ZIMBABWE: Zimbabwe With Buzz Charlton

[Sideshow]

Lovely looking buff. The area Looks quite green. Had they had rain @Sourdough

 

[Mtn_Infantry]

That's excellent, congrats. I need a hunting location for the leopard that will allow me to take it in double range with open sights. Of course I talked to Buzz about it but he thought 50 yards (the distance they set their blinds because of the cat's wariness) was too far on a leopard in very low light with open sights. I find no fault in that logic. 30 yards is probably a better distance. Andy, the cameraman, who's been on hunts (as camera man) in every country we'd like to go to, suggested Mozambique because the blinds he's filmed from have been 30 yards away. Any idea how far away yours will be set up?

Are you 100% set on a bait hunt? You could easily do a leopard with your double using hounds in Zim. There's a member on here who shot a cat in Mozambique with hounds using his double. Botswana would also be a good option for this.

You could also hunt your cat in one of the Safari Areas in Zim where you can't use an artificial light or night hunt. They're going to have to get the cat out in the daylight. Tanzania offers some great cat hunts with daylight cats.

 

[Sourdough]

Lovely looking buff. The area Looks quite green. Had they had rain @Sourdough

They are in a drought currently and very concerned for the animals later in the season. Apparently the rainy season started out very well and then the rain ended prematurely. The green you are seeing is no doubt from those early rains.

 

[Sourdough]

Are you 100% set on a bait hunt? You could easily do a leopard with your double using hounds in Zim. There's a member on here who shot a cat in Mozambique with hounds using his double. Botswana would also be a good option for this.

You could also hunt your cat in one of the Safari Areas in Zim where you can't use an artificial light or night hunt. They're going to have to get the cat out in the daylight. Tanzania offers some great cat hunts with daylight cats.

Not at all. Hounds would be okay. Daylight cat hunt would be awesome. I have talked with Robin Hurt Safaris and well as Rungwa Safaris about a 28 day hunt that would include a leopard. Just not sure what I want to do yet.

 

[Altitude sickness]

I just left Zim 2 days ago and due to the drought most of the leaves away from the riparian areas are on the ground. Very noisy stalking.

 

[Sourdough]

Day 7

I still have 7 hunting days left so now it's time to just focus on plains game. In particular animals I haven't taken before that are on quota; Impala, Waterbuck, Zebra, Eland, Warthog, Sharps Grysbok for example.

Since there is such an enormous population of Impala we decided we would begin with them. Looking for a better representation of the species for Zimbabwe.

Wasn't long before a nice track was spotted. We dismounted the truck and got on the track. We followed him into the woodlands about 150 yards when we spotted him. About a 50 yard shot with the 375. (That's the exit hole. Hornady 300gr DGX ammo.)

We collected him and headed back to camp to get him in the skinning shed. On the way we kept our eyes out for other species we could hunt but didn't see anything.

We spent the rest of the day resting in camp, enjoying a good lunch from the banks of the Zambezi River watching crocodiles and hippos. These are certainly on quota so I could have hunted either or both but they just do zero for me. I know some folks love hunting them.

Down on the beach we found a mokoro with a big piece of it bitten away by a hippo. Can't help but wonder if the person(s) in the mokoro got away or ......

 

[Mtn_Infantry]

Not at all. Hounds would be okay. Daylight cat hunt would be awesome. I have talked with Robin Hurt Safaris and well as Rungwa Safaris about a 28 day hunt that would include a leopard. Just not sure what I want to do yet.

I’m sending you a PM because I thinks were looking into the same things

 

[Frankyfiggs]

I’ve got a professional videographer along so will have a great movie I’ll share one the hunt is over and it’s produced.

Update. Day after the elephant I shot a duggaboy at 30 yards with the double. Yesterday an impala with the H&H. Today a zebra with the H&H at 120yds.

So far we walked 48 miles.

Six more days to go for this part of the adventure. As soon as I’m back home I’ll do a full write up with photos. In the meantime here is the bushbuck.


View attachment 608211

very nice. Well done!

 

[Sideshow]

Day 7

Down on the beach we found a mokoro with a big piece of it bitten away by a hippo. Can't help but wonder if the person(s) in the mokoro got away or ......

View attachment 613114

I had the unfortunate luck of seeing this happen in the Kazinga channel while standing on the lawn at the Queen Elizabeth lodge in Queen Liz park in Uganda. Nothing we could do.

 

[Rare Breed]

I’m sending you a PM because I thinks were looking into the same things

Before deciding on hounds I highly recommend reading @Philip Glass leopard hunt with hounds

 

[Dinsdale]

Lovely looking buff. The area Looks quite green. Had they had rain @Sourdough

A good place to find rain info for Zambezi valley, is to follow on some of the Mana Pools Park trip planning facebook sites. They are almost always full of info for that areas weather.

 

[Philip Glass]

Before deciding on hounds I highly recommend reading @Philip Glass leopard hunt with hounds

My Nightmare in Zim is the title!

 

[AZDAVE]

Nice buff and elephant. My leopard in Namibia the blind was at 72 yards. Based on the winds it was the only spot it could be built. It was also a shot with about 10 minutes of shooting light left so Irons wouldn't have worked.. A red dot would make a big difference! i was using a bolt gun with some very good glass on it.

 

[Scott CWO]

That's excellent, congrats. I need a hunting location for the leopard that will allow me to take it in double range with open sights. Of course I talked to Buzz about it but he thought 50 yards (the distance they set their blinds because of the cat's wariness) was too far on a leopard in very low light with open sights. I find no fault in that logic. 30 yards is probably a better distance. Andy, the cameraman, who's been on hunts (as camera man) in every country we'd like to go to, suggested Mozambique because the blinds he's filmed from have been 30 yards away. Any idea how far away yours will be set up?

While not the biggest cats, the Niassa Reserve in Mozambique produces a lot of daylight leopards. I got one there in daylight and know other hunters who have done it. Same for Maswa North in Tanzania with bigger cats. Let me know if you need some contacts.

 

[Sourdough]

Day 8

During the night we had lots of noise. A leopard came into camp, walking by the tents, and that really set the baboons to chattering. If that wasn't enough we had a couple of young elephants come in that were raising a ruckus a good portion of the night.

Today's hunting was all about Zebra or a Warthog.

Plan was to drive the pans, stopping about 300 yards short and then trek in to see what was there.

On one of the treks we came across a lion with a fresh kill of a female Cape Buffalo at a distance of about a 100 yards. The lion jumped up and gave us the evil eye but there were seven of us so we just watched for a while.

Buzz figured the lion had been eating on its kill for two days and was down to the ribs. Speaking of ribs, a Cape Buffalo's ribs look like armor plating butting up against each other and in some positions actually overlapping.

We left the lion to its kill, boarded the truck, and rode around for two or three more hours. When you aren't looking for a particular species they are everywhere, when you are looking they can seem as scarce as hen's teeth.

Eventually one of the trackers spotted a Zebra. We jumped off the truck. The wind was blowing right at the Zebra so we walked away, ultimately cutting across until we were perpendicular to the Zebra and the wind allowing us to put a stalk on without its knowing we were there.

The shot was 120 to 140 yards. The 375 did great knocking the Zebra down. It attempted to get up and then did a backflip and it was dead. We loaded it in the truck and headed back to camp. Although these are Burchell Zebras, the shadow strip in the white is nearly undetectable. A beautiful animal.

Once we got to camp we decided to take the afternoon off from hunting and Buzz and the guys erected a new, bigger dining tent, taking the old one to the newly set up fly camp that was a couple hundred yards away. The fly camp is for folks that want to be isolated from others as occasionally another of Buzz's PHs might be sharing the camp with his clients for a time.

That happened to me, and initially I was annoyed but they turned out to be very nice people. The only thing I didn't like was that one evening they played music while sitting around the campfire. I mentioned this to Buzz and he must of spoke to them because they only played it one more time and the volume was extremely low. It does amaze me that people would prefer to listen to that rather than listening to the wilds of Africa. As long as you are by yourself, to each his own, if you are with others leave that stuff in your tent. But like I said they were really nice people and were only with us for three days and then they moved to a different concession to continue their hunt, and were successful.

 

[Firebird]

Thank you for describing the rib cage structure. I’ve read about it in the perfect shot book but you are the first hunter that I remember mentioning it.
Also thanks for mentioning campfire courtesy which extends well beyond music.
Beautiful zebra!

 

[Sourdough]

Probably my cameraman got a photo. When I get those if there is one I’ll post it.

 

[VertigoBE]

Waidmannsheil on a very successful safari so far ! Well done to you and the whole team!

 

[Sourdough]

Day 9

A big Kudu, a big Warthog or a Sharpes Grysbok were the primary species we were looking for. Sharpes Grysbok, interesting name, Sharpes is English and Grysbok is Afrikaans.

We saw a bunch of Zebra, kudus but no bulls of any size. A nice Nyala walked out of the woods but Buzz didn't have any on quota. Lots of warthogs, but no males with decent sized tusks.

Headed back to camp for lunch after which we decided to take the boat and go for a ride on the river.

 

[Sourdough]

Day 10

The semaglutide induced hiccups, backwashing, and esophagus seizers are finally gone. I was getting close to surrendering and going back to town to hang out at a hotel. But woke up this morning and felt great.

During the night every single animals species in Zimbabwe came to camp, at least that's what it sounded like. It was incredible. Elephants trumpeting, lions roaring, a leopard went thru camp again, hippos snorting just below my tent, impala rutting and all kinds of animals I didn't recognize- probably monkeys, and baboons, and birds. I slept great but every time I woke up there was a concert of game.

Breakfast time came, I ate a full breakfast for the first time since being there. Then we headed out primarily looking for big Kudu and big Warthogs.

We drove the sand roads until we found a promising track. We'd disembark and follow it. Did that quite a few times. Tracked about 5,000 yards in total. Saw lots of warthogs but none with big tusks. Eventually we stumbled across a big Kudu track and tracked him for a while, he was with a bunch of females. Then we came across a big warthog track so we turned and tracked it. He ended up getting into the super crunchy leaves. Realizing he'd always know we were there we quit that tracking session and got back on the Kudu track.

At some point one of the trackers spotted him in thick bush. He was a big bull so I got up on the sticks waiting for a relatively clear shot. He must not have seen us because he actually walked toward us and in the process moved into a small clearing in the bush giving me a quartering shot which I took.

He was a little over 55 inches which is an excellent size for the Zambezi valley and his horns spread wide which I really like.

I'm getting an affection for the 375. Nothing will ever beat the double but the 375 is doing an excellent job on dropping the animals. It's definitely a hammer.

On the way back Creighton spotted a Grysbok. How these guys can spot these tiny animals in the dense Jesse as we are flying along is beyond my understanding, and ability. I couldn't even see it when we stopped, dismounted and went to look at it to see if it was a male or a female. For me it was like trying to look for a specific grain of sand on a beach. And he spotted it on the fly. Amazing. It ended up being a female.

We headed back to camp for lunch and a nap. In the afternoon we continued our search for a big Warthog or a Grysbok. That night Buzz decided to boat us over to an island, bring a grill, and have dinner in the moonlight on the island. Buzz cooked up some Buffalo steaks, chips (french fries) and a salad. We had a blast out there. Stars came out and it was really something special.

In the morning we are getting up extra early to hunt for Warthogs.