Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Africa He's makin' a list, and checkin' it twice...

... he being me, of course. In 6 days I leave for Zimbabwe and my first hunt in Africa: 12 days in the Bubye Conservancy with John Sharp, hunting Cape Buffalo, and if I'm lucky (and shoot straight) I may even hunt for some of the non-DG species that abound in that part of the world... "ordinary" stuff like eland, kudu, and warthog.

This hunt has been almost 4 years in the making. I first discussed it with Jorge back in 2010, when we were hunting bufflers with EvilTwin and eh76 in Wyoming, and he put the bug in my ear and somehow I just couldn't get that earworm out. I started doing some research online, looking at locations,costs, and most important, who I wanted to hunt with, as in PH.

Fast forward to Dallas Safari Club in January of 2012. Having narrowed down my search some, I met Jorge at the expo and he introduced me to a couple of gentlemen of his acquaintance, and I spent the better part of a day "interviewing" 5 different PH's. Three were in Zimbabwe, two in Tanzania. I'd already ruled out South Africa for a couple of reasons I won't go into depth on, suffice to say the wildness of the country I was looking for wasn't there (and the prices were high). By the end of the day I had narrowed my choice down to two men: John Sharp, and Lou Halloran, both Zimbabweans and both legendary PH's. After a long night of thinking (and drinking, I'll admit, there was a wee bit o' scotch involved) the next morning I got up and rolled into the expo at the crack of noon. I walked up to John and shook his hand, and gave him a check to secure my hunt. Initially we booked for 2014, but a little speedbump in the road called a divorce postponed my plans by a year.

I've met with John each year since, in '13, '14, and '15 at DSC. In the past 8 months we've emailed back and forth a couple dozen times. A score of different tough decisions have been agonized over and finally booked, including flights (biz class), whether I'll hunt alone or bring The Redhead with me (alone), whether to hire a videographer (nope), and so forth. I've gone through 5 rifles trying to decide what I want to use on this trip, and a couple dozen handloads in the process. (FWIW, I'm taking a Kimber Caprivi in 375 H&H, loaded with 300 gr Swift A-frames @2500 fps muzzle velocity and 300 gr Hornady DG Solids at the same speed as my ONLY rifle for this hunt. If I see a world class dik-dik and decide to take him, the taxidermist will just have to patch a bigger hole.)

And now it's time to finalize my lists... all the stuff I'm packing, making sure I don't miss anything. Gun, ammo, cameras, batteries, clothes, etc, etc, etc... Bose headset for peace and quiet on the plane, digital voice recorder to record the fireside conversations... I'm still debating whether to take a GoPro, I've got a couple more days to get that fixed. Oh, and there's a few things I'm bringing at John's request, including a few tins of Skoal Long Cut, which isn't available in Zim or RSA!

Sure don't want to forget anything, but I'm equally sure that I will. So I'm makin' my lists, and checkin' 'em twice, and then doin' it all over again.

Damn, this is fun.

Sounds like a wonderful time. Hope all goes well, and you knock over some big ones!

Yep, the planning and anticipation is wonderful. Didn't see bios on your list.

You got that right. Sounds like loads of fun to me, from the researching, planning, then execution.......fantastic! Here's to you having the time of your life Doc. Please take plenty of pics to show us.

Yes, Jorge, I've got a set of Nikon Monarch 8X bino's ready to go. If I actually printed out the whole list it would take a full page of forum...

You need to get a bottle of scotch at the duty free store. John stated he wasn't well versed in all the brands, but hasn't come across one yet that he wouldn't enjoy.

He enjoyed the MacAllan I brought, and I seem to recall a couple bottles of Balvenie and Highland Park in his wet cabinet.

Forget the Go Pro...The scoth at duty free in Joburg is a good idea...if you can get it into your luggage ( I don't know if you can carry on liquor...) Whilst there, pick up a carton of Marlboros, they are the world standard and appreciated by trackers etc...but let John dole them out.
TAKE FEWER CLOTHES AND MORE MONEY!
Laundry is done daily and your personal 'laundry list' may change daily...as in " what is the trophy fee on those....?"
If I were to do anything Id take a spare digital point and shoot style camera, one simple enough for a tracker to use. Thank me later.
You were wise to not take the redhead. Women love todays plains game safaris, but will find the Big Game hunting a bit boring, for a lot of reasons.
If you take anything for the blacks, make it something useful like warm knit hats ( toques) or ski masks. They suffer in the morning cold. They have all the logo ball caps and t-shirts they can use.
I always liked to take a well worn pair of thin leather gloves for threading my way through the thorn.
Think minimalist approach.
Did I mention to take less clothes and more money?

Drink in every moment of it.
Live life to its fullest my friend.

I'm taking notes....
Thanks boys.
Have a ball Doc.

The spare camera is the way to go in fact take 2 for the trackers. You will get some good pictures.

Something the trackers like is extra socks and or gloves. i asked for the number of people in camp and had a pair of socks for each and extra set for the head tracker.

I also passed out a tooth brush and tooth paste the travel kind that cost $1. Stocking caps are enjoyed and so are long sleeve shirts if you know the size.

As for the scotch i pack it in the states as cost wise it is a wash. and then you have it wrapped in clothing and then i use a 2 gal zip lock bag to go around this.

I tend to leave most of my shoes and clothing over there and as mentioned ask John to pass out the items with you by his side. I cover this the night before at the camp fire with my PH so we are on the same page...

What ever you do have a great time and enjoy the experience.

+1 on leaving a lot of your clothing there.
I never kitted out in all new stuff( like everyone else you'll see...) and often left stuff they could use...jackets( Carhartts are particularly nice over there for the thorn) and as Bwana mentioned, socks, gloves etc.

Doc,

I see, you forgo your plans to take the 9,3x74R.

While you were deadly with it, that was the only rifle, I could not hit worth a damn with at the hog hunt.

Back to the sigelines now, letting the grown ups play, while I watch in awe.

Best wishes

C

Have a great hunt, Doc!

Eric

James do you need me to go so i can poke that bull with a stick to get him good and pissed offed first?

Ha. You know he would, James. Give me a call when you get back so we can set up some ndg dove hunts. NDG except for the buzztails, that is.

Take card and good fortune. Eye

tried to convince him to let me play cinematographer for him free of charge awhile back

Carl..

Yes, the 9.3X74R was the fourth rifle I ended up rejecting for this hunt. Two reasons: first, even the most stout factory ammo I could find would only hit 2250 fps with 286 gr bullets, and when I built handloads that would hit 2350 fps, it kicked the snot out of me. That little rifle is simply too small to fit my frame. I ended up buying the Kimber in no small part because the stock is big and stout, and long enough for a guy my height to shoot comfortably.

However, I must say that when firing the nice Nosler Custom ammo I bought for it, the 9.3X74R shoots beautifully, accurately, and would be absolutely deadly on anything one might want to shoot in North America short of the big bears, provided the stock fits one well enough. Did I mention that it's for sale? Bargain price, too!

eyeball, stxhunter... if'n I brung you two along it would be a guaran-phuggin-teed mess... but thanks for the offers! I'll get together with y'all after I get back so we can whack some doves/nilgai, etc...

Did you get your loads square Doc?

Your life is about to change forever. Best of luck and can't wait to see the photos.

Mike

There wuz an OLD Saturday morning TV series. "Raymar of the Jungle" Well Doc, is that you now?? Whatever happened to the 375 Ruger??

Yes, per text!

For the rest of yez... I talked to Jorge in a mild state of anxiety on Tuesday evening after an odd occurrence at the range that day. I've been shooting my 375 just about every day for the past month, mostly practice loads (300 gr Sierra GK's @1800fps), 20-30 shots per session. I did my game load workup a couple months ago, but as I don't want to use up my supply of (expensive) A-frames, I have limited use of my game loads somewhat (300 gr Swift A-Frames @ 2500 fps).

Anyway, on Tuesday I went out to the range after work about 6 pm, and put 40 or so practice loads downrange, then decided to shoot some game loads. I was surprised to find they recoiled much heavier than I had noticed before, and bolt lift was decidedly sticky. I called Jorge to discuss on my drive home, and only after we started talking about it did I realize I'd left my hunting loads in the truck all day. It's been running 105 degrees every day here lately, so I decided the loads must have been pretty hot from sitting in the truck.

Sure enough, when I rechecked them this morning, there were no signs of high pressure, and the chrono told me they were performing as expected... about 2450-2470 fps. I guess I can now say I've proven that letting ammo sit in a hot car(inner temps must have been close to 150 degrees, I'm guessing) prior to shooting it is NOT a good idea!

I sold that rifle, Jim. After killing my buffler heifer with it on that hunt in '10, I never shot it again. Dunno, it just didn't speak to me.

John was sold on woodleigh bullets for buffalo when i hunted with him. Has he changed his mind? I had a good northfork load I was using and made the change to the woodleigh and four hits later I had my old daggaboy on the ground!

Hey, muygrande, John does like his Woodleighs still, but he's also had good success with the A-Frames and endorses them as well.

Pack your camera, bino's, extra set of clothes, and a hat in your carry on in case your luggage doesn't show up. That way you still have your travel clothes you "could" hunt in and a set of hunting clothes. Ask me how I know.....

Good luck, shot straight, and have FUN!

-Todd

That's all that old hard ass like! Tried to covert him to CEBs and even TSXs and he wanted nothing to do with them!

John is about as "old school" as one can be...

Certainly on the same page with Todd on his point "fly in what you can hunt in! I had to borrow two rifles from John until all my gear arrived in camp on the third day of my hunt! I knew when i ran thru Dulles to catch my flight that my bags would never make the trip. Then we pulled away from the ramp and sat for almost two hours awaiting catch up fr thunder storms! Enjoy your levis on your flight as you may get to know them very well! Just enjoy every minute and tell John howdy from muygrande in Texas.

My wife, Lynda hunted with John in June/14 and she was nice enough to let me go along. She hunted with a 300 Win mag and a 375 Imp HH. She took a huge male Leopard with a 17 and a half inch skull, Buffalo, 2 Zebra, Jackal, and the blackest Giraffe I have ever seen. We saw all the big Five animals while we were there. Was a great hunt for me on a personal basis, and I never took a gun with me and never picked one up to hunt while we were there. It was all about Lynda. She killed her animals as efficiently as any man will ever do. I am extremely proud of her.
John is a great guy, and it was great to hunt with him..guys kinda a legend in the Africa hunting fields. We left feeling that we had a new lifelong friend. Please tell him that Lynda and Billy say hello and our best wishes to him.

Go have fun!
Billy

Bonn voyage Doc
Have a great trip and tell and show when you get back. Cheers NC

Doc,

Take Cipro for serious Montezuma. Take a suture kit and some lidocaine- somebody always seems to slice something. General antibiotic and analgesic of choice. Toradol 10mg works wonders on everything including hangover.
Diphenhydramine, sun screen and bug repellent. Tsetse are the worst. Some golf or baseball batting gloves will save you hands from tsetse and thorns if you run into either. Fingernail clippers.

Wish I was going with you, but have a cold one around the fire for me. Also, enjoy Sharpe's stories. Amazing, they are.

Good luck, Doc.

The two truest statements about Africa are:

Everybody takes too much stuff.

Everybody brings home too much stuff, especially an addiction to Africa.

Guilty on both accounts.

I do know a few people who've only gone to Africa once, but not many!

Doc, I'd take the GoPro. Let someone else wear the damn thing, maybe one of your trackers. Most of them are good for 3-4 hours of HD footage on one charge, and you'll bring back memories from another POV.

I hope you have a freakin' awesome time

If ya can swing it, make sure those watch caps, gloves and socks you might bring as gifts are real wool.

One more thing.... dental floss, for yourself. Paraphrasing what the the Brits used to say about their officer's revolvers: 'A man will not need his dental floss very often, but when he does he will need it badly'. I doubt they will have it in the bush.

And disposable lens cloths for the optics, you can get 'em by the 100 for like $5 at WalMart, they pack real easy and IME are always appreciated by those who use glass for a living in places where you can't easily get them.

Birdwatcher

Well, lads, I'm on my way. I've taken as much of the above advice as I can, packed my bags to within a gram of the maximum limit of 50 pounds (American Airlines), and I'll just have to make do without whatever I haven't got.

Hatari, thanks for the reminder on the medical stuff... somehow that's always the last thing I remember to take on a long hunting trip. I've got a big medical bag I bring to sporting events with just about everything in it, but obviously I can't bring that with me on this jaunt, so I packed up a bare minimum of stuff. I have my blow-out bag from my SWAT days, some non-sterile instruments like forceps and iris scissors for things like thorns and such. I brought a sterile suture kit with half a dozen packs of suture material (I can re-sterilize the instruments by boiling if needed), and several vials of injectable antibiotics, steroids, pain meds, etc. My local pharmacist set me up with a sschitload of Cipro, Metronidazole, cephalexin, etc. I can leave that stuff in Zim when I leave, I'm sure John will be able to use it if he has a need to.

I took my rifle to the range yesterday for one last zero check. I have two scopes ready, both in Talley QD mounts and zero'd the same: my primary, a Trijicon 1-4X illuminated triangle post reticle, and a Nikon Monarch 2-7X duplex reticle. Using the 300 gr A-Frames, I'm 3" high at 100, 3" low at 200, and dead on at 150 and 30. Irons are dead-on at 25 with both the A-Frames and solids. I feel confident about bullet placement at any range out to 200 with this rifle and load.

I've got a long layover here in Dulles, which may give me time to find a couple-three things I still could use, like dental floss and lens wipes... after this, I'll likely not be on the 'Fire for 2 weeks. See y'all on the flip side.

Bye Doc!

Safe travels!

You Ludicrous double plus SUCK!

Doc should be there by now. How long until he has a cold Castle and biltong?

Also taking bets on what his favorite daily indulgence will be

a.) After lunch nap

b.) full breakfast everyday

c.) A hot shower after being in the bush all day

d.) Sundowners around the fire

:::SIGH::: and we are HERE...

All of the above!