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Zambia: The Luangwa Valley & Lochinvar Safari Areas
- pantheonhunters
- Sep 21, 2025
- 3 min read
Updated: Nov 2, 2025
We made it back from Zambia a bit later than planned, but un-chewed and successful on over-sized specimens of the animals sought. This safari was blessed by the skills and companionship of two veteran PHs and long-time friends Derick Van Staden and Mark DeWet. We are a helluva good local hunting team with 3 hard-working trackers, skinner and an AK-equipped government Game Scout. Derick’s lovely wife, Sylvia, a safari veteran in her own right, helped pull everything together so we could focus on hunting . . . logistics, camp staff organization and attentiveness, meals, chalets, laundry, and whatnot! It was a lovely camp and camp staff on the west bank of the Luangwa River.
The charter into the Luangwa camp airstrip from Lusaka was where we would hunt hippo, croc, hyena, and Chobe bushbuck. We would then move to the Lochinvar Flats to hunt the Kafue lechwe. This was the third trip to Zambia. As expected, the Zambian game and its wonderful people are like no other, and I enjoyed one of the very best hunting experiences ever.
There are several privately-owned safari concessions interspersed among the GMAs, and we hunted a vast concession privately owned by a wealthy Zambian family. No fences, totally wild, and comprising millions of acres. They have implemented several of their own anti-poaching camps and patrols, and are protecting the game much, much better than the government does inside the GMAs.
Poachers are active in the GMAs considering the vacuum created by the departure of the safari companies when the government had stopped hunting a few years prior due to wide-scale corruption and favoritism discovered between certain safari operators and wildlife ministry officials. “Alternate economies” like that are typically active in not only several African countries, but also in almost every international hunting destination. One has to navigate around the shady practices and people who think that’s the way of doing things. Sadly, we have the same government corruption in the USA, through political donations and lobbyists influencing policy for their gain, and it affects hunting and lawful gun ownership negatively.
In the safari battery was a custom Oberndorf Mauser in .404 Jeffery made by Martini Gunmakers of B.C., Canada. Ralf Martini is now working with Hartmann & Weiss in
Germany. It was used on hippo (side brain shot) with a solid and also on bushbuck which was necessary to plow through the heavy bush on a now-or-never shot.
A custom Bill Harvey FN Mauser in .300 Win. Mag. was used to break the neck of a croc. It worked decisively. The .300 was also effective on the big lechwe and an absolute mother of big hyena.
We waded deep into the Lochinvar swamp for the lechwe, and the gun was partially submerged in the mud when I fired. I was full-bore submerged in the deep end of it, and am still scrubbing the mud and crap out of various personal orifices and in the engraving on the .300. The lechwe is pictured on the only patch of dry ground we could find.
These are exceptional, remote safari areas, full of leopards and lions, buffalo, roan, and sable among many other species.
Zambia is a great choice for these and other species such as sitatunga, black lechwe, and Defassa waterbuck. It’s one of the destinations favored for classic safaris hunting.
Contact us today to start planning your next expedition!
