Just back from an elephant hunt in Pandamatenga (CH8) Botswana with PH Doug Hidden.

I was quite lucky to take this bull on the first day of the hunt just 5 minutes before the legal shooting hour was up.


On our way to take photos of the bull the next morning when we had better light, we came acros this bull that my friend JR Turnbull took the first 45 minutes of day 2.


I have made a good number of trips to Africa, but I am yet to see an area with so many trophy quality elephant that compares to these Chobe concessions.

Below is another photo of my bull with tracker "Texan" posing for his girlfriends.


Regards,
John Barth

Great pictures !!!!!!!!!!!!
Give us more onformation please. Calibers, stories, etc

Congrats
L

Magnificent beasts!

Quite nice.

Super bulls John, congrats.

Bill

Those bulls are wonderful!! The only bad part was it was over too soon. Congrats!!

John,
Do you know if these bulls are in this area year round or part of a migratory pattern?
Did Doug estimate age? Where they alone or did you have to sort them out? Congrats!!!
More details when you have a chance.
Thanks, Lee

John, super looking trophies... Tell JR also very nice jumbos..

Mike

Outstanding.

Well done!

Nice bulls John! Well done. BTW, I saw and visited your two hunters and their wives in Zambia. They are set for a super hunt! If hunting is as hot as the weather they should do fantastic!

well done botswana defintly has some nice bulls my hunt was right out side the moremi national game park 2 hours north of maun.......with safaris botswana bound


any idea how much your bulls went ivory wise?

Great elephant!

Congratulations!

Sometimes things go almost ... ALMOST ... too well

Congratulations! I hope you'll tell us more details when you get the time.

Well done, you had good luck and bad luck. It hust have been difficult to get excited after day 2.

What else did you take

Sorry for not replying earlier. I have been trying to get caught up before I leave again on another trip on Friday.

On day 1 we came across tracks of a few large bulls travelling together. We started after them at about 7:00 am and finally caught up to them at about 2:00 pm. Most of these bulls were 50+, but there was one that Doug estimated 65 on the right tusk, but broken off on the left tusk around 40 pounds. He was confident we would see better especially being the first day.

We sent a tracker back for the car and we headed to the nearest road. We were back in the truck around 3:00 and on to check three more water holes on the way back to camp.

We had driven about thirty minutes and one of the trackers saw the backs of a few bulls off in the distance. We got off and started walking again. After about an hour and a half we were able to catch up with them. Doug spotted a bull he thought would go in the high 50's, but said it had one spectacular tusk and he reckoned we should give it a shot. We kept trying to get in front of the bulls but they would not stop moving. It was getting close to the legal shooting time of 6:00 pm (it was actually 5:55, and our government scout was strict). We were about 60 yards from the bull who was slowly, but steadily walking away. Doug asked if I could side brain him and I told him I would give it a try.

I hit him about 6 inches low with my .375, but it was enough to drop him like he had been brained (just with a split second delay). We ran up and I put another into the spine at close range, and immediately another into the brain to finish him off. The whole thing only took a matter of seconds, but it was the most intense experience of all my hunts.

When everyone got up to us we were all shaking hands, admiring the bull, etc. but it was alot more reserved than you see in most videos. I'm not one for the high fives and ego boosting. It was good to be with other hunters that were modest and respectful of the animal.

When Doug started figuring on the ivory he said he had actually underestimated it and figured both tusks would easily go over 60 pounds each and probably end up in the 62 to 64 pound range. I was extremely happy (hell, I was happy when I saw the bull and Doug thought it was high 50's with nice ivory).

It was too dark to take any photos so we headed back to the vehicle with plans to return with hangovers the next morning and commence the photo shoot, processings, etc.

We stayed up quite late that night (about 3 am I am guessing). I already had a headache when I went to sleep, but I was still able to wake up at 6:00 am when the camp boy came by the tent with the "Mr. Hidden says get out of bed" call.

JR was still asleep when Doug and I were eating breakfast, and we figured we would let him and our other friend Jason sleep it off as we were just going to take a few photos and show the meat cutters where the bull was, and head back to camp.

As we were pulling out of camp JR came running across camp with rifle in hand and hopped on the back.

On the way to my bull the trackers spotted two bulls in the bush and Doug said he wanted to have a look. JR was instantly sobered and hangover free. It is amazing what adrenaline will do as a cure for a long night.

We got up on the bulls quite fast and were in good position. We eased out in front of them in the line they were moving and began waiting. The smaller of the bulls Doug estimated to be in the low 60s, and the bigger bull he figured mid 60s. JR liked the ivory and the decision was made to go for it. The bigger bull was moving towards us and getting closer and closer. It was coming at us diagonally and just as it was about to pass by at about 20 to 25 feet Doug told JR to get ready and yelled "hey you" in some other language. It sounded like "hey weena". The bull immediately spun and showed us his backside for all of a second before he disappeared at full speed.

Doug was quite pissed as he said 99% of the time the bulls stop and raise their head giving you a second or two to get a shot off. This one obviously was never taught that trick.

All the trackers were laughing and we figured we just had a bit of extra excitement as a bonus as we were really just planning on getting to work on the downed elephant anyway.

We got back to the car and headed off again. Five minutes go by and the trackers start yelling again that they see five more bulls off in the distance. Doug says with the luck we are having that we better give them a good look. We get out again and are on the bulls in no time. We get about 20 yards from them and they start getting a bit anxious. They know we are there, but can't get the scent so they start slowly moving off. Doug circles us around them and sees a bull with nice long ivory he says carries it's weight throughout it's length. He calls the bull as bigger than mine, and the previous one that just turned tails and ran. JR gets ready and the bull is moving right towards us. Doug gives him the thumbs up and JR goes for the brain with his .416 Rigby. The bull spins and Doug yells "heart lungs". Another shot then Doug yells "in the hip". Another shot and Doug yells "again, again". The bull dropped with a shot to the spine. Doug said the heart lung killed it, but the spine shot kept it from going another 100 to 200 yards.

The pictures don't show it very well, but JR tusks are longer than mine and as Doug said carried their thickness through the length.

We stayed around and took some photos, went over and took photos with my bull, and then back to camp to pick up another team of guys to get started on the second bull.

From the time we arrived to when we had JR's bull down was less than 26 hours.

With 12 days left to hunt and only an eland left on license we decided to skip the hunting and do a self drive from Kasane over to the Falls for a few days, back through Kasane into the Caprivi, over to Etosha, down to Windhoek, east to Gobabis and on through to Maun, over to Nata and back up to Kasane/Vic Falls. This trip covered 4500 kilometers in roughly 10 days and we had a blast.

When we got back into cell range in Maun Doug's phone range and it was his partner Calvin Nobrega. He had managed to pull one of my tusks and had found only a quarter of the expected nerve. He put the tusk on the scale and it went just over the magic 70 pound mark. Without the abnormally small nerve it would have been right in line with Doug's estimate. The other tusks should have all come out by now and we are anxiously awaiting to hear what the scale says, as it is quite obvious Doug tends to call everything a bit less than he thinks to be safe.

I would also like to mention that I had a client Dr. Jim Turner and his wife in camp for the first two days of our hunt. They were finishing a 14 day lion hunt with Calvin. Below is the picture of Dr. Turner's trophy.


Dr. Turner did this the hard way with 12 days of hard tracking on foot, no baiting. What a great trophy and it could not have happened to a nicer man. He was a gentleman, a sportsman, and a pleasure to have in camp (even if it was only for a few days).

He was also very lucky with this trophy that was an unexpected surprise to all of us in camp.


Someone asked if the bulls were in this area all year long, did Doug estimate age, etc. This concession is a good corridor directly between the west side of Hwange National Park in Zim, and south east side of Chobe National Park in Botswana. This year they had exception rains so there were many pans which were holding water that would have normally dried up. They still pump several pans throughout the year, so past hunters have taken bulls from April through the end of the season in mid September.

Doug did estimate the age of the two bulls to be mid to late 50's. We saw lots of elephant in our short trip, all the ones we encountered on the actual hunts, and many more on the drive into and out of the concession and the surrounding areas. You pretty much start seeing elephant or at least signs of elephant when you head out of Kasane. Their is a big plain between the highway and the Zim border where we saw approximately 40 to 50 elephant in the middle of the day (both on the way in and out) off in the distance.

The only downside to this area is the extremely tight quotas. It is not a full bag safari destination by any means. They are given more elephant on quota than any other specie. They get over 10 elephant, 1 lion, 1 leopard, 2 buffalo, 4 kudu, etc.

There are a few things I would tell anyone doing this type to take along. First, definitely take one of the camel back style water carriers. This allows you to keep up a brisk pace rather than stopping the whole line when you get a bit thirsty. Secondly, gators are a must. There is nothing more annoying than a single piece of invisible grass seed scratching your ankle for 3 hours. And last but not least, a GPS if for any other reason to settle the debate with everyone in the party on how far you walked and what is actually the shortest route back to the vehicle. I will also take my binos again, but in truth you are not going to see anything the PH can't see, you certainly won't be able to judge the ivory as well as they can, and they are really not to keen for you to be sticking your head out over their shoulder giving them your 2 cents worth (as I learned the hard way). They also don't like it to much when you say "what about that one" on every bull in the herd.

Best regards,
John Barth