Tom Long's Buffalo Hunt - Mozambique

“Click”, the sound broke the still, silent Mozambique veldt and with the noise still ringing in my ears, I rapidly worked the bolt on the old Winchester to shove another cartridge into the chamber of my .375 H&H. I returned the crosshairs on the quartering animal, rapidly disappearing into the forest of bush and trees, and squeezed the trigger for a second time while saying a silent prayer. I am certain, had I turned, I would have seen a strange look on the face of my PH, Gordon Stark.

I first met Gordon at the Great Outdoor Show put on by the NRA at the Harrisburg Farm Show Building this past February. It is extremely important when going on a dangerous game hunt to have complete confidence in your PH, and it took only a few minutes of meeting Gordon to know he was the right man to guide me and have my back.

My hunt was scheduled for Mozambique this past August on a concession of 250,000 acres, with about 90,000 acres being swamp land. With the water table close to the surface, Mozambique looks today as it did many hundreds of years ago. Animals inhabit the land in a totally natural environment. The camp was located on the banks of the Zambezi River where I caught a catfish of close to 30 pounds.

To say this place is remote would be an understatement. There is a garden where they grow their vegetables, as there are no stores close by, so we ate from the garden and what I shot. The meat was prepared in various ways and can only be described as excellent table fare, along with bread baked daily. I have eaten in restaurants that would be hard pressed to meet the quality of the meals at this camp.

Hunting gives value to the animals and the locals work hard to prevent poaching. For non-hunters, I am sure they find it difficult to believe that the best conservationists of animals are hunters.

I almost forgot the “click”. It was a cartridge that failed to fire. I was centred on a beautiful sable when it happened, but fortunately I was greeted with a boom on the second trigger squeeze before the sable disappeared into the bush. One shot and down ethically with a 300-grain Barnes bullet. On our last day we had sable tenderloin as the main part of the meal. I gained 4 pounds.

We saw hundreds of buffalo, and I was amazed at the eyesight of the trackers as they would spot animals way off in the distance. We stalked several herds, keeping the wind in our faces. Later in the day we stalked within range of two buffalo close to a swamp. The one to the left was quite large, big horned with large bosses. We set up the sticks for the .375 and much to my surprise, one shot and he dropped on the spot. A most welcome but unusual occurrence.

Usually on the hunts that I have been on, I look for three things to make a successful hunt. The most important is the PH and the animals available. The second is food, and the third is the lodging. I have had hunts with one out of three, two out of three, but seldom do you find three out of three. If I were rating this hunt with stars, it would be 5 stars all the way. Gordon is a superb PH, knows his animals and how to successfully hunt them. The food was excellent, and the accommodations were first class.

Over my days in the field I saw eland, sable, buffalo, waterbuck, hartebeest and reedbuck, and they were everywhere and abundant. It was so encouraging to see so many animals and no fences on the quarter million acres. I had a blast, met and made new friends, and I look forward to the next one — and if not, I have a lifetime of memories.