Took the Family including the two grandsons and hunted the Lowveld Conservancy in Zimbabwe in early June 2024 with PH’s David Langerman, John Sharp and Petrus Kok. My third trip into the Conservancy and for most of the family their second. My wife stayed home and took care of my pointing lab who dislocated a vertebrate and was unable to move her legs for the first week. Better now at about 85% mobility and it seems this is a very common thing with active dogs.
We were after a Double Buffalo and chased Eland, Kudu, Nyala, Warthog, Impala, Klipspringer, Bass and Hyena. Bush was thick and shots very difficult but we did well. Loaded everything with Nosler partitions and used the 416 Rem with the group using a, 300 Rem, 275 Rigby or a 270 Win.
Our trip via Delta started out a little rough. Plane departed Atlanta on May 27 and on climbing lost power. We circled Atlanta for almost two hours using up fuel and were met on landing by rows of fire trucks that hosed down the brakes as they overheated on landing. On returning from JNB discovered that the rumor we heard of that plane being hit by lightning on departure from JNB two days prior, was true and the plane had spent a day in the shop getting repairs.
Felt sorry for the large group that lost several days because of the cancelled flight. I really hope they were able to fit everything into the days they had and enjoyed themselves. Delta was definitely booked for that whole week, but they should have done more. Having a travel agent this time did not help those that did over those who just went to the counter at the Airport. Being Diamond helped but not with the automatic rebooking, I was rebooked originally for 4 days later and my Son and grandson were not. A phone call fixed that but we had to take whatever seats we could.
Leaving the next night would not have gained much as our connecting flight to Tete was every other day so we did the Atlanta sightseeing thing for a day and a half. Anne at Air 2000 made necessary changes with City Lodge and Airlink and we just shortened our Crocodile hunt by a day. First stay at City Lodge and just perfect for an overnight stay with a good dinner and breakfast. Well worth the cost at a fraction of Intercontinental and the hassle of leaving the Airport and staying somewhere off property.
Cahora Bassa is another report, but we had a fantastic hunt and managed 5 days and two very nice Crocs. We chartered from Tete to Harare on Mack Air where we jumped off one plane and into a Caravan and flew on into the Conservancy picking up the family in Buffalo Range who came in form JNB. Watch the guys in Buffalo Range. Was warned they were trying to trick hunters into paying extra fees and they tried to pull that on the family. Wanted duty on gifts for the trackers and staff. Family did right thing waiting for Dave and I to arrive. All they got was a free Hornady hat.
Partitions did the trick on everything from Crocodile to Buffalo. Recovered a few rounds from my Buffalo, Eland and a back up shot on a Croc. Not sure the argument on partitions versus A-Frames. I don’t know what’s wrong with these rounds and not sure if the animals can tell me the difference.
First few days were cold and windy, with an overcast day with rain. With three PH's we covered a lot of ground as we had both Samanyanga and Malangani to hunt. Kudu and Eland were the priority but at first were few and far between. By the fifth day everyone was seeing multiple Kudu but nothing stands still for long and the Mopane is still very thick. There is no shooting off the truck and every animal was earned, often having to crawl.
Couple Impala taken in the first few days for Hyena bait. Found a Giraffe killed by lion towards the end of the hunt and that explained why we had no luck seeing Hyena except for motoring along at night. Day 3 my son in law took this nice old bull. They brought it to an open area for pictures, that openness behind them is not reflective of the bush.
Will keep trying to pull together some pictures as time allows. Three weeks gone is long time and lots to catch up on at work.
