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I think there’s a reasonable expectation that the most popular lists and most accomplished/deserving lists will be different. I think many commenters will lean toward PH’s who are most astute and active on social media, while many who spend all their time hunting instead of promoting will go...

Yes. C9 & Mahimba.

Congratulations, that’s a wonderful bull. Elephants are a special hunt and you enjoyed it at its finest.

Huge difference between Matetsi unit 3 and the ECA’s

Thankfully, I’ll be 500+ miles south of there next week, on Coutada 9, so I’m not too concerned but my 3 buddies might be another story. Gonna be interesting to see how they handle this news.

You’ve got a good eye! 53” it is.

Thoughts on this bull? It was my son’s kudu from his first African hunt.

In a week I’ll be settling in at camp on Coutada 9. What I’ll be telling Neil Duckworth and his team is the same thing I start every safari with… ‘Let’s have a great time and see what we can find. Hapana Kunetseka!’ (That’s the Shona equivalent to Hakuna Matata in Swahili or No Worries in...

Tanzania does not allow hunting of females of any species.

I’ve not, but a good friend of many years has hunted twice with Asif and regards him very highly. He shot a good Marco Polo and big ibex on one hunt and the first time was just ibex and killed a big Billy that trip too. I’ve asked him about Asian hunts before and he told me Asif is very good...

I prefer gutless for most situations, especially for elk. And when I’m hunting by myself, alone; I really think it’s best to bone everything, remove the tenderloins and start packing loads to truck.

@Nhoro you’ve nailed it with this observation. @Shaw you should read this, then read it again to truly grasp what he says. I, and I think the others, have been trying to steer you away from a lousy hunt without coming out and saying you’re buying a shitty elephant hunting experience. The...

My son spent over 20 minutes on the sticks looking at this buffalo bull while waiting for an older bull to present a shot opportunity. After a while he whispered that he’d mentally brained this buffalo dozens of times.

Dave, is this on the same reserve where your young client, Safari, did the elephant hunt you discussed on the This is Africa podcast?

@JPbowhunter You don’t have to do ‘Big Trips’ to enjoy Africa. There are many options for stellar experiences with reasonable costs. Several operations in Botswana offer excellent plains game on huge areas at relatively low cost but where you can still see Big 5 animals. Birdshooting and...

100% Spot-On and exactly why I asked that question. Caveat Emptor. If I’m hunting elephants in Zimbabwe, I’m booking directly and hunting with a Zimbabwean. And for me at least, it’s a relatively short list of PH’s among the Zimbo’s.

If you’ll be hunting on one of the community blocks outside of Matetsi, I think you’ll find most likely 30-35, maybe 40 as top end with very low odds of bigger. Bigger is possible but very unlikely. However, it sounds enticing when someone selling a hunt says “50+ possibly”. I’m not saying...

On my first African hunt I was fortunate to shoot a Common Duiker, a Klipspringer and a Sharpe’s Grysbok. I didn’t really know what they were, other than ‘little stuff’ so didn’t really appreciate how special they were. The klippie was over 5” and the Grysbok was over 2”. Only later did I...

Those blocks are not Matetsi blocks. The actual Matetsi Safari Area blocks are numbered 1-7. The community blocks surrounding the actual Matetsi blocks may not have the quality of bulls that units 2-3-7 and other blocks bordering Botswana, like Kazuma, have. Be careful and really do your...

I did a little practice on my range yesterday… More fun and better practice than trying to shoot tight, little 3-shot groups.

For fun, my .338 and .375. Yesterday, I went out and shot a practice session as part of getting ready to head to Coutada 9 in a couple weeks. I shot my buddies 470 double a couple times to confirm the zero on his red dot, but that’s not really fun. Shooting my 338 offhand though was good...

I think I was 19, maybe 20 when my father told me something I’ve never forgotten and have tried to live life by. We were sitting in a duck blind and he was dealing with a terminal illness that had derailed his and our family’s life. My dad told me “I’ve waited my entire life for you and your...

Shawn Kennedy is fantastic. She’s the only person I’ve used on every single Africa trip and she is absolutely top-notch. When we had problems in 2019 due to 14 straight days of rain in Tanzania and our charter couldn’t land due to a muddy airstrip, Shawn answered my call to her cell phone...

Toward the end of a person’s life, many talk about the things they wish they’d done when they could have… And some talk about the epic shit they did!

Might be the safest country in all of Africa. And Tholo is top notch, excellent operation with outstanding hunting.

At this point in my life, there is nothing I’d rather do than hunt in Africa. My kids endorse my desire and I enjoy taking them with me when possible. I’m 3 weeks away from my next safari, which is to Mozambique. Then a month after I get home I’ll be off again to Zambia. Still dealing with...

My buddy’s rifle is an old Army-Navy box lock in 470. I believe this one is a Webley & Scott. The rifle was formerly used by both his father AND mother to take some fantastic elephants in Kenya ‘back in the day’, I think in the 1960’s. John Sutton was their PH! Mom’s elephant went 92&93 if...

@AckleyHunter Do you like to debate simply to argue? You’re either debating to amuse yourself, or you’re kinda dense

Your list pretty much matches what I carry when leaving the truck, except that I carry extra cartridges in a leather ammo holder on my belt and one extra in each front pocket of my shorts or pants. I just use my iPhone for pictures. And I seldom carry a knife or multi-tool. Gun, bullets...

No, I’ve not shot a buffalo with my 338. Today I was sighting in one of my buddy’s 470 for our hunt. We just mounted a Trijicon red dot sight on it. The 470 is a great buffalo cartridge! Ten shots and 3 Excedrin later and it’s ready!

I did a dry land hippo hunt with PH Alan Vincent on his Selous concession, MA1/Madaba in 2023. It was an excellent hunt that was quite a way from Lake Nyerere, probably a couple kilometers from the lake. One peculiar thing about the Selous is that it’s pretty common to find hippos out in the...

Have I used my .338 before? Yes, I’ve been hunting with it since 1985. I’m on my 2nd barrel, I’ve used it that much.

Agreed! I’d love to hunt LDE one more time.

And for the life of me, I cannot understand why anyone would book a hunt in Zimbabwe with anyone except booking directly a Zimbabwean PH. Lots of excellent PH’s in Zim.

While my 416 isn’t a Taylor but rather a Hoffman, I can assure you that 400 grain bullets at 2,400 are plenty good for anything. You note you’re at 2,375 so I think you’re ’good to go’. I’ve never shot anything except 400’s in my 416 (Cutting Edge Raptors are 370 grains and I’ve shot a few of...

Quite a few would disagree with you, both PH’s and client hunters. Lots of people shoot leopards with much smaller cartridges. Leopards are not difficult to kill as long as you hit them right.

Red Lechwe are off license/no quotas in Botswana. One of very few places place you can still hunt naturally occurring free ranging Red Lechwe is the Caprivi Strip. I believe they can also be hunted on Kasonso-Busanga and maybe a few others blocks in western Zambia. But that’s it. Zambia has...

A few thoughts… 1. Hunting management buffalo with horns that don’t spread as well is every bit as much fun as hunting bigger horned bulls. I did such a hunt last year and while I shot a non-export management bull, my hunt was even more fun than my buddy’s hunt where he killed a 42” bull. My...

What part of Nevada are you located? That photo looks very similar to out along the state line in 015. I’ve spent a lot of time wandering around that lonesome country. Love it out there. And God knows there’s tons of mustangs all over that region.

Sphere are you going? Who are you hunting with? And what will you be hunting? You’re going to enjoy a stellar time.

There is NOTHING in North America that the .338 win mag isn’t an excellent choice for. I first started hunting with my .338 in 1985, a Brown Bear hunt on Kodiak. The bear was across a canyon, well over 200 yards away. I was shooting a 250 grain Nosler Partition. Two quick shots and the bear...

@SStomcat yes, I realize that those taking any of the weight loss peptides can also lose muscle mass. But what one does about that matters and is controllable. I’ll suggest that losing body fat is far more important to good health than some muscle loss. In my own case I’ve not lost, but...

Great question, as this topic has been front and center for me the last few years. To start, I’m 67. In 2019 I was in pretty bad shape with bad knees, torn meniscus in both, I weighed close to but not quite 300 pounds, was in bad enough shape that I was contemplating having to sell my house...

By the time anyone would have found it, I was back in CA. Water Canyon was pretty neat country.

Water Canyon. Trip started off lousy as there were very few elk around, which was weird since it was February. So I wandered off the Pueblo and quite a way up Mt. Taylor, got stuck in the snow with no tools to get unstuck. Took about 4 hours to get dug out and back down to where I belonged...

Driving 70 mph down a dirt road… You just reminded of when I did that on the Pueblo of Laguna in New Mexico while elk hunting one February. I was hauling ass back toward town, going well over 70 on a dirt road at about 11:00 PM under a big full moon and as I came streaking past the only...

On my very first day hunting in Africa, we were on Deka and just sorta riding along while I was in wide eyed amazement. The two track crossed into Hwange Park and then back into the hunting area and pretty soon we came around a bend to find a spectacular lion sleeping right in front of us. Roy...

That’s a hell of a fine old rhino bull, congratulations!

@VonJager we arrive in camp on the afternoon of the 10th. I’m hunting with Neal, my buddies with Fabian & Dalton.

Bailey Bradshaw builds beautiful guns. You chose well