Newsletter 62

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Dear Hunting Friends

I trust this newsletter finds you well and with lots of hunts booked for the year ahead.

Since my last newsletter on the 20th March we have had some very good hunts to update you on including this massive leopard and this 43 inch wild sable both hunted in our Matetsi ECA concession also known by the locals as Matetsi unit 8 situated in the Western part of Zimbabwe near the Victoria Falls. This hunt was booked and guided by Zimbabwean PH Phil Smythe.

On another Matetsi ECA hunt PH Stephen Meyer guided a client from Europe on this 45 pounder elephant hunt, our first Matetsi elephant bull for 2017.

During April we welcomed a client from the USA on a crocodile hunt in Binga, the client hunted with Zim PH Adrian Van Heerden. I received a stunning letter of commendation and appreciation from the client on Adrian so well done and a special thanks Adrian.

Also during April clients from Europe hunted with us in the Gonarezhou Safari areas guided by PH’s Nixon and Simon Dzingai, the clients shot two buffalos and this very good elephant bull that looks to me to be in the 40 to 50 pound class, I don’t have the official weight with me right now nor do I have a photo of the second buffalo but this one is a real dagga boy, typical of the Gonarezhou in as much that you can shoot a trophy that is superb on any given day.

Now for the real good news… My sons and I just completed this plains game hunt during the recent school holiday:

It is early days in terms of the 2017 hunting season, lots more hunts to come and lots of quota and dates available, please feel free to contact me for booking information. Hunters, Agents, PH’s and Outfitters feel free to contact me for all your big game hunting requirements in South Africa and Zimbabwe.

As always thanks for taking the time to read my newsletters and forward them to your hunting friends.

Hunters best wishes.

Carl Knight
Contact Number: 0027-82-749-1747
Email: carl@takeaimsafaris.com
Web: www.takeaimsafaris.com

Newsletter 61

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Dear Hunting Friends

I hope this newsletter finds you well.

This season has started very well, we have had lots of rain in the concession areas in stark contrast to this time last year when we were bracing ourselves for the upcoming drought. This year the rivers are full, the marula fruights that are currently ripe and ripening are plentiful, the maize and sorghum fields are well planted and are flourishing unlike last year where the crops that the locals planted failed for the most part due to no or low rain fall, as I said this is all in stark contrast to this time last year.

What this means to us is that the concession areas are full of lush green trees and bushes, so are the adjoining National Parks, on our side of the boundary there are many ripe marula trees and hundreds of hectares of crops that are going to start becoming ripe over the next month and will continue to ripen and be harvested over the next 3 months, these facts will stimulate fantastic early season elephant bull and buffalo movement into our areas for different reasons such as marula, maize, sorghum and then throughout the latter season dry months the bulls will be moving into our areas for the green trees and bushes on our side. In summary things have not looked this good from a hunting perspective for many years.

Allow me to open this newsletter with what to my knowledge is the biggest elephant shot in Africa so far this year, this bull was hunted by a German client of ours in the Gonarezhou Safari area at the start of March on a hunt guided by PH Nixon Dzingai. This bulls tusks weighed an official weight of 37 and 36 kilograms with tusks 223 and 211 centimetres in length, makes this bull an official 82 pounder.

On other Gonarezhou hunts it has to be said that Steve Meyer has stolen the show, Steve left our European marketing tour early this year to start hunting elephant in the Gonarezhou with clients that were queuing up to start hunting, a case of strike whilst the iron is hot I suppose. The North Western Gonarezhou concession Chibedziva produced the fantastic early season bulls, the movement is still very strong in this area as well as our Southern and South Eastern Gonarezhou concessions.

This 50 pounder was shot in the Maize fields crop raiding as you can see from the photo. This bull was hunted whilst I was in Salzburg at the hunting show, these tusks are 47 and 49 pounds, a great old bull. The client also shot this very good hippo bull in the Gonarezhou area with Steve.

On another recent 2017 Gonarezhou hunt a client from Europe hunted this 60 pounder also with Steve Meyer.

On another March 2017 hunt, I personally guided a client on this 35 pounder elephant bull hunt in South Africa, this was a very big bodied old elephant bull.

This buffalo was hunted in December 2016 in the Matetsi units on another hunt guided by Steve Meyer, I did not have a picture of this bull until now so I decided to add this bull to this newsletter since it was never added before. What a beautiful bull….

To be clear this is a fantastic time to book your 2017 hunts, our Gonarezhou and Matetsi areas are looking fantastic and ready to produce more 1st class results for the 2017 season ahead. Top concessions, top PH’s, top results at the best possible prices is what I do. Please contact me for more information on our areas and hunts.

PH’s, Outfitters, Agents and Clients are all welcome to contact me for bookings.

Thanks for passing my newsletter onto your hunting friends.

Hunters best wishes.

Newsletter 60

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Dear Hunting Friends

Happy new year to you all, may you have a healthy and happy 2017 filled with time outdoors.

Attached to this newsletter is a link to my 2017 brochure, please download and save your copy to your computer for reading at your convenience, the brochure has maps of our hunting areas, an explanation of the hunting areas, camp photos, hunting pricelists and some of our 2016 trophy photos. Please forward the brochure to your hunting friends and please feel free to email me for booking enquiries. Thank you.

Since my last newsletter on the 25th of November we have had some very good hunts including some superb elephant hunts as mentioned in my last email plus this 45 inch hard boss buffalo and some really fantastic crocodiles, in fact I would go as far as to say that the quality of these crocodile trophies have stolen the late season lime light.

As you read on you will see photos that could be disturbing to sensitive readers. Since this is a hunters newsletter written by a hunter to hunters (no children) I have decided after discussion with friends and clients to send these photos out, to show you what really happens in wild Africa. I have explained to you before that our areas are real hunting areas for hard men, these concessions are not zoos.

Here is an explanation of the photos: Many people incorrectly believe that hippos kill more people than any other African animal, this could not be further from the truth. Hippos eat no meat and would have no reason to hunt or kill humans, of course in a chance encounter a hippo can/will kill humans.

The biggest killer of humans (mostly rural people) in Africa is the crocodile that hunts/stalks/kills and eats humans daily in Africa. To be clear I don’t believe that crocodiles see humans as natural prey, the main reason crocodiles are killing humans is due to the fact that humans have poached/killed 95% of the natural prey animals available to the crocodiles in the form of fish and game animals that would otherwise drink at the water where the crocodile live and be hunted there by these now man-eater crocodiles. This is the vicious circle of life that exists here in Africa.

This example is unique to where humans and animals co-exist, crocodiles under normal circumstances would not hunt humans if their natural prey was available. Poaching is responsible for the decline in the crocodiles natural prey animals, not sustainable hunting.

Early December 2016 Steve Meyer got a call from Binga (Lake Kariba: Zimbabwe) Communal leaders informing him that there is a massive crocodile hunting and eating local people that are collecting water & fishing on the banks of Lake Kariba, they asked Steve to kill this problem animal, now to be honest these calls come in all the time this is not new or unique at all as mentioned above. This time it just so happens that Steve was in Binga fishing with a friend from Bulawayo, they decided to go and hunt this man eater crocodile in service of the local community.

This crocodile must have been responsible for a great many human deaths over the last 70 years or so of its adult life, this crocodile was not accurately measured but my own estimate puts this crocodile at 5.2 meters if we consider that Steve who is in the photo is 1.76 meters tall. Regardless of the exact length this crocodile is massive, they don’t get any bigger than this in the wild.

After the crocodile was killed and the stomach contents removed this is what was found. The human remains were returned to the community for funeral and burial ceremonies.

On another more traditional hunt, this time in the Gonarezhou a client of ours from Spain managed to hunt this 45 inch hard boss buffalo with PH Nixon Dzingai (pictured in the photo) during December 2016.

On another November/December hunt also guided by Nixon clients from Europe managed to shoot these two very good crocodiles In the Gonarezhou area with the larger one measuring 14 foot, a massive crocodile for a river system. The hunters also hunted this 45 pounder elephant bull with Nixon and this giraffe plus two waterbuck and some other plains game.

On a recent Matetsi hunt another client from Spain hunted this 40 pounder elephant with Steve Meyer.

On another Binga hunt, this time with PH Talmage Alexander a client from South Africa shot this 50 pounder elephant:

On a recent Save Valley hunt a client from Europe hunted this buffalo with PH Lloyd Yeatman:

On a recent hunt in South Africa a client from South Africa who has now booked 3 hunts with Take Aim Safaris shot this elephant bull in the 35 pound class, his teenage daughter shot a buffalo cow. Thanks to PH Philip Oosthuizen JNR for guiding another one of my clients on a great hunt.

Closing off our 2016 season a client of ours from Europe that hunted with Nixon Dzingai in the Gonarezhou Safari areas managed to hunt these 3 hard boss buffalos:

Please visit me in Dortmund at the Jagd and Hund expo in Hall 7 stand D28.

You can also visit me in Salzburg in the Mistral booth, centre of the main hall.

As always thanks for taking the time to read my newsletters and pass them on to your hunting friends. Clients, PH’s, Outfitters and Agents please contact me for all your big game hunt bookings in Zimbabwe and South Africa.

Hunters best wishes.

Carl Knight
Contact Number: 0027-82-749-1747
Email: carl@takeaimsafaris.com
Web: www.takeaimsafaris.com

Newsletter 59

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Dear Hunting Friends

I hope this newsletter finds you well.

Since my last newsletter on the 13th of September Take Aim Safaris has had some fantastic hunts in fact this newsletter is what I would call a “bumper issue” due to the number of hunts and the superb quality of the trophies taken. I could have sent out a newsletter in October but decided not to do so in order that I keep the reader content and interest level as high as possible. I hope you enjoy this newsletter and photos from the last two months hunts. Also attached are TAS 2017 pricelists.

I have just returned home to Johannesburg from 2 weeks in Zimbabwe where I was visiting with my partner Operators and PH’s plus visiting camps, seeing the movement in the hunting areas and I did some hunting myself as you will see below. What I can tell you is that things are going fantastically well from a hunting perspective in Zimbabwe, the camps are looking great in fact the Malipati, Sengwe 1 and 2 plus Naivaisha camps were all re-vamped this year and so are the hunting areas looking great. I saw very many buffalo, elephant and plains game.

Every time I visit the Gonarezhou National Park and the adjoining hunting areas where I offer hunts, I cannot help but ask/remind myself that in 35 years of hunting Southern Africa (I am 43 years old now) as a hunter and as a PH I have never hunted better areas than these, the Gonarezhou is real hunting in real hunting areas, this a tough man’s hunt in real Africa where nothing has changed for centuries.

I also visited Matetsi and again left very impressed with the area, the camps and the number of animals I saw, I like Matetsi very much, this is a wild hunting area with no fences where game movement from the adjoining Matetsi Units and Hwange National Park is excellent. Our main camp has WI-FI, the Victoria Falls are 30 minutes’ drive from camp so is Victoria Falls town making Matetsi a fantastic place for not only hunters on their own but also family hunts and large groups including non-hunters. The Matetsi location is logistically easy to hunt as you land at Victoria Falls and its 30 minutes’ drive to camp, no charter necessary. I saw hundreds of buffalo, loads of sable, loads of plains game etc. etc.

I drove home very impressed with Zimbabwe National Parks and the local people who have preserved, maintained and conserve not only the animals but also the National Parks areas. I have hunted Zimbabwe many times for many years, I sell hunts in the areas I do because I believe them to be the best package (including pricing) that Zimbabwe has to offer and yes I am bias but I have also visited or hunted 90% of the Zimbabwean hunting areas and could offer hunts anywhere but don’t, instead I focus on the Gonarezhou, Matetsi and Binga.

Anyhow I suggest that you come and see for yourself, you won’t be disappointed and will surely return.

Attached to this email are TAS 2017 pricelists, they are self-explanatory however it is important for me to mention the following changes:

  • We (Nixon and I) have reduced our Gonarezhou buffalo hunt daily rates by 10% to 900 USD per day making us the best priced buffalo hunt in Zimbabwe that I know of, not only the best price but the best area to hunt dagga boys that I have seen. I am offering a 7 day 1 buffalo hunt @ 900 USD per day plus your buffalo @ 4.500 USD plus a few extra charges that are all standard to Zimbabwe as per the attached pricelist.
  • I am offering a 10 day 2 buffalo Gonarezhou hunt also at 900 USD per day 1st buffalo 4.500 USD 2nd buffalo 4.500 USD guided 1×1 only. The Gonarezhou concessions get around 60 buffalo a year on quota, this year we shot 40 odd we could have shot the entire quota all if we had the bookings, next year we hope to do so. Buffalo movement into the Sengwe areas from the Kruger NP is unbelievable, buffalo movement from the Gonarezhou National Park into Malipati Safari area is equally as good especially dagga boys, there has never been a better time or price for you to come and hunt your buffalo. How many Outfitters are producing results like this and dropping prices? Scroll down.
  • Our 2017 trophy elephant bull hunts in the Gonarezhou area remain the best priced trophy elephant bull hunts on the market, we are not increasing our elephant hunt prices from 2016 to 2017 at all. Look at this old bull Nixon Dzingai just hunted, this is what you will be looking for when you book with us. All our elephant hunts are minimum 10 days, you can/should book for longer especially if you are looking for the 70 pounder + bulls.
  • A new offer for 2017 is a 7 day hippo and crocodile hunt in the Gonarezhou area @ 900 USD per day daily rate plus hippo @ 5.000 USD and crocodile @ 4.000 USD. Plus usual Zim extra charges as attached
  • Our Matetsi & Binga 35 pounder elephant hunts are the best priced elephant bull hunts in Africa….. This year Steve Meyer shot a 50 pounder in Matetsi with a client of mine on a 25.000 USD elephant hunt. In fact this hunt has come down in price by 500 USD from 2016 to 2017.
  • Take a serious look at our Matetsi pricelist that has been rehashed, the day fees have for the most part come down and so have the number of days required on most hunts. I am planning for big year in Matetsi 2017. We are serious about bookings and increasing our market share.
  • Our Matetsi buffalo hunts have also been reduced in price and number of days required, we now offer a 7 day buffalo hunt in Matetsi @ 1.100 USD per day daily rate plus buffalo trophy fee 4.500 USD. Plus usual Zimbabwe extra charges as attached in the 2017 Matetsi pricelist. (We get a much lower annual buffalo hunting quota in Matetsi than in the Gonarezhou Safari areas)
  • Our Matetsi sable hunts are also available now as 7 day hunts @ 1.100 USD per day plus sable trophy fee 4.500 USD. Plus usual Zimbabwe extra charges as attached. Down from a 10 day minimum in 2016.
  • Another new offer for TAS and perhaps the hunting industry is a 10 day leopard hunt, yes a 10 day leopard hunt. We understand time constraints in the modern day and that not every hunter has 14 hunting days to hunt. We now offer a minimum 10 day leopard and plains game hunt @ 1.200 USD per day plus leopard trophy fee 4.500 USD in Matetsi and 5.000 USD in the Gonarezhou area. We offer a 4 day pre-bait option on this hunt @ 250 USD per day including bait. Plus usual Zim extras as per the attached pricelist.
  • My South African pricelist remains unchanged from 2016 and is also attached.

I hope you like these offers, for more information please contact me. As always Agents, PH’s, Outfitters, Operators and Client enquiries are welcome.

Since my last newsletter clients that booked with me have done these hunts:

In the Sengwe 1 area of the Gonarezhou a client from Europe hunted this buffalo:

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Also in the Sengwe area, this time Sengwe 2 a client from RSA hunted this buffalo, the photo is taken on the Zimbabwe side of the Limpopo River, in the background of the photo on the right hand side that is the Kruger National Park that you can see, we are open and un-fenced to the KNP, game movement is fantastic.

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A father and son from Europe hunted these trophies in the Malipati Safari area & Chitsa area of the Gonarezhou, including this elephant bull that was killed in full charge in self-defence and this 44 inch buffalo:

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Staying in the Malipati Safari area a client from the USA hunted this very good dagga boy with PH Simon Dzingai:

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Here is my own buffalo that I hunted in the Sengwe 2 area of Zimbabwe on the 23rd of October 2016, my 9th buffalo:

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On a recent Matetsi and Binga hunt a client from Europe managed this huge hippo bull and this sable:

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On another Gonarezhou hunt this time in Naivaisha a client from Europe hunted this buffalo with PH Lloyd Yeatman: (what a boss on this bull)

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Another client from Europe hunted the Gonarezhou Safari areas Malipati, Sengwe 1 and 2 with PH Nixon Dzingai and managed to hunt these very good trophies including this 67 pounder elephant bull that as you can see is very old and a perfect bull to hunt, combined with these perfect old dagga boys, perfect old nyala and other plains game make this a hunt of a lifetime:

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Another European group I booked hunted with us in Matetsi and Binga, here are some of the photos from that hunt: (how about this very old klipspringer….. zoom in on him)

A big thanks to PH’s Adriaan Van Heerden, Steve Meyer and Talmage Alexander for this super hunt, very happy clients is what we do.

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On another hunt this one conducted by PH Lloyd Yeatman in the Naivaisha concession of the Gonarezhou clients of mine from Europe managed to hunt this elephant bull and this hippo, other hunters in the same group shot 2 buffalo and 2 waterbuck but the phone photos I have from the PH are not of sufficient quality to post them on this newsletter or my website, I mention them as I want you to know there is great elephant, leopard, buffalo and plains game movement in the Naivaisha and Save areas that Lloyd hunts.

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This will be the last newsletter I send out in 2016 unless we shoot ANOTHER 100 pounder during our remaining year end hunts, our last hunting day is 29th December this year. The remaining 2016 bookings are elephant hunts plus a few buffalo. I will update you on those hunts in January 2017 before the marketing shows.

Speaking of marketing shows you can visit me in Dortmund at the Jagd and Hund show in January/February 2017 Hall 7 stand D 28 as usual, in fact this is my 10th year in Dortmund… You can also visit me in Salzburg/Austria during February at the hunting show there, you will find me in the Mistral booth: www.mistral-jagd.at  that is centre of the main hall.

In April I will be at Huntex in Johannesburg, find Take Aim Safaris in the hunting pavilion for the best big game hunting available in Africa today or call me and come and visit me at home in JHB.

What remains is for me to thank all my clients for the hunts this year and to thank you all for taking the time to read my newsletters, please pass them onto your hunting friends and please save these pricelists to your computer, I wish you all a fabulous festive season ahead and all the best for 2017 and of course I hope to see you at the shows or better yet in Africa on a hunt.

Hunters best wishes.

Carl Knight
Contact Number: 0027-82-749-1747
Email: carl@takeaimsafaris.com
Web: www.takeaimsafaris.com

Newsletter 58

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Dear Hunting Friends

I hope this newsletter finds you well.

Since my last newsletter on the 19th of August 2016 we have had some very good hunts to update you on, late season movement is excellent now would be the perfect time to book your big game hunt. watch out for my late season newsletters that will be full of great hunts yet to come.

On a hunt that ended on the 6th of September a client of ours from Europe that hunted with PH Nixon Dzingai managed to get these great trophies in the Gonarezhou Safari areas:

This massive body 45 pounder elephant was hunted in Sengwe 1:

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This hard boss dagga boy was hunted in Sengwe 2 area:

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This nyala was hunted in Malipati Safari area:

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Hunters take note that when you book with me to hunt any one of these Gonarezhou concessions you have traversing rights between the concessions as these three concessions are all owned and operated by the same Operator, these concessions form part of an approximate 300.000 hectare hunting area that is open and unfenced to the Gonarezhou National Park, The Kruger National Park and the Mozambique National Park, our hunting area includes the famous Crooks Corner on the Zimbabwe side. You can see camp pictures for the 3 concessions camps: Malipati, Dumisa (Sengwe 2) and Kwala-Kwala (Sengwe 1) by following this link: http://www.takeaimsafaris.co.za/hunt-in-zimbabwe/zimbabwe-hunting-areas/gonarezhou/ . You can also see geographical maps of the area by following the same link.

These areas are getting better and better from a game movement perspective as the game numbers in the adjoining National Parks explode into the hunting areas, I cannot over emphasise this point enough that these areas are getting better and better.

If you are interested in a Gonarezhou Safari area trophy elephant bull hunt combined with a leopard and or a buffalo or two then contact me, hippo, croc and nyala are also all on quota and available on this hunt. We have a gap open during our late season prime time dates 04 November to 18 November 2016 to hunt with and be guided by Nixon Dzingai.

On a recent hunt in the Limpopo Province of RSA that I guided myself I hunted with long term TAS clients that have booked many hunts from me over the years, this 21 year old huntress managed a perfect 1 shot kill from her .404 Jeffrey on this dagga boy buffalo, she managed another perfect shot on this 29 inch waterbuck bull. Well done and thanks to you all. Looking forward to your elephant…

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On the same hunt my client Matt hunted this trophy roan antelope, Matt has done some serious hunting with me over the years and on hunts booked with me, in fact Matt will be my first client to start and finish his big 5 and dangerous 7 on hunts booked with my company,  he already has 2 buffalo, a monster leopard, a 45 pounder elephant bull, wild male lion, hippo and croc on Lake Kariba, sable and now roan + a big % of the general plains game what remains is his rhino, if Matt hunts his rhino I will send out a newsletter dedicated to the big 5 and dangerous 7 he has hunted. Well done on this roan, thanks Matt thanks Dave.

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This old warthog had a broken back leg and was a good one to take.

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This buffalo was also hunted in Sengwe 1 on a recent hunt in September, the client on this hunt was from South Africa, the PH was Simon Dzingai. Another great hard boss bull.

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Let’s talk Matetsi:

Let me start by saying that the Matetsi ECA (environmental conservation area) is a fantastic hunting area that has gotten better and better over the past few years under Stephen Meyer and Talmage Alexander both of whom are 3rd generation Zimbabwean Professional hunters, both of whom are currently training their sons to be the 4thgeneration Zimbabwean Professional hunters from their respective family’s. The ECA is as good as any of the Matetsi Units under its current management, a big plus is that the ECA hunts sell at a lesser price than the unit hunts where concession fees are through the roof. Any client wanting to hunt lion, leopard, hyena or any of the other nocturnal species can do so at night legally in the Matetsi ECA, besides the nocturnal hunts the area is full of buffalo, plains game and elephant. My partner Operators are amongst the best of the best when it comes to guiding in Zim this applies not only to Matetsi but also to the Gonarezhou. There is no reason not to hunt these areas if you want the best that Zimbabwe has to offer at the best price possible.

We have 1 lion left on quota for 2016 in Matetsi, contact me if you want this lion hunt.

You can see pictures of our two camps in Matetsi by following this link, you can also see area maps and read area info: http://www.takeaimsafaris.co.za/hunt-in-zimbabwe/zimbabwe-hunting-areas/matetsi-and-binga/

While you are on my site take a look at Binga that is great for hippo and massive crocs plus elephant andthe tiger fishing is great.

On recent hunts guided by Steve and Talmage they managed these fine trophies.

This 35 pounder old bull was hunted in the ECA by a client from Europe:

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This buffalo, kudu, bushbuck, and hyena were hunted in the Matetsi ECA by a client from the USA with Steve.

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As always a big thank you for taking the time to read my newsletters and for passing them onto your hunting friends.
Please contact me for hunt bookings in Zimbabwe or South Africa.

Best regards and thanks

Carl Knight
Contact Number: 0027-82-749-1747
Email: carl@takeaimsafaris.com
Web: www.takeaimsafaris.com

Newsletter 57

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Dear Hunting Friends

I hope this newsletter finds you well.

Since my last newsletter on the 27th July we have had some great hunts to update you on, as you can see buffalo hunts are dominating my mid-season bookings with 15 buffalo bulls being hunted during the months of July and August between the different concessions I offer. My last newsletter had 7 of those bulls on it, this one has the next 8 bulls that were all hunted in the last few weeks. The next few weeks have more buffalo hunts plus roan, elephant, hippo and a leopard hunt to come so watch out for my next newsletter.

This business is all about reputations and repeat clients, this hunter from RSA has hunted an elephant bull on a hunt booked with me and so has his son, he returned this month to hunt a buffalo in the Gonarezhou Safari Area, thanks for the 3rd hunt booked with me Tok and congrats on this very good dagga boy that was guided by veteran Zim PH Nixon Dzingai:

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Another RSA client hunted the Gonarezhou Safari Areas, this hunt was guided by PH Simon Dzingai, they hunted this very good buffalo:

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Clients from Europe hunted these two buffalos in the Matetsi ECA with Steve Meyer and Talmage Alexander:

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An American client hunted this 42 inch hard boss bull in the Gonarezhou Safari Areas with PH Nixon Dzingai:

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Another RSA client hunted the Gonarezhou Safari Areas during August and managed to hunt this buffalo bull with PH Lloyd Yeatman:

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Also during August Steve Meyer guided another client from Europe who hunted this buffalo bull:

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The man in the photo is Steve’s tracker.

Lastly for this newsletter this client from America hunted this buffalo in the Gonarezhou Safari Area also with PH Nixon Dzingai:

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That’s 15 successful buffalo hunts in the last 2 months with 1 more buffalo hunt to come in August. If you want to hunt areas that are fantastic for big game then contact me. I have quota and dates available for 2016 plus our 2017 bookings are open and going well.

As always thank you for taking the time to read my newsletter and pass it onto your hunting friends.

Best regards and thanks

Carl Knight
Contact Number: 0027-82-749-1747
Email: carl@takeaimsafaris.com
Web: www.takeaimsafaris.com

Newsletter 56

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Dear Hunting Friends

I hope this newsletter finds you well.

Since my last newsletter on the 17th June we have had great hunts to report back to you on. Included in those hunts are some great buffalo hunts including two beautiful +- 18 year old dagga boys and a Matetsi lion. If you are considering a hunt for 2016 or 2017 please contact me as we do have dates and quota available.

Starting in Matetsi PH Stephen Meyer guided this buffalo and plains game hunt during June:
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Staying in Matetsi a client from Europe hunted this beautiful male lion in the Matetsi ECA concession on the 18th July 2016, during the 18 day hunt the client and PH’s saw 5 different male lions before deciding on this male. We do still have one lion permit available in the Matetsi ECA for 2016, please contact me for more info.

We also have 2 leopard permits left for the 2016 season in Matetsi plus a few buff and sable.

You can read more about the Matetsi ECA and see camp pictures plus a map of the area by following this link: https://lotsanesafaris.com/hunt-in-zimbabwe/zimbabwe-hunting-areas/matetsi-and-binga/
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Moving down to the South Eastern Zimbabwe Gonarezhou Safari Areas: On recent hunts our clients managed to hunt these very good buffalos:

On his 3rd buffalo hunt booked with Take Aim Safaris this South African client kept his 100% success rate by shooting this very good buffalo with Zim PH Simon Dzingai, I am very sure we will see you again soon Marius. Thanks for the bookings and congratulations on your 3rd Zimbabwe buffalo.

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Another South African client booked our Gonarezhou buffalo hunt and hunted this bull with PH Nixon Dzingai who is pictured here with the client:

(Nixon is a career PH and Gonarezhou concession owner, Nixon guided our client to the 122 pounder elephant bull that was hunted in October 2015)

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Yet another South African client took up our buffalo hunt in the Gonarezhou and hunted this buffalo in July with his two sons at his side.

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These two buffalo were hunted by a South African client in the Gonarezhou area in July, these bulls were shot together on the same day in the same place. I must elaborate/share my opinion here when it comes to these two bulls: looking at my website buffalo gallery the last bull added was buffalo number 120 meaning I have sold over 120 buffalo hunts https://lotsanesafaris.com/portfolio-item/buffalo , more like 140 including the hunts I don’t have photos of etc and the “ones that got away” these things can, will and do happen.

These two “warrior dagga boy bulls” including this “helmet bull” are my personal favourite bulls to date. They look around 18 years old to me and are rock solid in terms of bosses in fact the horns are gone and/or worn right down…

This is wild/open area buffalo hunting at its 110% best.
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This last bull for this newsletter was also hunted in the Gonarezhou area of Zimbabwe by a client from South Africa, another very good buffalo.

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As you can see we are enjoying great support from both European and South African clients, the latter all drove into the area from Beit Bridge with no problems.

We have elephant, lion, leopard, hippo, croc and plenty of buffalo left on quota in the Gonarezhou area plus dates are available for your hunt. Please contact me if you are interested in a big game hunt in either Zimbabwe or in South Africa.

I have hunted and researched the areas I offer you extensively, I have sold over 300 big game hunts. When you book your hunt with me you can be sure you are dealing with an industry professional.

Thank you for taking the time to read my newsletter and share it with your hunting friends.

Hunters best wishes

Carl Knight
Contact Number: 0027-82-749-1747
Email: carl@takeaimsafaris.com
Web: www.takeaimsafaris.com

Newsletter 55

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Dear Hunting Friends

I hope this newsletter finds you well.

Since my last newsletter on the 30th May we have had some great hunts that I look forward to sharing with you.

A client of ours from Europe hunted this 60 pounder elephant in Matetsi with PH Talmage Alexander, yes that’s what I said a 60 pounder in Matetsi… Combine that with the 44 pounder Steve hunted last month and our 2016 Matetsi average is high, much higher than other areas not known for trophy elephant bulls and making our elephant hunts in Matetsi great value for money at around 25.000 USD including Cities export permits and 10 full hunting days, no pound restrictions on bulls, in fact the bigger the better is what we are after:

Newsletter-55-pic-1On the same hunt this buffalo was shot in Matetsi, so was this bushbuck and sable.
Newsletter-55-pic-2 Newsletter-55-pic-3 Newsletter-55-pic-4Steve Meyer guided another hunter on the same hunt who managed to hunt this buffalo, sable, kudu and waterbuck:
Newsletter-55-pic-5 Newsletter-55-pic-6 Newsletter-55-pic-7 Newsletter-55-pic-8The last two newsletters have been dominated by Matetsi hunts until Simon Dzingai hunted this bull with a client from South Africa, now this is an awesome buffalo, an old warrior that’s for sure:

Newsletter-55-pic-9Well done Jono, I love this bull.

Lastly take a look at this Gonarezhou gene on elephant bulls…..

This photo was taken in May 2016, this bull was not hunted:

Newsletter-55-pic-10If you want a chance to hunt a bull like this then contact me, of course hunting is never easy but this is what we have available in the best trophy elephant bull concessions left in Africa, the Gonarezhou..

As always a big thank you for taking the time to read my newsletter, and please contact me for all your big game hunting requirements in Zimbabwe and South Africa. Client, PH, Outfitter and Agent enquires welcome. Thanks for sharing my newsletter with your hunting friends.

Best regards and thanks

Carl Knight

Newsletter 54

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Dear Hunting Friends

I hope that you are all well and having a great year of hunting so far.

Since my last newsletter on the 3rd of May we have had some great hunt with the Matetsi area delivering fantastic results. Matetsi is a great place to hunt for so many reasons but to mention just a few: Game numbers are very high allowing for multiple viewing opportunities not only of huntable bulls but also herds of animals, also the sightseeing aspect of hunting Matetsi is good from the point of view that you will be able to see the Victoria Falls one of the wonders of the world plus if you book a few extra days you can visit the Hwange National Park the biggest National Park in Zimbabwe and a truly great holiday destination, the Falls and the park are both very close to our offered hunting concessions.

Binga is also a very good area that we offer and is located on the shores of Lake Kariba and is fantastic for trophy crocodiles plus hippos and elephants are found in good numbers, our offered Binga lodges are first class and ideal for hunting and fishing family and group holidays.

Please follow this link to see the Matetsi and Binga camps plus read area info:  www.takeaimsafaris.co.za/hunt-in-zimbabwe/zimbabwe-hunting-areas/matetsi-and-binga

On a recent hunt guided by PH Stephen Meyer our client from Europe managed to get these very good trophies in Matetsi and Binga including this very good 44 and 42 pounder elephant bull plus a great hippo/croc combo and some plains game:

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Also on a recent hunt this time in South Africa guided by PH Riaan Louwrens our clients from Europe managed to take this great full maned lion plus this old giraffe bull and this blesbuck:

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On another recent hunt in Matetsi PH Talmage Alexander guided a client from America on this buffalo/sable hunt that included this kudu and some other plains game:

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Adding my own touch to this newsletter I recently hunted this old wildebeest bull:

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As always thank you for taking the time to read my newsletter and forward it onto your hunting friends. I do have dates and hunting quota available in RSA and Zimbabwe, please contact me for more info and bookings. With more hunts to come please look out for my next newsletter in a month or so.

Best regards and thanks

Carl Knight
Contact Number: 0027-82-749-1747
Email: carl@takeaimsafaris.com
Web: www.takeaimsafaris.com

Newsletter 53

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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:

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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:

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(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:

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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:

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

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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.

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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.

Please feel free to share my newsletters with your hunting friends.