Archive for month: May, 2016

Dear Hunting Friends

I hope this newsletter finds you well.

Since my last newsletter on the 24th of March we have had some great hunts in the Gonarezhou safari areas, including this 61 pounder elephant bull that was hunted by a TAS client from Europe with PH Lloyd Yeatman, this bull was shot crop raiding in the maize fields as you can see in the photo. These crop raiders cause massive damage to the locals fields, in fact one bull can destroy a maize field on his own in one night. The community “campfire” programs we form part of allow us to hunt these bulls on the local peoples land (only bulls come into the maize fields) whereby they get issued permits to hunt these damage causing animals that we in turn buy from them, the money the locals get from the hunt is used for sustenance including but not limited to school fees and school clothes, on top of the money they receive the locals get all the meat from the hunt, the meat does not belong to the Operator or the PH, the client gets the trophy including the skin, tusks and bones, this system works perfectly.

I must say that if hunting had to stop I feel that the locals would have no choice but to poison these bulls to protect their crops that in turn support their families. Anyhow I don’t want to get into a long pro hunting vs anti hunting debate here, these are the facts from on the ground where the elephants live and not from the armchair of the not very active “activists”.

This 61 and 60 pounder tusks elephant was hunted during April 2016 as mentioned above:

On the same hunt our client hunted this fantastic leopard tom cat with a pumpkin head that I put in the 100 kilogram class, this leopard was described to me as the equivalent of a 100 pounder elephant, I do agree with that.

This is a typical Lowveld leopard at its maximum size, they get this big down our way as there is mainly flat ground here, not many mountains to keep climbing and because of the abundance of plains game in our areas.

Congrats to our client from Europe on this monster cat:

(Of course it is very sad that nowadays we need to cover our clients faces to protect them from the arm chair conservationists)

The same lucky hunter managed to get this giraffe bull:

Also during April in the Gonarezhou Safari areas PH Matt Pilkinson guided another TAS client on this elephant bull hunt, this bull is in the late 40 to early 50 pound class:

Also during April Lloyd Yeatman guided another TAS client on a buffalo hunt, our client from Europe shot this very good Dagga Boy Buffalo:

Last but not least my sons enjoyed their first hunt with their Dad, we hunted in Musina and enjoyed a great few days together, we hunted on foot and managed to hunt this Oryx bull that we will enjoy eating over the next few months. For those of you young hunters reading this these young boys are hopefully (for me) the next generation of African PH’s.

As always a big thank you for taking the time to read my newsletter, please contact me for any big game hunts you would like in either Zimbabwe or South Africa. I do have quota and dates available on all big game, please contact me for a quote.

Lastly we have a lion on quota in the Gonarezhou that has not been sold yet, this is the first lion on quota in the Gonarezhou area for 8 years, there is a very healthy lion population in the area.
There are currently 3 rouge male lions killing cattle in the communal areas adjoined to the safari areas, the local community is angry as these lions have killed at least 30 cattle in the last 5 weeks. We are looking for a short notice hunter for one of these lions and are prepared to offer the best priced wild lion hunt available in Zimbabwe today, the lion is fully exportable, please contact me for more info on this hunt.

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