JPK
(.375 member)
18/11/08 06:38 AM
Photos of My Zim Elephant Hunt

Photos from my hunt:

Tuskless taken at 7:00am Day One, in Chewore South. Notice the rafters? I was able to wear them on the flat sections of Chewore South and they are very comfortable, quiet and much cooler than boots in the heat. Couldn't wear them in the rolling hills or anywhere in Makuti though, I need boots for ankle support in the rougher terrain.



My Chewore Bull. Guess the weight of the tusks on this bull and the Makuti bull. I'll provide actual weights in a couple of days.



Another photo of the same bull taken just after I killed him. Notice how far his head sagged by the next morning when we went to do recovery, and when the previous photo was taken?



A grysbok, with 2" horns, which apparently are a truly excellent set of trophy horns.



A kudu bull, taken for leopard bait. 48" horns, nothing special, but nice looking horns for my eight year old son's room.



Fist Makuti tuskless. We spotted her up on the ridge in the background, well to the right of the photo's border. I brought a Ziess 20x60x85mm spotting scope and it proved an excellent tool, saving both time and shoe leather as well as my ankles, knees and butt in the rough terrain. It was knick-named "The Limb Saver" after a day or two of use. Rich Tabor could judge ivory, or the lack of it, from many miles. There were two tuskless in this herd, a half grown and this one, and we knew that before walking for them. The walk took almost an hour.



A Makuti tusked cow. I brained her with a frontal because she was injured. There's a story to how she was injured I hear. Killed the same day as the first Makuti tuskless shown in the previous photo, but late in the evening. This photo was taken the next morning when we went to recover. We killed three elephants that day. Long, long day! But the next day spent recovering was even longer. One recovery a year is fun, but after that they begin to get tediuos. We had so many elephants to recover that ALL of us pitched in with Chris and I handing much of the skinning on this cow.



My second Makuti tuskless, also taken on the same day as the first tuskless and the injured tusked cow. Shown in the photo are trackers Oria (sitting) and Tiengwa and stalwart camera man and videographer Chris Estephoizen, a Bulawayo native.



The Makuti Bull. In the photo is PH Rich Tabor, still wearing rafters despite the terrain! Guess this fellow's ivory as well.



The Limb Saver in action, well worth the trouble of bringing it! Here Rich is watching the first tuskless we took in Makuti to make sure it has no hard to see small tusk to frustrate us after the walk. I'm doing the same in the second photo. Depending on the terrain, one of the trackers would carry the spotting scope with either the whole tripod or the mono pod the tripod came with. It proved well worth the trouble.




I have a bunch more photo to load. I'll post more if warranted. BTW, some or all of my hunt should show up on Steve Scott's show on Versus TV in six months or a year. When I hear dates, Ill pass them along.

JPK



Contact Us NitroExpress.com

Powered by UBB.threads™ 6.5.5


Home | Ezine | Forums | Links | Contact


Copyright 2003 to 2011 - all rights reserved