disappointed in this as although ive seen cheetahs in a fenced park I've never seen them truly in the wild. Oh well, that's the way it goes. Now to make up for this I did see a free range Roan in the afternoon. It was back walking in the brush and so I didn't get pictures, but I did get to see it fairly well through my binoculars. The only other Sable we saw on this day were two cows at the camp watering hole.

Although relatively remote Malindi Station does have electricity, with generator back up. Well, the electricity went out. Wayne asked if the electricity would be fixed and the answer he received was quite amusing. It was, "I called the electric company and asked if the power would be fixed. They told me that yes, maybe it would, or maybe it wouldn't." That's Zimbabwe for you. The place where straight answers do not abound!
 
Day Six

This day again started with looking for Sable, but not much was moving at all. One young bull was all we saw and not much else. Although I would call the game numbers here to be OK it isn't anything like SA, not with lion, leopard, cheetah, and hyena running about. Speaking of cheetah I missed two adults and four youngsters at the camp watering hole by no more than ten minutes. I was particularly disappointed in this as although ive seen cheetahs in a fenced park I've never seen them truly in the wild. Oh well, that's the way it goes. Now to make up for this I did see a free range Roan in the afternoon. It was back walking in the brush and so I didn't get pictures, but I did get to see it fairly well through my binoculars. The only other Sable we saw on this day were two cows at the camp watering hole.

Although relatively remote Malindi Station does have electricity, with generator back up. Well, the electricity went out. Wayne asked if the electricity would be fixed and the answer he received was quite amusing. It was, "I called the electric company and asked if the power would be fixed. They told me that yes, maybe it would, or maybe it wouldn't." That's Zimbabwe for you. The place where straight answers do not abound!

Knew that there were roan in the valley but didn't realize there was roan around Hwange. Always good to learn something.

Can you hunt roan in Zimbabwe now?
 
Day Seven

I woke up to find that elephants had been in camp and literally eaten the potted plants, also knocking one off the back of the eating area. From the tracks it was a cow herd. What a great way to wake up in the morning and be instantly reminded you're in Africa. It just doesn't get any better than this.

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The Sable have been hard to find and the burnt grass makes it even more difficult and the Sable skittish. They just don't stay around very long whether on foot or truck.Things seemed quiet again this morning when a lone Sable bull walked out of the brush and across an opening that reminded me of a big Sendero in South Texas. When we made it there the Sable was still in the brush, which because of the burn could at least be seen through, which is good and bad I guess. Up went the sticks and I aimed with some brush covering the Sable. I'd love to say I made a perfect one shot kill through the brush, but I didn't. We went to the spot he had been standing at and began to track. Quickly we found blood. And no more than 150 yards later the Sable, which had laid down, stood. This time my shot was much better and straight through the vitals low in the body. The Sable ran and I fired a third, unneeded it turned out, running shot that was behind and clipped the ham.

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had my Sable. My wild Zimbabwean free range Sable. He was old and has character and is a good representative bull. There are bigger Sable elsewhere and even here at Malindi, but this is my Sable and I'm thrilled. I don't know when, or even if, I would have gotten another chance to hunt free range Sable so doing it now was the right call. I'm very fortunate to both have an understanding wife, as well as a wife who doesn't know what the Sable cost! ;)

Sable were not easy to come by over the last three days, but as is typical of hunting now that I have one I've watched a dozen or so drink as I'm sitting here typing this report. LOL! The herd bull decided to stay hidden as it appears as all were cows, or young ones.

Ended up with some great pics of another bull.

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And a nice pic of a side striped jackal.

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In 2014 I was the only hunter in camp who didn't take a hyena and I'd really wanted one. Heck, even the Lions killed one by the skinning shed. We would be using Sable guts and some other old rotten bait that was available, combined with calling. A drag had also been done earlier in the afternoon to increase our odds.It was quite exciting I promise you. First time the lights went on it was just eyes in the brush with no shot. Then as the calling continued more hyena came in and I could both hear them calling as well as hear them running through the brush. They were getting closer. Then there was a clear shot but there was glare on either my scope or glasses from the spot light. I could see the hyena with my eyes but not through the scope. Ugh..... Closer and closer they came, making more noise. We heard a group of hyena behind us that would be headed for the road. You could then see vague movement on the road and the light was switched on. "Boom" and the hyena was down on the far left side of the dirt road.

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We had been more or less surrounded by hyenas and at sometime during all of this an elephant had trumpeted close by. In fact when we were leaving after I shot you could still see the dust in the air where elephants had crossed the road only a couple hundred yards from where we had been.
 
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Knew that there were roan in the valley but didn't realize there was roan around Hwange. Always good to learn something.

Can you hunt roan in Zimbabwe now?

From what I understand there are three tags for Roan in Zimbabwe. One in Dande, one in Matetsi, and one someplace else. I think I have this right.... Still quite the rare hunt to my understanding.

Wayne told me he would consider seeing Roan near Hwange to be relatively unusual, but not rare.
 
Exciting hunt Royal. What an amazing experience! Facing an angry, and wounded elephant at 50 feet, is the stuff of legends.

Well done sir!
 
@Royal27 - goodness gracious me it's not over ???

Well done on the hyena, my all time favorite hunt! That return calling from all around in the dark is a life time experience, so glad you managed to get one.

See Wayne got nicely acquainted with Miss Policelady and her hairdryer (the radar gun). That crew has had a few drinks off me in the past. :A Drive:Most pleasant of the Bunche on that stretch.
 
@Royal27 - goodness gracious me it's not over ???

Well done on the hyena, my all time favorite hunt! That return calling from all around in the dark is a life time experience, so glad you managed to get one.

See Wayne got nicely acquainted with Miss Policelady and her hairdryer (the radar gun). That crew has had a few drinks off me in the past. :A Drive:Most pleasant of the Bunche on that stretch.

Gotta agree with this!

Hearing the hyena run all around and come in and out of sight was amazing. I'd do it again in a heartbeat, amd hope to.

You definitely know the road, she was definitely the nicest. There is a guy a few stops up that could learn some lessons from her, and needs to understand what the law is as well. :mad:
 
Day Eight

Hunting is officially over, which is always a sad day for a trip to Africa. I've gotten what I came for though, and then some. We did check water points and roads in the morning and there are elephants all around, as we heard last night. One of the tracks we found was very large, much bigger than the one I shot. I'd love to see the size of that bull....

The rest of the day was spent watching for game by the water hole, sometime I never tire of. I was rewarded several times, including a very nice Sable. Now he shows up! LOL! The highlight though was getting to see the cheetahs that is missed earlier in the trip.
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And the best Sable of the trip.

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I will be back to talk about the last two days and my impressions of Zimbabwe in general, along with some random pictures. To this point it was an absolute blast, and even though the hunting itself is over the last two days were great as well.
 
Beautiful Sable. Congrats. I understand about RSA just isn't the same. I have taken one in RSA and Zambia. My Zambia experience was much better. Bruce
 
What an amazing and once in a lifetime hunt/experience!!!! Congratulations on your tremendous success!!!!
 
Wow, nice sable!!Congrats!! (y)
 
And a hyena to boot!!! Very nice
 
Awesome story and experience! Congratulations @Royal27 !!
 
Wow...great stuff and congrats @Royal27!!
 

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Because of some clients having to move their dates I have 2 prime time slots open if anyone is interested to do a hunt
5-15 May
or 5-15 June is open!
shoot me a message for a good deal!
dogcat1 wrote on skydiver386's profile.
I would be interested in it if you pass. Please send me the info on the gun shop if you do not buy it. I have the needed ammo and brass.
Thanks,
Ross
Francois R wrote on Lance Hopper's profile.
Hi Lance hope you well. The 10.75 x 68 did you purchase it in the end ? if so are you prepared to part with it ? rgs Francois
 
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