The new lady was more than a match for that huge bull, those Botswana bulls do have huge bodies the track was 25 inches, she helped me live my dream of taking a good elephant with a rifle that had been there done that.

After my first Holland blowing up I really doubted that my dream would ever come to pass. However, out of the blue here comes another Holland Dominion .500/.465 much better and younger than the first one and we were back on track. Like my PH said after many days of MMBA (miles and miles of bloody Africa), if you want a nice bull you have to have the "two P's, patience and perseverance. Without the two P's I would not have found the second Holland and I sure wouldn't have hung in there to find that nice bull. As many of you know you have so many dissapointments following up big tracks only to find a big bodied bull but with a broken or worn off or just small tusks. We sighted about 80 bulls during those 15 days but the majority were not worth following up. It was hot 95-98 and we never got the rain that should have come and gotten some of those big boys to move. I knew that the first of the season can be very good but it is dependent on good rainfall and that's hard to predict two years in advance.

After all the 4:30 AM till after dark days finally on the 15 day we begin to see some better bulls and walked up on one that morning that might go 50 but I wanted to hold out for a better one, the two P's again, and my PH agreed. within an hour we spotted this group of 7 bulls. Interestinly out of 80 or so elephant we had only seen three cows. We again glassed this group and it looked to have a couple of nice bulls, we hadn't seen the size of the tracks but you could see some nice ivory so we followed up. We got right in the middle of the 7 bulls before we could spot this old boy with very symetrical and well shaped long tusks (over 6 feet on the curve) at the time we thought he would be in the 65 range but later we found that due to the taper, not carrying the diameter out to the end, and a large nerve they came in officially at 55 pounds. But even if I had known all that at that time I would not have turned him down as those tusks turned out very nice and will make beautiful mounts, But I digress, we sure were not thinking about diameter and nerves at that point, we were right in the middle of all those bulls and we worked our way into position for a side shot using the wind. The second I stepped out from behind a bush about 30 yds from the biggest thing I had ever hunted, the bull spun so fast and was now facing me and coming to check us out. I thought about a frontal brain shot but his head was moving and I didn't like my odds. I lined up on the center of his chest and the Lady spoke, that huge animal hunched up like an antelope and turned on his heels like a quarter horse, fortunately going away from us I got off my second shot into his hip but didn't hit the joint. He moved off but not very fast. We followed seeing a huge amount of blood and I got beside him again and put two in his shoulder and then two more in his hip before he crashed down for good. I have never felt so alive as I did when I stepped out in front of that bull and leveled my Lady. The first shot had done a lot of damage and cut some major arteries, his whole side was covered in blood when we came up to him.

Well now I will have to come up with a new dream and I may have to go after elephant again at some point, there is truly nothing like it for pure adrenalin excitement.

Then to top it all off I had a nice meeting and conversation with Harry Selby about elephant hunting and got him to sign my first edition of "The Horn of the Hunter" but I will tell that story later along with the cobra in camp etc etc. Also I will post more pictures later when I get them from Ian Lewis who filmed the safari.

May all of you go elephant hunting at some point, you wont regret it.

CFA

[IMG]

Fred
Congratulations on your hunt.
I saw the pictures of the ivory, it is very nice, well done.

PS. Sorry about Blowing up your first 500/465.

Congrats on a fine Bull CFA! David

Excellent. Hopefully your hunt will inspire many. Congratulations.

Very cool Fred. Can't wait to see more pictures and hear more next Winter.

-Steve

Congratulations!

Fred,
Fantastic bull ele...and good shooting... Hunting the big bulls is very addicting... You have showed the patience and the perservance..Now for the next hunt...


Mike

Tony you know that wasn't your fault we just had metal failure. To put a different spin on it, what if I still had that Holland and it blew up in front of that big bull. He was coming and a bad shot might have just PO'd him. Now I have a mad bull and no rifle and my PH would have to take him out, not good.

Fred

Fred, thank you for your excellent report. You really made it happen! Congratulations!

Thanks for your all your comments. It was quite an experience tented camp, solar panels and all. With that 60's model Land Cruiser "2F" we were bush bashing with and my 1928 Holland, I felt like we wre stepping back in time. I hope to write an article about the hunt as there is so much more to tell.

For some more details, I was hunting with Chris Collins of Game Safaris and we were hunting close to the NXI Pan Park in Botswana in the Month of April.

Palmer, if my short report were to encourage just one person to go after a big bull and capture the feeling I had it would be worth it.

CFA

Is it just me, or am I the only one who can't see any pics.

Congrats great story

I am having difficulty getting past the box with the square for the pictures I am trying to post. I e-mailed Terry but if anyone else can help it would be appreciated.

CFA

Allen,

You were right there were two at each end and after I erased , still no picture.

Fred

Yes, I erased one at each end leaving one at each end.

Fred

OK will do, I sure would like to find out what's happening. I also cannot change my avatar.

Allen, I don't see your e-mail posted.

Fred

E-mail on the way. I know Steve Holder was able to post what I had e-mailed to him but I'm not having any luck from Photobucket.

Fred

Your image tag currently looks like this:

<IMG SRC="[IMhttp://img.photobucket.com/albums/v392/CFA/Botswana%20Elephant/BotswanaBull001.jpg">

Thanks Allen, finally some of them are here with the story. I think I will have some ineresting ones later to post. We saw a mother Pangolin carrying her baby on her back among other things.

Fred

Fred,

You want to put something like this in your post:

[IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v392/CFA/Botswana%20Elephant/BotswanaBull001.jpg[/IMG]

Where the stuff in between the:

[IMG] [/IMG]

Is the URL of your photos on Photobucket. If you click on the stuff in the test box labeled " IMG Code" under each of the thumbnails on Photobucket, this string will be copied into your paste buffer. You just have to past these strings into your post, as they will have the

[IMG] [/IMG]

already in the string.

-Steve

Thanks Steve. I will keep working on it. What the heck is that in your avatar box??

I have NO idea, but it makes me laugh...

That is hilarious, if you ever find out what it is let me know.

Fred
Again, that is nice Ivory, well done.

Very nice tusks. I am curious as to how your first Holland blew up. Taking an elephant with a Holland and Holland is certainly a great experience.

As far as we know it was just metal fstigue. My first Holland Dominion .465 was a 1908 model about 20 years older than my current one.

Yes, stepping out in front of that 6 ton animal with my Holland double was quite a thrill, made me feel like I was stepping back in time. As written many times the .500/.465 is a fine cartridge for elephant.

Thanks Tony, I think Ian got some good video.

CFA

Fred:

Outstanding stuff! I knew you were excited about this hunt when we hunted together in Crowell at the DRSS get together in 2005!

I look forward to sharing another campfire with you at a future DRSS hunt and hearing ALL of the details!

Congrats!!!!!!!!

Fred,
Congratulations once again! A well earned and richly deserved trophy.

Can't wait to hear about your hunt and Selby.

Fred,

Congratulations, you really did it the right way and with style. Old rifle, old bull and a classic old truck.... I take my hat off to you.........

577 and Rusty,

Thanks for your comments. I always wondered how I would feel after My first elephant went down. It was good that we worked long and hard for that bull because when I finally walked up and touched him I felt proud and that I had earned him. I will look forward to showing my video at a future DRSS hunt. And yes Rusty we videoed the talk with Harry Selby also.

Steve,

As I mentioned to you before those boots I got from you worked very well and were comfortable on those long walk ups, I would certainly recommend them to anyone looking for a comfortable pair of hunting boots.

I appreciate your comments, for me If I'm going to do it I'm going to do it right if at all possible and that hunt answered everything I was looking for, except maybe the 80 pounder we started out for , but hey there will be another time. That old truck is a 1960 model F250 Land Cruiser (or 2F), it originally belonged to Wally Johnson. Chris plans on taking it to RSA to have it totally restored, apparently they are worth some money.

CFA
DRSS

Fred,

Glad you liked the boots and thanks for the kind words......

I'm a bit keen on classic cars myself (my own classic Jeep often goes on displays at local shows etc) and recognised the model and it's history makes it even more interesting.

I don't know where he'll go to restore the truck, but he might like to consider the Motor Museum here at White River.......

OK, my classic Jeep is packed and filled with gas and I'm off to Botswana.

Byeeeeeee

Fred,
Congrats on a classic safari, a classic ele bull shot with a classic rifle... pure class all the way around! You have a right to be proud. Now for that leopard....

And what is the story behind the cobra in camp! Fess up.

Good Hunting,
Russell

That's a neat story and all of the vintage gear makes it even better. That's a blast from the past as they say.

Nice rifle and nice tusks.

I wish they sold Toyotas like that in the US.

Nice tusker!
Must have been a thrill, especially with such a fine double.. I`m envious!

congratulations

Everything is classy
And what a fantastic trophy.
congratulations

Wow, Harry Selby, Wally Johnson, a 1928 Holland &Holland, and a great bull; what an experience! Yes, shooting your first bull elephant is quite a humbling thing for sure. Congratulations, and well done! By the way, that's also a fine looking knife that you appear to have. Is it custom made?