Caprivi,

Thanks. I am not a PH, just an elephant hunting adict, one of several on this forum, including 500 Grains, 450NE N02 and others. I think that I'm lucky not to have gone on my first safari and elephant hunt until I was married with children, well established in my proffesion and into my 40's. If I'd have tried it when I was too much younger, I might have become an elephant hunting bum, spending every dime and every moment chasing elephants.

My elephant hunting double rifle is a Marcel Thys sidelock in 458wm, made in roughly 1980. When I bought it it was like new, with no evidence of ever having been fired outside of regulation. I'm a lefty and the rifle was all right handed, but JJ Perrodeau, who was an apprentice to Marcel when my rifle was made, twisted the triggers for me to make them suitable for a lefty. I worked with a local gunsmith to remove the cheekpiece and then wood from the right side of the stock to build in cast on for a lefty. Griffin & Howe refinished the stock and replaced the lamb skin leather covered recoil pad with a pig skin cover pad.

Marcel Thys, now retired, was a master gun and rifle maker in Liege Belgium. He retired after a former employee rboke into his shop and stole or destroyed much of Marcel's work in progress, as I was told by folks at Griffin & Howe. Marcel didn't have adequate insurance to cover his loss. He made good on all of the deposits, etc, by finishing all outstanding orders, but it put a real hurt on him financially, again as I was told. He retired when he'd fulfilled his obligations, he continues to teach at the Liege gunmakers school, as he had in the past, but puts more time into it, or so I've been told.

My bolt rifle is a Dakota Arms from more than a decade ago, back when Don and Norma Allen owned Dakota, and is more of a custom rifle than what you could have gotten from Dakota in the last bunch of years since Don's passing. The rifle is extremely accurate and has been a flawless performer. It shoots the Federal standard velocity 300gr Trophy Bonded Bearclaw softs so well that I don't reload softs for this rifle. If three aren't touching at 100yds, its my shooting and not the rifle. I load 300gr Woodleigh solids for this rifle. The grysbok in the photos above was shot with one of the Woodleigh solids.

This trip came about because my May trip to Nyakasanga was a very difficult trip and not an all together roaring success. The ground cover was unussually and unexpectedly thick, causing very poor tracking condiditions and a very frustrating hunt, where we lost more bull tracks in a typical day's hunting than successfully tracked bulls during the whole hunt. And the bulls we did manage to successfully track all had big feet but small ivory.

In late August, I shot PH Rich Tabor an email and asked him if he had free time in September or October and could find some elephant quota. I asked him to concentrate on quota quantity instead of ivory quality expectations. He found three tuskless available in Chewore South and two tuskless and a bull in Makuti as well as a leopard quota there. Chewore South is held by Chifuti Safaris and Makuti by Charlton McCollum Safaris.

My 82yr old Dad had some health issues, but seemed to stabilize just before I was scheduled to leave and, after discussions with my brothers and sister, I left for the hunt. Unfortunately, I had been in camp for just an hour when I found out that my father had passed away. I was informed just three or four hours after he passed, which is a testiment to Chifuti Safaris, Charlton McCollum Safaris and Rich Tabor's wife Sara, since I warned them of the possibility and I left one of my brothers all three's contact info and I heard through all three within an hour of each other.

I immeadiately sought to return home, but managed a day's hunt while travel agent Kathi Klimes got all travel arrangements squared away. I had kept Kathy in the loop and she had had me send her hospital contact info, just in case, and she worked with SAA to rearrange my flights on an emergency basis. The hospital contact info was needed because of SAA's policy on emergencys. Hats off to Kathi for making everything go so smoothly.

Anyway, after the funeral and some business issues, I rescheduled the hunt. Kudos for Rich Tabor, Chifuti and Charlton McCollum again for working together to make the rescheduling work. Chifuti asked if I wanted to pass on one tuskless since they had a request for one, and I agreed. Then they let Rich know that a bull had become available because of a cancelation, and at Rich's suggestion, I grabbed the bull quota and let the two remaining tuskless go. When I left, I thought I had quota available for a bull in Chewore, two tuskless and a bull in Makuti as well as the leopard in Makuti. When I arrived I discovered that the two tuskless in Chewore were still available as well. So we were hunting for two tuskless and a bull in Cheowre South as well as in Makuti. But the deal we'd struck with Charlton McCollum was for no refund on unshot ele quota, in exchange for a late season discount. We ended up leaving a tuskless quota unfilled in Chewore because of time constraints and the concern regarding the time it would take to find three bulls in Makuti. Shouldn't have worried it turned out. Also, we found that that the other sfari company that shares the Makuti quota with Charlton McCollum had an additional bull quota, so we were hunting for two bulls in Makuti.

In Makuti we saw a heck of a nice bull in an area we were not permitted to hunt. Nice enough that we walked in from the road without rifles after spotting him. When we arrived back in camp, we were given the news that the region's cheif Game Warden had given Charlton McCollum permission to hunt for two bulls in the closed area, to make up for some serious burning that had denuded a large area of Makuti. If only we had know an hour earlier!!! Anyway, I ended up passing on another really nice bull in that area, against Rich's advice and to his chagrin. I had hopes of seeing the big guy again, and had permission for only one bull in the formerly closed area and didn't want to foreclose the possibility of finding him.

Not following Rich's advice was a mistake. The bull we shot there was was a nice bull and the third biggest we saw but nothing like the really nice bull and a pretty big step down from the second best. The one we took was a good bull for the area and the second or third biggest taken by Charlton McCollum in the area this year. A hunter named Christian, who was hunting with Charlton McCollum PH Alan Shearing ended up taking the second biggest bull we saw and when the heads of the two bulls were side by side in camp, my first thoughts were, "Hmmm, we've seen this bull before and his ivory sure looks bigger at two yards than twenty, Rich was right, and OOPS, I screwed up!" Christian's bull ended up being the biggest bull of the season from Makuti. That was the second time I have failed to follow Rich's advice regarding whether to take a particular animal and he was right both times and I screwed up both times. Should have learned from the first time, eh!

If you are looking to find the right company to book with, you will not go wrong with Charton McCollum Safaris. Buzz Charlton is a great guy to hunt with, and his partner Myles McCollum is a great guy as well and a fine PH, though I have not hunted with Myles personally. Chewore South is a fantastic area, and Chifuti runs a first rate program with nice camps and first rate service. But rather than hunt with one of their PH's you will do better to hunt with Rich Tabor, who apprentived with Roger Whittall Safaris who used to share the Chewore South concession with a couple of other partners, Makari Safaris and Western Safaris. Chifuti is in their first year there. Rich has spent years as first an Appy and then as a Ph hunting Cheowre South and his extensive experience there is a huge benefit. Plus Rich is a great guy to hunt with and has a lot of elephant experience, as do Buzz and Myles, who also used to apprentice with and then hunt for Roger Whittall Safaris.

Rich Tabor can be reached by email at: richt@zol.co.zw

Charlton McCollum can be reached through their web site: http://www.cmsafaris.com/

Chifuti's US agents can be reached through their website: http://www.chifutisafaris.com/

Rich is a straight shooter and so are Myles and Buzz, no problems at all on that front with these guys. Chifuti has an excellent reputation and though I haven't had any prior dealing with them they rate a A+ from me for this experience. Rich told me they are straight shooters as well and absolutely square on the money front, no question. And so my experience with them seemed to confirm. I met Andrew Dawson in Chewore, who along with Paul Smith, owns Chifuti and he seemed a first rate fellow.

Hope this helps. Happy to answer any additional questions and sorry I got long winded!

JPK