Author Topic: Results from 2012 Zimbabwe hunt (Read 17897 times)

Rob · « **on:** October 15, 2012, 03:35:03 AM »

Got back from our 2012 trip to Zimbabwe. Great trip. All the planning info can be found here:
http://hunting-washington.com/smf/index.php/topic,64016.0.html

Started rough with our plane from Atlanta being canceled and us needing to extend ourtrip by a day to get the full 10 days of hunting. Everyone's baggage was missign for the first two days so we needed to use camp guns and ammo for those days. The bag with my ammo never did show up until we passed back thorugh Bulawayo on the way home so I was left with camp ammo.

Other than that, we had a great trip. the four hunters in our party of 6 shot a total of 58 animals over 37 hunter days. My main goal was Buffalo and my dad and I got decent ones and had an outstanding hunt.

Here are the photos from my animals, and my dad's. I'll let the others post there photos if they choose to.

First set:
Klipspringer
Impala for camp meat
Bushbuck
Vervet Monkey

Rob · « **Reply #1 on:** October 15, 2012, 03:37:43 AM »

buff photos for both my dad and I

Rob · « **Reply #2 on:** October 15, 2012, 03:39:28 AM »

more Buffalo, plus warthog and two bait impala I shot for Leopard hunting.

Rob · « **Reply #3 on:** October 15, 2012, 03:44:29 AM »

five bait impala, one camp meat impala, and one mercy kill impala that was caught in a poachers snare.

Rob · « **Reply #4 on:** October 15, 2012, 03:45:44 AM »

last of my animals.
Baboon
Wildebeest
Zebra

Rob · « **Reply #5 on:** October 15, 2012, 03:48:41 AM »

My dad's animals
Impala for camp meat
Zebra he shot for a friend to make into a rug
Wildebeest
Klipspringer
Waterbuck
first baboon

Rob · « **Reply #6 on:** October 15, 2012, 03:50:31 AM »

BAboons 2 and 3
Jackal
Heyena

Rob · « **Reply #7 on:** October 15, 2012, 03:51:25 AM »

and the last of the photos of animals

Here is Dad's zebra that he took for himself.

boneaddict · « **Reply #8 on:** October 15, 2012, 05:06:11 AM »

Great bunch of trophies.

lhrbull · « **Reply #9 on:** October 15, 2012, 06:05:50 AM »

sorry to hear about the flight and the misplaced luggage but it looks like u made the best of the situation great looking animals your dad's waterbuck looks great

fvh40 · « **Reply #10 on:** October 15, 2012, 06:48:26 AM »

Rob

Glad you are safe at home .
Congrats with your hunt and all the excellent trophies.
Thank you for sharing.

jackmaster · « **Reply #11 on:** October 15, 2012, 06:54:17 AM »

that is awesome, looks likem some serious gunnin there, it would be fun just to shoot baboons and heyenas, man who ever your guys taxidermist is is gonna love you.... congrats looks like a blast

X-Force · « **Reply #12 on:** October 15, 2012, 07:23:57 AM »

Awesome! Awesome! Awesome! That is a dream hunt right there.

cedarriver · « **Reply #13 on:** October 15, 2012, 08:09:48 AM »

Wow! Looks like you had a heck of a hunt! Great trophies all,bushbuck looks really nice, how long were the horns on the Impala,bushbuck, waterbuck, and klipspringer? Great buffs and warthog too. Love the jackal and hyena. Nice to be able to have some memories like that with your dad. Congrats.

Rob · « **Reply #14 on:** October 15, 2012, 08:37:49 AM »

It was a great hunt. Worth the two year wait, and financial saving plan to make it happen! Already thinking about the next hunt...

The Hyena hunts were really interesting. We did electronic calling at night to bring them in. When I get some time I'll document how the hunts went. Nothing like having 15 pissed off Hyena 30 yards away bathed only in moonlight.

We did a really poor job measuring the trophies. hit and miss.

While I shot a total of 10 Impala, 7 were for leopard bait, 2 camp meat, and one was a mercy kills. So no trophies there. (The Leopard hunt was a last minute long shot add-in based on available quota upon our arrival. We got close but did not connect which was a good thing for my pocket book!)
The waterbuck was at 29 inches. I was really surprised how big the body was. It was everybit as big an an average bull Elk, but perhaps not as tall (i.e. shorter legs).
My Klipie was 4.5 inches which I guess is pretty big. my dad's was 4.25
My Bushbuck was 14.5 inches with 5.5 inch bases.

The buff were kinda interesting. My buff had a wider spread, but dad's had deeper curls.
On the Rowland Ward system, mine had a 36 inch spread, and dad's a 35.
Per SCI, Dad's wider boss and deeper curls gave him a 100.25 score to my 97.

That's about all we got

Rob · « **Reply #15 on:** October 15, 2012, 08:44:50 AM »

Here is a table of the animals that I saw while there.

Basically I sat down every evening and estimated how many of each kind of animal I saw and recorded it in a table.
Notes:
-Baboons, Vervet Monkey were not included as we saw so many of them.
-I heard Leopards on at least 5 occasions but did not see them so they are not listed.
-There were approx. 1 billion Impala so they are not coutned either.
-There were a lot more zebra and wildebeest seen by others than I saw. Since I did not hunt them till the last day, I was not in the area they hung out, so I did not see too many.
-Some of the Elephants may have been duplicate sightings, but there were ALOT of elephants there!

lhrbull · « **Reply #16 on:** October 15, 2012, 05:26:29 PM »

Rob where at did you wind up hunting if i recall correctly the SAv got shut down just before you left. Where ever you hunted looks like it held some very high quality animals.

carpsniperg2 · « **Reply #17 on:** October 15, 2012, 05:50:39 PM »

Great bunch of animals

BOWHUNTER45 · « **Reply #18 on:** October 15, 2012, 05:57:02 PM »

WOW Definitely burned some lead

Those Buffalo are huge

gramps · « **Reply #19 on:** November 05, 2012, 07:32:25 PM »

Thanks for sharing all the info' about this whole adventure. You have set the standard for planning a trip like this.
I really like the wart hog!!

ShaneTyTrey · « **Reply #20 on:** November 05, 2012, 07:45:27 PM »

Awesome adventure, thanks for posting!!!

DeerThug · « **Reply #21 on:** November 05, 2012, 07:54:16 PM »

So what does a baboon taste like/ Just curious....

Rob · « **Reply #22 on:** November 08, 2012, 09:28:56 AM »

There was no eating of Baboon.

In general, most folks over there seem to consider them vermin and would like as many shot as possible. I know that a troop of Baboon can destroy an expensive thatch roof in no time. They are kinda like really really smart coyote or raccoon I guess.

When we were in Namibia the PH told us to shoot as many as we could and we would only be charged for ones we wanted to bring home.

We did not shoot any in Namibia because initially I had no interest in doing so, and by the time I started to think I might want to, I realized that they were well conditioned to stay the heck away from us. Best shot we had was a 500 yard running shot.

There were a lot more of them in Zim and we had many more shot opportunities.

For the one I shot, I plan to have the skull done as a desktop mount, and have the hide made into a small rug. The skulls are pretty dang cool looking. The eyes sockets are very interesting, and teeth are amazing. Here is a photo of one.

rock · « **Reply #23 on:** November 20, 2012, 06:06:03 PM »

Sorry if this is dumb question , but are you getting mounts done on all of them or only select ones?

Rob · « **Reply #24 on:** November 24, 2012, 08:06:11 PM »

not a dumb question.

I am still thinking on everything, but this is what I am thinking for now:
Pedistal mount for buffalo
Pedistal mount for Wildebeest
Rug for Zebra
Full Body for Klipspringer
wall pedistal or full body for the Bushbuck
Thinking full body for the Vervet
Wall mount in rocks for the warthog
and just having a soft tan done on the baboon.

DeerThug · « **Reply #25 on:** December 03, 2012, 08:36:13 PM »

Ok so I have to admit that is cool. Just a different hunting experience than I would be used to. Hard to imagine being able to hunt for that long with multiple species.

Know of a colleague that went to S Africa. Baboons were shot off of center pivots in Ag fields. Imagine baboons in Othello tearing crap up... So i get it if they are like coyotes here... but would have been interesting to cook one up... just saying

kiler · « **Reply #26 on:** December 03, 2012, 09:07:57 PM »

Zebra's are trippy..... no i'm not high

sled · « **Reply #27 on:** December 03, 2012, 09:17:26 PM »

Looks like a bad ass time!

Rob · « **Reply #28 on:** December 04, 2012, 08:33:14 AM »

They call Zebra "Disco Donkey's". I like that!

The smell of the Baboon was enough to turn my stomach! I had to make an effort not to gag. I can't imagine eating one. I'd eat a Coyote first! Heck, I'd eat 10 Coyotes first!

Can't believe no one commented on my Vervet Monkey... I am fond of asking folks if they want to see my blue monkey balls...

The wife says the Vervet goes into the closet when her parents come to visit! (I guess then it will be the evil monkey in opur closet!). I might have a powder blue tuxedo jacket made for him...

DeerThug · « **Reply #29 on:** December 04, 2012, 04:54:50 PM »

So this is a serious question.

Did you have to shoot a stallion zebra. reason i ask is a few years ago we ran into a deer hunter north of Spokane that had just returned from safari. He came and shared our fire and had great stories. When they got into zebra the PH told him to shoot the stallion. other wise it was like a way bigger few. He just shot the biggest one and got lucky.

So can you tell a male and female zebra apart?

Rob · « **Reply #30 on:** December 04, 2012, 06:47:35 PM »

The PH's are amazing and can usually tell a male from a female zebra. It is based on size, and if you can see genitalia (I assume you can see the genitalia on a zebra... I might be wrong on that).

These are short haired animals so it is easier to see that. But They do study them for a while before they tell you to take the shot.

I have not seen anyone charge a different rate for male vs female on Zebra. often folks are really looking for either a perfect pelt, or a scared up pelt from fights/lions, etc. That is usually the bigger question people have over male/female. and each hunter is looking for a different thing.

I cannot imagine why anyone would charge a different price for gender on a zebra, unless they are trying to manage a small herd. that is possible in South Africa since most if not all of the land is high fence areas. it is possible he had a smaller herd and did not want to take out the breeders.

If I was the hunter in that situation, I would tell the PH, you tell me which one is a male and I will shoot that one. If I shoot the one you tell me to, and it turns out to be a female, then I expect to pay the lower male rate!

Burchells zebra are gregarious herd animlas and found in large herds. Mixed with males and females. Hartman's zebra on the other hand travel in small family groups. The Hartman's I shot a few years back was with a mare and foal. IT was clear which one was the male as he was much larger. This could be another situation where they are charging more for a male. Ifthey have a harder to find type of zebra, they might be trying to limit what is taken.

Rob · « **Reply #31 on:** December 04, 2012, 06:56:39 PM »

Just went through all the zebra photos from the last two trips. I am not seeing prominent Genitalia on any of the animals. and with all the stripes it is hard to see what is going on down there. An experience PH can probably tell, but I don't think I could. not like a typical horse!

here is the only photo I could find and it is pretty blurry.

DeerThug · « **Reply #32 on:** December 05, 2012, 07:23:07 PM »

Intersting .. thanks Not sure what the deal was with this guy but from what you said i am guessing a smaller operation.

So back to the meat. what do they do with all of the meat. does it get used some of it must be good stuff.

Rob · « **Reply #33 on:** December 06, 2012, 07:16:30 AM »

The meat was mostly taken and eaten by the locals. The politics of stuff like that is complicated, but with the indigenization that is going on in Zim, I believe the villagers have some kind of right for the meat.

We shot several animals (at no charge) for meat for the village and for the trackers and skinners. We kept some of the meat for the camp, and we used some of the meat for bait (Hyena, leopard, etc)

It all eats very well. Here is one of the buff's up on the skinning rack.

DeerThug · « **Reply #34 on:** December 06, 2012, 07:24:11 PM »

that looks like some goed meat there andenough to feed quite a few ..

fvh40 · « **Reply #35 on:** December 06, 2012, 10:20:24 PM »

It is very difficult to identify a male zebra when they are in herd, with good bino's and patience you will get it eventually.

As Rob said, the males are a bit bigger than the females. I try to see testicles from an angel and I look at the legs, head and the neck, they are bigger and thicker than the female's.

Regarding eating a Baboon,

Austrian Hunter · « **Reply #36 on:** December 06, 2012, 10:33:07 PM »

Wow!!!!!

Austrian Hunter · « **Reply #37 on:** December 07, 2012, 06:12:03 PM »

I have been looking at your pics now several times. It's soo cool!! I can't get over the Baboon..... Man these things are freaky!!! No, maybe scary is the better word. Can you imagine ten of them decide to have you for lunch? Nasty critters! The small monkey is cool but his teeth are still amazing. I can't wait to go over there for my 40th

Rob · « **Reply #38 on:** December 09, 2012, 08:23:01 PM »

You are going to have a GREAT hunt. It is quite an experience!

I am really looking forward to seeing the skulls from the Baboon and Vervet.

Thanks for weighing in Ferdi, I thought it would be easy to tell, but as I went through all my photos I saw that it was much harder than I thought it would be.

I have a lot of respect for folks like Ferdi and the other PH's I have met. The number of animals they need to be experts in is pretty amazing. it's not like they need to know a good whitetail, mule deer, elk, bear and perhaps moose or some other less common animal like we do here in the states.

They need to be experts on things like Klipspringers, Impala, Hartebeest, Zebra, Wildebeest, Duiker, Steenbok, Springbok, Kudu, warthog, Gemsbok, Bushbuck, and I am sure there are others. And that is just plains game. Then there are DG hunts like Buffalo, Lion, Leopard, Elephant, Croc, Hippo, etc.

It gets really tough (at least for me) with straight horned animals like Steenbok, Klipspringer, and Gemsbok. no reference points. The gemsbok are especially tough as both males and females have horns, the females horns are longer, but the males are thicker. And they grow more or less in relation to body size. So at a distance, they all kinda look the same.

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Author Topic: Results from 2012 Zimbabwe hunt (Read 17897 times)

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