or saving the best for last...?

I left Boise on December 11th, for a seven-eight day hunt with Buzz Charlton and Myles McCallum (CM Safaris.com) in the Makuti area of Zimbabwe. 300 clicks, four hours, south of Harare. Got in about 9pm, so had to waste half a day by staying overnight in Harare. Sunday morning 4 hour drive south. Sight-checked rifles and hunted about five hours on Sunday afternoon. This was strictly a Cape Buffalo hunt, and that is what we did. Up early, breakfast, and into the Land Cruiser for ten-eleven hours of walking the hills and glassing for buff.

Point One: going on short notice can be less expensive, and you have some options for unfilled quotas. I could have taken a leopard, Eland, Kudu, and an exportable bull if prepared. The safari companies get a quota on everything, and have to pay, regardless of whether they get them or not. If you can go on short notice, there are some incredible bargains.

I spent four days walking the hills glassing for Buff before getting a good shot at the herd bull of a small (85-90 buff) group.

Point Two: the rains had started, and with the incredible growth of grasses, etc, the herds are broken up and scattered. There is water everywhere, so the groups do not gather at permanent water sources like they do before the rains. You will earn a good trophy in most cases.
I did 60 kilometers looking for mine. I feel I earned a shot at this buff, like you do for a paycheck.

We did see plenty of game, just small groups, not the big herds. You will work for what you shoot. I consider this a positive.

Zero your rifle at 200 yards, and know the trajectory out to 300. Myles had me check the rifle(s), and was confident that I could do a Buff at 200 if a GOOD shot presented itself. It did, beautiful herd bull at 165 yards. The Swift A-Frame 500 grain softpoint mushroomed out in an oval shape, and weighs 468 grains. The Barnes 500 grain solid sitting here in front of me weighs 499gr and looks as if it could be reloaded and fired again. Grade both of them A+ on a big buffalo herd bull. The bull took half a step just as I squeezed the set trigger and the bullet was 3" back of the shoulder blade. At impact the bull staggered and went down on his front knees. In the 20-30 minutes it took us to get around behind him, he never moved 10 feet. The herd sniffed him, mooed and then went up the hillside at a walk, and disappeared over the ridge. At 40 yards Myles said to give him a solid thru the brisket, so I did. He bellowed and fell on his side. He never moved again. We got within about 20 feet and Myles said "give him another one, he's waiting for us to take another step or two and then that last gasp might cause a problem...". So, I did. He bawled again and then died. Could have fooled me and complicated things for me and five other human beings. There is a sense of sadness at the death, when you poke him in the eye with a rifle barrel and he doesn't blink.

Yes, I took the 550, but we never got a close enough look for it. Myles and I talked about the Big Gibbs at length. He thinks it might be the ultimate with the Macifej solids. The 2400fps is too fast for close game, the charge stoppers. At 2150-2200fps those solids would do as good a job as you could ask for. It will go back with me in a year or two, and a tuskless cow elephant to see.

I want to collect my thoughts, and will post a bit more.
Africa cannot be explained, it is a game sensory overload. Some have tried to tell me, but now I know why people say " I can't tell you, you just have to go and see it for yourself...". You do. Africa is, is, is just different. I am ready to go back next month.

regards,

Rich
Buffalo Killer
Africa Addict

Way to go Rich. Glad you had a great trip. Welcome to the ranks of the hopelessly addicted Africaphiles. Look forward to seeing the pictures.

I love it!
Jeff

Congratulations, Rich! Thanks for sharing!

Well done Rich and thanks for sharing. I look forward to more detail.
That African addiction can sure take hold and make you so you don't know which way is up.( I think you will find that you went north to Makuti not south )
Regards
Robert (Makuti fan)

Congrats!!

What did you shoot him with?

A good start but we need some pictures.

And, not to nit pick, but Makuti is northwest of Harare, on and above the Zambezi escarpment, just about where the road turns off for Kariba.

Way to go and sure want to see some pics...


Mike

pictures! pictures! pictures!

Rich, sounds like a great trip and I look forward to those pics and more details.

Merry Christmas and how about those Horned Frogs! Yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeha.

quote:

Yes, I took the 550, ...Myles and I talked about the Big Gibbs at length. He thinks it might be the ultimate with the Macifej solids. The 2400fps is too fast for close game, the charge stoppers. At 2150-2200fps those solids would do as good a job as you could ask for.

I would not want to shoot a buff up close with the hot 550 Gibbs load. It takes too long for your brain to quit rattling around in your skull.

Keith

ps: Glad you had lots of fun Rich. Now lets see some pics.

Very impressive-congratulations and merry x-mas
Peter

Way to go Rich. From my brief session with your .550Gibbs it would take alot of practice for me to shoot it well enough to be of much use to me. Very pleased to hear about your trip. Rodney.

quote:

when you poke him in the eye with a rifle barrel and he doesn't blink.

This is something I have never understood! Using this technique, if the animal is still alive it will already have you in its sights for a stomping! I think one should poke the anus! Just think, if you have one breath left in you and something pokes your butt its gonna wink, right!! The advantage is the animal has to turn 180 degrees to start doing you harm!

I discussed this with my PH and I must say he was amused!

Congratulations!!!Looking forward to seeing your photos.

Note: Kathi is wild travel. She got me the tickets on very short notice. Marvelous woman!
Made things happen!

Highly recommended. I will use her again.

Rich
Buffalo Killer

Enjoyed it, huh? Do I have the rigth to say "I told you so!"

465H&H

465H&H,

yes sir you do!! We saw lots of elephant, mostly small groups or one or two alone. I can certainly understand your addiction to elephant hunting after the last eight days. WoW!!

I am already figuring out how long before I can go back. Mamma still wants that zebra rug, so I am dedicating myself to getting it. The hindquarters will make great leopard bait.

Rich
Buffalo Killer

Congratulations on a quick hunt at Makuti! There is nothing like a buffalo hunt to expose someone for the first time to the differences afforded by Zim and Africa. Good shooting as well!

Nice going Sharpshooter! Excellent shooting! Good rifle, bullet and cartridge choice.Did you get a chance at any other game?

Way to go Rich!

After shooting your .550 I ain't sure whether it does more damage to the "Shooter" or the "Shootee".LOL

Glad you had a good time, I am heading out for my first ZIM hunt in August, thanks for the report.

Fantastic!!! Well done Rich!! This site is causing more addictions, I hope to add myself to the list soon.

Congrats Rich! Hopefully round 2 doesn't take too long so you can try that monster 550 out on some jumbo!

Rich - are you reproducing your photos with charcoal and paper from memory...???

Congradulations on your hunt. Your story was insprational.

Tim

Thanks for your report and excellent work. I am one of those guys that could wait to the last minute and leave on short notice thus picking up some great bargains, but I find it so damn hard to wait.

UPDATE: Boomie has been tied up with this thing he calls a J-O-B. He will post 16 photos this afternoon.

See you in Reno the 22nd.

Rich
Buffalo Killer

Here you go Rich!

Great photos Rich..!!

Don't they have a dress code over there...???

Congartulations, once again!

Great Pics...

Nice Looking Buff...

Rich: Great report, and thank gosh for the photos. Just looking at the soil and the air in the images, I can feel the humidity -- much different from Namibia in May. What were your day and nighttime temperatures? How were the insects?
Bill in Oregon
P.S. Is that you on the atlatl forum over on PaleoPlanet?

we were two weeks or so into the rainy season. The ground was an explosion of green. 100-108 daytime, 70-75 nights. Not that many insects, except in the evening at camp. We built a smudge fire and kept it going. The picture where you could see the ground was what we hunted in 80% of the time. The thick jess photos were where the danger exists of an inadvertent charge by Buff. Not really a charge more like a jailbreak, but you would be just as dead. The troop of baboons reminded me of...never mind, let's just not go there. Top picture is me with Myles McCallom and the government scout. I think he worked his way into every picture. In the eighth picture down, there is a dark blob in the bottom right third of the photo. That is an elephant less than 50 feet from us. We saw several during the hunt. My return trip will feature one.


The problem with boiling the skull is the loss of boss area buildup. Note how my bull has a very nice full crown in the pictures and how 18 hours of boiling later there is a big gap between the horns. Note also, the last picture is of me with a good (43+") dagga boy. That is the other reason why I need to go back, that and Lorene wants a Zebra rug for the living room.

The camp guys all called me Sekurra (sp?), that is shona for grandfather. The result of living in an AIDS-infested Africa is dying in your mid-forties. They would ask me how old I was, and when I told them, just shake their heads. We got along well, and they hunted hard for me. We would spend an hour or two getting up behind this one herd of Buff, and about the same amount of Zebra were between us. We would work around the downwind side of the Buff, and about the time Myles said "sticks" to the gunbearer the wind would swirl around or one of the young stallions would see us and "Hee-Haw" and away they would go over the next hill and down into the flats. Tack on another 30-60 minutes to ease up to them and see the scenario repeated. On Day 5 we finally got around the Zebra and got a fantastic view of these Buffalo. About half were grazing, the other half lying down. I think we spent an hour just looking for the herd bull. I put a Leupold 1.5-5X on the .450 Dakota CZ and at 165 yds or so, I could see enough detail to tell them apart. Myles kept glassing and saying "get up bull", and finally it did. He had asked me where the Dakota was zeroed, and I told him 200yds. The first afternoon he had me shoot four rounds, boom-boom-boom-boom! and I had made a nice group about 3" at that distance. He told me 165yds and said he did not normally let a client shoot that far; but he watched me shoot the rifle and not flinch, so we would take a bit of a chance. It also helped that I had a CZ with its set-trigger, which my gunsmith had done up 3.5lbs unset, and a bit less than a pound set. Click the trigger, and I put a Swift A-Frame 500gr SP right behind the shoulder, and he went down on his front knees. It took him some time to get back up, but his head stayed down and he never moved 10 feet after the shot. We went down the rise we were on, crossed a small stream, and circled around above him and to the left. The rest of the Buff sniffed him, and then went thundering up that hill and out of sight. He got our scent, but was too sick to even move. At 40yds Myles told me to put a 500gr Barnes into the top of the brisket. When that bullet hit him, he was facing slightly uphill; and the impact caused him to rear up, and go over backwards in a heap. That reaction causes me to rethink the "knocked him off his feet with the impact..." controversy. He was lying down and we got within 20-25 feet. Myles tells me "dead buffalo kill people every year. Bust him again at the top of the brisket." So I did, and dang me if he didn't lift his head up a foot off the ground and give that eerie death bellow. So Myles says "...what I said...".

What Robert Ruark wrote fifty years ago is true, when we got within 40yds upwind of him and when he got our scent he raised his head, lungs shredded by the soft point (which weighed 468gr, and the one solid we recovered weighed 499.1gr thru the heart), he looked at us "as if we owed him money".

Mac: I fancied myself as a breath of fresh air (stylistically) in a stagnant fashion pool.

Bill: yes that's me. I am only a few hours from glass mountain, see you there in March?

regards,

Rich
Buffalo Killer

Thanks for the report and sharing the wonderful pictures. Rodney.

Congrats!Nice report...

And some pictures...

And it's green!Something not alot of hunters experience....

Sounds like another addict


Dan

there is one major difference between African Hunters and Heroin addicts.

There are treatment programs for Heroin Addicts. I am READY!! to go back.

Rich
Buffalo Killer

You fit in more with the mountains of Montana than the wilds of Africa with that beard.

quote:

Mac: I fancied myself as a breath of fresh air (stylistically) in a stagnant fashion pool.

Absolutely..!!!

Shootaway...not too far off, I am in SW Idaho.

Rich
Buffalo Killer

Rich,

Great story and photos!

September can't come soon enough for me. Thanks for the advice as well.

Paul