Just a quick note to report that I have returned home from a very successful 21 day safari in the Selous Game Reserve in Tanzania with Tanganyika Wildlife Safari and PH Luis Pedro de Sa e Mello.<br /><br />I took three old cape buffalo bulls and a monster hippo with my AHR Safari 550 DGR rifle in .458 Lott, which performed flawlessly. All of the buff were taken with soft point bullets through the heart on the first shot. I took the hippo with a solid through the heart, also on the first shot.<br /><br />In two cases (the first buff and the hippo), the animal took the fatal shot, then ran for the river, which was just yards away. The rivers are shallow at this time of year, but getting a big, heavy animal out of the water or across it is never easy, so I had to fire multiple follow up shots (all solids) to try to bring these huge beasts down before they got too far in or across to the thick bush on the other side.<br /><br />I am happy to say that all but one of these running shots (and the one miss was my fault) were solid hits to the vitals. I racked the action hard and fast and my rifle responded without a hitch.<br /><br />I came up on one of the other two buff before it was dead and had to finish it with a solid through the spine. In these cases I really appreciated the 5 round capacity drop box magazine. The third buff ran into the tall grass and was dead when we walked up on it.<br /><br />Try as we did, though, out of the hundreds of elephants we saw, we could not find one of shootable size. Next time.<br /><br />My PH had a customized BRNO ZKK 602 with the pop-up rear aperture sight in .460 Wby. Mag. and a nice, short barrelled, full stocked Sako in .375 H&H Mag. He never had to fire a shot, which is the way it should be.<br /><br />I also took a huge lion (10 feet plus), a large leopard (nearly seven and a half feet), two zebras, a wildebeest, a mature but unfortunately short horned kudu and a large hartebeest with my .375 H&H Blaser R93; as well as a waterbuck, an impala, a reedbuck and a warthog (big and old, but with worn down tusks) with my 7mm Rem. Mag. Blaser R93.<br /><br />I should have my pictures in a few days and will be sure to post some (along with more hunting details) when I do.

Wow! Sounds like you had the time of your life. About the only thing missing is the proverbial partridge in a pear tree.

Hurry the snapshots.

Congrats and welcome back. Sounds like you had a good time hunting. Can't wait for the pictures.

Sorry about the PSD (Post Safari Depression) that is going to start for you!

Brad

Congratulations, it sounded like a true "hunt of a lifetime". Look forward to your pix and the details on your cats!

Looking foreward to see the photos....Great story

mrlexma,

Congratulations!! It sounds like you got that "hunt of a lifetime"! I can't wait to see the photos!

BOWHUNR

Ditto on your pics!!!

Nice report and pics! If you do have more color pics, please post at your leisure. Thanks.

Great report, wonderful trophies!
thanks for sharing!

Rusty
We band of brothers!

Here are some images of the dangerous game that I took on the safari.

The first buffalo hunt I have described above. Our next dangerous quarry turned out to be a huge hippopotamus (if that isn't redundant).<br /><br />One of our Maasai trackers, Kayai, spotted the hippo, again from the truck, emerging from the brush on the far bank of a small tributary river about three quarters of a mile away. This boko looked like a large male, and was all alone, so we decided to stalk him.<br /><br />We moved as quickly as we could over much broken ground and through some intervening thickets to get within about 200 yards of the hippo. Only a couple of sparse clumps of grass remained between him and us. He had by now crossed the stream and was on the move, at a slow pace, and quartering away from us, no doubt heading to a deep pool hidden somewhere in the bush.<br /><br />As he was looking the other way, and the wind was right, we crouched down and moved closer to him. Every so often, he would stop and half turn toward us and we would freeze. He never fully turned, but just tilted his head so that one eye was sort of canted in our direction. I think he knew we were there, but he didn't seem to care very much.<br /><br />We kept creeping forward, until we were about 40 yards away. At the right moment, when the hippo was again looking the other way, Pedro set up the sticks. I placed the .458 Lott rifle on them, sighted low behind the hippo's shoulder and fired a 500 gr. Woodleigh solid, which struck home. <br /><br />As if electrified, the hippo whirled about and headed at a quick trot back toward the river. As had happened with my first buff, I had a sinking feeling that he would make it to the water, or maybe even across it into the thick brush.<br /><br />So, I immediately fired the five remaining solids in the magazine at the running behemoth. (My heavy rifle has a five round drop box magazine, and just before this stalk, I had single fed one round into the chamber over all five, giving me a total capacity of six.) My second shot missed low under his head, as I led him too much, but each of the next four hit the hippo in the vitals, with one entering the neck and angling back into the chest cavity.<br /><br />Well, to our chagrin, the hippo made it several feet into the water before he collapsed and died. Pedro advised that I should put one more shot into his brain, for insurance, and I tried to do that, but with the scope mounted on my rifle, my shot at about 15 feet struck low. In any case, the bullet's impact jerked the hippo's head sharply upward, and then gravity slapped it back down into the water with a loud thud. Without question, we now had a sincerely dead and wet hippo on our hands.<br /><br />To make a long story short, it required two trucks (our Land Cruiser and an old Land Rover) and over a dozen men to tow, push and otherwise maneuver that hippo out of the sandy river and onto the bank. We spent the better part of the whole morning on this task.<br /><br />Later, after recovering the tusks, Pedro and our trackers covered the carcass with thorn bushes and a few carefully placed strands of toilet paper to keep the hyenas and vultures off of it. Otherwise, though, we left it intact, to serve as a colossal lion bait. Pedro assured me that the lions in these parts were extremely fond of hippo meat, which by the way is about the rankest stuff I have ever smelled, even when fresh.<br /><br />More to come on the other two buff, the lion and the leopard.

Hi Bwana:

Glad you made it back safe and sound, Great Pictures. Looks like you had a terrific bag, to bad about jumbo. Get em next time, always a good reason to go back.

You said your AHR 458 Lott performed great, drop me a few lines and let me know exactly how it shot. I think I read somewhere on here that you lost the hood on the front sight.

Also thanks for info on The Hornady Soft Points, I have a box of softs and solids to give a try when Ed finally finishes my rifle. I think it's on its way to the engraver in a few days.

Email me at Stallion43@aol.com

Regards... Jim P

mrlexma:

Congratulations,

Wow! great photos & story!!

Keep it coming.

Regards,
Bob Slusser
PA