Hunt Report – PAC elephant with Charlton McCallum Safaris

My PH for this trip was Alan Shearing.
Hunt dates were March 27 To April 2, 2007
Area Hunted: Sanyati, on Lake Kariba, Zambezi Valley, Zimbabwe
Species taken: PAC bull elephant
Species hunted but not taken: none

Overall a most excellent trip, and my first elephant hunt.

Flights over were no problem, and I noticed a definite improvement on the SAA segment from Dulles to Jo’berg. While far from spacious, the new airbus configuration is a definite improvement and a reasonable option. I was fortunate to have one empty seat beside me, which always helps considerably. I continued straight on into Harare, and spent the night at the Gecko Lodge in Harare, which was a first rate establishment.

Exterior of my cottage at Gecko

Interior of the sitting area in the cottage

Reasonable guest cottages fairly similar to an “average†South African hunting camp. The service on the SAA flight into Harare was excellent, with good food on this short flight reminiscent of first class service in the US 10 years ago. (What does that say about US air travel these days!)

The only slight hiccup of the entire trip was during boarding of my flight from Dulles to Jo’berg. I was initially refused boarding because my passport did not have two adjacent blank pages. They were adamant this was a requirement. Only because I was transiting RSA and not staying in the country was this acceptable. I actually had to produce my ticket to Harare and show my luggage was checked through before I was allowed to board this flight. This could have been a disaster, but in reality was nothing more than a 5 minute conversation.

I elected to drive into the hunting concession from Harare, which was a rather long, 7 ½ hour drive. It was a beautiful, warm day, which turned hot as we entered the Zambezi Valley.

View driving toward Kariba

I saw two road blocks, at which we were simply waived through without even stopping. I did notice a decided lack of roadside “trinket standsâ€, selling the carvings, etc., I have seen on past trips. Apparently the tourist volume is so low that these are virtually non-existent. A pity.

Camp on the shore of Lake Kariba was relatively Spartan, but adequate. There is no electricity in camp, aside from a few 12V batteries recharged by solar panel. These batteries provide limited convenience lighting in camp.


Outside of my cottage in camp

Interior of cottage

View of bay on Lake Kariba from inside the cottage

Lake water is pumped into tanks to provide gravity flow for showers, etc. I was the first hunter in camp this season, so camp was still in the process of being opened and fully ready for the season. It was typically very warm in camp, even at night, with most overnight low temperatures about 80 F and absolutely still with not the slightest hint of a breeze.

Day 1:
Up at 4:00, and on the road by 5:00 after a light breakfast of toast, rusks, fruit, juice and tea (coffee for others). It is a rather long, torturous 2 hour drive up the escarpment to the Tribal Trust Lands where the elephants have been raiding the village crops. We pick up a game scout at Village 8, who reports elephants were in village 19 overnight. A short drive finds us parking on this edge of this village, where evidence of elephants in the fields is quite apparent. The trackers go to work trying to sort out the various sign, and within the hour we are tracking a small group of elephants that left the fields before daylight.

Alan Shearing and tracker Tomas on the trail...

We follow the tracks until 11:00 and are only 2.8 km from the truck. The concession manager, Rod Ferraro, assures us the elephants are usually still in the fields during daylight hours, and really wants us to shoot closer to the fields. Even though it appears we have gained significantly on this group, we abandon the tracks at Rod’s insistence. We return to the trucks, and spend the remainder of the day visiting other villages and gathering more reports (generally erroneous) about elephant activity in the area. Temperatures are in the mid 90’s with clear skies, and we return to camp about 4:30 to rest and prepare for an earlier start tomorrow.

Day 2:
Up at 2:30 am, and on the road by 3:20. Pick up the scout at 5:25, and park at village 19 in the gathering light. It is still too dark to shoot. We are on the tracks before 6, and track at a rapid pace for the next two hours. Sign is fresh (still warm), when the ele’s tracks join a small group of cows and change directions. They are moving directly away from the village now, deeper into the canyons heading toward Lake Kariba. After pausing to sort out the tracks of the now larger herd, the trackers get a visual sighting of the elephants across the valley about a kilometer away, moving slowly and resting under some trees on the ridge line. Rod is concerned about being too far from the roads, and after a half hour or more of animated discussions, we call off the pursuit once again, to the trackers obvious disgusts. I am a bit more optimistic about finding more elephants easily, as I still (naively) believe all the reports of elephants in almost every village.
After returning to the truck, we stop in a several more villages, checking out reports of elephants in the crops. A pattern is beginning to appear, and it seems only one small group of bulls is making a tour of several villages each night, feeding as they wander through, but not spending any significant time anywhere. We return to camp about 1 pm, with plans to return for the evening. We have a nice African brunch (eggs, sausage, tomatoes, etc.) and nap for the afternoon. I awake to learn that plans have changed, and we will stay near camp and just take a sight-seeing trip out onto the flood plain of Kariba for the evening to view a local herd of buffalo. Beautiful drive, but a little less exciting as I know these animals are not available on my license, and there will be no hunting these animals for me on this trip. A gorgeous sunset, with the fishing dhows plentiful just off shore. The buffalo herd numbers probably 150 or more, and we also spot a few impala, baboons, and one elephant feeding on the shore line in the distance. On the short drive back to camp, we encounter a leopard briefly caught in the headlights. Relaxing evening, but still over 90 F as darkness falls. A good dinner and we turn in early preparing for another 3 am wake-up call.

Day 3:
We pack some gear in preparation for spending the next night in the villages and take two vehicles. The 2 hour drive each direction is already beginning to get old, but more importantly both time and diesel consuming. We split up in two vehicles today, trying to cover a bit more ground. Rod radios that he has found fresh tracks, and an hour later we join up with him and start to pursue. After a short hike, Rod decides they are heading too far from the roads, and we call off the pursuit. Very frustrating. We find some additional fresh tracks, and Rod tries to guess where the tracks are heading a couple times, driving to “get in front of†the elephants. The guesses turn out to be wrong, and we have to back track substantially to find the tracks again. Several hours are wasted each time, and before long the entire day has been consumed without ever making a serious attempt follow the eles. We do spot one prime PAC bull across the canyon about 4 pm while driving on the roads. Rod insists we don’t pursue this bull, until the bull clearly starts to move in the direction of the villages. We attempt to follow, but the bull is obviously on a mission, and he is still putting more ground between us as darkness falls and we have to give up the pursuit. A blown opportunity. Alan is clearly getting frustrated, as am I, and we both realize that despite his seemingly good intentions, Rod has become a real hindrance on this hunt.
We drive to one of of the village bore holes (well), and make a crude camp for the evening. A simple tarp on the ground with a few removable cushions from the camp chairs will be our bed for the night.

To be continued....

Bill

Good stuff -- I look forward to the rest of the report.

Keep it coming!

This is getting interesting.....

Excellent report so far LP. I am getting a bit frustrated at Rod's behaivor myself! Cut loose the "Dogs of War"!

Bill,

Damn, I was looking for a pic of an ele and the rest of the story...

Welcome home...

Mike

Don't leave us hanging too long, eh? Great story so far!

Cheers,
Canuck

Sorry for the drawn out report, but with work, family, etc., I don't have too much time each night to get this posted. Add to that my lack of computer skills, and I'm amazed the first post worked. Anyway...

Part 2:
Day 4:
We are awakened by a local villager just after midnight, with reports of elephants in the fields one village over. Drums can be heard from several huts, along with the banging of pots, yelling, singing, and a general ruckus. I’m not real enthusiastic about shooting at night, but we put on our boots, grab the rifles, and go in pursuit. It is just a few days from a full moon, and reasonably bright out with clear skies and a million stars. Temperature is still in the high 70’s. For over an hour we go from hut to hut, chasing reports of elephants, but apparently never really anywhere near them. It seems everyone wants us to come to their field to protect their crops, but few, if anyone, have actually seen the elephants. As soon as one person starts beating the drums, everyone else does so as well out of general concern for their crops. An absolute circus. It is no wonder the elephants don’t seem to be hanging around the fields very long. We trudge back to our “campâ€, lay down on the tarp and try to go back to sleep at about 1:30 am. A bit sweaty and with the adrenaline still pumping, sleep takes a few minutes coming.

We are up again at 6 am, with the growing dawn. A swig of juice and we are off to find the tracks from last night. One lone track is discovered at village 19, so we send a game scout with a radio and head to check other villages. We’ve split up into two vehicles, and send trackers to check on several different possible reports. Before long, all the trackers are out of radio contact, and the one track we elected to follow turns and heads back into the village. It is the track of the elephant from last night heading into the fields, not the track leaving the field. Back to square one.

The tall grass and dense vegetation makes for tough tracking.

It takes several hours to locate and meet up with the dispersed trackers, none of whom turned out to be following fresh tracks. It seems this day is a comedy of errors, and for no lack of effort, we aren’t making much progress. Temperatures today are over 40 C, and we polish off the remnants of yesterday's lunch (a chicken leg, a tangerine) about 11:00. It will be evening before we eat again back in the main camp on the lake shore.

Alan Shearing and Ryan on the trail...

We check a few new areas in the late afternoon with the land cruiser, and manage to sight a group of bulls about 400 yards off the road across a small valley. One is an absolutely gorgeous bull, with tusks Alan estimates at over 60 pounds each! Magnificent, but this is a PAC hunt, so I won’t be able to shoot him. The elephants are heading for the fields several kilometers away, so we begin a rapid pursuit, hoping to take one of the smaller bulls. As soon as we drop into the valley and tall grass, we lose sight of the elephants. We easily pick up their tracks, however these bulls are lining out for the fields. We pursue until it is quite dark, and reluctantly abandon the trail. We are a couple K’s from the nearest road, and make a forced march in the dark to a rendezvous point with Rod and the trucks. A tough couple days, and we are all tired and hungry. (At least I’m hungry, no one else seems to notice we have hardly eaten since yesterday lunch!) We have a good dinner back in camp after 10:00, and are in bed by 11:00 for a few hours sleep before trying again tomorrow. Whoever said PAC eles were easy?

Day 5
We wake up to rain at 4:00 am, and after a bit of discussion, head back to bed to await the dawn. Rod wants to stay in camp all day, but Alan and I push to get after the bulls. We finally leave camp about 6:45, with clearing skies and a few scattered showers in the area. The rain has erased all tracks from both last night and previous nights, making it tough to find a starting point. On the bright side, any tracks we do find will be smoking hot, fresh tracks. We head up into the canyons where we encountered the large bull last night, hoping to pick up tracks made after the rain stopped. The bulls seem to be spending the days in the same general area, and a pattern is beginning to emerge.
Once again we spot a few elephants across a small (different) canyon, and prepare to pursue them. It turns out there are several groups of elephants in the area, confusing the issue a bit at first, but finally we close on a couple bulls lounging under some tall trees in dense brush about 1:00 pm
We’re close now, under 25 yards, and can see the one small bull well. An excellent PAC candidate. The other bull is partially obscured. We continue to jockey for position, still getting closer, with the elephants slightly above us on the ridge. Someone steps on a twig (me?), and the elephants hear us. The two bulls swap positions, and the second bull now provides a classic frontal brain shot from about 15 yards. This is the elephant hunt I was expecting! Unfortunately, it is the 60 pounder from last night, not a PAC bull, and I can’t shoot. I’m sorely tempted to just shoot and figure out the finances later, but suddenly a puff of wind blows on the back of our necks straight toward the bulls, and they turn and vanish in an instant. We race to the ridge and begin searching for them, finally picking them up visually as one clear the next ridge over a kilometer distant. We take off in pursuit, knowing we will have a long walk to catch up with these bulls.

We are hiking at a fast walk, covering the ground when we bump them again in the tall grass 3 K’s later as we crest a small knoll. They run off again in the general direction of the villages, so we continue our pursuit, a little dejected. We know it is unlikely we will catch them again this afternoon. The day has been largely overcast ( a real blessing), but still warm with the temperatures in the low 90’s, and very humid. The sun finally comes out about 4:30, pushing the temperature up to 95, and making it feel even hotter.

About 5:30 we manage to spot the smaller bull feeding ahead of us, and he presents a clear shot at about 75 yards for just an instant. I set up on the sticks for a shot, but a good portion of his head is now obscured in the bush, and I can’t find my reference points for a clear shot. When he turns to move off, I realize he wasn’t even facing in the direction I thought, and I am very glad I didn’t pull the trigger. The pursuit begins again, and although he isn’t spooked this time, it seems we still aren’t gaining ground as he is moving once again toward the villages.
It is almost dark by 6:30, and we are within a kilometer of the first village, but still can’t find the bulls when we hear branches breaking to our left. We quickly leave the tracks, and move into position as a bull steps into an open area about 30 yards away. I set up on the sticks, only to realize this is the big bull again, and I can’t shoot. Arrrrggh!
We get a bit of a laugh, as Ryan, the cameraman is behind me anxiously waiting for me to take the shot. He isn’t focused on the ivory, and can’t figure out why I don’t take the perfect side brain shot presented. The bull even turns and presents a 25 yd frontal brain shot, and all I can do is say “bang†out loud. Ryan finally realizes it’s the big bull, and we get a good laugh and enjoy watching this grand old bull lumber off into the growing night. We’re only about 200 meters from a road this time, and radio for the trucks once again. I’m pretty tired as we have covered well over 10K’s today on this track, but it has been an exciting day. I’m still stoked from the close encounters, and we all talk about the big ivory late into the evening. It started raining again on the drive back to camp, and we go to bed about 11 with a steady rain falling.

Day 6
It stopped raining sometime in the middle of the night. We are up at 4:15, hardly refreshed, but ready to take on another day. Breakfast is some fruit and a piece of toast with tea, and we are on the road by 5:00.
With the hard rain last night, all tracks in the fields have been erased once again, so we head to the area where the eles have been spending the days. As we get within a K of where we left the eles last night, fresh tracks appear wandering up the road, and we all bail out to inspect the tracks and sort them out. Suddenly, breaking branches (Eles!) are heard just off to the south, so we grab the rifles and go in pursuit. We’ve only gone a few hundred meters when we spot a bull, under a 100 meters away, and feeding. We close quickly anytime he is moving, and within a few minutes are under 25 yards. We still haven’t seen his tusks due to the thick vegetation, but then he steps out from behind a tree, and a single, small tusk is apparent. A perfect PAC bull. We close a few more yards, and Alan sets up the sticks. The bull is standing broadside, completely unaware of our presence, feeding. A single round from the .416 Rigby drops the bull cleanly, with the classic brain shot reaction – the trunk goes up in the air as the back legs go down and the bull collapses. We rush up to the bull, and I put another insurance shot into the top off the skull, even though it is obvious this bull is already dead. After days of hard hunting, this was a very short stalk, and the bull is close to the road making retrieval relatively easy. We begin to take photos, and get ready for the butchering process. Our persistence has finally paid off, and I’m elated at having made a clean shot.



Cutting the tail...

To be continued….

Awesome!!! Great story and congrats on your ele!

Looking forward to the conclusion,
Canuck

Very nicely played, sir. I could feel your frustration growing as the story went along. Congrats on your bull and a successful ending.

Congrats on your hunt.

Well done, thank you for sharing your hunt with us.

Not wanting to take away from your hunt, I spoke with Ozhunter this morning before he boarded his flight to Jo'burg, bound for Zim. He'll be hunting ele in the same area by the end of the week. Hopefully your good fortune will hold for him as well.

congrats on your hunt Bill. How did the Nambia part of your trip pa out?

thats pan out, never was nor am a typist.

Congrats and thanks for the report. Very interesting.

I'm to hunt from the same location in March of 2008 with Myles as P.H. I think I may take a little one-man pack tent and a sleeping pad? Together they weigh less than five pounds and I'd leave it in the Crusier for a r.o.n. like you did. Would you so suggest?

Was anyone fishing from the camp and if so, what success?

Congratulations on a hard-won bull, and thank you for the pictures and details.

The harder you have to work for your bull the more it means in the end. I bet this one means a lot to you. Congrats!

465H&H

Congratulations! I was in Sanyati one year ago hunting Elephant with Alan and your pictures certainly jogged a few memories. I truly understand your frustration with Rod as we had a simular situation with him last year. We finally put an end to Rod's intrusions and let him know that Alan was in charge of my hunt and not him. The result was two beautiful Elephants, thanks to Alan taking over the operation.
My wife and I also stayed in the same guest house at the Gecko in September. Small world!

Great report, thanks. Congrats!

JPK

Part 3 (remainder)
It was only 7:45 in the morning when I made the shot. The day is clear, with temperature about 80-85 F. The grass is still soaking wet from last night’s rain. We take pictures, and begin the chore of processing and recovering the elephant.



The hide is incredibly thick, and I’m surprised that even my sharp knife has to be worked through the tail.



After having spent so many days chasing the eles, the locals had begun to stop following us each day. It took over an hour and a half for the first to arrive at the kill site, and only a small group of 15-20 is present by the time we are done removing what we want. I enlist the help of the villagers to find my ejected cartridge cases in the long grass, which they find quickly, and I reward everyone who helped by passing out some hard candies, including a handful to the person who actually found the case. The villagers wait respectfully, but are clearly excited, and they attack the carcass with real enthusiasm once we give them the go ahead. They are cutting off pieces of meat too big to even lift, but this hardly slows them down. I see gunny sacks filled with meat that must weigh a couple hundred pounds. It is a relatively orderly process, and well underway when we pack up and leave the kill site about 11:00 am. I’m sure some of the villagers worked there for the rest of the day.





It is a much more leisurely and pleasant trip back to camp today, and everyone is in high spirits. The trials and tribulations are all easily forgotten with a successful outcome. The Land Cruiser is extremely overloaded on this journey, with several hundred pounds of meat, our gear, and 4 whites and 5 blacks on the back of the truck. Those cruisers are stout! We do get one flat tire leaving the witch doctors house where we drop off the trunk in respect to local tradition. I amazed we don’t have more tire troubles, but we arrive safely back at camp about 2:15. We have a hearty lunch about 3:00, and take another sunset drive along the flood plain to watch the buffalo and plains game. We also see numerous hippos, and half a dozen eles along the shoreline. This is the coolest day of the trip so far, with temperatures in the mid 80’s near camp, partly cloudy with a light breeze. A great way to end to a perfect day.

Tomas and tusk


Day 7
We sleep in this morning (6:45 am), and have a great breakfast and a leisurely morning around camp. About 10:30, Alan, Ryan and I take a short drive down the lake shore, to a spot where we can fish from the bank. We fish for tiger fish and bream for a couple hours, but the action is pretty slow. Lots of nibbles, but we land very few fish. No matter, I’m still happy from yesterday, and enjoying my first chance to fish in Africa.
We return to camp about 1:00, eat a light lunch, and pack for the trip back to Harare. We are on the road by 1:30, and arrive in Harare at Buzz’s house about 8:00 pm. A smooth drive, with thundershowers widespread throughout the area. A pleasant evening, and we get to watch the hunt video on the TV, which was really great.

Day 8
I’m off to Namibia about noon for the second part of this safari, and I’ll write a separate report on that hunt.

Summary:
I really appreciate the skill and professionalism of Buzz, Myles, and especially my PH Alan Shearing on this trip. The hunt was well organized from Harare, and the problems working with Rod in camp were handled expertly by Alan. He has far more patience than I, and worked through a difficult situation with great restraint. It was particularly hard as I do believe Rod thought he was being helpful, and I don’t questions his good intentions. His methods (not wanting to walk) were not compatible with either Alan’s style or my own, and in the end we were able to utilize his help providing vehicle pick-up after our long hikes. The actual hike for my particular elephant was indeed short, validating Rod’s assertions that we could find elephants close to the roads eventually. While that wasn’t really our intention, I am not one to turn my back on a little luck, and I was happy to take this really nice PAC bull.

A few other particulars on the rifle and load. I was shooting an older Ruger Magnum in .416 Rigby, recently purchased from another forum member, Zimbabwe. Thanks for the great rifle. The stock has been slimmed down from the rather bulky factory originals, and I sent this rifle to Bill Sovern for checkering just before the hunt. I took advantage of the “budget checking†job he offered on AR last fall, and couldn’t be happier. He did a great, inexpensive checkering pattern with a rapid turn around, which provided a much better grip on this working gun. The rifle has also been magna-ported, and a new bolt handle added for an easier grip during rapid reloading. I hand rubbed a mixture of 50% boiled linseed oil and 50% True 0il to finish the stock.
I was shooting Federal Factory ammo, loaded with 410 grain Woodleigh solids. This load crosses my Oehler chrony at 2425 fps, and shoots into under an inch at 50 yards. The bullet from the initial side brain shot was recovered under the skin on the off side of the skull. It is interesting that the bullet didn’t exit, and the base of the bullet shows definite flattening, indicating the bullet tumbled and encountered some significant bone on its travel through the skull. I was glad to not be using any lesser caliber.




Lastly, I’d like to thank all the forum members who have posted on the AR Forums especially about their elephant hunts. While I have hunted in Africa on several previous trips, I never really considered going after an elephant until I started reading some of your reports. 500 Grains, Will, Retreever, Mau Mau, and countless other posts about exciting ele hunts really got me thinking about going myself. Meeting with Buzz and Myles in Dallas again this year at DSC was just the icing on the cake. Their enthusiasm for elephant hunting is contagious. I really appreciate everyone’s insight, enthusiasm, and willingness to help a new elephant hunter.

Bill

ele foot and swarovski 8x SLC binos for size reference

llamapacker,

Very well written and a real adventure. I really enjoyed the read.

THX

Mark

Bill,

Thank you, and welcome to the fraternity... You will never be the same...Any elephant up close is a big elephant... Good shot.

Mike

I realize the photos didn't come through on my last post. I will try to fix them later tonight. Sorry.
Bill

quote:

Originally posted by retreever:
Bill,

Thank you, and welcome to the fraternity... You will never be the same...Any elephant up close is a big elephant... Good shot.

Mike

All true, especially, "Any elephant up close is a big elephant"!

Congrats again.

JPK

Very nice conclusion -- I will look for the pictures.

Pictures fixed - I think!

Judge - I don't know that there is any reason to take the tent along. The pad may have a few uses, but with the temperatures so warm there really was no need for a tent. I did enjoy the night out, sleeping in the bush. Although it was far from luxury (and rougher than I had anticipated) there is a certain romance to a cold camp under the African stars. I think Alan realizes this, and the crude camp is not an accident or the result of poor planning. It is somehow fitting to "rough it" on an ele hunt, as I have no doubt that the ele hunters of old had it much, much rougher, for months on end, not just a day or two. While I wouldn't plan this type of night very often, I do look back on it fondly.

Bill

Congrats on your Bull. What did your ivory weigh? Thanks for taking us along, it was a great read and I enjoyed the pics. Good hunting, LDK

David,

We never actually weighed the ivory, but I would estimate between 15-20 pounds. It was surprising light, as it was very hollow. The nerve extended nearly to the tip. Clearly it wasn't an old bull, which was as expected. Again, a perfect PAC bull to remove from the herd.
Bill