Hello people ,

Well just back from zim , in spite of the fast devaluation , (see ganyanas post!!) we had an incredible safari , hoping to be the last safari in matetsi before the rains , the early rains put oaid to that , and sure enough a week before gary arrived in camp , the rains feell deep in bots and guess where all the elephant bulls went !!!

Anyway , with a slow start , having not seen a single bull for the first three days , we started seeing elephants , gary had hunted ele bull with me last year and while we didn’t take a bull , he did shoot 2 cows and a few buffalo …

Gary had insisted that his elephant was worthy of his two trips and was holding out till we found something great , the hunt was extremely hard , we were hunting 16 hour days , getting up at 3.30 each morning , and only seeing the lights of the camp after 9 pm each night ….

We lso had two tuskless on quota , and man did those ladies make us work , there aren’t a lot of tukless in that gene pool , unlike the valley and so we worked on seeing one per 150 elephants , needless to say , it took a few tries before we found one with no calf , we had seen well over 500 elephants , and had some very very interesting moments in the reshly greened thickets with them , before gary shot a fine cow … after seeing her , they caught our wind on the approach and thus ensued a 3 hour hunt into the mountains , being in the mountains we would often see the herd moving ver the next ridge , there were about 25 in the herd so we knew the final approach would be somewhat of a challenge …

Well we eventually got in a setup where they were all parading across our front at about 12 yards , as soon as our cow began to move in , we took a few steps and she saw us and came in , gary’ first shot was a little low , I shot after that , and was also low and as she turned he side brained her …on watching the slowmo video later , his bullet went about two inches low and as she was throwing her head up to turn , my shot was way low , luckily we were very close so the side brain shot was an easy shot and the value of a double rifle made itself known !!!



Anyhow we then went into a &*%! Of a recovery , but that’s another story …back to the buls ….

Well it was day 16 , we had seen over 80 bulls , but nothing that we wanted , gary had taken an excellent buff , 42 inches with a 16 and a half inch boss !! , as well as a 44 inch sable , so things weren’t looking all that bleak !!!




Day 16 as I was saying and we say an elephant , about 45 pounds , part of a group of about 50 animals , well , our first approach didn’t work and he ended up in the midst of the huge numbers of cows , calves and all manner of elephants , seemed like the bush was ful of them , he was very very wary and constantly watching over his shoulder …he knew we were there … the wind finally turned on us and the whole group thundered off , the end of five hours of trying in the mopane thickets.. so somewhat crestfallen it was back to the vehicle ….

That night round the table , we were quiet , as happens on a hunt where you are putting in such huge hours and effort , we had been putting in at least 6 and sometimes 8 hours on foot racking each day and without an elephant in the salt I was feeling the pressure …to give gary full credit he did say that this was turning out to be the best hunt of his life , we had been among elephants every day and were having many many elephant experiences !

Day 17 started badly , by 10 in the morning after climbing several hills to glass and tracking one herd , we hadn’t seen a single elephant bull ….

Suddenly , as happens , that afternoon we saw , in the distance a huge bull, , with no tusks ! , we decided to go over and see what else was there , so we headed off into the hills , an hour later as we crested the ridge , there were 6 bulls , two that would have gone 40 and 45 respectively , and then this giant single tusker ….the wind was perfect , the elephants were moving nicely , I called the elephant at over 70# gary hadn’t considered a single tusker before and took a little to get used to the idea , however at this size he agreed with me ,…it truly was an elephant of a lifetime ….

We got in close , gary made a perfect brain shot and as I walked up , I saw just what we had ….23 inches at the lip , and 67 inches of ivory overall , truly an elephant of a lifetime , he went 79 ½…forgive me but I call him 80#!


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In addition to great great hunting , we also managed to capture some outstanding footage which is always a great bonus... as many of you know i have been working with craig boddington towards his new dvd boddington on elephant ...

sorry guys , here are the photos

Ivan send me the link by email and I will post them for you. Email sent.

You have to use the IMG code on the right side of the PhotoBucket page.

George

These are the photos I already had from Ivan on this hunt.

Obviously, that's a great single tusker, a super nice buff and a beauty of a sable. All that and a couple of tuskless on foot with lots of tracking and some good video footage. Sounds like the perfect hunt to me. Well done Ivan.

thanks george and brian

Ivan,

Great trophies, love that big elephant..Please tell Gary congrats on a lifetime trophy...

Ivan, are you going to be in Dallas or Reno in January?

Mike

Congratulations to you and Gary. Sounds like a great hunt.

A question, what rifles and cartridges were you and Gary shooting?

JPK

Looks like a Chapuis.

Ivan,

Congrats! A lot of hunting for a few good trophies. Lovely!

Mark

Outstanding buff and sable. WOW!!!!

thanks guys , you are right bill , that is a chapuis , in .470 , interesting that the cow stayed on her feet and very much aware after he missed the brain , yet that huge bodied bull just dropped at the shot ....again reinforcing the whole point about bullett placement , even though he only missed the brain by a couple of inches on the cow , she stopped and turned but nowhere near fell ...

yes mike , i will be at the shows , will be on the chifuti booth at both ..

by the way i use a heym 3 1/4 ... i shot 480 grain solids , loaded by superior for elephant and barnes triple shock in 500 grains for buffalo ...both work great .

Ivan, do you still have your 500 nitro?

brian , no i havent had a 500 nitro , started with a good ol' winchester 375 for the first 12 years , still use it from time to time , hard to completely retire and old friend !! then i started using my .450 and for the last 6 years or so thats what i have used .... having that second barrell immediately has certainly been a help a few times

Congrats Ivan... excellent bull! Well done.

Superb creatures! Congratulations and thanks for sharing.

quote:

.... having that second barrell immediately has certainly been a help a few times

What a load of crap. I thought you were the guy that stared down giant bulls that were within trunk length of you.

And there are a load of guys around here that swear a 375 is plenty for elephant. You must be the most ill-informed guy on this forum.

what you don't know you don't care about ha ha

Outstanding. Congratulations to Gary and Ivan.

Dave

Hello Crazy Ivan...

Glad you had a great Safari and glad to hear you are doing well.

Will see you at DSC.

look forward to that tony !

Congratulations on a terrific trio of trophies - a great buff and sable, and a monster single tusked bull.

One always hopes for a nice symmetrically matched pair of tusks - but I too would have dropped that old bull in an instant!