It seems we have been short of stories lately so hear goes one.

The following story recounts my experiences on the day I shot my first elephant last September in the Makuti area of North Western Zimbabwe. I had posted the first part of the story on AR last year so if you have seen it please just skip down a few paragraphs.

I'll make additional posts about the rest of the safari as time allows.

Best regards;
Brett

We first saw them from the truck. A long line of black blobs half way across the wide mopani forested valley. Buffalo. Seventy-five to a hundred of them feeding in the early morning cool. It was the third day of safari and I felt as though I might be able to keep up today without too much whining. The chance to stalk buffalo was a welcome change of pace and there were reportedly some very good ones in the area.

Crouched behind small bushes we are watching the leaders slowly pass below us. Three bulls and several cows and calves move off to our left mostly obscured by thick leafy trees. As we move forward with care only Elmer Fudd could muster it occurs that the jet lag is over and I couldn't be happier. We settle behind two young trees with trunks about as thick as your wrist and the steady early morning breeze lets us not only hear but smell them as they move towards us. As the first cow comes into view I look at Peter and he looks soberly back, we are close. Too close. Too close to move (even backwards) and not scare them. As more cows and calves appear and feed towards us I think idly that I could push the barrels of my rifle through the little tree and poke the cow in front of me in the butt. Several times they stop feeding and look at us, I resist the temptation to look into eyes. As they move away and I begin to regain reliable sphincter tone, a young bull comes over the little rise to our right and unconcerned, feeds on a line that will take him behind OUR trees. Very softly I hear the safety of Peter's .416 move and without knowing it, I move my thumb forward as well. I remember thinking airily that this is the first time I have ever known a PH take the safety off. He is close now, really close, and no tree between him and me.

After a very tense few minutes the group to our left got our wind and cleared off, taking the young bull with them. After returning to the truck we continue along the valley looking for elephant tracks crossing the road. After a while, one of the trackers bangs on the cab of the 'rover, points to our right and says "N'dovu". Sure enough we see two ele.s at the far side of the valley about mid way up the escarpment. It is so far that I can only pick them out with binos. Peter thinks they are bulls and we decide to follow. After a few hundred yards we find the fresh tracks of two elephants going in the right direction and follow them. The tracks are quite clear in the fairly sandy soil and we follow at route step. The ground is rising gradually and we cross several dry river beds. After an hour or so Peter spots another group of ele. further up the valley but so far away that we cannot determine sex. We continue on the track of the first two until the gigantic piles of dung begin to look Very fresh.

Finally, the lead tracker spots them across a little ravine. Both bulls are standing under trees resting and intermittently feeding in the mid-day heat. One is three quarters facing us about 20-30 yards from the edge. The other is directly facing us just at the edge. We can clearly see the teeth of the first one and they look to be 20-30lbs. The one directly facing us is much larger in body but we cannot see ivory because of the thick bush he is standing in. The wind is fairly steady blowing down hill, across both us and the elephants. Peter and I have a brief talk and he suggests that we get a bit closer so that we can see the ivory on the near bull. Peter takes his rifle from the head tracker John-John, then he and I carefully cross the ravine towards the near bull. It is sandy and fairly full of short conburitum. We are able to stay concealed and move very quietly and get to within maybe 10-15 yards of the bull directly above us. There is a steep wall ahead of us and the bull's feet are about 6-8 feet above our heads. Thick bush covers his legs, lower body and the lower portion of his head. I can see is his forehead, eyes, upper trunk and ears as he sways back and forth and gently flaps his ears. I remember thinking that it would have been nice if someone had told me how big these damned things are. When his ears went out the head alone looked to be about the size of a small car. Strangely it was just floating there above the bushes. No chest shot, too much bush. The only possible shot would be the frontal brain up through the base of the trunk between the tusks.

We wait and watch hoping for him to move so that we can see his teeth. As we watch his ears go out nearly straight and he slaps them on the sides of his head with a sound like a rifle shot (I must have jumped a foot). Finally he lifts his head and with incredible dexterity wraps the end of his trunk around a small branch and tears it off with another loud crack. I am so fascinated with the way he is using his trunk that I don't get a good look at the ivory.

Peter grabs my right arm and signals with his chin that he wants to move away. We just as carefully re-cross the gully and make it back to the rest of the party including the game scout, three trackers and the appy PH. We have a short whispered council. Peter says the ivory will go 30-35 pounds. As it is early in the safari he wants to back out, cut cross wind and have a look at the other elephants we spotted on the way in. If they are not any better than these we can come back and hopefully catch them before they are done with their noon-time siesta. The trackers are NOT happy about this as they apparently think the bull in hand is better than one in the bush. Peter finally leaves it up to me and I defer to his judgment.

After about two hours of forced march in the noonday heat we finally catch up to the other group of elephants. They are cows. We huddle again and Peter says that we should probably make a try for the first bull as they have not shot any larger than him so far this season in this area (although they had reportedly seen several). Off we go again and eventually reach the spot where we had seen the first two. No elephant. The trackers want to circle down wind and try to find tracks. Peter, however, decides to simply follow the nearby tracks even though they lead partially up wind as it is getting late. Within 200 yards we find them slowly feeding along. We can now clearly see the tusks of both bulls. One is a really old bull with what Peter estimates as 35lb plus teeth, short but well matched and very thick. We decide to take him.

He is moving along slowly into the wind feeding as he goes. We close the distance as much as possible but he will not stop long enough for me to have a chance at a side brain shot. Finally as he is about to enter an area of larger trees Peter says to shoot him through the shoulder. He is ahead of me facing left at about 35-40 yards. I raise the .470 and put one just behind the front leg in it's forward position. As he raises his trunk and begins to run I fire again for the central chest. As he brakes cover at 60-70 yards I fire twice again for the chest. I brake the rifle, reload again and fire once more at about 100 yards. He then falls smashing several saplings with a tremendous noise, raises his trunk and bellows. As Peter and the trackers beat the shirt through my shoulders we move towards the bull. I fire once more into the heart and then move around to the uphill side and slip one into the brain through the top of his head. He shudders and it is over.

Epilog
As I look back, I can remember feeling overwhelming excitement, relief and guilt. As someone else said, an elephant on the ground is a lot of death. To take responsibility for all that death is a heavy weight at first...

The tusks turned out to be a bit better than expected at 40 and 39lb.s Had the nerves been smaller they would have been even better. You can see the elephant, the trackers, game scout (sitting on the leg) and the appy PH below. (I'm the guy with the rifle and the dumb looking hat...)



We took pictures, did the tail cutting ceremony and headed back to camp for dinner and a few toasts around the camp-fire. The next day we returned with as many hands as possible to do the recovery. I spent the entire day viewing the butchering and helping where I could. Seeing the butchering was one of the highlights of the trip. I will describe the process in another post.

I was impressed by the performance of the 500gr Woodleigh solids. We recovered three, two from the heart-lung area and one from the liver. Aside from the rifling marks you could not tell they had been used. The upper part of the heart was pulverized, there were huge holes in the lung and great holes in the liver. The .470 is indeed an elephant gun.

And so goes one day on safari.



In the photo above, you can see a large white patch on the side of the elephant. Before the butchering, Peter thought that this was probably a tusk gore wound that had healed. The next day when probing the spot with a knife, one of the trackers found a very old and corroded .375 solid. You can see it in the photo below above the three recovered .470 solids. I added the rifle, loaded .470s and a bracelet made from the elephants tail hair for scale. The .375 was found lying flat against a rib partially flattened. My guess is that it had been deflected by a limb and had hit the elephant side-on.

And so goes one day on saffari.

Very good post Brett,
I got to take an elephant in April and you're right it's quite an experience.
I too was really impressed with the meat recovery process and have written it up to be submitted in the future.

Great hunting with great hunters,
Kyler

A very memorable story!

My friend, what are you waiting for start writing books?
Very good story and comments.
Congratulations
LG

Great story, Brett.

Thanks.

Brett;

Your story and writing are excellent. I depart for my first ele hunt in 3 weeks. I felt as if I was there!!!

Question: What did the other bull do? Did he simply run off or??????

Thanks for a spell binding story!!! D. Nelson

Thanks for the kind words.

Mr. Nelson, the other bull just cleared off. Not that I really noticed at the time... Where are you hunting ele?

Best regards;
Brett

Brett:

I'll be in Botswana (northern part of the Okavango). The camp is called Qorokwe. I just finished reading Mahoboh recommended by another AR member. I thought that was fantastic writing until I read yours. Do you have any other advice?

PS (It's Mrs. Nelson--but you couldn't have known!)

D. Nelson

Dear Mrs. Nelson (nothing like bad assumptions, sorry)

In answer to the question �why do you like to hunt Africa� fellow poster Jim Dodd said in part �that he enjoyed being able to vicariously live the experiences of other hunters through the literature of more than a hundred years of African hunting�. I wish I had said that. I love hunting stories in general but the breadth and depth of African hunting literature is simply unmatched. For classic elephant tales try, Wanderings of an Elephant Hunter by WDM Bell, Hunting the African Elephant in East Equatorial Africa by Alfred Neumenan, any title by Stigland and Pondoro by John Taylor. The list is endless really, sort through the titles from Safari Press and you cannot go too far wrong.

From all reports you have chosen one of, if not the best country in Africa for big elephant both in body and Ivory size. Peter Capstick wrote a book and marketed a video called �Sands of Silence� about a Bots. elephant hunt that you might find interesting.

After one elephant safari I�m reticent to offer advice to another hunter� My only suggestions would be to be in as good a physical condition as you can and to bring comfortable boots. I read somewhere that one �hunts lion with the heart, leopard with the brain, buffalo with the guts and elephant with the legs�. As far as elephant are concerned truer words were never spoken.

I wish you all the best and look forward to your reports on AR.

Best regards;
Brett

Brett,

Really a nicely written story! I'm going after my second elephant and my first trophy elephant in August. I hope I can relay the story half as well as you did. Of course that is assuming I'm lucky enough to get a big bull.

Nice read!

Regards,

Mark

Great story telling Brett. Thanks.

Mark,

Good luck on you upcoming trip. Where will you be hunting and with whome? As you are a booking agent I'm all ears...

Best regards;
Brett

Good story Brett.
I would like to bag just one elephant in my life time.
What make is your 470 double?

cr500

Thanks to you and all for the kind words.

The rifle is a William Douglas. It was made in the late 1980s and imported to the States by Cape Outfitters. It's a lovely rifle but a bit of a brute to fire as it olny weighs 9lb.s. Great to carry however...

Brett Thanks very much for your story. Hopefully I will be able to give elephant hunting a try one day. Regards, Paul

Brett,
Thanks for sharing the great experience. Good job in all ways. A nine pound William Douglas .470 NE!!! Bloody good elephant rifle!!! Did you use factory loads or handloads, please?

DaggaRon,

Used your RL15 formula at 89gr.

With my complements;
Brett

Brett,

I wouldn't have thought it possible, but your story just got better!



RIP, aka DaggaRon

Thanks for the nice story