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All,

A preview of my hunt report, which I'll post later when I've had the chance to reaquaint myself with my wife and kids, office, and got photos squared away.

I hunted in Nyakasanga ans we struggled from day one. The jess and riverine bush were THICK, even thicker than anticipated. All of the pans in the jess were full and fuller, even typically dry-by-May pans. But what had us struggling was dense laid over dry grass and weed ground cover, making tracking slow and difficult.

Many times we would be following a good set of prints to loose the tracks to crossing cow heards and find picking them back up difficult or impossible. The trackers were looking at only indents in the grass or small protions of a print and with the numbers of eles in the area it was tough keeping on the correct track.

On day 12 we were charged by a bull that was looking for us from down wind. We were at a pan looking for tracks nad had already retreated from a herd of cows. When this bull crossed our wind at maybe 20yds he came looking for us. We could hear him coming quickly and we had nowhere to go. We first saw him at ten hads and when he broke through the bush at eight yards and saw us he turned, put his head down and came.

Somehow, I manged to double my rifle - don't ask how, I'll never f---ing know, but it was me and not the rifle because it has intercepting sears, but that ended the charge, as later determined by reviewing video. PH Rich Tabor fired his 470 just after I shot and missed the brain as well. He was trying to stop the charge. Only review of the video reveals that Rich's shot might have been better placed in the heart since my shots stopped the bull, but evertthing happened so darned quick. Glad to be able to type this because it was soiled shorts close in that thick stuff.

As an FYI, in the jess blocks it was dense enough and visiblilty poor enough, with enough eles around that Rich had told me early on that if things got dicey and close to just go ahead and shoot if I felt it required to keep everyine whole. On this bull, I followed that admonition. We've faced a couple of for real charges together before, but none with so limited visibility.

We tracked that bull two hours before dark ended our efforts and then six hours the next day, eventually loosing him to crossing cow herds that covered his tracks repeatedly. He'd gone back to feeding and I'm confident he has only a headache.

Parks and Wildlife has yet to determine if that bull will be counted against my quota or as a self defense shooting. Hopefully the video and the game scout will resolve any Parks doubts, which, if any, will revolve around my shooting first as opposed to Rich, but I was closest and had the angle.

Gave away a cow buff and a hippo quota to another hunter, Steve Scott, who was hunting a bull buff and who produces a show on the old ESPN 2 channel now calld ? and which can be seen at 8:00am Sundays. We were running out of time, needed bait and the quota was paid for. He was a very nice fellow and appreciative of the opportunity. He should get a couple of good segements out of his hunts. He got a "right and a left" on the bull and cow buff, taking both from the same herd moments apart. Great video of the hippo to which was taken in a small pan.

On day 13 we found an "average" bull and killed him. The ivory isn't weighed yet but should go mid meube upper thirties, well below expectations for the area and time frame. Pretty ivory but thin at 13 1/4" circumference at the lip, should go about 4 1/2', but it wasn't chopped out before I left.

Struck out on leopard. Shot two hyhenas, one at 7:00am, well after sun up. Shot bait, but let an appy do most of the bait shooting.

Lots of walking from slow tracking to faster cross country humps to through the jess to get to the many, many pans, as much as nine hours a day of walking. With the amount of water and the condition of the jess the bulls, really all of the eles, were finding no reason to leave or cross roads.

Didn't give much effort to the tuskless.

If Parks rules the charging bull a self defense shooting, I'll try to return in Sept for the second bull and tuskless.

Tough hunt, no lucky breaks. But we kept at it and no one got discouraged.

Eric,

The conditions were not as expected or as Rich Tabor encountered the same time last year because of the heavy and late ending rains. This was the reason for our mixed success. Two or three hunters splitting a camp could save money, but one probably can't, and this wasn't a goal. Alternatively, some of the camps and additional quota can be purchased with Zim $'s but for non-export, this might make a fun and less expensive hunt, but Zim's effort to float there currency should have the effect of flattening the spread of exchange rates, mandated Bank/mandated mixed/blackmarket, and will reduce savings.

Historically, the first bull hunts in Nyakasanga have resulted in very nice ivory, ~65lb range, and this is why I chose to give it a go. But again, conditions were atypical and as a result we struggled. Another especially good time to hunt Nyakasanga has been the last hunt in September, when the eles are drawn to the "hills" - I'd call them mountains - and the still abundant food and springs.

JPK