My wife and I just got back from a short buffalo hunt in the Selous. We hunted with PH Hayden Glenny of Game Trackers Africa in Block LR3. It's located about 40 minutes by air southwest of Dar Es Salaam. I'll post a report later on, but I wanted to share a short story and photos of an unusual buffalo I hunted.

On our third day in camp (beautiful place, by the way; located on the shore of Lake Utunge) we were up and on the road before 6am. We drove South for about 20km checking the road for tracks. We also stopped at waterholes to look around. At the first two, we found lots of elephant sign, but no buff.

At the third waterhole we walked up on a herd of 20-30 buff. They were mostly cows, calves and young bulls. There was one bull that got a second look, but not a third. Back to the truck and back on the road.

About 10 minutes from the waterhole "we" saw tracks of several buff crossing the road. Hayden and the two trackers, Shuboni and Patchet, looked them over and gave a thumbs up, so off we went into the woods.

We tracked through heavy brush for about 30 minutes and then were treated to the sound of big animals running off. Busted. After the required curse ("Bloody, damn buffalo.") we went after them at as rapid a pace as we could make for another 30 minutes or so. I lost a good bit of hide in this little exercise, but it paid off. We caught up with a small group (4-6) bulls that had stopped in thick brush on the other side of a small clearing. I could see 1 facing us, two others facing left and right and Hayden said he could see two more. We were hidden and the wind was good, so we had our binoculars on them, trying to figure things out.

We were looking and whispering when Goodluck, the Tanz Parks game scout with us,snapped his fingers and whispered "Mbogo". He had dropped back a few feet and turned around to take a leak and had seen a bull walking up behind us!
Hayden and I turned and I saw a perfect black silhouette of a big buffalo bull in the gray brush about 50 yards away. Hayden and I said, almost in unison, "That's a big bull!" I could see both his horns drop down, come back up and he looked wide. Hayden whispered, "slowly, bring your gun up", but as I moved, the herd behind us turned and went crashing off and then the lone bull turned and ran in the opposite direction. We gave about 30 seconds of thought on which way to go - the herd or the lone bull - and then took off after the big guy. The wind was good and we knew he was worth following.

Nearly an hour of tracking got us apparently no closer than when we started, and we were again moving as fast as we could. We came to a small clearing and called a water break. The bull wasn't running but he wasn't slowing down, either so we had to decide how much longer to keep at this. Well, we took a 5 minute break but the bull took 10 and we caught him after only about 100 more yards.

He was lying in brush with his front half higher than his rear, pointed at about 10 o'clock away from us. He appeared to have his head turned to his right so all I could really see was a black triangle, higher on the left side, with a horn sticking out to the right. Hayden put up the sticks and through my scope at 2X I couldn't find a shoulder to aim on. We scooted left and left again until Hayden said, "this is as far as we can go or he'll see us". By then, I had a good view of his head, horns and the front of his body, so I aimed down from his right horn into center mass and fired.

At the shot, he lumbered to his feet, turned to his left and trotted across our front from right to left. I fired again and he turned to his right and went straight away. We followed and I was relieved to see lots of lung blood and a good spoor. He stopped after only a few yards and I took another shot from directly behind. Again, he went forward but stopped for good after only a few more yards.

I kept shooting as long as he was standing and put in a couple of more after he went down- Hayden likes his buff very dead - but the first shot had done it.

On getting up to the bull, we found him to have an almost completely white face and his hide was covered with small white spots. Not like any photos I have ever seen and both Hayden and another PH in camp, Borja Rosillo, said they had never seen one like this either.

I've never posted photos here before, so if I messed this up I'll have to get a friend to help. Thanks for reading.
kh

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You could always call him " Pokodot bull "

Maybe it's from eating that charcoal.
That's a FINE trophy!!

Beautiful bull. I love those old white faced buffalo, but , like you, have never seen old "poko dot"!

Congratulations, look forward to the rest of your report.

Best regards, D. Nelson

NICE!!!

Cool old bull... I can only hope whichever taxidermist you use leaves the buff natural and doesn't spray paint him all black or gray!

Very attractive coloration.
Especially the bloody nose.
When something that can bite back is
shot, and still standing it's good to
keep poking holes in it.

Congrats and thanks for sharing.
George

Never seen one as white as this one.

But, I have shot a number of bulls that had some white on their faces.

And quite a few with white spots on them.

COOL!!!

Congratulations on a very unusual buffalo

Very Nice!!!!

quote:

Originally posted by bwanamrm:
Cool old bull... I can only hope whichever taxidermist you use leaves the buff natural and doesn't spray paint him all black or gray!

Beautiful old bull!

I always vote for the natural look. I don't like the Buffs that look like Angus beef cattle.

Kevin,

Nice bull and an unusual trophy. Congrats! You did get into the thorns. Looks like you got in a knife fight!

Mark

That is a BUSTER for sure, and the white face and spots make him even better!

............................................................. congratulations sir!
.............................Mac

Probably always a good ideal to take odd colored animals out of the gene pool. Of course one can always try to take them out alive and isolate them with other like colored animals in hopes of breeding an unusual color phase like black impala for instant. In time one could breed up a herd of white cape buffalo.

It's an appaloosa.
Damn nice bull. Congratulations.

It looks like you both took your licks on that stalk. Interesting coloration make sure the taxidermist keeps it that way.

My understanding is that the white faces on old bulls are do to a mite infestation.

Interesting story and great pic.

BH63