Gentlemen: About a month ago I think, I posted that my friend and PH John Sharp had a good deal on a late season elephant hunt. Here are the results as told to me by John and a picture of the great beast:

The client was from Norway. His rifle and clothing never arrived in Bulawayo so he had to borrow a rifle from me. He eventually recovered his luggage in London on his way home. He was not aware of the pitfalls of traveling through London with firearms and did not make use of the courier service!

The area is called Sengwe II and it borders onto Mozambique and Kruger National Park (South Africa). These Elephant cross into the communal area from Kruger and our Gona re Zhou National Park to feed as the food in the Parks is depleted at this time of the year. The bulls mostly cross in and out at night and some hunters do shoot them at night with a light but this is not my scene! Like Tsholotsho, this is a hit or miss area and you do need a certain amount of luck.

We ascertained that the most movement was across the Limpopo from Kruger as opposed to Gona re Zhou on the other side. We camped in the dry Limpopo riverbed the night before and waking very early we started walking towards Mozambique at first light (4.45am). Pretty close to the boundary of Mozambique we saw this lone bull as he was about to cross the river back into Kruger – there was little doubt that he was a shooter! We advanced on him as quickly as we could and he soon became nervous as there is not much cover in the riverbed - then to our amazement he turned back onto our side. I instructed the client to take a 50-yard body shot with my .375 H&H and as the bull took off he followed up with two more shots, the third solid clipping the spine as the animal disappeared over the bank. We saw it collapse with the spine shot and it was dead by the time we got to it. Ola’s first shot had been perfect, taking it in the heart/lung area. This magnificent bull was taken at 5.45am.
We have managed so far to pull the longest tusk which weighed in at 89lbs. The shorter tusk is not yet free but I estimate that it should be around the 85lb mark as it is considerably thicker than the other one. Both tusks measured 20†at the lip. This was an old bull on his last set of teeth, probably around 65 to 75 years old, and my personal best.




John's rifle's a Rigby sidelock 470. jorge

John is the reciepient of a double award this year, "best leopard" and "best elephant" at the ZPHGA awards. Quite an accomplishment when one considers the competition!

Bet the aqvavit flowed back in camp that evening. Thanks for the post, Jorge.

Wow...what an elephant! A true trophy both in size and age.

Dang! What a bull.

Great hunt. It is interesting to look at his feet and how cracked they are, but smooth and worn on the rear of the foot.

And he did it without clothes or a rifle!

Nice job!

John

What a great old bull! Both tusks over 80 pounds and one near 90! Now that is a trophy elephant!

And what luck for the hunter that this bull broke for the wrong side of the river!

We should all be so lucky as to find a big-toothed monster like that - one who is so old that he forgets which way is home and safety!

Superb, elephant of a lifetime...

Thanks Jorge...


Mike

Amazing it sure is cool when the chips are down he still had great luck, thanks Jorge for posting .

Wonderful elephant and a short story well told.

Congrat's to John and the hunter!

Thanks Jorge. Whatta bull!


Brian

Hurrah for Ola from Norway and for John the Great !!!

Update on the tusks folks, final weight of the left is 90.9lb and the right is 72. A trophy of a lifetime to be sure. jorge

I don't know much about elephants but those tusks seem pretty big to me! Congrats to the hunter!!

I joined Ola on the shooting range not too long ago on a Nordic Safari Club session... Too bad his rifles didn`t go through, cause he`s got a nice battery! A couple of doubles, one of them is a Krieghoff .500NE, and a lovely old Rigby chambered for .275 or 7x57..

Congrats!

Congratulations on a great hunt and a fantastic elephant!

Congratulations to Ola on a lifetime elephant. WOW!!!!

Mark

GREAT BULL!!!!

THATS THE WAY TO DO IT!

Whooww!!!

Congratulations on that big elephant, Ola!!

I want to hear that story over a good cognac sometime!!

Folks: John asked me to post a couple of more pictures (I added them to the initial post above). He had a great year. He's been awarded the Zim PH Assoc "best leopard & elephant" for 2006. No small feat when you consider the competition and the big name firms he's up against. jorge

quote:

Originally posted by jorge:
No small feat when you consider the competition and the big name firms he's up against. jorge

25% experience, 25% hard work and 50% luck.....as in being in the right place at the right time

I bet John is a blast to hunt with if you are really interested in hunting.

This is a real big Jumbo Congratulation to Ola
and John

Excellent hunting report ,this only confirm that Sharp is one of the best ,Juan

Bwana-While I will freely admit that there is some luck involved in bagging a superior trophy I must also state that it seems that those who consistently work hard and prepare well are the ones who seem to get lucky most often.By this I mean that anyone can get lucky one time but those who seem to be "lucky " on a regular basis are most often the guys who put out the most effort.

Congrats to John on this fine trophy.