ZIMBABWE: 2024 - My First Trip To Africa, Dalton & York

[PHOENIX PHIL]

Great hunt @deewayne2003, congratulations!

 

[revturbo9967]

I’ll tell him he owes me a beer! Scott is a very good guy. I enjoyed having him in camp on my two hunts with D&Y. I left him some ammo last year that I hand loaded myself. As you know, they have a tough time getting ammo over there.

He is fun to hunt with that's for sure.

He brought his shotgun one day for guinea fowl and on the way back from Zebra hunting spotted a bunch. He jumped out running toward the pack and they all took to flight. He raised the shotgun and then we heard nothing, only for him to turn and shake his head and the truck erupt laughing. He didn't have a round in the chamber.

 

[Slickshooter]

Great hunt and thank you for sharing

 

[PARA45]

Wow, what a great trip, congrats to both. Any pictures of Mr. T?

 

[meigsbucks]

Sounds like a great hunt. I like reading about hunts with D&Y as I hope to hunt with them soon.

 

[Goat416]

Looks like @abnhog has posted both the story and pictures on a new thread.

https://www.africahunting.com/threads/dalton-and-york-safaris-and-mr-t.84058/

Congratulations to both hunters and sounds like a great hunt.

 

[deewayne2003]

Wow, what a great trip, congrats to both. Any pictures of Mr. T?

Yes I have pics... but post mortem and I wanted to respect Dan @abnhog, incase he wanted do his own write up.

Which looks like he has
https://www.africahunting.com/threads/dalton-and-york-safaris-and-mr-t.84058/

 

[fhr630]

Fantastic report Davin and congratulations.
We all knew you would like those great Aussie Hydros.
Grant.

 

[gillettehunter]

Congrats on a great hunt. We appreciate the hunt report. Everyone is envious.
Bruce

 

[deewayne2003]

Fantastic report Davin and congratulations.
We all knew you would like those great Aussie Hydros.
Grant.

Agreed! I believe the 6gr loss of weight was due to an axe hitting the tip of it during meat cutting.

Especially considering it went through a 3” branch before hitting a big cows front shoulder, heart and break rib on the off side… yeah I’m a believer now having used Woodleigh .470 Hydros now on elephant and the assortment of game I got with @264 during the epic NT hunt with .404J 350gr weldcores and 400gr Hydros.

Glad to see Geoff has things up and running again.

 

[buck wild]

Was Stan your chef? He made some great meals while we were there in '21. There must be "local fishing areas" and "non-local areas" because when we were there our game scout kept running off the locals with their can poles saying that wasn't their area and they knew it !

Congrats.

 

[deewayne2003]

Was Stan your chef? He made some great meals while we were there in '21. There must be "local fishing areas" and "non-local areas" because when we were there our game scout kept running off the locals with their can poles saying that wasn't their area and they knew it !

Congrats.

I'm not sure of the chefs name but I know he took great care of us, my favorite was the Impala Schnitzel(Chicken fried steak) and he makes amazing gravy to go with it.

Field lunches were equally amazing.... Chef made chicken quiche and we added fresh grilled buffalo steak, roasted elephant & mealie meal.

As for this fishing areas - I found it odd that the rangers were charging the locals $1 each to fish by the discharge port for the croc farm and not letting us fish there but then again this is Zimbabwe.

 

[Rich s]

They charged my buddy $10 to use the restroom in the international welcome center at the crock farm. . Lol. We weren’t about to tell them we all used it.

 

[Nyati]

Great hunt, congrats !

 

[JerBear8]

Congratulations! Incredible trip. Ele as your first African animal?! Awesome!

 

[sniper7]

Congrats and a great write up!

 

[Ward]

Day 2 - Winds of Change & Full retreat!

We start the day by following up a tip from Todd & Pierre about a tuskless near another dry river bed and we spend the morning up and down hills into different sections of this riverbed only to figure out they had crossed into the park and back to the truck we go and have a quick lunch before heading back out to look for tracks when we pass by a fishing camp and the manager gives us a tip about a herd by the lake in a place called Tiger Bay and we're off.

We spot the herd moving to the lake and even at great distance there is one old cow that stands out as both big body and no tusks, the mad scramble to grab gun belts and rifles begins as we have the driver take off and we start the long dash to cover the distance to the intercept point where they would head into the jess again.

Note: It's illegal to kill elephant on the floodplain of lake Kariba which is down 45' because of dam maintenance, so we must kill her in the jess to abide by all the rules.

We make it into position by working the tree line and Bruce begins checking the wind every few seconds and I notice the frustration on his face as the wind shifts back and forth but the herd is coming directly for us as Bruce feverishly examines and reconfirms the tuskless old cow has no dependent calf with her and it's a green light if they come in range..... and oh do they come right up until their on top of us but my view is blocked by a tree until she's the 3rd elephant to walk within 10yds of me in passing and Bruce whispers "Taker her, SHOOT!"

She's standing quartering to me at 11yds when she clears the tree that was blocking my view and the .470 booms as I was a 3" tree limb near cut in half by the first hydro before it slammed into the point of her shoulder and she shuttered and never took another step and I fired the left barrel striking the sage point of aim but not clipping the limb as she was weakening starting to stagger/sway.

I open the Sabatti and both shells eject over my shoulder and two more Hydros are loaded from my belt and rifle back up and she is going down and never took a step after the first shot I put the dot on her forehead and broke the front trigger and with both eyes open I watch her hind legs collapse and her tail hit the ground before her trunk and upon landing rolled over on her left side against a tree..... It was over but not done, Bruce called for a full retreat to because at the time of shooting we had many elephant around us and we wanted to keep the wind and back out FAST>

We made quiet but QUICK retreat to allow for the herd to move on and gave it a half hour but the still wouldn't leave, we ultimately backed out to the truck and took our time driving in and hopefully scaring away any enraged members of the herd and there she lay......

My first every African animal killed on day two of my first Safari with a double rifle.
View attachment 619686


And the customary tail cutting....
View attachment 619688

After securing the scene and taking the tail with us we meet two men coming back from fishing who are walking and inform them that we have an elephant and to come in the morning if they want meat.

Thank you for sharing. I’m using a Blaser chambered in 470 NE. Glad to hear that’s enough gun. I havnt decided for sure but I may take a second Blaser Double rifle in 385 but probably a Blaser K95 chambered in 300 win Mag for leopard and smaller game.