Two buddies and I went out yesterday for a "quick" hunt. Don't normally like quick hunts but could not afford to stay any longer; and lucky are we to be just 2 hours away from some of the best buff hunting grounds available - Lokisale!

I had a buffalo on my "wish list" and my buddies had a wildebeest each. Leaving at 5:30 am get's us in the hunting ground by quarter to seven. i drive straight to one of my local "viewpoints" to glass for wildebeest as they often occur on this particular escarpment. I immeadiately see 3 Coke's hartebeest down to my left about 500 yards away. As I glass the horizon, a dark shape catches my eye and i focus on it. There in the distance, where they shouldn't be are 2 dark blotches outlining the distinct shape of buffalo.
My buddies catch up to me and i show them what I have found! So after parking the cars off the track in the shade of one of the many trees in full bloom with the arrival of the short rains, we load up and make a bearing for where the buffs are about 2 k's away! I have my Win mod 70 .375, Wayne has his Jefferies .500 and Guy his BRNO 7x57

The ground is soft from the heavy downpour of 2 days ago and the grass is a pea green about 6 inches high carpet as far as the eye could see. Spirits are high as we quickly cover the ground towards were we hope are at least 1 old dugga boy. Not having been able to judge trophy from our viepoint due to the distance, we did not know what we would find.

As we approach to what we feel must be within 300 yards of where the buff should be, we realise how thick the vegetation is - something which was not apparent when we glassed form our vantage point. Here and there we cross the tracks of the 2 bulls, left from their nights' forage for food. We are know within 100 yards of where they should be and the grass has now gotten 5-7 feet high and every single bush and small tree is littered with bright green foliage making every bush a perfect "ambush" site. The wind is steady in our face, quite abnormal for so early in the morning. A quick glance at the watch read 7:36 am. We approach a nearby tree and relax in its shade. After a few minutes of glassing, we look at each other and Wayne climbs up the marula tree for a better view. Nothing!

We move 40 paces further towards where the buff must be. Next tree, Wayne goes up again. Nothing.

What the heck! Have they moved? did they smell us? Impossible as we were definetely downwind the whole time - we made sure of that! After about 10 minutes of glassing and listening for any sign of their whereabouts, i offer to go back to the vantage point and get a new bearing. On my way back the gentle slope to the kopje I first saw the bulls from,I recognize a landmark i had memorised for our initial approach; a dead acacia tree! We had strayed too much downwind in an attempt to be cautious and that is why we had not seen them yet. I returned to Wayne and Guy and now with a fresh bearing headed to confront our quarry.

a few hundred yards further, the pace slackened to a slow walk. Every 10 steps we would stop at a bush or tree and glass the plant cover for signs of our dugga boys. 8:43 and still had seen nothing! We agree to head for the nearest climbable tree and see what we could find as we were sure we must be withing 50 yards of where they were.

Wayne is the first to drop to his knees and his brisk movement to my left caught my eye. As I turned my head towards him, I instinctively dropped to my knees. Guy was 10 yards in front and oblivious to us having seen the buff. Years of shooting had made him hard in hearing and our "psssht" and light whistles failed to impress him. I clicked my fingers and the "snap" alerted him and as he swung around to see us he also dropped behind a bush.

We both looked at wayne and hand signalled for "where?" and "How many?". "to my left" and "1" was the answer.

After several minutes of glassing in the direction, I spotted the rear end of the buff dissapearing in the tall grass away from us. We came together and exchanged what we each saw. Only wayne and I had seen that one buff walk away from us but none of us had seen its head so knew nothing as to its' trophy quality. we were well positioned wind wise and we slowly started our stalk parallel to where the buff was seen heading. Always looking out for another buff standing/resting under a different bush we slowly made our way. We climbed 2 more trees in the hope of seeing the buffs but to no avail.

Finally, we decided he must have bedded down in the clump of tall grass and thickets that extended 20 metres thick about 30 yards in front of us. we decided to cut its tracks and then follow him into the tall grass. As we picked up its tracks, the sun was shining flat out on us and sweat beads began to trickle down my forehead. Me in front, Wayne behind to my immeadiate right and Guy slightly to my left we covered 3 yards a minute. We got to another clump of small trees and rested in the cool shade. We must have been very close. every now and then the cicalas would stop their "buzzing' calls and we wandered if that indicated the presence of the bulls?

After a few more minutes, Wayne climbed a tree again and immeadiately spotted the bull bedded down about 45 yards away. Slightly quartering away with its head in a thicket, he offered no glimpse of his horns. A tail swishing to the bulls left behind a wait-a-bit indicated he was not alone. Wayne came down and said he could not see the horns so was not sure what kind of a bull he was. I looked at my watch; 9:17. I motioned I was going to climb up for a look. As i perched about 15 feet above, i could clearly see the one bull laying down with its head resting on the ground. the 2nd bull was just a small blotch of black amidst the branches and thorns of the wait-a-bit. Suddenly the bull I could see raised his head in an attempt to chase the pestering flies away and as i raised my binos I could make out the perfectly smooth horn and boss of an old dugga boy.

This was it! we know knew he was a taker we just had to figure out how best to get a good shot. Between us and them was about 45-50 paces of tall grass and a few small bushes. He was lying in between two thorn bushes slightly quartering away with his head to the left. I could clearly see his whole body and his head when he raised it. I asked for my gun and signalled I would attempt a shoot from the tree. I wanted a shoulder shot but in the line of fire was a 1 inch thick green tree that made me think twice.

I singalled to wayne and Guy that they should bellow to make the bull stand up! As I got ready, Guy let out a long "death bellow". In the few seconds that passed through my viewfinder, the bull indignantly raise its head and turned to look in the direction of the noise. He did not bother to get up! as I moved the reticle from head - neck - shoulder and back waiting for the buffalo to stand up, I realised that he was not going to do so in a hurry. I slowly placed the reticle at the base of the neck and head (the shoulder shot was still obstructed) and squezzed off a round of sledgehammer solid. the impact knocked the buffs head on the ground and my first thoughts was "bingo", broke his neck! As I chambered a fresh round, I realised the buff was attempting to get up and as he dragged himself around facing directly away, i let the 2nd bullet rip into his hip.

"stop shooting!Don't fire I am going in!" Wayne's shouts came just as I was about to press the trigger for the 3rd time! As he and Guy trotted in the direction of the wounded bull, I started to reload my magazine with fresh rounds whilst keeping an eye out for the 2nd bull that had dashed out to the left and now spunn around at 30 yards and watched above the grass at what was happening to his buddy. As I shouted instructions to Wayne "Careful, he is just behind that green bush. And the other is about 30 yards to your left...." Guy shouted calmly, "here he comes, HERE HE COMES".

kA-BOOM went the 500 jeffery's! "he is down". I scampered down the tree as fast as I could with my rifle in one hand and made my way to the fallen buff. The old warrior was down, abandoned by his compadre and faced with a short trip to "animal heaven". We could hear him breathing his last gasps of air as we stood 10 yards behind him. "I am hitting him one more time" i said as his heavy gasps for air made me share in his suffering. A bullet between the shoulder blades ended the affair.

After making sure the 2nd bull had left the party for good, we went back to inspect the fallen warrior! He was an outstanding old bull with completely smooth horns, bosses and worn out tips.



An early Xmas gift for me!

Bwanamich, Dad-Gum you!



I couldn't sleep and got up at 4:45 to read a little AR and get heavy-eyed enough to bag it for a couple of more hours. You write quite well. The anticipation was as much fun as my once a year's watching Oprah and awaiting to see if her ever morphing thighs are now porcine, bovine or devine!



I just as well get up and go to work... I won't sleep now!

Beautiful...

Weidmannsheil! Great hunt, great story. It's a tough life in Africa, but somebody has to live it...
- mike

Wonderful.
Where did you send the wish list? I always get socks.

Boha

Now that would be my kind of Christmas present too! Well done and what a nice bull. Your story made for a nice early morning read with my coffee.

Got up early this am, what a way to start my day! A cup of coffee and a good buff story. Excellent adventure! What a way to live, two hours from the buffalo! So tell me, "Who do you tell your Xmas wishes to, I got a few of my own to tell!"

That's a good old boy! congrats! And please
enjoy the rest of you holiday season! That goes for your family too! Have a great Christmas!

Bwanamich

I hae been out of the country and away from my computer for 2 weeks. I have missed being able to visit this forum and yours was the first post that I opened.

Thank you so much for bringing the sights and smells of Africa to me so early on this morning.

Ron L

Bwanamich,

Excellent story...sounds like Santa really filled your stocking! And, your writings are a gift to us all. Between you and Judge G, either one of you or both of you sould write a book.

Yesterday, FedEx deliverd a package from Delta...my tickets to Tanzania for 18 September 2005...can't wait! I finally accumulated enough air miles to fly "business elite". At least for this one trip, I've escaped from the cattle car.
The only drawback is that I had to fly to Dar two days early and layover at the Sea Cliff...now's my chance to find out just how much calamari and Castle one man can consume! If you, Judge G or Ray have any advice on tourist "attractions", let me know.

Congratulation on an excellent buffalo...now I have 'visions of sugarplums dancing in my head' too!

Bull1

Bwanamich,

Excellent story! Thanks for taking me back to Africa if for only a short time.

Congrats!

Bryan

What a great hunt! Awesome trophy! Thanks for sharing.

Wow, what a great story! And to think I usually have to pay for a magazine for a story almost as good as your. Ain't AR Great! Thanks for the story Bwanamitch. Allen

NOW THAT IS A BUFFALO, A REAL DAGGA BOY......I like him.

Bull1,
I would think your safari company would have someone to pick you up and show you the sights, I don't know who you are or if your booked with me ( I have a client coming in early, who knows could be you?) He will be met at the airport by our man Silva Kiritta and will be taken to the markets to buy spears, shields, elephant hair bracelets and some sho nuff real old antiques from the days of Shaka Zulu if he wishes...He will also visit some of the islands and be fed fish right out of the ocean and still kicking, then probably to Zanzabar, maybe Ngorongoro Crater by baloon, then whatever....

In fact I could probably arrange for Silva to guide you around for a reasonable cost, I'd have to check...If that is of interrest then let me know and I will check out his schedule....

The hotel offers some guiding around Dar also and they have game viewing day trips etc....

I love that bull! Please get me one for Xmas too! Well done.

Great story Mich. Thanks.