11 April 2013, 19:45
Luca GaetiDeka Tail, Zimbabwe - March 2013 - Ele Bull with Chinanga Safari
Location: Deka Tail, ZimbabwePH: Terry Fenn – Chinanga Safari
Dates: March 2013 (15 days)
Rifle: Express Famars (Abbiatico e Salvinelli) cal. 470 N.E.
Ammo: Hornady 500 Gr DGS
Animal seen: Elephant, Buffalo, Kudu, Impala, Busbuck, Girapphe, Hyppo, Wild Dog, Duiker, Baboon, Python, Black Mamba
Animal Taken: Elephant bull – 42 lb
Dear friends of the forum,
almost every day I read your reports with pleasure and excitement. Now it’s my turn to try and give my contribution with my little story!
Everything comes in threes..they say…and so here we are!
This has been my third safari in Zimbabwe with my great friend and P.H. Terry Fenn. Last two times I came for buffalo and buffalo plus sable, this time our goal was a trophy Elephant.
The group, as always, saw the fabulous four reunited again: me, Terry, Scott Jurgens (great friend and cameraman) and Stipe (a friend of mine from Croatia).
After a pleasant travel, without any inconvenience, we arrived at Vic Falls with bag and rifles on March 10th.
During the short ride to the camp we were caught by a brief afternoon shower, enough for us to understand the high level of humidity that characterizes the rainy season. Fortunately, after the brief shower, in the following days only sun and lots of heat. Near to the camp, just 30 meters from the road, we saw an elephant bull whose tusks did not exceed 35 pounds. The vegetation was very thick and it was difficult to see anything in the bush. The sun and the heat of the days would have changed the landscape in a short time, we left the grass was already yellow and leaves on the trees were almost dried.
The camp was well organized and clean, as was the overall service and good quality of food.
Hunting, as expected, immediately proved to be very tough and challenging. Many kilometers in the car, hoping to find traces of a good bull, followed by a lot of kilometers on foot to track. The area of Deka is situated between Hwange park and the villages where crop is cultivated.
Unfortunately, since the early days we noticed that something was wrong: little movements of elephants and few tracks. In living memory, people in the area don’t remember times like these, when all the conditions were favorable and the crop have been mature for weeks, but few or no elephant bulls busy in crop raiding.
We saw every day only females with babies and young bulls.
The days, however, went by in a pleasant mood and good company. Every day we saw several herds of buffalo and many dagga boys. Among these were remarkable trophies. This is also demonstrated by the good buffalo taken by Bill, a hunter from Anchorage who shared with us the camp for a few days with his lovely wife Emily. Bill later left to another area to hunt a leopard but, news of these days, they tell me that he was not lucky with the cat, but he was reward by taking a very good sable and a nice impala.
During our trip we saw some plains game, especially from the car because the vegetation was so thick that on the ground you could not to see beyond 20 meters in the bush. Walking we saw only many tracks and 2 black mamba only a few meters from us, just to upset our sleep at night.
Everything so until the tenth day when we started to see tracks promising that some bulls walked from the park boundary to the interior of our hunting area. Here I was able to appreciate the talents of Terry and his tracker Max. We followed tracks dating back to the previous evening until the following night being able to follow the right animal through rocks and tracks of other animals that had passed during the night.
Finally, the 13th days, first thing in the morning, we saw the tracks of a big bull coming from the border and entering the hunting area. A brief chase of 2 hours and we were in contact with two bulls, a young one and our old elephant. With a favorable wind we brought very close and after the final suggestions of Terry I was going to shoot, heart pounding with excitement !!!. The moment I shouldered my express the elephant started moving slowly behind the bushes where he was sheltering from the sun already high. The first shot to the brain took a little behind without knocking him down on the spot. Fortunately, the advantage with a double rifle is that he allows you to double immediately, and the second shot took him in full heart and lungs. After 30 meters my elephant was on the ground. Great joy and great sadness in having chased a so majestic animal who has been walking on African soil for many years before I was even born. Those are the kind of feelings that only hunting done with respect and love for nature can give you.
After such an hard work, the holiday finally started
In the afternoon we relaxed and had francolins, doves and guinea falls shooting. The next morning, after a futile attempt to baboons by Stipe, we left to Vic Falls for the party and relax a bit all together before coming home. A gift from our friends, Terry and Scott, who made the surprise to take us on boat tour on the Zambezi river to enjoy a beautiful African sunset. I have to say thanks again to Terry for being such a good friend, host and hunter and to Scott for being a very good friend as well as a great cameraman; his video will remain forever as a reminder of our adventures!A thousand hugs and so much sadness the day after when it was time to say goodbye.
In Frankfurt we were welcomed by wintry weather: cold and snow to whiten the streets ... maybe it’s time to think about the next African adventure?!?
First day in the bush, green and thick
The camp
A lot of buff everywhere
Hard life!
Everyone tries his best to avoid the Mopane flies!
Looking for Elephant
My Elephant
Rifle
Fab Four
Sunset on the Zambezi
