Below is a note of a day's adventure from my recent elephant safari. We were hunting in the Hwange communual area of Zimbabwe......


The day started off like most others. Drive from one village to the next, enquiring about elephant movement. As we were finding our way to a village in the Northern most part of our concession we met a local villager on foot. We stopped and asked him the usual question on whether there were any elephants around. His response was straight and direct; he said if we would take him with us he would show us the elephants right away!

A few miles later we could go no further and our trackers set off on foot with the local villager to find the tracks of the elephant. We ate a sandwich and chatted expecting them to return with news of tracks from the night before at the very best! An hour passed before Luxon appeared looking a bit anxious! He said that they had run into a huge herd of elephant in very thick cover and that he had left the two other trackers to keep an eye on them. Scott Bailey my PH said that this was going to be very interesting, to look over such a big herd in very thick cover to see if there was a big bull in there midst!

We had gone less than hundred yards from the vehicle when we heard the sound of branches breaking! Elephants for sure....Quickly we established the direction of the wind and began circling to approach from the right angle. As we neared we realized that we were entering a vast thicket of riverine type bush, a dark cool place filled with vines, leaves and small criss crossing dried out river beds. There were lots of dried leaves underfoot and the going was noisy. As we made our way the herd got wind of us started moving off, we followed trying to catch up with them to see what we could! We quickly lost them in the thick bush and realized that the first call of duty was to locate our two trackers and get the party together.

Several bird calls and anxious moments later and the two unarmed trackers appeared out of the bush looking wide eyed and happy to see us! They told us that there was probably a herd of over 50 cows and calves with some bulls thrown in for good measure! It also seemed that we had split up the herd and were somehow in the middle of two large herds of elephants, with not a very good plan in place! The noise sounded like a distant freight train at first and got louder and louder, the trackers motioned that the elephants were coming towards us and the noise we were hearing was the sound of several large animals running over the dead leaves and knocking down everything in their path. Scott said we had to get out of there fast and a quick dash fortunately got us into an opening where some natives had cleared the forest for fields. We stopped in the clearing listening to the freight train roar of elephants no more than 50 yards from us as they rushed by. Scott told me that when caught in such a situation the best strategy was to find a clear opening in which to make a stand, this way the elephants can see you and hopefully get around and in a worse situation you can stand your ground and shoot with some level of safety in the open, without trees and branches knocking you down as a wall of elephants charge your position!

We waited a few more minutes and reentered the thick stuff, trying to work our way in to the herd once again! Going slowly we made some ground only to find ourselves in very thick thorn bush, suddenly it become apparent we were not alone! About 50 yards away we heard branches breaking and spotted more elephants feeding, whether this was one portion of the big herd or another smaller group we did not know. We attempted to crawl closer on hands and knees trying to get a look in and see if we could spot a big bull in their midst! As we approached to about 25 yards we herd the ominous roar of stampeding elephants yet again. This time it was closer and coming very fast, this spooked the group we were looking over and they also began heading in our direction. We had no option but to try and beat a hasty retreat. Scott my PH quickly found and maneuvered us into a very small opening, no larger than the size of a very small room. It was the only open patch in a sea of thorn bush on the edge of the thickets which the elephants were in. As we faced them closer they came, suddenly on our right flank 5 or 6 cows appeared coming quickly towards us, they spotted us and stopped but were pushed from behind by yet more elephants and the bigger herd.

Before we knew it we were confronted by a wall of elephants, from our right flank across our middle and to our left flank there were elephants, far too many elephants!!! We crowded into a corner of the little open space and stood safeties off and guns raised. The only barrier that stood between us and the many grey large cows, calves, immature bulls and god knows what else were Mr. 404 Jeffery and Mr. 416 Rigby. Now we could see a large ear, now a tusk, here and there a large grey body, it was not good.....

A few moments later it appeared that the left flank looked like it had opened up and we decided to make our move now and head in that direction where the cover was somewhat slightly less thick also!
We had taken no more than 10 paces when suddenly where there had been nothing there were elephants, squealing and trumpeting and we faced a fresh surge of a wall of elephants. We quickly ran back to our little opening and realized that we were becoming boxed in very quickly! They were talking to each other the deep grrrrr rumbling sounds and the trumpeting sounded as if they were getting ready to come at any moment. Ian Naychens a famous old time hunter talks in his book "Months of the sun" about being charged on a broad front, I can now relate to this!

Scott whispered not to shoot unless he gave me the go ahead. We waited, the few minutes seemed like a long time and then they came, a wall of elephants moving in one wide mass. The ones that would reach us first were now no more than 15 paces. The cows on our right flank a bit more in the open moving towards us at a steady trot. Our fate was decided by a loud sound as Scott sharply rapped his magazine plate with his hand and shouted at them loudly.

The entire herd turned and wheeled around, crashing through the trees and everything in their path like a runaway train, trumpeting loudly as they went. A huge sigh of relief swept over us and smiles broke out all around. We quietly headed out of the thick bush and headed back to the Land rover which was only a few hundred yards away. There were just "Too many elephants".

Scott said that the herd was very much on edge with too many females and young ones and going after them would simply be elevating the risk factor for both man and beast and it was especially not worth it for us, since we had not seen any large bodied bulls or the big ivory for which we were looking!


For stories of other days adventures you can also visit my blog posted on HuntersNetworks.com

quote:

Too Many Elephants

Where have I heard that before?

Sounds like quite an exhilarating experience, probably a very wise choice by the PH....don't push your luck especially when you have been given an advanced warning!

Arjun,

I think I would have wished for a bigger rifle...
Even Ian did not think the 404 was enough for charging eles if I remember the book correctly.
But it sure is exciting and running is not an option.

Mike

So, on a scale of 10... Was that a "Pucker Factor" of 11 or 12?

THAT WAS UNFORGETTABLE !!!

Thanks for telling us the story.

Getting elephants that close in a headlong charge one at a time was enough for me.

They truly are the scariest things I have ever had to deal with.

Venturing back into the bush looking for more trouble after an encounter like that is both dreadful and compelling.

Funny, at the time, 'compelling' is less powerful than it is later. It is mostly fear.
Must be like childbirth for women - your memory plays tricks and makes you want to do it again.

Small Bore:

I read your comments (as a one time hunter to Zimbabwe, Chirisa) with interest -and total empathy. I came for buff -and found mzou (the local Zulu word for elephant -hope I spelled it right) to be the most impressive living creature that I had ever seen. (No film or picture can show the absolute shock of looking at an animal at 50 yards who blocked out trees) I experienced what I was told were "mock charges" -and, as I told my PH, "If that's a mock charge, I never want to see the real thing!". They scared me and I admired them -and while I said at campfire that I never wanted to shoot one - my PH (a really smart man) told me to think about it after I left Africa. He was right - and ever since I have wondered about how I would have measured up against an angry bull, ears flaring and screaming at me - and, as you have noted - I was left with a yearning desire to try. Yeah, I understand how elephant hunters feel -and, this old man much admires the guys who stood steady and fired. Only hunters can really understand one another.

quote:

Originally posted by retreever:
Arjun,


Even Ian did not think the 404 was enough for charging eles if I remember the book correctly.


Mike

I wonder if this is still true now with the availability of 404, 450grn bullets with a similar velocity as what was used back then with 400grn bullets (2150fps)?

Some of the Hwange bulls I saw were just MASSIVE, they towered over their brothers like they were midgets. The size of those elephants have to be seen to be believed. I would dare say that you certainly have to use enough gun when dealing with them, but the biggest gun would be no good unless the bullet is placed right. I would not count on knockdown power for failed brain shots and the like, one is not dealing with Zambezi valley size elephants, tuskless cows and the like.....

I won't disagree with you there.
Spent quite a bit of time in the Park during three trips over. I felt quite uneasy with those big boys walking past whilst being unarmed in a car. .