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August 2012 Buffalo hunt in Mozambique's Niassa Reserve Hunting Area & Zambezi Delta flood plains (Coutarda 14).
Air Travel; Qantas flight QF63 & 64 with add $90 each way for add bag allowance (Economy=23kgs per bag).
Safari companies; Kambako Safaris & Nyati Safaris.
Pro Hunters; Ryan Cliffe, Matt Hully- Miller, Paul Wellock and Toni Wicker.
Rifles; Customized Husqvarna M98 in 9.3x62 with Schmidt&Bender 4x Scope and a Custom M98 in 458Mag.
Ammunition; Hand loads with Woodleigh 286grn FMJs and 286grn Swift A Frame soft’s for the 9.3 and 480grn Woodleigh Soft’s and Solids for the 458.

I arrived at Johannesburg with one day spare prior to leaving for the Mozambique town of Pemba so the spare time I assisted Jumbo Moore of Kambako Safaris in preparing a load of supplies due to be trucked up to his hunting area in the north of Mozambique.
That evening was spent at Afton Lodge for dinner and some drinks at a local waterhole.
The next morning with a saw head I was introduced to the other hunters of Tim Heralds hunting party then off for the flights to Pemba and Kambako Safaris main Camp at the Niassa Reserve.
For the next twelve days I spent time filming one of the hunter’s experiences and traveling to the Pemba beach Lodge with Jumbo.
During this time I was involved in assisting the guys in evacuating my good mate Stu Taylor after the terrible accident he was involved in.
Even with this terrible event I have to say during these 12 days the camp was full of fantastic people feel and It was a real joy to be there with them.
The next stage of the safari was for me to hunt with Zim PH Paul Wellock for a buffalo, Eland and other Common Plains Game.
Day one started with us driving up to two Lion that had just killed a Zebra then onto following up the spoor of three buffalo that had earlier drank at a water point. We followed the Spoor until midday where we stopped at a hunting road and had the Toyota brought up for our lunch break. Just before 3pm we started up on the tracks. These tracks brought us to where the buffalo has slept and then fed that afternoon. They then mended through a mixture of open glades, Jesse and Bamboo thickets. Just as the daylight began to fade we all heard the sound of the buffalo moving in one of the Bamboo thickets. As we moved to the right we spotted one bull which was estimated at around 38” with big hard Bosses and old. Being the first of my own hunting days I elected to hold off on this lovely bull. We decided to bum shimmy closer to get a look at the others. This certainly wasn’t the quietest of stalks but it worked. The first Buff moved on and we then saw one of his mates lying down. He was of similar size age and shape so we kept moving on in. As this bull stood up to our noise the third bull came out of the Bamboo for a look. This one grabbed my attention as I could easily see his horns were over 40” wide and an old bull. At fifty plus meters I placed the bead on his shoulder and at the shot he buckled and ran back into the Bamboo offering no follow up shot. I found some blood about thirty meters on but was a little concerned with the small amount of it along with the fast fading light yet the Trackers all sounded very pleased with the shot and spoor. Fifty meters on with a sigh of relief I spotted him dead in amongst the Jesse bush facing our direction.
41" Buff;

PH and Tracker;

The next eight days that followed were spent hunting Eland, Hyena, any exceptional Warthog, bushbuck and bushpig. We also kept an eye out for any monster Duggaboy’s.
Day five was spent tracking a particularly Sage old eland Bull that kept climbing Ant nests to see who was following. It was early afternoon when I spotted him doing just this but unfortunately no shot was offered.
That night was spent at a Light camp and the next day we followed another set of Eland Tracks in an area close to the day before. Around 11am we spotted a grey patch in front which turned out to be a nice Eland looking in our direction at close to 200m. After checking him out with the Binoculars I decided to take him so with a rest against a tree I took a shot with the Eland bucking from the hard hit of a 9.3mm Swift A Frame soft bullet, followed by Woodleigh Solid.

The rest of the day was spent recovering the Eland due to the distance from the Toyota and any road.

All the other game I was after “played hard to get” which wasn’t a problem as I’m over big kill numbers and am quite happy with the whole aspect of the Safari .
In short time I was saying my farewells to my friends at Kambako Safari and was flown by Cessna back down to Pemba to spend a day at Kambako’s beach lodge. The next day I flew on down to the city of Beira and was picked up by “AR” member “Freischuetz” for the long drive up to the Zambezi delta flood plains where I was to be spending the next few days checking the place out and hunting buffalo.
Both the main camp and a light camp were pleasant places to stay during the hunt and along with two other Clients (great guys) we had the area to our selves.

The light camp;

During my time there we casually hunted the area looking over buffalo and plains game.
One morning I was invited for flight over the extensive flood pains, swamps, rivers and palm tree thickets. This was fantastic! To fly 50m above dozens of Elephant, hundreds of buffalo, crocs, hippos, warthog and antelope is an awesome experience.
One day we were informed of a buffalo that was raiding a local village’s crops so we went out to investigate. The Bull was doing a fine job in pruning the maize plants much to the anger of the local people. We tracked it across a river into some thick jungle then on through and across the river again after being disturbed, then over our tracks and fast over open ground past the fields. As we followed his tracks we found some blood which was a concern. Likely a wound compliments of the villagers, some who lost family killed by a buffalo only a short time before.
We again bumped him in some thorn bush so we decided to stop for lunch and a short kip thus giving the buff some time to settle down.
After a rest and a good lunch of local Pawpaw, Bananas, Coconut and a Coca-Cola we started on his tracks expecting him to be bedded by now. We tracked him through a river and some open ground to a forest with a thicket within. Fully expecting him to be within that thickest patch we preceded with care. We found he had indeed bedded there then moved on and across open ground to a small swamp with head high razor grass. We sent one of the trackers around to see if he had passed on through or was still within. The tracker signaled that he was still within the long grass so we moved on in. In the center was a small clearing with some water where he had drank. As we slowly moved on the tracker franticly motioned to the wall of grass. On peering in I could make out his horns and some dark outline at no more than six meters. With this he exploded up to escape only to be hit by a 480grn soft bullet in the front of the shoulder then as he was almost out of site a Solid just above and left of the tail.
As we made our way into the open I found good quantities of blood but no Buff, then with the directions provided by the other tracker we found him in a slight depression off to the left of the swamp. With a couple more finishing shots we completed another great hunt and the local people had meet and one less problem.
With some spare time in Johannesburg I went out to visit Stu who was recovering from some operations after the accident three weeks earlier and then made the uneventful flight home.

Edited by ozhunter (04/09/12 09:52 PM)