Having met Andrew Schoeman of Baobab Safaris through my friend Mihael McCourry I really wanted to hunt a different area and hunt with Andrew. Michael has hunted with Andrew for many years and highly recomended him.

I had already booked an elephant hunt near Kariba and after working out the details I was able to go and hunt with Andrew for 8 days starting the first of November 2013. My hunt was to mainly be for buffalo and hippo.

My weapon was a new Heym medium frame 577 NE double. My Heym is fitted with a ghost ring peep sight which I made. Ammunition was loaded with the following bullets. All were CEB (Cutting Edge Bullets) Safati Raptors and Safari Solids. I had 600 grain Safari Raptor and 700 grain Safari Raptor for my expanding bullets. These had the Talon tips installed for added down range velocity. I also had 650 grain and 750 grain Safari Solids for elephant and follow up shots. All of these different weights shot to the same POI in my gun to 50 yards. The 600 grain Raptor did shoot a little high at 100 yards but I didn't think this would be a problem and might help if I had a long shot.

The first afternoon in Gache Gache Andrew and I went out to see if we could find a hippo out on land along the shores of Kariba. We did find one feeding and as we stalked him it was starting to get late. I kept checking my sights to be sure I could see them because we were getting pretty close as the hippo was feeding away from us. As we got to within about 50 yards the hippo turned broadside but I wanted to get closer. He appeared to me to turn straight away so I started to quickly move forward on him. When I got to within 35 yards I realized that I was looking straight at the hippo's face. OK now I put the sight on than little triangle on his head but just can't make it out well enough to feel good about the shot. The hippo decided to run and as he turned broadside I shot him on the shoulder and him stumbled a little. Not the reaction I thought I would get! I fired a follow up with my left barrel just behind the shoulder with no reaction. As the hippo was going into the water I fired a third shot quartering just forward of the hip. All three shots wer the 650 grain CEB Safari Solid going at about 2170 fps.

We recovered the hippo the next morning and both my broadside shots exited and my follow up shot had gone through gut material and on the lodge in the neck at base of skull.



The next two days we went after buffalo. We found several groups of Dagga boys but the wind was very unstable and we bumped them lots of times. On the third day we got onto 7 bulls that we followed in and out of a herd. We bumped them several times and decided to leave them until late afternoon. That afternoon when we got back onto the tracks we crossed the track of three other bulls. Andrew sent a tracker and game ranger to follow those. After a short time they came back and said the bulls were laying down in the shade. Now it was hot that day, I mean smoking hot. We went in on these buffalo in front of them so they wouldn't be looking at us on their backtrail. As we got close enough to see where they wer the cover had gone so we butt crawled for a long ways. This was on hot hard packed ground. The palm of my right hand was cooked. We got to within 35 to 40 yards. Andrew picked out the biggest bull and I moved around to get to where I could shoot. I got up on my knees and the buff saw me. I moved a little more toward him on my knees and he stood up. I shot him quartering with a 600 grain Safari Raptor on the point of shoulder. He went almost all the way down but recovered and ran. I put another into him right behind shoulder and he turned toward us. Having good only 30 yards he was done and leaned against a tree where I put another through his shoulders. My first shot was perfect and it had exited the guts on the far side. The follow up shots were with the 650 grain Safari Solids so they exited also. A really nice 38 1/4 inch buffalo.


On the fourth day we were checking baits for Lou who was hunting leopard. We needed new baits both for Lou and for a Hyena bait for me. We spotted a nice Impala ram at about 100 yards standing straight away from us. I aimed at base of tail with a 600 grain Safari Raptor. These as I said before were shooting a little high at 100 yards. My shot went right over the back and hit him in the neck. Needless to say a dead impala. Impressed everyone watching too! Iron sights with a double 577 at 100 yards.

Also that day we found an impala with a wire snare wrapped around its neck and legs but had broken away. We follow it for 50 yards or so and I shot it to put it down. Poaching in this area with wire snares was horrible. We found them everywhere we went.

I was wanting a waterbuck also so we walked around the edge of flood plane that afternoon but didn't see any. We did see a nice bushbuck which I shot at 75 yards but my first shot went right over his back. Forgot about those 600 grain bullets shooting a little high and took too long aimming. I swung on him as he ran and shot him just behind shoulder with another 600 grain Raptor. He was dead in a few yards.



The next thing we did was to look for Civat cat. I was using my 416 B&M with a 225 grain CEB Safari Raptor. We spotted one running across the flood plane and I took a shot at about 75 yards. Tracker said it was a hit but I wasn't sure. I was with Corris at this point because Andrew and Lou were leopard hunting this evening. Corris handed me his Bruno 22 and we starting looking for blood but didn't find any. Corris seemed to know where the cat was and shined his light and there the cat was about 40 yards away. I was breaking the shot when the lights went out. I heard the bullet hit and Corris was upset but I told him I made the shot. Again Corris had the sixth sense and we found the cat standing in some brush. I finished him with a shot back of the head.



The next day we were riding around with everyone in the truck just having fun. Andrew, Corris, Lou and myself. All of a sudden they are telling me to get off truck and shoot. SHOOT WHAT! I finally see a waterbuck about 40 yards away and I shoot at its shoulder quickly. Andrew says "OH that's a wounded animal" and I start wondering what happened. We take off running and I see a piece of brush cut cleanly off at chest level. This limb was about a finger thickness. Now I'm shooting a 577 NE surely it wouldn't deflect that much. I saw the waterbuck going through some more brush but picked what I thought was a clear spot and shot again. It looked like a hit. Now this was the hottest day so far. I'm guessing at 115 or hotter. This waterbuck was bleeding but not much. Just dripping. We came on him again and my only shot was through more brush. I just couldn't tell but felt good about my shot. Andrew said it was a miss. Now I'm hot, tired and extremely upset. We followed and after a long time I was about to have a heat stroke. We went to camp and cooled off it that is possible in 115 degree heat. We went back out later in afternoon to see if we could recover this waterbuck. We jumped him right at the base of the escarpment. Not a good sign especially when he went right up to the top. We following and finally found him at the top. My shot was up hill and there was a big rock in front of the waterbuck. Again I forgot about my 600 grain bullets shooting high and I was trying to miss the rock. I hit him right in the top of the back which stumbled him and he came down the hill toward us. I shot him two more times with solids in the shoulders and he still wouldn't go down. I then shot him broadside thru shoulders and he finally went down. This was one of the most frustrating days for me I have had. I was so out of it for shooting so poorly that I wasn't so sure my barrels had come apart or something. It wasn't my gun it was just me. Also it just goes to show that no matter how big of a bullet you shoot brush can and will deflect it.



This was the end of my hunt with Andrew and Corris at Gache Gache. My next adventure was to begain the next day. Karl an appy with Corris took me across lake Kariba to the town of Kariba where I was picked up by Tonya Blake of Pro Safaris with whom I next hunt would be with. Tonya and I had a nice visit as we headed to the Rifa area on the Zambezi river. My hunt was going to be for bull elephant and my PH was Adam and my appy was Tonya. I had met Adam several years ago on couple of other hunts at Rifa. Adam had gotten his PH license a few years ago and he had hunted with some of the top PHs at Rifa. It showed in his knowledge of elephant. My hunt ended up not being at Rifa even though we were staying at Rifa camp. We were hunting in Nkakasanga for elephant and the first day we just basicly scouted the area. There were very few signs of bulls. We did see lots of cow sign. We also found out that we could not hunt the flood plane so we were very limited at where we could find elephant. It seemed everytime we would find a track it was going into an area we could not hunt. With the long drive just to get to where we were hunting and then not finding anything to track it was getting very frustrating to me. On about day five we found where three bulls had moved into the area. We followed these for quite a ways and can up on them in some shade trees. It was bloody hot in this place. Two of the bulls were standing and one was laying down. Now during our travels we had seen several older poached elephant and it seemed poaching was really bad here. As we got close to the elphant the one laying didn't move. We started to think maybe he was dead. Adam picked up a stick and threw it at him. No responce! After several sticks and elephant dung balls hitting him we were thinking it was dead. The other elephant were upset and tapping this laying elephant on the butt with its truck. Finally Adam said hey and the elephant awoke. He stood up and faced us in a daze. He had long beautiful ivory but way too thin. 25 lbs maybe so we didn't shoot. Several days later we found two nice bull tracks early in the morning,5:30. We followed and found one small bull feeding. We continued on the other track until about 11:00 when we ran out of water and all were getting dehydrated. Tonya and I plus game ranger stayed in some limited shade while Adam and a tracker went to get truck and water. The tracker that was driving the truck got stuck and now everyone was in the sun with no water and separated in three different directions. Finally the tracker got the truck out found Adam and then called us to come to truck. We got rehydrated and ate a little lunch. We decided to go back on the tracks of this elephant because it was the best we had found and it was fresh. As we followed the elephant we came across a poached elephant and the elephant we were following had milled around it for quite a while. We later found the elephant we had been following under a shade tree. Too our disappointment the bull wasn't a shooter bull. The wind shifted toward him and he turned toward us. With his truck up he all of a sudden put his head down and from 35 yards charged full blast. Adam barely had time to say HEY before he had to shoot, I followed with my 577 the instant Adam fired as this elephant had covered the 35 yards in a blink. Adams shot from a 375 had no effect on the elephant. My first shot hit him above the eye line as I saw head was down and flat to me. This knocked the bull down but he was back up like a football player. In the mean time Tonya had fired into his head also with her 416 Rem with little effect. I shot again with my second barrel as bull got up thru the neck and Adam fired again into the side of the head. As all this was going on we were trying to get out of the way of bull and trying to put more shots into head. As the bull got up again it was backing toward us from maybe 10 or 12 feet. Tonya stood her ground and put a perfect hip shot into the bull and anchored him almost being sat on int the process. As the bull spun and fell Adam shot into his shoulders and I put one into his chest as he fell to the ground as a finisher. Then there was the RAT A TAT TAT of the game rangers AK 47 and he was shooting over Tonya's head with the gun pushed way out in front of him. Now we all forgot about the elephant and started worring about the game ranger being more dangerous. Thankfully no one got hurt and it was an eciting end to a frustrating hunt to say the least. Before we had all worked so hard and had tracked this elephant all day plus got charged by him I decided to take it as my trophy. Ivory was small but the experience large!



All of our head shots went under the brain and it shows that if you don't hit the brain during a charge you may get stomped. It also shows that during a charge a bigger gun can give you a second or so to put another round into an animal. I have always heard if you hit an elephant in the head with a 577 you will knock him out. NOT! it did knock him down but not out.
Tonya's hip shot was perfect and she was using a 416 Remington with a new style Northfork copper solid. Photo shows how bone can mess up a solid.



Afer getting the bull down we went back to Rifa where they had a tuskless available and I wanted to try and get one. For two days we we in thick thick Jess with elephant all around us. Adam did a fantastic job of getting us close to elephant and keeping us out of trouble. We had a few exciting close encounters and finally on the last day got on several tuskless. We circled around and around and got a frontal shot on a nice cow at about 35 yards. She saw me and threw her head up. I had perfect sight picture and shot low on the truck knowing I'd made a perfect frontal brain,NOT she didn't even stumble but turned to run and I put the left barrel into her shoulders where she went down and Adam put a under the tail anchor shot into it as I reloaded. My frontal shot had hit the hard bone between the roof of the mouth and the bottom of the truck. I then hit the roots of the molars and stopped just short of the brain. Now this was a 750 grain copper 577 NE solid and it still didn't get through all that bone. Teeth will stop almost anything.



Having a double in a large caliber can give you two things. A quick follow up shot and maybe a second to get out of the way or load again. I love my double 577!

Thanks to all who helped me have such a good time in Africa.



Sam

Thanks for sharing Sam, the heat can be a buster this time of year.

Some fine shooting (except waterbuck) and some great trophies you have there. Including Waterbuck.

that was the perfect safari
using the perfect rifle

well done

dam few folks will follow that act

class act that it was

well done hunt. The double proved itself in those tight quarters, no doubt about it.

Thanks for letting us live vicariously through your sights...

Congratulations Sam. Enjoyed the report and pictures. I also understand completely your comments about the heat. Also good to see someone that appreciates that you can be smiling inside even if a picture shows you not smiling on the outside! It seems I am afflicted by the same picture taking phenomenon.

Great photos, wonderful hunt, congratulations Sam!

Loved the report, Sam. Taking everything with your .577 makes it even more sweet.


Dutch

Enjoyed your hunt report and photos!
Congratulations on another great safari

Roland

Great report! Thanks for posting.

exciting adventure, Good for you.

Nice report, thanks for posting

+ 1!

Dear Mr Srose, Nice report. However, I would like to hear more about the beep sight on your Heym double ! Did you say that you make them yourself ? What does the sight effect on the shooting ? Does it become more accurate like a biathalon atleet shooting on 50 meters ?

I learn that several of the Forum's double shooters use a red dot optic sight. Doctor, Trijicon etc etc . What would be the big difference between these type of sights and yours beep sight in pratctical hunting ? ( except for the battery and stuff )

BR
Morten

Congratulations on a great hunt Sam! Very nice write up also!

Some great trophies Sam, congrats. Looks like Andrew did a good job! I just field tested some CEB in .45 (pistol) in my muzzle loader. Excellent results with the 240 gr and 150's. Hope to see you again in Dallas. Cheers, David

Thanks everyone for the complements.

There is one thing I forgot to write about that I would like to add.

I have a very bad habit that I have been trying to break for years. I shot a double for most of my life, mainly shotguns but also quite a bit of rifles. Being a reloader I have a bad habit of catching the brass as I eject fired cases. I said several times how bad this habit is. Instincts take over and I have no control over it. When shooting my hippo I did as I should and let them fly over my shoulder without thinking about them. I was proud that I had done that. On my buffalo I thought I had done the same but when I went back to look for brass I could not find them. I reached in my right pocket and there they were!!!!!! OK I'm kicking myself now. On the already frustrating waterbuck epic I found myself seeing the brass flying and my hand trying to grab them. Now that really upset me. OK during the gun battle with the charging bull elephant I found myself looking at two cases in my hand not knowing what to do with them. The reason I was confused was that I had a water bottle in my right pants pocket that would not allow me to put brass there. Had the bottle not been there I probably would never have known I'd caught them. Its called "CONDITIONED REFLEX". If you have a habit of catching your brass you had better stop doing it! Even during the most stressful times you will still do what you do at the range if you like it or not.

Sam

Thank you for the serious advise above! Thank
you for sharing the story of your safari and the
picures. I congratulate you, and wish for you
many more happy safaris. The 577 is a caliber
with magic, in so far as what it makes our minds
conjure up! Enjoy it time and time again! What
does it weigh please?

excellent

congratulations Sam, Nice Report

Thanks again!

DR Hunter my 577 weighs 12 lbs 11 ozs I think.
Still not as light as wanted but close. Its balanced perfectly and easy to carry. It has 26 inch barrels.

Sam

Sam - -Great trophies and a great story! You sure did have some real heart stopping fun my friend!

Thanks for a GREAT, thrilling and exciting report.

Great report Sam. Regarding the waterbuck, I've had those types of day shooting as well and it's very frustrating at the time. Happens to everyone and we appreciate you're telling it like it is.

Good info on the charging bull as well. The big bores really do have the ability to stop that charge, if not outright kill the beast. That is usually all that's needed to regain advantage and finish the job without getting stomped on. And the double's advantage goes without saying!

Your 577 on that medium frame looks to be the cats ass in terms of physical size and punch packed.

Nice buff as well BTW. Congrats on a fine safari.

Congrats Sam! Looks like a good time.

Sam...
Excellent... But we already spoke on the phone at length, so you know that already! HEH........

However, concerning this brass in your pocket thing, ya see, you should listen to me when I let that brass fly over my shoulder....... so what if it gets a little banged up on the concrete floor... better that than those ugly habits...........

I love to see those big hunks of brass taking flight.............. Of course, if it were me, then I would get busted watching the brass fly........

Well done Sam!

Congrats and thanks for the hunt report! All of those trophies with a big double.... impressive.

Great report. Thanks for sharing. I shot a Hippo there with Corris this year. There is not a Hippo shortage there, that is for sure! You picked the right place to do a Hippo on land.

Congratulations! Awesome story and hunt!

Enjoyed this report. Congrats on some fine trophies. Hunting with Double guns takes some beating.

Hi Sam,

Enjoyed the read.

With that many cigars around your waste, how did you bend down? I think you should have gone Poncho Villa style with a bandoleers crisscrossing your shoulders.

To All,

I have shot with Sam and his doubles, he is a very good shot. After my shoulder had enough (and bruised - thus had to turn to some liquid medicine), Sam kept on shooting. While not a large stature of a man, I would bet on his shooting excellence with a double against any man. Same cannot be said for Michael458, as he just works his bolt guns like a machinegun until everything falls down.

Regards,
John

quote:

Originally posted by North Fork:
Same cannot be said for Michael458, as he just works his bolt guns like a machinegun until everything falls down.

Regards,
John

Hey, I can't see any reason in the world to worry about bringing ammo home from a hunt? Anyway, shoot all of them, sort them out
later.................... Just ask Paul what I told my Wonderful Loving Wife one night at the dinner table in Australia when she ask
me how many buffalo I was going to shoot?

Enjoyed the report! Civet is on my wish list for my next trip.

Great report and wonderful trophies. Your bushbuck is a real monster - well done. Hunting everything with a double rifle is really special. When I tell people about why I hunt with a double, I tell them that I could take larger and better trophies much earlier in my safari using a scoped bolt rifle…..and I would miss out on 75% of the hunt by doing so.

Thanks for sharing. Great photos and great hunts with top trophys and memories. Well done.

This is the 4th time I have read this report

I like it better each time I re read it

[QUOTE]Originally posted by srose:
Thanks again!

DR Hunter my 577 weighs 12 lbs 11 ozs I think.
Still not as light as wanted but close. Its balanced perfectly and easy to carry. It has 26 inch barrels.

Sam[/QUOTE
Like your choice of barrel length certainly helps with the overall balance and looks. Never could understand the need for short barrels. Then there's our friend Michael with his 20" barrels you would think he had some distant relatives that belonged to the Lolly Pop Guild.

quote:

Then there's our friend Michael with his 20" barrels

20 INCHES........... That's a little long I think.... 18 is even better..........

I gotcha F**K**G Lolly Pop hanging.........


HEH HEH...........

M