Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Africa A great time in Zimbabwe

My brother in law and I had a great time in Zimbabwe, hunting with John Sharp.



Shot the zebra at maybe 80 or 90 yards. He was looking right at me and I hit him dead center of the chest, maybe 6 inches above shooting right under him. He did not react at all to shot, simply ran off with the rest of them. While I felt good about the shot, this was the first animal I shot at and John looked at me like I whiffed him. The guys in the back of the truck didn't even know which animal I shot at. I felt pretty low for a few minutes until we found him dead as a hammer about 75 or 100 yards away.




This guy was maybe 75 yards away, quartering towards me pretty hard, (he was not quite facing me head on). I hit him on the right hand side of his chest, right where I was told to, and he buckled and ran 30 yards. A jackal ran up to him, while the dust was still floating, licked him and then went and laid under a bush about 10 yards away, waiting for something to come help him unwrap his delivery supper. Jackal didn't make it to supper.



shot this through both shoulders and it made it about 30 or 40 yards.





I wanted to shoot my rifle, rather than borrow something larger, so I had to shoot this guy in his neck or head. I was told to shoot him right under the mane if I didn't have a straight on shot at his neck. I got too excited and shot it right dead center on the neck, from the side. He turned and ran directly away from him and I shot him in the right side of the back of his head. I had my scope on 1.5 and saw the impact and him fall like a ton of bricks. I was busy patting myself on the back, when John said you might want to shoot him again. I look up and he is up and off to the races. Third shot goes right next to the first one, middle of the neck, from the side. I pause to load another shell (I failed to replace the wildebeest shot) and the fourth one caught him about an inch below his ear. Fortunately, this was the most excitement we had.

The buffalo was pleasantly uneventful.


I was shooting my 35 Whelen that Sterling Davenport built, loaded with 200 grain triple shocks over 60 grains of Reloader 15. The guys found one bullet, the wildebeest shot. This bullet did not hit any substantial bone and managed to retain about 60% of its weight.
[img]http://i746.photobucket.com/al...-8f8d-bbd144afbb97_zps61f548dd.jpg[/img]

All in all, I don't think that I could have had any more fun. I will be saving my pennies until I can get back over there and hunt buffalo or lioness with John. The Bubye Valley Conservancy is a remarkable place and I consider mice elf fortunate to have been able to spent some time there. We saw 4 of the Big 5 while hunting, no leopard.

That's great stuff!

Your zebra kill reminds me of mine on day one of my first African Safari. I knew I'd made a good hit, but he acted like nothing had happened, running off with the herd and causing me to doubt. He was piled up 80 yards away.

I guess I was a bit excited on my giraffe too, as it took multiple head shots to anchor him, although the first one put him on the ground immediately.

Thanks for sharing!

Looks like a great hunt! Congratulations. Seems that .35 Whelen of yours did very well indeed.

Tell us a little about the "uneventful" buffalo please, looks like an interesting rifle was used.

Guy

What a great experience. That is one dark old stink bull giraffe. Congrats on experiencing the Bubye and a great hunt with a great PH.

Great hunt Willow. That double looks like John's Rigby. Were you hunting leopard or you just didn't see any? Also did you see any sable? I've hunted with John twice and have booked for leopard in 2015. Cheers, jorge

Congrats on a great trip1 Nice pics. Hunting Africa is very addictive, it won't be your last trip....


maddog

Congrats on a very sucessful safari!

On my first safari I got real sick of people telling me I'd missed an easy shot, only to have a dead animal a short distance away. TSXs don't give much visual confirmation of a hit. Belting them through both shoulders usually takes care of that, switching to A-Frames takes care of it better.

Great hunt. It's amazing how everything goes right when you book with a top notch professional. I would love to hunt with John some day and have already hunted with a few greats- Buzz Charlton and Jamy Traut.

Congrats on a great hunt!

That giraffe is a beauty. Nice dark old stink bull!

Looks and sounds like you had a good hunt with a legendary PH.

Guy, that is John's Rigby, used as a prop only.

Jorge, we saw one sable while we were hunting. seeing one makes you wish you had a "1" on your license next to "Sable" rather than "nil." One of our friends was hunting leopard while we were there. We had a big thunderstorm mid way through his 14 days and it set back progress. He is planning his return trip for another shot a leopard.

As to the triple shocks, if anyone wants to trade some .35 caliber Aframes for some 200 grain TSX, I'm your guy. While I only saw two triple shocks recovered, I wasn't impressed with the weight retention. Mine lost all 4 petals and the other one I saw (from my buddy's 375) had maybe half of one petal. Granted everything died like it was expected t and many TSXs weren't recovered, so I've no real problems with the results, I just wanted a pretty copper flower like I see posted and didn't get one. I'll go back to mushrooms over flowers.

That is how TSXs work! lots of damage when the petals break off and the rest punches through and gives you two holes and NEVER any bullet failure. I was a big A Frame user and went to the TSX for that exact reason. Pretty mushrooms but the penetration just wasn't there.

Beautiful animals.

thanks for posting those great pics....you have no idea how many of us get our vicarious "Africa fix" this way.....

Congratulations on a very nice hunt.

How much for the box of 300 Savage?


Congrats on your success, good stuff

Congratulations!! That was fun to read and really makes me want to do Africa!

Eric

Well done willow! You sure hunted with a great outfit and even though I have not met John Sharp, he has a good name down here and is certainly well known as a top notch PH.

Nice trophies and we look forward to hearing the buffalo story in great detail.

Great Post, congratulations on the fantastic hunt! I love to hear of the 35 Whelen being used anywhere, but especially in Africa.

Nice post. Congratulations on the hunt. I haven't read too many stories of people using a .35 Whelen in Africa, so extra points to you for originality.