Fellow hunters.
Just posting a short hunting report from my trip, I am merely writing down my own thoughts and experiences, not rating different persons, companies or countries.
I met up with PH Jaco of @KWALATA SAFARIS late last winter at an expo, and just checking if my rifle would make it back from the gunsmith, I will get back to that, the booking was made 7-10 days later for late June 2023, the only opening for this year, next possibility would have been september 2024 or 25\26.
Flew in from London to Johannesburg and spent one night at the Afton Lodge and then on to MZ and Pemba the next day, from there, in a Cessna 206 piloted by Cameron to the Litule airstrip, good pilot he was.
Excellent camp staff and cooking, the trackers were local tracker mr T with outstanding knowledge of the area , master tracker Joe and Godfrey as number 3.
As the hunting for a cape buffalo\Dagga boy was my prime target and free range and only bulls out of the herds was legal to shot, I just booked a warthog and a bush pig on the side so to speak, just to hear the rifle sing, this turned out to be a good choice since we got the Dagga boy next to the last day.
The L9 is 562000 acres, we hunted roughly one third of this and I was the only hunter there in that period. The Litule camp is a rustic camp situated along the Lugenda river, the river flooded this spring and destroyed a large portion of the camp still many of the waterholes were dry or very small for this time of the year.
First day started out with the usual sighting in of the rifle and then we drove off, an hour and a half later we see a good size Dagga boy, we park the car and jump out and start to follow, after a short stalk we see a herd and decide that he is too close to the herd for being a lone bull, it could have been a short hunt otherwise.
It took us 2 days to figure out the for mentioned waterholes, or lack of, before we were able to track some dagga boys. The next 4 days we tracked I belive 3 different bulls, one of which we were waiting for to appear out of 10 fot tall gras, we called on him several times both cow and bull calls, he never came out and we were at roughly 20 plus yards because Jaco got a glimpse of his back. He took of like a freight train the other way.
One day checking out a waterhole a MZ spitting cobra came out of the ground between mr T and Joe as they were looking for tracks, no more than 15 feet apart they were, it did not spit and took off.
Another day tracking 2 lone bulls from a waterhole, half a mile later we cross a dry riverbed. Just on the other side the jungle is getting denser and Joe says we need to stay close due to the fact that he sees elefant tracks and smell them.
We are just about to move on when we hear a roar so to speak to our left not to far off, keep in mind that this is happening within 6 seconds or so, the roar was close so we all turn in that direction, I am in the back, then comes jaco and the trackers in front. One of the trackers asks, lion, we immediately hear the sound of hoofs moving rapidly over ground moving to our left and then turning towards us, now I am in the front. The rifle swings towards the sound of the animal, safety off as I raise the rifle, around the bend comes a sable bull at full speed no more than 10 yards away, seeing me he wears off slightly to my right and directly towards jaco. My rifle now is fully ready and aiming behind the sable, waiting for whatever is coming, Jaco screams at the sable so he passes Jaco at probably no more than a few feet.
Luckily there was no lion, only another sable bull, hearing Jaco the bull turned toward the riverbed and disappeared. A few interesting seconds though.
Then on the seventh day, in the morning, Joe sitting on the hood spots some tracks after 1 hour or so. We follow it towards the river into the tracks of a herd, Joe circles and pick them up again and off we go after a single bull.
I spot him first from the back, the trackers are looking for the tracks, looking at him I assume it could be a cape buffalo, he is in the shade under a tree.
They spot him just a few seconds later, Jaco says he is good, we wait as he is laying down sleeping, we try to get him up by calling him at 50 yards to no avail.
When he finally gets up, about what seems like 20 minutes or so, my shot is slightly forward of the shoulder, as we find out later, and he takes off. We track him for a couple of miles, wait, then the trackers go back and pick up the jeep, we have lunch and carry on. we spot a big bull coming towards us, not the one we are looking for but big, he takes off after spotting us. Not to long after that the trackers find drops of blod on some leaves were the bull laid down to rest for a while, so he is more hurt than we thought.
Joe says to Jaco that he know the tracks of the bull now and that he can follow him for days, that I belive.
Half a mile later we catch up with him laying down, he gets up and take off while both Jaco and I fire to stop him and we slow him down and he turns down the hill.
Finally I get him down at forty yards with a shoulder shot and the bellow follows just a few seconds later.
A fantastic hunt and I really do not know the width of the horns yet.
That said I will hunt with mr T, master tracker Joe and PH Jaco any day.
Adding 2 pictures, one of Joe and I with the bull and the second of my rebuilt Winchester Classic Safari Express in 416 Rigby, re chambered from 375 H\H before i bought it second hand. The rifle has a new stock and now looks like what a Winchester should look like in my opinion.
Best regards.
JB\Big Hill.
Just posting a short hunting report from my trip, I am merely writing down my own thoughts and experiences, not rating different persons, companies or countries.
I met up with PH Jaco of @KWALATA SAFARIS late last winter at an expo, and just checking if my rifle would make it back from the gunsmith, I will get back to that, the booking was made 7-10 days later for late June 2023, the only opening for this year, next possibility would have been september 2024 or 25\26.
Flew in from London to Johannesburg and spent one night at the Afton Lodge and then on to MZ and Pemba the next day, from there, in a Cessna 206 piloted by Cameron to the Litule airstrip, good pilot he was.
Excellent camp staff and cooking, the trackers were local tracker mr T with outstanding knowledge of the area , master tracker Joe and Godfrey as number 3.
As the hunting for a cape buffalo\Dagga boy was my prime target and free range and only bulls out of the herds was legal to shot, I just booked a warthog and a bush pig on the side so to speak, just to hear the rifle sing, this turned out to be a good choice since we got the Dagga boy next to the last day.
The L9 is 562000 acres, we hunted roughly one third of this and I was the only hunter there in that period. The Litule camp is a rustic camp situated along the Lugenda river, the river flooded this spring and destroyed a large portion of the camp still many of the waterholes were dry or very small for this time of the year.
First day started out with the usual sighting in of the rifle and then we drove off, an hour and a half later we see a good size Dagga boy, we park the car and jump out and start to follow, after a short stalk we see a herd and decide that he is too close to the herd for being a lone bull, it could have been a short hunt otherwise.
It took us 2 days to figure out the for mentioned waterholes, or lack of, before we were able to track some dagga boys. The next 4 days we tracked I belive 3 different bulls, one of which we were waiting for to appear out of 10 fot tall gras, we called on him several times both cow and bull calls, he never came out and we were at roughly 20 plus yards because Jaco got a glimpse of his back. He took of like a freight train the other way.
One day checking out a waterhole a MZ spitting cobra came out of the ground between mr T and Joe as they were looking for tracks, no more than 15 feet apart they were, it did not spit and took off.
Another day tracking 2 lone bulls from a waterhole, half a mile later we cross a dry riverbed. Just on the other side the jungle is getting denser and Joe says we need to stay close due to the fact that he sees elefant tracks and smell them.
We are just about to move on when we hear a roar so to speak to our left not to far off, keep in mind that this is happening within 6 seconds or so, the roar was close so we all turn in that direction, I am in the back, then comes jaco and the trackers in front. One of the trackers asks, lion, we immediately hear the sound of hoofs moving rapidly over ground moving to our left and then turning towards us, now I am in the front. The rifle swings towards the sound of the animal, safety off as I raise the rifle, around the bend comes a sable bull at full speed no more than 10 yards away, seeing me he wears off slightly to my right and directly towards jaco. My rifle now is fully ready and aiming behind the sable, waiting for whatever is coming, Jaco screams at the sable so he passes Jaco at probably no more than a few feet.
Luckily there was no lion, only another sable bull, hearing Jaco the bull turned toward the riverbed and disappeared. A few interesting seconds though.
Then on the seventh day, in the morning, Joe sitting on the hood spots some tracks after 1 hour or so. We follow it towards the river into the tracks of a herd, Joe circles and pick them up again and off we go after a single bull.
I spot him first from the back, the trackers are looking for the tracks, looking at him I assume it could be a cape buffalo, he is in the shade under a tree.
They spot him just a few seconds later, Jaco says he is good, we wait as he is laying down sleeping, we try to get him up by calling him at 50 yards to no avail.
When he finally gets up, about what seems like 20 minutes or so, my shot is slightly forward of the shoulder, as we find out later, and he takes off. We track him for a couple of miles, wait, then the trackers go back and pick up the jeep, we have lunch and carry on. we spot a big bull coming towards us, not the one we are looking for but big, he takes off after spotting us. Not to long after that the trackers find drops of blod on some leaves were the bull laid down to rest for a while, so he is more hurt than we thought.
Joe says to Jaco that he know the tracks of the bull now and that he can follow him for days, that I belive.
Half a mile later we catch up with him laying down, he gets up and take off while both Jaco and I fire to stop him and we slow him down and he turns down the hill.
Finally I get him down at forty yards with a shoulder shot and the bellow follows just a few seconds later.
A fantastic hunt and I really do not know the width of the horns yet.
That said I will hunt with mr T, master tracker Joe and PH Jaco any day.
Adding 2 pictures, one of Joe and I with the bull and the second of my rebuilt Winchester Classic Safari Express in 416 Rigby, re chambered from 375 H\H before i bought it second hand. The rifle has a new stock and now looks like what a Winchester should look like in my opinion.
Best regards.
JB\Big Hill.
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