TANZANIA: Tanzanian Plains Game Hunt With Kilombero North Safaris

[gillettehunter]

I have tried to start this 4-5 times. Tried on the plane ride back and lost over an hour of typing.... Anyway.....
Lets start at the beginning. I usually manage to hunt Africa every 2 yrs or so. I'm just a working stiff. Family, mortgage and kids and bills. Like many of you. As I got more established in my business I started to hunt Africa. I always look for a deal. A good hunting company, but that special sale price is helpful.
Kids are out of the house. Mortgage is paid off and this past Jan 1 I finished a GOB sale on my jewelry store and sold the building to my middle son to start his own jewelry store. I then retired. With the GOB I sold a number of my gemstones that I cut. Thats my hobby to help pay for recreation. I buy rough gemstones. Cut them and then sell them, hopefully for a profit. Between the gemstones sold and a good year end bonus and selling a couple of rifles I had my biggest amount of disposable income ever for a hunt.
I have been wanting to hunt Uganda and thought with CoVid perhaps there would be a deal to be had. I sent 6 or 7 e-mail inquiries about Uganda early in Jan. Only 3 replies and all of those were negative. So I figured I'd wait and see. I considered going to Spain for a Ibex slam. I looked at a Bongo/Sitatunga combo hunt. Between here and the other network a deal often shows up so I waited. In Feb I saw a hunt report on the other network on Tanzania and him hunting there in Jan. He mentioned a special deal. So I DM'd the OP and got the contact info and initiated a conversation on WhatsApp.
The company is Kilombero North safaris. The special was for their Lake Natron and Ngaserai concessions. The gist was that you got a 21 day license, but only hunted 10 days for a discounted rate. You were only able to hunt 1 of the key species without a license upgrade, but great pricing for the 1 . The key species are Lesser Kudu, Gerenuk, Fringe-earred Oryx and Striped Hyena. The other bonus/discount is that there is no charter flight involved. Yahoo. That can save $2-5K. It also includes the dip and pack. Thats another $500-1000 or more saved.
I passed the hunt info on to @LivingTheDream AKA Mike that I hunted Zambia with in 2019. We had good chemistry in camp and really enjoy each others company despite my being his fathers age. He took a good look at it and commented that it was $5-6K less than anything similar that he had seen.
Next step was to check out KNS and the PH's that we had names for. I had Quintin Whitehead and Zidane Janbeck. There was suprisingly little in the way of hunt reports with a google search. Less info than what we liked. The OP from the Jan hunt report that I read was very complimentary as I chatted with him. Between that and our other research we reached the comfort level necessary to book the hunt.
Quintin commented that May/June was his favorite time in Masailand with the green and the newborn baby animals. Due to our other life commitments we choose to go the last 10 days of June. We sent deposits and started looking at flights to go over. I convinced my wife to go. She is what I call a semi-pro photographer. She has nice equipment and loves to photograph the cats. In fact she was in Kruger/RSA for almost 3 weeks in April. She decide to take 5 of the hunting days to go the Ngorongoro crater and the Serengeti. Then rejoin us at Ngaserai. That works!
I also considered a jump over to RSA either before or after Tanzania. Just didn't seem to work. They wanted $1000-1200 more and close to 20 travel hours to get there so I reluctantly decided to forego RSA this time around. I started working with one of the travel agencies for hunters. Rates seemed a little high so I started looking. Along the way a ad for cheap african airfare through ASAP tickets popped up. I wound up booking through them as the timing worked for us using United and Ethiopean air. That decision caused me more grief than necessary......
After booking I'd get a notice of a change in schedule from the airlines about weekly. About 3 weeks prior to leaving I received a notice that our tickets had been purchased. What ? I'd paid for them weeks earlier??? Still not sure about that. As we got ready to go I didn't open a schedule change notice until I'd had it for 3 days. It told me to call their schedules change team. So I call and for some reason I had flight segment cancelled. Arusha to Addis. What the heck is going on? I left without being 100% sure that issue was resolved. In fact I wasn't 100% sure I would be able to get on the return flight when I showed up to the airport returning home. Not the best feeling. I probably wouldn't use ASAP tickets again after the experience I had with them.
For this trip I took my custom 7mm SAUM. It's topped with a March 2.5X25 scope. My handloads have a 180 grain Berger bullet running just over 2900 fps. Some on here don't care for Berger bullets. I understand the trepidation. I'm running them at a modest speed and using heavy for caliber bullets and have made sure that the bullet tips are open. If I do my part these bullets are deadly. Last trip I killed 3 eland with them. The animals on my list for this trip are much smaller and these bullets are a great choice.
I fully prepped 100 pieces of brass and then sorted them down to 65 pieces. I used 15 or so for my final sight in and took 50 with me which I knew was far more than what I needed. When properly reloaded my rifle is capable of 1/3 moa accuracy.
My newest piece of kit was a shooting tripod with a ball head. I had a bracket installed on the rifle so it would attach very solidly to the tripod. It allows great accuracy. With practice it sets up reasonably fast. The problem was I got it set up less than 2 weeks prior to departure and didn't have the practice time in. From a sitting position the stability is exceptional. More stable than shooting sticks when standing too.
2 days before we left Mike and I received a WhatsApp message from Zidane asking if either of us had any interest in a leopard. Thats the last animal for Mike's big 5 so YES. The deal was that the Masai were complaining about losing animals to a leopard. They would have more info when we arrived.
Maryann and I took our CoVid tests at our local hospital. Usually 6-8 hrs to get test results. We did that on Thur late aftn. Had results by 10 pm that night on-line. The problem was no name on the receipt and no date..... Thats not going to work. So at 7AM we headed to the hospital. Got printed results from them them with dates and names and headed to Denver. The airport is close to a 6 hour drive. I can fly out of Gillette, but for international flights they seem to want $700-1000 more than if we fly out of Denver. So Denver it is...
Check in was OK. The person handling us asked me to put my ammo in with my rifle. I explained that TSA was OK with that, but United was not. He checked and found out I was right. He had problems getting tickets on Ethiopen for us. Took close to 2 hours by the time TSA was done with us. My flight was Denver to Dulles to Addis to Arusha. Had a 11 1/2 hr layover at Dulles. Mike lives near enough to come get us and get a few hours sleep at his place. Flight was delayed significantly. Didn't get to Dulles till after 1AM..... Sorry Mike. We appreciated his getting us anyway.
Checking in at Dulles was time consuming too. We got there 3 hrs ahead and the line was slow. One person had like 17 boxes that were around 30X30 inches....Watched a couple of people turned away for no CoVid test. One had a test from April and thought that would suffice...... This was June 19. While Mike was checking in I informed his agent that I had a firearm transferring from United. That initiated the necessity of filling out of Ethiopean paperwork for a firearm. I had those printed out and that speeded things up some. Was glad to get on the flight.
As expected we were met at the gate at Addis by an agent to go down to baggage to check the serial numbers on the firearms. We had q 3 hr layover and it all went smoothly. Food on the flights was OK. About what you expect. Better than some I've had but not what you'd want to order off a menu.
Arrival in Arusha was a goat rope. They had decided that to enter the country you had to take a CoVid test. You first had to do a download on your phone and then tested. The testing line was a mess. I was told 2 times to stand in the wrong line. When I'm tired after that much travel its hard to keep my mouth shut. Good thing my wife was there to sort things out. $25 cash US for the test. I feel like its really just a scam.... Then the rifle/ammo check. They charge you for each round of ammo that you bring in. I had some shotgun shells as well as the rifle shells. They actually got the count right. Finally out of there and getting in a truck
Both Zidane and Quintin were there to pick us up. We headed out for the Lake Natron concession. We traveled perhaps 3 1/2 hrs to get there and arrived at 9 pm. Saw elephants along the road as well as Zebra and giraffe. Interestingly there is no lake in sight. Not sure if the concession even touches the lake or not. Never got close to Lake Natron. This lodge sits on a saddle on the shoulder of a ridge. Bed was wonderful that night.
The view in the am was great. A nice breeze felt good. We were advised to bring a jacket. Good advice. With the wind things got cold at times. The lodge was pleasant and inviting. Food was very good. More in a bit. I'll post some pics from my cell phone

 

[gillettehunter]

 

[gillettehunter]

Rifle tripod setup.
elephants driving in
View from lodge

 

[LivingTheDream]

@gillettehunter I am on day 5 of my write ups!! I am really excited to read your report even though I was there, lol!! Thank you again my friend!

 

[gillettehunter]

Day 1 of Hunting
In preparing for this trip I reviewed their list of animals available. Initially I was interested in Gerenuk, Grants and Thompsons Gazelles, Kirks Dik Dik, Suni and red duiker. Lists are subject to change in Africa however. I struggled with whether to take a Lesser Kudu or Gerenuk. I finally decided that most people have never heard of a Gerenuk and thus would be a great animal to hunt. As we got closer to the hunt I saw that they had Masai Bushbuck on their trophy list. I thought, why not? I've already killed 3 different sub species of Bushbuck and they're fun to hunt.
First morning up early and listen to the doves. I allowed Africa to just seep into my bones. Up to the lodge and watched it get lighter. Breakfast consisted of scrambled eggs, sausage and their version of bacon. Not the same as in the USA. Maryann was picked up to head to the crater and start her photographic safari.
Our first item was to check our rifles. Mine was Just fine. Mike tweeked his a little. Then off we go. I'm hunting with Zidane. His uncle owns KNS and Zidane is the office manager as well as PH. He quit high school to start his PH training. He speaks great english and is quite likeable. I also have Peter (Pieter?) on the truck with us. He was a longtime tracker and now is a PH. The truck driver is Selemani. He's a great addition to the team. The tracker is Davis and we have a government scout with us to make sure we obey the rules.... Makes for quite the group.
So up the hill we start. We see a couple of Grants and Giraffe and a couple of ostrich. Then we get lucky and see a small herd of Fringe-earred Oryx. Quite the sight and the only sighting we had of them. Coming down the hill we catch a glimpse of a dik dik but don't pursue it. Down around the flatlands we're looking for a large Gerenuk that Quintin had seen a while back. No luck. We come across a 1 horned Gerenuk. With both horns we would of hunted him right away. We find a Gerenuk with some Grants that Zidane wants to get a closer look at. We climb out of the truck and start a stalk. About half way to the animals we see a Masai walk through the mixed herd of animals and off they go. Its Masailand and that's going to happen. Still first stalk........
Around noon we head back to the lodge and lunch. After the meal Zidane proposes to relax until 3:30 and then to go out. I do a little journaling and relax a bit. Watch some of the birds. They have 2 smaller water ponds near the lodge for the birds. They just love it. The temp get up to around 80 with plenty of sunshine.
As we hunt we see cattle and goats and Masai, mostly kids watching the stock. Occasionally the kids come nd beg from us at the truck. Zidane explains that they are asking for water. Interesting thats what they want from us. Occasionally Zidane will hand out some water to the kids. In many places the grass has been chewed down to the roots. As the season progresses they have to travel further for feed.
We go to the flat beneath the lodge and start driving offroad. We see game along the way and stop to access trophy quality. After a while we find one that gets Zidane's attention. I set the rifle up on the tripod and settle in. I'm only a few yards from the truck. The Gerenuk is 134 yds away broadside. After several minutes Zidane calls me off. As I remove the rifle from the tripod Peter says something in Swahili. Zidane looks again as the ram is walking away and says lets go. I later learned that Peter told him we should shoot this ram. We moved froward until the ram stopped and then had to maneuver for a shooting lane. No longer out in the open and further away made for a trickier shot. I found a clear lane through the brush to his shoulder. Zidane said to shoot if I was clear. I squeezed the trigger and at the shot I saw a cloud of dust. I thought he had dropped there. Turns out he dropped and then tried to run. 40 yds was all he made it.
Bullet hit on the center of the shoulder and exited in front of the shoulder on the opposite side. The exit was the size of a golf ball. Perfect expansion. Turns out that a Gerenuk is the coloration of a Impala and about the same size. A long neck helps them to browse on leaves. This one is quite old as you can see in the mass of his horns. Teeth are worn. For those that care his horn length is 15 inches which if I understand it right would make Rowland Ward and well up in SCI as well. Truly a fine trophy. Pics below.

 

[gillettehunter]

 

[gillettehunter]

I feel like Gerenuk are not known because of low numbers and a very limited area to hunt them. They make a fine trophy and are hunted in an interesting environment.
After pics we look for a couple of hours for a dik dik with no results. I'm excited by the day. Been very interesting. This area and environment remind ne of parts of the Rocky Mtns except for the thorny vegetation and of course the animals!
Day 2
Today we go look for a Bushbuck. I had no clue what this was going to entail. I'm 63 and had both knees replaced a few yrs ago. I'm way to sedentary. I did however lose 30 lbs in the months prior to going on this hunt. Thanks heavens for that.
Wake up call was for 5AM. Departure was 6AM and a grueling drive up into the mountains. We were going up to hunt in a volcanic crater. The rim is well over 9000 feet and is in a rain forest. A frigging, kid you not, honest to god rain forest. I honestly felt like I was hunting Mtn Nyala from the shows I've seen. We start up the road and go through multiple bio-zones as we go up and the climate/rainfall change. We see 2 herds of Giraffe. Giraffe are the state animal and cannot be hunted so I saw some virtually every day we went out.
3/4 of the way up we found the Masai village. There was one really nice building up there. Looked to me like someone wealthy had built a house. Turns out its a school that KNS built for the Masai. The owner of KNS runs it like a non profit. He apparently has a number of businesses and puts the profits from KNS back into the communities. The village is spread out all around. The kids here are spoiled according to Zidane. They ask for sweets and not water. Apparently it takes an act of god for a Masai from the plains to be granted permission to move up into the mountains.
As we got higher up we stopped at a house that may of been closest to the mountain top. The owner is an employee of KNS and their mtn specialist. He wasn't home. Zidane left word and said he expected him to turn up later. He caught up before we began hiking......
As the vegetation became more jungle like the road became more like a tunnel through the bush. Had to watch close for thorns and brush coming at you. Zidane told me they kill a couple of buffalo a year up there and have a quota of 5 Bushbuck that they never fill. Getting out of the truck I'm struck by the beauty. Long time since I've been in a place this green. I'll attach a couple of pics.

 

[gillettehunter]

Note how high the vegetation is around the trackers.

 

[gillettehunter]

Fog/clouds as we come over the top of the crater. Waited for clouds to clear out.

 

[Royal27]

Gerenuk have always been an animal I want to hunt, just because they are so different. Glad I didn't have to make the choice between gerenuk and lesser kudu though.... Man that's tough!

Great report so far. Keep it coming !

 

[gillettehunter]

As you look at the photo above notice how wet my pant legs were. The dew on the plants was heavy. One of the trackers cut me a walking stick. I was grateful for that. Peter assured me we would go at whatever pace I was comfortable with. I did pretty good considering. The tracker leading the way had a machete. Used it too to help clear the path. Bit different from the desert the day before.
After clearing the top we went into hunt mode. We would go through sections where you couldn't see 10 feet to vistas where you could see a couple hundred yards if not for the clouds. We checked a couple of the higher benches. Hopeful that we might find one up high and thus have less oh a pack out. We paused half way down to let the fog lift. After 1/2 hour we eased around the end of a ridge and moved to some rocks to overlook a small lake/pond in the bottom. We could periodically see the far side when the clouds lifted. We immediately saw a Bushbuck ram upon sitting down. He was perhaps 14 inches and a younger animal. Give him a couple more years. He was perhaps 250 yds out. He walked out into the basin and bedded at about 350 yds. Through one of the clear spots we could see 3 eland. One was a great bull.He was a true slate bluish grey color. A real stud and just not on my list this trip. Eventually off of the end of the ridge we were on to the left of us we saw 1 ram and 3 ewes. I never saw the ram, but Zidane thought he was a good one. While Zidane was looking there, I spotted 2 rams come out of the thick stuff across the way and move into the grass on the other side of the pond. As soon as I saw the 2nd one I called him a shooter. Peter found him as i got Zidanes attention. I set up the tripod and tried to get a good solid setup. Once he got to the grass he never presented a shot. He got to 368 yards. I could see the top of his back. I could see head and horns. Never a stop broadside where I could get a shot. He eventually bedded at about 500 yds. The other rm moseyed along and disappeared to our left.
We waited a couple of more hours and Zidane got impatient. He decided that I should go with him and Peter down to stalk the bushbuck. More later.....

 

[Ridgewalker]

I never heard of a Gerenuk! A very unusual looking antelope.
The rain forest looks amazing!
This has started out as quite an adventure.

 

[cpr0312]

Enjoying the read so far, congrats on the gerenuk! Agree 100% with @Royal27 , tough decision with the lesser in play!

 

[TennJay]

Great report so far.

 

[Tgood1]

An amazing read. Patiently waiting for more. And an outstanding gerenuk. Excellent mass

 

[gillettehunter]

About the choice on Lesser Kudu VS Gerenuk. I could actually kill both. The problem was they wanted an "upgraded license fee" of $5K plus the trophy fee.... If you have the $$ you can do both. This was a "budget" hunt sort of kind of. It was a tough choice. I went back and forth on it for sure. Mike decided on the Lesser Kudu.
One thing I neglected to mention was the nettles. Those stinking things are rough. I got hit on my hand several times. It would wear off after a bit, but was something to look out for. Then I got bit through my pants! Stinking things have spines too. That wakes a person up a bit too.
We headed off the ridge and got to the bottom of the hill. Then the work started. It was miserable walking! Long grass on small hummocks with narrow "tracks" between them. Most of the hummocks were 1.5 to 3 ft across. The tracks between were 6-12 inches. You couldn't see the tracks or grooves because of the grass height. With the direction we took I could tell we would bump the smaller ram. When we got close Peter saw him. He was only 20 yds away and looking at us. After perhaps 1 1/2 minutes he jumped up and ran. Luckily he didn't snort and give us away. He didn't stop either like Zidane was hoping our target ram would....
We slowly and carefully worked through the grass. Waist high for the most part. Suddenly Peter pointed and there he was. 75-85 yards out. You could see from his chin up. Nothing more.... Peter and Zidane tried to set the shooting sticks. I had to move some and tried to balance on top of a grass hump. Finally got the sticks set. As I looked at him through the scope Zidane asked if I had a shot. I told him head only. He said take it and if wounded its on me. Meant I didn't have to pay if I wounded him. I felt solid so I aimed a little low to compensate for for being high at 100 yds........ I carefully began my squeeze. It felt great as the trigger broke and he dropped back into his bed at the shot.............
I was excited, but very worried about skull/horn condition. Peter, Zidane and I looked and couldn't find him! All that grass. No one took a careful look where he had been. Eventually the others came off of the ridge and walked to him. Thanks guys!
What a Bushbuck! Best of the 5 I've taken. I'd always dreamed of taking a 16 inch plus "monster". This one went 17 on the long side. Sent a photo to a friend. He wanted to know if it was a Sitatunga. The bullet entered in one ear and exited just forward of the other. He never felt a thing. Skull was still good too!
After pics at the bottom of the hill and back where waited they field dressed him and headed out. They wound up cutting him in half. Quite the hike out of there. I knew I'd be sore the next day. That night I found out that was where the Suni were and that we'd try calling them in. I decided to pass on that. They apparently didn't have the "squeeker" on hand for calling either, although I'm sure we'd make a plan.
I was very happy to get back to the truck. I was a tired puppy to say the least. When we got back we all celebrated our success. They had 1 more Bushbuck on quota so Mike would head up the next day.
That night I felt like it was time to ask about that leopard. They offered it to Mikeat trophy fee only if they could get it on bait. The upshot was Mike bought a couple of goats for bait that they would put out at 2 sites that they had baited in the past. This was, afterall; a plains game hunt. If something hit one of the goats then they would make a try for him. That seemed like a good ides. In hindsight the goats should of gone up the day Mike said he was interested. Don't know about anyone else but I have 20/20 hindsight. Bushbuck pics to follow.
Bruce

 

[TwoTracks]

I’m really digging Batman, the rifle bearer.

 

[gillettehunter]

Peter with a pic that shows his color well

 

[gillettehunter]

I’m really digging Batman, the rifle bearer.

That was the fellow hired from the village. Not sure I got his name. Did I mention that it was wet and chilly? His solution seemed to work, at least for him. I chuckled about it at the time myself.
Bruce

 

[BourbonTrail]

The tight angular spiral of those horns makes for a very cool trophy. Nice shot, btw.