Hunter: Charles Butler
Place: Serapa Safaris in South Africa and Amadundulamela camp in Western Zimbabwe
PH's: Gielle Uys at Serapa and Brian Van Blerk in Zimbabwe.
Dates- May 13-15 at Serapa and May 17-30 in Zimbabwe.
Booking Agent: Adam Clements at Adam Clements Safari Trackers
Rifles: Dakota 76 .416 Rigby and Merkel 140-2 .470 NE
Ammo: Hornady DGS, Handloaded 400 grain TSX with 92 gr IMR 4350 and Factory 400 grain TBBC (Federal) for the .416 (there is a story there...) and handloaded 500 gr FPS Northfork bullet over 91 Gr RL15 in the .470.
Travel arranged by Gracy Travel on Delta and South African Airlines.

Introduction

This is my report on my hunt with Brian Van Blerk and Serapa Safaris from May this year. As some may recall, I tried to get an Elephant last year in Tanzania, with rather mixed results. The Elephant were not to be found, but the plains game and buffalo were not too bad. Brian Van Blerk, my PH for my last couple of hunts was rather distressed by our rather absolute lack of elephant sightings and told me that he has something up that he could all but guarantee that we would get a good bull. This hunt was on Forestry Commission land in western Zimbabwe. Brian gets the quota from Wayne Dietrichsen of Jimba Safaris. So while I booked this hunt through my friends at Adam Clements Safari Trackers, this was a private venture on Brian's part. While Brian is mostly hunting for Adam in Tanzania, he is a native Zimbabwean and does do a few hunts in Zim every year. He has been trying to get as much of this elephant quota as he can. Brian thought that we should be able to find a 50-60 pound bull with some work and some luck.

Since my annual hunting trip is my real vacation for the year, I thought that 10 days was just a little too short, so I was talking with Adam about that. I have never hunted South Africa like most folks do early in their African hunting addiction, and since I had never experienced a South African Game ranch, Adam had suggested that I try that, given the number of species that you can hunt nowhere else. He suggested AAA Serapa Safaris, and introduced me to Apie and Yolanda Reyneke at the SCI convention. They told me what I wanted to hear, and I added that to my hunt. At this point, Brian had to come forward and tug at one of my addictions- cat hunting. While I am not a very successful cat hunter, I think I'm pretty enthusiastic about it, and when Brian said that we could add a Leopard on a trophy fee only basis, with the addition of 4 days, I had to do that. So my 2 week trip grew to just shy of 3 weeks.

This year has been one of the most disgusting years weather wise in Minnesota in all my 46 years. I normally work up the loads, recheck the guns and shoot quite a bit prior to leaving on a major hunting trip. This year, with all the rain and late snow, I did not get to do much more than check zeros. Brian did not want anything less than .416 caliber on Elephant. I thought that I would just need a couple shots at Serapa (I had been told to expect 1 animal a day) and that they would have something suitable available if I did not. My .416, which is a veteran of many buffalo hunts all of the sudden decided that it would not shoot solids for love or money. My usual 400 grain Banded Solid load was shooting side profiles of bullets at 25 yards. The Trophy Bonded Sledgehammers were doing that at 50. The old Hornady bullets I had were doing this at 100, and the 370 grain FPS Northforks were shooting 5" groups at 100, but the holes were oblong. I tried contacting a number of resources all with no luck. The TSX load was shooting about 2-3" at 100, which is a lot worse than it used to. Fortunately, the new Hornady DGS load was putting round holes at 100 in groups about the same as the TSX load, so I felt that it would get me by. The .416 was thus relegated to being my back up. I also had a .470 that I brought to shoot Elephant with, but my shooting was not so good due to my eyes and iron sights not agreeing. I had tried to get a Trijicon RMR on the gun at Ivan Carter's recommendation, but apparently the rib mount is made of unobtainium, so that went to the wayside. My friends at Ahlman's gun shop were able to fit a spare set of Talley rings with a Swarovski 1-6 EE scope on it. This worked like a charm, and I can hit a 6" plate consistently at 100 off the sticks with it, so that was now the primary elephant gun. The Dakota will be making the trip back to Sturgis even as I write this to see what exactly went wrong here. The lack of shooting was to tell on this trip, with me not really covering myself with glory there.

On to the more interesting stuff...

I flew out of Minneapolis to Atlanta and from there, went on to Johannesburg South Africa. I flew in "economy comfort" which gane some more room, but my bad ankle (thanks to an old sprain I had at work years ago, if I do the wrong thing, it will get a bad tendonitis and I am pretty much hobbled for 3-4 days) was flared up by sitting in a cramped position on the plane. On the positive side, I have never seen so many hunters on an aircraft. I was a odd man out, as most folks were traveling in groups, but it was pleasant to hear all the hunting lies on the plane. I was met by Gracy's meet and greet service at the airport and whisked through customs and immigration and the SAPS (gun check) office. In fact, it took longer to get the stuff out of baggage than it did to get through the government stuff. Somehow, the South Africans (and Zimbabweans) manage to do something the US can't- make the bureaucracy minimal. At the SAPS office, I met up with Akkie, a driver for the car company that was to take me to Serapa. We were leaving OR Tambo International Airport within an hour of me getting off the plane.

The drive to Serapa was rather long, about 4 hours. The roads are mostly good, but in some of the more rural areas of South Africa, the locals have a tendency to let their farm animals wander on to the roads at night. I think I would consider shooting some of the non striped Zebra (donkeys) if it were legal...

Some views of the lodge












The accommodations at Serapa are 5 star. There is a big shower and tub in each chalet, with a beautiful veranda. There are views of the lodge waterhole, with game present most of the time, but a big game fence to keep it from getting too close. They also have a number of very friendly dogs that given half a chance will join you on the bed. Apie and Yolande also have a Grey Parrot that lends some exotic feeling to the lodge.







Buffalo


The following morning at a civilized hour of 7 AM, I was met by Gielle and we breakfasted, and went out to check guns. The .416 was right on at 25, and about 6" low at 100. I changed the scope to get it on, and we were good there after 4 shots. The rifle that they had for me to use was Gielle's .375H&H mauser with a Ziess scope. I put 1 shot through that as Gielle said that a client had dropped it on the last hunt, and it was on. Gielle uses a .500 Jeffery for back up, and has just brought a .500 NE double that he is waiting on the paperwork getting finished on. At this point, I figured that the ballistics of a .375 H&H and a .416 Rigby were not that different, and shooting all my game with a borrowed gun that was essentially the same as mine ballistics wise did not seem like that great an idea. I decided to hunt with my rifle at this point, although Gielle kept the .375 with us in case that we ended up having to shoot longer ranges until our last day. I was rather startled by the extensive high electrified fence around the property, but that is the law in South Africa for places with the big 5 in residence. Serapa has Lion, buffalo, Leopard, and Rhino present at this time. I saw all but the Leopard.

My .416 and Gielle's .500 Jeffery.



We went back to the Lodge, and Gielle asked about what style of hunting I preferred. I stated spot and stalk, although I realized with my ankle that this might not work. I met Apie Reyneke there, who was leaving for some business in Johannesburg, but planned on being back for the going away braai on wednesday. We discussed as a group my goals. I told them that I wanted to shoot game that I had not seen elsewhere and preferably stuff that I could only shoot in South Africa. My initial list was Springbok, Blesbok, Bontebok, Oryx (as we were on the edge of the Kalahari desert), Black Wildebeest, and maybe a small cat or something if that offered. I said that I understood that I should get a crack at 3 of the above. Gielle was rather surprised at some of the stuff I had already shot, yet had not made the trip to South Africa before.

Gielle and Johnathan


We then went out and started looking for game. The hunt was rather different than what I am used to in other areas, in that there is definitely less of a crew hunting at Serapa than in other areas I have been. The crew consisted of Gielle, Jonathan, his tracker, and me. If one is hunting Lion, they typically will have multiple trucks out looking for tracks and there would be more trackers when you start looking for them. Gielle had the misfortune of being seriously mauled by a lion in the past (he has the impressive scars to prove that) and is one tough guy, in that he was back out hunting in just days afterwards. I will note that we saw lion tracks regularly, and saw a lioness once, so this isn't the "drugged lion" hunting that one gets the impression is the norm in South Africa.

Serapa's bushveld.



After initially seeing a bit of rather tame game around the lodge area, we rapidly started not seeing much. I don't know if it was skittishness from the sighting in gunfire or what, but after the first day I was seeing game pretty much everywhere; but the first day, we did not see much at first. After about 30 minutes or so, we saw the first of the black wildebeest. Gielle said they were not good, but they did show why so many consider them the clowns of the bush. They were very comical, chasing each other around and their rocking horse type gait. After that, Gielle hurriedly stopped the car, and told me he had seen some decent wildebeest, and he wanted a better look. We got out and started stalking. After seeing them, one was felt to be a shooter. We played cat and mouse with them for maybe 15 minutes as the bull did not stand still for long. I finally got him to stand long enough for me to get on the sticks and he offered a steep quartering on/frontal shot. At the shot he hunched up and ran. I expected to see him on the ground in no time flat, but that was not the case. We found copious blood and some bone fragments. We tracked him for at least 2 hours, bumping him and he ran off before we could see him. Gielle got his tracking dog in training, Rugar, a fox terrier working as well. After numerous near sightings, we finally saw him running off. Gielle ran up a bit and shot at him with his .500 Jeffery and missed, but did cause the animal to change course and I was given a chance to shoot him, and I got a hard quartering away shot at him, and dropped him. It turned out, my first shot was low, and shattered his right foreleg just below the shoulder. He was one tough animal.

Black Wildebeest


We then saw some Hartebeest on the way back to the lodge. I had not planned on shooting one, as I had a nice Coke's from Tanzania, but Gielle knew that this was a nice one, and said he's different than what you shot before. This time, I ended up shooting from the truck as my ankle had finally given up. I was limping so bad they offered me a golf cart for use around the lodge when we got back, although I knew I needed to try and stay up as much as possible. I hit this one a little low, but in the brisket, and he bled out pretty quickly. We put him in the truck and headed back.

Red Hartebeest


This ended the morning's activities. We had a nice lunch with green spaghetti with a meat sauce made with Gemsbok. I had never seen pasta this color before (nearer black than green) nor had Gielle, but we both thought it tasted exceptionally good. Gielle wanted to get the animals to the skinning shed, and had some other business to take care of, so since I was jet lagged pretty bad, I got a nice 2 hour nap, and put my ankle up for a while. I was very worried that I was going to be out of commission on the elephant at this point as I could barely hobble in camp. We went back out at 3, and promptly ran in to a herd of Gemsbok. They tried to give us the slip, and we went on foot to stalk closer. Unfortunately, I could not keep up much of a pace, and they eventually outdistanced us. We slowly made it back to the truck and went on. At dark, we came to a large open area that usually held some animals, usually springbok. We saw some of them, including a rather spectacular white springbok. There were also some Blesbok, including the one that fit the bill for me. We were able to get reasonably close and I made a good frontal shot on him. That made 3 animals in one day, which was pretty rapid stalking in my book.

Blesbok


The next morning, we were up at 7 am, ate breakfast of a fresh cooked omlette, and headed out looking for Oryx (Gemsbok) and Springbok. After a fair amount of looking, we come across a pair of springbok feeding across a clearing. Gielle told me the one on the right, so, of course, I shoot the one on the left. Not being someone who strongly identifies right/left has its issues... Things could have been worse. I could see the horns, so I knew it was a male, but this one was very old and worn down. If they had cull animals, he probably would have qualified. In any case, he went down quickly, but needed to be smothered to kill him, since a .416 or a .500 would have blown a huge hole in him. I did not feel too good about this. He was quite worn in the teeth, and probably would not live much longer in any event.

Old Springbok


Gielle felt pretty bad about the mistake, and offered quite a few ideas as to how we could deal with the situation of me not shooting a good representative; my response was Springbok are reasonably low trophy fee, and if we came across a good one, I would happily shoot a second one. Pretty much no sooner than he said this, and we found a lone springbok ram way out in a clearing. Gielle started glassing him, and said that he was very good, but a long ways out there. I was looking at him in the scope along with him. I figured that if he was were I thought he was, aim just above his horn tips, and I should have him. Gielle said too far just as I touched the shot off. We heard the loud thump of the bullet hitting him, he ran maybe 10 feet and fell. This was probably the best shot I made the whole trip, and luck probably played a role here. This one was a monster of a springbok and a very good trophy.

Big Springbok


That afternoon, we went looking for Oryx again. We found a group with a very nice bull. I again tried to stalk on foot, and we lost the group. I thought the game was up at that point, but Gielle knew where they were heading, and we quickly drove to cut them off. The group joined with another one, and we had to spend quite a bit of time trying to sort the bull out from the rest of the herd. There were a few small bulls, and a bunch of long cows in the group, fortunately, there was one cow with a damaged horn that bent about 45 degrees. Gielle called that one screwhorn, and we were able to communicate which one we were looking at by his relationship to "screwhorn"... "see the big one behind the calf, to the right of screwhorn... OK, now he's behind screwhorn. No,no, no, wait. Calf behind him. S..t now their in a group... OK, there he is to the left of screwhorn..." I finally became able to recognize the big bull without a running commentary after observing them for 10 minutes or so. He finally separated enough from the rest of the animals so that I could get a shot without risking wounding something else, and he took a 400 grain slug on the shoulder. He ran a short distance and fell over. This was probably the animal that I worked the hardest for at Serapa, and is a good big bull.

Gemsbok


That evening, Gielle and I while talking about hunting, end up having a conversation about what to hunt the final day. I had thought we would be driving to a different ranch to shoot a Bontebok, as that was what I had planned on shooting. However, fate had gotten in the way here. The "official" trophy fee for a Bontebok was listed as $2900. Unfortunately, due to some operators indulging in unscrupulous behavior, the South African government had decided that all Bontebok shot by hunters needed to have genetic testing done. Bontebok and Blesbok can interbreed, and people were passing off the hybrids as Bontebok. The Bontebok is a CITIES II animal (which indicates it "critically" endangered... but in truth, the only Bontebok in the world are in herds that game farms have for hunting them. A success paid for and maintained solely by hunters.) This added to the price, and now a Bontebok would cost me $4500. Gielle and Apie thought this was a bit of a bitter pill, and I noticed that they had Nyala for a lower trophy fee than the Lechwe they offered as a replacement, and asked if that might be a better replacement. It was agreed that a Nyala would be fine, so I was set up to look for Nyala the following day. I will say that Serapa has a lot of kudu. I saw several bulls while I was there, but given that I would likely shoot a kudu in Zimbabwe for Leopard bait, and that I had shot a really good kudu last year in Lukwika, I thought I would be better off hunting new animals to me. We ate some of the springbok from the night before (which was excellent!) and went to bed fairly early.

Rhino


The next day we spent quite a bit of time driving around looking for Nyala. We did see the Rhino that they have at Serapa. Gielle thought it unlikely they would get another given the poaching situation. He expressed the view that Zimbabwe was the only country really with a handle on the issue, and that because of the shoot on sight orders regarding poachers. It wasn't until just about noon that we saw a Nyala, and he all but fell in our laps. He was feeding alongside the road, and stepped in the thick brush out of sight. We quickly organized a pursuit, and he hadn't even gone 25 yards, but was all but invisible from 15 yards away. Jonathan noticed his feet and I was able to see the stripes on his back. Gielle squatted down and was able to identify him as our bull, and tapped his shoulder where he wanted me to rest the rifle. I shot the bull and he took off in the thick cover. After a short tracking bit, we got Rugar from the truck. He ran maybe 30 yards and barked at the dead Nyala ram. After a bit of tugging and carrying him out of a nasty tangle of thornbush, we set up for some pictures of him. He knew where we could not find him, but we got lucky in seeing him in a small window in the bush, and thus were able to add him to the skinning shed.

Nyala


That afternoon, we drove around looking at game and hoping to see a small cat, duiker or warthog if we could find one. We did see some smallish sow warthogs, but nothing worth chasing. I did ask Gielle about ammo for the .416. I expected that I would need to shoot a bunch of impala for bait for the leopard, and had not planned on shooting the game at Serapa with it. Gielle instantly understood the dilemma and called some favors in to get some more ammo for me. The upside was that Akkie could deliver it when he came in to pick me up for return to Johannesburg; the down side was ammo is very expensive in RSA, and I would have to pay almost twice what I would in the US for it. Well, beggars can't be choosers, and I ended up buying a box of Federal factory ammo for the Rigby- imagine that, the ammo was made less than 2 hours from my home, and I buy it 3000 miles away.

Wildebeest


Akkie and I left Serapa without fanfare at about 1 AM, and headed in to Johannesburg. We managed to get to the airport before 8 AM despite sitting in some of the worst bumper to bumper traffic that I have ever seen. Bruce was there from Gracy to get the guns through without a hitch. The small regional jet to Bulawayo was not full, and the flight was comfortable.

Sunset at Serapa


Part 2 Zimbabwe

Arriving in Zimbabwe felt like coming home after being gone for a long time. You looked forward to seeing everyone, and wondered just how things had changed. Zimbabwe since my last visit seems a different place. Everyone seemed happy and smiling. There was traffic on the roads and the ubiquitous overcrowded african buses were everywhere. The shops all were stocked, and at first look prices on the service stations made me wonder what happened, until I remembered that they sell gas by the liter (or kilogram... what?) and the prices were a little higher than here for gasoline- diesel is cheaper for some reason. Quite a difference from my last visit when the shops were bare. Anyhow, customs was painless for me as everything was in order. It looked like the Bulawayo airport is really taking Zim's new noncorruption campaign to heart as I was not asked once for a bribe or "christmas present" this time.

Brian was waiting for me at the public side of the airport and quickly we loaded all my gear in his pick up and headed to his house to get the hunting car and pick up Albert and his son who would be part of the crew here this time. This was a trip that took about 1:45, mostly on a good paved road. We saw a small group of impala from the highway, and evidence that the elephant were around (knocked over trees and broken fences) as we got closer to Amadundulamela. The weather was beautiful and it was nice to sit back and watch the countryside go by with the wind in my face. On arriving in camp, the staff were all introduced, and I was given a concrete hut with shower and toilet as my quarters for the next two weeks.

Hut and Camp.





We took about an hour and a half to get settled in and unpacked. Brian and I then drove out from camp to check the rifles. The .470 was right on, and the .416 was a little low, but called low. I was happy where things were, and Brian said that we might as well try and get a Zebra to put up for bait, even if this was not really a hunting day. We drove around and looked at a couple of water holes, but by then it was getting dark enough that we called it quits for the day. Back at camp, I was told that the power had been knocked out by an elephant knocking over a power pole. The company had gotten a generator in for lights and refrigeration, but unfortunately, the water heaters were electric and we would have to do washcloth baths until the power was restored. We had water pressure, but the water was all cold in the chalets. The kitchen had a "donkey Boiler" system, so we were able to get hot water, just not in the shower. One thing about the water here, it was naturally very soft, and sometimes you wondered if you got all the soap off. In any case, after a long day traveling, getting clean was a wonderful feeling. The camp chef, Luke, was excellent. I probably ate more than I should have because he was such a wizard in the kitchen. The first night, we were served filet of beef, and it was done perfectly.

Elephant



The next morning we started off elephant hunting. We spent a couple hours driving along the soft roads (most of Amadundulamela is sandy soil) seeing several tracks. This concession, rather interestingly is the only dependable water source for many miles, and the elephant congregate in this area. The Botswana border is maybe 20 miles distant from the concession, which is over 17 miles long, but only part of the concession is hunted as the rest is felt to be too far from water to make it worth the effort I was told. We finally found some tracks that seemed to be reasonably fresh and big enough to be wortyh the effort of looking for them. I was a bit concerned about how my ankle would hold up here, and Brian was worried that he might have to "make a plan" about that, I think. We started off after the group of 3-4 and fairly quickly Albert caught sight of the bulls. We redoubled our speed and eventually got close to one of the bulls. He was big. I mean, I was just surprised at his size. This was what I thought elephant were supposed to look like. I thought he had decent ivory, but obviously had little to compare him to. Brian said he was maybe 18-20 pounds. Umm... We backed off of him and looked for one of the other bulls with him. This one we managed to get reasonably close to, and somehow he spotted us. He crashed into a tree and batted it with his trunk. Whoops- He was maybe 25 yards away from us at the time. I had the rifle up and trained on him in a flash. It turns out he really hadn't seen us, just sensed a motion and was letting us know where he was. He was not much bigger ivory wise than his brother, so we quickly backed off, and as we stepped back, he turned around and left. It was amazing how quiet he was when he wanted to be. There were another 2 bulls in the group that we wanted to look at, but I never caught sight of them, although Brian saw one and said that he was small. By this time, it was getting towards noon, so we headed back to camp. On the way back, we came across some lion tracks and also 3 different sets of leopard tracks. As we got back towards camp, we saw some Zebra and tried to put a stalk on them, but the wind swirled and they took off. The plains game really seemed switched on here, and we would have issues with animals running on us all the hunt. That afternoon, when we went out we saw 2 more bulls, with the better of the two being 35-40 pounds of tooth. On the way back in the evening, we came across a big giraffe. I turned him down, as Brian was working on seeing if we could get a permit for Lion, and if that came through, we would need a lot of meat to bait it.

Amadundumela bush.



That evening around sundowners we spent some time discussing elephant and elephant hunting. I was happy to note that my ankle was doing well- it really didn't hurt at this point. Brian felt that the walking we had done would be about as much as we would be doing, so I was glad for the treadmill work I had done building up to this hunt, and that the ankle was healing up here. Apparently, this area is known for holding only elephant bulls. For some reason, there are no cows or young in the area. The elephant are also reasonably placid, and not particularly aggressive here. Brian's previous client had shot a nice 5' tusked bull, and the skull was in the skinning shed, as they had not been able to pull his tusks yet. That client and Brian had looked over more than 120 bulls, averaging between 9-14 bulls a day they were looking at, before they decided on shooting the one they did.

The next morning we were again up before dawn and out at sunrise once we could see well enough to check tracks. This morning we got in amongst quite a few bulls and one was close to being a shooter. Brian and Albert had a bit of a conversation before Brian said that he was good, but he felt we could do better. We saw 13 bulls this day. I did get to see how quickly they could disappear when I moved a bit too quickly when we were getting away from a group, and one saw me. They did not trumpet or mill about, but rather quickly all departed all but silently. Brian felt they heard my pants rubbing, rather than saw me, and then saw the motion and left. In the afternoon, we tried to find a Zebra, but the wildebeest kept busting the stalk.

The third day ended up being the day of the elephant. We were up at 5, and out at first light again. The first group we got a look at had smaller ivory. The second group was spotted at a distance. One of them looked promising, so we went after them. After a good mile or so, Brian was thinking one had promise, and we kept after them. We were downwind of them and they were slowly feeding into the forested area. We got within 50 yards of them, and Brian decided that the big bull had very good mass. "I think that is your elephant" was the comment. We then played a bit of cat and mouse trying to get a good view. The word changed from I think" to "That is." Previously, Brian had told me that most of the time, with someone who had not hunted elephant before, he wanted them to go for a heart/lung shot. However, while not that close, we were approaching the border of the concession, and he said that at this point he was going to get me in position for a side brain shot- right over the cheek bone, a hands breadth in front of the ear... This then required that we back off a bit so that we could get in front of them without having our scent blow to them. This was worrisome, as it was rapidly getting warmer, and as the day warmed up, the wind became erratic. We did not have a lot of time to make the attempt. I was forced to try and keep up at a fast walk, with intermittent running while we got in position. We finally got in front, and a fortunate tree gave us cover. I got into position and despite the range, we set up the sticks. I put the scope on 2 power, and watched as the first bull came by. Then my bull stepped up. I had the crosshairs on him it seemed like forever as he grabbed some leaves, but was still screened by the tree top. Finally, he stepped by, not stopping, but ambling along. I took the shot as soon as he cleared, and he dropped immediately, with this front collapsing, then the rear. Perfect side brain shot. At the shot, all his companion askaris scattered and ran off. We then stepped up and I "paid the insurance" with a shot through the top of his head that no reaction was noted to.

I could not believe it was all done. He was down, and was bigger than we thought. Brian thought he might go 60 pounds if the nerve was kind. He unofficially would end up going around 63-64 pounds in his heavy tusk and 61 or so on the lighter one. I spent at least 30 minutes just walking around him and looking at him. I could not hold my hands steady enough to take any pictures of him at first. Albert was probably the most emotional of all of us. I think he took it personally that I had not gotten an elephant the last time, and was so happy that we were able to get a good bull this time. Brian was impressed with how long this bull maintained mass in his tusks. He was 18" at the lip and was still 16" a foot from the tip.

Elephant photos.



















At this point, we spent the rest of the day getting him cut up and had the forestry people come out and help cut him up for meat. Really nothing was left over when we were done. The forestry crew uses the meat as food. I had thought that we would be using it for cat bait, but apparently this was not part of the agreement with forestry- the meat would feed the staff.



That afternoon, we again tried to stalk Zebra, and I took a very long shot at one, and missed him clean. I didn't know it at the time, but I shot way under him.

The following day, electricity was restored to the camp. I thought it would make a bigger difference than it did, the only real difference was now we could get a shower instead of standing in a tub of water. In many ways, an African hunting camp is better without some of our newfangled inventions. I will say that the camp staff were very happy as they were all able to charge their cell phones, which allowed them communication with their families. Pretty much every open electric socket had a cell phone charger attached. We looked hard for some plains game to shoot, and I managed to not make an opportunity on Zebra again. That afternoon, we went to one of the local farms to get a cow for bait. Watching the trackers haggle with the farmers was quite interesting. We ended up shooting the cow with a .22 and then hauling it whole to our first bait site. We then butchered it into quarters and started hanging baits. We got all four up that evening, before the sun left us out of light. After a quick supper, we went out after dark to see if we could find a hyena on the remains of the elephant carcass. We got a couple to come in to the electronic calling, which is legal on forestry land. I had 3 shot opportunities, but didn't connect on these. Trying to shoot at 2 glowing eyes in the dark is a little harder than it sounds.

The fifth day we finished placing our baits by doing some dragging. We were seeing all kinds of game, but it was either too small or too skittish. I saw Zebra, Blue Wildebeest, Giraffe, warthog, and Impala on a daily basis. Less frequently we saw Eland (no good bulls), Kudu, Ostrich, Duiker, Sable, Steenbok, and Elephant. We also saw plenty of evidence of a good sized lion, and at least 3-4 different good Leopard toms. One of these, who we targeted because of his walking under our baits we dubbed Johnny Walker as we could track him walking for miles every day, but he just would not eat at a bait.

Dung Beetle


The seventh day was a break in the animal drought. We found a really good warthog that Brian had seen before. He was with a big bunch of sows and piglets, and after much trying I finally got a shot at him as he ran into an opening between the other animals. I didn't lead him quite well enough and the shot was a bit back. After some really extraordinary tracking, he was too tired to keep running and tried to hide instead and I managed to get him with a second shot that was fatal, but since he started to run again, I pasted him a third time, prompting Brian to ask "Did you really not like him?" jokingly. He's the biggest warthog I have shot, with 12.5" of exposed tooth.

Warthog



The next day, we saw a particularly big stink bull Giraffe. While I had not intended to shoot Giraffe, it seemed that we were not saturating the area with enough bait and while I had begged off shooting one before, it now seemed like the next order of business to keep meat out. This particular bull had a death wish. I shot at him, trying to break his neck, and clean missed him. He just stood there, and not looking the gift Giraffe in the mouth, I shot again and broke his neck. They fall just like they run, it looks like slow motion. They are big enough that an insurance shot is in order, and I did so. Rather interestingly, the bullet through his neck was lying just on the opposite side of the neck under the hide. A giraffe makes a lot of bait, so we were now set with bait for the rest of the hunt. While I shot other animals after this, the meat all went to the Forestry workers. We got 11 baits out of the giraffe, 2 for each quarter, the neck and the rib cage. Some of the better cuts, like the backstraps, the trackers and game scout appropriated for themselves also.

Giraffe



A few days later, we finally found a bull Kudu that was fully mature. He had really long ivory tips, and since Kudu are always a challenge, we made a stalk on him. I was given a rather tight shot through cover that I made, and we had a nice older Kudu bull down. He was rather narrow of curl, and no where near as big as the one from the year before, but has the most luxurious coat I have ever seen on a Kudu.

Kudu


That evening, I broke my Zebra jinx. This is where I decided that even the softs were having some problems. Brian ranged him with his Geovid binoculars and said that he was maybe 180 yards out. I aimed at the top of the back, and shot. He flinched like he had been hit, but ran off immediately. I thought we would find him piled up within 50 yards, but while we found some blood sign, no zebra. After a long stalk and him running for the concession boundary, I managed to get a hard quartering away shot at 80 yards and he piled up. The first shot had hit him just above the hoof on his right foreleg, and also had broke his off side foreleg as well. This was a classic example of better lucky than good.

Zebra


While we waited for Albert to bring the Land Cruiser, we sat and looked at the Zebra and found some interesting bug life. I had never seen a white grasshopper before, but apparently this is not an unusual kind of locust. Pretty darn big too... I'm sure the farmers here are glad these puppies are not around here.

Grasshopper.


The next day we have good news! a hit on bait! It looks like old Johnny decided to eat a bit of one of the Giraffe shoulders. We spent most of the morning digging a pit and building our blind and then getting ready to stay out. We also rechecked the rifle. Interestingly, it was dead on at 76 yards, which was the range the bait was at. That evening, Brian and I stay out in what was quite possibly the coldest night I have experienced in Africa. Despite insulated jackets (a snowmobile suit in Brian's case) and blankets, we both were damn near frozen solid come morning. Old Johnny had foxed us again. He had came near the bait, but not in, and didn't feed. Brian had heard him around sunset, but we did not see him, and the tracks showed that he did not come near the bait or walk down the road like usual. We tried sitting out again the next evening. That evening, a piece of tree branch catching in our fishing line attached to the meat gave us some excitement, as we were sure he had come in. I got on the gun, Brian got on the lights and when he lit the bait site, I could see our meat and the tree, but no cat. Later we found out what happened, and were kind of disgusted. We left at 11 after no cat came in to that point.

The following night we tried again for hyena calling, but had no luck. However, we did get a rather startling appearance at the giraffe rib cage, namely the lion whose tracks we had been seeing. This guy is about ready to get shot. He is a known cat, and is 5 years old. Not part of a pride, and had one brother that the local ranchers put paid to a while ago.

Lion


He will be a really nice trophy if no one kills him next year (actually by Zim law, he's fair game now. Brian and I had tried to get a lion tag when we saw tracks, but after we saw him, we let it slide.)

On the next to last day, we cut most all our baits down and saturated the area where Johnny was hanging out. Since he did not want to climb to the bait, we left them on the ground. We hoped to track him when he grabbed some meat and made it his kill, and then shoot him off that site. This actually sort of worked. Johnny did take a piece, but as luck had it, we lost his tracks without coming to it, as we did not attach a big enough piece of wood to the bait to see drag marks. The hyenas also showed us why this is not the most productive form of baiting, as they ran off with several as well.

On our last hunting day, I also had some bad moments.

First off, I tried to shoot a big blue wildebeest. He was the bull we had been targeting the whole time. Unfortunately, with trying to figure kentucky windage on a rifle that was dropping more than twice as fast as it was supposed to, I made a bad shot and wounded him in the mouth. We spent several hours tracking him, but after a couple hundred yards we could not find any blood and then he rejoined a herd and we could not tell his tracks either. That afternoon, we again looked for him and did not see him.

Later on in the afternoon, I shot an impala. That shot was also low, and the poor thing kept running. I fianally got to stop him, but the clear shot was at his neck, ruining my chance at a good mount from him.

Impala


Then just at last light, we had the shot on plains game we had been looking for. There was a sable that Brian had spotted the last hunt that he felt would probably go 45". He was st

Then just at last light, we had the shot on plains game we had been looking for. There was a sable that Brian had spotted the last hunt that he felt would probably go 45". He was standing there, like sable do, in the middle of a glen, eating grass, and while he saw us, did not run right away. I got a good rested shot at right around 200 yards. Everything looked good, I aimed right at the top of his hump, expecting that the shot would fall in. Nope. Perfect surprise break of the trigger, good sight picture, bullet hit at his feet. I tried again as he ran off, but missed the hail Mary shot also. Albert had to pat me on the shoulder and say that this just happens. Brian was besides himself, and then had to laugh. I could not believe it. I just stood there looking at where he ran to. Unbelievable.

However, we were not quite done yet. After a good supper, Brian said we should see if we could find a hyena one last time. We went off to a waterhole where the guys had heard one. With the calling, one responded and through the grass I saw his eyes. I shot him, and everyone thought I got him. Nope, after much tracking and looking, no evidence of hitting him. We tried to call him back without response. Brian then said they will not usually come back to the same spot, but if we move a bit, maybe. Wewent to near where we had dumped the meat for Johnny, and tried again. Again a response. I got up in the back of the cruiser to get a better area view, and saw his eyes, but he ran off before I could shoot. Some more calling with a wounded rabbit mouth call, and more response, but again, too slow to shoot. Third time is the charm. He responsd again, and this time is standing in the road maybe 70 yards behind us. I get a snap shot off and everyone says I hit him this time. I by now "know better" and figure nothing is there when I cant see him in the road. Brian and the guys start looking for him and quickly they diverge into two groups. Not looking good... Then all of the sudden, "Here he is!" We pull him out of the bush and get a couple of pictures. The trackers are elated, as no one likes having old Fisi around, and I am happy because I got the monkey off my back. He is the only meat that got wasted in the whole trip as no one will willingly eat hyena.

Hyena


The next day we leisurely pack, get tags on the animals, and settle up with the tipping. The drive back somehow seems much shorter than the ride out did. I spend the day with Brian watching Super 15 rugby and learning a bit more about the game. That evening we go to a party that Brian and Carol had been invited to and it is amazing how many folks around there have a connection to hunting. I don't think I have been to quite as wet a party since college. It was good fun, and took away the worry about traveling the next day. The following day, both Brian and I were a bit worse for the wear. I didn't have to be at the airport until 12, for a flight leaving at 1. The flights home were definitely a let down after the good times hunting; I doubt I would willingly fly transcontinentally for anything other than hunting. I will say that having some time after the hunt made the whole leaving process less anxious than getting in and getting on the plane the same day.

Python


So, another hunting trip. Some really nice trophies, some really good memories, and some things left undone for the next time. Hope you enjoyed it!

Chuck Butler



Sorry, it seems copy has its limits...

Great report and pics. Thanks for sharing.

Nice Trophies and what a great 3 weeks!

Great Report! Thanks for all the photo's.

Thanks for a knock out report.
Is there a story about the other set of tusks ?

What a trip..Thanks for sharing it with us.
Congratulations on all your trophies.

Great hunt report, and pics....thanks for sharing this two part safari.

Great report and excellent ele. You'll remember this one for a long time.


Dutch

It sounds like two great hunts. Thanks for the report. Great elephant.

Great report, thanks for posting it.

Some super trophies and a fine elephant, congratulations Charles!

David

The other set of tusks were from a 45#er from the previous client. They were sending the ivory in, so we stayed in and took the photos at that time; as the other client shot his late in the hunt, and the tusks came out of the skull the day before mine, Brian needed to shoot some photos for the other guy of his ivory, and we just decided to do both sets at the same time. We also found a dead bull with 50# ivory still in the skull and that went in as well, but as that was not a shot elephant, we didn't put that up for photos.

Some fine trophies!!

Thanks for sharing.

Very fine and the ele is great.

Mike

Thanks for the report

Nice report. Good pics. Thanks for taking the time to write it up. Some good looking trophies. Congrats. Bruce

Great hunt combination - great report, congrats.

Charles,

Well done!

Mark

Fantastic!!!
Congratulations