Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Africa Hey, all you African Hunters...

Gonna go for a month or two next year. End of season safari. Got a PH and I will load up the land cruiser and head for the bush. There are always leftover tags that can be had at stupid cheap prices. Basic camp real remote. Tigerfish hitting great in October. Now, know this, temps will be in the 120s! Some can't handle hot Scotch with no ice and black mambas. Cool way to see the expensive areas you only read about.. Gonna bring my 6.5x55swede and a 12 ga. For myself. Gonna bring him as a gift a 375 and some kind of plains game rig. All legal, done it many time before. The real bitch is the 11pounds of ammo. A box of #6 is heavy. Guess I can get by with 2 boxes of swede. Rest will be 375.

Where? You are right about hot in October. Went to Zambia once in early October. 105+ degrees midday sux! Nights were tolerable to sleep. Hotter than that and you're paying to be miserable.

6.5 Swede is one of my favorites. What bullet you using?

I have a couple pair of cargo pants style from Levi's. Very comfortable. One pair is khaki color, the other is a sage green.

Got back 3 weeks ago from a quick trip to the RSA. Looking at Namibia in 2020 for a non-trophy elephant bull.

Hatari, who you hunting with in Zambia next year?

Johnny DuPlooy and Machinga Safaris. Known him
For 25 years. This will be my third Safari with him.

I'm hoping to do a buff in Zambia eventually and they are on my short list.

Hi Hatari.

I hunted with Muchinga, 6 years straight. I've hunted both Chanjuzi and Nyaminga for pretty much all the species there. I also have hunted their Tondwa concession twice. It is in far NE Zambia right up near Tanzania and Congo. If you haven't been to Tondwa, It was like a Garden of Eden. Roan, Livingstone Eland, Blue Duiker, Puku, Sable, and of course, its headliner, the Sitatunga. I killed the largest Sable, Muchinga ever killed there. It was 44.5 inches and black as coal. I did a full mount of that bull. Absolutely an amazing wild piece of Africa.

I want to go to hunt their new concession that borders Nyaminga called Chifunda. When I was hunting the Luangwa, the PH running Chifunda was an American guy named PJ Fouche.

Did you get to go to the Kafue Flats and Bangweulu for the Lechwes?

I personally believe Zambia to be the finest hunting country in all of Africa.

What are you going to hunt and which concession?

Fantastic outfitter, soup to nuts.

Chifunda, so looking forward to it.

Did Kafue 25 years ago when Johnny and I both practically had peach fuzz. I think I was his first American client.showed up in customs with some nasty stomach bug I got in RSA and spent a. couple of days in bed at his parents house. This was before he married Laura. We never got to Bangweulu. Fished lake Karba.

I like Zambia because after they got rid of Kaunda the country took off. They embraced capitalism, and they make an effort (by African standards) to clean up some of the corruption.

Don't put it off too long. At age 58, I put aside enough in an account to pay for a plains game safari, (and maybe a buffalo), transportation, and incidentals. Then I screwed around being busy. At 72, my heart went south. A hundred yards is a "hike."

If you have the finances, health, and desire, just do it. I wish I had gone when I could have.

Jack

I agree.
When you're young you don't have any money.
When you are middle aged, you may have some money and no time.
When you are old and have money you may not have your health.

If you get to the point where you have some extra money and some extra time, go to Africa. It's an amazing experience.

Agreed again on all that JG, I've even read, "You can borrow money, but you can't borrow time or health, Go Now!"

I am making plans just now. Will arrive JNB 01 Nov. Going to Kalahari on RSA-Botswana border. Red rolling sand dunes with grass and red rimrock sort of like flat Sedona. Then to Aranos in Namibia and then to Beitbridge area. Going to try a 25-06 on plains game. This is something like #23, lost track. Would need to count using old passports.
Don't much care what I hunt, just like being there banging around in a hunting car. Would like a really monster warthog more than anything.
May go up into Zambia can't say just yet.
I would like to find a 12-14 yo bull buffalo, an ancient old-timer. Unlikely on this trip however. Would use a 416 for that.

Another "agree" here.

I did it when I was younger, and could barely squeeze the finances out....and now that Im in my mid-60s words cannot express how glad I am that I did it!

I'd forego it today just because of the hassles of airline travel... but for those of you motivated enough, I promise not would be worth putting up with the hassles, theres nothing like Africa!

I've done the vanilla safaris. Namibia, Zimbabwe, RSA, Zambia, Mozambique, Tanzania etc..... My mom is not doing well, and the family sitdown about the will went well. I'm gonna use portion of funds for a true jungle hunt. Bongo and forest elephant. Gonna make a 20 inch 458 or 416 for point blank encounters. I'm 44, and health is starting to suffer.

MAGA!!

I shot a Buff in Zim last year in July. A Leopard this spring in Namibia. I leave in a week for Kyrgyzstan for a Mid Asian Ibex. My next hunt after that will be an Ele.

It's cool to read the stories, and plans, and regrets here. I concur, you should go as soon as you can if you have the desire to do so.

I went in '15, pretty much as soon as I wanted to. I was 60, in decent shape, and for the first time in my life able to afford it. I didn't really want to go until then, in large part because I simply don't daydream about doing things that I can't make happen... so since I knew I couldn't afford the time or the money, I just didn't entertain the possibility. As soon as it became a possibility though, I went. And I don't regret a minute or a dollar spent at it.

I'm looking at a couple of options for '18 or '19. Three, actually. Easiest option is a plains game hunt in RSA with one of our 24HCF members who is an outfitter there. I could round out my spiral horn collection, get a bigger kudu, etc. Second option is a buffalo/eland hunt in Zambia with Sharp. Third option is a private hunt with a good friend who has superb connections there, and it would be a foursome, he and I and our wives. Dunno which is going to come together, but it will be one of them.

I really don't want to hunt anything but buffalo, to be honest. I'd really like to get a truly massive old dugga boy, well above 40". Those are hard hunts, I know, but that's really the only thing that excites me while I'm here. I know I'll be excited about other things when I get there. I didn't get my eland last time, and I didn't book for sable... a good mature bull of either species would be nice, but only if bagging one could be done without compromising the buffalo.

We shall see.

I'll likely go back. Another year or two? Need a Bushbuck, Nyala, some form of Wildebeest, and of course a Springbok. Possibly others. A bigger Kudu would be nice, something in the 55"+ range. Would definitely go back with same safari as before. Critical to going would be getting a group together. Hanging around the fire at night, riding in the truck together at times are all a part of the trip.

I leave for Mozambique in 9 days to hunt Buffalo and croc or anything else that I think I need. To say I am excited is a understatement the group that just got back said easily over 1000 buffalo where spotted during 7 days.
Have a group going in June 2018. I believe I have one more spot for the group to hunt 2+1 with us. It will be my 4th RSA trip taking the wife for her first safari. Doing all this hunting with JP Kleinhans.

Called Gracey Travel. Told them to book me ATL to Mfume, Zambia. July 2018!