ZIMBABWE: Tuskless Elephant, Buffalo Hunt & More With Charlton McCallum Safaris October 2017

[Tally-Ho HUNTING SAFARIS]

well done on the trophies
in hunting i say take your chances, even on first day, else last day you tend to shoot anything in front of you and its usually smaller then what you saw on day one. plus it make the safari a lot less stressful for everybody when u have something in the salt day one

regards

 

[ROCKET]

Well done in the Ele hunting and good trophies......I think the same way.....in free range hunting you can get the chance on a trophie in the first ten minutes or last days who knows......but when the chance is there....take it.....!!!!

 

[npm352]

Cool hunt. Tuskless are cool.

 

[WAB]

Awesome hunt and great decision to take the buff. Buffalo are always a good idea!

 

[johnnyblues]

Well done on some fine trophies.

 

[Ridgewalker]

What a grand wild spaces hunt! Man am I jealous!
Congratulations!

 

[elephantmaster29]

Congrats on your tuskless

 

[Timbo]

In Harare after a very successful hunt with Charlton McCallum Safaris

Area Dande North and Ward 1
7 Full days, travel days built in before and after
Gun Permits; layed over at J'berg City Lodge and did permit myself
PH; Len Taylor
Rifle; Jarrett 375H&H 300gr Woodleigh solids, 300gr A-frames
Animals sought; Tuskless
Animals taken; Tuskless, Buffalo, Hyena(baited),Warthog,Impala,Chobe Bushbuck,Baboons(3)
Conditions; Hot, warm in the Zambezi Valley in Oct
5th trip to Africa; SA,Namibia,Zimbabwe.

Back in August I poked around for a late season Tuskless hunt and a nice offer was put forth by CMS, I selected Len Taylor as PH and it couldn't have been better. Len is a very skilled and polished professional in every sense of the word, and was terrific for my first DG hunt........well it turned out to be more than one DG, as the Buffalo was an on the ground decision after the Tuskless was down early in hunt. Plains game and Hyena were a bonus in the days that followed.

Huge thrill to hunt in a wild DG area with no fences for me, and one I will repeat. After a bunch of plains game hunts, this one was a game changer. Will see if a Leopard is in the cards in 2019 or so; I need to restock the hunt fund a bit, but Len will be PH or I'm not going. Charles and Moses, Lens' long time crew were terrific along with camp staff, office, and CMS owners Buzz and Myles. Borrowed Nyati, Buzz's tracker for 2 awesome sets of eye's on Tuskless and Buffalo hunt and watching those guys work is worth the price of admission.

If anyone has any thought to doing this....GO!

Pics;
View attachment 205375

Congratulations! Beautiful trophies - especially that buffalo!!

 

[WAB]

Well done on a great hunt! I've never done a plains game hunt so I can't really compare, but I do know that I am totally addicted to hunting buffalo in the bush. It's not something that one tends to do just once!

 

[edward]

i thought one would do,but ive taken two,not sorry.

 

[Dinsdale]

Well done on a great hunt! I've never done a plains game hunt so I can't really compare, but I do know that I am totally addicted to hunting buffalo in the bush. It's not something that one tends to do just once!

Oh, I can see doing that hunt again.

Thanks all for the comments, feel fortunate to have been to Africa several times and the last two hunts have been with two terrific PH's that I would hunt with again at some point; Len in this case and Marius from our own KMG that sponsors here. Had terrific communications with both Buzz and Myles the owners of the outfitting company and enjoyed meeting both while in Zimbabwe; Buzz did the airport run both ways which I didn't expect as I overnighted on both ends at a Harare guest house (Amanzi), and had a terrific diner with Myles and his wife on my arrival. Class acts. Enjoyed camp with PH Alan Shearing with his hunter and guest, just a good experience all around.

With an American based bank, I pre paid for all the Tuskless hunt, and had enough cash to cover additional plains game and tips. Buzz was kind enough to allow me to transfer balance of the buff trophy fee on my return home when we talked about adding the buffalo on the hunt.


I'll post something here about the knife used to take my elephants tail. Decided since there is no option of importing any of the parts, I would make a knife as a memento from the hunt and a few weeks before I left spent some time watching a few internet videos, bought some supplies on line and had a go. Turned out I used it more than any knife I have ever taken on a safari hunt and was pleased with performance. O1 tool steel(hardened in vegetable oil) and some left over Turkish walnut for handle/brass pins. Made a basic leather sheath for the pack as I'm not much of a belt knife guy. Chose a scandi grind for more of a bush craft style knife and just need to put a handle on the secong slightly bigger blank I did at the same time; that one is going to have wood for handles I cut from where the elephant fell on the recovery effort.

Blank;

A little shaping;

Ready for heat treating;

Finished product in use;

 

[Gerry Addison]

Did you see many buffalo while on your trip?

 

[Dinsdale]

Did you see many buffalo while on your trip?

One bigger herd that PH estimated at a few hundred; a few sets of dagga boys including the one I shot out of a group of three; and several sets of dagga boy tracks. Lots of sign.

Both PH's in camp both remarked that dagga hunting in DSA can be a hard hunt at times; we even had plans to try for a few days and move to another camp where there was more quota and no hunting had taken place for a spell. I didn't want to hunt a herd and Len didn't either so we were exactly on the same page for that one.

But then the plan worked out for this buffalo, and even I knew the set up was perfect to take a shot.

With several days left, there was a leopard tag available in another concession but I just didn't have the funds to work that out or I would have chased that too!

 

[BC.Pat]

Congratulations & Thanks for posting, a tuskless is on my to-do list

 

[Ridgewalker]

Very nice! One opportunity lead to another. “Picture perfect!” hunt!

 

[SETH RINGER]

Bet that pretty little Bushbuck did not complain one bit about a .375 being too much gun! Congrats on all.

 

[Rell]

Great pics and great story. Very wise taking what Africa offers when she offers it.

 

[AfricaHunting.com]

Great pics and great story. Very wise taking what Africa offers when she offers it.

Welcome to AH Rell! Please share with us your hunt behind your avatar.

 

[Dinsdale]

Welcome to AH Rell! Please share with us your hunt behind your avatar.

+1....that LDE is a real corker.

 

[Philip Glass]

Very well done! What a great safari. And I know you had a good PH.
Philip