Well as the season continues I thought I would let you know how all the buff have been turning out …making an effort to target old bulls and chasing the experience far harder than the inches , its amazing how attractive these old dagga boys can actually be … after elephant , I am addicted to buffalo hunting and as far as I can I always encourage people to take a bull (or two) when we are hunting elephants !!! the Zambezi valley is where I have done most days this year apart from 4 elephants in botswana and a couple of south Africa trips …so all except one bull is a valley bull …

Some are from my previous post , however I thought I would put them all together in order that I took them …

There are seven taken with Jim Hall , 5 bulls and 2 cows….you saw the story on that …

Then I took two with Ted Jernigan , the one horned guy we couldn’t resist , he had the body of a tank and having taken the beautiful bull at first this was the perfect second trophy … ted shot his first with a .375 and we did the followup with his .577 , the second the same , both we took after quite a bit of crawling and stalking , the first at about 40 yards after tracking about three hours through the hills , following tracks from the evening before , we then saw them on a ridge and climbed a mountain to look at the whole herd , having seen the one we wanted we waited almost two hours till they got into position for where we could reasonably expect to approach …being about 400 yards out we had a lo0t of ground to cover but we planned carefully and it took about an hour to make the stalk … we thought were were blown a couple of times when cows looked right at us ….but often on hands and knees , as long as one keeps ones head down in the thick cover its not bad ….we ended up literally surrounded on three sides by buff , the wind swirled and they all stood up affording us a great view of “our†guy …a nice lung shot slowed him down and a quick followup with the 577 was all he needed! and the second was at about 65 yards….we had tracked a herd through the jesse and I heard them all splashing in a small mudhole …we sneaked into place and saw the last of the herd leaving the hold …drat! Then as we were about to move on …old one horn stepped into a clearing , full of mud and started trashing a bush …. We discussed his brojken horn for a minute or two and his huge body and charachterful trophy got the best of us , a perfect double lung shot and he was ours ! well done Ted !

Craig Boddington and I took this nice old dagga boy …craig had his heym 450/400 ph model that he was anxious to try out with the hornady factory ammo …after lots and lots of frustrating moments in very thick jesse with a herd of over 200 animals , several dagga boys in attendance , we were heading back to the vehicle , we had been with the herd for several hours and they had split up due to unsteady wind and glimpses of us …halfway back to the vehicle we stopped for a rest …my gps told me that we were still 5 km or so away …when I heard some oxpeckers …….very very slowly we walked towards the sound and there was a group of about ten buffalo ,four bulls , one exceptional bull , who still was a bit soft bossed , looked like about 42 inches , two of the others were solid and both in the low 30s , but the big bosses got out attention and craig put in a great double lung shot …. The buff bucked and as it turned the second barrel went low and broke its nearside leg …30 yards later and it was over !.....

My good friend Justin trail and I took the other two bulls , one very broomed off dagga boy that was all on his own , these old bulls in the valley are often at the waterholes in the heat of the day and so I like to walk slowly between the pans looking and watching …it was in the sapi safari area and there are also some great elephant to be taken this way …well after looking at several pans for several days and always seeming to get there just after the bulls had left or a day late ! we finally were approaching a string of pans that covers about 6 km and has about 6 pans in it , we were half way along when an oxpecker flew into a tree above me ….that could mean kudu , impala or anything , but it got our attention and heightened our senses … sure enough as we peered over a termite mound , the old guy was lumbering off from the water …it was a hot day and the wind was very tricky …not to look a gift horse in the mouth , we swapped rifles ( justin had been carrying his .470) and with his .375 he shot the old dood through the heart …he spun , ran just 40 yards and stopped and glared at us …justin put a second shot in but he was on the way down by that time …whew what a hunt …

The second of his bulls , he shot at about 50 yards with his double , we had left the camp early and in the dark seen the fresh sign across the road , we made a fire and the trackers and us all sat and waited for the light ….just an hour into tracking we heard the first grunt , there was no wind to speak of and a big circle found us in front of the herd ….too close ….we backed off , did another circle and waited on the edge of a clearing ….i oput my binos up , got Justin ready on a tree and started talking him through what was in front of us …that’s a very very tense moment as you wait for the wind to change or for one of them to see you when they are that close …the closest animal was about 20 yards off ….cow cow cow, cow , young bull young bull cow , calf cow , then dagga boy …okay get ready …cow steps in front , a calf saw us and started to stare so no room to move , then the bull turned and started sniffing a cows behind …his body at least 10 inches taller than the cows around him ….then the cow blocking the shot moved forward and that was it , a big .470 soft through the boiler room …and what a beautiful trophy …

bryan will be posting the pics for me , thanks so much bryan ....

Woof! That's a bunch of nice buff.

Outstanding.................Thanks.

Ivan, did you leave any good bulls for the rest of us?

Ivan likes those wide bossed bulls. Here's one from last year I think...over 16" right? Too cool.

And a bunch of nice double rifles to boot!

What is neat about Ivan is that he evidently likes to hunt with double rifle shooters.

I think some PH's don't appreciate the desire some of us have to hunt close with a double.

i love the double rifle and i love the challenge of needing to get that much closer ...yes there is absolutely a time where you give up some opportunity but dagga boy hunting with a double is right up there ....!!

i feel its up to the ph to read his clients needs, and to help cultivate the dream and make it a reality ... people often bring a double and a bolt expecting to shoot the ele with the double and the buff with the bolt .... they are almost alwasy pleased to be offered the opportunity to do both with the double ...

Love 'em. Great photos and trophy quality, IMHO, across the board.

Buff are just the perfect quarry in so many ways.

I like hunting elephant and lion more, and would never willingly give those up, but if I had to, I could be happy hunting buff for the rest of my days.

Ivan - I assume Craig was using the new Hornady "DGX" soft point. Do you recall recovering any bullets?

Chris good question... I would like to know also...

Mike

quote:

Originally posted by yukon delta:

Originally posted by ivan carter:

quote:

Craig Boddington and I took this nice old dagga boy …craig had his heym 450/400 ph model that he was anxious to try out with the hornady factory ammo …after lots and lots of frustrating moments in very thick jesse with a herd of over 200 animals , several dagga boys in attendance , we were heading back to the vehicle , we had been with the herd for several hours and they had split up due to unsteady wind and glimpses of us …halfway back to the vehicle we stopped for a rest …my gps told me that we were still 5 km or so away …when I heard some oxpeckers …….very very slowly we walked towards the sound and there was a group of about ten buffalo ,four bulls , one exceptional bull , who still was a bit soft bossed , looked like about 42 inches , two of the others were solid and both in the low 30s , but the big bosses got out attention and craig put in a great double lung shot …. The buff bucked and as it turned the second barrel went low and broke its nearside leg …30 yards later and it was over !.....

Thanks for sharing! Was Craig using the new DGS ammo? If so what were you're thoughts on it's performance?

OOPS! I just saw new-guys question above mine! Sorry for the repeat.

yes we were using the new DGX the performance was great ...we recovered a nicely mushroomed bullet under the skin of the opposite sidfde , it had broken a shoulderblade , on the way in and a rib on the way out .... ...i have been using the DGX and the hornady solids in my heym .450 3 1/4 with great results aswell ... a hipshot bots ele bull we recovered the bullet below the skin behind the opposite shoulder ....

quote:

Originally posted by ivan carter:
a hipshot bots ele bull we recovered the bullet below the skin behind the opposite shoulder ....

Excellent. With the price of bullets ever rising, it's good to know that Hornady's new line represents quality at a reasonable price.

That is good news. I've been curious about that bullet, since the Interbond failed so often.

yes it is indeed good news, i have used the DGX in my .450 and tested it on a dead buffalo , the recovered bullets had mushroomed well and looked like they had good weight retention. we propped the buffalo up and i purposely made several shots , making sure that the shoulderblade was hit , in one instance a bullet struck the "ridge" on the shoulderblade, it went through the bone , through a rib on the way in and into the lungs , but did in fact break up ...the fragments were embedded in the ribs on the opposite side of the chest cavity , if the animal had been alive it would have certainly been a devastating shot.

great season Ivan. Congratulations

Has the Hornady DGX replaced the Interbond with the gilding metal jacket?