ZIMBABWE: My 21 Day Safari With Charlton McCallum Safaris & A Pair Of Double Rifles

[Tanks]

Day 16:

Up at 5AM again breakfast and we are off. We wonder around looking for tracks and do not see anything fresh. Roads are really narrow, guys have to get off the truck and chop branches often.

We have lunch at a spring. See Impala and Kudu cows coming for drinks. After lunch we head to a different area, close to Mozambique border away from villages.

As we are driving another tap on the truck. "Elephant track". It is very fresh. However, it is just one young bull. Keith says, "There are tuskless bulls in this area and we have nothing to lose." We gear up and start tracking. The bull picks up another bull, now there are two. Keith and the trackers are power walking as Mozambique is only a couple of miles away. I do my best to keep up. The bulls picked up a couple of cows on the way, now there are 4 elephants. We catch up.

At this point we are being very careful and quite. The wind is in our favor. Keith glasses for a long while it is pretty heavy jess and hard to tell. He confirms that the bulls have tusks. He glasses the two cows on our left. They are facing towards the bulls. He says both are tuskless. We get within 25 yards. He says to take the one that is closest to the bulls, side brain.

At this point the other one moves forward. I have a better side brain shot on that one as the other is behind foliage. However, I can't take the one as the solid would go through and hit the other one. Not interested in buying two elephants.

The one that just moved turns towards us, Keith says, "Frontal brain, take it". I aim in the middle of the imaginary line between the ear holes and squeeze the trigger. .500 booms, I roll with the recoil and Keith tells me to duck. The other elephant is pissed, ears are flaring and it is looking around. Finally it takes off.

Keith says, "I saw the rear legs drop first", but we hear some noise. He tells me to shoot again if it gets up. We approach to where it was lying down and I put an insurance shot between the shoulder blades.

Congratulations all around.

Just as I was pressing the trigger the elephant was turning its head. So, did not have a clean brain shot.

During recovery, the next day when they roll the elephant over I see the impact location. Right by the eye though correct elevation for a brain shot. When they open the elephant up we see that the bullet went into the spine. Insurance shot took out the lungs and we found that bullet on the ground at the other side.

Keith says, "Pondoro was right, if you had shot a .375 instead of the .500 it would have been in Mozambique by now." I concur.

We are about a mile and a half from the road. Too late to do recovery, we head to camp.

Shower, wine and dinner. Keith will take the guys out early morning to start making a road, He will get me around 7:30.

14,920 steps, 5.5 miles and 19 floors of incline.

To be continued...

 

[Rare Breed]

Day 10:

Up at 5AM, and breakfast. During breakfast Keith mentions that a village near Mozambique border had seen a couple of dugga boys and we would go and check it out.

We head out. Prior to the village there is a curve at the road on the other side of the curve the trackers see many tracks heading the direction we came from. Keith makes a U turn and we go back around the curve. As we turn we see a herd of buffalo crossing the road a few hundred yards away.

Keith pulls the car to the side of the road and we get out. I gear up and load a couple of softs in the .500 NE. We get going. The trackers are following the buffalo. We go up and down some ridges and make our way ahead and upwind of them.

Keith sets up the sticks and shows me a hole in the jess. He says "they will be passing by here soon." We wait, it would be about a 40 yard shot if I take it. He says, "cow, cow, young bull, cow...". Nothing shootable passes.

We hustle, down a ridge and up a ridge and make our way ahead of them again. We get on an anthill, we can see down into the jess. Keith is glassing and he sets up the sticks and says "see that bull down there?" All I can see is from the neck to the start of the hind legs. I ask him, "Take it?". He says, "Yes, it is a good bull with a worn horn on one side." I point the red dot behind the shoulder and press the trigger. The .500 roars, I feel the barrels going up, muscle memory rolls with the shot. Keith says, "You hit him hard". The rest of the herd takes off passing 30 yards or so to our left. Then, they catch our scent and reverse direction passing from our left again. A few good bulls, if this was a 2 on 1 hunt the other person would have been able to take one as well. The herd was confused to where the shot came from.

Keith tells me to put a soft in left barrel and a solid in the right. We wait a bit, good news is we did not see any bulls in distress as they were passing back and forth. Head tracker tells us that he heard a death bellow, but Keith did not hear it from all the noise the herd was making.

We make our way down the ridge, it was a 53 yard shot (ranged it with the range finder afterwards). We find the bull 20 yards from where I shot it. Keith says it was a double lung shot. Will be interesting to see after we skin it and cut it up. Congratulations all around.

We are a mile and a half from the road as the crow flies. No way for the car to make it to the buffalo due to the rocky terrain at some spots and couple of ravines in between.

We all go to the car. Find an elephant trail on the way there. Once at the car the guys start making a path for the car. We go about 600 yards before we have to stop at the first ravine. From now on it is on foot. I grab my other camera, and the guys their skinning knives as well as water etc.. It will be a chore.

We take pictures.

View attachment 421074

After the pictures the guys start skinning. The bullet is under the skin on the other side of the bull. After skinning the guys cut the buffalo up. The 4 legs will go to the parks. The guys take the 4 legs and the head to the car and then they will need to come back for the rest of the meat.

View attachment 421075

After they come back they start getting the meat, the backstraps and the filet is for the camp cook. Most of the meat will go to the trackers and ribs we will leave behind for the Park's people to grab later.

Everything gets used the game scout makes a coat out of the stomach to make it easier to carry.

View attachment 421076

Two of the trackers will put the meat on a stick and carry it that way.

View attachment 421077


We make it back to the car, lots of walking today, but worth it. Head to the skinning shed to drop off the head, cape and the backskin. The guys start chopping up their meat in to thin strips to hang and dry.

Shower, wine with snacks and dinner. Buffalo in the salt tomorrow the hunt goes on.

19,445 steps, 7 miles and 51 floors of incline.

Outstanding old dugga boy!!!!

 

[BourbonTrail]

Talk about hunting elephant with your feet…

The step count really adds a depth to the report.

Congrats on another elephant. That 500 NE sure is some potent medicine.

 

[buck wild]

Just getting caught up as I was a little busy myself past few days. Just a wonderful cat and loving the country and now ele.

 

[gillettehunter]

Lots of work for your elephant. Congrats. Its one you'll remember for a long time.
Bruce

 

[Medicine]

Congratulations

 

[Red Leg]

Well done. Very well done. Any plans for the next five days?

 

[Red Leg]

Day 16:

Up at 5AM again breakfast and we are off. We wonder around looking for tracks and do not see anything fresh. Roads are really narrow, guys have to get off the truck and chop branches often.

We have lunch at a spring. See Impala and Kudu cows coming for drinks. After lunch we head to a different area, close to Mozambique border away from villages.

As we are driving another tap on the truck. "Elephant track". It is very fresh. However, it is just one young bull. Keith says, "There are tuskless bulls in this area and we have nothing to lose." We gear up and start tracking. The bull picks up another bull, now there are two. Keith and the trackers are power walking as Mozambique is only a couple of miles away. I do my best to keep up. The bulls picked up a couple of cows on the way, now there are 4 elephants. We catch up.
View attachment 421761

At this point we are being very careful and quite. The wind is in our favor. Keith glasses for a long while it is pretty heavy jess and hard to tell. He confirms that the bulls have tusks. He glasses the two cows on our left. They are facing towards the bulls. He says both are tuskless. We get within 25 yards. He says to take the one that is closest to the bulls, side brain.

At this point the other one moves forward. I have a better side brain shot on that one as the other is behind foliage. However, I can't take the one as the solid would go through and hit the other one. Not interested in buying two elephants.

The one that just moved turns towards us, Keith says, "Frontal brain, take it". I aim in the middle of the imaginary line between the ear holes and squeeze the trigger. .500 booms, I roll with the recoil and Keith tells me to duck. The other elephant is pissed, ears are flaring and it is looking around. Finally it takes off.

Keith says, "I saw the rear legs drop first", but we hear some noise. He tells me to shoot again if it gets up. We approach to where it was lying down and I put an insurance shot between the shoulder blades.

Congratulations all around.
View attachment 421763

View attachment 421764

Just as I was pressing the trigger the elephant was turning its head. So, did not have a clean brain shot.

During recovery, the next day when they roll the elephant over I see the impact location. Right by the eye though correct elevation for a brain shot. When they open the elephant up we see that the bullet went into the spine. Insurance shot took out the lungs and we found that bullet on the ground at the other side.
View attachment 421765

Keith says, "Pondoro was right, if you had shot a .375 instead of the .500 it would have been in Mozambique by now." I concur.

We are about a mile and a half from the road. Too late to do recovery, we head to camp.

Shower, wine and dinner. Keith will take the guys out early morning to start making a road, He will get me around 7:30.

14,920 steps, 5.5 miles and 19 floors of incline.

To be continued...

Not if it that 300 gr bullet went in the spine. I mean - just saying.

 

[Petey J]

Huzzah! What a great series. Just loving this, @Tanks. Congrats on the Elephant.

As @BourbonTrail mentioned, the step count really adds an interesting nit to your report. It’s really eye opening, and a little exhausting.

 

[PARA45]

Congratulations, that was one well earned elephant.

 

[Tanks]

Day 17:

Elephant recovery day, Keith dropped off his 5 guys with axes to start clearing the 1.5 miles to the elephant from the dirt road early morning. I get to stay in until 7AM (though woke up at 5:30AM anyway).

Shower and breakfast. I load up the guns again (.500 for pics, 9.3 in case of PG) and we head out around 8AM. We are able to go with the truck about 600 yards or so into the bush. Guys still have a lot of work to do. First they clear enough for the tractor and the trailer to go, then after the tractor goes further it makes more of a trail for the truck.

It is a lot of work. I had marked the Elephant on my Garmin inReach as a waypoint so I just head out there.

Finally the trail is made, the guys start skinning and cutting up the meat.

The trunk goes to the village head and the leg that the elephant first fell on goes to the "Spirit Medium". Trackers get the neck meat and rest goes to the villages. I request we get the backstrap for the cook as I like elephant meat.

Recovery is complete. This is what is left.

We head back to the camp for a late lunch around 3:30PM, then we head out looking for the elusive Kudu, Zebra and now baboons. We see nothing.

Just as we are approaching the camp we see a Caracal, a rare sight. We stop the car. He/She steps out of the bushes and looks straight at the headlights.

I have no interest in shooting small cats, reminds me too much of my 23 pound Maine Coon. Not that it would have stayed still for a shot.

We head back for dinner. @Red Leg tomorrow we will hunt for a Trophy Kudu, Zebra and of course any baboon is fair game. We will also use the elephant skull as Hyena bait.

To be continued...

 

[Tanks]

Days 18 -21:

Well, Leopard, Cape Buffalo and Elephant are in the salt. My PG wish list was Kudu, Zebra, Hyena and of course Baboons.

During these 4 days we drove around hundreds of miles and visited multiple springs/ponds looking for sign.

We also baited the Hyenas with the elephant skull on the 18th, they hit the bait so hard that there was not a speck of meat left on the skull. We still sat in the blind on the 19th evening for 3.5 hours. Keith had set up his Hyena call as well. It was moonlight and plenty of light for the scope on the 9.3 to pick out any hyena. One came and would not go into the clearing. Eventually we left.

One of those days we did track Kudu for a few miles but it turned out they were young bulls, not worth shooting.

Sunrise in the cotton fields while searching for Kudu.

We saw plenty of Impala, Roan Antelope (not interested, plus the one available tag was booked), buffalo (would have been an easy shot) and some Kudu cows.

Nothing shootable. Not even baboons.

The final day I told Keith we need to shoot at least a baboon. We headed near Mozambiqu border where we had seen some earlier. And we saw one, and started after them. They kept retreating, finally Keith set up the sticks and said 200 yards. I set the turret to 200 yards. He said "There is a big dog straight ahead, take him." In a comedy of errors I was looking 10 yards to the right of it where another baboon was sitting. I took the shot, and saw him crumble. "I got him", I said. Keith was surprised, his tracker said. "He shot another".

We go and it is a younger one. We verify it is dead, and go back to the car leaving the carcass to the Hyenas. The 9.3 had torn its body apart. Good news is that now I know the Heym 9.3x74R is good out to 200 yards if I do my part. I will have to find its limits when I get home.

It is dark now, and on the way to camp I tell Keith that the hunt is officially over. I jokingly tell him he is a great DG PH, but sucks as a PG PH. In reality not his fault if we had gone back to Mururu I am sure we would have been able to get the PGs.

In the evening I dole out the tips to everyone (more on this later). Tomorrow trip home starts.

Here is the week's step tracker. Can you guess the day I shot the elephant?

Overall, I did 113 miles of walking during my hunt.

To be continued...

 

[Tanks]

Day +1:

Still get up at 5AM, shower and breakfast. I say goodbye to Keith as he is taking off for Mukanga with his new client.

Time to pack. The guys pick up my Pelican cases from the front of my cottage. Here are pics outside and inside.

We load up. First stop is the Parks and Game to close out my hunt. We also drop off the cook, waiter and supplies. Someone else will pick them up and take them to Mukanga.

We take of for Harare. It will be about a 4-5 hour drive. On the way, I learn why people (at least sane ones) do not drive at night. Portion of the road is ONE lane with two way traffic. When people encounter traffic both cars move to the left passing each other. Needless to say at night this could lead to a head-on collision.

Around 2:30PM Kay drops me off at Amanzi Lodge and I check in. Head to the restaurant for a mushroom risotto (they really make it great there, and I am a risotto snob), and tenderloin filet. Buzz arrives around 4:15PM and we chat for a while and make plans for tomorrow. I wish to go to https://www.patrickmavros.com/ shop to get some jewelry for my girlfriend and also look around. He will either take me there or send someone from office to do it.

At 5PM the doctor that will do the PCR test comes by. Buzz leaves and the doctor does the swabbing (he will bring back the paperwork with the negative result at 8PM). Great service arranged by CMS.

At 5:30PM our own @Kevin Peacocke and his friend Kevin Hamilton-Woods drop by. We have a couple of drinks and chat. Nice to actually meet someone in real life after chatting online for years. We take a photo with his antique Land Rover and of course, his Pith helmet.

They leave soon after as there is a Covid curfew for residents. I go to bed.

To be continued...

 

[Tanks]

Day +2 and +3:

I get up and shower and head to breakfast. Amanzi Lodge does not fool around with breakfast.

After breakfast one of CMS employees picks me up and we go to Patrick Mavros. I pick up a couple of sets of earrings and a bangle for my girlfriend and a pair of cufflinks for myself. We get back to Amanzi.

I get a message from Buzz, he will pick me up at 2PM to take to his house for a late lunch and then take me to the airport. I check out and go to his compound. He fixes some past and after lunch we go over the overall bill and everything is in order I sign it.

Shortly after we head to the airport. He goes and gets a cart for me and we put the luggage on it. He calls his airport expediter and he shows up. I give him my Covid document, Zim firearms permit and passport.

We proceed, overall I go through 5 separate lines including firearms' serial number check and ammo count. 35 minutes after we enter the airport I am sitting at Emirates Business lounge. The expediter pulled me to the front of every line. I tip him an extra $10 for a total of $30. A bargain for sure.

We get called and I get on the plane. A short stop at Lusaka and 9 hours later we are at Dubai. I take a golf cart taxi from Terminal C to B. There is an hour delay on the flight to LAX. I welcome it as I had a change of clothes in my carry-on just in case we had time. I take a quick shower at the Emirates Business lounge and then have a quick breakfast.

Time for the flight. Get in and settle in my cubicle. Very comfortable flight and 16 hours later I am in LAX.

I tell Passport control that I have firearms and he escorts me to luggage area. Emirates had already unloaded my gun case and luggage and put it in a cart. I show my luggage tags to the employee that was safeguarding it and we make it to inspection point. I unlock the case and serial numbers are verified with the 4457s. Lock up and I head out.

Girlfriend is waiting and we load up the luggage and after an hour and a half of LA traffic I am home. Dog goes wild.

To be continued...

 

[PARA45]

Ah, the unconditional love of our dogs.

 

[Red Leg]

Great experience well told. Thank you so much for sharing.

 

[Tanks]

After Action Report (AAR):

I am going to go through a synopsis of my experience, what went right and what could be improved.

CMS:
What can I say, CMS runs a first class operation. Taking care of clients starts at arrival gate and ends upon delivery of client to the departure lounge. During my hunt Buzz was in contact with my PH and was aware of everything going on even though he was guiding his own client during the day. The camps were very comfortable and food was great with attention given to my wants.

Emirates:
This was my first trip with Emirates. I will be using them from now on for anywhere they go where it makes sense logistically. Their excellent reputation is well deserved.

Rifles:
Both of the Heym 9.3x74R and .500 NE performed superbly. I was especially impressed with the accuracy of the 9.3x74R. I will have no qualms taking them on future hunts.

Satellite Communicator and GPS:
Garmin inReach enabled me to send and receive text messages with my girlfriend enable tracking where she and family members could track me at a web site and follow me along. I would recommend it.

Other gear:

Shooting sticks ( https://www.africansportingcreations.com/super-compact-shooting-sticks.html ) were from @African Sporting Creations, the PH commented on how fast he could set them up and I would whole heartedly recommend them.

Boots were Russell's (https://www.russellmoccasin.com/safari-ph/) the 7" height came in real handy while climbing hills providing ample ankle support. 113 miles and not a blister.

Pants were 511 cotton canvas pant (https://www.511tactical.com/511-tactical-pants-mens-cotton.html) thick enough to deter the thorns and light enough to travel miles and miles in them. I had their equivalent shorts as well but due to terrain I did not use them except for travel and in camp use. Not to mention the cotton pants do not get destroyed by the ironing and make less noise while walking.

Shirts were Tag Safari shirts (https://tagsafari.com/collections/s...shirt-for-men-l-sleeve?variant=37810921210048) left handed and I have had 3 of them for a decade or so. I use them only in Africa, so should last me a lifetime assuming I do not put a ton of weight on

Els 2" gun belt and cartridge cases were bought from @African Sporting Creations, they worked great.

Gun slings were from (http://traderkeith.com/products.html) I used the "Trader Rifle Strap" could not have walked as effectively without them.

Rest of my gear is listed below:

Wheels Up in 9 weeks, here is my checklist...

I reworked my Safari checklist for the current conditions and the 21 day hunt I will have in Zimbabwe. I usually pack everything and check it off the "completed" column a couple of days before leaving. I do weigh it just in case, but usually quite a bit under the limits. PCR test result will be...

www.africahunting.com

Gear I Wish I Had:

Leather moccasins without soles. I walked to the Leopard blind in socks. Wearing moccasins would have the same quietness but be much better for my feet.

Walking sticks. I didn't think I needed them, but they hardly weigh anything and might have been better than having the trackers cut me a walking staff for going up and down steep hills.

Preparation Improvements for the Future:

I thought I was in shape and for the most part I was. I did not have sore muscles after any day's hiking. Neither did I have any cramps during or after the hikes. However, all of my training was on flat ground for the most part. I had not done many hill hikes especially as steep as Zambezi valley. For the first few days I had to take short breaks to bring my pulse down as climbing the hills brought it up too high, too fast. I will definitely ask about the terrain and train accordingly for next year.

Finally:

I had a great hunt and enjoyed myself. Can't wait to go again next year as I have two hunts planned for Africa.

 

[CoElkHunter]

What a WONDERFUL hunting experience you had! Congrats! I for one, really appreciate the detailed descriptions of each hunt and your final AAR, especially noting the equipment you used. Thanks so much for sharing your experience!

 

[Randy F]

Thoroughly enjoyed every chapter. Thank you for taking us along and congratulations!

 

[WAB]

Great hunt and great report Tanks. Thank you!