How was the hunt?? Lots of walking, bending, and tripping..
Scratches, torn clothes, but worth more than many can imagine, a life long dream come true..I hunted Northeast of Chrisa national park...Well we arrived in Zim on time, but somehow someone forgot to tell the pilot when we were arriving..No one at the airport...A little ticked off but, am I going to turn around and walk home??? No... so arrangements were made and we stayed at the York Lodge in Harare... were picked up in the morning and flown to camp in a bush plane ... after a short drive we arrived in camp..I was burning to get hunting,so I shot rifles and was ready for an ele hunt..
Off we go to a river bed,.. there is lots of sign, huge piles of ele droppings .. we drove up the river looking for fresh sign and asking the locals about the eles..It is now about 4pm and trackers are sent to check out the jess (REAL thick cover) for eles and in about 15 to 20 minutes they reappear..Talking in Shona I can tell by their eyes and expressions the eles are found and now we load the rifles and see if there are any shooters in there...I checked and rechecked the Lott to see if the cartridge is still in there..All of a sudden the tracker stops and points, directly in front of us is a wall of branches and I am staring,.. all of a sudden movement and there he is in front of me and I pick up my binos and stare at the bull at maybe 20yds. it looks like a shooter to me...But what the hell do I know about bull eles.. nothing, but that ivory looked as long as my leg..But the Ph says too small...We played tag with them for over an hour trying to find the openings in the jess to identify the rest of the bulls traveling together..But after the cat and mouse game for over one and a half hours we run out of time...I am charged with adreneline, I feel like this is the only way to hunt eles.. up close and personal... now I know all my shooting practice and bike riding will be appreciated going after these big bruisers...
Second day, up early and we go searching for eles.. there are reports that north west of where we hunted last night, eles have been damaging gardens...we head there and drive and drive, looking for tracks which we find but not fresh..We find a local who knows where the eles are and we drive there and send the trackers in to check out the area...They find that the area is covered with sign but unfortunately they have moved off..We head back to area where we hunted the first evening and the eles have moved out also... Second morning a new plan is put together. Ph says we will be driving two hours to hunt a river bottom, real thick jess, green and thick and long grass like bamboo about 8 feet tall..We are up at 430 am have breakfast and the drive begins...I am asking Ph Dudley Rogers how, what, and are there eles there..He tells me he only hunts this drainage once a year and this is the first time...He tells me, Mike the eles are there..I guarantee you..
We stop and speak to the head man, and I am all smiles by his excited talking and jestures I am able to pick up the eles chased some of his people out of their gardens this morning..So we head up to hill overlooking the river bottom and the thick green jess and long grass...As we head in there is ele sign everywhere.. footprints sunk in the ground some 2 feet deep and broken branches and droppings everywhere...We keep checking the wind with powdered smoke, constantly testing the air currents.. After a half hour walk I can smell the pungent odor of eles...The trackers are now whispering to Dudley Rogers, my Ph and he tells me to move up to him close and the trackers are now in back and I can feel the tension and excitement...I again check the rifle.. all is well and now I can hear banches breaking and even hear an ele forcing air out of his trunk...Ever slowly we advance into a thicket. I never thought I would be hunting the largest land mammal in the world...The Ph stops and points and I stare and stare and see brush, shadows and tree trunks..One of the tree trunks moves and there at 20 feet is my second bull ele, it looked surreal a monster in front of me towering and dwarfing me...All my thoughts are running together..Do I have enough gun??? Can I shoot?? Is he big enugh for the Ph to allow me to shoot, hell it looks
like a mammoth to me...But Ph says too small and we back off slowly and then I feel the unmistakable coolness on the back of my perspiring neck and all hell breaks loose... branches are snapping in front of us and a cloud of dust is seen as the eles got our scent from swirling air currents...I thought it was from me hyperventilating...I settled down and now I know what to expect...Damn that was exciting..Can't say it gave me gray hair cause all my hair on my head is gray...but it sure makes your hands sweat...It is a cat and mouse game played with the wind and detours with the impenetrable jess...Did I say we traveled thru the jess on the ele trails they make and detour around the trees they tear down...Time is sailing past as I am engulfed in the intensity of the hunt..Ph says we will head back to the truck and have something to eat and rehydrate...I am glad I brought powdered gatorade and mixed with cold water it quenches thirst and add more miles to the body...It is now time to rest for an hour and we will get back to a green maze...
I did not even realize I fell asleep against an acacia tree...Temp is rising, getting hot..We head down the hill back to the jess and try to fulfill a lifetime dream and be lucky enough to harvest an ele..
Someone is running down the hill calling in Shona!!! We head back up the hill with a translation..they can see eles from the top of the hill...When we get there and turn around next to the land cruiser there are now 24 bulls visible..In various sizes but no cows to deal with...Now we stand and wait and see how they are moving and how we will plan our stalk..
We test the wind from top and it is coming across our faces from a left to right...Now is serious time, rifles loaded again and I check again to make sur it is loaded, and we head down hill for my meeting with a bull ele..We crouch down and walk stooped across a cow pasture and head into the long grass...The eles are moving from our right to left into the wind...The setup to me seems flawless...we are behind the eles and they feeding going into the jess...I can see them and we are closing the distance to 50 yards and now the Ph tells the trackers to stay behind us as I go to meet my destiny...Ever so slowly we advance on those nonsuspecting eles..I can hear them communicating with gutteral sounds and see branches being torn away with their trunks..My heart is in my throat. I swear they will hear my heart slamming against my chest and closer we advance...We sneak up to some jess as we leave the long grass and as we round the corner there is a bull ele 20yards with his head stuck into the jess feeding.. the Ph says wait till he comes out of the jess to see what he is carrying...I am charged with adrenelin staring and waiting...The Ph moves slighly around the line of jess and never takes his eyes off something..I am looking at him and the ele behind him at 20yds...He moves his finger and motions for me to walk up to him and as I clear the jess there it is a bull ele staring at me from 30 feet...He looks like a monster...It is standing on top of one of the river channel embankments..He is now staring down at me from somewhere around 15 to 16 feet high...The angle to the brain will be steeper...This is all going thru my mind with the speed of light...I still vividly remember just looking at the white tips of his ivory and listening for the Ph to say, "Mike take him"...
Earlier in the day after sighting the rifle we walked over to the skull of an ele and he showed me where to place the bullet and I intently listened and wanted to make the
shot given to me...In my ear I hear the Ph tell me take him..Like in slow motion I fluently slide off the safety raise the 458Lott and aim thru the express sights and I hold below his eyes trying to drive the Bridger thru the bone and taking out the brain... Wham! the rifle sounds and I have my face down on the rifle working the bolt and see the head snap up and watch his back end start to go down...But in disbelief he recovers and starts to spin around..I send a second shot into the shoulder as he is spinning around and working the bolt for a third shot he starts to run and the Ph hits him in the left hip but the500 slug misses the bone and he runs away.. the trackers run up and we run around the jess and we hear him hit the ground and in a flash he is up with us in pursuit..We catch glimpses of him, he is hurt but still has enough to stay just in front and out of sight we hear him stumble and fall a second time...But he recovers and dissapears into the jess...The blood has has slowed from where he was hit originally to only a spot a drop...The dust is stopping the blood flow like a sponge..Tracking is slow and meticulous the two trackers Geddas and Roy are following but light is now failing and the Ph calls it off...
Now I am questioning myself...How could I have done that...How could he have recovered...Was I under gunned or did my bullets fail to penetrate...All of these questions entered my mind...Why did I practice for a year to all be in vain...The ride back to camp was crushingly silent...Finally I asked Ph what will we do to try and recover the animal...He told me he felt he is hurt real bad and will be found the next day...I was glad for his words..But to tell the truth I felt humbled by that animal and wish I could have called back the shot never wanting to make a bad shot...A very restless night of sleep and wake up came at 430am and a quick breakfast and we headed back for the two hour drive...Now we were looking for a dead ele...That was what I hoped for and now there were four trackers...Eles were located and none were identified with would to the head right shoulder or left hip...My spirits were failing with every hour...But the hope was always there even if I had a sick feeling in my heart...Time was running out for the day and this was after walking and following the eles for the day and maybe 10 to 15 K in the jess...Day turned to sunset and we again left the jess and I was crushed, no ele and wondering what had happened to such a grand animal...
We head back to camp and I ask the Ph what happpens now and he tells me " Mike I will take up the plane early at daylight and they will arrive there at the river drainage to see if they can spot a dead ele or even one limping with the wound to the hip...We get up at camp at 6am and my son Matt accompanied Dudley Rogers for the bush flight... 7am we can hear a plane appproaching...He flys low over the camp and heads to the airstrip and with in 20 minutes they are back in camp...My son walks up to me and tells me the eles have moved across the road to another concession..but he then tells me he set the gps coordinates for the jess and it was because they saw a dead ele on the ground...
I was flooded with emotions and had tears in my eyes...There will be an ending to this story and people will be fed...One ele less to terrorize the people...But little did I know the most humbling part of the hunt was to come...
When we arrived to the scene of the village none of the natives knew the ele was down...We drove back to the top of the hill and my son turned on the Gps and in a minute the screen changed to the plotted coordinates and it said 534yds away in a NE direction.. I said to Matt see those Sausage trees that is where we are going...He takes off with the trackers and the villagers follow with bags and knives...I am taking my time helping my wife to navigate the ele tracks and not to break any bones getting there...
Finding and walking up to the the ele I stand and stare at him then walk up and run my hands over his head to his ears and down to the ivory..Still finding it hard to believe I did it..I killed an elephant...Well grass, branches, and vines are chopped out of the way and you can hear the sound of more villagers arriving...Pictures are taken and we walk back.. the recovery team is there to remove skin head and feet and I cut off the tail...
We walk back to the hilltop and I am now recovered fully...and we all share in the celebration and have a soda and head back to the camp for lunch...As we start to drive away a woman from the hut where we parked starts yelling and we stop and she runs up to the truck with 3 papayas, and says in Shona to stay and comes back with 4 ears of maize and a pot of beans and maize...I am looking at the hut and what they have...Nothing, yet they share their food with us...Who have so much more, and I got a big lesson in humility...
The skinner recovered my bullets and they penetrated deeply... the brain shot went just under the brain and caused alot of damage and the shoulder shot with the animal spinning in the shoulder at an angle and ended up going thru the neck and lodging on the far side of the neck...The 500 Jeffery missed the hip but gave the ele a big PIA...
The ironic part of the story is we walked past the ele 4 to 5 times searching the jess for him and he died that night of the shooting and came back to within 50yds of where I fired the first shot...The ivory was weighed at 37pounds...
In summary, a dream come true a life long desire to hunt an elephant...On his terms and I did it..Enjoy...

Mike Podwika
Mayor
Wyoming, PA.

Mike,

Congratulations on a great hunt. Hunting elephant - nothing in the world compares to that experience.

Mike's elephant:




Regards,

Terry

Mike

Well done man.

Great story, Mike. Well done and well told. Congratulations.

Wonderful accounting. Glad to hear you were successfull and have grown so much from the experience. Isn't it wonderful how the world will allow us to enjoy such majesty as this life we seek and still force us to earn every little ounce of joy we find there.
Frank

Well done Mike. We were ALL pulling for you, it is a great feeling when good things happen to good people. I trust next summer, we'll be able to share stories up in our place in the PA mountains over a sundowner. Good job! jorge

Great story, Mike. You had the hunt of your dreams.
George

Congratulations. Sounds like a grand hunt.

The problem with elephant hunting is that its like sex once you discover it you keep wanting to do it.