Tom in Tennessee asked me to relate a story about how a hunt ended with some folks that we had in camp while he was in Botswana …I thought I would share this sequence that we took off the footage ,

Fred was using a 458 win mag and it performed perfectly , we actually didn’t recover the bullet as it exited the back of the skull somewhere into the neck …

We came across this nice group of bulls at a waterhole , while its not law , we all avoid shooting a bull within 1km of a permanent waterhole , it’s a dry country and this is the ethical thing to do …we were in the last hour of shooting light , this was an awesome bull …


Knowing that we only would have one chance I purposely bumped them with the wind on my back and the “speed tracking” started…..


We couldn’t find the big one again and on our way back to the car came across this bull …The bush was thick , the light was low and I was conscious that the high pressure of running out of light may make me overjudge the bull , I thought about mid 50s and passed that onto fred who immediately agreed that’s what he wanted (actually he had , all along wanted something over 50)

You can see the intensity in the heat of the moment with this pic ….


We got into position and the wind shifted ever so slightly causing the bull to turn perfectly towards us


One shot




This photo completely captures the awe and respect one has for such a magnificent beast


The next day in good light …what a great bull !



the best thing to report is that with a single shot kill and about 1.5 km from the water , the movement of elephants at that particular pan was unchanged ..... had the elephant run off in a hail; of gunfire it can sometimes take weeks for the movement to get back to normal having a serious effect on the next hunts into an area ...

Well done and excellent capture of the footage\sequence. Very respectable bull!

Congrats to Fred and Yvonne and to Ivan for conducting a great hunt in trying drought conditions.....and to Simon for the pics!
Butterfly?

Neat sequence - thanks, Ivan!

Big teeth. Congrats.

Nice bull

I can only imagine the adrenaline rush at that monent!
Good Job to all involved.

quote:

Congrats to Fred and Yvonne and to Ivan for conducting a great hunt in trying drought conditions.....and to Simon for the pics!
Butterfly?

not butterfly tom , we saw a lot of bulls there but not what we wanted , it was at 19 ...we shot just south of 19 ...thanks

Well done Ivan, congrats on a super bull at last light. And using a trashy PF in LH rifle

I like your comment about the impact of shooting near water pans as that is not always adhered to by many Phs. How do you dispose of the carcasses? I would assume that 30 - 40 carcasses lying around during the course of a season would also have an impact on behavior?

Ivan - Good stuff man!!

I've only elephant hunted a couple of times in Bots, but everytime, my PH would not shoot near water either.

bwanamitch ...i have a great sequence that i will post on a new thread that i think people will find interesting ...short answer is we remove the whole carcass whenever possible ...without cutting and making too much impact ....

In Zimb and Cameroon the carcass lasts for about 12 hours before it totally dissapears.
Ñama is something searched in Africa

you are right dwarf ...i have seen it happen ..

Great stuff Ivan!

chalk one up for the .458!

Amazing ! Thanks !