Rich Tabor

When my son, Pearce, and I booked our 14 day buffalo / leopard hunt with CMS, we had no idea what we were getting into. Although we have hunted extensively in South Texas, this was our first hunt outside of the state, much less an African safari. We had heard great things about CMS and were not disappointed. Our trip started with a direct Emirates Air flight to Dubai with an overnight transfer. We enjoyed both the airline and a night on the town in Dubai. After another overnight in Harare, we were on our way via charter to the camp. We were greeted there by Rich and his crew. Justin, the cameraman, joined us on the charter. We were immediately off to Mururu camp where we stayed the entire time. The accommodations, food, drink and company were outstanding. We also very much enjoyed getting to know the camp staff.

The first few days were spent chasing buffalo and looking for leopard bait. Pearce bagged two impala and a kudu cow and I got another impala. We had five trees baited and checked them regularly. We ended up with a total of 2 males and 5 females on our bait. On day 8, we had had a big male on bait two days in a row so built a very impressive tree blind where we hunted that afternoon. We settled in at 4 PM for what we thought would be a long afternoon but at 5 PM our cameraman spotted the big male leopard walking out of the tall grass toward the bait. The footage that Justin got was unbelievable. Pearce made a perfect shot from about 90 yards in the river bottom and the leopard was ours! After hundreds of photos, we were off to camp with the crew breaking out in a song as we neared camp. When we arrived, the camp staff was at the skinning pole with more song, dancing and beating of the drum. Again, getting all of that on film was very cool. It was the biggest cat taken from that camp in years.

After that, we focused completely on the illusive dugga boy. After 14 stalks, we finally found what we were looking for and Pearce again made a good shot and knocked him down in his tracks. The buffalo hunts were long, hot and oftentimes frustrating. Many times we got into large herds but no dugga boys. Other times, they spooked before we got a good look. A few dugga boys crossed into Mozambique. It was quite an experience and we were ecstatic to finally collect the old boy.

We spent the last two days looking for plains game. Over the 14 days, we saw a few beautiful kudu bulls, an outstanding warthog and zebra but never got off a shot. We also enjoyed seeing elephants, crocs and hippos. Having lunch at some of the other camps was also a highlight. Rich is an outstanding PH, combining great hunting skills, patience and knowledge. His trackers, Norest and Tedious, as well as his driver, Dube, were unbelievable and fun to visit with. We had made the decision to hire a cameraman and I am so happy we did. Justin is a wealth of knowledge, a pleasure to be around and captured six hours of incredible footage that we will enjoy for years to come. Thank you all for an unforgettable and outstanding safari.

- DM, June 2015