Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Africa A great time in Zimbabwe

Very nice and a great write-up.

I hope you have a 2 story foyer or great room. That giraffe mount will take up a good portion of it. Did you hear the skinners groan when they realized they were going to be skinning that beaut of a giraffe?

Glad you had a great hunt. The pics seem to prove you did.

Congrats.

My brother in law killed the buffalo on the 4th day of the hunt. We would spend the mornings following the trackers, who were tracking bulls away from water holes. This was by far the most enjoyable part of the hunt for me. Everyone comments on how amazing it is to watch the trackers work. This is kind of like shooting doves in Argentina, you hear it all the time and prepare yourself by telling yourself, "Oh, I can imagine these guys working" or "I can imagine the sky full of birds" but until you see it, you've got no idea of the magnitude of experience. Issac and Kevin (the trackers) would quietly wander around and after an hour or so, there would be a fresh pile of $h!t, then a while later, a big black buffalo standing 30 yards away in some thick brush. The one that was killed was with another bull and had laid down. Brother in law got set up on the sticks, Isacc started breaking branches, buffalo stood up and turned to look at noise and he shot. Buffalo ran 30 or 40 yards and died. His buddy stared us down while we walked around to find the dead one. John yelled at the survivor and off he went. The two or three minutes between the shot and John yelling at the other bull were the best of the trip. I was always the 5th in line, behind everyone but the game scout. During these 2 or 3 minutes, I noticed that the scout had his south african made AR (I don't know what the rifle was) slung over his shoulder and was keeping a tree between himself and me.

I don't have any room for the flat skins from these animals. I'm afraid I'll have to have seat covers for my car made so that my wife can't find a new house that has room for them. I need to take that card out of the deck. I am looking forward to getting the european mounts from everything (less the zebra). The giraffe skull has a pretty good sized chunk out of it from my second shot.

Oh, thanks to RenoH414 for sending me two factory boxes to put my reloads in. TSA did cut the lock off of my pelican case that had my ammo in it going over there. And coming back. I would suggest using a TSA approved lock on your ammo case if you're going to lock it at all. TSA also confiscated several hundred 416 bullets (just a plastic bag of projectiles) in Dallas. I called them on it and could hear a lady in the background say, "I didn't know what they were and asked so and so and he said just to take them." Southwest was able to get them back and in a cardboard box and on my plane. No harm in done, but a brief head ache and lesson on bullets versus ammunition.

David,

I am so jealous!!! I just may have to go back with you! seriously!

Willow,

Did you shoot the buffalo with the .35 Whelen as well? I thought that caliber was illegal for Cape buffalo.

That's why I went to North Fork soft points. With the same 300 grain NF bullets, I shot an Impala stem to stern (bullet under the skin of the ham) and hit a Cape buffalo in the spine/shoulder junction. DRT on the Impala. The buff fell down and didn't move a step. Both bullets, when recovered, weighed over 290 grains and you can't tell the difference between them.

Drew, it was a great time. I'll probably be back over there sometime. Some projects will have to be re-evaluated/moved around. Its going to be tough to build a new shotgun and go to Spain and to get back to the Bubye.

Indy, I did not shoot the buffalo with the 35 whelen. My brother in law shot it with a 375. Despite my disappointment with not having pretty copper flowers like I've seen posted here, all of the animals I shot with a triple shock died in very short order.

I too have shared the greatness of the Bubye with John, Isaac, Kevin and "Wing", what a lifetime memory. In fact we saw a really big leopard while driving to the Fimbiri camp but alas not on my list for that hunt! Which camp did ya'll hunt? My second rifle was the whelen's little sister the 338-06 and did an excellent job with the 210 TTSX bullets. Actually I was hunting this time of year only four short years ago. We also lost about two days to rain in our fourteen day hunt.

Thanks so much for sharing your trip with us.

We hunted out of the Samanyanga camp. There was certainly no measure of "roughing it" at this place. Now that I'm thinking about it, I'm going to see if I can arrange for my wife to have an ice bucket, can of soda and a bottle of scotch sitting out for me when I get home from the office. Scotch and soda might be as essential to a good, late afternoon shower as a bar of soap?

I've sent the 50% deposit on my taxidermy, so the next stage of the waiting beigns. That is another bonus of this hunt for me, I get two different count downs/things to anticipate, rather than one.

This is a very nice camp. When I was there they had covered tents with attached bathrooms. I really liked this set up as it felt like wild Africa with nothing but tent fabric between you and the elephants in camp. I have heared they have replaced them with chalets. How do they handle the sleeping arrangements now?

I received my trophies a few months ago and was looking at the european mount of the giraffe and thought I saw something rattling around in the back of the skull. I managed to shake it around enough to recover my second triple shock. This bullet stayed in place through the boiling, cleaning and shipping.

Cool!

I took a 35 Whelen with 225 grain trophy bonded bearclaws. It worked fantastic on everything from Klipspringer to Kudu.