11 September 2015, 21:17
larryshoresDande with CMS- pics added
I will start this with my I phone awaiting boarding to return.Area- Dande Safari Area and various Dande communal areas
PH- Collen van Der Linden
Rifles- Rifles, Inc 416 Remington Magnum and 500 NE made by VC.
Cameraman - Murray Osborne from Osprey
Dates- 9/1/15- 9/10/15. I left 5 days early.
Trackers- Criton, Nyati and Gabriel.
I am going to do this a little different that I usually do. I am going to separate this report by species.
CAPE BUFFALO
We chased buff first, largely because we needed bait.
On the first day, we just couldn't close the deal. We had no problem finding buff. The wind kept giving us away.
On the first day, we got on a group of bulls multiple times. One was a serious buff. I say this having taken quite a few. Near the end of the day, the group ran across an open area. I could have easily hit the bull but I didn't shoot. I didn't like the angle. I also believed they would stop and look back. I was wrong . About dark, we gave it up.
The next day, we found tracks very close to camp. They were FRESH. We had followed them the extreme distance of almost 500 yards when we spotted them. We were on top of a hill. They were at the bottom . It was determined to take one. I got on the sticks and shot. The bull was clearly hit but did not go down. I could not shoot again due to other buff in the vicinity.
We followed a short distance . I put another 400 grain A Frame into the bull near the junction of the neck and the body. This knocked the bull down but he got up and took off again. We followed .
Blood was everywhere . I knew we would get him. We walked up on the bull. He jumped up and ran off. Both Collen and I hammered him hard. Collen's shot broke a leg. Mine went straight up the rear end. He was down but not dead.
I walked up closer and proceeded to shoot the bull again and again and again....... The damn think kept trying to get up in spite of being hammered repeatedly . Finally I switched guns and shot him with the 500 NE. This gun clearly had an impact. It rocked him hard. He was finally finished . I had shot too many times . I was pissed at myself as I had brought little ammo. The hell of it was that he would have died from the first shot if left alone. My dumb ass should have shot him in the head instead of all of those finishing shots.
The bull was nothing special. In fact, he was soft . The question is whether the bulls moved between the time Collen determined that I should shoot and when I got on the sticks . Given the bush, when Collen moved, he could not see. There was only a single bull visible.
LEOPARD
Eddie and Nyati put up 6 baits. Of the 6, 5 were hit quickly . The 6th bait was stolen by villagers. They did this after the bait had hung for 3 or 4 days. Desperate people.
We decided to go for a large cat (for the valley) that was near the southernmost CMS camp. Buzz said it was a brute.
To make a long story short, had I known what I know now, I would never have set in that blind the first night. Bottom line is that this cat had been highly educated by Buzz and by Chifuti. The blind setup was not going to work. The damn cat knew what the blind was, where it was, knew we were in it and even laid up right behind it. In addition, some of you know of my tail bone injury . It was torture sitting for 6.5 hours.
After we got all the intelligence on the cat, we moved the bait. Not far but we moved it. This is the first time in my life that I have ever seen a bait secured from the inside of a cave. It was novel.
The cat came back that night but did not feed. He appeared confused. He walked all over the place. I knew we had him then.
He came back the next night but did not eat much. We didn't sit that day.
The next day, we built a blind. The blind was in a cave. There was no way in hell that our scent was getting out. We had incredible cover. At 3:30, we got in the blind. Nothing happened until after dark. At some point, I heard a strange noise. Something was digging in the sand . Then we heard a lapping noise . I thought WTF? It was close . Real close. This had me on high alert.
Shortly thereafter, it was clear the leopard was feeding. I eased up to my rifle. Collen attempted to turn the rheostat on. The f'ing thing didn't work. I was glued to my rifle. I detected Collen reaching for the torch with the green lens. On it came. I could not see the leopard. I was feeling the stress. I imagine this lasted less than 10 seconds but it seemed like 10 hours. Subsequently, Collen told me he could not see it either.
After what seemed like an eternity, I recognized something . I adjusted and could see the leopard. I squeezed the trigger. The leopard fell but ran off. My heart sunk. I asked Collen if I hit him hard. His response was ,"I think so, he is laying is the middle of the river. " I was relieved.
He was a very nice cat for the valley.
ELEPHANTS
I had booked for a lot of elephants. A trophy bull, a non-trophy bull and 2 tuskless. I hoped that would not be too much to accomplish.
On the day of the first elephant, we started the day by tracking some bulls with large feet. After about 5 hours, we lost the tracks. We stopped and went to a spring for lunch . There were some fresh tracks . After lunch we followed. We got to them in short order. Probably 2 miles . We could hear some others. We decided to have a look at the others given the wind. There were a number of cows we saw. They moved and we followed . As we got closer , we jumped in the sand river. It was quieter . We went a short distance and lo and behold the only elephant we could see was a tuskless! Game on. We closed and I hammered her with a side brain shot. She collapsed but all hell broke loose. There were a large number of elephants that we had not seen. They were trumpeting and raising hell, pissed off like a pit bull with PMS. They were running all over hell , crossing the river raising holy hell. It occurred to me that perhaps I should look behind us. Fortunately, nothing was coming behind us. I looked repeatedly. I could easily see us getting hammered from behind. This made me nervous.
Well, the fun was not over . A big cow came tearing down the river trumpeting angrily. I thought we were going to have a problem. Fortunately , she stopped at the downed tuskless. She continued trumpeting and hammered the downed tuskless with her trunk. It was an incredible sight. Fortunately, she moved on.
One down, three to go.
The next morning we had not gone more than 2 or 3 miles from the camp when we spotted some elephants off in the distance . We got out and moved toward them. There was a big group of cows in some thick stuff. We kept moving with them in the thick bush. At some point, we realized that there was a tuskless in the group. How lucky can we be?
I didn't like where they were . It was thick. We followed. Fortunately, they stopped in a small open area. I had a clear shot at the tuskless. I made a side brain shot and she collapsed. All hell broke loose then. Cows running everywhere trumpeting loudly. We decided to retreat. I looked over at Criton. He was just strolling along without a care in the world. I started laughing at him. The jumbo clearly do not bother him or maybe he figures he can out run all the rest of us.
At any rate, in the midst of the pandemonium, an angry cow returned raising mortal hell. I was pretty sure sure we were going to have to shoot her . Fortunately , she retreated .
Two down, two to go.
We continued hunting for bulls without much luck. Then we spotted some large tracks. Off we go to follow . After a couple of hours , we spotted the bulls. Honestly , one was larger than I expected . I estimated 40. Collen estimated above 35. I was torn. He was a big bull for the area . I had not walked very far in chasing him. Should I shoot or not? I decided to shoot him. We got close , danger close. I did not like where he was. I attempted a side brain shot followed by a heart lung. He just stood there quivering . He started to move off. I smacked the shoulder which stopped him instantly. He fell upright burying his tusks in the earth . I had never seen that before. The large tusk ended up being 42. I can't remember the smaller. I think 36.
I should add that I could see something white on the trunk before I shot. After I shot the bull, we inspected. He had multiple festering small caliber wounds. In addition, he had injuries on his back right foot from a snare. He was suffering. I was glad i shot him.
Three down, one to go.
I decided to come home early. I have a lot going on and deer season starts Saturday. On the last day of the shortened hunt, I decided to hunt elephants and sand grouse rather than fish. Until about 10:30, I was regretting that decision. We saw NOTHING in terms of fresh tracks.
When we got near the 222 road, we saw some large fresh tracks. Off we go. About 2 hours later, we came upon perhaps 25 elephants. There was a tuskless (where was Jeff when I needed him?). Damn it but there was the biggest bull we had seen and an extremely large one for the valley. Estimated 50 pounds. FYI, Collen and I both have a habit of under estimating ivory weight. There was also a prime candidate for a non- trophy. One tusk was broken at the lip. The other was less than 20 pounds. Before I could decide, the wind decided for us. The elephants winded us and took off.
We followed about a mile when we spotted some elephants. The single tusker was there. I took a frontal brain shot at a turning elephant at fairly long distance for a 500 NE. I hit him but missed the brain. I shifted to the heart/lung and made what was certainly a fatal shot. I was now done with elephant hunting.
BIRD SHOOTING
We shot sand grouse 2 afternoons. The first afternoon, I knew we were in a bad spot as soon as we arrived. Too many trees. The birds showed up in mass but it was insanely difficult to try and shoot them in low light with trees in the background. We hammered something over 40 but I was not at all pleased with my shooting percentage. In fact, I was upset with myself.
I knew of another place where we had shot 2 years before. One could see much better there.
We hammered them good and proper there. I also shot 3 guinea fowl. I did experience some shotgun issues which may well have been the ammo.
To summarize, I had a highly successful hunt and had a hell of a lot of fun. CMS runs a fantastic operation. Some of Buzz's guys (Criton, Nyati & Eddie) helped us. Criton and Nyati are incredible trackers. Eddie & Nyati are the 2 biggest personalities I have ever seen in Africa. Damn but they make me LAUGH.
OTHER MATTERS
I have never experienced so few problems entering or leaving Zim. It was a breeze.
Unfortunately, we experienced a problem in OR Tambo That I have never experienced before. There was a 2 hour wait to get through international transfers. And our flight was late.
C
MS has WIFI in the camp we stayed in. This was extremely nice to have.Myles and Rich both got malaria while we were there. I was extremely diligent with malarone. I do not need that grief on my life.
Finally, there was a bit of humor on my last night. However, originally, it was more than a bit scary. About 4:15 AM, a vehicle drove into camp and started blowing the horn. Hmmmm..... I always sleep with a gun close by and Africa is no exception. I had my shot gun loaded right by the bed. I got up, grabbed the shotgun and walked into the shower where I would clearly have the upper hand should something be going bad. It ends of that this was an F'ing taxi that was lost. If I had 10 years to think of possibilities, I would never have come up with this.
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[/URLI am having issues with the pics. Will post more later.
To be continued
Now get on with the pics! 
