area ng41
ph cobus calitz
date: aug28 - sep 16 2013
species to be hunted: elephant

well I am new to hunting and I decided to give elephant hunting a try. I spoke with my ph I normally hunt with in South Africa After being referenced to Johan Calitz and was quickly told to book the late cancelation hunt i was being offered asap.

the hunt was booked in feb 2013 and over the next 6 months i researched what to expect and what i should shoot. Long story short is that i was told to look for a 60lb bull, not pass up a 70lb bull, and to consider myself a lottery winner if i stumbled across a bull over 80 lbs.

Fast forward 6 months and a wife who upgraded me and i find myself in Botswana elephant hunting. After the divorce i just went through I decided I just wanted to hunt.

I'd never seen an elephant before and after my first sighting i turned to Cobus and told him "I dont care what i get for an elephant. i would rather shoot a 30lb'er on the last day of my hunt than take a 70lb'er in the first five days". Basically i Wanted to experience elephants with a tag in my pocket. the first day we got into camp we met the exiting party leaving mubabe camp. the time was around noon and Cobus planned on hanging out and starting hunting in the morning. I was antsy to get going so he decided we would start immediately.

DAY 1
I believe we had driven around for about 30 minutes in an area where the previous ph said they saw a bull at the 80lb mark after his last hunters tagged out, when we spotted our first group. This group had 5 bulls in it and the first one we got a good view of was a young bull of about 30lbs. we took pictures and enjoyed the experience and moved on to bull 2. as soon as bull 2 stepped out Cobus was dumb founded. he told me we were looking at a bull with about 48" of ivory hanging out the lip with about 18.5" girth at the lip. he estimated this bull to be between 70-75 lbs. i asked if this was a shooter and he told me it was a dream bull. i decided i could not shoot this bull 30 minutes into my first elephant hunt so I passed him up. the 3rd bull in that group was about equivalent and the 4th bull was a giant. he had about 44" out and was about 21" at the lip in circumference. He was estimated to be at 80lbs but was a single tusker. for me it was a no brainer. i was going to hunt for 17 days PERIOD.

The final bull in the heard was just a nice bull and we drove on. before the sun fell that day we saw 3 more bulls over 70 lbs and probably around 50 bulls in total.

DAY 2.
day 2 we kept driving the roads watching the bulls exit the chobe. as they would cross the road we would track them down to get a better look at the ivory and then move on to the next group. at the end of day 2 we probably saw well over 100 mature bulls. of those bulls we found all except for the extremely long ivory bull i loved so much. other than that we relocated every other big bull. in addition we saw another 3-5 bulls over the 65 lb mark. Cobus was calling tony makris and johan with the report of the days events and of course i was getting scalded by both for passing up so many great bulls. Cobus told me day 3 we were going to track one down so i could experience a real elephant hunt.

day3
i started off in the sand on the track of a massive bull. about 12 km in we find our bulls. this was about a 3 hour ordeal due to all the cows we kept walking into. at the end of the track was a very large bodied bull with about 40 lb tusks. Upon returning to the vehicle we decided to return to camp for noon and for a nap. after our little nap we decided to check on all the big bulls we had seen on the previous day. I was really getting fond of the single tusk 80 as i called him so i kept close tabs on him. all the bulls were in almost the exact same parts of the swamp we had left them in the day before. in addition to those bulls we found one more long tusker over 65 lbs and one ancient bull Cobus really wanted me to shoot that was at the 70lb mark. At his point cobus let me know that he had never had such a hunt nor had he seen so many bulls over 65 and 70 lbs let alone see one and pass it up. he basically let me know i was living an elephant hunters dream. I told him i knew that and thats the reason i couldnt shoot. the adrenaline rush and excitement level was always at a continual high and i just wanted to keep living in the moment. about 20 minutes later a bruiser came strolling out of the chobe. he put his head down at one point and it looked like his tusks were only 2ft from the ground. i looked at Cobus and told him this elephant was the most amazing thing I had ever seen. i told him I knew it was only day 3 but that i was going to shoot this one. We let him walk deep into the concession before getting on him. after a brisk walk we were completely out of cover and just shy of 100 yds from the bull who was quartering into us. Cobus was so excited and sure of my shooting that he asked me if i could hit the bull in the exact place he wanted me to and i said yes.

A few seconds later my 460 wby recoiled as the 500 grn nosler flat base banded solid exited the muzzle at 2650 fps. the bullet struck the bull in the brain stem and dropped him to the ground instantly. upon impact the double tusker snapped his right tusk off at the lip. no matter i still had all my ivory and the bull of a lifetime. the bulls right tusk measured a total length of 85" with a lip circumference of 19 1/2" and weighed 87 lbs. the left tusk measured 83" with a circumference of 19 1/2" as well and weighed 89.9 lbs. To say i had the most amazing elephant hunt ever is an understatement. to say I had the most amazing first elephant safari may be spot on.

quote:

Well I am new to hunting and I decided to give elephant hunting a try...

I love this quote. The minute I read it, I just knew the tale was going to end in a bruiser elephant being shot. Oh....by the way... PICS MAN, PICS! LOL!

Outstanding - Elephant hunting is in a class of it's own for sure.

Really sad that the sun has set on Botswana hunting for the last time.....

I am guessing your story on this elephant hunt was in the recent issue of Sports Afield?

Sounds like an incredible first elephant. Congrats on a wonderful bull.

Congrats again Tony. Wish I had been able to talk my uncle into the hunt. He ended up getting one for two weeks after yours and shot something in the mid60s. He winced when I told him about your hunt!

Congratulations!

Very good

Congratulations

Now that's the proper attitude to take hunting elephant - very well done !!!!!!!

Pictures, please.
Congratulations.

you guys are correct. he was in the sports afield article. the first pic in the story was a pic i took from the helicopter i rented after the hunt. cobus and i wanted to see how many bulls were piled into the swamp. that one pic alone had 30 bulls in it and it took 4 pics to capture all the bulls running in that one group. there were over 100 total and there were a few groups like that. heres a pic of the single tusk 80lb'er. actually i cant post images from my iphone. if someone could email me at tonyaltonpennington@hotmail.com i can send u the pics and you can upload them for me. sorry for the problems i spend most of my time working in the field.

Sounds like an incredible hunt!! Congratulations.

Fantastic! I give youi credit for staying off the trigger that long. Dreams come true.

The Best,

Mike

What a fantastic experience! Keeping yourself from pulling the trigger definitely paid off! My sincere congratulations!

Im sorry guys. I got back to my computer but the reply box I have doesnt seem to give me the ability to post pics. Too bad. I flew the moremi game reserve and we saw a legit 100 lb elephant and I got great pics of him. Anyways I sent my pics to another member so hopefully he will post them up.

Tony's Pix. Nice!

Just before the shot

Very big bull

Estimated one tusk 80#

quote:

Originally posted by stomper:
Im sorry guys. I got back to my computer but the reply box I have doesnt seem to give me the ability to post pics. Too bad. I flew the moremi game reserve and we saw a legit 100 lb elephant and I got great pics of him. Anyways I sent my pics to another member so hopefully he will post them up.

The reply box does not give the option of posting photos. First, you have to have them uploaded/hosted somewhere, such as Photobucket or Facebook. Then, all you have to do is copy the URL of the hosted image, and paste it into your reply here on the forum.....adding "[IMG]" immediately before the URL and "[/IMG]" immediately after (no spaces).

You shot that bull on your first hunt in Africa?
Doesn't get much better then that

Beautiful ivory and congratulations to you.

Dutch

Awesome Elephant!!!

It was not Tony's first hunt in Africa, but was his first elephant hunt. Congrats Stomper (aka Stinky), you've had one hell of a last twelve months, at least hunting-wise.

excellent, Congrats!

Absolutely first class.

WOW! What a dream bull to take on your first hunt.

Awesome bull... thanks for posting your experience.

Holy balls
Awesome bull,
hope you will post the pic of that 100 pounder

Congrats!

Thanks for posting.

IMPRESSIVE!!!

Nice bull!

Top notch hunt , and to think this has all come to an end.