Bill,

Thanks for noting. However, it says edit time has expired.

Everyone please not that I put a period at the end of the email address for Buzz and it should not be there.

Just got back a couple of hours ago from being with Buzz Charlton on tuskless cows. Great time, great food, great camp!



If you want to get up close and "personnal" with a lot of elephant this is the deal and Buzz is the "real deal", too!



Been hunting bulls for longer than Buzz's lifetime, but for the bucks spent you cannot go wrong.



buzzcharlton@zol.co.zw



www.buzzcharltonsafaris.com



More later, maybe!

Too late to edit in the additional information, so here it is as a reply.



I cannot seem to get the pictures posted. Go to Photo Album for the pictures.



By December 2003, I was starting to look seriously at the options of what we could put together and more or less expecting to only hunt buffalo. As the investigation moved forward I found that I could arrange to hunt two tuskless cow elephants for about the same expense and time as the buffalo. My first thoughts were that it didn�t look all that enterprising, as there was no trophy to consider. The more I thought about and the more I heard about the guy I was dealing with, Buzz Charlton, the better it looked. At least I would be a hunting elephant again. So, the deal was made for late October within a range of dates depending on how the balance of his marketing fell into place for dates, as we were flexible. The dates settled on were Oct 20-29, 2004 at the height of the dry season and heat in the Chewore area of the Zambezi River Valley.



SAA at Atlanta didn�t even ask the amount of ammo, just nodded when told it was in a locked metal box. The baggage inspectors wanted the ammo boxes unlocked, opened up the boxes of shells. They were amazed at the size of the .470 and .577 shells. They were running around showing them to the fellow workers! One guy called the .577 a shotgun and asked how old it was.



We got into Harare without any problems, complete with luggage and gun cases. Buzz Charlton and his girlfriend Nikki were there to meet us and take us to his house for the night. When we got there they had a nice baked chicken dinner and wine for us after a gin and tonic and a shower. We had the guesthouse for the night.



We were to drive into the Chewore area with Buzz and then return by charter airplane. After a nice breakfast, we left about 7:00 AM for the long drive in on bad roads. Buzz had wanted us to charter an airplane both ways, but we wanted to see the countryside and we are glad we did so. After all, we may never see it again. We got into the Big Five Safari camp on the banks of the Zambezi River and settled in with plenty of time for an early sundowner. A very beautiful setting for a camp.



We started hunting on Wednesday the 20th going in the direction of the Chewore Mtns. to the east of camp. We tracked and got up to 3 groups, but nothing doing. Either they had no tuskless cows or they had little ones. The fourth group we found tracks of proved to be a different deal. They had not gone far when they had gone up a steep hillside and stopped seemly undecided what to do. Two normal tusked cows, one with a calf and the tuskless cow bringing up the rear. We got up to about 12 yards, but steeply downhill with some brush in the way. She acted if ready to charge down the hillside and Buzz said, �go.� I misjudged the angle and missed the brain, but the .577 staggered her and as she turned I gave her the right barrel in the heart and lung. She made about 30 yards and we heard her fall and thought it was all over. We got to the area and no elephant. We moved maybe 5 yards and could see her standing on the trail, but not standing steady, slight swaying from side to side. We couldn�t easily get above her and we sure didn�t want below her again. The trail was very narrow, we moved on up to about 5-6 yards behind her and it left us a little above her. I gave her one above the tail trying to hit the spinal cord, staggered her but not down. I then gave her the next one in the right hip. Again, we could see her stagger from the impact, but not go down. It was if some way she had locked her legs in position. Now the barrels were so hot I couldn�t hold them. I would now have to hold only the thin forearm of the .577, making it hard to control under recoil. Shortly she turned her head as if try to figure out what was happening and what to do next. It was enough to put one just behind the ear hole and into the brain. With that she started the roll down the hill, cleaning brush and small trees out of the way as she went. We figured she went down the hillside over 125 yards before landing against a tree big enough to stop her roll. When it was over I was missing the skin on the trigger finger between the first joint and fingernail. The hill was steep enough it was slip, slide and grab a bush going down. I told Buzz, �I have hunted Dall sheep in flatter country than this!� It wasn�t a pretty operation and not the way we had planned, but it was exciting and up close. Sean said he had it all on the video.



On Thursday we hunted the Chewore River area in both the morning and afternoon hunts. We worked 5 groups of elephants today, but they either got our scent or took off or there were no shootable tuskless cows in the groups. We saw some nyala today and 2 of them were nice bulls, very beautiful animals. It was hotter today, Buzz estimated 50 degrees C. That would be about 106 degrees F. I know the rifles barrels were hot without firing them!



We left Chispen and Morgan on one set of tracks the following day and went on looking for others to follow. It turned out all of their animals either had tusks or were young. While they were on those tracks we took after a lone bull to see what it might have for tusks. We got up to about 25 yards of him and he never knew we were there looking at him. One tusk looked to be about 50#, but the other one was broken off and would maybe weigh 30-35#. We should have some good video footage on the bull. About 20 minutes later we got on a group of cow tracks and we loaded the rifles and were off with a big water supply to follow them. I saw them about 200 yards ahead at one point while the trackers were working out the tracks. We immediately went on a detour because of the wind direction, but too late as when we got to where I saw them we could see when the toenails dug into the sand as they took off fast. Followed them about 40 minutes and got to where they had rested, then they took off again. We got up to them one more time, but couldn�t get a shot. They then started directly downwind so we gave it up as a lost cause. One of the cows was passing blood.



Next we saw a group of cows from the vehicle track. One looked to be tuskless, but when we got up to them she was a broken tusk, one tusker. On the way back to camp we saw another group. There was a tuskless, but she had a little one when we got up to them.



In the afternoon hunt we followed up two bulls, one of which was around 40-45#, we left them about 25 yards away. We worked up to 12-15 yards of two groups of cows, but nothing was shootable. We just missed one tuskless leaving a water hole, but we couldn�t get up to her again before dark and we were some distance from the Land Cruiser. On the drive to camp in the dark we got a good scream out of one group and the trackers saw 4 more groups from the back of the cruiser. A very exciting day.



One interesting thing was developing with the trackers. It was getting to be a competition to see who was going to get the .470 out of the case and hand it to me for loading. Then they expected to get to carry it for me. Later on, if Morgan was carrying it back to the Cruiser when we got there he would open the action, remove the cartridges, hand them to me, close the action and slide it into the case. Ol� Chispen never got quite that brave, but at 80 years old he really thought he had earned the right to carry the Ol� Man�s double. A very interesting little side plays among the trackers. In all the trips I made over the years I never allowed anyone to carry my double rifle. However, in those steep hills I did allow it until we got close and it carried over to the flatter areas where they expected to get to carry it.



We followed one group of tracks for about an hour and a half on Saturday, but only got to hearing distance of them in the thick jess bush. The wind was very light, but swirling and they took off before we could see them. Two other bunches we found had no tuskless cows present. One group of 19 was on a steep mountainside some long distance away, but giving us a good view of them. The white tusks show up a long ways off when they are in the open areas.



In the afternoon we decided to drive down the sand in the Chewore River, as it was completely dry. We saw where the elephants had been digging down for water in the river. From the tracks it clearly showed a lot of use by elephants and other animals.

During this drive we saw a very nice maned male lion lying out on the west sand bank of the river. We were about 125 yards from him and should have some good video from Sean�s camera. A little further down the river we saw where a lion and made a rather fresh kill and dragged it across the sand to the jess brush. We saw no elephants until it was too late to follow-up.



Sunday morning we got up to two different groups of cows, but there were no tuskless cows or they had little ones. We tracked two other groups, but the wind gave us away and we didn�t get up to them.



In the afternoon we walked from the Chewore River to a waterhole about 4.5 kilometers as the crow flies, but further as we followed the elephant paths to get there. A group of elephants had just watered and left. We took up the tracks and had not gone far when we slightly spooked a bull that Morgan had not seen ahead of us. We detoured around him and kept the wind in our favor. We caught up with the cows again, getting in really close, but no tuskless cows except for one with a very young one.



6:20 Monday found us on a fresh group of tracks. At 6:40 Royal radioed that he had seen a tuskless cow when moving the vehicle. We pulled off of our tracks and went there to take up the tracks Royal had found. Three bulls got in our way and we had to work around them. That done we find the herd has split. The ones we follow prove fruitless, as the tuskless was only half grown. One cow had twins, very small! We go to try to find the other part of the herd and come across two young bulls. We got up to 12-15 yards from them and above. Sean takes a lot of video and it should be very good as the bulls are feeding, mostly on thorn trees. We never found the balance of the herd, as they must have stampeded when we spooked the first bull.



Buzz decided we would head for the hills and mountains where I killed the first cow to see what we could find as it was still early in the day. We quickly found fresh tracks and spot elephant feeding as well. The sound of the big .470 cartridges going �thud�, �thud� as they drop in the chambers of the Wilkes double rifle is again reassuring. We got up to about 20 yards of them and there are two tuskless, one having a young one. The one eligible cow acts rather cheeky and starts toward us, then thinks better of it and goes with the group. I figured it was all over with them, but we got up to them again and again they spook without a clear shot being offered. They crossed the valley, which was very narrow at this point as there was a pass between the mountains not far ahead.



Again, I thought they would keep going and we wouldn�t catch up. I can only assume they really didn�t want to go up hill any worse than I wanted to go up hill! We got up to them very quickly and the shootable cow was last in line. She turned around threatening charge at about 12 yards and again we were downhill, but not as much as before, with jess between us. With the angles involved up hill I could see over it, but if she charged the jess would be on us and so would she. At the first step toward us I touched the left trigger and down she went. There was a terrible elephant scream as she was going down. At the time I thought she did it, but in retrospect I am sure it was the cow with the calf that let out the scream. The insurance shots followed. It all happened faster than I can type this sentence. However, it seems that the final second or two were long minutes!



It is amazing how light the heavy double rifles feel when you are up close and expecting something to happen. It�s like they are a feather in your hands rather than 11-12# and you never feel what is supposed to be heavy recoil. You sure notice it shooting targets, but not when you get real close and up personal with the elephant family. I have been asked many times, �What do you do when they charge.� My reply has always been, �Stand there and shoot.�



I am often asked, �Why do you do that?� For me, I think it can be most easily answered by repeating what I wrote after a Dall sheep hunt in 2000. �At three score and plus, a man starts to wonder in his mind, could he do it again. Some things you know, some things you question, but a man�s gotta know.�



�Could he handle the charge of a bull elephant or a cape buffalo with the big .577 or a .600 Nitro double rifle. Or could he do it with the lighter .450 or .470 nitros? The occasional haunting nightmares of some of the by-gone situations keep the memories as sharp as if they were yesterday. The �what ifs� are sometimes a bit of a troublemaker. What if I had not looked over my shoulder, for some unknown reason, and seen the elephant we couldn�t find in the dense rain forest only a few yards behind. I being the last in the procession and with the only rifle? What if I kept my eyes on the trail looking for snakes, as my chaps apparently had done, turned the corner in the footpath and not seen the bull elephant watching us from the cover of a big tree and poised to charge? Or what would have happened if the second barrel of the .475#2 had been a hang fire as was the first when the Cape buffalo wanted to disagree with death? A man�s gotta know!� I still don�t know, but hope I am closer to knowing!



As it turned out I shot the second cow less than 500 yards from the location of the first cow! I like ivory and that is what bull hunting is all about. However, you get a lot more �hunting� with the cows. Very up close and personal! As you can see we worked on a lot of tracks and herds to get something in a shootable position. One can walk a lot of miles looking for a shootable bull, but you are not normally dealing with getting into groups to check them all out. Buzz has got a lot of enthusiasm for hunting these cows! He is just a young guy, 32 years old I believe. It is hard to realize that I have been hunting bull elephant before his mother brought him into this world of joy and sorrow.



Our main objectives are completed and we took the afternoon off for tiger fishing. The score was: Sean an 11#, Buzz a 7#, Alice a 6# and the writer nothing.



There were seven leopards still on quota for the area and while it was expected that they would feed at night I decided to give it a try as we needed something to fill out our time. I missed a kudu cow at about 125 yards walking away from us using the .470. The next day we went out looking for something to feed the leopards. We saw some nice eland bulls, a big warthog and nyala bulls. I shot two young impala rams with the .470, each at about 60 yards. Needless to say the .470 is rather dramatic on an impala! We hung each for leopard bait.



Thursday morning found us out early to check the leopard baits. We found the first big buffalo herd we had seen in the Chewore area this morning. Also saw a nice kudu bull on our way to the baits. One bait had been eaten heavily and one was untouched. We moved the one impala to where the leopard had fed and rebuilt the blind. From the tracks Buzz and the trackers thought it was a good sized or at least decent male for the Zambezi Valley. We sat at the bait all evening until after dark, but the leopard didn�t

come to eat while we were there.



Friday we left at 3:00 AM to look at the bait again and in case the leopard was an early morning feeder. It appeared the leopard had fed very early in the night after we left as the meat where it had eaten was dried out. It had completely finished one impala and ate on the other one. I made the decision not to sit for the leopard anymore, as he was a night feeder. The piano has started to play and the Fat Lady is making her way to the stage!



We went fishing in the AM after getting back to camp. Luck with the tigers was better.

Alice got a 10# and a 4# tiger. She also had a small crocodile, 5� to 6�; take her bait as it hit the water! It didn�t stay hooked long! Buzz got a 10# and a 7#, Sean a 6# and a 4# while the writer got nothing, again. The PM fishing was not so good. Leroy got a 3# tiger fish and everyone else got zero.



A great time and I recommend it to anyone that wants some excitement.

AHF,



Thanks for the report, man did you have a great time. Why wasn't I invited?



Regards,



Terry



P.S.

I edited your post to include a direct link to your photo album.

Darn you Leroy, I was finally starting to get over my withdrawal - now all I can think about is hunting ele in the jess again!



I enjoyed the accounts of both hunts very much, please feel free to regurgitate any of your past adventures. I and I'm sure many others would love to read them.



What did you think of Nikki? A great girl and not to hard on the eyes is she? I told Buzz he better not mess this one up, as he'll never do better!



Glad you had a nice time.

Thanks for a great report. I know you didn't get it this time round, but that kudu in your album sure is something else!!
Also, could you please tell me what picture number 11 is of?

Pinture #11 is the seed pod of a baboab tree, from which the spice cream of tartar can be made. The white items are ground for that purpose.

Yes, the Kudu is from this year. There is no picture of the zebra from this year, the shot hit the femoral artery and there was blood every where. It was facing away and the .458 really opened up the blod flow.

Sorry, I answered too hastily. There are two seperate postings for the Oct trip. This is the second half of the trip. The phoe album covers both halves and the kudu was taken during the first half, reported on the other thread

It looks like this part survived the transfer bettter than the other one. All colons are replaced by "squares", but other than that it looks complete.

When I get some time, I'll try and see if I can put this post back together. Don't know if I have that flexibility with this new software, but I'll try.

Regards,

Terry