Most of you have probably seen JPK's write-up about his incredible elephant hunt on these forums, in which he also covered this charge. If you haven't, do yourself a favour and read it. This version is through the camera's lens, John's was over the foresight of his double rifle. Recoil aside, I reckon the two versions are much of a muchness.



ALL REVVED UP AND NO PLACE TO GO!



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BY DAVID HULME



It is November, 2006, and I am hunting Humani in Zimbabwe’s Save Valley, with PH Richard Tabor of Roger Whittall Safaris and elephant hunter John Kirlin. John has already spent five weeks in Zimbabwe (taking eight elephant thus far), and he is hoping to take a couple more tuskless cows in the final phase of this mammoth safari.

The area we concentrate on flanks the Turgwe and Save Rivers and it is a clinging, interwoven jungle of the infamous lantana thorn scrub, as well as other underbrush almost as menacing. This area is very ascetically pleasing, dominated by towering llala palm trees and broken up by jinxing little sand tributaries of the Turgwe. Ascetically pleasing, but intimidating terrain for elephant hunters….

It happens on the last day. Isn’t it interesting how so much takes place on the last day or two of a hunt? The preceding five days were filled with stimulating elephant action, and we have been into and onto big herds all day every day, seeking out a suitable tuskless cow without a dependant calf. Though we have looked at a great many elephant, the tuskless cows have kept a low profile and we have only glimpsed three so far. And when I say glimpsed, I mean it – each situation was unsatisfactory with dozens of elephants spread out in very thick bush and swirling wind to contend with.
The elephants in the Save Valley are Gonarezhou elephants and, as many will already know, have a seriously mean disposition. This is as a result of heavy poaching in the Gonarezhou National Park during the 1980s, by individuals and by the Zimbabwe national army. The elephant in the Save Valley were trans-located from Gonarezhou in the early 90s, and they brought their memories of man and gunfire with them. Most all the Save Valley elephants have a bad rep, but the Turgwe elephants take that rep into a new dimension, specifically the cows. Come the last day of the hunt, we have already had our share of excitement, having to back off a number of times through bush not conducive to backing off. ‘Back off’ actually sounds a little tame, certainly in so far as I’m concerned. My backing off on the John Kirlin hunt is done at pace, and the fresh blood extracted daily from my shredded legs by cruel lantana tells the tale fairly effectively! Anyhow, our job is not to try and overly harass these elephants – we are amongst them to shoot a tuskless cow, just that. When we do not spot a tuskless in a particular herd, or if the situation is not to Richard’s liking, we are out of there. Our main aim is to keep disturbance to a minimum. Many people struggle to understand it, but we love these elephants far more than they that struggle to understand. That, however, is another story.
Rich knows what he is about when it comes to elephant and keeps firm control at all times, practicing discretion. Still, one morning he is forced to stop an aggressive young bull with a warning shot. In that particular instance, the photographer and the rest of the crew jump ship and leave captain Tabor alone at the helm! Later that evening, riding a little shame, I clean up the deeper than usual cuts sustained during the hasty withdrawal. The last couple of sentences were supposed to be funny. The truth is that Rich had ordered us to get out of there in a hurry, and we had obeyed with alacrity. The bull was certainly intimidating – 20 yards intimidating with short repeated charges and back-downs. He came in a little too close the third time around and Rich’s shot warned him off. Mocking, sure, but it could turn into the real deal in a second. The last thing any of us want is to shoot a potential 70 pound elephant bull in self defense, and so we back off.

A few days later the real deal does come about, and John and Rich are forced to shoot an elephant cow is self defense. This was the second last thing any of us wanted, but she gives the hunters no choice and it has to be done. It is the most terrifying charge I have ever faced. Though I am hardly an authority on charges, I have been charged by four of the big five, with lion being the only exception. I often thank God that I have not yet been charged by a lion. Anyway, none of the charges I have ever witnessed could compare to the elephant cow down by the Save/Turgwe junction that day, with my friends Richard Tabor, John Kirlin and tracker Oriah. This is how it happened:
We cross the spoor of a small herd at 3 p.m. and decide to follow. We had seen a tuskless cow in a similar sized herd the day before, in the same area, and Rich says it may be the same group. The bush is thick, visibility drastically restricted, and it is sound not sight that leads us to the elephants. The wind is good and, though we don’t rush, we walk in positively. After a few minutes we espy elephant backs above the brush ahead, and Rich begins glassing for ivory (or rather, the lack of it) through the interwoven foliage. Nothing without tusks is spotted and so we move in closer, trying to get a look at some elephant that we know are off to the left. A hiss from Oriah brings us to a halt and all eyes swivel right, the direction in which the tracker is looking. A small bunch of cows are making their way in our direction, along a fairly wide tunnel that parts the bush. Although they have no idea we are there, the cows are walking purposefully and bearing down fast.
‘Back, back,’ whispers Rich, and we oblige hastily.
At that moment, the wind changes tack unpredictably, as it is prone to do down here in the river valley. The wind changes, but we are already backing off into relatively open ground, and we know the elephants will probably only scent us when they get to where we had been standing. This is not an overly hasty back-off, it is a controlled retreat – we have been in the same sort of situation dozens of times this past week. In any case, all retreats should be controlled, though this is easier said than done when it comes to elephant. Several cows file past at about twenty yards, apparently not winding us. Then a young cow with calf steps out into the open and stops, staring in our direction, flaring her ears and seeking us out with her trunk.
‘Back, back…’ – Rich has said that many times on this hunt, and many times this season.
We back off a few more metres and the cow seems not to notice, striding away shortly afterwards with her half grown calf in tow. She knows there is something wrong, but can’t quite put her trunk on it. We relax a tad – it appears that all the members of the splinter group have passed by. And then another elephant pops her head out from behind the brush, about twenty five yards off. She is a big cow and she stares directly at us for one misleadingly protracted second, before initiating a full on, no holds barred charge.
As the cow steps out into the open, Rich and John lift their rifles and I switch my camera on, knowing that it will take a second to activate. Although it has been a long time since I’ve faced a serious elephant charge, I know exactly what is coming, before it comes. At about the same time as I begin lifting my camera, the cow begins her charge and Richard shouts at her loudly. I shall not repeat what he shouts. The enraged cow comes on, head low, ears fanned out, trunk tucked and totally silent. That is it of course – the silence. The horrifying silence is all the proof I need to know that this cow means business. Not that I am thinking, I am just holding my camera pointed in the general direction and snapping away, fully zoomed out. No, I did not have time to zoom in accordingly! Rich fires a warning shot and the cow falters for a second’s fraction, before coming on again, seemingly more resolute now.



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COMING


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CHOOSING THE PATH OF LEAST RESISTANCE [b].........
THIS IS ABOUT THE TIME PH TABOR FIRES A WARNING SHOT [/b]


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STOPPED



The charging elephant chooses the path of least resistance, working a slight angle and avoiding a couple of felled llala palm trees. Because of this she finds a kink in her flight-path, in the form of a large tree which she has to round. That tree, I am to discover later, is a mere ten yards from where I stand shoulder to shoulder with Oriah, a couple of metres to the right of Richard and John. Afterwards, when we relive the charge, there is no doubt in anyone’s mind that the cow was focused on Oriah and me. This, we deduced, was because I was wearing the lightest coloured shirt.
Unbeknown to me, Richard has chosen the tree as the point of no return – the point where the cow will have to be stopped. Also unbeknown to me, John is talking fairly loudly to Richard through it all: ‘Tell me when, tell me when…’ I hear nothing, but the sound of rushing adrenaline pounding my ears. The elephant gets past the tree and begins to straighten her charge, towering above us and bearing down. At that moment, Richard says ‘Shoot!’ and John’s .458 double bellows twice, almost as one shot. The angle presented makes a brain shot extremely difficult, and though the cow is stopped in her tracks and back-peddles a couple of metres, she still stands – willing herself to build up momentum again but rocked to the core by the heavy caliber punishment. Whilst John reloads, Richard shoots the elephant once in the head, also failing to brain her. Now the cow turns and flees, and both John and Richard put shots into her lung/heart zone as she crashes off through the bush. The silence is absolute.



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STAND-OFF, AS JOHN RELOADS AND RICH TABOR PUTS IN ANOTHER SHOT


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JOHN PLACES A BACK-UP SHOT THROUGH THICK BUSH


After a couple of cigarettes, we follow up cautiously. The back-up shots were placed through heavy brush and nobody really knows what lays ahead – a dead elephant or the angriest elephant on Earth. Rich is walking point with John second in line – eyes scanning, rifles held at the more than ready. Slowly we move forward into the constrictive vegetation, step by painstaking step.
Ten minutes later, I expel a huge sigh of relief when Rich turns back and grins at us. That would never happen had he not seen the elephant down and dead. Asking John to keep alert for other elephants, Rich works his way towards the felled cow through enmeshed thorn. A cautious approach, the cow is pronounced dead, and it is done. I cannot stop talking for hours afterwards.



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SILENCE


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A LITTLE RELEASE


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TENSE FOLLOW UP


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RELIEF AS RICH SPOTS THE COW, DOWN AND OUT.
THOUGH HIS BACK IS TO YOU, CAN YOU SEE THE GRIN ON JOHN'S FACE?



Later, when relating the story to professional hunter Thierry Labat for the umpteenth time, when he asks me whether I felt like running, I reply that I had no choice even had I wanted to turn tail.
‘A mock is one thing,’ I say, ‘the real deal is a totally different ballgame. There was no time to think, no place to go, it all happened so fast.’
‘How fast?’ asks Thierry.
‘One Mississippi, two Mississippi, three Mississippi, four… Five seconds is a long time,’ I say, smiling. ‘Not as fast as the leopard that charged you and Roger, but a hell of a lot bigger!’
Thierry and I laugh together – me with post adrenalin comedown, and Thierry with understanding.
‘All revved up and no place to go eh?’ says PH Labat.
‘Yeah, something like that.’



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AFTERWARDS


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A PICTURE I AM PARTICULARLY FOND OF

Note to self if ever ele hunting: wear darker colored shirt than rest in party.

No matter what color clothes I started out wearing, I would have finished out the day in brown.

another good story - david you're rapidly becoming a master at this. ghona re zhou eles have had nasty tempers for along time, even stories from the early 1900's refer to it, i took a bull that was raiding crops just outside the park a couple years ago and he didn't hesitate his charge for an instant. as soon as he saw us, he dropped his head, tucked his trunk under and on he came. Hopefully you'll never have to face a lion charge, they do come on fast.

Very well told adventure!

Exciting to read and see!