Newsletter 75
DEAR HUNTING FRIENDS
I hope this 75th edition of the Take Aim Safaris newsletter finds you well.
Since our last newsletter on the 10th April we have welcomed clients from around the world into our hunting concessions where we have again delivered on our clients expectations and high hopes by delivering not only the quality safari experience that the clients book and expect but also the trophy quality that we strive to achieve and do achieve with our focus on hunting old bulls on a free range, fair chase basis, booking with Take Aim Safaris ensures you that you will get the safari you book conducted by market leaders in our service and guiding capabilities.
Since my last newsletter we welcomed Grant Taylor from Mashambanzhou Safaris on an elephant hunt he booked with me for his client, the hunt was conducted in the Gonarezhou Safari area Sengwe 2 and was guided by PH Nixon Dzingai during April 2019. The hunt was a huge success, the client managed to hunt this 80 pounder superb elephant bull with symmetrical tusks, on his last molars a fantastic trophy well done to all concerned.
I am no stranger to the back lash levelled against us hunters by the anti-hunters especially when such a big bull is hunted, over the last 12 years since I started TAS my clients have consistently hunted amongst the biggest elephants (and buffalos) in Africa, please take a moment to look at some these magnificent bulls including 2 bulls over a 100 pounds (one them went 122 and 120) plus many bulls over the 80 and 90 pound mark including this one that was recently hunted. https://www.takeaimsafaris.co.za/portfolio-item/elephant/ The fact that we produce these results has made me and my company an anti-hunting dart board, sorry to say but 99% of the anti-hunters know nothing about wild animals or conservation, they just don’t want to see dead animals… except on their plate for dinner of course or as leather seats in their luxury cars, on that basis for them its ok to kill.
What most hunters and non-hunters don’t see is what goes on in the background between hunts and perhaps this is a good time to show you. After this bull was hunted there was anti-hunting negative publicity about the hunt, the PH that guided the hunt Mr. Nixon Dzingai was asked to write a report on the hunt by local authorities, below is Nixon’s version of events regarding the hunting of this bull and a brief statement regarding what work is done by SSG Safaris on an annual basis for the local communities in the Gonarezhou including: food, clothes, roads, schools and medical facilities.
These upgrades and improvements are all paid for by hunting money.
There are no anti-hunters or greenies on the ground here trying to alleviate the suffering of the local people whether suffering via poverty due to economic circumstances or the human / animal conflict that is at an all-time high and getting worse in fact apart from threatening to kill me, my family and all of my colleagues in the hunting industry there is not one positive thing that non-hunters or anti-hunters do to help the animals or the people that live with the animals in the Gonarezhou safari areas, not one thing.
It seems to me that sending threatening emails is pretty much all the anti-hunters do. This is an invitation to all the anti-hunters and green brigades to come down here and chase these buffalos and elephants out of the maize and crop fields at night? Let’s see how you feel the about these animals the next morning. Why not bring some school books with you for the local kids, may as well bring clothes, medicine, bricks and cement that the safari operators do with hunting money, every month of every year.
This will never happen as not many care much more than not wanting to not see photos of dead elephants/dead animals… unfortunately for us we need these photos to sell our hunts. Most greenies are quite happy to eat meat, chicken or fish as we know as long as you or I kill the animal for them.
When you read on below please consider for a moment how you would feel if the 20 elephant bulls and buffalo bulls raiding crops were raiding your crops that you planted to feed your family for a year? These are not commercial farmers these are sustenance farmers planting crops without irrigation, using rainfall only, once the crops are gone/destroyed by elephants and buffalos then the annual food supply for that family or even that village is gone and cannot be replaced.
How would you or I feel about elephants if it was your father that was killed by the elephant defending his/your crops, then your Uncle or Mother killed by buffalos the next week and so on and so on forever and ever plus the situation is getting worse since there are more and more elephants and buffalos every year as African National Parks are too scared to cull elephants or buffalos for fear of losing much needed funding, population numbers of wild animals are exploding. Hunters are not the enemy they are a part of the solution.
If hunting stops in these areas then the meat stops for the families that receive the donation meat from the hunting operators as no meat is sold it is all is given away to the locals as donations. Apart from the meat supply stopping there would be no more anti-poaching work done by the PH’s then no one is left to chase these buffalos and elephants out of the fields, no one left to stop the lions killing people and cattle and worst of all no more jobs/no more money for the locals who are employed by the hunting operators.
Countries stopping the import of elephant and similar trophies are not making things better for the animals they are making things worse as the animals then have zero economic value and are being killed/poached/poisoned by locals for meat or retaliation for damage done to crops and people.
Try having a pride of lions, a herd of elephants and herd of buffalos who’s numbers are constantly increasing in your suburban neighbourhood then let’s see how you feel about hunting and culling.
Allow me to use rhino as an example, they/rhinos are nearly all dead and will all be dead soon in wild Africa due to poaching as we Africans cannot farm our own rhinos to harvest the horns from the live animals thanks to 1st world pressure where you don’t even have 1 wild rhino, if we were allowed to harvest horn from live rhinos there would be more rhinos than cattle in Africa, the 1st worlds approach to African wildlife problems has failed.
The fantastic hard work of the rhino anti-poaching units by brave and committed men and women will ultimately fail to protect the rhinos from poaching, slaughter and extinction in the wild as the demand for the illegal horn is too high, the poachers resolve is too strong and now they are too well funded and are too well supplied.
FYI please read this recent report implicating CZ rifles in supplying rhino poachers, whether CZ is directly or indirectly supplying poachers in my mind is the same thing, they ought to know where there rifles are going, disgraceful: https://www.timeslive.co.za/news/south-africa/2019-05-26-arms-probe-links-czech-guns-to-kruger-rhino-slaughter/
In summary rhinos would be thriving if hunters and private game farmers were allowed to farm and harvest these horns, CITIES has failed to protect rhinos and elephants.
In closing this section / this trophy elephant bull hunt portion of my newsletter I refer you to the words of the president of Botswana our neighboring country with whom we share many elephants (too many), please read on below.
Nixon’s Email:
“Dear Mr……
This Elephant hunt was conducted at Sengwe Area 2 Hunting concession which is approximately 90000 Hectors . It was shot and killed around 7:30p.m in the corn fields dated 18 April 2019 in Ward 15 under Headman Ngwenyeni .The loc state of the killed Elephant is 0338167/7557480 and is approximately 50 to 55 years old. About twenty migratory Elephants was every day spotted raiding the corn fields. Elephant Quota for Sengwe Area 2 is 3 Elephant Bulls and 3 Tusk less . Duration of the hunt was from the 14 April to 27 April 2019 ,monitored by one of Gonarezhou Conservation Trust scout and Chiredzi Rural District Council scout.
Human/Wildlife Conflicts (2019 to date) : 1 person killed by Elephant , 2 people killed by Buffalos and 3 people injured by Buffalos . All these cases were attended to.
Community developments funded directly by SSG via Hunting income are as follows:
- Rehabilitation of roads.
- Bore holes rehabilitation.
- Maintenance of schools that is Pahlela Primary School, Sengwe Secondary School, Dumisa Primary School, Chilothlela Primary School, Mugivisa Primary School, Samu Secondary School, Muhlekwani Primary School, Gwaivhi Primary School.
- Repairing grinding mills.
- Construction of Early Childhood Development{E.C.D} Blocks.
Thank You
Nixon Dzingai”
Onto Matetsi where PH Steve Meyer guided a client of ours from Europe on this buffalo hunt recently, they managed to hunt this very nice dagga boy buffalo:
Still in Matetsi with Steve Meyer and Zane Bronkhorst: You may or may not know that Southern Africa is currently experiencing low rainfall periods/drought, this fact has impacted negatively on animal populations and on humans alike, as part of the Matetsi ECA redistribution and upliftment program that includes: food (meat and maize), schools, medical, roads, anti-poaching and environment management I am pleased to announce that Steve Meyer just this month drilled 3 boreholes in the Matetsi ECA to provide clean and always available drinking water to animals and humans alike, 2 of these boreholes with solar panels and solar powered pumps have been strategically placed in the hunting area, the 3rd borehole has been drilled and placed in the village of the local people for the exclusive use of the locals, here are some photos.
A big thanks to Steve and to all our clients (his and mine) who bring the hunting Dollars into Zimbabwe to make these programs possible.
If you wish to be part of these charity programs please contact me, we need to drill more boreholes specifically in the Gonarezhou, local schools need school books, school uniforms and skills, hunters, non-hunters and anti-hunters are all welcome to join these conservation and humanitarian programs perhaps we can start to build the bridge that bridges the gap between us.
Please see attached photos of the recent drill and subsequent solar installation.
Still in Matetsi: During May we had a visit from celebrity German Professional Hunter Mr. Peter Dafner who brought his client to hunt for an elephant, a sable and plains game. The hunt went very well, Peter and his client managed to hunt this 40 pounder elephant, a very nice old sable bull and a nice old kudu bull and a zebra. It was a pleasure to work with Peter, thanks for the booking and thanks for taking time off your busy Tanzanian hunting season to hunt with us in Zimbabwe, we hope to see you again soon. Peter’s hunt was co guided by Zimbabwean PH Zane Bronkhorst.
In South Africa PH Jono Joseph guided a client of ours from the USA on this buffalo and plains game hunt, JWK Safaris that I own a 3rd of is gaining momentum in the USA and RSA, well done Jono and Adriaan. #JWK for the win.
PS: Any double rifle hunters out there that want to hunt with an award winning double rifle expert marksman and bushveld enthusiast then Jono Joseph is your PH. Just last weekend Jono won ANOTHER double rifle shooting competition.
A very nice old buffalo… well done Jono.
Here are two more buffalos, proper old dagga boys that were hunted recently in the Gonarezhou area of Zimbabwe by clients of mine from South Africa. These Gonarezhou buffalo hunts are proper dagga boy hunts. For those of you driving from South Africa our concessions in the Gonarezhou Safari areas Sengwe 1 and 2 are only 3 hours drive from Musina/Beit Bridge, for our international clients we offer a road transfer from Harare or a charter flight to the Gonarezhou from Johannesburg/OR Tambo International Airport.
Not many hunting areas that I know of offer bone fide dagga boy hunts on a free range basis, the Gonarezhou is one of them.
Well done to Simon Dzingai and Gift Dzingai for guiding these hunts.
Last but not least for this newsletter is this recent hunt that I did with my sons Hunter and Luke:
My son Hunter (age 10) shot this very nice wildebeest bull with a 300 WM that I was given by a client and friend from Spain, thanks Juan. My son and I bum crawled 100 meters to get into position for this one shot kill:
On the same hunt I also managed a great old wildebeest bull and trophy warthog.
My younger son Luke (age 9) shot this impala ram with his 308, him and I skinned it and prepared meat for our house from these animals. Nothing is wasted.
We hunted in South Africa on this wonderful hunting farm that is 14.000 hectares with many animals, perfect lodge and stunning views…. These are not expensive hunts and are a great fun with lots of species to be hunted, please follow this link to read more about the area: https://www.takeaimsafaris.co.za/philippolis-hunting-area/
This link to see the pricelist: https://www.takeaimsafaris.co.za/philippolis-pricelist/
Thank you for taking the time to read my newsletters and to pass them onto your hunting friends, sorry if my comments regarding our elephant hunts (and rhino conservation) are a little of the topic of hunting however the constant threats and insults I get from greenies who really know nothing about conservation and nothing about Africa and her people can get a person down at times.
Hunters are real conservationists, we are doing good work, we won’t be discouraged. I have often told non-hunters and anti-hunters that to this day I have never met a hunter that would kill a species that is under threat of extinction or not thriving in its habitat.
Congratulations to Botswana for re-opening hunting this week, much needed tourism and hunting Dollars will filter down to Southern Africa as a result.
Please email me for your personal quote and more information on a hunt with Take Aim Safaris in Zimbabwe, South Africa or Namibia… I do have quota and dates available for most if not all big game hunts.
Hunters best wishes.
Carl Knight
(JHB RSA)
Contact Number: 0027-82-749-1747
Email: carl@takeaimsafaris.com
Web: www.takeaimsafaris.com
