September 2006--Zimbabwe--Matetsi Unit 2

Outfitter: Inyathi Hunters

PH Darren Ellerman

I can give Darren Ellerman the highest possible rating as a PH. My hunt in Matetsi was the first time I had ever been hunting (although I shoot my rifles a fair bit). Darren was challenged in that I was inexperienced and the Matetsi area is heavily hunted. Nevertheless, I came back after a ten day hunt (well, I actually only hunted seven days) with seven trophies and I used nine shots. The only thing I failed to get that I tried for was a grysbok because I did not see it in time.

I took a 38" Cape buffalo dagga boy from 20 yards with a .470 NE double and used a .375 H&H bolt action for the following:

40" Livingstone eland from 20 yards
52" kudu from 80 yards
30" waterbuck from 80 yards
zebra from 100 yards
impala from 75 yards
wart hog from 60 yards

Darren was able to find the animals and we were able to stalk up close once we found them. He is quite a good tracker on his own right and is an excellent field judge of the trophies. He just seemed to know where to find particular animals in the unit. With the exception of sable bulls (which were everywhere) we really did not see very many trophy bulls. We only saw six buffalo bulls with only one shootable one, two shootable eland, two shootable waterbuck, and maybe six shootable kudu in the ten day period. I took the wife along with me and Darren was really nice to her as well. Bottom line is that Darren made the maximum effort every day to ensure my success.