Zimbabwe experience 2013

[Upton O. Good]

I had my first Cape buff hunt in Sept. hunting with Scott Guthrie, Zindele Safaris, Zimbabwe. Having hunted plains game in South Africa twice, I had made the decision to rob my piggy bank, bite the big bullet, and go after Cape buffalo.

Scott met me in Bulawayo and we spent the next five hours on the road to Matesti 1 getting to know each other. Upon arrival we were informed that the concession manager had given the bushbuck permit I had paid for to another party the week before. No refund was offered, I would be allowed to substitute an other animal of similar price. Needless to say, neither Scott nor I were happy with this development, I had wanted another bushbuck to go on the wall with my Cape specimen. Sadly, this was just the start of our challenges.

After unpacking at the lodge, I reported to Scott's cottage where we were getting ready to test fire the rifles. This was when we were informed that none of the permits to hunt had been issued and we would not be allowed out of camp except to travel to Victoria Falls. Test firing the rifles was out.

Scott discussed the issue at length with the concession manager who assured him that the permits would be ready shortly or at the latest, the next morning by 10:00. Of course, they weren't. Nor were they ready by 3:00 that afternoon or 10:00 the following morning.

Scott explained why the permits weren't ready and it was not looking like there would be any relief soon. Suffice the say, the concession manager was a bit short on his duties and responsibilities. It should be noted at this point that there was another party of two hunters also in camp who had arrived with a different PH and different outfitter on my arrival day and they were in the same boat: no permits being issued, no refunds being offered. I had noticed that the camp was in poor repair, ceiling fans not working, water not running and the swimming pool appeared to be used as part of the sewage system.

At this point Scott, who had gotten on his cell and made a series of calls, said there were three options: he personally would refund my money and I could cancel the trip, he would arrange for a hunt in another area at HIS expense, or we could stay in camp and hope that somehow the permit mess would sort itself out. Having lost one and a half hunting days at this point, I opted to get the hell out of there and hunt a different area, which we did.

Scott arranged for us to drive back to his home in Bulawayo, get in his plane and fly to the Bubye Conservancy for the remaining seven and a half days of hunting, all at HIS expense.

That, folks, is a professional hunter with ethics and honor.

I spent the next seven and a half days with Scott seeing what Zimbabwe can be. I had up close encounters with dangerous game, shot a gnarly old dagga boy at 30 yards, took an old zebra for the wife's rug, shot a gnarly, old warthog, and an incredible eland after chasing those darn antelope giants around for four days. I fulfilled a dream of shooting sand grouse at dusk in front of a "jeering" squad...(no relief offered to the weak at heart) and paybacks will be hell, Scott.

I will be writing up the details of the hunt and my other experiences in Zimbabwe and on the Chobe River in my blog. Sorry, I just don't want to write them up twice.

What I will say here is Scott Gutherie is an incredible man, a wonderful PH and, most importantly, a good friend. In favor of decorum, I will reserve my opinion of the Matesti 1 concession manager, for now at least.

I've tried a number of times to post photos but no go.  Sorry, it is a heck of a buffalo.

[BNAElkhntr]

Nice Buff    Hoping to get there in 5-10 years  Done the Plains game Twice in RSA  Now ready for some of the Big 5  What Caliber rifle and was it yours , Do you have a pict of the Eland?  Once Again Congrats!

[Upton O. Good]

The rifle I used was one of the PH's, a Parker-Hale .375 H&H, an old tack driver that was heavy and a joy to shoot.
I urge folks to get their dangerous game hunting done now, I don't think it will be affordable where it is available in the future.  It definitely was a step up from plains game hunting, that is for sure.

[MidgetIdjit]

Saw your thread on AR. Glad the PH came through for you.

[Natures Way]

Nice buff congrats

[Rob]

thats a nice old bull...  Points have dropped, he is worn down and a nice hard boss.  Exactly what one looks for in a true dugga boy trophy!

[cedarriver]

WOW! Great looking OLD Bull!

[mtmn35rem5]

Nice bull, way to go!

[runningboard]

very nice bull and sounds like the PH was awesome one 

[Upton O. Good]

Rob, you are exactly right about him being old and worn and I was very fortunate to find this bull.  He is my vision of the true dagga boy, not a satellite bull shadowing the cows as many of the so called "dagga boys" I see people posting.  I wanted to post this photo, not to show off, but to show how old and worn his bosses and horns were.  He didn't wear that groove into the base of his left boss overnight, that is for sure. I am just so grateful for this guy, what is that saying "I'd rather be lucky than good"?  Bingo.

[Rob]

A true old warrior.

If you have not seen it, this is a great, inexpensive and easy to digest book on Buffalo (by my favorite author)
http://www.safaripress.com/Buffalo-Shot-Placement-and-Trophy-Evaluation-Sc/productinfo/ROBERTSON95Z/

Funny how ethics vary from region to region.  US hunters (in general) want to take animals in their prime.  Biggest rack, biggest body, etc.  European hunters tend to look for old warriors as the true trophy. 

A bull in the 8-9 year range would have had a much larger boss and longer horns.  But one like you took (I am guessing 13-15 years) is considered by african hunters to be the true trophy.

I'm a bit of a "when in Rome" kind of person when it comes to trophies.  In the US I want a huge rack in it's prime, but when in Africa I want the old warriors.

Your buff beats mine in terms of the African trophy standards.  You can really see the difference in how the boss on yours has been worn down compared to the somewhat younger ones we shot.  your points had dropped more too - also a sign of an older more mature bull.

[lhrbull]

I look at either picture and start drooling cape buffalo and sable are huge on my wish list but don't know if I willable to afford them due to the prices seem to be raising because of the reduced hunting in some of the countries just got my first trophies back from 2012 trip they came out quite good except I didn't want the horns blackend but they did anyway

[Rob]

The horn blackening happens when they boil the skulls.  99 times out of 100 they boil the skulls and reuse the water in the process.  The fats in the water darken the horn material.  Or at least that is what I was told.  I asked my taxidermist to air brush them a little so they were not so black and a little more natural

[Upton O. Good]

Rob, thanks for the referral on judging buff though I doubt I'll be able to afford hunting them again.  There is nothing like hunting buffalo and I only did it for three days.There is so much I want to learn about hunting in Africa, I'm just so, so grateful I had a couple of chances to do it. 

I also agree with your other comment about Namibia.It is a much more stable country and the Caprivi Strip has a lot of free range dangerous game that can still be hunted.  The down side is it is more expensive, as it should be.  Quality demands higher prices.

I understand and agree with what you're saying, Rob.  This bull is more on the line of the American image of trophy animal in his prime.  And sometimes things in Africa happen in a hurry.  When the PH says "SHOOT HIM", you just shut up and squeeze the trigger.

Pumbaa, here, is definitely on the downward slope in his breeding age.



And every tooth (and tusk) in this zebra's mouth were worn down to the gum line.  He was definitely near the end of the game.  I've been lucky with getting shots ate really old animals which are my preferred trophies.  I guess I can relate to their being worn out, beat up and still pushing on.

[Rob]

your hog was right tusked!  My PH said that warthogs are ususally right or left tusked.  they will wear one side down more than the other. 

My dad's from 2007 was right tusked, but his one from this year was left tusked.

Mine this hear was right tusked but the one from 2007 seems to have been ambidextrous.

[Upton O. Good]

Great animals, I didn't know about right and left tusked warthogs, interesting.

Didn't you post something about a zebra story that is untold?

[Rob]

No, I don't think so.  I shot a Hartman's in 2007 that has been one of my favorite trophies and hunts, and a burchells that gave me hell in Zimbabwe in 2012. 

I am still working on my journal.  it is mostly done, but I just have not had time to focus on getting all my planning notes in yet.  here is the story from my Zebra in 2012

Since we planned to look a bit more for a Zebra, Cleopas and Phillemon went about gutting out the Wildebeest.  We loaded it up and drove back to the road we were on.  We were literally turning around the truck at the exact place I started the stalk on the Wildebeest when we saw a small band of Zebra on the other side of the road.  We dismounted and started a stalk.  They were about 1,000 yards away.  We closed the gap quickly and from behind a bush we viewed the group of Zebra.  They were milling around a bushy tree.  I could range the tree, but not the zebra.  Kobus and I discussed this and it we both felt they were 1-2 yards beyond the tree.  The tree was ranging at 160 yards.  Based on my Wildebeest experience I took aim at the quartering Zebra about 3 inches high and squeezed the trigger.  I clearly hit the Zebra and it went about half way down.  Kobus said
“Good Shot!”
This is when things once again started to go poorly.  We walked up on it and it proceeded to stand up and hobble away.  A look through the optics revealed that I had broken a front leg.  We closed the gap to about 150 yards.  I took three shots and missed all three.  I could not believe it.
The Zebra then laid down.  We walked up to about 10 yards and I took the final shot of the trip.  The bullet entered the rear quarter, passed through the body and landed in a dimple under the skin in the neck area.  After some photos Kobus and I did some forensics on the situation while the Zebra was cleaned by the trackers.
The scene of the first shot revealed that the zebra had not been standing 1-2 yards from the brushy tree, but rather it was a full 35-40 yards back from the tree!  So once again what I thought was a close shot, was in reality a farther shot than expected.  This would explain the busted leg.  But what about the three other misses?  Well, between my second shooting position and the Zebra I found at three sets of branches and twigs that were shot to pieces between 50 and 75 yards from the zebra.  Two of them were more like small trees than branches as can be seen in the photos.  Could this have caused deflection?  Well, I don’t know.  My twig rig testing from the summer on the 450 Dakota did not show any deflection when shooting ¼ inch dowels 15 yards in front of a target.  However a 3 inch “tree” might be a different story.  There were clearly lead stains in the wood of the trees so I know that the copper plating on the Swift A-frames had begun to expand.  With a 50 to 75 yard journey between expansion and the target, could it have deflected?  I suppose it could have.  I’ll never really know.  All I can say is that I took my time with all 5 shots.  I know what happened with the first shot, and the last shot went where it was supposed to have gone.  As for the other three… who knows what happened. 

[Rob]

BTW, each of the twig photos is a different one that I hit, and I was shooting my dad's 416 Rigby loaded with Swift a-frames

[Upton O. Good]

Unbelievable, I made the same shot on the Burchell's I killed with the .375. I didn't back track to see if I hit any limbs, I figured I just made a lousy shot.  I love the .375, I plan to use it for everything on my next Africa trip.  I don't think I'm ready for a .416 yet.

Thanks for posting that portion of your journal.  I'm way behind on mine, we're getting ready to move and I haven't had time to dedicate to the stories.

[Rob]

I don't see the jump from a 375 to a 416 as being too much.  The jump to a 460 Wby/450 Dakota, or one of the 500's however is significant.  The 416 Rem Mag is very manageable and a great way to move to a heavier caliber if you so desire.

The 375 HH however is probably the best African cartridge out there.  One could harvest anything in the world with that.  It only falls short if you need to reach out there distance wise.

[MidgetIdjit]

Didn't you post something about a zebra story that is untold?

That was probably me that you're thinking of. 

[Rob]

Now THAT is a good story...

[Upton O. Good]

Can you share your story, Midget?