I just returned from a PAC elephant hunt with Ben Koetze in Zimbabwe. The hunt was booked through Russ Gould who posts here. This is my first attempt at posting pictures and I sure hope everything works since I’m much better with guns than computers.

For all my fellow rifle loonies out there I was shooting a Ruger Safari Magnum (1st generation) in 416 Rigby. I was shooting my reloads with Barnes 400 gr. banded solids at a chronographed muzzle velocity of 2398 FPS. The loads worked very well with plenty of penetration. It wears a Leupold Vari XIII 1.5x5 in Warne QD mounts.

I flew SAA without any problems from Dulles thru Joberg to Harare. Ben met me at the airport and we stayed at his place in Harare that night and drove to camp the next morning. Didn’t see any signs of problems but Ben did warn me to move my carryon bag from the back seat to my lap as we approached one intersection with a traffic light. Seems that some bad guys like to hang out there and bust windows in cars and grab valuables if they can. Ben lost a pair of expensive binos that way. The intersection was vacant when we got there.

The next day it was off to camp in the Vhuti area near the town of Karoi. We encountered one roadblock outside of Harare but the soldiers just waived us on our way without us having to stop.

The next two days were rather uneventful. The elephants had stopped coming into the farmland Ben normally hunts. So Ben reverted to Plan B which was something I think is fairly new. The Zim agency called National Parks had authorized some “meat hunts†so they could get meat for their staff. Ben had obtained a permit so it was off to their area for a hunt on day three. This was just like a PAC hunt except that the National Parks staff kept everything from the Elephant instead of the local people getting the meat. Once the Elephant was down, they took over the recovery etc. We were not permitted to shoot anything over 20-25 lbs.

Prior to leaving for the hunt we were having lunch at Ben’s camp when one of the local farmers walked in and told us there was a large snake in a tree on his property and he wanted it shot before it ate any of his goats.

Ben quickly realized that he was talking about a Rock Python, which he explained was a protected species, and couldn’t be shot. Ben decided that relocation was in order and we embarked on what I called the Zimbabwe Rodeo. We managed to get a rope around the snake and it took 4 men to pull him from the tree. Eventually he was pulled from the tree bagged and relocated.







After visiting with the chief game warden and getting all the permits in order we were off on the hunt. Ben was very surprised that they gave us what he described as a super area to hunt. We hunted the Zambezi valley next to Manu Pool Park. Not 30 minutes into the hunt we came across this elephant in a dry riverbed.





We decided to give this guy a pass but did stalk to within 25 yards of him for a much closer look. The trackers spotted one other elephant briefly but when we tried to follow his tracks it soon became obvious that he had headed off and we weren’t about to catch up with him. Since the folks at National Parks had asked us not to shoot one terribly far from the road, to make recovery easier for them, we gave up on this one. It was getting late in the day when the Game Scout from Parks told us he knew a water hole where elephants were coming in before dark. We were headed there when we spotted a single Elephant. He moved off, but we soon picked up his track and followed him. We caught up to him and he was standing about 25 yds away quartering slightly away from me. I was on the sticks and Ben said to take him in the heart, but there was a small bush about half way between him and us that was obscuring the heart/lung area. We were just waiting for him to take another step to clear the bush when he turned and walked straight away from us into some very heavy cover.

We circled trying to get in front of him but lost him in the heavy brush. When we saw him again he was standing about 20 yds away, but all we could see of him was the top of his head a little bit of his back. The vegetation covered everything else. Ben and I were slowly moving through the brush looking for an opening when suddenly the Elephant turned toward us and charged. The problem was all either of us could see was the top of his head as he came at us. We couldn’t see his eyes to judge for shot placement. I centered the crosshairs on his head and dropped them low and fired into the brush. Ben did the same and the bad boy dropped 12 yds from us. 900 grains in the head (400 from my 416 and 500 from the Ph’s 458 Win.) definitely had an immediate effect. I quickly fired another shot into his head while he was on the ground. A later exam showed the first two shots in his head about 4 inches apart which Ben thought might have been a little low to get the brain.

We then cautiously circled until we could get a clear view of him on the ground. At this point he was still breathing and moving his trunk and feet, but was not trying to get up. Ben told me to shoot him in the heart so I put 3 more rounds into heart and that ended things. Ben then turned to me and said “that was entirely too close.†Holy Shit – only my second elephant (I shot a PAC bull with Ben last year) and I get charged. Everything happened so fast – the entire thing didn’t last more than 2 or 3 seconds from the time he turned his head and charged until we dropped him.

Here are the pictures of this bad boy. The trackers and game scout cut down a lot of brush so we could take pictures.






http://i306.photobucket.com/albums/nn242/Labman_photo/DSCF2452.jpg

We then tried some fishing on the Zambezi River for tiger fish but didn’t have any luck.

Sunrise on the Zambezi and Hippos.







The situation in Zim. We didn’t have any problems or experience any hostilities. The country is a mess economically. Municipal water and electricity is a joke. Even in the capital of Harare it only comes on for a few hours a day. In Karoi one of Ben’s friends hasn’t had water in his house in 3 weeks and electricity for maybe 2 hours a day and you never know when it will come on. Most of the stores are empty and there is actually a shortage of cash since the gov’t can’t print it fast enough to keep up with inflation. When I arrived the exchange rate was $100 million Zim to one US and a week later when I left it was 200/1. In Karoi we saw at least 100 people waiting outside a closed bank hoping it would open that day and have some money they could get. Somehow the PH's manage to continue operations. Everything is imported from RSA and Ben had plenty of food and fuel. I couldn't resist this final picture which says alot of things about Zim.

Exciting hunt, and good pix, thanks and congratulations!

Great report, thanks for posting. Nothing can compare to the excitement of elephant hunting up close.

Thanks for the report and sounds like you had a good time. On your photo posting from photobucket, if you copy and past the IMG code at the bottom then your photos will appear here instead of linking to your album.

youkon - Thanks for the tip. I'm much more comfortable with a gun in my hands than my fingers on a keyboard.

Good show Labman. I enjoyed your pics and report. Congrats on the Tusker.
LDK

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Great report and pictures. Thanks.

Great report and nice bull! I am sure you will remember your elephant charge for the rest of your days... not one of those things one forgets! Always funny how things go slo-mo when it is happening though and it almost seems it's in third-party... weird but cool! Congrats...

My thanks to whomever fixed the pictures so you don't have to click on the photobucket link.

To place a picture in you narrative just start with this

[img}Then paste the PhotoBudket link here and add a[/img}

Except don't use this }, The img and /img are enclosed in [ ]

quote:

Originally posted by Labman:
My thanks to whomever fixed the pictures so you don't have to click on the photobucket link.

Labman,

You are very welcome.

I fixed it for you. It seems you have linked your photos as URLs, rather than images.

All you need do is copy the link of the photo in the box that appears when you click on the picture link.

One thing about Ben, unlike some PHs, he is always in there working with his crew, rather than standing back and issuing orders. I have watched him drag baits, clear shooting lanes, build blinds, hump 44 gal drums of diesel, lift Eland and Buffalo into the back of his Cruiser. The man is a working machine. The other thing about the guy is he seems to have nerves of kevlar. I have seen him virtually surrounded by Buffalo, when my thoughts are to retreat, he moves closer! Same thing taking PAC ele at night.

I spoke to him yesterday, he has another "meat permit" available from Parks for this year. The hunt is 7x$500 plus $5K success fee, not bad for a daylight bull ele in the safari areas. He also has two "export option" PAC permits, however it's getting late for PAC.