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Originally posted by Charles_Helm:
Welcome back! I promise not to nag you for pictures until after 5:00 PM eastern...

Any impressions on things in Zim? Mugabe has been getting more than his share of press lately.

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Originally posted by 465H&H:
Before I continue I want to mention that the AH crew also gave me an autographed copy of NYATI to bring back for Lawndart. As most of you know Lawndart is an MD and he filled all of my availablr bag space with medical supplies for distribution in Zim. The PHs were happy to get packets of Quick Clot and Traumadex along with misc. first aid supplies. The remaining supplies that included some surgical instruments, needles and syringes etc. went to the clinic at Siakobvu in the Nyaminyami (Omay)communal lands. The nurse there was beyond words with the gifts. Thanks Lawndart!

Brent picked me up on the morning of the 9th and we made the scenic drive to the Chifudzi camp in about 6 hours. Just in time for dinner and a good nights sleep before the start of the hunt on the 10th.

After a breakfast of eggs, bacon and toast we were out after them before dawn. The first day was given over to reonoitering the hunt area to look for fields where elephants were raiding crops and notifying the locals to be out on the road early in the morning if elephants had been in their fields. We also contacted the local game scout offices to get updated on the current raiding situation.

The second morning found us on the trail of two bulls that had raided a mealie field in the early morning hours. The age of the tracks and temperature of the dung indicated that we were 6 or more hours behind them. If they kept moving we probably wouldn't catch them but if they didn't travel far or spent time feeding we could catch them before noon. We tracked them up a sloping hill for 4 hours and finally decided that we were not gaining much on them and it was time to return. All of a sudden I began to feel weak. A short break and some water didn't help much and I had to stop and sit or lay down every mile or so. I had never felt this way before. Once I sat down I just didn't want to get up and walk again. That surely isn't me because I love to walk in the bush. After a longer stop during which I drank some water, ate a couple of lemon cookies and slept for 15 minutes I felt much better and was able to cover the last two miles without stopping. I finally figured out that I was having a hypoglycemic reaction. Since I am type II diabetic, the added exercise along with a recent increase in my meds wss causing a low blood sugar problem. I cut back on the meds, increased my morning carbohydrate intake and ate a sandwhich every couple of hours on the trail. After that I was able to handle the long walks with little problem. Shows how even the little things can add up to put a real crimp in your hunt.


Elephant tracks and dung are ample evidence that these crops were destroyed by elephants.



On the second day we again followed some bull tracks but this time it was down hill and again they outdistanced us and we turned back after a three hour track. The third day found us on the tracks of three bulls with in an hour of dawn. Brent's trackers Friday and William took the tracks and we follwed at a quick pace. We ran into two herds of buffalo and had to swing wide and pick up the tracks farther along their route of travel. I think Friday and William are probably the best elephant trackers that I have hunted with. They seldom lost the tracks and never for very long. We never had to quit a follow up because they lost the tracks. Even when a large herd of buffalo ran across the tracks it only took them a couple of minutes to relocate the elephant tracks.

Brent was a fountain of knowledge for me. Those of you who know me know that I really enjoy learning the hows and wherefores of elephant hunting. Brent was constantly testing me on what I was seeing. Here are a couple of instances. A couple of years ago we had been following a single bull for about three hours when he asked me what I saw. I didn't see anything unusual and told him so. He said that the bull we were following was in musth. He then showed me small drops of liguid in the middle of the spor and an occasional drag mark. The drag mark was made by the elephants extended penis and the drops of liquid were also from his dripping penis. On this trip we were following a herd of cows for about two hours when he callled the trackers back and spent a few minutes talking to them. He then told me to walk forward a couple of paces and tell him what I saw. I quickly picked up on what he saw as I had already suspected from the way the tracks looked that we were a long way behind this herd. I told him that we were way behind this herd as the thigh high grass the elephants walked through had dew on it. Which the elephants would have knocked off if they had passed through here after the dew settled. Since dew came around three in the morning it was obvious we wouldn'r catch this herd. So we made the long trek back to the cruiser.

After lunch we returned to the same general area to check with the natives there for elephant raiding reports. Along the way we stooped on a high cliff and overlooked a vally with the Ume River at the upper end. From here Brent showed me where he and JudgeG started their track and where the Judge killed his cow almost directly below us. We returned along the road to the high bridge across the Ume and just on the other side you climb a hill and as we were going up the trackers spotted three elephants in th Jesse below us along the banks of the Ume. We glassed them and one was a bull of about 40 lbs, too large for a PAC bull but the other two were in the 20 lb class and definately suitable. We grabbed our rifles and gingerly worked our way down the cliff to the jesse below. It was getting dark fast so we had to work quickly or lose shooting light. We then realized that we were within a mile and a half of where we quit the track that morning and that these were probably the same bulls we had followed all morning. Brent felt that they were staging here to raid the fields across the Ume once it got dark. The large bull left the group and moved back north towards where we left the track in th emorning but the two younger bulls moved away from us along the banks of the Ume keeping to the jesse. We closed on them in the jesse but the swirling wind gave them our sent but it didn't appear that they knew exactly where we were and were decidely unsure which way to run. One bull split off to our left and the other moved away from us. We came out of the jesse into an opening wirh a hill slopeing up and away from us. Part way up the hill the bull stood facing to our left, the direction the other bull had run.

Brent said "You must take him now as he will run soon and we will lose him!" He was a longer distance than any elephant I had shot before but he was in the open and I have a lot of confidence in my Searcy 470. I ligned up for a high heart/lung shot but he turned 180 degrees before I could get the shot off. I realigned the sights for the same shot from the opposite side and immediately followed with the left barrel. Brent fired right after I did. My second shot obviously went through the elephant and hit the off shoulder as the elephant turned and the left front leg buckled on him causing him to go down. He was unable to get up. We approached to 20 yards and a couple of brain shots finished matters. It was now too dark for pictures so we saved that for the morning. As it turned out the bull was between 85 and 90 yards at the initial shots, much farther than I like to shoot but in this case these were confirmed raiders and we wanted to take one of these. Brent's follow up shot wasn't necessary and he explained that he had a mental block and got confused on when I wanted him to back me and when not to. No matter we recovered both of my bullets in the off shoulder near to each other. The first shot landed perfectly at the top of the crease and aboout 4 " forward. The second shot landed about 5 ' directly above the first shot. Brents bullet hit quite high as the elephant was dropping from the shoulder shot.


PAC bull taken on third day of hunt. Notice that about 12" of the trunk is missing, most likely due to a snare.

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Originally posted by 465H&H:
Have patience! NitroX will be adding the pics for me. Hopefully soon.

465H&H

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John H.

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NitroExpress.com - the net's double rifle forum

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If you have delt with the natives in Africa you know what "just over there" means, anything from 100 yards to 10 miles away.