24 October 2009, 14:53
reddy375A poor man's Buffalo - not really!!!
By day three we had scoured the whole area of Plum Tree which borders Botswana and Tscholotscho South in the hope some elephants would be crossing over to drink at the couple of water pans in our hunting area. We had earlier found the tracks of a small herd of cows with some young bulls and decided to check them out anyway. We caught up to them with a quick two hour walk. The general plan being to cut fresh tracks from the night before and then follow them. Seemingly, elephants seem to know where they want to go and walk steadily to the place they have in mind, once there, they seem to slow down start feeding and generally find a good napping spot.
We caught them under a tree in the hot afternoon sun, their grey bodies standing well over the thick thorn bush. Checking the wind we crept in closer and closer till we were finally within 25 yards. Our contact lasted about 10 minutes and we disengaged when a cow started checking us over rather closely. Withdrawing slowly we made our way back, marching along in the hot afternoon sun.
The previous day Scott Bailey my PH had told me that Wildebeest love the fresh grass that sprout up after an area has been burnt. He mentioned that there were not many in the area, since it was heavily poached being a communual area (i.e. open to native habitation), but there was a very old bull in a small herd which he had seen before.
Having decided to check the pans one last time before leaving Plum Tree, driving along in the still cool morning the trackers spotted the herd of Blue Wildebeest feeding way out in an open plain! I was not so keen to shoot one as I had decided to be very focused for a change and concentrate on the elephant. Excitement got the better of me and we made a short stalk to the edge of the tree line from where we could go no further. Scott by this time had decided the bull was a definite shooter and was the same old bull he had seen before. He was out there over 250 yards. We made up a few more yards to a clump of grass belly crawling in the burnt ashes, I rested the 375 H&H on a small clump of burnt grass but the muzzle of the rifle was too low. All we had was our hats and binoculars, which offered a little bit more height, from not too steady a rest. The cloud of ash kicked up from the muzzle blast threw me off for a second as I thought I had hit the ground in front of me, Scott was on his feet shouting good shot, he is going down....
The bull had other plans he took off bucking and kicking and the herd joined him as they ran to reach the safety of the opposite side of the vast plains, they entered the trees on the other side and that was it! All I could think of at the moment was that Blue Wildebeest are known for being amongst Africa's toughest animals and I was glad once again that I was using a 375H&H.
We started tracking as soon as the trackers caught up to us with the water bag (you do not go anywhere without that!), we found the tracks and blood straightaway (another good reason for using a bigger caliber), and followed. The minutes passed as we pushed our way through the thorns and high scrub bush. The blood trail was steady and we noticed that the bull was now on his own, the herd having left him to his fate. Half an hour later we spotted him going very slowly ahead of us through the trees. There was no time for a rest and a quick offhand shot at 100 yards anchored him. A final shot concluded things, Scott was elated and I was thankful that we had got him and had ourselves a really good old Blue Wildebeest. Around his neck we found claw marks that were healing, no doubt an encounter from a big cat! His big bosses and broken tip indicated that he was a really old bull. For those who are interested in such things, the width of the horns measured 29" across and as you can see the bosses are very good.
The bull had been facing us but slightly angled. I had shot it in the right shoulder expecting the bullet to enter the vitals but found out later that the front leg was completely shattered - we found the Swift A frame (300 grains)looking rather mangled but it had not penetrated the body although the line was good. The second shot in the rear right leg also smashed the leg bone but should have penetrated further we felt! These were Remington FLs.
The poor man and his buffalo
Note: Since this was the only trophy taken on my elephant hunt! It turned out to be the most expensive Blue Wildebeest ever shot in all of Africa. So in my case far far from being a Poor man's buffalo!
