I was speaking to a friend last evening and he was telling me about huning Elephant (trophy hunt) in Zim last year and they only hunted after dark and hunted all night. They used night gogles. He said it was spine tingling and quite a rush being amongst them and at times completely surounded by elephants. He took a 45 lb and 60 lb.. Has anyone here done this type of hunt?

If it is PAC then ignore my comments below relating to a well known area in Zim where this has happened a few times. The only place such hunting belongs is PAC. It has been happening for a few years now and the only reason they go at night is because the elephants come out of a protected area to drink at night.IMHO it is highly unethical and an insult to elephant hunting. I am sure it is exciting and spine tingling but for me it is right up there with canned lion hunting - a disgrace!

i did one of these just outside of gohnzrezhou. eles were coming out of the park at night and destroying crops. they were also a bit cheeky, being willing to give anyone a chase. going in we had night vision monocular. it was dark night (no moon) se we turned on the IR illuminator, as soo as the infrared light went on the bulls turned and looked straight at us. the one we shot looked for about 10 seconds and then dropped his head and was going give us a go. he was quite serious and by the time we turned on a flashlight he had covered about half the distance toward us. i believe i would have gladly traded the 470 for a 105 about then.

This is nothing new, I was offered an Elephant night hunt in Zimbabwe in '94. It was a PAC animal and we were going to look for it in the crops at night. (we also looked for him in the daytime). I didn't shoot one, but that wasn't because I had a moral opposition to it. We just didn't find him.

It is not your traditional tracking hunt, but that doesn't make it wrong. Just call it what it is and do it if it appeals to you. Obviously, if you prefer a traditional tracking hunt, then this is not for you.

I have no dog in this and it wasn't a PAC hunt it was a trophy hunt and as the guy would say I am not one way or the other. He is doing a Lion hunt next month in RSA just outside Kruger. It was just I had never heard of a night hunt for Trophy Elepnants only PAC.

Man, the subjects that comes up is just too good too be true

I have been wondering about this, last year in Mozambique, I had elephants come too close , way too close too a leopard blind,

Client had elephant on tag, my question was shall I mention that it is big elephant, and a absolutely beautifull African full moon that was brighter than most lights in a house ? or just keep quit and let the elephant walk away, I chose the option of keeping quiet,

But in retrospect have always wondered how the client would have felt, I think under that full moon he would have had no problem smacking that elephant, and it was a real nice one.

Now here it is, my Zim collegues have been doing it for years ???

Now this season what shall I do ?

I was a back up gun on a PAC night elephant hunt a few years ago. It was very exciting (should read shit scary), especially considering you could not see them until we were very close and the illumination used was 2 surefire flashlights flicked on once we were withing about 20-25 yards. I thought it was as sporting, if not more sporting, than a daylight hunt because darkness hampers hunters and has very little effect on elephant since an elephant uses it hearing and scenting ability more than sight and hunters rely primarily on sight to hunt elephants.

Perry

It's illegal to hunt after sunset in Parks areas in Zim. But it's common practice to hunt PAC ele by moonlight or with flashlights. They don't normally enter the croplands in daylight hours...too smart for that.

If one takes the position that it's unsporting to hunt elephant at night, then I guess one won't be hunting leopard either.

I find the comments here very interesting. I think most hunters when they hear the phrase "night hunting" envision a deer in the spotlight 30yds away in an open field shooting from a car. For those of us who have hunted dangerous game at night or for that matter Coon hunted, can fully appreciate how difficult it is when done with traditional sporting methods and not to mention dangerous.If it's not your bag that's fine but don't suggest that it's easier, unfair, unethical, and blah,blah,blah. After all, some call the use of modern rifles, scope, range finders, sleeping bags, tents, et al not giving the critters a sporting chance. Unless you've been there you couldn't possibly know. It's not the same as walking your dog at night here in the states...believe on that one.

I have had the honor of chasing chasing crop raiders at night. Didn't shoot any but I am here to tell you that chasing ele in thick stuff at night... well it is simply a dangerous endevor.

I'm pretty cavilier about elephants. They are a big target and turn easily. Frankly hunting them in day light while great fun is not , in my oppinion, very dangerous. At night though there are lots of things that can go wrong,lights go out, people stumble and fall, elephants can get behind you. There is always the chance on some one getting separated from the group and of course the most dangerous thing is the chance of some one getting accidentaly shot in all the commotion.

Now about what is sporting and what is not I'm not in the position to make that judgement. I will say that if you are dinking around with elephants in the dark, especialy a bunch of cows, and you are not scared then iether your IQ is pretty low or your medication level is way to high

i HAVE ONLY SHOOT 4 ELEPHANTS MYSELF AND DONE ANOTHER ONE SEEN NOTHING BIG IN THE KARIB DAYS. Three in zim and one in the jungle in Cameroon (distance for this one 5 meters).I have acompained my father and my uncle on another two in zim. in the second one my father took a 78 pounder. In this hunts I have only hunted at night 6 nights out of 60-70 day of "proper hunting".Over a thousand elephants seen between bulls, cows and calfs. I have allways been nervous when aproaching them during daytime but...damn, hunting the third one of mine at nigth made me pour adrenaline as nothing else in my life.After the second shoot it charged and stopped the charge with my 416 rem (i adore that rifle)The torch used was a maglite and I can tell you that the ele was not impressed or pist off by the light at all. We were surrounded by lots of eles that we could here but not see and the villagers wacked their sjamboks useleslly trying to get off the elephants from the water. It was pitch black and I had no night vision but my ph did. I could see my ele when he was against the black stary night 14m from me....unethical?NO Stupid? probably, an experience I will never forget? absolutely

I did a PAC night hunt a couple of years ago in Zim. As others have said, it is a pretty intense experience. We slept in the villages, waiting for the farmers to come get us when the elephants showed up. We walked in darkness through the villages and fields - no moon while I was there and we didn't use night vision equipment. We located the elephants by the sound of their feeding and by squatting down to catch the silhouette of their backs against the sky. Nothing like surprising a bull elephant in a corn field with a Q-Beam at 30 yards!

Here's the story of my hunt I posted in 2004:

Snapshots:

Mud and pole huts clustered on bare earth surrounded by rich green fields. Quiet talk around the fire as the trackers and scouts devour boiled chicken and sadza. Not wanting to risk the stringy, undercooked bird, we feed on boiled peanuts, sugar cane, tiny wild plums and roasted maize.

Flashing lightning. Beating pulse of distant drums. Barking dogs. Voices calling out over the crops. Smells of moist earth, cattle, the sharp sweat of the blacks mixed with eye-watering mopane smoke.

The buzz of mosquitos. Enamel pans clanking. The sound of rough hands scouring the cookware with sand in the darkness. The low, throaty rumble of a lion. The greedy sounding "whoop whoop" of a hyena at dawn.

The sharp "crack...crack" of the farmer's whip. Chasing off elephants in the night...


We arrive at the homestead at 5:00 PM. Runners are sent to neighboring villages to alert the people of our presence and to instruct them to come for us should elephants arrive.

After sugar cane and roasted maize washed down with Zambezi Lager and Coke, Brent and I stretch out on foam mattresses, listening to the night sounds and staring up at the brilliant glitter of stars and the faint sliver of a waxing moon.

Chickens are killed and sadza is prepared in a smoky hut, lit only by the cooking fire. The boys feast, mashing huge lumps of sadza into their mouths, smacking their lips on chicken fat, their teeth flashing in the firelight. After clapping their thanks to our hosts, they spread their tarps on the hard ground around the fire and prepare to sleep.

At 9:00 PM there is a commotion. Soft voices in the dark. The fire is now just a pile of glowing embers. Brent: "Let's go, Dave." A voice calls out across the fields. I recognize the word "nzou". Elephant.

I shake off sleep and buckle on my cartridge belt, checking that the .404 rounds are secure in front. William hands me my rifle from the cruiser. I confirm the magazine is full and chamber a round and check the safety. I grab my flashlight and we move off toward urgent voices in the darkness.

Clouds rolled in while we slept. Lightning flashes on the horizon. We march on urgently in the darkness. No words are spoken.

Ten minutes turn into twenty, then a half hour has passed. We approach one compound, then another. Insistent voices urge us on. Dogs bark and snarl, then yelp at the meaty thud of stones striking, hushing them. I shade my eyes from the glowing fires, trying to keep my eyes adjusted to the dark. Friday leads, then Brent, then me. Two scouts follow. One is armed with a single shot .12 Ga. shotgun loaded with #8's. The other carries an ancient Enfield .303 for which he has only one round. A soft point. Also with us is Phinea, the skinner and a local who steers us toward the voices calling "Nzou...nzou."

We march down paths between the crops, through rows of mealies. I have brief stabs of vertigo as I focus on Brent's back in the darkness. Lightning flashes on the horizon, righting the world for a second.

Mealie stalks snap. We hear the unmistakable sound of the elephants' belly rumbling. We squat, trying to skylight their forms against the bleak light. After long moments, Brent squeezes my arm and whispers to stay close.

Sweat runs down my chest. My shirt sticks to my back. My eyes sting from the sweat and the strain to see into the darkness. Snap. Another mealie stalk breaks. Then another to our left. Three bulls are in the field with us.

The farmer continues his cries at the elephants, but they feed on, ignoring him. The scout insists we are close and wants to turn on the light. Brent hisses to him to be quiet. We move up the path another 15 yards. There. Vaguely silhouetted is a bull, standing broadside, munching mealie stalks. "Can you see him?", Brent whispers. "Yes." "Ready?" I had already flicked off the safety of my rifle and checked that the ivory night sight was flipped up.

We slowly stand up and shoulder our rifles. Friday hits the powerful spotlight. At the shock of the light, the bull turns to face us, ears out. He is 30 yards away. Brent fires, hitting him in the chest and turning him. I find the bull's shoulder and fire, work the bolt and fire again. The elephant runs to our left, toward the farmer's home. Shreiks of fear come from the huts as we continue to fire at the running elephant. Empty. I fumble solids from my belt and load two as I sprint toward the bush, with Friday running alongside. We race to the edge and plunge in. Friday pans the light. We can hear the elephant wheezing from a lung shot. Branches crack in his wake as he stumble forward, then silence. Brent takes up the lead as we follow, expecting a charge from behind every bush.

Suddenly, Brent stops and fires. Seeing the dark form, I step up and fire too, then quickly reload. The bull is finally down. He is in the road on his belly, his legs tucked beneath him.

The next morning we arrive at 6:30 to help with the recovery. The spoor shows that the bull's partners had come to him in the night, no doubt urging him to stand and run off with them. The locals tell us the elephants stayed all night, roaring and trumpeting.

300 people arrive to haul off flesh and bone. We leave them as they swarm the carcass, knives and axes flashing.

I don't care whether it is viewed as sporting or not sporting, scary or not, or whatever. To me it is akin to culling. Just shooting the crap out of something in the dark. And very undignified for hunting the majestic elephant.

To me, there is a certain respect in hunting elephant, and skill in placing the shot. None of that applies in the dark.

Just an opinion.

I think that the purists would not call this hunting and I would probably tend to agree. I would not classify it as culling, but not true hunting either, maybe more along the lines of pest control (with obvious potential added dangers)! Many farmers have shot crop-raiding bush-pigs at night with a shotgun in their maize field, etc. Many would call it hunting, and for bushpig, due to their usual crepuscular/nocurnal activities this is probably as close to 'true' hunting for this species, as you hardly ever see them during the day. I think lying in wait in a maize-field, and creeping up on unsuspecting feeding pigs under moonlight would be quite exciting hunting. Using a shotgun with buck-shot is the common practise for obvious reasons, but using a high-illumination scope on a rifle could maybe be considered more along the lines of hunting.

With elephant it is a bit different, you can hunt them just fine during daylight as most people have done for a long time, but it would involve a bit more walking and tracking. I would think that the elephants are likely to be very aggressive, because they know what they are doing is 'wrong', that is the reason they do it at night, most people are asleep and can not harass them, then they make it back to the bush by morning, leaving their wake of destruction in obvious form. They are also aggressive, because they know that people will confront them (at their own peril), make a nosie, throw stones at them, get smacked by stones in catapults, etc. Is it exciting, yes, is it dangerous, most likely. Would I call it hunting? That I can't be sure of. I would not be put off though, as long as you enjoy it, then that is all that matters. Chances are you are doing the animal(s) a favour, as it/they will probably eventually end up carrying lead of sorts unless they are shot humanely (hopefully) by you the hunter. If you do not shoot them, these individuals would have to be eventually targetted by local PAC staff anyway, and at least more money will be generated to the hunting industry this way.

I tend to agree with Will on this. The same elephants could be followed out of the fields at dawn and tracked to their afternoon resting places. With a night hunt you lose all the mental ups and downs and the experience of tracking them. You really can't learn anything about elephant hunting by shooting them at night.

465H&H

Not having hunted elephant, this discussion was very interesting for me.

I would prefer to hunt them on a first hunt in the traditonal way as 465H&H says.

On a second hunt, I think the sheer adrenalin rush of SHOOTING them at night would be hard to beat.

An each way bet!

quote:

Originally posted by Blair338/378:
Not having hunted elephant, this discussion was very interesting for me.

I would prefer to hunt them on a first hunt in the traditonal way as 465H&H says.

On a second hunt, I think the sheer adrenalin rush of SHOOTING them at night would be hard to beat.

An each way bet!

Or if you are really fortunate you can see some of both, which is what happened to me.

quote:

Originally posted by Charles_Helm:

quote:

Originally posted by Blair338/378:
Not having hunted elephant, this discussion was very interesting for me.

I would prefer to hunt them on a first hunt in the traditonal way as 465H&H says.

On a second hunt, I think the sheer adrenalin rush of SHOOTING them at night would be hard to beat.

An each way bet!

Or if you are really fortunate you can see some of both, which is what happened to me.

I agree with Will! I have noticed on the Outdoor channels that Leopard hunting is also done at night. I find this deplorable, I guess some folks just don't care how they get a trophy animal.