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Doma Safaris / Zimbabwe
Oct 14-28
PHs: Gordon Duncan (owner), Rory & Blake Muil

As expected, the weather was quite warm. Not as hot as the temperature reports we were getting from the valley, but it was still well into the 90’s most days. The humidity was low, but the elevation and relative proximity to the equator did add to the sun’s cooking effect. The key for those long tracking jobs is to start hydrating early and do it regularly throughout the day. Powdered Gatorade really helps and is always a good idea to bring along on the hunt.

Doma is really unique. The lodge sits on a 150 acre lake in the bottom of some beautiful rolling hills. The lake is stocked with large mouth bass (we found a dead one that weighed 8+ pounds), and the fishing is apparently quite good, as the lodge stays busy with fishing guests in the off-season.

This photo was taken from a hill behind the lodge. The little red circle is the roof of the main lodge/dining area that will give you some perspective on the scale.

Those hills, however, look and feel much more like MOUNTAINS to us flatlanders after a few hours on buffalo tracks. I’m not completely out of shape, but this is definitely not the lowveld. Those well versed in elk hunting will find themselves right at home, but for those us that dwell closer to sea level, a good bit of pre-hunt training on a Stairmaster is well advised.

The first morning’s excitement had me up at 2:30am. We were out of camp by 4:00 and on buffalo tracks shortly thereafter (it’s bright enough to see at about 4:45am this time of year.)

Little spring-fed streams follow draws in the hills and provide a lot more water for game than is apparent. Natural salt-licks along the streams provide a convenient place to pick up tracks, and we would start each morning by checking these hot spots for tracks.

The #1 priority was buffalo, and we looked at quite a few bulls over the first six days. Some were bigger, some were wider, some were soft, but we had shot opportunities each day.

The winds ebbing, flowing and swirling through these hills proved to be biggest single challenge to actually shooting a buff. We’d follow tracks for anywhere from half an hour to five before catching up with the bedded buffalo, and then it was a matter of getting into position for a better look at the horns.

On multiple occasions, shifting winds alerted the buff to our presence and sent them over the next few hills. Hours later, we would catch up just to receive the same results from shifting winds.

We had done just that on the sixth day and were following up a group of wind-spooked buffalo when we stumbled into a second small group that was bedded down. Fortunately we saw them before they saw us, and we were able to get into position as they were resting out the mid-day heat.

This bull was standing quartering-away at about 100-yards, and we waited nervously (because of the shifting winds) for abut 10-minutes to see his bosses. I was on the rifle and couldn’t see his horns, but he swung his head for just the split second that Gordon needed to determine that his boss was hard.

I hit him about mid body (he was quartering away), and he reacted with a classic hunch and about a 1-second pause before taking off. We knew he was hit hard, but we gave chase immediately. The group of about seven had run down off the top of the hill they were on into a low, open spot to look back and investigate the disturbance.

The tracker spotted our sick buff at about 150-yards standing broad-sided. I hit him with a solid from the right barrel and he slowly moved about 30 or 40 yards to his right and faced us. I hit him again, and he went straight down.

We ran down the hill to him, and he was giving the death bellow when we got to him. I gave him two more solids in the chest and it was all done.

We joked after the fact that when these buffalo wind you, they run for an hour, but if you actually shoot one, they only run for a hundred yards and stop! Of course we knew better, but it did work out that way.

With the buff down, the pressure was now off, and we adapted quickly to resting around the swimming pool on the seventh day.

My hunting partner and Blake had been in and out of buff too, but they had been working leopard baits pretty hard for the first several days (although he did connect with a super 42” sable.) So we took over bait patrol to allow them a bit more time to focus on buff tracks.

As luck would have it, the trackers spotted a lone sable truck from the truck as we were running baits. They drew quite a commotion of chatter in the back, and I asked Gordon what was going on. He said they had seen a nice bull, and that they were really going on amongst themselves about it.

We dismounted, got on the tracks, and caught up to him just a few hundred yards away. He was behind all sort of brush with his horns concealed. He would swing his head occasionally (we later found from the annoyance of the mopane flies), and although we could see his worn bases, it took a while to judge the length.

Gordon said “He’ll go 40,” and a few seconds later he stepped from behind the brush walking broad-sided. There was a narrow window between one brushy area and the next, and I hit him with the 7x57.

To my surprise, he went straight down! We got on him quickly, and there were two holes in his hide well above the shoulder. Apparently the 160 partition hit a branch and split. There was one small knife-like hole just below his spine, and another big hole on his spine (the bullet entered sideways.)

Better lucky, right? It wasn’t ideal, but it worked out in the end.

He was the ideal bull to take: old, alone, and past his breeding prime. I wish I had gotten a better photo of his tips, as they were heavily broomed and worn.

You can see the wear a bit better here.

That was it for me… I was on easy street and intent on relaxing the rest of the trip away. We did continue the bait runs but only ended up with females hitting the baits.

While running baits, Blake and my hunting partner ran across a fresh lion kill (a half-eaten bush pig,) and they quickly set up a zebra quarter on the kill. Despite the size of the track, he turned out to be a bit too young.

All-in-all the trip was a success. I got my buff and a nice bonus sable. My hunting partner got a full bag with Buffalo, a great sable, croc, hyena, kudu, bushbuck, baboons, etc…

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